Happy birthday last year's post!

     Hi guys!

Welcome to the first anniversary of the last post of 2022! Welcome to 2023 into 2024, hehe.

Sooo, I guess I should give an explanation to... Whatever that last post was supposed to be.

 Last year, I canned the project, I wanted to move on from it and focus on the future and this mod was holding me back. So I took the last article that was sort of written and striked through it entirely and posted it because the sentiment the article gave then was clearly not mine at the moment.

After I graduated, and summer holidays were rolling in, around July, I stumbled upon it in my folders while organizing things. I played through it again with a fresh mindset and that made me notice things about the mod that needed to change.

I also took in account the criticism the mod got, especially around Chapter 1, Gestation got switched to Graveyard as it's a song you barely hear and you hear Gestation throughout the mod quite often.

And quickly enough, I got into the creative process again of it and it was going much more smoothly than I expected. I made Quote's part that starts Chapter 4(after Dixel talked about how Chapter 3 is quite long and that would strike chapter 4's beginning to become chapter 5's), as you backtrack to the red village to save Curly from the mimigas clutches. Thanks to Dixel's playthrough, I managed to not get into one big hassle!
Suote actually set a flag in his map that I used to set Quote's. Thankfully, that was avoided. :)

I also made the beginning of the end, the first big map that is difficult!!

Cavern of the Fortress.

 To explain my process, I want the player to have to go through at least one hard map, very difficult before being able to finish the game. And Cavern of the Fortress is a little gem to me!
It isn't perfect but it works really well!

The first corridor is wonderful, you have activated fans on the battlefield that makes you fall faster, and if you rush in or hesitate, you got a presser that falls on you.
Aaaah I am really proud of this one! It's difficult but not unfair. Just be careful.

Second corridor is correct, knowing you have the machine gun and you skip it all together with Curly, yeaah well to die there, you have to have no health or be wreckless.

Third corridor is a concept that I did not go further with, it is pretty must the Hidden Last Cave presser booster moment but instead you have the MG. I thought of the fact that at Quote's max walk speed and with the machine gun hover, you can pass the pressers pretty smootly. As it got too easy, I added spikes and tighter and tighter surfaces which makes you need to continue running to pass it. I put a save point and a full health restore as I knew it would block a lot of players.

Fourth corridor is chill, I knew the player wouldn't have much health so it was okay, kind of designed it like Castlevania (Have the same two enemies in the corridor), I'm quite happy of the rails platform with the acid drops you have to avoid, I noticed at the end of the level design that I had those in my Npcset, too bad because I thought of using them but I forgot and it's not bad I did as the earlier parts are already difficult.

A thing that I did not planned but that I'm so happy it works well is the level being done backwards with Curly! It works correctly and it's much easy once you got the booster ! That's actually a really good thing too, as you can now breeze through the level after doing it since you got a cool item!

I'm glad the map came out so great because I was truly lazy to make it back then.

You can't leave Quote in the cabin anymore. As if you do so, and try to continue without him, you won't have the air tank and so you'll drown because you don't float. I could not make Quote not be on your back for reasons so I abandonned trying that.

Dixel has showcased his chapter 5 part that is almost complete so the thing that needs to be finished will be chapter 6, temple of reckoning and the endings.

I've wrote enough for one article so I'll leave it be, until next time folks.

Red Village in the progress - Deus Ex 2

    Heyoo, woo dev blog time!

Hope summer is nice to you guys, so far the month of July has been awesome, I had a great holiday in Corsica and It was my birthday yesterday and it was better than... Last year

I really love working on this mod,

I'd love to hold a GDC presentation just for the fun of it and I'd be happy to give terrible funny tips like:

"If you happen to be too lazy to make a level, ask your american friend that owe you something to do it for you!"

1. "If something doesn't work, adapt it."

Back on tracks

     This title is so cliché.

Hello, I hope you guys are having a good day today, it has been a little while since  I wrote here hasn't it?

Three months have seperated us since last time, a lotta things happened, I focused on school and got everything checked to finish my year!
I'm pretty happy about things, I've been conceiving projects for after Curly's Weird Crusade once the mod will be over which won't be so soon.

Truth be told, I haven't done anything regarding art or video game making since the beginning of the year, I have mainly focused on music and writing, it was a very nice break to say the least.

Now that I had the time to be lazy, last time I wrote about the future red village update, while that hasn't been done. I finally got to the zone I have been teasing since chapter 3, and that's the sand zone.

(Still W.I.P.) (Also I noticed the sand crocs got a little issue, gonna have to find a solution for this)

The whole debacle of Chapter 3 with the Monster X corridor lead to this, I hope it wasn't anti-climatic.

So for this area that I probably won't call the sand zone, I'm not sure.
I got inspired by two things, the challenge level in Cave Story + called Sand Pit that inspired the level design with a challenging vibe and another level that inspired me was a level I made back in 2020 for an old project that was my Cave Story Beta remake.

Funny fact, I took like two months to make the level in trying to respect the source material while making something new and when the level was over, some new Cave Story Beta footage released to discover that the sand zone was a mess of level design with sand that push you around and just, not fun gameplay. It didn't look fun to play.

The level zoomed from very, very, far away.

The concept of the sand zone here was that it was a loop instaured once you got to the tip at the right.
You had to find the map system to be able to understand the path to fall on the very far right and get out of the zone.
The level was pretty packed with a bar where you could get a martini, some shovel brigade betrayed by their path seeker that probably died and some new enemies. Oh also, cake.

It was a neat concept, a maze that needed to find it's exit thanks to a device, very metroid-vaniaesque.

Sadly the level got it's flaws, the map system isn't that useful apart of understanding a riddle and there is a chance you'd already would have understood where to go from the loop of the level.

So I've rethought the level and after speaking about it with my friend Dixel, I decided to revamp the level to make it less boring, more action-packed and an idea I got is to make so there are two levels that are connected, You have to go to the under half to navigate around the sand zone to access the upper half that got doors that lead to places. There'll be a bit of fetching quests to be able to access the downer part, the Red Village.

Now I think it would be too long if you had to redo the entire path to go back to the blue village, that's why I thought of making an elevator somewhere in the Red Village. Maybe with Gizmo's card you could activate it.

Anyways! That's about much I got, quite a mouthful hehe. I love how I did all this work with levels that lead to this to end up being lazy until april to make it haha.

I decided to revise some stuff of Curly's Weird Crusade, a little revision of the whole mod. (If I say like that it sounds cool but I mainly had to replay it because I lost my save)
After replaying the mod, I noticed some little snippets that got out of grasp first time, it wasn't in the public release thankfully. In the factory, there were still '*' next to dialogues, these little stars come from the place-holder text that signified in general what was being done.

A decision that I also thought about is to give Curly an air-tank after saving Quote, it would be a reward and save the error of consistency that the mod had at it's shooter part. Only issue I got with this is that some part of chapter 3 that had water remove the urgency of getting out of said water, not a bad thing I guess.

Anyways, I got only one thing to add this blog post that I remembered after replaying,

remeber Gizmo?

 

Pretty big break on the progress of Curly's Weird Crusade

     Hi guys, here is a little update on the state of Curly's Weird Crusade to say that everything is
     going smoothly!

I'm writing this without any real thoughts of what to say, I'd just like to announce I'm gonna take a little break off Curly's Weird Crusade for let's say a month, or maybe two months.
The mod's progress is pretty good, I made some bosses, connected some levels and have an idea for the next chapters and for the endings.

I been thinking of the endings, being tempted by two particular ones.

So far Curly's Weird Crusade is planned to have three endings, I thought about it and decided that I'm capable of doing so. Won't tell much about them except for their signification:

- Normal ending

-Temple of Reckoning

-Secret Ending

There were also plan for a bad ending, I've thought about it since a friend pointed out that the normal ending feels more like something a bad ending would be, thing is there a two concepts that are mashed together and I can't think of which is good.

The original concept of the normal ending is that Curly Brace destroy the core of the story and in term, Curly is wreckless and end up destroying her own existance.

The second concept is the "Idea Block", which is what the name implies, only issue with it is that it feels undeserved and I kind of hate limiting the player. For the people that don't know or don't understand, the idea block route is just that the story ends on a massive wall, there is nothing to do else than just die.
It's kind of similar to Fnaf  World's ending with the fisherman.

Curly's Weird Crusade has been released

     Alright, now it's on, time to shine!.. Oh wait, I forgot to say hello!

Hey, so uh, new blog post huh?
Last blog post was more accurate to shitpost than a dire need to release this thing.

Well, now it is out, a demo of Curly's Weird Crusade, I've posted it on the forums and Doukutsu Club to uh, pretty deceiving debut, only one person answered, he didn't even played the game, just said it was interesting.

Well sometime the important part isn't the debut, is what you make of it, the beginning can suck as long as it gets better. - something monty oum said about RWBY.

 

I don't really know what to say else except that the game got a pretty positive general feedback, despite not having a lot of people play it, still, it isn't the number, it's the quality, if three people out of 522 liked it, than I'll conquer the 519 next!

I was kind of stressing out about how absolutely nobody seemed to gave a shit, when I went on the CSMC to ask(thing that brings huge stress and anxiety to me, I know absolutely nobody in the CSMC, I'm scared people would just dislike me for whatever reason.) eli said that apparently it's because modfest is a thing rn and people are busy, yeah when it's that one shitpost mod everybody got the time but when a full fledge mod comes out nngh no time to waste on such undisciplined level design Kris!! 

Jokes aside, I did see a person saying it was great and he was waiting for chapter 3, it's these kind of moments that make my heart tingle, just knowing someone out there that you don't know is waiting and expecting you to finish your project and bids you good luck, it's such a sweet feeling.

Well I don't have anything else to say, apart of the fact that I released a patch today fixing the missiles of Balrog, too bad, I liked it when it was fish.

Maybe I should try to be more social and go on the CSMC more to talk? But it's a huge nest of drama and unrelated people, it's blblbl idk, it seems to have changed then from my memory, maybe since BLink is gone. Who knows and true to the fact, no one cares.

I should atleast be happy that people have absolutely no bad things in regard to the mod, which I am but it didn't hit the world by storm, maybe it shouldn't, maybe it should just slowly become a classic or a good experience, a lot of mod were built on over time dedication and creation, updates over updates, as long as it stays coherent, everything should be fine.

This mod tick me off.

     Hey, how you be doing?
    Yeaah, nobody be reading those forum posts anyway so I can do whatever I want *hum* *hum*
    AAAASSSS

So, remember when I was talking of a potential release in August.

Yeah remember that?

Curly's Weird Crusade has been, in a WEIRD state! *cue laugh tracks* hahah I will shit on your tombstone.

Okay, more seriously (holy fuck I can't stop laughing while writing this now) Curly's Weird Crusade has been cycling in a little patern for, over a year now?

What started originally as a side project became a hole filled with a one person contribution and the person making it(me) just braindead from all of this.
Curly's Weird Crusade was originally, a side project, it was a mod I would make on my spare time when I had no other things that I'd want to do, it was a mod that just had silly idea and concepts I randomly got while doing other stuff like: What if the first chapter could be skip entirely with the machine gun, what if a narrator just harassed you throughout the game etc etc...

 I've kinda had an epiphany over the state of the game in my mind, I realised that I'm not really making the mod for me and my silly ideas, but I'm doing it for someone else, someone else that mainly get the ideas now, that's why I had so little ideas for the mod, it's because I've been focusing too much on it and the mod lost it's meaning, it's original concept to my eyes.

I don't even know if people would like Curly's Weird Crusade and truth be told, I wouldn't care, this mod can flop all it want it won't matter, all I wish is to have something I would grow fond of and have no regrets over little things I did because I wanted it to be this way. No game is perfect, nor is any mod and anybody that dares to call on one hand a mod shitty should give themselves a good look, from what I've seen, people coming to harsh conclusions are also the ones that says the most bullshit in one sitting. The idea of publishing Curly's Weird Crusade didn't cross my mind before I showed it off to the person I was mentionning before, atleast on the forums and Doukutsu Club, it would have been posted here and that's it.

This post is more of a gargle of a mess, it's mostly to express to anyone and maybe someone in particular how I feel toward this, it isn't cancelled or what but I just realized I had other things I were more focused on and I need to focus on them to get better. I'm not mad in any way.

I want to focus on getting better and find the fun of making things for myself first.

Until then, peace. <3

Update about chapter 3

    Hey~.

    How do you do on this summer vacation?
    Terrible?
    Normal since: You're here.

Jokes aside, here's a little update about Curly's Weird Crusade as chapter 2 is soon to be finished and chapter 3 is still ongoing despite being a near over chapter.

I'll start by chapter 3 as it's the chapter with the least to talk about for now.

First of all, a whole scheme has been rethought for chapter 3, I originally intended to make it a metroidvania style area where you could go and get spare parts around the levels, that is still the intention but I decided to make it a bit more straightforward as I noticed it would keep the flow of the game on a good pace.
But the game still keep the idea of backtracking as you'll need to get back to a certain place to be able to assemble your booster.
There'll be a sub-plot to that area and I won't say anything except: It's a Rooster Teeth reference.

So since we went over chapter 3, it's time for chapter 2's update... Oh boy, it's update time!

Chapter 2 is done by StudioDixel(Suote), he has been on it for about six months now fault of him not having so much time and working on other projects, many thanks to him for his dedication and hard work.

Woo can't capture everything.

Chapter 2 is a waterway level where you have to naviguate in the water and not drown.
This level has been done for a little while now but I think now is a good time for a sneak peek.

In this chapter, you find Quote that drowned in water and you have to get to a cabin to soak him out in the big lines. The level is pretty big and surprisingly longer then chapter 1.
The level is a huge water level that you'll dash through by keeping your past momentum and use the air zones to your advantage.
After it, and after soaking Quote out. You'll be taken to the pipes which is a new style of gameplay that will be used in an extra boss. It plays like the Ironfish bossfight, you go through a level where you have to naviguate through hazards and enemy to activate switches to continue onward. It's very fun and all credit to Dixel for making it.

This chapter is pretty packed already, you can look forward to more of this for chapter 4.

 Anyhow, I think this is enough for July's update, thanks for reading and look forward for a plausible demo in August, no promises, but chapter 1 and 2 are complete to be played.