It’s certainly been awhile since I made a blog post. I originally started this blog just to keep a record of my thoughts and develop some discipline behind keeping my site updated. As you may have noticed if you’ve been here, I’ve made a number of substantial updates to my site. With the release of Cosmic Odyssey, I got back into updating my Cosmic section and completed all of the aliens up through Storm. I fixed a ton of errors I found in my design and some alien bios, and I added all of the more advanced mechanics such as technology, moons, and space stations. I updated the lore to include some basic information about the lore, and I slightly reworked lucre and distress pods after realizing some potential issues with their designs. I’m planning to continue going forward with the Dominion Dimension, and for now I cut out the aliens from Duel as I focused on the ones specifically made for the base game. I’m considering making the Duel aliens not officially acknowledged by the Federation, but for now this means I’ve officially passed the halfway point.

In other news, Wakeup Call has continued on a steady pace since 2021, and what I planned as the first half is almost complete. Only one chapter left to write, and then I have some sub-chapters planned. I had some fears that I would find my work awful when going back to re-read it, but I was pleasantly surprised with how the story turned out in total. I want to make sure the final chapter captures the right emotion I’m going for, so I’m taking my time to get it right. I’ve also made great strides in my artistic abilities, and I can really see the progress between how my comic looks now compared to how it was. I also think I’ve gotten a little faster at vectoring, which is what I really wanted to see. I’m not sure if I’ll move forward into part 2 of Wakeup Call right after finishing part 1. There are other stories within the world of Wakeup Call that I’m interested to tell, and I might want to explore those. Or I might consider an altogether new project to work on.

I’ve been playing a lot of Marvel Snap over the past two years, a CCG on mobile that has brought so many new ideas to the genre. I’ve concluded it to be the first game since Cosmic Encounter to have a design space that has captured my imagination to such an extent. I’ve even written a number of programs based around it as software practice. I can’t imagine I’ll be looking to dedicate a portion of my site to do a full redesign like with Cosmic, but I’ve certainly taken an interest in the concept of what makes a card balanced in the game. I’ve written out many of my thoughts on the game design in a document, so maybe I could do something with those.

I’ve also gotten back into my Japanese studies. I’m using Anki as my primary learning source, and I finally took the plunge to start reading kanji. The way I’m tackling it a little at a time has made it much easier than I thought it would be, though I can imagine it scaling in complexity once I have 2000+ characters to store in my recognition memory. I’ve certainly improved since 2021, and I’ve reached the point where I can get the gist of many sentences even when someone is speaking quickly. I don’t know if learning how to sing certain Japanese songs has helped my comprehension, but I think it’s helped me get a sense of Japanese pronunciation and the flow of the language.

That’s all I have to say for now. I probably should update this blog on a semi-regular basis so it doesn’t look like I’ve stopped updating the site. I made the site more secure by enabling https, so I hope my visitors appreciate the extra security.

Make the most!