Going out for a walk + obnoxious game boss music + some horrid dreams lately = let's make some monster concepts fitting of the upcoming October for that RPG I keep pretending I'll get past the "broken-ass engine" stage one day.


They're hands. They're spiders. They're spiderhands.


And this is the horrid beast that spawns them, covered in the souls of those she's trapped and sucked the life out of, who spend eternity crawling all over her in some manner of creepy dead orgy or something.


The capturing of souls is pretty common practice for the Urakait, as they aren't picky how they expand their numbers. Here we have a knight who commands swords to fly around under the influence of some sort of medieval headcrab.


Also in that same "I've captured you to serve my master forever" vein, here's the slime I drew to fill space on my letter-size Painter document. It's pretty much just assimilating anything it can't digest, like a true obese creature.


Zombie moleman. Have fun with that.


I actually don't know what to call this guy even remotely, but think he's neat. A literal heartless, ghost-like, magic-wielding monster who rides around on some rune-laden ring. I guess i'll cite Disgaea influence somehow, as I think the white-haired Sages on that kinda spawned the idea. I presently refer to him as a Soul Cavity, but very few of these aren't up for better name ideas...


Siren mermaid thing. At some point in the game is Annel's shrine, and then you spend some time in a big lake. Because I'm evil enough to include "risk of drowning" on my RPG's lists of reasons you need to pay attention during fights.


On that, have what happened when I decided a pirahna wasn't evil enough.


The game's most persistent villain in his "I'm finally taking you seriously" form. Anyone who actually puts up with my webcomic might be able to figure out who this is, what with the give-away grin, but to the rest of you he's jut bad news.

Dunno if I'll enter that Halloween thing of Rez's. Would like to, but time is such a factor for me, and I'd hate to rush something again like I did with Revival. :/ We'll see. I obviously like making the occasional creepy shit.

It is an unsurprising fact that I am a lonely, single male who for the right woman would upon request seriously consider lobbing off his own leg for no real reason aside from her lulz. As such, I've heard much advice lately on the site on where to find some love-making, the common consensus being that my best bet would be hell. Needless to say, after so many people telling me to go there for this "yiff" business, which just makes me feel out of the times because that's a word for sex I could almost use in front of my mother, I decided to pursue this potential lead.

It took very little research to find hell. Having gone into a small-town redneck Wal-Mart after dark, I'd found a place that certainly smelled plenty of semen wherein everyone seemed to be in a terrible mood, perhaps the hellish trade-off being eternal dissatisfaction with your partner of the moment. I could imagine why, looking at the residents, as most were either disturbingly underage or completely huge, and anything classified as an exception was next to some tattooed demon with arms that he could use to bench press himself.

Knowing better than to pick a fight with something that could murder me with it's ink alone, I began my search for a mate elsewhere while resuming my search for a six-pack of Dr. Pepper that had unwittingly led me into this den of evil to begin with. Distracted only briefly by Pop Tarts, I'd completed my initial task and began seeking out a conclusion to my latest mission.

As many seemed certain my best pairing would be a cat with a woman's body, which to me sounded like a sex pillow with extra fluffy padding that purrs, I began my search in the pets department, finding only goldfish and assorted toys that didn't even seem to be in aid to pleasing such a creature outside of making it high. Also, more incredibly obese women talking to kittens hidden in their purses. Or chihuahuas. I can never tell.

The next logical step was that obscure half-people would probably be with the blue alien chicks, which seem all the fashion anymore and thus logically Wal-Mart would have some tentacle-headed slave women for sale, among other things. I assumed this would be with the spaceship parts, but only found windshield wipers and oil in the mechanical department, and electronics supplied only large, impressive, but blurry-pictured digital screens full of a screaming referee trying to sell me something for "the big game."

The mention of game gave me the final idea to try the hunting department, where the closest I found was a picture of an elk with more horns than i felt comfortable sharing a bed with. Dejected, I made my way to the front counter.

I found in the express lane not a fine young lass, but a middle-aged woman that weighed as much as me twice over. Growing desperate, as I handed her my money I banked on her being a cougar and made my move.

Never has anyone so angrily reacted to an impression of Joey from friends. I awoke three hours later in the hospital, Dr. Pepper and Pop Tarts still in hand.

Needless to say, I'm never taking you guys' dating advice again.

Guh. I'm having a night or something.

I got a new game out. It's some sort of bizarre occurrence and frankly I'd rather beat it with a stick some more, but that mentality is why I never get anything done, and this had a deadline. go play Revival. If you like Revival, go bump it on Yoyo. I have a contest to win. [laugh track here]

I put a couple pieces of game-related art up on my DA, the two shrines from Revival's central area. I may do a blog later on regarding my mental process constructing that bizarre thing, but I'd like to know more than one person finished it first. Meanwhile, Erik wants to know what you guys think of the audio. He put a lot of time into it in exchange for a whole lot of little to nothing, so do make it worth his time if you could find yourself so inclined.

Oh, I also did this thing.



I think this marks the first time out of many attempts I've finished a picture of Rhythma, who is often the subject or random style experiments since nobody gives a damn about it anyway. After all, it's not rodents and it's not drowned in satire, so if neither of those is present I'm obviously doing something wrong. I usually am, anyway. Regardless, big fat description for that's on DevART as well if you find yourself curious, but it would single-handedly turn this into a wall of text, which people are used to from me anyway.

In generic news nobody cares about, my webcomic was put on hold between Revival and needing to work on having work and all manner of other things. Most people are taking it well and encouraging me to explore my other ideas, Matt Matter being the lead on that boosting a couple peoples' interest. Basically, shape-shifting multi-personality superhero in a world of incompetents. The first chapter is shaping up to be more serious than I've traditionally aimed for in trying to start the thing (this marks attempt number 4), but is also holding my interest better than any of them (which never once exceeded five pages even at sketch stages). I've had to shift back to human anatomy for it, but am also oddly getting to fiddle with my western influences more, so it's kinda fun when I find the time.

There is, however, one person who seems unenthused with all of this and keeps lamenting that HP is dead or some such nonsense. It's not, I just got tired of spending upwards of 12-15 hours a week, if not more, working on pages of high fantasy about rodents that nobody wanted to read. I love the world, but some things need to change before I can put that much time into it. Eventually, I'll get the arena wrapped up and scale down the art to something more reasonable so I have time for other projects instead of draining myself on something that makes me a grand total of next to nothing cash-wise and as far as respect goes a lot of "lol furfag."

So, yeah, the comic about tolerating differences with a sprinkling of fighting evil (maybe more than a sprinkling, like someone confused the frosting-to-cake ratio, but you get the idea maybe) has ironically fallen because I'm tired of intolerant pricks bitching about talking animals.

So much for no wall of text?

I beat Disgaea 3 finally, and 4 is supposed to be out in Japan by the end of the year, being unveiled at TGS. Oodles anticipation~! But first, Kumoricon. Go stare down cosplayers, scare blackhole a bit, and otherwise just try and enjoy my one consistent annual experience out of this damn house. What a boring state.

Also, I want a new header, but am lazy. I've got an idea of what I'm after, tho, so maybe soon I'll replace that outdated thing.

[/wall of text and ADD]

Woosh, there it goes. It still freaks me out from time to time because I fail to realize immediately that that image does, in fact, represent me, and thus I keep wondering who the hell random sites have logged me in as.

I think it was Cyrus who said in only slightly nicer words that smug Gato came across as a bit of an ass, and to be honest I've not felt particularly prideful lately (more of a lonely, depressed and semi-abandoned state of mind, but I do try to keep the emo to myself sans some closer alliances). Thus, the new one is a far more neutral Sam and Wynn from HP, the latter of whom still just exists in my random doodles and junk. If you feel so inclined, the larger version is over yonder on Newgrounds at ten times the size. If you don't feel so inclined, well, whatever.

B'sides, I don't feel my reception there will be so fantastic after Cyrus just finished terrifying half of you with awkward furry breast-implanted fan service. Speaking of which, I did some of that too in a shameless attempt to get attention that I'm both happy and sad to say worked all too well, now being my most viewed thing ever, save maybe an old STWPT flash from years ago. The controversy it sparked and the score's rapid swaying back and forth are entertaining to watch, as it's honestly pretty amusing how much people value personal taste over artistic merit, and how this can pull a lower rating than an image of an abused girl barely holding on to life and with the description reading how she's stopped fighting the drugs because it's the only thing that eases the pain and she only has a week left to live. True to fashion, Newgrounds embraces that as "Sexy," while what people are arguing isn't even proper smut (because good luck talking me into proper smut) is an abomination against nature and moral standing.

I expect far too much logic out of the site where people get upset about the mic quality behind their dick jokes. What I do not expect, however, is more than one of you to like that second image, but why not just feed the spaz fire at this point? That's what I've fallen to.

In more overall news, my webcomic is finally approaching it's 300th page (by my count, anyway), tonight updating with #298 and more fire before I swap the scene to something thankfully less red because I am so tired of painting an endless stream of red. I think this is evidenced by both previously linked images being markedly cooler in color scheme, I guess, but I'm thankful all the same to be getting back to Jamal and Sam's squabbling come next week, when both my Airbender and DBZ influences will be dancing around in full force in quite possibly the most obvious display ever, so stay tuned for that, I guess.

Regarding game making (the point of this site? Blasphemy!), GM8's news feed thingy pointed me to their latest contest, which, in a brief stint of insanity, I decided to try and put something together for. The results so far are decent enough save some semantics issues I'm still trying to work out, shattered self-esteem, and my thoughts going from "I would like to move on from GM after this" to "I shouldn't even bother with programming because I am a worthless human being apparently for not having learned programming by pulling it out of my ass at age 12 before I even really understood what the internet was because my family is not entirely technologically inclined or particularly supportive of my pursuits, largely on account of them being insane and me wasting more time crafting run-on sentences than actually getting crap done." I've been told I'm wrong in just about every feasible way these last few days from the art to the programming, game project or otherwise, and it's gotten me feeling pretty down.

On the upside, you can make a little man run around and bounce a blue ball all over the room in an attempt to make water appear. Interpret that how you will.

As for HPE itself, I'm back to wondering what it's future is when apparently an entire RPG back-end is no problem for me but basic platform collision and a freakin' particle destroyer are blowing my mind. Aside from that, Erik has been offering to assist to some extent for ages, and now that PlaneShader is actually a thing I can see, I have some degree of confidence in that happening someday.

All the same, being reduced to "guy that draws everything" really kills game design being a break from drawing everything for me, which is a good explanation for why I never get any sprite work done, and the present extent of HPE's "battle system" looks like She-Hulk's flattened tit.

Time will tell, I guess, and Erik's prospective animation system sounds pretty in line with the shit I dream of doing (my perfectionism tells me to try and match Odin Sphere, but reality says I should probably aim a smidgen lower for a first outing, mayhaps).

Wish me luck, and shorter blogs or something.

Not much to say, so I won't bother with the front paging nonsense, as this is largely for anyone who's weird enough to wonder if I'm still alive. Or if the RPG thinger is, in any case.

i worked out a Phantom-Brave style "keep the pointer in the ellipse" deal for the battle system, and made some action icons so that if I ever feel like sinking a few minutes into it at random again I can get the bare bones of battle started (finally). It's a bit pointless without anywhere to test it, so expect some of the ugliest early version art ever seen on the internet because if I want to make crap work *I just want to make crap work,* and have determined I can make it pretty later.

Also there's a new WIP song on my Newgrounds, which I can't be bothered to link to because it's a WIP and I'm lazy to boot.

For non-RPG stuff: finalizing some stuff for the Redux print version and working on Matt Matter slowly but surely for all you non-furries out there.

I believe that is all. Hopefully soon I'll have something a smidgen more substancial. Meanwhile, go play DeathSpank, it's awesome.

Click it, yo.

The chimes are a bit quieter than I'd intended, but that's easy enough to fix when I've the time for a rerender and making it loop properly again. >_> I've a page that needs doing~ One filler week is more than enough, amiright?

Speaking of filler, I'm going to tease you all with "I have been working on HPE" (all two of you that know what that is!) and now say "That was technically a falsehood."

What I have been doing, however, is hopping around on the most professional design document ever (read: I made a Wave doc and have a couple people I trust looking over my stupid ideas to make the game not suck should I ever actually crank the thing out somehow), and worked out (to some extent) Unison attacks and some extra AoEs (area of effects, their emitters still needing a proper name if anyone has any ideas) and field skills.

I've advanced the plot outline to the acquisition and awakening of the Water Spirit, Annel, and the skills she learns therein, which means nothing to most anyone here, but regardless it's led to me adding in the idea of underwater areas, wherein AoE stones and Annel act as Oxy beacons, meaning that within battle a certain radius around them is safe to stand in while outside of said radius one starts taking damage at an increasing rate for every turn they're in open water. It's a bit ironic considering how much drowning in games stresses me out (read: I am known to literally cry any time an oxygen meter comes up), but I think the way it's employed here emphasizes smart thinking instead of just worrying about how long you've been choking yourself. I think it'll work out alright in the end, thus. Hopefully.

If that's all way above you (I apologize, I'm not explaining a lot really), just call it a reminder that I'm not completely abandoning the RPG project (again), just focusing on my concepts this time before I finalize everything under the sun.

That and I'm putting off programming the MSS editor. I've been procrastinating that one for months.

Oh, yes, there's probably somebody thinking this is the RPG but NO YOU ARE DREAMING STOP.

I have recently launched the big time suck that is HP Redux on my site. It's a 20-page revision of that rather rancid first chapter. @___@ Now it's all tolerable and stuff! Check it out at link thing!

http://hamstapowah.com/?p=1225

I've also splattered the art thing found therein all over the internet. If'n you're feeling generous, go slap some support on it over at NG or something.

http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/zaronx/an-epic-tale

YEAH I KNOW LINK DUMP WEE? DX

Maybe now that Redux is done I can get some of this Flash and GM stuff worked on. Except, oh right, I need to find a job in two months or I get kicked out. Awesome.

Alas, time will tell. =3=

Oh yes. I did another. I hope anyone who reads it finds it to their liking.

Also, Erik's here! Amazin'. Someone I know actually joined this place. o3o Now to deviously get everyone here to join my place! Moo ha ha!

Or, at least, you know, the cool people. You know who you are.

I suppose I should poke HPE sometime soon and get those of you care an update proper, but as previously stated I really need to get my printed stuff up to speed first. :x Very behind! But slowly trying to recover. For now, consider the rant my update on development, for it is very much a reflection of my thoughts on it.

Short journal is short, but at least it's not padded with sixteen images and a couple Youtube videos trying to pretend it's not. Link for length! This for concise. How different, for me. -rambling- The irony!

In other words, busy busy gato.

I've not a lot of pictures to offer this time around, so I'll try and keep this from turning into some impeding wall of text-based death. Old habits die hard.

First and foremost, I need rent/gas/date money and thus have tried to bring more attention to my Commissions page, wherein you can make me your little slave monkey for any needs you may have for something like nine bucks an hour.

Meaning, if you think my menu layouts are spiffy or my character art or whatever would be just perfect for your game project, I can do that if you can cough up the coin. Likewise, my music and the typical artist's commission stuff, as mentioned on the linked page, are all fair game.

On that note, I've also recently put up a gallery page at long last to hold all of the HP-relevant sketch, incentive, and otherwise freely available artwork I've done for the comic over the years, so feel free to peruse that at your leisure if that so happens to float your boat.

And, last but not least, I did another rant a while back that I didn't link here because my previous journal hovered on the front page for something like a freakin' week, but I put it out here now as this place has all manner of gaming and game designing and game programming sorts that might care to see these. This one's on the place and position of hardcore gaming on Wii, so it probably isn't going to spawn anything like the FPS cliché list that started growing up last time. And by all means, feel free to argue with Zone or tell him his response post is just too huge or whatever. I adore discussion of any sort happening on the site so long as it stays in the PG realm as far as language is involved.

That about sums that up. No engine updates atm as I've been trying to get myself back into gear working on Redux #1 and assorted other things. Kumoricon returns in a matter of months, and if I'm going to be in the Artist's Alley I'd best have something to sell, no? So that's taken priority atm.

Peace out, y'all.

-Zar

Cripes and beans, here we go.

First off, I've made a new song for Urakai. It's up over on Newgrounds, and anyone capable of giving it a favorable vote would be appreciated. kinda tired of hearing how I'm improving and then getting scores lower than crap I put out almost three years ago. .-.

- EDIT: The song has been revised and updated. The new versions are up on Newgrounds and FurAffinity. Thanks for your feedback, to those who chipped in their two cents. It helped a lot! -

And on that note...



While it's not the exact menu I'd constructed in the mock-up (that kind of requires I get party structure and the like implemented properly, among other things), it uses the same scripts and the like to happen. Nothing here presently works besides changing your selection, and there's still some refinements to do, but I think it demonstrates quite nicely that what I'd constructed before is completely possible in GM. so hooray for that.



Save my computer having a hissy fit and thus dropping my frame rate to piss, this is the zoom room. It usually runs at 60 just fine but if i break 20 right now it's a miracle. I intend to reboot as soon as I'm done here, thus, and see where that gets me, as I've not touched the code and typically one can go out quite a ways or at last get through the title screen without ever taking a hit to the target rate. If you can't manage the target rate, however, I've allowed for it to be halved. Technically, it can be doubled or any other such thing too, seeing as it's all determined by one global. point being, I'm happy I put it in because today the laptop is not a happy camper.



Case in point with the zooming thing.

I put the game into 3D mode so I could set an orthographic view when needed and draw to that regardless of view scale. I was rather happy view scaling works as well as it does, but I do need some things to be independent of it, and therein lied the part that needed a bit more effort. Nothing fancy, but it's functional.

So, in short, my menu construction goes well and my camera control went better than planned. And there's a new song.

I am completely okay with all of this.