I’ll say that, while I feel near the end of the year I’ve been struggling and unsuccessful, this year was actually one of my more successful years. I haven’t been actively working on a project/product since I tried making a webcomic as a teenager, (no wait, there was that novella fantasy series I was writing/self-publishing back in my early 20s…) yet by God’s grace I’ve released 2 games, 2 asset packs, I have 4 small plugins released, two games in production and have been working on commissions for my first client.

I can’t take the credit however. If you’ve noticed, I mention God and I have faith in Jesus Christ. I believe not only in the salvation He provided on the cross, but that He is guiding my steps in life. Without Him, and trusting He’ll set me in the right direction, I wouldn’t have the confidence I have today to continue working on my creative passions. I’ve struggled with the fear of failure for a long time, and it’s only been this past year (and the end of 2018) that God has brought me out of that. I’m still a work in progress, as I struggle with procrastination and laziness, but I’m believing that God will help me with that this coming 2020 as I seek Him and seek to better myself with my time and abilities.

Of course, I didn’t start this post to get preachy, and while I welcome any private messaging if you have questions, I’m not here to shove the Bible in your face.

I’m here to talk about how 2019 went.

GAME RELEASED: WELL YU

While Yu Will Be A Prince was developed at the end of 2018 it released on February 14th of this year, and that’s where I feel my beginning was this year. After years of failing to finish something, I had finally finished something, and even today I’m still proud of that lil’ game. I like it, I like the little details I put in it, I like the silly humor of mine that’s in it and I just like that I finished something.

GAME RELEASED: WAFFLE CONE

Created in two months for RPGMakerWeb’s Release Something event, Waffle Cone was released on April 24th.

It taught me I never want to make a Visual Novel ever again. Maybe (like childbirth) that feeling will pass and I’ll want to do it again…but…ugh. This game ins’t as sweet as a lil baby…(okay, that was a weird analogy but I’m a mum of 2 so…)

Using Irina’s Visual Novel Busts plugin, which at the time was shiny and new and (still is) amazing, I turned a short story of mine into a simple visual novel with 4 endings.

I think the biggest exercise with this was actually those character busts…I drew them all. I had just gotten myself a graphics display tablet and was ready to use it. So relearning Clip Paint Studio I went in and drew every character. The biggest thing I did was do unique poses.

I now know why most games just have the facial expression change.

However, I would totally be willing to draw my own character sprites again, poses and all. Mostly cause I’m cheap and can’t afford to hire someone.

For something created in two months, in genres I don’t normally work in (visual novels, romance, slice o life) I still find Waffle Cone to have been a valuable experience.

RESOURCE PACKS: RETRO RPG SERIES

I love pixel art. While yes, 2D is easier to make a game with then 3D assets (at least for me) that’s not the only reason I choose to work in 2D. I just love pixel art. I’ve been (on and off) making my own sprites since I was a teen who first started game dev with the Game Maker series.

And so, reading more on Pixel Art this past year I came accross I nugget that said something along the lines of minimum color palettes being best for beginners to practice with…and that gave me the idea to create a 4-color retro game boy type asset pack.

I started to hate the color green while working on this. At least, the game boy greens. I hated the limited pallete and it was much harder than I thought to create. However, I set out to finish it, knowing that I could now finish things having done two games already, and I released it on June 1st. It took me way too long to finish. I don’t remember well, but I think I actually started it in 2018…I should have finished it way sooner.

Anywho, at the request of one person, I actually made a follow up expansion pack full of new characters for the set. So it kinda became a series.

However, my pixel art hasn’t been my best managed project as I had promised my Patrons battlers and haven’t gotten anywhere near the 20 I wanted to do. I have 12 done, but some of those are alt forms/poses of some of the same battlers, so I’m not counting them in the 20…so really I have…. 8/20 monsters done. 1 hasn’t been released yet, and one is in the works. I do plan to finish these 20 Patron Only assets, but I have to start managing my time better!

(Patrons get this pack free BTW!)

IN THE WORKS

This year saw the birth of two new game ideas: Reel Dream and Rapunzel’s Flower. Both of which I’ve hit a wall with recently, but I think now I can say it’s more like I’m trudging through mud rather than not moving.

REEL DREAM

The Fishing RPG.

Oi. Who’s idea was it to try and make a turn-based RPG fishing game?!

Oh, yeah. Mine.

I started this rather early in the year, March? And I’m no where as far as I had hoped as things just kept not feeling right. However, this has gotten a lot of interest from friends and colleagues so I’ve been pushed to keep going.

The systems have been interesting to try and fit together and I’ve been learning a lot as I’ve tried to make this game work. I’ll be honest though, if I don’t start getting somewhere with this project this coming year, I’ll probably drop it.

I really don’t have too much to say. Fishing RPG. Crafting System. Bigfoot.

Bigfoot?

Wait, what?

RAPUNZEL’S FLOWER

Rapunzel’s Flower came out of this idea to write a devlog as I go with creating a game. To show the thought process behind how I come up with my ideas. Also, I just wanted to use Akashics’ cute animal characters.

Being a more generic RPG the game was able to blast past Reel Dream with development, though things are starting to slow down as I have to do more detailed work.

What surprised me the most I guess is that I really have been able, with only a few hiccups here  and there, to keep up with the updates. I haven’t been able to keep a steady stream of updates for any project really, not even the webcomic I once worked on. So that was cool to be able to be consistent that way.

I may take a break for a bit and focus on Reel Dream, but there’s nothing stopping RF from being worked on this coming year.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I still have a lot to work on with my ability to manage projects and get things done. However, I can only hope that things will get better in 2020. I’m trusting God to guide me as I go, and He’s led me well in life, so I know He’ll lead me well in 2020.

I didn’t quit. There was a lot of times I wanted to quit. But I didn’t. I’d say, this year was a success. Praise God.

See ya’ll next year (heheh) and God bless!
Meike Kima