Another post already? Apparently! This year I really started to get to work on actually shipping things, and I'm really happy I did. Prior to 2024, I had never officially shipped a game of my own–I had only prototyped small tech demos or had my work shipped in a larger project. Prototyping for 10 years without shipping anything is very exhausting, so I forced myself (and my friends) to participate in Ludum Dare 55. It was a very liberating experience, and was the very event that caused me to start being active(ish) on Newgrounds.

The game we shipped was none other than Scummoner! I made this in a 72-hour blur with all of my friends in a call. I lost many hours of sleep and it caused my back to hurt for the next month, but it was worth it to ship something. Something I wanted to include at launch was Newgrounds medals, but I didn't have the wiggle room to get it in before the deadline. I was able to look into it a few days later and, after about 15 shadow patches, officially added them!

Truthfully, I wasn't very proud with what I shipped. It launched with no true goals and was kind of a rushjob as any good LD game is. Ludum Dare entries usually get Frontpaged, and this didn't happen for Scummoner for almost an entire month after launch. That's not at all an issue, but it worried me as I was already thinking that I shipped something that wasn't worth anyone's time. Shockingly, the game did end up being Frontpaged early into May. This would cause it to rack up much more views than I ever expected, and help me collect feedback I otherwise likely wouldn't have gotten.

The whole experience made me think "great, now let's make it actually good". That's still in the process, and news will be sparse for a while because I'd like to keep much of it a surprise. What I will allow myself to say is I want to make it a full, feature-length game with a lot more things to do and a stronger gameplay loop. The bottom line is: I want to make something bigger, better, and most importantly worth your time.

...And now for something completely different! In late November, @CreechMagoo approaches me asking to collaborate on one his college finals. The premise? Making a DOOM clone that is as stupidly pretentious as possible. Sign me up, dude. Over the next two-ish weeks, him and I chipped away at it, creating a level and engine from scratch, bug fixing, and filling it with real art. Those two weeks were yet again a delirious rush for me, and I spent many sleepless nights bug fixing and learning 3D math. Still suffering the consequences for that one. Oops.

The core of his assignment relied on displaying your piece in a social setting and exhibiting the kind of feedback you get on it. In a way, you were all directly a part of the piece! Every rating, comment, and view helped him out a ton. We had some people go above and beyond, making videos and other fan pieces. We even won Daily 4th and got Frontpaged again, making us 2 for 2! That's still so crazy to me.

I'm looking forward to picking things up next year and beginning to try and collaborate with other Newgrounds users. Moreover, I look forward to fixing my sleeping situation (I say, writing this at 3AM) and pushing out some smaller games. Happy new year!