The countdown has started to the final day. With my Cosmic aliens done, the race is on for me to finish my next comic chapter and run a successful test of my simulator. I’ve spent so much time theorycrafting the latter, just trying to tweak the numbers and the system to end up with something fun. I feel like the right answer is somewhere in between everything I’ve been designing, but I haven’t quite seen it through the brambles yet. Wakeup Call is coming along much more smoothly. I basically have all of the panels done, save for one or two. I just need to arrange them properly and check for mistakes. I expect there will be many.

This month, I’ve actually had two goals related to Wakeup Call. Since my plan is to spend next month working on Chapter 4, I wanted to make sure I have a clearer idea of the whole structure of Wakeup Call. I’ve known how I want it to end since the start, which is general protocol for story writing. The problem is that as I continue to flesh out the world, it runs the risk of changing the ending, which could cause story problems upstream. I’ve been working to make sure I catch all of these before committing to something that is ultimately a mistake.

While I am still interested in regularly playing Monster Train, I am excited to finally have another game to be excited for. I started playing the new WarioWare demo on Tuesday and have been playing it every day since. It may be my favorite demo of all time, but it’s definitely shaping up to be my favorite WarioWare of all time. While I’m a fan of the series, I’ve never seen a WarioWare game get such mileage out of its microgames. Each of the 200+ microgames is multiplied by the ~20 different characters. Meaning if the full game is as well-designed as the demo, we’re looking at 4000+ different games to memorize. The demo only has 16 microgames and 6 characters, and I got quite a bit of mileage out of just trying to practice with one team of 3. I’m still learning the full team of 6 and finding new combos I haven’t seen yet. It’s also the first WarioWare to receive full voice acting, and I’m impressed with how they made the English voices “not annoying.” They add to the intensity instead of detracting from it. The only downside is that I still have to wait about two weeks for the full game to release, though it has been awhile since I’ve been this hyped for an upcoming release.

Hope you all have your own something special to look forward to. Make the most!