Revival

 

 12.30.2020

It's been a while. Anyway. A personal note for those who care or came to wonder what happened to CastleDev.

I'm doing alright thanks. A lot has changed since I first started the project.

As far as life, When I first started the project I had just wrapped up my enlistment and was working security jobs for a little over minimum wage. I did quite a bit of the game development while on the job - you have to stay up at night. I was also in school again, or well off and on again.

CastleRock had some issues. A lot of beginner mistakes as far as game design and programming. I thought of making this grand game of something for everyone with all these things I wanted it to have. And I wanted it to look nice - as I was an 'artist' first. I created an Asteroid game in Java, and I jumped right into this one. I was commissioning Art from others, and music, and made all that social media crap - dived right in.

I was pretty naive. On the game dev side, I was running into bigger hurdles for the things I wanted to implement. I would spend days doing trying to get something to work, and it would drain my will to keep going you know, but I would come back after a week or two and keep going. After that 4th release, I was really getting held back by my lack of experience and the terrible coding I've done prior. I felt like I was letting Anons down. I stopped accepting donations on itch and patreon. Then when I finished something, I felt as if their was never enough content to justify the wait between updates. All this work was under the hood. I had this abstract realization. - I have all this game, but with no game. - I had sprites, and pretty menus, and a duct taped game engine for turn based combat, but it wasn't a game.

Anyway, so what now? 

I'm doing good. Finished school. Doing IT at a cushy place where I can drink during lunch. Life's good. Unrelated to CR, I completed some non lewd projects.

 About the Game!?

It's done with in a way. (Is anyone surprised really?) - It's becoming something else. And my scope is smaller. My intention is to finish up a project and then go from there. I plan to leave room for growth. 

 I created the following for a new navigation system, clickable background items, clickable npcs that open dialog options, and I think still pleasant to look at. The randomness of the older system grew frustrating.

Intro: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/interaction-travel-concept-test.html

Part 1: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/overhaul-part-1-combat-elements-a.html

Part 2: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/overhaul-part-2-menu.html

Part 3: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/overhaul-part-3-travel-and-menus.html

Part 4: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/overhaul-part-4-dialouge.html

Part 5: https://castlerockgame.blogspot.com/2020/12/overhaul-part-5-final-notes.html