So, I haven't touched this website in a month. By contrast, when I first started this website, there was only a gap of maybe a few weeks at most between articles, not a full month. Meanwhile, here we are, a little over a month after the last main article came out, and I haven't even started writing a new game review or gaming article or what have you. So, you might be wondering: what do I have to show for the last month?
I suppose a little more context is in order than what I'm about to show you. I started this website over the summer because I was on summer break from college during Quarantine. I wasn't involved in any summer programs or internship due to the Quarantine. I didn't have a super involving summer job due to no one hiring during quarantine uncertainties. I did work a simple farm job for my parents, but it only really occupied my mornings and evenings, leaving an afternoon of me sitting around on a farm, watching over the chickens every now and again to make sure a racoon didn't jump out of the woods to gobble them up while they were out and about their runs and coops. I wanted something simple, but fun to participate in while I wasn't working on the farm making some income. I discovered Neocities earlier that year before the Quarantine, and I decided to make a website on here for a few reasons. One was that I love programming and doing nerdy technical stuff, and coding and running a simple website like this one is right up my alley. The other was that I actually used to have a website under the domain name Macrosofa.net. I had a few different articles and some content over there, and I even tried starting a web comic at one point. However, I didn't use any social media to promote the website, and I didn't have anything like that on the website, so for all I know, literally no one other than me saw that site. This platform, on the other hand, gave me the freedom to create my own website and a social media platform to market it on all in one, so that I can design my own website, polish my writing skills, and have people actually read some of my stuff and give me feedback on it.
So, this website was a good way for me to kill time when I wasn't feeding or watering chickens, or closing down their runs for the night-time. It was exciting to actively write stuff, and my life felt really great and relaxing when my daily routine was wake up, take care of some farm animals, work on the website, put them away for the night, return home, and go to bed. This website was a summer hobby I kept up with out of various different colluding interests.
However, school started back up again in August. It started slow so that I could still write a few articles over the weekend, such as the PC gaming one, but it's picked up more recently and I've already had a few midterm exams up to this point, with more on the way. So, I simply haven't had much time to write for this site. Even this article itself is being squeezed out between physics homework and an Orchestra concert I play in later today.
So, wihtout any further deliberation or explanation, here's some of the things I've been working on.
Right now I'm enrolled in College as a sophmore. I'm currently studying for a Physics major. My current roster of classes include:
To say the least, I really have my work cut out for me this semester. Studying all these things is lots of fun and it's great to learn how the world works, but it can take a lot of my time to study all of this stuff and to really get it right.
Orchestra has been pretty fun. In-person orchestra rehearsals have resumed with social distancing rules in place (everyone wears masks, one student per stand instead of two, stands spaced out, disinfecting stands at the end of each rehearsal, most students standing up to play instead of getting a seat to sit in because chairs are an extra item to disinfect and put away at the end of each rehearsal, and maybe other rules I'm forgetting at the moment), which means that I get to keep practicing amongst my peers, which is an opportunity I'm thrilled to have in these times. In fact, what's so unique about this is that the school I'm going to is a school that offers general majors and stuff but specializes in science and engineering, and doesn't offer much in the way of music programs, and despite all this, it's still one of a few schools in the US that is not only open but also allows orchestras and bands to gather in person to play and rehearse. We even have a concert tonight that is closed to the general public as far as physical attendance is concerned, but will be livestreamed online for anyone to watch and listen to.
So, we're playing (and have been practicing for the past month and a half) one small piece by Sibelius and one long, multi-part piece by a composer named Benjamin Britten.
I've been involving myself just a little bit in a few clubs at school. Just been walking around, talking to and meeting new people both in and out of class. Sometimes, it's a structured thing like hopping onto a Discord server at a certain time of night to play some games online as a club event. Other times, it's as random as me choosing to having a walking discussion with some classmates after class. Either way, I'm glad the quarantine policies haven't completely killed my social life, and that I'm able to find ways to keep up with friends.
I recently bought a boxed, autographed copy of the game Planet X3, made by the 8-Bit Guy, and I wrapped it up and gave it as a surprise gift to my Father for his birthday. We both enjoy watching that Youtube channel together, so I knew he would love the gift. However, I received both a boxed copy shipped to my dorm and a digital copy sent via email, so I've been playing the game plenty and I will likely write a review of it in November (Don't worry, there will be another game reviewed before Planet X3 for the week of Halloween, you don't have to wait all the way until November to get just one game review). In the mean time, here's a few screen shots. All of these are captured using the Tandy mode emulated in Dosbox. I prefer this mode because it stays closer to The 8-Bit Guy's original vision of the game running in Composite Color CGA mode with 16 colors, but I dislike how everything is sort of blurred in that mode. Meanwhile, the Tandy graphics mode uses the same artwork and number of colors as that mode, but is way sharper to look at, so it just seems like a better version of The 8-bit Guy's vision.
I've also been playing the game Among Us quite a bit. If you've been living under a rock, it's a mutliplayer murder-mystery game that relies on social dynamics and social deduction and reasoning. I've been having a lot of fun with it, and I've had plenty of opportunities to play it in the aforementioned social-club settings. Fun fact: I actually installed this game on my Android Phone back in 2018 because it made it's way to the front of my Google Play feed. I hopped in, read the tutorial, played a bit of the "freeplay" mode, tried to play a match or two, and eventually uninstalled it from my phone because I really wasn't all that into sitting down to play a multiplayer game on my phone at the time. Funny to think that if I had stuck with the game and played a few matches, I could have been a real "Among Us" hipster. Either way, I'm likely not going to write a review of the game any time soon. I like to dedicate my game reviews to interesting games you may not have heard of that I wish had a bit more exposure. Among Us fit this category until fairly recently, and has now exploded in popularity.
Other than that, I've also picked up a few Doom mods. I've played some Brutal Doom lately, as well as Hideous Destructor, a mod that turns Doom into a tactical shooter like Arma. It's difficult, but fun, and at some point, I would love to get a squad of several people to play the game with, since it seems like the sort of mod that's meant to be played with a group of friends all working together and covering each other, rather than just one guy.
Lastly, I've been developing my own 3D game for a few months now. I'm not going to say a lot about it early on, but I will share a few things. The game is going to release around the middle of October as a free download on Itch.io. It's going to be a spooky game about navigating through a maze filled with evil knights who will chase you and try to kill you if they see you. You'll get a few tools to aid your escape, such as an old hunting rifle for basic defense, a lighter for lighting your way just a little, and a compass that always points north so that you can orient yourself. It's going to use some simple, low-poly and low-fidelity crunchy textures for an older-styled aesthetic, and it's going to release for Windows, Mac, and Linux because I'm currently building the game in Godot. I may even make it so that it runs straight in your web browser. Once the game is ready, I'll put it on my Itch.io profile and I'll promote it heavily here, giving it a dedicated slot on the front page and everything, so that you can't miss it if you're interested in it.
Anyway, here's a single screenshot of this. Much in the image is subject to change, such as the rifle model and positioning, as well as some of the lighting.
Lastly, Here is some main menu music I composed for the game that I composed myself using a simple digital Synthesizer software called SunVox.
(If your browser doesn't support IFrames, click here to access the song on Soundcloud.)
Anyways, if you made it this far through the article, I hope you enjoyed reading it and catching up with my endeavors and exploits. I know I enjoyed writing for this site again after focusing on other work for so long. Don't worry too much about me getting burnt off on this site or quitting or anything; I would have to be focused on the site itself rather than on other things for that to happen. Progress on this website and articles thereof will be slow through October and November because I'm going to have other things going on in my life, but I will continue to write here and there on the side, and hey, you have my little videogame to look forward to too. That, and Winter Break rolls around in December, so expect me to really start writing more around that time. Until then, thanks for reading, and be sure to follow my Neocities profile so that you're updated when I do finally get more content out!
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