September Update:

Hi there Gamdev and or Gamer.

Welcome to a very late update post. Before i get into what's been happening, and go through some things that i need to say, which isn't the greatest of news for me and maybe yourselves, let me get this months releases shown.

So there we have the releases, which i never thought was ever going to come, but better late than never they say.

Now, back in August, no, actually July, i spoke about creating animations that were 'work' or 'job' orientated, with the focus being on NPC characters. Up until this point the characters have been Player focused, with weapons being the main aspect of the characters. Not all game characters are playable though, so it would make sense to look into animations that would be more fitting into an NPC environment, or perhaps their roles respectively.

Working on the 'Royal Servants' gave me an opportunity to delve into this idea and as a result the following animations were created and included within the premium files.

BROOM

MOP

WASH UP

WASHING

CHOPPING

Although i'm pleased that i got these animations into this character release, it came at a heavy cost. I don't mean financially, but emotionally and time. This was not easy by any means and the work it took to bring these in really did take its toll on me. Drawing, planning, re-organising, re-colouring and re-coding the exportation program i have was a very long process which mentally drained me, and to know its taken me 2 months to complete, it just made me feel even worse, as i know this is quite a serious knock back on the RPG series progression, but not just that, all the other assets i want to create as well. I'm nowhere near where i wanted to be this time last year and its really quite disappointing for me.

I've always prided myself with trying things, thinking out the box with ideas, doing things that others may not think of doing, challenging myself, and if it works out then that's great, if it doesn't, then at least i've giving it a go. In the beginning, when i first started doing what i do it was OK to experiment and try and 'exceed' my own expectations, demand more from myself and prove that i could do it. Now though, I find myself in a position where trying new things whilst i'm doing other things is proving to be quite difficult and really challenging, and it's effecting current 'ongoings' in a way where creations are getting slower to create, and slower to release, which is the total opposite of the direction i wanted to go when i set off at the beginning of the year. Something needs to change, so i took a couple of days to revaluate what i need to do.

After some time, it was clear to me in order for the RPG series to progress, and other genre assets to be produced i am going to have to rein in my thoughts of adding this and doing that and focus on what i have in its basic forms, or work only on what a 'standard' is based on other creators as a benchmark for free game assets, and more importantly i think, the time it takes me to create completed asset sets. Time is a massively important factor in what i do. I spend more time organising, editing and exporting sprites than i do actually drawing and creating them, which now ive taken a step back and can see it for what it is, isn't the best way forward and has hindered me in a big way. Creating what i believe to be the standard sprites, Idle, Walk, Run, Jump, Hurt & Attack is much more straight forward, and less time consuming then also doing the other animations, Push, Carry Walk, Carry Run, Death etc, all the 'extra' animations you would get with the current premium files. Whilst it's nice to have, and in some ways possible makes my sprites a little unique, i had to ask myself is the extra efforts and time to create them worth it? Well, after a few conversations, it has been suggested to me more than once, that it maybe 'overkill', and trying to create 'specific' animations and treat them like a 'basic/standard' is admired, but crazy, after all, they are 'specific', and not all games need them or want them, and to continue going down this route will just lead me to burn out and i would never get things finished, which is where i find myself today. Looking at my itch.io analytics, the free versions are downloaded a lot more than any premium files do, and i don't think it has anything with them being $1 in price, i generally believe that the free version sprites are all that's needed. With that said, I will now only focus on the free version animations, I think this is a step i need to take from here on out, but what i will do instead is offer those animations to supporters on paid tiers by request. So those that do want/need them then i will create them if asked, not only that, i will create any animation requested by Patreons, which i will have as a 'perk', most likely called 'Character Custom Animations'. But i will need to update the Patreon to reflect this change. there may be some more changes too as i look to juggle the assets packs around.

This may come as a blow, or not, i'm not sure, personally its disappointing for me to do this but im looking at the bigger picture, and i think this will work out better, as long as i can keep myself under control. It makes much more sense at this stage to create things as and when required/requested as opposed to just doing it as i have been. If i can get back to rolling out finished creations every month on time then that will make me very happy, then getting stressed out and over working myself. :) Only time will tell, and over the next few months i will see what a difference it is making. Any thoughts you have over this then please let me know.

OK last thing then, so not to finish on what may seem a negative thing.

New Challengers!

Despite my struggles, i did mention in my last post about adding new characters and i'm pleased to announce these:

C Smith, K Chapman, W Webber, A Dalby, K Nash, A Belgum, F Khan, O Amir, N Ali, A Abdi.

Lighter colour tones which add a further 10 characters to the already existing ones, and brings the total character count to 30 for males. There are females too, not as many, but still adding some extra types. These will arrive next month as i didn't get to do females. This wasn't able to be done for GB format characters, so is only available for SMS & NES only, i will do something else with the GB sprites.

So just to refresh on the releases, Free version sprites will include 5 characters with 1 costume type. Premium version sprites that are sold for $1will include 10 characters with 5 costume types. All 30 characters with 5 costume types will be available for Patreon supporters.

Ok, il leave it there, lets hope next month will be better, and again a massive thank you for your support and brilliant patience and understanding.

full character sprites will be posted shortly.

Chaser :)