Summer's Coming Time for Pizza
General | Posted 2 days agoHeyo. I’ve posted a bunch of recipes recently and I’ve made a folder for them all. Here are my next few projects including food. I am still developing LORE but the food posts have received so many favourites that I’m going to focus on them for a while.
I’m aiming to have my cheese pizza recipe up next. Then I can make a set of all pizzas. The Legend Setting has salami and uses it on pizza a lot. I’m also posting my backlog of recipes from Cooking With a Wolf – Food for the Busy Chef.
When I have some of those two projects done and posted I am going to focus on Food of the World. This project aims to categorize and sort the most famous dishes from ten real world cuisine by what climate the ingredients grow in. The garlic salad is from the Mediterranean coasts climate.
These recipes then tie into the product line as the inspiration for setting organizations, characters and job titles in the Legend Setting. I can also use the recipes as the basic for kitchen witchcraft and document the food’s spiritual uses.
I’m planning on doing an organization of werewolves who run a farming conglomerate for the pizza dishes. I’m already working on one set of character stats for them in addition to the South Cafe characters. All pizza dishes will be wolf themed because I thought that sounded fun.
The South Cafe characters all know the kinship magic of the coffee bean and there are ten of them. These are hero characters who will be in LORE as NPCs and as cards in Quantum. Ascala is vast and this is the most efficient way I’ve found to populate it with people who have actual jobs.
My main priority though is pizza. I’m preparing for a barbecue chicken flavour, a triple meat and maybe a couple vegetable flavours. I can also make a good seasoned marinara sauce and a mayonnaise ranch for dipping along with my home made barbecue sauce.
Summer’s coming, time for pizza.
Zed
I’m aiming to have my cheese pizza recipe up next. Then I can make a set of all pizzas. The Legend Setting has salami and uses it on pizza a lot. I’m also posting my backlog of recipes from Cooking With a Wolf – Food for the Busy Chef.
When I have some of those two projects done and posted I am going to focus on Food of the World. This project aims to categorize and sort the most famous dishes from ten real world cuisine by what climate the ingredients grow in. The garlic salad is from the Mediterranean coasts climate.
These recipes then tie into the product line as the inspiration for setting organizations, characters and job titles in the Legend Setting. I can also use the recipes as the basic for kitchen witchcraft and document the food’s spiritual uses.
I’m planning on doing an organization of werewolves who run a farming conglomerate for the pizza dishes. I’m already working on one set of character stats for them in addition to the South Cafe characters. All pizza dishes will be wolf themed because I thought that sounded fun.
The South Cafe characters all know the kinship magic of the coffee bean and there are ten of them. These are hero characters who will be in LORE as NPCs and as cards in Quantum. Ascala is vast and this is the most efficient way I’ve found to populate it with people who have actual jobs.
My main priority though is pizza. I’m preparing for a barbecue chicken flavour, a triple meat and maybe a couple vegetable flavours. I can also make a good seasoned marinara sauce and a mayonnaise ranch for dipping along with my home made barbecue sauce.
Summer’s coming, time for pizza.
Zed
Patreon is Live
General | Posted 3 days agoHeyo. After about two years of careful revision my official Infinity Game Studios Patreon is live! Join me there and get by the moment game progress updates and the ability to vote on what project I should do next. Here's a link.
https://patreon.com/u4659774?
Have fun!
Zed
https://patreon.com/u4659774?
Have fun!
Zed
Quick LORE Updates
General | Posted a week agoHeyo. I haven’t done a journal in a while so I thought I’d post some quick LORE updates. I have more body colours done than I have shown and a number of character decorative options as well. I haven’t made any new generic buildings yet but I’m working on more modern themed furniture at present.
My family have a lot of birthdays, me being part of a Scottish Clan. I decided this year I am giving everyone a fursona. I’m going to draw ref sheets in my line art style and also make everyone a LORE ZIP folder with a 3D character model and a house for them to live in. I have until early Summer for the first batch.
I’m looking into simple AI scripting for NPCs next with options to stand or follow the player. Then I can do more work on making all my parody themed characters into models and also making my setting’s original species like draconians.
Zed
My family have a lot of birthdays, me being part of a Scottish Clan. I decided this year I am giving everyone a fursona. I’m going to draw ref sheets in my line art style and also make everyone a LORE ZIP folder with a 3D character model and a house for them to live in. I have until early Summer for the first batch.
I’m looking into simple AI scripting for NPCs next with options to stand or follow the player. Then I can do more work on making all my parody themed characters into models and also making my setting’s original species like draconians.
Zed
LORE Mythos Together
General | Posted 2 weeks agoHeyo. I’m planning out what may be my last completely new video game line Mythos today. The goal was to make something like LORE but for Android with multiplayer and chat. I wanted an easier way for furries and game fans in general to network and share art. I realized that it would make more sense to make LORE and just make a mobile port of the game with multiplayer. LORE Mythos will take almost no extra work to make and the code for it will be added to the open source content as I get to it.
I’ve checked and the engine can handle cross platform mobile to PC multiplayer. Anyone can host a map on their laptop and have friends join on mobile. The engine can also handle text chat with images so it can be used to find, discuss and fill commissions as well as share art and story text. Cool. That for once got easier the more I looked into it. I have the multiplayer code on hand from my project files for Dragon Engine so we’re good to go.
Zed
I’ve checked and the engine can handle cross platform mobile to PC multiplayer. Anyone can host a map on their laptop and have friends join on mobile. The engine can also handle text chat with images so it can be used to find, discuss and fill commissions as well as share art and story text. Cool. That for once got easier the more I looked into it. I have the multiplayer code on hand from my project files for Dragon Engine so we’re good to go.
Zed
Mythos the Game
General | Posted 2 weeks agoHeyo. It’s something I’ve observed a lot that people outside the fandom actually like us a lot more than we think they do. Way back when our fandom was young there were some vocal complaints about us. I have no idea where those few and loud individuals went. Best guess is they ran out of money for the internet. We the fandom kind of have a reputation for being good with money. It’s earned. We also have a reputation for being the nicest people on the planet. Again, earned.
This is my point, actually. The funny thing is that most of the people I know would love to spend their money on furry stuff but they don’t know how. I am not kidding. Without speaking our keyword system and knowing which art site is for what job, buying anything off a furry is almost impossible for an outside buyer. We’d have a lot more allies, friends and team members if there was an easier way of networking between inside and outside of the massive singular team we are here.
Here’s my thought. Make a game with some social media elements that is half the best of the fandom and half real Earth genre. I’m calling this Mythos and it will be exactly as much furry fandom as I can put in it while still making it for a general audience. I know how to do peer to peer multiplayer and unlike my other games I’m making it for Android so its portable and casual. I’m adding some art sharing features and text chat. The code and character elements I’m lifting from LORE. My hope is that we can bring the two fandoms of the world together and all make money doing it.
Zed
This is my point, actually. The funny thing is that most of the people I know would love to spend their money on furry stuff but they don’t know how. I am not kidding. Without speaking our keyword system and knowing which art site is for what job, buying anything off a furry is almost impossible for an outside buyer. We’d have a lot more allies, friends and team members if there was an easier way of networking between inside and outside of the massive singular team we are here.
Here’s my thought. Make a game with some social media elements that is half the best of the fandom and half real Earth genre. I’m calling this Mythos and it will be exactly as much furry fandom as I can put in it while still making it for a general audience. I know how to do peer to peer multiplayer and unlike my other games I’m making it for Android so its portable and casual. I’m adding some art sharing features and text chat. The code and character elements I’m lifting from LORE. My hope is that we can bring the two fandoms of the world together and all make money doing it.
Zed
LORE Commissions Starting Soon
General | Posted 3 weeks agoHeyo. I finally have enough work done on the video game line that I can start with buying art commissions. Art will be used in the tabletop and video game versions of LORE and my currently unnamed NSFW social life game. I know a ton about real world history, science and mythology and the goal is to write all of it down and then have artists draw each idea as an image. Here are two samples, one without clothes and one with.
Modern China
Barbecue Joint
A rubber drone with red and brass metal components is serving cocktails at a modern Asian barbecue place. They have no clothing on and are at least partly male.
North America
Invention of Tabletop Gaming
A grey wolf with fantasy leather clothing is walking through a classic fantasy town. He is holding his hand up in a spell and there is a glowing dodecahdron showing the number 20 above it in red.
I’m going to plan this out for a week and then start finding artists next week. I can advertise here if I need to find people faster.
Zed
Modern China
Barbecue Joint
A rubber drone with red and brass metal components is serving cocktails at a modern Asian barbecue place. They have no clothing on and are at least partly male.
North America
Invention of Tabletop Gaming
A grey wolf with fantasy leather clothing is walking through a classic fantasy town. He is holding his hand up in a spell and there is a glowing dodecahdron showing the number 20 above it in red.
I’m going to plan this out for a week and then start finding artists next week. I can advertise here if I need to find people faster.
Zed
Plans for Video Games
General | Posted 4 weeks agoHeyo. It’s not often that I cancel a project but my video game LORE is likely not going to work. The idea was to make a full video game using only assets I can buy or obtain for free. There simply aren’t enough assets on the internet in this category to make the whole game. I can make environments, I have trees and I have food but I don’t have people, outfits, or some essential code elements. It looks like making a game under these rules is not feasible.
LORE has been a good stepping stone to the currently unnamed game I posted a sample of yesterday. I’m switching to work on this completely custom made title as of now. I have combat and adventure covered by Dragon Engine so this one will be entirely a NSFW social life simulator. This is what the Legend Setting does in its off time from having grand adventures. It follows older laws about respecting the physical form by showing it off, eats nice food and has time for friendship.
I’m going with a simple three stat system for the game with Power, Skill and Health being the only numbers a player has to track. I’m doing simple worn items and most of the game will be crafting, social encounters and exploration. There’s a ton I can do here with just Ascala on its own but with the terrain system perfected I can make as many maps as I like. My plans are to have a story mode where you unlock characters and items to then use in a free roam mode. I’m doing all the map design myself so the player won’t have to place any walls ever.
Zed
Edit: I've figured out a workaround for the character asset problem. I'm going to have to revise my scripts for the YouTube videos to account for it but the project is back to going ahead.
LORE has been a good stepping stone to the currently unnamed game I posted a sample of yesterday. I’m switching to work on this completely custom made title as of now. I have combat and adventure covered by Dragon Engine so this one will be entirely a NSFW social life simulator. This is what the Legend Setting does in its off time from having grand adventures. It follows older laws about respecting the physical form by showing it off, eats nice food and has time for friendship.
I’m going with a simple three stat system for the game with Power, Skill and Health being the only numbers a player has to track. I’m doing simple worn items and most of the game will be crafting, social encounters and exploration. There’s a ton I can do here with just Ascala on its own but with the terrain system perfected I can make as many maps as I like. My plans are to have a story mode where you unlock characters and items to then use in a free roam mode. I’m doing all the map design myself so the player won’t have to place any walls ever.
Zed
Edit: I've figured out a workaround for the character asset problem. I'm going to have to revise my scripts for the YouTube videos to account for it but the project is back to going ahead.
Welcome to LORE the Video Game
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I thought it had been a while without a post so I’m catching everyone up. Dragon Engine development is going smoothly. With the terrain tiles done I can make the spin off games Dragon Drift and Duskbringer to practice level design for the final maps for Dragon Engine. The job got fun all at once on me. Now I’m spending my work time drawing hand made maps and reproducing them in digital form. It’s like doing a large puzzle with friends on a holiday except every combination of pieces is allowed and makes a different picture.
The change of tone is a bit sudden so I’m adjusting my work systems slowly. In addition to this I’ve started work on a video game version of my d20 tabletop game LORE Tabletop. Now LORE the video game is going ahead quickly. I’m recording every step I take in a text document and when I get a demo of the game made I’ll voice act and produce a series of YouTube videos detailing the entire design process from start to finish. I have a few rules for this project to set it apart from Dragon Engine.
Rule one, I am not allowed to make any assets for these games. Everything I need I have to buy or download.
Rule two, I am allowed a budget for this game that most people can afford. I’ve set that at 75$ total.
Rule three, all game development has to be done in Godot Engine.
I might revise the rules to allow me to make a few assets since I can’t find any good furry character models or tails but we’ll see. So far I have almost everything I need and I’ve spent about $25. The game will be in the separate LORE setting and I’ve got the first few major steps done and recorded. I’m also documenting every asset pack and plugin I use so anyone can follow the steps and get a full game. LORE is in my usual genre of open world fantasy hack and slash. I think that’s everyone caught up.
Zed
The change of tone is a bit sudden so I’m adjusting my work systems slowly. In addition to this I’ve started work on a video game version of my d20 tabletop game LORE Tabletop. Now LORE the video game is going ahead quickly. I’m recording every step I take in a text document and when I get a demo of the game made I’ll voice act and produce a series of YouTube videos detailing the entire design process from start to finish. I have a few rules for this project to set it apart from Dragon Engine.
Rule one, I am not allowed to make any assets for these games. Everything I need I have to buy or download.
Rule two, I am allowed a budget for this game that most people can afford. I’ve set that at 75$ total.
Rule three, all game development has to be done in Godot Engine.
I might revise the rules to allow me to make a few assets since I can’t find any good furry character models or tails but we’ll see. So far I have almost everything I need and I’ve spent about $25. The game will be in the separate LORE setting and I’ve got the first few major steps done and recorded. I’m also documenting every asset pack and plugin I use so anyone can follow the steps and get a full game. LORE is in my usual genre of open world fantasy hack and slash. I think that’s everyone caught up.
Zed
Happy Easter Everyone
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. Happy Easter everyone and welcome to Spring. Me and my family take Easter seriously and while not all of us observe the more religious side of the holiday we all do make sure to have some chocolate, exchange some gifts and make a nice meal. I have some fun updates as well.
I think I’m finally ready to push LORE Tabletop through to the art commission stage. This game is kind of unnecessary to make the Legend Series work. The game line would be fine without it. However, it’s the game I’ve built that I most want to play myself and it’s fun to design. For these reasons I’m going to focus on it.
I need to playtest it but it’s card based so I need art first. I can make some of it myself, especially landscapes and city environments, but the rest I’m commissioning. The game will be fully SFW at least for the first few rounds of cards. I’m working on draft four of the core rules at present.
I’m resuming work on Dragon Engine tomorrow or the day after. We should have part of a final playable level map done soon. This is my other main focus for now.
I hope everyone has a fine welcome to Spring.
Zed
I think I’m finally ready to push LORE Tabletop through to the art commission stage. This game is kind of unnecessary to make the Legend Series work. The game line would be fine without it. However, it’s the game I’ve built that I most want to play myself and it’s fun to design. For these reasons I’m going to focus on it.
I need to playtest it but it’s card based so I need art first. I can make some of it myself, especially landscapes and city environments, but the rest I’m commissioning. The game will be fully SFW at least for the first few rounds of cards. I’m working on draft four of the core rules at present.
I’m resuming work on Dragon Engine tomorrow or the day after. We should have part of a final playable level map done soon. This is my other main focus for now.
I hope everyone has a fine welcome to Spring.
Zed
General Video Game Updates
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I’m done making all of the terrain tiles I need for Dragon Engine Alpha and my two current side projects, Duskbringer and Dragon Drift. I was working on a third side project called LORE but I’ve realized that all its goals would work better being amalgamated with Dragon Engine full release. This saves me a lot of work. I’m adding all of the story I had for LORE to the main game’s script, which is actually making both easier to design.
LORE was my way of making a game out of the knowledge I have of real world Ancient, Medieval and modern history. The locations in my setting I had planned for this job would have been identical in both games so it makes sense to put them in the main game once. Duskbringer and Dragon Drift have different controls and unique level maps so they are remaining as they are. Making Dragon Engine better at telling stories about world history would only make it a better game with about the fourth of the work.
This leaves one and only one goal on my list of video game goals. By this point I’m expecting it will end up in my main video game. I wanted to make a playable graphic novel where images come with game mechanics and can tell a story that translates over into real time gameplay. I’m just going to run with this until it works itself into Dragon Engine. I’m thinking that the Basalt item colour will represent art and art materials anyway so that’s probably where it will fit.
Zed
LORE was my way of making a game out of the knowledge I have of real world Ancient, Medieval and modern history. The locations in my setting I had planned for this job would have been identical in both games so it makes sense to put them in the main game once. Duskbringer and Dragon Drift have different controls and unique level maps so they are remaining as they are. Making Dragon Engine better at telling stories about world history would only make it a better game with about the fourth of the work.
This leaves one and only one goal on my list of video game goals. By this point I’m expecting it will end up in my main video game. I wanted to make a playable graphic novel where images come with game mechanics and can tell a story that translates over into real time gameplay. I’m just going to run with this until it works itself into Dragon Engine. I’m thinking that the Basalt item colour will represent art and art materials anyway so that’s probably where it will fit.
Zed
Two New Video Game Projects
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I’m as of today a day away from being able to make full landscapes in Dragon Engine and its side games. These side games are going to be my main focus while I’m working on the final systems and menus for Dragon Engine. I’m adding two games to my list of projects, which already includes Duskbringer.
LORE Tabletop is going to be remade as a video game. I’m aiming to make it a playable graphic novel. It will not have terrain editing features but will be in the Legend Setting. Once I have Dragon Engine a few more stages done I can use it to create art and then put that art on digital cards. The game will be open world with a real time card playing system for combat or social interaction. I will also be looking into getting commissions for card art.
My other fun side project is Dragon Drift. I’m redoing the racing genre but with four legged dragons instead of cars. I have already looked up how to code all this and 90% of the work is level map design for the courses. The dragon character models are already on my list of things to work on. I’m also going to actually make that Patreon soon, hopefully within a month or two.
Zed
LORE Tabletop is going to be remade as a video game. I’m aiming to make it a playable graphic novel. It will not have terrain editing features but will be in the Legend Setting. Once I have Dragon Engine a few more stages done I can use it to create art and then put that art on digital cards. The game will be open world with a real time card playing system for combat or social interaction. I will also be looking into getting commissions for card art.
My other fun side project is Dragon Drift. I’m redoing the racing genre but with four legged dragons instead of cars. I have already looked up how to code all this and 90% of the work is level map design for the courses. The dragon character models are already on my list of things to work on. I’m also going to actually make that Patreon soon, hopefully within a month or two.
Zed
Lore Tabletop Final Draft is Out
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I’ve finished and uploaded to the free stuff links an updated version of LORE Tabletop. This is both the design document for my second video game project LORE and also a standalone game. LORE aims to bring back the old classic style of tabletop game but with the modern idea of using cards to represent items and characters. It’s a modular fantasy board game in a booklet. I’m going to be hiring on commission soon and this game will be where a lot of the art I commission is going to go. It should be fun and the game’s under ten pages if you want to read it.
C J Mcpherson
Head Game Designer
Concept Art Lead
Infinity Game Studios
C J Mcpherson
Head Game Designer
Concept Art Lead
Infinity Game Studios
Nearing Dragon Engine Alpha
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. We’re nearing the point with Dragon Engine where I can actually make a full video game. This is a point that I quite honestly am not prepared for. I have notes, plans, step by step instructions, drawings, maps and schematic from 20 years of planning. I’m even working on the theme song. I am prepared to make the game. I’m not remotely prepared as a person to have 20 years of planning be launched publicly.
The question might come up why I have put this much work into a video game. It’ll make money. Despite being a business owner with a firm grasp of gross and net I’m not doing this project just for money. There’s something a lot deeper and more fundamental I’m after and I’m going to try here to explain what it is and how I’ve survived this long working on one thing.
The world we live in goes too fast. I know that considering Dragon Engine is a lightning fast hack and slash at its core I probably seem to be agreeing with this speed. The process of making the game involves entire weeks spent doing nothing but planning without typing or math. The game is new tech but it’s made by a very old fashioned furry. It goes slowly and that was on purpose.
A while ago I saw the third The Lord of the Rings movie in a theatre. I hadn’t seen the first two but I was willing to immerse myself for a good three or so hours in another time and place. I have since watched all three movies. There is here, within those twelve or so hours of screen time, a story and a world unlike ours. There is some measure of magic in the movements of that story and the wonder of the grand fantasy landscape it happens on.
Beyond the code, numbers and file formats I’m aiming to capture that kind of majesty, that feel of entering a world that is as real and full of meaning as ours. The Lord of the Rings was originally written in the aftermath of WWII. It was a story about a war being won without the horrors the real life war inflicted on the Earth. I would like to be able to make more stories of that level of beauty without the world facing a calamity like that in order to get there.
This depth of story is a hard thing to find in the world outside of a few cinema classics and a couple of well worn novel series. A good novel might feature a grand plot on the scale of worlds but still I often find something lacking. There is a magic to a world in a story that exists apart from the individual tale and lives and breathes on its own. There is magic in being in a place like ours but not ours.
This is my core driving idea behind Dragon Engine. The game can’t only be combat and weapon options for me to be happy with it. The game is about a world that has value on its own and that contains more than warfare and death. Fantasy has strayed so utterly far from its origins that most of the modern fantasy classics really disgust me. The goal of the original works of the genre was to stop wars, not to glorify them. We need a world where we can see the best of ourselves looking back at us.
Knowing this, I’m beginning on map making soon.
Zed
The question might come up why I have put this much work into a video game. It’ll make money. Despite being a business owner with a firm grasp of gross and net I’m not doing this project just for money. There’s something a lot deeper and more fundamental I’m after and I’m going to try here to explain what it is and how I’ve survived this long working on one thing.
The world we live in goes too fast. I know that considering Dragon Engine is a lightning fast hack and slash at its core I probably seem to be agreeing with this speed. The process of making the game involves entire weeks spent doing nothing but planning without typing or math. The game is new tech but it’s made by a very old fashioned furry. It goes slowly and that was on purpose.
A while ago I saw the third The Lord of the Rings movie in a theatre. I hadn’t seen the first two but I was willing to immerse myself for a good three or so hours in another time and place. I have since watched all three movies. There is here, within those twelve or so hours of screen time, a story and a world unlike ours. There is some measure of magic in the movements of that story and the wonder of the grand fantasy landscape it happens on.
Beyond the code, numbers and file formats I’m aiming to capture that kind of majesty, that feel of entering a world that is as real and full of meaning as ours. The Lord of the Rings was originally written in the aftermath of WWII. It was a story about a war being won without the horrors the real life war inflicted on the Earth. I would like to be able to make more stories of that level of beauty without the world facing a calamity like that in order to get there.
This depth of story is a hard thing to find in the world outside of a few cinema classics and a couple of well worn novel series. A good novel might feature a grand plot on the scale of worlds but still I often find something lacking. There is a magic to a world in a story that exists apart from the individual tale and lives and breathes on its own. There is magic in being in a place like ours but not ours.
This is my core driving idea behind Dragon Engine. The game can’t only be combat and weapon options for me to be happy with it. The game is about a world that has value on its own and that contains more than warfare and death. Fantasy has strayed so utterly far from its origins that most of the modern fantasy classics really disgust me. The goal of the original works of the genre was to stop wars, not to glorify them. We need a world where we can see the best of ourselves looking back at us.
Knowing this, I’m beginning on map making soon.
Zed
Plans for LORE
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. Can you play an image? Let me explain what I mean. I’ve got the next few months of work for Dragon Engine planned out and scheduled by day. This will require doing one math task per day. I have another video game project I’ve been working on called LORE. I have the environment components, weapons and wildlife packs I need already. I can use my modular character maker for the people. To make this project go faster I will be buying most of the rest off other furries.
It’s time to look into spending my large business budget for the year. My thought is this. Furry art card games have existed but are hard to play and have limited print runs. I’m not making one so it doesn’t conflict with my furry fantasy card game Quantum. What if I made cards and then made them items or moves in a video game? I think this is what LORE needs to be fun. Every action has a card with nice art. I can do some of this art but not all of it. I’ll give the credits for each artist on their cards. So can you play an image? I’m aiming to find out.
Zed
It’s time to look into spending my large business budget for the year. My thought is this. Furry art card games have existed but are hard to play and have limited print runs. I’m not making one so it doesn’t conflict with my furry fantasy card game Quantum. What if I made cards and then made them items or moves in a video game? I think this is what LORE needs to be fun. Every action has a card with nice art. I can do some of this art but not all of it. I’ll give the credits for each artist on their cards. So can you play an image? I’m aiming to find out.
Zed
More Legend Series Books Soon
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. Dragon Engine is in a good place right now. I have the next few months of steps outlined in my notes and I’m doing them one a day. This leaves me with a lot of free time and energy. It’s time to return to my actual specialty, tabletop game design.
The Legend Series has all of its core rules done but there is a ton of room to add extra player and setting details. This is the broad generic content that I will need planned and in book form in order to make the Dragon Engine Updates covering the same content.
My first two Updates for Dragon Engine are the Dragons Update, adding in basic crafting and dragon characters, and Five Million Strong, adding in the assets and full map of Ascala and its surroundings. I’m planning one large Legend Series PDF for each Update in order. Here’s an excerpt from the first one, Legend – Dragons.
One key point bears mentioning here. Everyone in the Astral and Creation as a whole has a family. This is the one largest and most blatant difference between the Legend Setting and any other consumer fantasy setting. There are very few surnames in each nation or world and each has a history and a preferred set of jobs. This family grouping is normally called a House or a Clan and has its own history, lands and combat specialties. Each House or Clan is a different version of their parent species and they can only interbreed with individuals of their own lineage. Assume a surname has about half a million people and that if they emigrate somewhere they do it as a group. They’re like small nations each one, similar to a Scottish Clan in real life. As a member of a Scottish Clan myself this is the only way I know how to live and the only way I know how to depict a character.
You the player are encouraged to give your characters strong family ties and loyalties that are born out of genuine affection or shared goals. A character in the Legend Setting fights for their kin, their way of life and their homeland with a dedication that is real. They have relatives, partners and friends whose lives are worth both preserving and improving. This is the key change from most fantasy settings. When not at war or negotiating a difficult magic scenario, life in Creation is pleasant. Life here is not thrown away in battle or for spiritual reasons. People have the same rights and dignities they do in real life. They have lovers, favourite foods and popular folk figures regardless of social strata or occupation. This is a fantasy setting where there is something worth fighting for and always will be.
Zed
The Legend Series has all of its core rules done but there is a ton of room to add extra player and setting details. This is the broad generic content that I will need planned and in book form in order to make the Dragon Engine Updates covering the same content.
My first two Updates for Dragon Engine are the Dragons Update, adding in basic crafting and dragon characters, and Five Million Strong, adding in the assets and full map of Ascala and its surroundings. I’m planning one large Legend Series PDF for each Update in order. Here’s an excerpt from the first one, Legend – Dragons.
One key point bears mentioning here. Everyone in the Astral and Creation as a whole has a family. This is the one largest and most blatant difference between the Legend Setting and any other consumer fantasy setting. There are very few surnames in each nation or world and each has a history and a preferred set of jobs. This family grouping is normally called a House or a Clan and has its own history, lands and combat specialties. Each House or Clan is a different version of their parent species and they can only interbreed with individuals of their own lineage. Assume a surname has about half a million people and that if they emigrate somewhere they do it as a group. They’re like small nations each one, similar to a Scottish Clan in real life. As a member of a Scottish Clan myself this is the only way I know how to live and the only way I know how to depict a character.
You the player are encouraged to give your characters strong family ties and loyalties that are born out of genuine affection or shared goals. A character in the Legend Setting fights for their kin, their way of life and their homeland with a dedication that is real. They have relatives, partners and friends whose lives are worth both preserving and improving. This is the key change from most fantasy settings. When not at war or negotiating a difficult magic scenario, life in Creation is pleasant. Life here is not thrown away in battle or for spiritual reasons. People have the same rights and dignities they do in real life. They have lovers, favourite foods and popular folk figures regardless of social strata or occupation. This is a fantasy setting where there is something worth fighting for and always will be.
Zed
Spring Company Updates
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I thought a company update would be a good idea today. Dragon Engine is heading rapidly toward Alpha. There’s more fine detail work than I expected but it is all going smoothly. Once I have it in Alpha I can work on the opening area of Duskbringer. Both of these rely on my terrain tile system to build the landscape and buildings. Find out more about Duskbringer in my recent posts about the game.
I’m also slowly planning out LORE. This was initially my attempt at a voxel based game but the project has evolved since then. I am getting all of the textures and assets I need for this game off the internet and I’ll be buying large numbers of them on commission later this year. I only have the time to make assets for one game so I’ve set the rule LORE has to use entirely external assets. I have most of what I need already but I could always use more.
I have enough plans for a combat engine that I can’t fit all of them into one game. I also have two different versions of the procedural script system. The second version focuses on generating nation and faction backstory out of the player’s real time actions. It is not compatible with Dragon Engine or its Journal system. This way we can generate settings and locations as well as individual stories and narratives. The game is no longer voxel based and will use a variant of the terrain tile system.
Zed
I’m also slowly planning out LORE. This was initially my attempt at a voxel based game but the project has evolved since then. I am getting all of the textures and assets I need for this game off the internet and I’ll be buying large numbers of them on commission later this year. I only have the time to make assets for one game so I’ve set the rule LORE has to use entirely external assets. I have most of what I need already but I could always use more.
I have enough plans for a combat engine that I can’t fit all of them into one game. I also have two different versions of the procedural script system. The second version focuses on generating nation and faction backstory out of the player’s real time actions. It is not compatible with Dragon Engine or its Journal system. This way we can generate settings and locations as well as individual stories and narratives. The game is no longer voxel based and will use a variant of the terrain tile system.
Zed
Duskbringer Soon
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. I’m rapidly accelerating my plans for Duskbringer. I’ve opened and played the in-editor version of the Godot Third Person Shooter template I downloaded about a week ago. The game is fun. Finally, a game that exists for the sake of fun. Godot team, wonderful job. It did heat my gaming laptop up rapidly but man was it worth it. I almost won but I fell in a hole. The shooting, movement and combat are perfect. I played it with a gamepad. It’s the first time I’ve used one of those in almost a decade and liked it.
With this in mind it’s time to do a few changes and we have a final game.
Thing one, I’m using my own custom character model for the player character. It’s modular so I can layer it over the existing animation skeleton and keep everything else including the jump effect.
Thing two, I’m giving them a sword. I have the sword asset and all I need to do is attach it to their non shooting arm.
Thing three, I’m making a new open world level map for the game using my modular tile system and a free skybox kit I got earlier.
Thing four, I’m adding in more fantasy themed enemies. These are from the Legend Setting and they will look cool.
Thing five, I have a script that I’ll voice act. There will never be a ton of dialogue in the game so it doesn’t distract from the game itself.
I’ll probably have a demo out within a week or two.
Zed
With this in mind it’s time to do a few changes and we have a final game.
Thing one, I’m using my own custom character model for the player character. It’s modular so I can layer it over the existing animation skeleton and keep everything else including the jump effect.
Thing two, I’m giving them a sword. I have the sword asset and all I need to do is attach it to their non shooting arm.
Thing three, I’m making a new open world level map for the game using my modular tile system and a free skybox kit I got earlier.
Thing four, I’m adding in more fantasy themed enemies. These are from the Legend Setting and they will look cool.
Thing five, I have a script that I’ll voice act. There will never be a ton of dialogue in the game so it doesn’t distract from the game itself.
I’ll probably have a demo out within a week or two.
Zed
Brief Video Game Updates
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. Dragon Engine is taking longer than I thought but otherwise the project is going at full speed. There’s a lot more fine detail work than I expected but none of this is difficult to do. I’m also still working on my free building game LORE. I had an idea. In order to make a second game I need new biome and structure textures. I only have enough time to make the ones for Dragon Engine. What if I just bought some?
In about a day, yesterday, I have more textures than I need. Thanks to the Kenney team for the wall textures and some random internet 3D designers at itch.io for the trees, grass, weapons and domestic animals. I’ve paid about $15 for more stuff than I’m going to need. LORE is evolving to be done in 5 metre square panels for everything instead of cubes. They’re easier to build with for the player. Also Godot Engine can handle grid based asset placement innately so I have almost no code to write for it.
Zed
In about a day, yesterday, I have more textures than I need. Thanks to the Kenney team for the wall textures and some random internet 3D designers at itch.io for the trees, grass, weapons and domestic animals. I’ve paid about $15 for more stuff than I’m going to need. LORE is evolving to be done in 5 metre square panels for everything instead of cubes. They’re easier to build with for the player. Also Godot Engine can handle grid based asset placement innately so I have almost no code to write for it.
Zed
My Plans for Hiring Soon
General | Posted a month agoHeyo. You know, when I started designing games professionally a decade ago the industry I’m in looked a lot different. The tabletop gaming craze was in full swing. Since then we’ve lost two out of the three major miniature gaming brands, the publishers of Dungeons and Dragons I think went bankrupt and the world’s leading card game stopped designing original settings. What happened?
Everyone joined the furry fandom.
Anyway, I started out this journey with what a miniature gamer calls a test shot. I made the ultimate furry fandom tabletop game Heart and fur. It is still available as a free download and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever made. Since then though what I call the large game model has fallen out of favour. We don’t see games with tons of interconnected lore, history and character design anymore.
I’m looking to have Dragon Engine Alpha done soon. Once that free EXE hits the internet it will be time to look into hiring a number of jobs on commission. The clock is going on this one as we speak. I learned a number of things when I made Heart and Fur. One was that a Patreon is better money than direct sales, which is why I released the game for free a while ago.
One was that if I want to hire I need to pay money to advertise here and I’d better have a Discord so we can all network. One was that furries are great at game design and we don’t know it. I had a policy way back in those early years. I’ll pay $50 for 5 pages of game text so long as it’s related to Heart and Fur. I got a ton of stuff done this way. It was all released as one time only marketing so don’t expect to see any of it now.
I will also need the same thing I needed back then, promotional art. In addition I now have a video game series that will need external assets that aren’t in my style. Dragon Engine only uses my in-house assets but I have other goals that will need someone else to help create. What if though we could resurrect the large game model? Could we pull off another Heart and Fur and make something perfect?
I hope so. I will be laying the groundwork for this as I plan out what I need.
Zed
Everyone joined the furry fandom.
Anyway, I started out this journey with what a miniature gamer calls a test shot. I made the ultimate furry fandom tabletop game Heart and fur. It is still available as a free download and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever made. Since then though what I call the large game model has fallen out of favour. We don’t see games with tons of interconnected lore, history and character design anymore.
I’m looking to have Dragon Engine Alpha done soon. Once that free EXE hits the internet it will be time to look into hiring a number of jobs on commission. The clock is going on this one as we speak. I learned a number of things when I made Heart and Fur. One was that a Patreon is better money than direct sales, which is why I released the game for free a while ago.
One was that if I want to hire I need to pay money to advertise here and I’d better have a Discord so we can all network. One was that furries are great at game design and we don’t know it. I had a policy way back in those early years. I’ll pay $50 for 5 pages of game text so long as it’s related to Heart and Fur. I got a ton of stuff done this way. It was all released as one time only marketing so don’t expect to see any of it now.
I will also need the same thing I needed back then, promotional art. In addition I now have a video game series that will need external assets that aren’t in my style. Dragon Engine only uses my in-house assets but I have other goals that will need someone else to help create. What if though we could resurrect the large game model? Could we pull off another Heart and Fur and make something perfect?
I hope so. I will be laying the groundwork for this as I plan out what I need.
Zed
Making Ascala in Dragon Engine
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. I’m pretty much done having updates here about Dragon Engine that aren’t sample images as a normal image post. I’m nearly done the Alpha with today’s progress. The question then becomes, ‘I have the tools, what do I build?’
This brings us to the game’s first two updates. Dragons Update will add more combat and crafting content as well as adding four legged dragons to the options for character creation. This will be a normal game design project done at my normal speed of 10-15 minutes of work a day.
I know I can work on two of these projects at once so long as the Alpha is out so I’ll also be working on the first setting and map pack set in Ascala. Five Million Strong will detail the entirety of the Ascala continent and the entirety of the city Ascala itself. The Ascala continent also contains the vast desert known as the Interior, the Vantaran Empire and the city state Oiwan. All of these will be playable.
In light of this I need to compile all of my notes about Ascala and its neighbours. This may take a while. The city’s theme is industrial poetry, making magic out of technology and then forgetting that they aren’t the same thing. Their CPUs are backed in energy crystal, their car companies are run by dragons and their police wield artifice firearms and armour.
The city has 21 Districts and 19 of them will be a full 2km square map each. I’m leaving the other two up to you all to invent as needed for your own stories. There are dozens of races coexisting in the city including humans, wolf folk, lion folk, humanoid dragons, actual dragons, Fair Folk and visiting equine folk from the North. It looks generic but it isn’t.
I’m going to be sharing what I can of this city design process as I do it. We need Arcane District with its high glass towers and powerful magic users. We need Greenwall with its slow return to nature and urban chaos. We need Sun District with its glorious highrises and deep secrets. All this and more, soon.
Zed
This brings us to the game’s first two updates. Dragons Update will add more combat and crafting content as well as adding four legged dragons to the options for character creation. This will be a normal game design project done at my normal speed of 10-15 minutes of work a day.
I know I can work on two of these projects at once so long as the Alpha is out so I’ll also be working on the first setting and map pack set in Ascala. Five Million Strong will detail the entirety of the Ascala continent and the entirety of the city Ascala itself. The Ascala continent also contains the vast desert known as the Interior, the Vantaran Empire and the city state Oiwan. All of these will be playable.
In light of this I need to compile all of my notes about Ascala and its neighbours. This may take a while. The city’s theme is industrial poetry, making magic out of technology and then forgetting that they aren’t the same thing. Their CPUs are backed in energy crystal, their car companies are run by dragons and their police wield artifice firearms and armour.
The city has 21 Districts and 19 of them will be a full 2km square map each. I’m leaving the other two up to you all to invent as needed for your own stories. There are dozens of races coexisting in the city including humans, wolf folk, lion folk, humanoid dragons, actual dragons, Fair Folk and visiting equine folk from the North. It looks generic but it isn’t.
I’m going to be sharing what I can of this city design process as I do it. We need Arcane District with its high glass towers and powerful magic users. We need Greenwall with its slow return to nature and urban chaos. We need Sun District with its glorious highrises and deep secrets. All this and more, soon.
Zed
LORE Development Updates
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. I’m always surprised at which projects come together swiftly and which ones take endless small detail work and management. LORE is my current project to make a fun, easy to play furry themed cube or voxel style game. I’ve spent some time today looking at the very well made free voxel template I downloaded for Godot Engine a few days ago. It turns out that it’s 90% identical to a project I did as an experiment about a month before Christmas called OpenFantasy.
OpenFantasy relied on a system in the engine called a GridMap. This allows modular cubes, shapes, or items to be endlessly repeated in a level map in a grid without making multiple versions of each item. The voxel game download runs off one of these GridMap files and adds some procedural code to generate the landscape out of them. Apparently I already know how to do this. Also apparently the GridMap can extend up and down without limit. I just didn’t know what button to press for it the first time.
Then I started looking into making ready made landscapes and having them load in a grid to save the engine the heat and RAM of actually generating terrain. I know how to do this but only if each chunk or region is its own scene file. After a single Google search it turns out the recommended way of doing this is to make each chunk its own scene file. Okay. Cool. Maybe like I go and build all of Ascala for fun now.
Right, I’m already a couple hundred cubes into building all of Ascala for fun now as of three months ago.
Cool. So, like, how’s life?
Zed
OpenFantasy relied on a system in the engine called a GridMap. This allows modular cubes, shapes, or items to be endlessly repeated in a level map in a grid without making multiple versions of each item. The voxel game download runs off one of these GridMap files and adds some procedural code to generate the landscape out of them. Apparently I already know how to do this. Also apparently the GridMap can extend up and down without limit. I just didn’t know what button to press for it the first time.
Then I started looking into making ready made landscapes and having them load in a grid to save the engine the heat and RAM of actually generating terrain. I know how to do this but only if each chunk or region is its own scene file. After a single Google search it turns out the recommended way of doing this is to make each chunk its own scene file. Okay. Cool. Maybe like I go and build all of Ascala for fun now.
Right, I’m already a couple hundred cubes into building all of Ascala for fun now as of three months ago.
Cool. So, like, how’s life?
Zed
Infinity Game Studios Spring Updates
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. We’re heading into Spring eventually so here are some Infinity Game Studios company plans and updates for the season. I do my planning for the company by calendar season because I find it easiest.
Once Dragon Engine Alpha is done I am working on the full release then moving on to the first update. Dragon Update will add more advanced combat, dragon characters and weapon and armour crafting. After that I’m making Five Million Strong, the map and character pack for Ascala. I have the updates past this planned and I’ll announce them closer to when I’m working on them.
I will need a ton of promotional artwork for these and my style can’t do it. I’m going to be buying a ton of high value commissions later so keep an eye here if you’re an artist.
I finally tracked down a stable and playable template for a voxel based game in Godot Engine. I’ve played it in the test run mode and it is fun. I’m going to be resuming my plans for a furry Minecraft equivalent. Here are my thoughts for what I’m calling LORE.
Metals drop from monsters and are not obtained through mining.
One player file can hop between any number of maps using a ritual to gather without limit.
You keep your inventory on death.
The maps are ready made with human created landscapes and dungeons. There will be no procedural maps.
Better tools have area of effect block breaking abilities for faster terraforming.
You can save any combination of blocks and place it so long as you have the resources.
I am hand making the textures. They will not be pixel art. I’m going for a retro Dungeons and Dragons era old school RPG feel with a more realistic and less bright look.
It will be in my setting.
The characters will be in full 3D and not blocky.
These are my plans going into the warmer weather.
Zed
Once Dragon Engine Alpha is done I am working on the full release then moving on to the first update. Dragon Update will add more advanced combat, dragon characters and weapon and armour crafting. After that I’m making Five Million Strong, the map and character pack for Ascala. I have the updates past this planned and I’ll announce them closer to when I’m working on them.
I will need a ton of promotional artwork for these and my style can’t do it. I’m going to be buying a ton of high value commissions later so keep an eye here if you’re an artist.
I finally tracked down a stable and playable template for a voxel based game in Godot Engine. I’ve played it in the test run mode and it is fun. I’m going to be resuming my plans for a furry Minecraft equivalent. Here are my thoughts for what I’m calling LORE.
Metals drop from monsters and are not obtained through mining.
One player file can hop between any number of maps using a ritual to gather without limit.
You keep your inventory on death.
The maps are ready made with human created landscapes and dungeons. There will be no procedural maps.
Better tools have area of effect block breaking abilities for faster terraforming.
You can save any combination of blocks and place it so long as you have the resources.
I am hand making the textures. They will not be pixel art. I’m going for a retro Dungeons and Dragons era old school RPG feel with a more realistic and less bright look.
It will be in my setting.
The characters will be in full 3D and not blocky.
These are my plans going into the warmer weather.
Zed
Quick Update on Dragon Engine
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. I'm close to having Dragon Engine Alpha done but it's Friday so I'm taking a weekend starting today. Also I finally tracked down a stable, playable voxel Godot Engine template file so I'm back to looking into the voxel genre.
Zed
Zed
Notes Before Dragon Engine Alpha Launch
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. I’m making steady progress toward Dragon Engine Alpha. We’re probably going to see the first free EXE file out this week. I’ve made a couple adjustments to my plans for following its release.
I left YouTube as a professional ages ago when I had other tasks to do that conflicted with making video content. With Dragon Engine made I can produce video content a lot more easily. A lot of YouTube content stopped all at once around Christmas time. I’ve checked thoroughly and all the content makers who liked the job or had stable funding models stayed on.
No, I don’t have any clue what happened but it hit my Blogger sites as well. I see a market on YouTube for free animation software and with the Discord up I can actually connect with a community. This way we all have something furry fantasy to watch. I will resume posting on YouTube as the audience is still there, just with a Patreon and the time to manage it.
Also I’ve realized that since Absolute requires no new code that I don’t already know how to write I can work on Dragon Engine and it at the same time. I’m going to need the video creation tasks as extra work or I’ll have nothing to do. Dragon Engine takes about five minutes of work a day to make fast progress. I don’t do more than one job a day because they can take weeks to plan, especially clothing assets.
These are my notes heading toward launch.
Zed
I left YouTube as a professional ages ago when I had other tasks to do that conflicted with making video content. With Dragon Engine made I can produce video content a lot more easily. A lot of YouTube content stopped all at once around Christmas time. I’ve checked thoroughly and all the content makers who liked the job or had stable funding models stayed on.
No, I don’t have any clue what happened but it hit my Blogger sites as well. I see a market on YouTube for free animation software and with the Discord up I can actually connect with a community. This way we all have something furry fantasy to watch. I will resume posting on YouTube as the audience is still there, just with a Patreon and the time to manage it.
Also I’ve realized that since Absolute requires no new code that I don’t already know how to write I can work on Dragon Engine and it at the same time. I’m going to need the video creation tasks as extra work or I’ll have nothing to do. Dragon Engine takes about five minutes of work a day to make fast progress. I don’t do more than one job a day because they can take weeks to plan, especially clothing assets.
These are my notes heading toward launch.
Zed
Shiny New Discord Server
General | Posted 2 months agoHeyo. I'm happy to announce the launch of my official Discord Server. Link here.
https://discord.gg/DcSZtyfvB
Also I'm adding to my list of assets I need.
Cute Four Legged Dragons
Sexy Robot Dragons
Vehicle Themed Wings
I grew up with games like Kirby Air Ride and the older Mario Cart games. I thought if I make some Kirby themed dragons with star themed wings I could make a racing map and bring back some of that Era of gaming. I'll see you all on Discord.
Zed
https://discord.gg/DcSZtyfvB
Also I'm adding to my list of assets I need.
Cute Four Legged Dragons
Sexy Robot Dragons
Vehicle Themed Wings
I grew up with games like Kirby Air Ride and the older Mario Cart games. I thought if I make some Kirby themed dragons with star themed wings I could make a racing map and bring back some of that Era of gaming. I'll see you all on Discord.
Zed
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