What It's All About

I started this blog over 3 years ago.
I started PTE over 6 years ago.

It's incredible how much time has passed and I'm a bit surprised that I managed to keep both things consistently updated.

Granted, this blog is seen as more of the 'Sporadically/Never Updated' blog, but it's never strayed from it's original purpose, which has been the reason for that.
This blog has always been and still continues to be a sort of look into what I'm thinking in regards of the Ric-Olzow and Eric Riccy IPs, and all their associated content. (Comics, Animations, Games, Music,  General Drawings, Other media(??))

Now I'm brought here today as one might guess, for an update. I've long accepted to put all game design on hold, a lack of network, honed skill set and time have made it abundantly clear that not pursuing that right now is probably for the best.

I've dabbled with ideas as I always do. I watched old BP episodes, and though I believe that the use of the F-word was in really poor taste, I was also in high school when the character was written. That said, I've really learned to like Business Penguin as a character, and without swearing and vulgarity, I see a potential in him.

I could see a BP Series Reboot, with the Ric6 (Minus Ric), led by BP. Success Troll could still be the antagonist company, (He and BP Play well in commonality as being unoriginal, a bit of a tongue and cheek about how one can interpret bosses) and could run a company of minion trolls. (As well, BP and ST could be running two forms of company, ST more the typical hierarchy, BP the central hub model. Theoretically, of course, because BP would still be incompetent and self-absorbed.)

It's probably a really silly idea that's going to turn to nothing, but it's worth mentioning, at least as proof that I'm not just sitting around doing nothing. I'm giving schoolwork my main priority, and thereafter wherever broadcasting takes me.  RO/ER will always be on my mind, but priority wise unless they manage to be profitable, this all is one glorious hobby.

And there's really nothing wrong with that. I know that if my things took off, there'd be massive pressure to produce more, keep up quality content, and everything I'd make would be shredded by the critics. (Which they should do, but I'm human and have a glass heart sometimes so it'd be a hurdle to get strong enough to continuously deal with the hate.)

I looked at old work I've (and a certain someone else) have done. It's amazing to me now how much stuff both of us have to our name. 2008-2010 was definitely my heyday. Hopefully I have more in the future.

To end off this post, here's proof I'm not gone[Link], just stupid busy with life. But then again, who isn't?

Spark in the dark

There is definitely a strong enviromental factor in my production.
I don't know how I've not noticed it til now, but there definitely is.

I was bored out of my mind, sitting around at uni, and I started drawing. And trying to make games. And comics.
A lack of internet (I ran an experiment..) Both seriously helped and seriously hindered. I wasn't as distracted, but then I had nothing to call on when I got stuck.
It's the greatest catch 22.
That and I do definitely have trouble focusing on such tasks, because the more I poke at them the more I realize how much I need to actually work out.
So many codes.
So many assets.
So many designs.
So many decisions.

This counts as a revelation as I did manage to make new comics, and actually gave ADOH/Riccius A bit of an update.
Now I just need to find a way to exploit it...

#TheDestructionOfRicOlzow

Ducks in a row

I often get told that this blog is the 'blog that gets no updates'.
With PTE being the powerhouse it is, It's not really surprising to me though.

This blog's original intention was to filter out Ric-Olzow related content from PTE, so that PTE would be more life-focused as opposed to creative works. Thereafter it was also to help me understand my work ethic with creative things.

So far I've figured out my biggest issue is I'm all over the map, I get distracted super duper easily, decisions are harder to make than second-guess, and I'm typically way in over my head.

With my new roomie though, I'm finding his powerhouse ethic with video production making me jealous, which is in turn making me want to try harder.

And that's why this post exists! I'm trying to find ways to simplify my stuff, and make it more easily accessible, plus make it easier to make than what I've been doing.

Making games is fun, but also takes months and months of long treacherous hours which require no interruption.
Figuring I'm busy trying to get me a survive-life job/school, and live in a chaotic household, this is proving a bit of a pipe dream. Add that to my hummingbird-style attention and it's the recipe of nothingness that it is.

Enough about shortcomings and sorting out existence though, the big news is to start these efforts, I present:

Eric Riccy Comics!

A hub for all comics that I draw, including randoms featuring Riccy himself, plus I plan to digitize Mr University and upload them there too. And if any other sub-series' comes up, those can be added as well.
Comics take ~1 hour to make (The hardest part is the idea) compared to ~1 year for a game.
Or ~6 months for an animation, but the bonus of the comics site is that the best ideas can turn into cartoons, I'll have me a storyline and writing and storyboard, and just require voice actors and a bit of time to draw it all out.

Also two things of note:
1) This new blog does take over my old server blog, but figuring MC servers are not coming from me again anytime soon, this works out for the best.
2) I haven't decided if I'm going to add Winnippeggers to the ERC. It was a joke concept that has continuously gotten out of hand; it's concept is anti-humour and hard to find entertaining due to it's lack of coherency. It also has it's own site too which helps keep it...self-contained.

Hope these ideas seem sound!

Directions to Nowhere

This post needs to start with a blurb about flash. Flash has been the program I've always used for everything creative I do. I've toyed with Java and script editors, but nothing's ever came to fruition for RO stuff from it. All I've done (for visual things at least) has been in exclusively flash.
Woes of player vulnerabilities had me stop and think about how that monopoly has existed since I tried to bring back RO stuff in '08.
Before then I was using a program called pivot, which was super simplistic to put it simply. The most it could support was .gif if my memory serves me well. It was amazing when I was learning.
In fact, when I started flash stuff I hated it. I didn't understand the program at all. My friend PJ was the first to wrap his head around the program, and I caught up only once he moved on from animation. The timing was unfortunate but frankly he made a good call scrapping animation, it's a headache of a format.
I say that not because it's hard to animate (Which it is, Animation is time consuming and tedious work) but because the means to turn animating professional are very difficult. Youtube is far from a viable option due to its time-watched to revenue ratio. Patreon is an option but unless you're making consistent contributions to youtube, won't help much. Plus you need to make something interesting enough to captivate people to even see your work. Working at a studio requires years of schooling. (Outside my reach...) My ultimate problem is I'm an idiot as an animator because I'm self-taught, so it's hard to take it seriously, or as anything but a hobby.
That and I'm set on my ways, so my drawing methods don't really improve. That and finding time for animating is difficult. And when times not the problem, ideas are. Or scripting. Or writing. Or drive. Organization is hard for me as always...

I give myself a headache, haha.

With all that said, I've started messing around in Unity. It's even more difficult to learn (seemingly) but is a 3D game making engine. The possibilities are endless for game-making (Which I had before said I was stepping away from, but I really can't decide what creative thing I wanna focus on...I'm sure that's not helping my -1000000% productivity...lol)
The reason I have looked into unity, first and foremost, is I see it as the progressive step past flash. Secondly though, Making games with it gives me the potential to make something for Steam Greenlight.
It's not like NG, where it's free-to-upload, but the potential to succeed is much higher. First and foremost, if the game is 'greenlit', passes inspection and makes it to market, copies of the game become available for purchase. That means revenue, which is something that is very difficult to achieve with the way I've been approaching things on NG. I've learned from NG how to understand copyrights, which means if i did make something for greenlight I know I'd make something free of copyright infringements. (Actually Saint Riccy was free of copyright infringements too, hence why I make the claim. I was extremely careful to use public domain stuff and creative commons stuff when I couldn't do something myself.)
The hard part is actually making a game. Unity is new to me, and theoretically I could make a game in flash and find a way to make the swf an executible and use that, but part of me wants to try Unity. And part of me wants to leave the Jenny games for NG, for free, forever.

I'm the hardest to work with, no wonder I'm always alone in these projects lol.

Also I'm playing with the idea of moving away from just the "RO 6" (Ric, Amy, Jenny, Tino, Tim, Taylor)

Lots on the mind, but I've no time to do anything with that. So nothings happening, but I'm playing in Unity now. And I like steam. And Greenlight entices me.

That's this entire post. Should've just read the last 3 lines, rofl.

Survive the Development

Saint Riccy has been marked, and appears to have gone over pretty well. At this time I have no plans to further develop it, but may do so later.
I will likely showcase it in May to friends back home, to get feedback. That'll be its next step at the very least.
I will likely not be showcasing any survive the music remake however, as I've hit a predicament that I'm certain isn't new or unique.

When I made survive the music the first time, I was making it for the sake to prove I could. It had a plethora of issues, most stemming from lack of player cues and floaty controls. As well as being visually bland.

Now that I've started working on it again, I'm finding myself almost afraid to try again. I've done a bit of fixing to the controls, (Has a land animation, character is slowed down to not be a blur on screen) but I'm hesitant to start the actual remake.
I feel like once I've made it, it'll have the same issues as last time, or new issues.
It will probably be doomed to sort of...suck.

I'm finding my weakest skill is design. I can write alright, I can code passably, I can draw kinda and I can make a somewhat catchy set of tunes. But my design...well..
It took 3 years, but I see why I'm not meant for architecture.

So in summary, we're sorta back to the drawing board. So business as usual.

Project Complete!...??

I now have another project that joins the ranks of Survive the Music. Though this one doesn't require a redesign...!

Saint Riccy has finally been finished! Though I typically exaggerate the work time, It is without a doubt I've put in at least over 24 hours of work on this project.
It is a visual novel game, though plays through with only 1 arc (all I had time for). It has characters (outside of my usual 6, oh my!), sfx and music ("Being with her" as the main theme, couldnt get other music to work...sfx all credited and such though!), and backgrounds. (credited and photoshopped, beautiful. Also massive. seriously they contributed like 28MB of the project, its nuts. Shouldve done lower resolution. Hindsight.)

It's been handed in for the final project, the teacher asked me to present it in class. (Which I did! Public Speaking got me all over dat noise.I read it like a book, tried to do voices and such) He seemed really impressed with the writing at least. We shall see how it scored with other categories in time though.

I learned lots from SR. First thing I learned: Writing takes time. My original schedule for the project alloted 24 hours to write the story. I ended up taking around 15 days. (Inspiration was tough, giving this project the time of day when I had like 6 others to do was what was the killer.)
Second thing: Flash doesn't do so hot with memory. My backgrounds were high res, which ate memory for breakfast. While trying to add music, the compiler crashed, making it so I couldn't actually export the game, meaning no game...almost led to no Saint Riccy.
I ended up undoing and scrapping the music, for again, lack of time.
Third thing: Time is the biggest thing. I knew from the get-go that SR would be a time sink, but because of how I'd procrastinate (Which was caused because I'd do many other projects, then want to relax, which would suck time away from SR...was a vicious cycle. They assign more little project crap, I do em and want break. Lose more SR time.) I ended up having a really bad sleep cycle this past week for attempting to rush production.
On that note: I've now had experience on rushing production of a RO game. Not exactly a good thing, but learning what that's like is good.
I did find that the due date actually really helped. I crushingly wished to have it bumped back, so I could make SR better, but because of it being in stone, it made me have to prioritize things like crazy and really focus on what I could get done at minimum without sacrificing quality.
I think I'll play with due dates for RO games in the future, see if that translates into more content.

Now, as for the project itself...It's too big for publishing to Newgrounds. (50Mb/20Mb)
Depending on the mark, I may rework the backgrounds, maybe try to add decision routes (aka pick a or b and a goes to main line, b goes to different side route that could connect or end its own way)
and maybe add music (haha) so that it would pass for a publishable work. (Technically it already is, but I'd prefer to publish it in its 'best-I-can-get-it' form)
Else, I may upload it online somewhere else and link it here or on PTE. Haven't decided.

As for RO projects coming up now...still thinking. So come back soon!

Saint Progress

I gotta admit, having the due date has really helped put fire under me and get things rolling.
That said, quality-wise I worry if I'm skimping due to time constrictions.

The biggest issues I'm finding is writing and image inconsistancies, and accuracy errors.
Though figuring I'm writing about a situation I've never been in with information that is vague at best, the clarity is a bit doomed. I can't exactly find a person who's been in it either, and am not really sure I'd want to. I'd feel weird just prying someones experiences for my game.

Problems aside, Saint Riccy is making strong progress. It's still behind schedule as of this post, but It's approximately 30% done. And that progress was made in 3 days at about ~26 hours, so I'm doing not too bad.

Of course with 10 days left and a rather rocky final week ahead of me, things will get interesting.
I should probably go work on it now...haha...

Also if you're here from PTE, know that I plan to work on the remake of Survive the music after schools end. I doubt it's going to get any recognition ever, but at this point I think I can  comfortably admit Ric Olzow Stuff is a hobby.

I gotta get a real job. Maaaaaan.
#DreamsDashed