Friday Rambles and Game Dev Update 2025-07-25

Say it ain't so! It's the last Friday Ramble of July 2025?

Game Dev Stuff

I'll be honest, I've been going through a bit of a creative block, but I think I've finally made a bit of a breakthrough. I thought of the premise I want to explore for Game 2, and started writing the different storylines that'll be happening in it. But how it happened was I got frustrated enough trying to make a bad premise good that I decided I was just going to make "Endless Monday: Not a Sequel" and do something completely different, and the instant I started writing it, it became a pretty good idea for a sequel. So it goes.

Anyway, it's been a lot of fun to write so far, and ideas are bursting forth like it never did when I was trying to squeeze a proper sequel from my brain.

After writing some dialogue, I had to write a bunch of code for displaying character sprites because it turns out I never actually finished it because I was never inspired enough to write an entire scene with proper character sprites. So now that's done. Anyway, hopefully the momentum will continue through next week and I'll have some proper game development going.

Also, not exactly game dev but I spent an entire day doing some IT work for an old project from another life. I did not enjoy doing that.

Above: not me irl

Other Stuff

A nice surprise for this past Monday, the famous SiIvagunner has ripped a track from Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines. Have we finally made it? Next up, a Skye Nendoroid from Good Smile Company.

I finished the main story of Donkey Kong Bananza. I think it might be the best game ever made (besides Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines). Although, I don't want to get into spoilers, so I won't really talk about it more. I'll probably get into the postgame, which is like another whole game worth of stuff to do, sometime later. I have other games to play and I need a break from smashing stuff.

I've been journalling in my Hobonichi Techo regularly now, and it's a highlight of my day. As a side effect, I've developed an interest in pens, specifically fine tipped ballpoints.

I've been using the Uni Jetstream Standard 0.5mm as my go-to pen, but I got the Tombow MONO graph based on its looks (and because I wanted to try out its 0.38mm refill) but it turns out I like the Jetstream's ink more. But luckily the Jetstream refill works on the MONO graph body! So now I'm using the cool looking pen with the good ink.

I'm itching to get the Jetstream Edge but I might wait till I'm in Japan to find one, so I can go on like a little side quest. I hope this isn't the start of a pen collecting addiction, although it's still much cheaper than a mechanical keyboard collecting addiction. At least for now. But now that I'm a game developer I have to be a little more frugal with my tool collecting addictions so it works out.

As a reminder, the Buy Three Get One coupon for the sticker shop for Patreon supporters is still active! But the person who keeps buying out my entire stock of Pixel Burger stickers has already bought out my entire stock of Pixel Burger stickers. Anyway, you can use this code on checkout: 2025BUY3GET1

The End

That's it for now. Next week will be a good week for Game 2, I can feel it in my gut. August will be the month of Game 2. You heard it here first, folks. Anyway, thank you for your support as always. See you next week!