ShadowRx
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A thousand things in the works...
🕑 Added 2016-09-01 02:42:12 +0000 UTC Another month has gone by with no story chapters published, but a fair amount of art and new projects have hopefully made up for this. The stories are coming... and indeed several new ones are being drafted as well.I have been migrating projects, content, and programs from an older computer (with terribly little disk space and on the verge of failing) to a newer one. For the first time in many years I have a surplus of disk space... it is an odd feeling. lol.
This transfer, while a very good thing in terms of future production capacity, has slowed productivity for August, and has taken the better part of this month, but I am now (to quote the emperor) "quite operational". Indeed downloading/installing 250GB+ of DAZ content took almost 10 days alone. (7 days for the DIM, then another 3.5 for DAZ Connect... :? )
The good news is render time is now 1/3 of what it was. And now maybe I can open Photoshop without it crashing for lack of RAM/ScratchDisk space.
I have 32 new stock packs rendered, that have been waiting since the end of July for cover pages- this puts 110 to 30/30, and 140 to 20/30 -- 170+ are still in planning, but will be in production soon. The model for 170 has been ready since late May, but no poses have been selected yet. The 200, 230, and upcoming 260 models are still in early planning.
There are many WiP/preview/BtS sets that I have been holding to post here, which also need cover pages to keep the blog SFW even if it has NSFW content attached. (Work-safety is overrated anyway, I mean really, when's the last time someone lost an arm at a meat-packing plant... oh, right... that was Tuesday. lol.)
Most of the writing has been in the form of notes/outlines for new chapters and new stories, and indeed preparation to release some older stories for the first time. I have 20 years of writing and planning to sift through and edit, this should be my first priority going forward now that I'm a little more organized (, that is to say now that everything FITS on one computer).
Game design is always on my mind, and I am constantly reviewing the rule system and how to implement many needed features and core logic. I do on occasion find time to play games as well, primarily indie/WiP games that can be found here on Patreon or on deviantArt. Sadly, many of these have been left unfinished or not updated in years... but they got me to thinking more about my own developer aspirations and some of the longer-term goals I have set here.
At 300 I had planned to reactivate my webserver begin production of Amazon games, the first being a Shadow-gate style UI based on the Rescue . And indeed these plans are still on the shelf (and the server will wait for help), but I've been entertaining starting on the Rescue in the meantime.
While the PSL system in general needs a server-side logic/tracking engine for consistency and fairness in a multiplayer environment, the Rescue is essentially a single-player game. It can be developed to be client-side only, yet still take advantage of the rule system and indeed can benefit the system itself by realizing several client-side interfaces. The most important variable here is that the single player game does not rely on server-tracked resources like Karma as an underlying game currency (, though it may have a local/lightweight equivalent as a gameplay mechanic).
Even though the game is going to use a text-menu with scene window style, it will be a lot fuller featured than the old school game the UI is based on. I plan to use layered images so that objects in the scene can be changed, and want to make as much of the scene interactive as possible. To that end I've been sketching out a map system that would allow players to "make a door" wherever they like ;D.
There is also a plan to offer a more context-driven control element, that when you click on an object in the scene (without an action/tool selected) it gives you an info window about the object with an action menu appropriate to it. That doesn't mean you can't still try old fashioned menu sequences like "use" "self", but it should speed gameplay a bit.
This is not just a small game adaptation of the story, it is a new game engine which will allow modular and moddable content. Over time I plan to add regions beyond the wizard's stronghold, perhaps the nearby town and castle first. Also, as it is based on PSL rules AND moddable, it could easily be reused to produce new games or change the abilities and play style to retheme existing ones. (perhaps a Peachy variation with Bowser instead of the Ogre?)
If you remember the story, the Princess was not only powerful, but fairly balanced in the aspects of Mind, Body, and Spirit. She could use athletics, psionics, and magic equally. A simple theme may create alternate characters that restrict some power aspects, and have you play a less balanced character.
Anyway, it should be a fun project that will be testable this fall. Once I have a playable demo (with a partial map) I'll start working on a content builder to compliment the engine. Once both are functional, game/story content should come together quickly.
Patreon doesn't tell us who/how many follow our updates, so if there's interest here PLEASE shoot me a comment. :)
I also have innumerous notes, rules, and mythos entries -regarding PSL- that need to be transcribed from paper and posted here. I'm still debating whether to make those public entries, or keep them behind the scenes for now.
So, even though it has been eerily quiet here on Patreon, I've had a rather busy and at least somewhat productive month in planning, new art for deviantArt, and a new tumblr account for extra art that doesn't go on dA. I'm easy to find, just search for my name.
(for those counting the indeeds, there are indeed five... or at least there were, there are indeed now nine indeeds. But only if you follow the forward-logic of that last sentence ;p)
