The State of Things

If you’re not aware, I work in publishing and self-publishing, and things have been getting tougher over the last few years. Before, I was selling enough of my own work to give me plenty of time to work on creative projects, but it’s now much harder to make a living selling books. As I’ve had to take on more paid work and train in new skills, it’s limiting my creative time.

I’m really trying to focus on game design, though, taking courses and putting them into practice. This means I’m pushing towards much better games in future – 3D, properly interactive, and all that shebang. But in the short-term, between my courses and work, I’ve got less to publicly show for it.

So, sorry I haven’t put out as many big updates as I’d like to right now, but when they come they’ll be better. What I can share, though, are my thoughts on the projects ahead.

Game Plans

For interactive stories, it’s been a toss-up between another big Renpy game and investing time in learning to make something better. So rather than develop another Renpy game right now, I am delving into expanding Dorm Till Dawn 2 with a DLC, adding some addition micro-sized and giant-sized content.

The plan is a more extended micro-sized arc, and two additional giant scenes (featuring Bayley and Jet, who don’t get giant in the current version). I’m also toying with adding a brief growth option for the player, for something different. With luck, I’ll find time to finish this in the next two months.

A different interim game I have in mind is a voreish procedural runner. That is, the sort of game where you run continuously trying to dodge obstacles. This is something I’ve been coding from scratch as part of a course, which I’m planning to design custom models for it. Namely, man-eating plants, frogs and, of course, giantesses. It’ll be a low-poly, cartoony game, which I’ll share more details on soon. But fingers crossed we’ll also have something playable in the next couple of months.

Beyond that, if you missed it, my major plan is to build something of a 3D platformer in the setting of a size-warping hotel, ala the recent short story Hotel Embraxu. This would involve exploring and solving puzzles in a variety of giant-sized rooms, while avoiding the (voracious) guests.

Once the basics are in play, I could then expand on it gradually with more regular content, such as new rooms and characters. Timewise, this is a much longer undertaking to get started. I aim to finish a course that’ll have me producing a basic FPS within a month or so, and ideally, I’ll have something to show on this by early summer.

As that’s a more long-term plan, there’ll probably be some minor projects in between.

Another distraction that’s been eating my time is adding my games to Steam. Still, Dorm Till Dawn is now set to release on Steam in February and the sequel should follow in March.

As I progress in designing new stuff, I’ll be looking at expanding the games platforms they’re available on.

What am I Writing

Despite the difficulties with publishing, I’m determined to keep my serials going, and at least for now am continuing to find time to put out a weekly chapter. That said, the ARCs might not come as readily, and I’m not sure when I’ll find time to put out the completed eBooks, given the small demand for them.

For the immediate future, we’ll have a new serial starting late February, and my current idea features a shrinking/growth death duel in a music hall. This was an idea I had for a game that was way beyond my means right now, so I thought, let’s tell the story first and revisit it for a multi-media experience later…

Aside from that, there’s a few serials I need to come back to, where stories have left space open for a sequel, such as Sensus Supra, Gargantuorcs!, Giant Lesbians and Bikini Kaiju (and probably a heap more!). I’m planning to run a poll for subscribers to decide which stories are most worthy of following up!

Comics & The Rest

At the moment, I’m putting my comics on hiatus because they simply prove far too much work for how much I’m able to sell. I’d rather put that energy in expanding on the games.

Likewise, I feel that the animations aren’t drawing in the interest they need to for the time I spend on them, but I won’t park them entirely because I simply enjoy making them too much. I will always have at least one animation project on the go, but it’s hard to predict how long each will take.

That said, what I’m not putting directly into comics and animations will instead be feeding the games. I’m confident the skills I’ve already picked up in my various 3D design programs will really help bring my upcoming games to life.

And it just remains to say again thanks to everyone for your support here; it helps so much to see people keeping up their subscriptions, especially when I haven’t got as much big stuff to share.

This has been a whole lot of info, so thanks as well if you’ve actually read all this! And next week I’ll be back with something more visual to share.