It's that day of the year again where I talk about how old I am and how I'm only getting older...how time flies...it should really stop. But as a Clock, all I can do is keep ticking. Regardless, let's recollect my last spin around the sun together.

-IRL Stuff-

Compared to where I was this time last year, I'm in a much better place. I have a new primary job and even a second job that will help when my main job has a lull. I still have nothing full time, nor do I see a light at the end of that tunnel, but I'm able to sustain myself in this ever inflating economy which will suffice for the moment being. Now on to the art reflection

-REFLECTION TIME-

I'm doing this first this year, because I think it makes more sense also also because I want to talk about

JOHOU BATTLE

Normally when I do my yearly reflections I go in order, but I had to make an exception for Johou Battle. I still find it a miracle that I managed to release a video game playable from start to finish that contains everything I had envisioned for it. Check it out too, it's short good fun! Of course, developing this game has taught me a lot, which I will overview the lessons now.

-If you are hiring someone, be strict on deadlines

This is the main reason the game took so long to release. It's also a problem with my gamedev workflow in general. The programmer ran into bump after bump and I just stuck with it because he was willing to do it when really I should have looked for other help after the first time he took 9 months with a request.

-Control the Scope

Another reason it took so long was because I fell into feature creep. I managed to reign it in once the programming time got out of hand, but I still had more thoughts that I didn't get out there. For example I'd still like to explore the possibility of Jotaro vs Jotaro and Ichirin vs Ichirin, but I'd have to reprogram such absurd lengths of the game that I'd wind up making half of it.

-Art comes at the end

I made art at the start, what a foolish mistake that turned out to be. I should have planned everything that was going to be in the game and made it, and then only after put my own graphics over it. This is talking about important art, of course. I shouldn't have needed to remake the character portraits twice but because I started the art in 2018 and my skills had improved so much by 2023 that I had to remake all of it, and then apply more stylization after that was not the best use of my time.

-Budget from the start

If I didn't run into COVID money, I likely would have had a lot more trouble with the music. Thankfully Chaotrope came in clutch with the very good soundtrack, but now that I have experience with paying for game development I can calculate how much I'll need to pay a lot better for next time. Assuming my funds are still relevant in this ever-inflating economy that is. I'll need to work towards a Kickstarter with my next game...

-No amount of testing is enough

While I had tested myself endlessly for hours on end, and had some friends play the game, but upon the day of release people had issues with the game saving and someone even found an obscure crash! I resolved these issue quickly, but there are still minor problems with the game that I'd need to make a 1.11 to solve. Which I'm going to make, but I'm focusing on Clock Day 2024 first.

Johou Battle is only the start of my game dev journey, but its completion where it takes its pause for now. Next up is Clock Day 2024, which means it's time to talk about...

Pin Clock Origins Part 1: Pinspirations

Fellas I'm gonna be honest, I didn't expect this to win any awards, like at all. After all it's not a Clock movie in the truest sense, it's just me blabbing about my past for 9 minutes. So to see it both get frontpaged AND Review Crew Pick was a pleasant surprise! It adds some motivation for Part 2, which is of course coming this Clock Day. The one takeaway I learned from this was to condense my points. This film alongside Mighty Girl probably have the most scrapped content of all my films that weren't outright scrapped! While Part 2 has some scenes removed, they were trimmed out far earlier in the process, so I didn't say animate entire shots that went unused. As far as I know, anyways.

It was fun divulging into the past, even if I likely spent too much time talking about the video games that wowed kid me, I felt they were important enough to keep in the film. Maybe in the complete cut I'd trim it down, but that's just adding more work for myself. However, I'm still looking forward to sharing Part 2 with all of you, where you'll delve into my early journey into the world of Newgrounds and Animation!

-2024 into 2025-

Thankfully there's less I need to worry about for the immediate future now that Johou Battle has released. Of course we still have our usual subjects.

Pin Clock Origins Part 2: Pintroductions

That's the title baybeeee! Like I mentioned in the reflection of Pin Clock Origins Part 1, this part will focus on my adventures on Newgrounds and animation. It seemed easier to make thanks to having Pin and BB10's shots I can reuse and adjust based on what I need, but I think I underestimated how much this would have to do, especially with all the new shots of my human self I'd have to animate. But it's currently about 90% animated, and after that is just compiling, effects, additional graphics...needless to say it will be done way before Clock Day!

Brawl Minus next update

Of course it's in the works. In fact we're fairly close to final testing for it, just a few more fixes to go! It can be hard to maintain motivation at times, I've never considered quitting or giving up! I still love this game and want to keep it going, so I'll still work to keep it alive. This update will add a ton of stages to the game, and will likely release Summer/Fall 2024.

Most Importantly

Thank you all for sticking with me! I know I don't post that much, but rest assured I am always hard at work, and will be doing the best I can, and I can't wait to show you all the fruits of my efforts!

Till next post!