𝕳ow long has it been since we last talked?
Apparently two months, which seems the average time to post a blog nowadays, yet it feels like an eternity due to all the activity I have busied myself with outside of the game. To think there was a time when I would spend all day working on Child Arms as my flagship project. Now I barely get an hour a day, if even. Times have surely changed as my life now revolves around other more "adult" things.
But at least for the moment, I can return to the game to look back at the years I have spent on it, and see the many more that are coming my way. There's still a long way to go before Child Arms sees the finish line, but for that to be achieved I must now venture into other enterprises.
-New business-
If you read the blog on itch.io, you would have learned that I am in the process of learning animation as a means of creating a business to fund Child Arms. The budget for the game has sunk in the past months, only now recuperating thanks to a generous donation from the government. It's not much but it was enough to provide a few more assets to the game. Still, the original funding I had, i.e. my original hours at my job, is long gone now. I will never see them again. I now only make enough to survive at the cost of my game. It's not that I am without funding, it's just that I don't have enough to afford the majority of the assets, mainly the backgrounds which are the most expensive part of the game, that is until my composer starts raising the prices for his music. To put it short, I need more money than what I'm making right now.
That's where the animation business comes in. Since September, I've been practicing and honing my animation skills. Currently have a personal project to see what my animation process will be like that I started back in December. I'm just over the half-way point. Animation sure is time-consuming but if I can pull it off, it's going to be worth it. As soon as I'm confident, I'll start searching for commissions and bring in some much-needed funding for the game.
-New animated trailer-
But this isn't just an opportunity to make money. I also want to expand the world of Child Arms. This game is headed towards its four-year anniversary and all this time the game has not expanded beyond the gameplay. This was because I was concentrating on that particular aspect so much under the belief that nobody cared about the game's story, at least not at first. But the truth is the story is also important, the game's lore should have been a part of the game from the very beginning. The characters are still templates, waiting for their chance to shine when the game is finally complete. But even then, the only story elements I have planned for the characters are the arcade endings and their biographies in the character section of the game.
I feel like I missed an opportunity to really flesh out these characters but at this point, I can't actually modify the game to include some kind of storyline. So instead, as I am venturing into animation, I figured that is the opportunity to really show who these characters are and expand the world of Child Arms.
I am planning on making a teaser trailer as my next animation project, which I desire to be sometime this month, and if not, February. I then want to plan out four animated pieces showing the characters interacting with each other and showing the viewer a glimpse at the world they inhabit. I'm so excited about this that I want to be meticulous in its planning and am already starting to visualize the scenarios.
That's all for later however, so please look forward to it when the time comes to announce it.
-New Demo-
The new demo is upon us. I actually received all the new first-person assets from my artist and have implemented them in the game. However, it is not ready yet to be packed up and shipped for everyone to check out. There's still much to do in terms of the game itself and the promotional material. I also desire to change a few things that I reported in an earlier blog such as updating the controls to use keyboard, controller, and mouse support at the same time, and update the color editor to be easier to use. But due to this demo update being a long time coming, that may have to wait as I believe that updating the game and showing the newly added first-person assets as soon as possible is a better priority.
Everything is more or less ready to be implemented, I just have to put everything together and test the heck out of it. Then I require to update all screenshots and any videos to show off this new feature. I will be honest in saying that, even though I'm going to create a new gameplay trailer, I would prefer to release the new demo update when I have finished the animated teaser trailer. I want to wow players not just with the new game but wow the audience with a spectacle.
It seems as if I'm going to be working on this game for the rest of my life as there's still so much to do. But it doesn't have to. I just have to lift myself off my own bootstraps and get things done. My ambitions all rest on getting my new animation business going and I'm going to work extra hard to make sure it succeeds.
To whoever is reading this blog and has been sticking with Child Arms for this long, I thank you. I know there are a few people out there, and maybe you guys have moved on, but if there is at least one person who is still sticking with me, I am happy to have you. I can assure you the game will be released, it's just taking far longer than I anticipated.
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