HI ALL! merry new years to you lot, I want to start by apologizing by not releasing the build last night, this time its just my own fault, I got lazy and forgot, intoxicated and simply didn't do much work through out Christmas and up to new years and I apologies about that.

On separate note, i should be able to get a test map with some mechanics on it, stuff like randomized bushes and grass anim on load, random spawning clouds and multi layer terrain (as that hasn't been done in much dungeon crawler, so I pre-made something to allow players to walk up hills (or possibly stairs or other things), its very easy to modify and make it to any size, ONLY PROBLEM is I would have to manually animate if slopes or any form of going up and down is different size, I do have a way of dealing with that though, also need to finish with the basis of combat mode, IE adding an end to the battle as You just get stuck on there, combined with after some coding practice I may redo the chat-box or textbox system, to have it rely more on grabbing data from the character your talking to then having a MASSIVE LIBRARY of text, that seems way more tedious then having the character THEMSELVES hold there text data?

With exception to random dialogue that will have its OWN system. (not revealing much but i thought of a way to try and make the characters unique with the system base on there default personality), and lastly the random quest system hasn't started, but the idea I still wanna do and show, making every play through unique to one another (unless u finish the game then all quest becomes available and will drip-fed overtime in game, to try and make the world feel as lively as possible for as long as possible, same with the random dialogue system I mentioned.

SO lets start with the year recap, I'll try and remember as much as I can to get a good grasp for the year,

at the start, of this year it was the beginning of the end of my uni life, it was nearing the end where I had to make a final project and all other works in between, combined with mental problems from extreme paranoia to sadness and other issues yadda yadda I rather not burden any of you all with, combined with me starting to TRY and save up while looking for a job, all in all there was a lot keeping my mind busy that wasn't this sadly...

then after when i upgraded my pc, it had problems and kept crashing, took me months but i finally figured out why it did and fixed it, but the first month where I had the problem and tried fixing it you may all remember the news where i lost ALL my progress to this and other projects due to using the wrong USB stick to reinstall a fresh windows (which by the way fixed nothing, the issue was a CPU core not utilizing power properly and the bios was set auto-clock to on by last owner, way less blue-screens now.)

and about me, I can be very determined to work and have shown to be able to produce a lot of work, but I have slowed down and slogged in my progress for the past and i apologies about that

then after graduation I did work for other projects and job seeking, which is still a big slowdown.

BUT after some meetings job searching has slowed down now so I can concentrate more on other stuff, I still have meetings and i still have to show I'm looking but I can calm own now from panicking too much with it.

but after uni I immediately went to job seeking, and started to replan my approach to this game

but throughout the years I couldn't finish the diner game due to conflicting mental ideas on what mechanics should use, story or other things, and also no where near enough assets to work with nor is the stuff anywhere near ready... so I kept delaying and just stopping

other projects are in a similar boat but are generally OK and I can work on them

monster girl is in a similar boat I dont have enough to finish but ENOUGH to continue working on it, so I may as well then bang my head against the empty space of the diner game, dont blame the artist either as they be busy with other important stuff as well, combined with other works, when i re-manage my budget for this year id prob gonna try and squeeze in another unique artist to help speed things up :D

AND the unfinished Halloween game? yea i paused it for a while, mainly due to a very stubborn bug that I wanted to take a step back on since it took up too much of my time, I decided to be a moron for this game and make a complex AI for it but after reading back on the scripts and what I wanted the monster to do... I realized I coulda done my OG idea and it would do just fine... COMBINED with completely redoing the UI system which would take a bit of time... its not difficult but be a bit tedious to move and re-code elements of it for every camera scene in that game

and throughout the years of gamejam and small terrible but intriguing projects Ive done deffo helped me as I started using these newer practices I taught myself to make my game from scratch again better and more organized so I have an easier time later on as the game will inevitably get more complex, honestly im not against forcing myself on a tiny timelimit to make a game.

SO new end of year, with problems come and go, I should be able to put a lot more effort and work into this, I should have more free time and If I can get that spark back id be able to do a lot more for this game! just need to find a good fuel lol.

there is prob more but I cannot remember and all the important info is here.

all in all im dissapointed, I didnt release anything Id like myself, and yea even though my gamejam games work there not at a state that im satisfied with them sadly, so the fact i haven't released anything noteworthy is annoying, but could be worst and I can only keep going now.

but also a concept, as gamejam games have proven like this in order from first game to last

https://zombiesl8yer38.itch.io/gradien-game-jam (my first game highly broken used AI for texture, never used generative AI again, but was a case point of my first gamejam, using unity at the time)

https://zombiesl8yer38.itch.io/gradien-questgame-jam (second one tried new styles, learnt alot, but this was before I migrated to a new engine

https://zombiesl8yer38.itch.io/a-road-to-survive-zombz-retro (attempt at different style, functional but too repetive and not fun)

https://zombiesl8yer38.itch.io/gamejam-thingy-involving-eldritch-and-food-working-title (a reatempt at making a dungeon crawler, this one is fully functional albiet barren, i had an intresting concept I dont mind returning back to)

https://zombiesl8yer38.itch.io/working-computer (my final and most intreesting work, out of the others it doesnt feel as much, but it has alot more into it detail wise, perticular pixel art design, sound design, and me utilizing godot efficiently enough., stuff like pixel art design, not too much bugs, its mechanically simple but works as intended, also showcased my current pixel art skills, and for such a short amount of time i did to make this instead of my more ambitious one)

this here isnt in perfect order but get the gist of my slow improvement and understanding of making games, albiet none of them are good, they do show my thoughts when making stuff! and it forces me to work in constraints and actually release something, it give me an idea to consider to help me work better.

this will be decided by all and from other places I will post, and some may even seen it on my itch page when i accidentally published it at the time... but the idea is to make a "collection" set of simple games I will make by myself, no commisioned artist, but I will allow myself to get some assets like music (however 90% will be my me as it will force me to make the art myself.)

I will force myself to only make one game for 2 weeks, I dont have to do them in order but WHEN i start to make a game for that collection set I will lock in for those 2 weeks, no more no less, and then I will bug fix whatever is left there, or tweak or finish off post whenever, no more adding or growing the game will be what it is then and there, ill make about 6 of them per collection, other collections may be longer like 3-4 weeks long per game, but future ideas if this one does work for me, BUT if I dont finish the game in 2 weeks, it will be scrapped for next time till I'm ready for it again, UNLESS again its like a near finish final level or a few more lines of code to do for it to work.

basically I wont be doing them now or instantly, but more whenever I feel like Im ready to dedicate to a small project and make them, and then overtime that collection page will grow with games Id be more satisfied with :D

ANYWAYS after this big update, this is all, I apologise again for not bringing out anything good combined with delays and other problems, Honestly I wished I had alot more energy and time to make this game as I promised to not only to you all but to myself as well, I wish u all a late christmas and a late new year...