Hello world! It’s been a while, right? Sure it has. Let’s have a general update on the state of things before getting into the state of Plasma Mania:
First of all, as I stated on Twitter not too long ago, I recently took on a long-term translation project as my side job, which has eaten 98% of my free time that I used to spend on either programming or writing. Honestly, I have no regrets! It’s a bit tough at times, but the extra money has really helped at home with the wife and kids. That said, I haven’t given up on these little projects either.
Earlier this year I was inspired to turn a large folder of world building that I once meant for an RPG into a series of novels instead. If you haven’t heard of LitRPG or Cultivation novels then I suggest you head over to Amazon and pick up and Kindle Unlimited account. Check out Dakota Krout’s Divine Dungeon or Completionist Chronicles first, it’s what inspired me down this path. That said, just before taking the translation job I reached roughly the 35% mark of the novel’s completion. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s kind of the introductory story arc for the main characters and it needs to be solid before moving forward, so when I have time I focus on revising what I have in place. I hope to have a sample chapter up in the near future.
Moving on to things I’ve gone much longer without touching: Unity Assets! Honestly, many of my plans to make a bunch of Unity Assets have fallen by the wayside, and I’m considering abandoning what I have up already. Too much to do, not enough time to go around.
Let’s talk about games!
Plasma Mania is essentially done. As in, it exists, works, has leaderboards and three playable levels. No ads, no microtransactions, just… done. I worked on and off on this project for four years. The whole project died once due to file corruption and a bad back-up, then resurrected after a last minute search of an old notebook I was turning in for parts. It’s not really the final version I imagined in either branch of development… but that’s fine. You can play it or let your kids try it out with no worries about them clicking on anything. That’s good enough for me for now. I’ll do a few final tests for bugs and if it passes it’s going into “Production” for the full Play Store to see. It may come to iPhones someday as well, but not until I have a reason to pay for that 100 dollar a year fee Apple charges developers. Ridiculous.
Moving on to my other project in development hell: Prism Trek! This project isn’t going on the cutting room floor just yet. I’ve roughly 75 levels worth of background, soundtracks, ideas, and a fleshed out world map-like Gallery of unlockables waiting for release. It’s been roughly 15 months since I published an update to it, and I decided to remove it from the Play Store, even though it was only in Open Beta. Prism Trek will be released one day, but before that I’m removing a lot of obstacles that were in my way. Advertisements are out, and it’s going to be a fully paid game. Existing levels are getting a revamp to make it easier to develop the remaining 60 levels on my to-do list. This includes some perspective shifts. Currency is still in the game, but Hints are being dropped completely. There is at least one power-up in the game, but more couldn’t hurt. Once that is all done, I can jump pump out the remaining levels I need and then do balance testing. If that all happens… THEN you can expect a release on Android first, iOS second, and then who knows what else moving forward. I don’t have a timeline for these things, because as mentioned before, I’m working two jobs now. That said, I fully intend to finish this labor of love, and I think it doesn’t matter when it comes out, this game will still be well received.
Oh, and before I forget! This website? Yeah… it needs a lot of work. I tend to get a clump of hours to dedicate… and then long months without touching it. I’ll try to work on that more.
Want to chat or ask questions? Hit me up on those social media links at the top of the site!