Thursday, June 2, 2022

Summer of 2022

It's been about 2 years since I've updated this blog, but I figured it's about time for whomever actually ever looks at it.

I haven't had much to talk about here arcade-wise as I haven't had any recent problems for at least a year or so with all four of my cabinets, and have yet to mess with testing or repairing any of the random game PCBs I have collected since I got into the arcade hobby. Basically I reached a period where it was finally time to play these games rather than working on them; though I'm bet eventually something will pop up and change that. I'm still on the lookout for an affordable Funhouse or Fathom pinball machine. 

There was a Funhouse that popped up at a recent auction.. but due to nearly everything money-related being inflated lately and the fact I've been working a lot less while enjoying life more I am thankful I was at a waterpark that morning rather than taking a potentially awful hit to my bank account!

In the Interactive Fiction world, I've been paying attention and playing other peoples games.. but I've strayed from producing any more IF for quite a while now. Instead, last year I decided to create my first 3D arcade-style game for mobile platforms. I don't know how much (if any!) revenue it will bring me, but it has been a wonderful learning and productive creative process. Though I've dabbled in Unreal before and may return to it.. for this game I opted for the Unity engine. 

The game was formally called "Duck Slide", but another iOS creator had taken that name. I changed the name to "Duck Slide Range" (placeholder site: Duck Slide Range) upon my first submission to the App Store for Test Flight after work had already been done for quite some time. Speaking of which, if you would like to be a tester for the game, just leave a comment on this blog! I am still looking for testers for both the iOS and Android versions; though I still need to actually produce the Android port. That port should come soon. 

However, I do still have A Day in DPRK on the back burner. While obviously meant for text parsing computers, it may also potentially see a mobile release one day; and perhaps even be completed. I have also been helping Robb Sherwin (Author of Cryprozookeeper and many other classics) get some of his works properly (re)released to Steam. 

Aside from that.. I'm stoked about more surfing, kayaking, fishing, and definitely water-sliding this year!