What Happened To The Paranormality Webisodes?

I was asked the other day about what happened to the "Paranormality Webisodes" I started doing. Well, several things really.

The first is that the motherboard on my previous computer started going out and, despite a lot of upgrades, it become irreparable without major additional cost. I decided that it was better in the long run to just buy a new computer. The storyboard and resources are still stuck on its hard drive without an immediate solution to transfer the files. I guess I could invest in an IDE to USB cable, but that's not top of my priority list right now.

The second thing is that since I started my new job, working nights, it gives very little time to actually focus on most of the projects I started, including the webisodes. I've not had a chance to reinstall the movie making software I'd previously installed either. This is one of the most frustrating parts of working the night shift, but as long as it pays the bills, then it balances out.

The final thing is that inspiration and motivation dried out. With several different projects on the go at once, it was difficult to maintain them all and prioritize them, so I took a major hiatus from them. Instead, the focus shifted to work and spending time with family.

The Paranormality project isn't quite dead yet, though. Since my purchase of RMVXA, I've been experimenting with it for a while and decided that Paranormality: Darkling would greatly benefit from RMVXA's additional features and functions, so work has been progressing on that slowly but surely. Be sure to subscribe to the site's feed for the updates.

At this point, I don't know if I will be continuing with the webisodes; it's been left open at the moment.

Paranormality: Darkling (RMVXA)

The project, Paranormality: Darkling, has been restarted. Since I bought RMVXA, I've been experimenting with it quite extensively and decided to use it for this project to take advantage of many of its additional features and functions.

The primary resource used is the Mythos Horror Resource Pack and I'll be purchasing several other resource packs as the project progresses as well.

I've also designed two windowskins specifically for the project and will be (attempting on) creating some customized graphics, including icons, of my own.

The game is entirely mouse-driven, using Amaranth's Super Simple Mouse System for Ace, replete with customized icons.

To keep up-to-date with its progress, be sure to subscribe to its official site, Paranormality: Darkling. Right now, I'm developing the overall theme, and will probably be adjusting the style sheets over the next week or so.

Windowskins Updates

The Windowskins section has been updated. More will be added over time, available for both RMXP and RMVX/VXA. I'm planning on converting the ones currently unavailable on the site as well.

Several windowskins tutorials are also available, which will also be expanded in the near future.

Work on the migration/conversion is continuing, slowly but very steadily, and much of it has already been completed. All the dead links are now working (those on this blog haven't been updated).

RPG 20XX Engine Redux

Download RPG 20XX

A while ago I wrote an article about RPG 20XX. It has since had an update. According to the site's blurb:

RPG 20XX is a redesign of RPG Maker 20XX... Which was an upgrade replacement for RPG Maker 2003's engine. This newer engine will have nothing to do with the RPG Maker series of engines apart from the familiarity of the editor and engine features.

RPG 20XX should provide lots of advanced features yet remain faithful to the retro scale of RPG Maker 2003. It should not require actual writing of program scripts and instead provide a clever implementation of a click-together event scripting system similar to the older RPG Maker engines. Most notably the ability to re-adjust the battle calculations purely through event scripting.

Lots of common tedium and annoyances of RPG Maker 2003 should be eliminated. RPG 20XX will provide global battle events for all battles, a quest system, simplified character development, local save variables per event, and other simple conveniences.

Lastly, there is a need for an engine that runs on older and more modern systems. A game created with RPG 20XX now will be much easier to get running again in the year 20XX later. All of this is currently licensed under the GNU GPL v3 so you can check out the source code any time if you really wanted to. It will be a community project, free as in price and in freedom to create the RPGs in a fun familiar way like you always wished RPG Maker 2003 could do these days.

So, this is definitely something to look into. I'll be checking it out during my days off.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Image borrowed from Blingee

Attack of The Blog Gremlins!

It appears that gremlins have invaded RPG Maker Times!

Borrowed from BubbleWS

The layout is messed up, although I suspect it's due to a re-import of the prototype skin that resulted in many of the additional coding (including the tabs layout) being overwritten.

From this point, I may just return to the previous layout and redo the style sheets accordingly - kind of like a child theme - or I'll re-imagine this one and make it much better. It's too bad Blogger's dynamic templates are so limited and cumbersomely uncustomizable; otherwise, I'd use one of those and add the same widgets I have now.

I've a lot of work to do on this site and the RPG Maker Times & Companion blog, which I can only do on my days off unfortunately, resulting in slow but steady progress.

Windowskins Update

The Windowskins blog has been updated. Most of the windowskins have now been updated; I'm sure there are others I've done but overlooked, so I'll check and update accordingly.

The Windowskins Tutorials currently on the main blogsite will be migrated to the RPG Maker Times Windowskins, with the current posts already in place simply redirected.

The focus will then shift onto properly recategorising and tagging the windowskins to make searching easier. Updates will then continue on the rest of the blogs.

Work on Merged Blogsite Continues

Work on RPG Maker Times & Companion is continuing. Right now, I'm attempting to streamline it by cleaning up some of the widgets, along with the categories and tags list, and some of the posts.

As far as this blog is concerned: It will still continue, as it has been, but the major posts and articles will now appear on the RPG Maker Times & Companion blogsite, with links posted here. Any other articles posted here will also be replicated on the other as well. A number of links on this blog no longer work, but they're being updated on the other blogsite, and will eventually be modified here as well, since the main focus will now be on the domain name blog.

I'm also in the process of revamping the Windowskins subdomain. This year, you can also expect more windowskins and a better keyword search feature (search engine optimized) to make it easier to find specific types of windowskins.

I don't have much time to spend on this re-organization, but I'm determined to spend in between 2-3 hours per day on it to bring it up-to-date and where I'd like it to be. Keep checking (both blogs) regularly for updates.

Blog Update/Revamp Continues

As the merging of this blog and RPG Maker Times & Companion continues, I've started revamping the tags system for easier reference.

Although progress is slow, it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. Still a lot of work to go before completion, so here are some of the things being worked on:

• Reformation of all tags
• Non-working links now working
• Revamping and recategorisation of sections, particularly Scripts/Scriptlets and Tutorials/How-To's

Other areas to be worked on are the Resources section. This includes the Windowskins, which will eventually be complete.

I'll continue working on this in between work and my days off.

And then from that point on, the big updates will be on RPG Maker Times & Companion, while the updates on this blog will point to the pages there.

Merging Sites, Emerging Updates

As of February 13, 2014, the RPG Maker Times and RPG Maker Times Companion blogs have merged.

The latter will now be the official blog for RPG Maker Times and will no longer be a "companion" site. The original RPG Maker Times blog will remain, but it will be used mostly for any updates that appear on the site. (The title will remain the same to avoid confusion.)

I will be doing a lot of work on it over the next few weeks (on my days off from work), tweaking keywords/tags, posts and layouts, and updating any old posts with links that no longer work.