Friday Rambles and Game Dev Update 2025-03-28

It's the Friday Rambles, once again.

Gamedev Stuff

Long story short, I got things moving again with External Factors and I should be releasing the update on Monday 3/31, thus keeping my commitment to a March release and saving me from the shame of being a dirty stinkin liar who can't even release a video game update on time. Yeesh. Shoulda put my foot down a month ago.

I wrote up a big announcement post for the launch, and got it translated and all that. I'm basically all ready for the release, pending the final playtest to make sure External Factors is at least in a presentable state.

A preview of the announcement I'm posting on Monday, hopefully. Unless everything goes horribly wrong.

In the meanwhilst, I've also been chugging away on Endless Monday Engine 2.0, and it's in a state where I can prototype new games and stories. I'm gonna try to get something done enough by May, so I can apply for TGS indie zone. If I don't have anything I'm gonna instead try my luck with the new Switch version of Dreams and Deadlines instead. I hope a lot of people buy the Switch version of Dreams and Deadlines so I can continue to keep making games. Maybe the localizations will finally be worth it.

Other Stuff

I started playing FF7 Rebirth. I didn't know it'd be like, an actual open world game, but apparently you can just skip all of the Far Cry Tower stuff and play the main storyline. I'm in Junon now. I also got the original FF7 on sale on the Switch eShop, and it has a bunch of extra features like 3x speed and turning off random battles, and I'm gonna try to get to where I'm at in Rebirth real quick so I can refresh my memory and point and clap at things I know when I see them again in Rebirth. The Switch rules, it's so light and I love just being able to pick it up and put it down when I want to.

I also played some more 428: Shibuya Scramble. This game still rules. I honestly really want to make a game like this, if I only had the time and ability. I'll probably try making some prototypes that incorporate its multiple concurrent branching narrative mechanics, but it'll be a challenge, for sure. Something to shoot for, for my future dream project.

The official World of Warcraft Youtube channel posted a small featurette about Undermine(d) Easter Eggs, and you can see Skye Ozonefryer in the background.

There I am, Gary.

The End

Next week I'll have released the Overtime Update and will move on to releasing the Switch version, and trying to implement one of my prototype ideas to see if any of them's got potential for Game 2. Thanks for your support, as always!