Hey Everyone,

I've gotten myself involved in the game development of a little thing by the name of Deep Blu. It's headed up and written by ~gmerriment, who's a pretty awesome and easy to communicate with guy. The game will be a puzzle platformer, based in a world slowly freezing from some astronomical disaster. The concept art is really neat, take a look for yourself; The Blu Family.

I'll be doing the pixel art for the development and programming. There's talk of a free low-fi release, and then a console release with hi-fi graphics (which wont be mine). I've started a little, and talked to Merri about it a bit. Still a lot to do yet, and years to go before it's anywhere near complete. Still, I thought I'd keep you guys in the loop.

Just one of the game dev offers I got from other people after doing those animated avatars ;D

So after doing the Proxy fighting-game style sprite avatar for Pizzacat, it looks like people really like it. Pizzacat suggested that I should take commissions for them, so here we are.

I really enjoyed doing the Proxy one, as I really like the character design and I hadn't done any pixel art for an extended period of time for months. Now when I say extended period, I mean that piece of pixel art was something I produced every month. That hasn't happened for a while, and I'd like to get back to that sort of thing as I really do enjoy it.

That being said, I'm offering to make you a fighting-game style pixel sprite for your avatar. Send me a note, making me a monetary offer (preferably over $10), and link me to a picture of your character. If I think the character is interesting enough, I'll accept the commission. The money is really just there to give a little extra motivation to me. Hey, if I like your character enough, I might even offer to do it for free.

In the note, you might also want to tell me a move that you'd like your character to be performing, or perhaps if you just want the classic up and down standing sprite that's cool too. Just remember they're only going to be a few frames long (perhaps a max of 6 frames), so it'll be a repeating loop of that move.

So yea, let me know if you're keen!

If you're not interested in what I might be doing in the future, what my plans are, or what I want to spend my spare time doing in the future, feel free to press the back button or close this window. If you are, then read on!

After all this drama at work I realise it might be a good time to prioritise the stuff that I do outside of work as well. I've been kinda distracted by the shitty situation at my work, but I've now identified why the problem came about and who initiated all the shit that went down. That said, I'm still searching for a new job somewhere that'll keep me interested and mentally active.

So, having decided to give the real world a little more constant attention, I'll obviously have less for stuff like creating new stuff. Since there's so very much that I've been involving myself in, I figure I need to sort out exactly what I want to do, what I know I'll actually finish in a reasonable timeframe, and what I know I wont and don't want to commit myself to.

To start such an activity off, I need to list out the things that I currently think I'm involved in, or that I know I've said I'll do some work on;
Dusty Commissions
Proxy pixel avatar for pizzacat
Picture of me & my pet's fursonas
Graphics for SHMUP game Psion Blaze with friends irl
New female dress design concept
New male character design development
+ realworld commitments like work, girlfriend, friends I visit every weekend.

My real world commitments, in particular, take up a substantial amount of my time. I'd really like to find a job in which I can be creative and expressive. However, that's something I'm aiming for and will hopefully reach. In the mean time, I still want to be creative and expressive in my spare time. I also want the things that I create personally to be those which I enjoy producing, as well as a finished product which I enjoy.

I also don't want to feel like I've over-committed myself to the things that I'm involved in. I always want to get things done quickly so I can appreciate the finished product, I'm not really someone who enjoys the 'doing'. Such an attitude has lead me to learn that valuable thing called patience when I'm drawing, otherwise my pictures would look like crap and I'd be constantly dissatisfied.

I've always wanted to make computer games, but really I just wanted to design them and have someone else make them to my specifications. I'm much more into visual design than I am into creation of the non-visual stuff. I can code, sure, and I'm good at it, but it's not as much fun as drawing. However, I've come across something called Multimedia Fusion 2, a piece of 2D game creation software (the developers edition, no less). There are a few games I've played that were made with it that I've quite enjoyed numerous aspects of, if not the whole thing. Such games include The New Satan Sam, A Game With A Kitty, and The Underside. Such games are awesome, and I've always loved good platformers.

I think you can tell what's coming next; yes, I want to make a game using MMF2. There is, however, a lot to learn about it before I can get so far as creating a platform game. If I don't have to manually code the thing from scratch, then I'm certainly willing to learn all that I have to beforehand in order to make a platform game. I've given it quite a bit of thought today, and figure that with enough tutorials I'll learn all that I need to know about what I want to build.

That said, I want to change what I'm currently working on and involved in, or at least prioritise it differently. So, taking a look at the above list again and reprioritising it;
Dusty Commission (only taking on commissions one at a time, and only those that I want to draw. Dusty has yet to pay me for the first, but I'll discuss this directly with her)
Proxy pixel avatar for pizzacat (I have no idea when this will be finished, and I think I'll leave it at that. Finished... sometime in the future)
Picture of me & my pet's fursonas (Will do the colouring during the week when my gf isn't around)
Graphics for SHMUP game Psion Blaze with friends irl (they're all too involved in other things, so this can take the back seat)
New female dress design concept (not fully enthusiastic about it, and it's still not an entirely complete idea, so it can wait until it becomes complete)
New male character design development (will have to wait until his idea is completely sorted out)
+ realworld commitments like work, girlfriend, friends I visit every weekend. (always comes first)

As well as what's already on that list, there are as previously talked about new additions to it;
Learning how to use MMF2
Designing all aspects of the platform game on paper first
Designing and making myself a website through which people can monitor my progress on personal projects.

I figure that I can add the website design to my portfolio (since it's so small when it comes to actual examples of website design). I'll also be able to use it to post updates on such projects as learning to use MMF2, and the progress on the actual game I'm going to produce using it. I'll also have a lot of fun making it ^.^

Yea, that about covers it all. Ah, writing all that feels beneficial for me. Good to get it down in words rather than cramped in my head XD

So I made it out alive, and for now, I'm still employed. I can't say much about the meeting here, as there's a chance that the people involved in the meeting might see it. I can't disclose why that would be the case either, as it relates to the meeting content.

I've got a much better idea of what the future could hold for me in terms of employment, which makes me very happy, and I've got a much better idea and certainty of what it is that my bosses expect. I think the meeting went well, from my perspective. I think the events and discussion of the meeting was favourable, and at times, amusing X3

Wish me luck!