Post by fAB on Feb 1, 2012 17:36:47 GMT -5
Something occurred to me when I got back from vacation last September; When I'm away from home, away from the Internet, my thoughts focus on the things I really love and want to do the most--and as much as I love Legends, it rarely enters my mind. It's not the first occasion (or even the second or third) that particular revelation has struck me, but somehow it hit me harder this time around. Suddenly I find I'm pushing 30 now, I've changed a lot over the years, and there are artistic pursuits of my own that I really need to get serious about or they'll never happen. Yet I'm still tied very heavily to Legends, a slave to projects I began years ago.
Of course I have no one to blame but myself.
That means no one can fix the situation but myself.
My strong love of Legends combines with my endless artistic inspirations and I come up with fan projects of all sorts revolving around the series. My strong desire to create these things for their own merits combines with my strong desire to see my projects through for others and I get locked into things I probably never should have let get started. So it goes.
It's very sad but all too true that most fan projects we see around here--especially games--never get finished, and most of them never even get all that far. I've always strived not to let that happen with my projects. I want to be a finisher, someone people can count on to complete what I start, come through even if it takes a long, long time (as it often does). Unfortunately with life's ever-changing circumstances, I must finally concede I've begun too many projects to come through on all of them.
So, I began to examine my projects list to see what should go, what could stay, and what would take priority...
Alternate Trigger has to reach its conclusion. It just has to. But since it's still a ways off, I put together a long-promised 3D model gallery for it last November as something to keep its spirit alive in the meantime.
Sky Pirate Arcade is a bunch of projects tied together under one name, really. I've put a lot of effort the past two months into tying up some of its loose ends. Foo-roo's Flight was near completion so I pushed to get it done in December and likewise I just wrapped up Skate Or Cry yesterday. In between the two I chopped Trapped Box Rebellion and Tuttle's Little 5-Island Adventure, seeing them off each with a farewell demo. This leaves the Arcade with just three active games in development (Megaman Digger, Blumebear's Great Escape, and the new Tuttle's Legendary Travels) which while still a lot of work, looks a lot better than six.
Halcyon Days simply has to go... I had to struggle with this decision but if there was one thing I could do to knock out a whole lot of Legends work, this was undeniably it. It was always the most neglected site on The Main Gate, with the least public interest, but I liked it, loved the potential. When the choose-your-own-adventure take never materialized, I thought the 3D movie idea was a great way to revive the project in a more interesting way. I knew before I began that it would probably never see completion, but I wanted to use it as a grounds to practice 3D modeling and animation--something I hoped would be a great asset to my artistic future. Unfortunately the timing was wrong. Real life dealt me some blows and HD3D got off to a very slow start. By the time I finally got around to posting about it a year later with a video intro and all, you might say the currents of life were already beginning to steer me down the river in another direction.
I really feel bad about this and want to apologize to the little group of people who gave me feedback and seemed excited about it. As I said, I never really expected I'd finish, so under the new circumstances perhaps it's for the best that it gets put to rest before truly beginning. I'd still like to do something with HD someday--make good use of all the work I've put into it--but will probably never find the time. Laughers and facepalmers, take a number.
Parts of Halcyon Days will survive though, particularly the part that aimed to bring to life new adventures in the Legends world. Some of you may be wondering why Blyka and I recently announced a new game if I'm trying to cut back on my Legends workload. Well, the decision to finally end Halcyon Days was closely tied to the decision to take Tuttle into 3D. Tuttle's Legendary Travels will do a lot of what I wanted to accomplish with HD. We'll be creating new characters and locations and mixing them with the canon, building a new adventure and story, and I'll still be able to get in plenty of 3D modeling experience but even better now, as it will be rooted in the creation of games rather than video. Certain elements will also carry over directly from HD to TLT, for instance the pirates Tuttle will be battling are the same ones that would have been featured in HD. Last but not least, there's great potential for community involvement on TLT, something I wanted to see happen with Halcyon Days as well.
So that's how things stand. Sorry this is so lengthy, but there's no real way to tl;dr it. There's still plenty of Legends ahead for me, but the list doesn't seem quite so daunting now. I've probably lost some credibility points with the cancellations, but hopefully the recent releases help to make up for it somewhat.
Of course I have no one to blame but myself.
That means no one can fix the situation but myself.
My strong love of Legends combines with my endless artistic inspirations and I come up with fan projects of all sorts revolving around the series. My strong desire to create these things for their own merits combines with my strong desire to see my projects through for others and I get locked into things I probably never should have let get started. So it goes.
It's very sad but all too true that most fan projects we see around here--especially games--never get finished, and most of them never even get all that far. I've always strived not to let that happen with my projects. I want to be a finisher, someone people can count on to complete what I start, come through even if it takes a long, long time (as it often does). Unfortunately with life's ever-changing circumstances, I must finally concede I've begun too many projects to come through on all of them.
So, I began to examine my projects list to see what should go, what could stay, and what would take priority...
Alternate Trigger has to reach its conclusion. It just has to. But since it's still a ways off, I put together a long-promised 3D model gallery for it last November as something to keep its spirit alive in the meantime.
Sky Pirate Arcade is a bunch of projects tied together under one name, really. I've put a lot of effort the past two months into tying up some of its loose ends. Foo-roo's Flight was near completion so I pushed to get it done in December and likewise I just wrapped up Skate Or Cry yesterday. In between the two I chopped Trapped Box Rebellion and Tuttle's Little 5-Island Adventure, seeing them off each with a farewell demo. This leaves the Arcade with just three active games in development (Megaman Digger, Blumebear's Great Escape, and the new Tuttle's Legendary Travels) which while still a lot of work, looks a lot better than six.
Halcyon Days simply has to go... I had to struggle with this decision but if there was one thing I could do to knock out a whole lot of Legends work, this was undeniably it. It was always the most neglected site on The Main Gate, with the least public interest, but I liked it, loved the potential. When the choose-your-own-adventure take never materialized, I thought the 3D movie idea was a great way to revive the project in a more interesting way. I knew before I began that it would probably never see completion, but I wanted to use it as a grounds to practice 3D modeling and animation--something I hoped would be a great asset to my artistic future. Unfortunately the timing was wrong. Real life dealt me some blows and HD3D got off to a very slow start. By the time I finally got around to posting about it a year later with a video intro and all, you might say the currents of life were already beginning to steer me down the river in another direction.
I really feel bad about this and want to apologize to the little group of people who gave me feedback and seemed excited about it. As I said, I never really expected I'd finish, so under the new circumstances perhaps it's for the best that it gets put to rest before truly beginning. I'd still like to do something with HD someday--make good use of all the work I've put into it--but will probably never find the time. Laughers and facepalmers, take a number.
Parts of Halcyon Days will survive though, particularly the part that aimed to bring to life new adventures in the Legends world. Some of you may be wondering why Blyka and I recently announced a new game if I'm trying to cut back on my Legends workload. Well, the decision to finally end Halcyon Days was closely tied to the decision to take Tuttle into 3D. Tuttle's Legendary Travels will do a lot of what I wanted to accomplish with HD. We'll be creating new characters and locations and mixing them with the canon, building a new adventure and story, and I'll still be able to get in plenty of 3D modeling experience but even better now, as it will be rooted in the creation of games rather than video. Certain elements will also carry over directly from HD to TLT, for instance the pirates Tuttle will be battling are the same ones that would have been featured in HD. Last but not least, there's great potential for community involvement on TLT, something I wanted to see happen with Halcyon Days as well.
So that's how things stand. Sorry this is so lengthy, but there's no real way to tl;dr it. There's still plenty of Legends ahead for me, but the list doesn't seem quite so daunting now. I've probably lost some credibility points with the cancellations, but hopefully the recent releases help to make up for it somewhat.
Oops. 
