Thursday DNs, now on Friday!

Hello all! It's been awhile but I've been super busy and super focussed on the upcoming Gameshow planet which by the time you read this, will either be out later today or has already come out (6PM...ish... server time). It's a lot of stuff in one and I figured I might go into some details about it.

First, it features the voice talent of George Lowe. Feel free to freak out as much as I have. I've always loved George Lowe back in the old days and when Artix told me he'd be doing voice work for us forever ago, I was super excited and now I've had the chance to work with him. Granted are script is more serious than outlandishly goofy but the storyline itself has grown darker in the past so it fits nicely and I tried my hardest to make sure he doesn't come across as a gimmick and rather an actual character in the MQ universe and I think we did a great job with that. You can decide for yourself when Gameshow planet releases.

I know it's been a long time in the making but there are a few contributing factors to this. The 1st being that a lot of it is custom content. This is actually going to be the last minigame-heavy release for a long time since I know I've gone a bit wild with them. So this final hurrah of minigames (for now at least) is a pretty big hurrah. First I made the obstacle course which took a long time while I was also doing things for the weekly releases. It's easy to lose you train of thought on a project when you have to take a break for a few days to work on a completely different release. Once I got the obstacle course working, I felt it just wasn't enough. So I decided to come up with a trivia game which the back end of that only took a day to create while the questions took much longer and ate away a lot of time in the last couple weeks which is when I gave up and asked you all for help haha. Then there was the word puzzle, very similar to Wheel of Fortune but legally different. That one took a little longer to make but I'm super happy about that one. I think I'll be adding a big challenge mode for that one where I have harder words and maybe offer something special but that would come later and not tomorrow/today. Either way, all 3 minigames are an option. Trivia being the easiest, the word puzzle being medium, and the obstacle course is like the hard mode. You can do all 3 and you can switch between them at any time so it's super friendly in that respect. Then it ends in a big finale with lots of interesting tidbits to feast your minds.

The other issue that made this planet take so long was the GEARS Games. I spent a lot of time using the GEARS Games to train Maegwyn which also trained Vivi to make quests and I did a lot of testing for them and helping out. Then they made their first 100% quests with the help of Minar for weapons and such and Lyris doing cutscenes (which have been consistently awesome and she even helped me with Gameshow planet to do some really awesome stuff) as well as some enemy things for Friday the 13th. I think Friday the 13th was a big successful release for us. I was really proud that they did so well and this tells me that in the future, we'll all definitely be able to rely on each other to pump out some really awesome content and hopefully get these guys upgraded from volunteer staff.

Meanwhile, Arklen has been animating the new SC mech which has been finished and we'll be trying to get that setup next week while he animates weapons for gameshow planet which will be added next week. I'll likely get him started right away on the next SC mech (that's right. It's like we're almost on schedule) as well as probably some mechs and monsters for upcoming content once we solidify what we're doing.

Which becomes really the next big question. Artix really wants to try this streamlined version of MQ which I'll be sure that swordfighting gets the update before we do it. I also want some DB additions to make a few things easier and nicer to keep track of, such as the impending possibility of becoming a Shadowscythe or storing whether or not you've worn an outfit before. If we do go with the streamlined version right away, we'll end up having one big quest in normal MQ that basically leads into the new one. Then while we're working on the newer version, we'll still trickle things back into the current MQ story and we'll basically be filling some gaps. It probably sounds confusing but it's not even in stone yet. There are lots of neat possibilities on the horizon and with Mae and vivi learning quest building, things will only get better.

So with this, I say get ready. I still have a few things to do. Sound cues, a cutscene, lots of testing, and I need to figure out something that Korin should do if you find him D:

Anywho, I'll post another update when it's live and let you know what's exploding. For now, to bed!!