We're gettin' to the good bits...

While wrapping up work last night, I was organizing some upgrade idea I'd made many months back, and some of them just seemed really awesome. I was like, "Oh damn, I wanna find an item with THAT on it!" 

It's so reaffirming that after all these years, we're still passionate about this project, we're still excited that it can and will be awesome. Our health has been steady the past few days, we've got a gas tank that is slowly filling up with gas, and each and every day we are making BIG MOVES to get this sucker up and running.

Randomized level chunks are in and working, randomization within those chunks is coming online, UI is now in a good spot, the core design of combat has enough depth, the play feels tight and fun, we've discovered platforming can be a true addition... SeaCrit may be dormant, it's in the deeps, off the radar, but it's growing stronger every single day, and I don't see a ceiling.

WE ARE KICKIN' ASS. More today than ever before.

It's a dreary world, it's easy to get distracted, it's easy to see madness in every direction. I can't control any of that. All we can do is wake up, try not to let the craziness and unfairness of the world bring us down. I'm going to work to make SeaCrit the best, most wholesome, most fun, most kick arse thing I can. Haters gonna hate, players gonna play, crazies gonna crazy. Ain't no fixin it, ain't no point fixating it.

Tonight I'm excited to do a hard push on items, prefixes, and upgrades,. For so long i've been in this little cave tinkering with silly little nothings, the potential squandered in dark... but I'm thinking they're starting to shine a bit, and maybe soon, that shine may glimmer through the thick malais. It's a lofty thought, sometimes I wonder if success in the current climate would destroy me and this SeaCrit... BUT I DIGRESS!

Back into the breach. Should be a pretty awesome night of dev, got some cool upgrade ideas to get in, got a few key systems to wrangle together... we're starting to get pretty ok at this. This is no longer a gamble, this is no longer debilitating trying to figure out these technical systems, we heat the metal, we pound it with our heavy hammer, and it forms to our will, and wouldn't you know it, it's starting to be pretty fun. Is this a twinkle only I the creator hold in my eye? Time will tell...

Anyhow, feels weird: a rare glimmer of optimism in these dreary rambles in the dark. 

Enough talk... TO DEV! (well first I gotta check on some garbanzo beans)

GO AWAY! THIS BLOG IS OVER!

Ok, since you're still here I wanted to gush about this upgrade mechanic and how I feel it may translate in the game long term. THERE IS A METHOD TO THE MADNESS HERE! Here's the upgrade:

AFTERSHOCKS: Every 10 enemies you kill with crash dash, enhances all dash damage by 1. 

This is actually transformative, because dash attacks are pretty weak early on, but they do very rapid damage. So you mgith dash into an enemy and hit them rapidly for 2 damage 4 times. But if you go to an area full of fish, lure them all together into a big mob low on health, and charge into them with a crash dash killing loads of them at a time, you could quickly start turning your dash attacks into formidable skills!

This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are so many zany and off the wall mechanics we can start adding once we start getting nuts with new upgrades to load onto items or put into shops for purchase. And the crazy part, is after all these years of slaving away, all these upgrade mechanisms just feels really easy, totally doable, not even an inconvenience. We just come up with cool ideas, add it in, it works, we slap an icon on it, we dial in the values and bing bang boom, we've got kick arse new mechanics in a burgeoning game. There is a LOT of content to wrangle, and I'm at the low point where I'm a bit burned out and there's much to do, but soon the tides will shift and things come online and these feelings of dread will turn... the beat will turn around.

Life can be crazy at times, and none of us are perfect. We're going to have our good moments and our bad. But you gotta soldier on and keep your passions and hope alive for the future, the alternatives are anything but.

WHooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, we're halfway theeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeeeee!

Whoooooooooooooooooooooooaah oh!

Hope everyone's doing well out there.

Post work edit: GREAT DARNED DAY! 10 hours of work, most i've gotten done in too long. Lots of secondary things took up my time, but we did get some things we wanted done today. ALWAYS endless things that need doing. And go figure my recording software malfunctioned so didn't capture today, oh well, no biggie. Looking forward to another solid day tomorrow.