Game Journal #64 - The End of the Long Hiatus

Hey dudes! It's sure been a while since my last journal. Did you think "Oh no, the game's abandoned?!" Haha. Don't worry, it's nothing like that. I just took a small break. And why? Well, there's a myriad of reasons, so I'll list them below.

If you remember from the last journal, I rediscovered the game Bakumatsu Rock. Turns out I like it a lot, so I started obtaining merch and all that. I also started translating the game on my second Youtube channel, as it's only in Japanese. Cool, huh? It feels great to finally have a reason to use my Japanese!

Just a small portion of merch... you can probably tell who my favorite character is.

It's actually kinda crazy how much I love Bakumatsu Rock. It's rare for me to like anything nowadays, but this property is super awesome. It's a combination of all my favorite things (rock, feudal japan, cool dudes, great music.) I really wish it weren't so underrated, so that's why I've taken such lengths to bridge the gap between the Japan and American audience. For context, the only translated material is the anime, which is all right I guess, but the game itself isn't. I think that's a shame, so I'm working to fix that.

My comic Indiegogo also got yeeted but nobody cares about that so whatever. I'm so done with professional comicking that it's not even funny. All that work and for what? Not to say that I'm not going to make them anymore, but I'm just gonna keep sketching them and handwriting all the dialogue instead of typesetting. Comics are so time-intensive, and then you can just read them in 5 minutes. Yeah, I'm thinking it's a giant waste of my time.

(It's Ryoma, btw)

I also generally just got bored of working on my game all the time. If you don't know, I'm the type of person that likes to do a variety of different things. If I do the same thing all the time, I get bored, so I'm always trying to change things up. With my game it was great because there were so many different things to do, but after a year or so of working on it most of the time I began to tire of it. Then, Bakumatsu Rock appeared, and WOAH! It was like a gift from God! My passion returned, I became active again, my marriage was fixed (wait a minute, I don't have one of those.) Regardless, I've just been consuming Bakumatsu content for the past month. Not to say that I've been slacking in the JRPG department, either!

My friend and I have been playing through Persona 3 for the past month as well. If you remember, we also played through Persona 4, which I wrote about here: https://haxdev.xyz/newBlogPost-zHF6yA . I've learned some more about good JRPG mechanics from playing it, so I plan on implementing them into my game as well. When we finish it, I'll write a review here like last time. (Btw, Shinjiro is the best character.)

In conjunction with my Bakumatsu obsession, I've been improving upon my music skills. Even though I've graduated from my main college, I'm actually enrolled at another one right now. Originally I was going for a Welding Certificate, but I think welding isn't for me, so I'm just taking interesting classes. (And what's great is that FedEx pays for all of it!) I'm taking a guitar class and an electronic music class, and I've improved a ton at both. It won't be long until you start hearing some nice metal riffs in game!

Finally, I made a Twitter account for game dev stuff. I'm planning on using it for small updates, as well as announcing when a new journal is made here. So if you want to stay up-to-date about smaller things, why not give it a follow? Here's the link: https://twitter.com/TheHaxDev

I debated on whether or not I should make a Twitter for the longest time. I really don't like social media, but at the same time it's pretty much impossible to spread info without one. Originally I was going to wait until my game was in a more presentable state before creating it, but I'm taking a marketing class and the next assignment is to make a Twitter account. So I figured I might as well make it now.

So that's what I've been doing for the past month. Not bad, huh? Also, check out the animations on the site now! Aren't they really cool?! Man, I love Zyro so much it's unreal.

What's the game plan, you ask? Well, I've decided a few things.

First of all, I'm going to change the style of the 3D models I'm using in-game. If you remember, my current 3D model of Joe is rather high-quality. However, this poses a problem for me. I'm really a newb when it comes to 3D, so I have no idea how to animate mouths. It might seem like a small thing, but it's really pretty major... what's the last 3D game you've played with high resolution models that only had one expression? It looks strange.

When I was playing Persona 3, I realized I could compensate for this by changing the resolution of my models. By making them lower poly, I didn't have to animate the mouths (everyone in Persona has one expression) but they could still be recognizable. Not only that, but making the models would be easier too, since all the details would be drawn textures, AND they would be a breeze to edit in comparison. So I'm going to start over in terms of my 3D journey. I didn't get very far with my last attempt, so I don't mind at all.

Secondly, I changed what program I use to make music. Originally I was using Bitwig Studio because it came with the midi piano I bought, and it was pretty serviceable. However, the license only lasts for one year, so it hasn't been getting any updates, and the amount of instruments are pretty lacking. Most of the ones I use in my songs are imported VSTs that I found online. I'd been looking to change programs for a while, but I had trouble finding one that was intuitive like Bitwig. Then in my electronics music class, we started using Pro Tools, and holy moly! It was just what I was looking for! It has a free version that stays up to date, and a TON of instruments. So I'm going to be using that for the foreseeable future. I even made a song for the main menu today!

Lastly, a new voicebank came out for the AI singing program Synth V. It's called Ninezero, and it's a male voice made specifically for metal. I already bought him, so I'm going to use him for some of my songs. Here's a demo track to hear what he sounds like.

So yeah, that's about it for this update. I plan on getting back into implementing more stuff soonish (I'm still translating Bakumatsu and playing Persona 3) so the next big update will probably be mid-March or so. I'm really excited to work on my game again, and I hope you're excited to see more content related to it.

Catch you later!