Hello my dear lovely people.

When I decided to write this update I was struggling with the opening lines. Granted, I had settled on the secondary paragraph but I didn't know how to preface or introduce it. Considering I'm bad at this sort of thing especially considering what kind of mood I'm in and how I feel about my chances of success are. Especially if you consider yourself not very good at what you've decided to do. You can begin to sink down into the depths of negativity quite easily. It'll begin to infect other aspects of your life and how you look at things. Granted, most of us eventually scrape and claw our ways out of it and return to a more acceptable world view. 

When I finished updating the game 5 months ago and began work on the next feature, of course, it failed. I sat there looking at the budget and the time and went and wondered, now what? My audience, albeit despite what I'll get into in a minute here, is, shall we say, a bit fickle? I think? I have no idea. One day it seems like it wants something and another day it wants something else entirely and another it's completely apathetic and seems like it doesn't care. In short, I have no idea how to point it somewhere to get it to act. IF at all. So imagine my surprise when I come back to Patches here on itch and see now and again people are still interested. I'm a bit shocked to be honest. Especially when I know it's NOT me checking from other platforms. 

So, regardless of it being the Season of Thanks, I would like you to know that I am grateful for you checking out the project whenever you can. I look at my stats every now and then and see that some people, whoever they are, care about this tiny little zelda project. I appreciate you coming in and checking on the game as you have been. If you don't create things you have know idea what this does to a creative person. We are floored someone, anyone, wants to support and enjoy our weird, seemingly unimportant little projects. So. I genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart for checking in on me. I know it sounds cheesy but hey, it's the truth. Besides, I like cheese. 

Burnout is a devastating condition. 

Telling yourself that look, people are constantly checking in is one way of telling yourself that you matter. It gives you a tiny bit of hope that's just enough to keep going. Just enough to tell yourself that you are valid and that people care. It's enough to keep you from sinking so far deep into a pit that you'll not want to even try crawling out of it. So, if I'm suffering from burnout, what have I been doing to handle it?

Well. One of the best pieces of advice I can give and have been given for burnout, is this. IF you know you don't want to completely stop your creative passion, don't, but try something else adjacent. For example, say you tried doing comics and aren't sure of how to continue and realize you are on burnout, what now? You don't want to give up, but you don't know what to do either. Well, as an artist, there are many ways you can still make art and be creative. It doesn't have to be a traditional artistic medium either. You could try going to say, for example, sculpture for a bit, or crotchet, or blacksmithing. It's taking a pause at what you were doing, but, taking a break and trying a new form of artistic endeavor to slowly build yourself coming back. If you don't want to give up your creative passion that you are burnt out on,you will find your way back eventually. I believe in you! So. I've been burnt out for the past 5 months. 

What HAVE I been up to then?

So, what's Roll For Blight? Well, as per the pocket edition rule book, Roll For Blight is a system that turns your favorite ttrpg(FG) into solo dungeon crawler. A dungeon crawler is a type of game where it's a part of, or by itself, set of table top rpg rules that try to simulate crawling through a dungeon. Killing monsters, getting loot, getting more powerful then killing the boss to beat the dungeon.

I love a good analog ttrpg and have played a few of them. I also love a good solo board game and there's quite a bit of overlap between dungeon crawls and board games. I was sitting there thinking of what to do while taking a break and I was thinking of playing my favorite solo scenario again when it dawned on me. I say to my brother the following. What if you want to play DnD, or your favorite ttrpg, and you can't because you have no group, and it doesn't have a solo mode? So what do you do? Goblin Lake from Tunnels and Trolls gave me this idea. The idea is, just have a character token wander about a map, check for monsters every no w and then, if they find a monster, fight it until it dies, beat the boss to win. He's an avid ttrpg player and knew what I meant. He was also very distracted at the time however, still said sounds fun and I rolled with it.

I've had several successful test runs with a couple different systems and have created a few different scenarios for the system. I know I'm not going to get ALL the ttrpgs, but I should be able to accommodate most of them. Especially if they have a combat system and monsters, you're good to go. 

I had several plans for this one. From physical copies and distribution, to creating several dungeons and an advanced edition.

THEN I hired on another designer to create a dungeon for me.

He brought up a few very good points but it ground the project almost to a stop.

Where I am now, I need to rewrite the language of the rules a bit. I still would like to try physical distribution, especially since I was able to fit the rules into a zine format. I can do this cause I'm connected to a brick and mortar store that I can send these off to. Hopefully it'll get SOME sort of marketing benefit for the game. 

I should have an updated version ready post November. SHOULD.

Here's a test version of what it looks like on the table:

So. Then what?

I was feeling a bit fiddly one day and started moving dice across a grid. Amused, I kept going. Basically the idea turned into some sort of Checkers solitaire. The rules are basically checkers with a couple board specific rules. There's five pieces, a grid on a board. There's singles, doubles, and triples. There's capturing enemy pawns and kings. I don't have all the rules written down yet but I have most of them. I'll probably again finish up these rules post November and publish them. I've no idea what to call the variant though. Or even if it's enough of it's own system to be a new game entirely. I'm not sure, but I'll let you know.

Here's what the board roughly looks like:

No. I don't need to tell you every creative little thing I've been up to. Although the things eat time away from the game so it warrants a spot. Every now and again, I think I can write a song. Also every now and again if I had to and in case of emergency, see if I can be funny on the stage as a comic. I don't have jokes or a routine, nor do I know if I"m that funny. This song, however, I think, is a frankenstien of many. At least to me it is. Still though, I thought it enough of it's own thing that I wrote some of the premise down. The premise is you are trying to sell a castle and have to be truthful to the potential buyers. So you have to relate some tragedies that have happened in it's past. Yes., It goes from bad to worse. 

Considering it's a stand up piece, perhaps you can fill in the blanks and come up with your own version using this outline.

Sometimes some things piss me off and I do something about it. Or, at least try to.

I was watching some videos and intrigued by the setting of a few miniature war games. 

Of course, there were no solitaire rules.

Solo war games as I understand it, aren't that common. Especially if we define the war game in a certain way. Which is players playing on a table with terrain with pieces that look like some sort of military units. I go in a bit more detail in the rules and what kind of war game we are not playing. There are a couple of war games that are solo, but there's still a lot that aren't. Apparently I like a good setting and theme and when the war game doesn't have solo play, I get miffed a little and move on. So, this time, I decided to try and create a set of agnostic war game rules for a majority of the war games out there today.

Thanks to my experience with another designer working on Blight, I tried to create a specific set of war game trying to account for most rule sets. In the intro, there is a goblin devil's advocate, or a rules lawyer, you might say. I try to counter them and ask them to set up, but when I come back, of course, they do everything completely wrong just to be spiteful. So, for Cement, I'm trying a different tact for creating rules. GRANTED. I COULD just use a setting and models from one rule set for another rule set, but sometimes I'm a bit stubborn.

I'm working through Cement's rules and going through the list of what you typically see in a war game rule set. Again, it should be done post November.

So, now what? You ask. That's a very good question now that we're all caught up.

Well for now, what's next is attempting to put a bow on Blight and have it ready for December. I'll be doing some traveling for this Holiday and will try to get some work done while I can. Provided I'm not without a laptop.

Generally as far as laptops go for me when it starts to go bad, the keyboard goes first.  It has two major problems, though the keyboard is the worst offender. The last time this happened, I couldn't program because a key used in functions decided to up and die. I've had to use external keyboards with laptops before and to me it sucks. I don't like it. But I'll do what i have to to keep using the machine. It's a great machine and does what I want it to, it'd be just nice to not have it go any time soon on me. 

Which brings another concern. 

How much budget do I have left?

I am, mostly, still alright, and have more then what I did before I got the budget. I could by another computer whole cloth if that's what I had to do. It'd be a hit, but I'd still be okay. I wanted to get into a Steam fest this year but I couldn't, because I could not get a feature in that I wanted before the deadline. There's another one coming up, but I don't think I'll make that either. An indie game's financial stability depends on how excited it's audience is for it. As for my audience, other then you guys, I have no idea. I have an idea, but have no idea what the audience want's to do.

Kickstarter? GoFundMe? Itchio Funding? I don't know what I can ask for and see what the response is. The feature I want to add HAS to have outside help to get it to work. The systems it uses works, the feature is just being a problem. Can I work on the game and get a build out? Sure. But if you know how it is, I do want that feature first, AND before it ever graces Steam's systems. So I can't rely on Steam sales for that. It'll be a hit to hire someone again, but it still needs to be done.

I do have a couple of ideas of mitigating the budget issue, but I'm a bit leery on them. Considering they involve personal information I don't want to take just ANY chances. 

So, there we are. 

Once again, I want to thank you all for continuing to check out Patches. An update of the game WILL happen at least post November. Hopefully sooner rather then later. Now I've got to get back to work so I can bring all these things to fruition. HOPEFULLY. Before I go though, here's a button you should be able to press very soon:

Until next time!

See you soon!