Hello Wayne,
As kindred spirits I agree, especially on the artistic side. I am an artist myself, but it has been only recently that I have gotten back in to doing pixel art again. Usually it has been pen/ink but mainly in Photoshop these days simulating pen/ink still and now dabbling in Blender. I was working off/on on comic book and children's story projects but found it hard to get motivated to make it to the drawing table. Once there I could draw for hours, but it was getting me to actually sit down and not procrastinate on other things that meant most of my projects are still on the go.
When I actually sat down on Feb 27 to learn Game Maker I realized making games is my real passion as I have not been this excited about a project in decades and have not missed a day on working on my current game.
I took a look at your youtube channel and facebook page on your Scourge of the Underkind game and think it looks fantastic! It definitely has the Gods/Chaos Engine/Alien Breed Amiga vibe. I see it has been a passion project for many years now, but the results speak for themselves. I look forward to seeing it physically.
I take it your first game prototype in Gamemaker is different than Scourge of the Underkind?
I loved the Amiga but unfortunately I do not see myself returning to it, at least not for game development. I could probably jump back into Blitz Basic on the Amiga to complete that Valhalla-like game, as the graphics for three levels were mostly done with the game engine almost fully complete and the first level fully working, but the last levels would still needed a lot of work as would remembering what story and puzzles were need for these levels.
Game Maker is allowing me to get a game up and running far quicker than I could in Blitz Basic and I like the options of being able to hopefully with few changes have the game run on multiple platforms (PC and (dream, dream) the Nintendo Switch are my current goals). It still is in the early stage of development but I look forward to the challenge of making a Metroidvania inspired game. I think the boss battles will challenge me the most.
Great to meet you too! I will be following your Scourge of the Underkind with great interest.