Well, here we are: Christmas Eve 2014, nearing the end of yet another year. It was, at least for me, a year filled with personal struggles that I had to focus on before turning my attention to other things such as DynaDim/Yokaan. Regardless of my personal struggles, we hope that you all had a wonderful year and we wish you all a very merry Christmas filled with joy as you spend time with your friends and family.
2014 was going to be a big year for us. It was the fifth anniversary of when I formed Yokaan Games Studio, I initially hoped I would get close enough to releasing a full-blown tech demo of the first Ilxder game, I wanted to release a couple smaller arcade-style games or begin developing a few other larger games, I wanted to release Scriptorum (our author platform we mentioned earlier in the year) as well as releasing the full version of DynaNet. At the very least, I wanted to get the new Yokaan Games site up, but time escaped me. Regardless of all of this, the blessing we have been given this year is that we've been given the grace to be a team for another year. We could have potentially ended up disbanded this year between the various troubles we had to deal with, but God graced us with another year.
Unfortunately, due to the multiple real-life issues of different team members (myself included), we had to turn our fifth year into a form of hiatus, as I explained in further detail in my previous blog post, but that doesn't mean we weren't still brainstorming for new ideas some of the ideas and changes are listed in the aforementioned blog post, but a few others are added here.
First off, we have changed the names up a bit more for both the first Ilxder game and Ilxder novella/short story. The first Ilxder game, full name, would be "The Legends of Steorth: Ilxder I - Tempest Dawn". The first novella will be titled "The Dark Era: Episode I - Nyfjord's Bane". Additionally, both of these have been paused from further development temporarily as I step back and realign my goals with them. I am currently working on a presentation that I will narrate and upload to Youtube that talks about our refocused goals and ideas for the Ilxder I. This should be available sometime early in the new year, though I can't make any promises as I still need to design new logos and finish the presentation itself, along with the recordings. However, we hope that this presentation will allow our fans to take a look into our minds and see where we're coming from. I also hope that I'll be able to at least finish a demo zone for players to check out, but I definitely can't guarantee that will be available this year.
You all wouldn't believe how hard it can be to design a 2D world that feels 3D. It's very tough, because you have to imagine what the world would look like were it truly 3D, then convert it to a 2D map design. If I didn't put so much work into this game so far, I'd probably just start over on a 3D engine, but I feel it's too late to start over now. Needless to say, the sequel WILL be on a 3D engine unless something drastic prevents us from doing so.
Anyways, now that my musings are over, I just want to thank our fans for sticking with us all this time and being supportive of what we do. We'll hopefully have at least SOMETHING for you next year. :P
God bless and merry Christmas,
-Jacob
Unfortunately, due to the multiple real-life issues of different team members (myself included), we had to turn our fifth year into a form of hiatus, as I explained in further detail in my previous blog post, but that doesn't mean we weren't still brainstorming for new ideas some of the ideas and changes are listed in the aforementioned blog post, but a few others are added here.
First off, we have changed the names up a bit more for both the first Ilxder game and Ilxder novella/short story. The first Ilxder game, full name, would be "The Legends of Steorth: Ilxder I - Tempest Dawn". The first novella will be titled "The Dark Era: Episode I - Nyfjord's Bane". Additionally, both of these have been paused from further development temporarily as I step back and realign my goals with them. I am currently working on a presentation that I will narrate and upload to Youtube that talks about our refocused goals and ideas for the Ilxder I. This should be available sometime early in the new year, though I can't make any promises as I still need to design new logos and finish the presentation itself, along with the recordings. However, we hope that this presentation will allow our fans to take a look into our minds and see where we're coming from. I also hope that I'll be able to at least finish a demo zone for players to check out, but I definitely can't guarantee that will be available this year.
You all wouldn't believe how hard it can be to design a 2D world that feels 3D. It's very tough, because you have to imagine what the world would look like were it truly 3D, then convert it to a 2D map design. If I didn't put so much work into this game so far, I'd probably just start over on a 3D engine, but I feel it's too late to start over now. Needless to say, the sequel WILL be on a 3D engine unless something drastic prevents us from doing so.
Anyways, now that my musings are over, I just want to thank our fans for sticking with us all this time and being supportive of what we do. We'll hopefully have at least SOMETHING for you next year. :P
God bless and merry Christmas,
-Jacob