Returning to My Roots with RPG Maker

Seemingly a lifetime ago, I was an illiterate homeschooler with a lot of free time on my hands and a love of video games. Just about the only thing I could ever think about was wanting to or trying to create video games. Not being able to read, however, usually put a stop to that. I did my fair share of copying Atari 400 command lines just to watch the river or the fireworks animations but that wasn’t really learning how to code. I was just copying symbols from a book. That all changed when my brothers “acquired” a copy of RPG Maker ’95.

Pictured: RPG Maker 2000 cause I didn’t find a good ’95 picture. Maybe it wasn’t RM95, I just remember it was the late ’90s when I used it.

In My Head, I Was Degrading

I participated in Wizard Jam 10 by Idle Thumbs. It’s the last game jam they are hosting and one I’ve always wanted to participate in. After listening to the episode, I decided I should make a game in PICO-8 since I own a license but never used it before. Things could have gone better. I ended up with In My Head, I Was Degrading.

SteamWorld Heist Thoughts

A long time ago, I picked up a copy of SteamWorld HEIST in a bundle. Thought it looked like something I’d like but never tried. Then I saw a cartoonist I like talking about the series. I had just finished Humans Fall Flat so I was looking for something to play next anyway.

I was hooked pretty much immediately.

RPG Library

Hey! I finally posted a version of my incomplete thesis project on itch.io for anyone to check it out. I wanted to finish it but I had to keep moving on learning to code. This project got sidelined by my independent studies into Unity. The project is still buggy but you can try out the skeleton of it on my page here: https://gywair.itch.io/rpg-library

It was made using a Yoyo Games asset for GameMaker 1.4 (so I don’t know if it is for sale anymore). You can see I did a sweet job rebranding it in the demo: https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/143/yoyo-rpg

Ponger Version 1.0 Release

I finally finished (for now) my version of Pong based on a Zenva Academy tutorial. I still have some things I wish I’d done differently but I think this is done-ish enough. It’s to a state where it feels like something I made rather than a complete paint by numbers project.