Farewell June! What to do in July?

Some summer music that brings back memories...







Anyway, this month was one of the best months I've had all year. Overstatement? Understatement? I don't know... year's only half-over so far.

IGDA Meeting:

I just came back from a game developer's meeting way out in Irvine and I'd have to say it was a lot of fun. I am happy to have met a lot of like-minded individuals who have the same career aspirations as I do. I was able to do some networking (I was pleasantly surprised to see that other people had a blogspot. Perhaps I'm not crazy for using this!) I'm not a big fan of Tumblr, personally. I'll explain why sometime in another post.

Anyway... the meeting was very informative... and also a smack in a face. A lot of the people on the panel have told us about bad experiences with team members that they had on their project that they considered their friends, and most of them counted experiences where the game project they were working on caused them to split/break off a friendship that they had.

The sad part? They were getting paid for it and were let go. I'm working on Selatria and I already lost a very close friend due to disagreements about the project, and it's sad, but it happens. One of the best advice they gave was to keep members in the team by their expertise and how well they are, and not necessarily because they're just "your friend". That's probably one of the most helpful pieces of advice I've received, and a wake-up call that I may need to trim some of the team in the future.


XIII Complete:

Remember how I said that I wanted to complete Final Fantasy XIII? You know, the goal for the last six months or so? Well, the deed is done, finally. I don't have to make any more life goals, and I got through that game. Ugh. >< I'm hoping Final Fantasy XIII-2 is better.


BETACinema:

Skits are coming. There was going to be a skit posted today, but I took it down due to some pressure from other members in the group. Still needs some work and it's blurry and the audio is kind of messed up for whatever reason. Going to get that fixed and I'll work with the editor to try and get it up and running again. This weekend, perhaps?


What's going to happen in July?

I was planning on going to Anime Expo... or AM^2, or both, and then it dawned on me. I just don't care to go to either of them this year. I really don't. Too much of bad politics got in there and ruined a once good event. AM^2 creators are trying to get back at AX people or whatever. What happened to enjoying a yearly innocent/civil convention? It's just all pure bitterness and I don't want any part of it.

Anyway, other plans...

I'm going to work more on Selatria. A lot more. We got a third art director (very talented person), and there will be lots of changes coming. For more info on that, you can read the post I put on Monday.

Get rank 50 Gladiator in FFXIV. On Friday's post, it will be explained why this is so important. Especially if you haven't been keeping up with the changes that are coming to Final Fantasy XIV.

I want to hang out with the BETA people more, and not to just film stuff, either. One of my friends who mentioned something at the end of the meeting really got to me. I am really formal with my friends, it seems. I have to plan events to hang out with these meetings and I'm not one to be very social, and she suggested that we all hang out and it doesn't necessarily have to be a meeting. Surprisingly, I'm not against the idea. I'd rather kick back for once than always leading some sort of project or skit.


Catching up on sleep would be nice too...


Next time:

Friday's blog post will start the new month by going over the upcoming changes in Final Fantasy XIV and Naoki Yoshida's Letter from the Producer XII.

Selatria: Alpha Testing Now Online / Explanation of Phases

Selatria Battle System Alpha Testing Download: | Public Dropbox (Coming Soon)



Phase I: (June 27-July 9th)

Examine performance on other computers and operating systems. Taking reports on lag and glitchy performance.

Phase II: (Mid-July)

Work on new battle interface.
Work on more unique animations.
Re-design the look of the damage number(s).

Phase III: (Early-August)

Testing arrow/ranged attack animations.
Re-do casting animations.
Give monsters more interesting default attack animations.






I will post a link to the battle system test version on this post as well as on the Selatria page on Facebook.






.

Codename is no longer a codename.

The name of the project!



Selatria. Note that the logo is nowhere near finalized.

"Now what the hell is 'Selatria'? "

Selatria is not the name of a person or tangible object, nor is it a location. It's a mystical phenomenon which will be thoroughly explained in the context of the story it is based around.

The amount of selatria contained within a region may also determine what environment thrives. A region with vast resources of selatric energy will look something like this:


A region with all of its selatric energy sucked out of it can look something like this:



As development on the game progresses, I will post more info about it with associated screenshots. The post on Monday is going to have the open alpha testing for the battle system of the game, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what others think of it.


I apologize for the short post, but I have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare for Monday!



.

Jumping June Jehoshaphats! It's summer!

Summer has started, much to my dismay. I don't know, I'm more of a winter person. As most people are on their summer vacations, I refuse to take any sort of vacation and remain on a full-time schedule, though it is a bunch of easier classes. I'd rather not get heat exhaustion AND school exhaustion, though. Ugh.

A couple of days ago I finally gave in and started Final Fantasy VIII from scratch. It's my second time playing through it since the first time I played it was 10 years ago and I didn't know what the hell I was doing and spammed GFs and leveled everyone to 100. Bad idea. This time, I am a little older (ha!) and know what I'm doing this time. I'm actually enjoying it! I thought it was a terrible FF the first time I played it, but now it's not that bad, or maybe it's not that bad because XIII (just finished it last weekend) was just plain crappy and anything is better by comparison? Meh.

Really, at this rate, I'm hoping to be done with VIII sometime next week. I want to get back to Chrono Cross and finish that. Then move onto Vagrant Story if there's time. All while waiting for FFXIV to improve and deliver us with the update I've been yammering about in previous posts.

Some other stuff I've been working on...



Codename: EPIC:

This may be one of the last posts that will have the codename. Next blog post, there is a chance I will have an actual title for this project, and some permanent character names! Airen (storyline/plot-co leader) and I are going to be meeting Friday night to discuss details, and I'm looking forward to it!

BETA Cinema:

There are THREE new movies coming.

The first is one that Ryan is editing, that is likely to come out first. The trailer doesn't explain the skit too well, but I assure you it will be our best edited one to date.





The second one is The Math Skit. We had some issues with getting it up due to missing footage, and we plan on posting that sometime soon. I'm going to be editing that.





It's says April 1st, but the date is likely to be July 1st. XD


The third movie we plan on filming at tomorrow's meeting which will appropriately titled "Jumping June Jehoshaphats". (Sound familiar?) Alyssa is going to be making her BETACinema editing debut. I actually plan on cutting back my role as main editor and writer because of my existing commitments to two other projects that are taking my time. Here's hoping things actually go well and all of the groups do not suffer due to this. We'll see.



Degree Progress:

As far as university is concerned, I ended up passing General Physics II. I don't know HOW, but I did. Apparently the system is very inconsistent. I take Data Structures in Winter 2010 and got a C-, and I was forced to re-take. Yet, I took Physics II and got a C- and I don't have to re-take. Weird. Given that I passed all of my courses, this is how far through I am to getting my two degrees.


X - Denotes that the class is finished.
O - Denotes that the class will be taken in Fall 2011.

Computer Science B.S. (Main Degree)


Almost done! Needs about a year and a half more and I can move onto the next chapter of my life. Finding a career in what I love more than anything. >:)





Ending Note:

Anyhow, I'll end this post with a song that's been on my mind!





Lyrics:

I never seen you looking so bad my funky one
You tell me that your superfine mind has come undone

Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won't be there no more
Any major dude will tell you

Have you ever seen a squawk's tears? Well, look at mine
The people on the street have all seen better times

Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won't be there no more
Any major dude will tell you

I can tell you all I know, the where to go, the what to do
You can try to run but you can't hide from what's inside of you

Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you my friend
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door
In the morning it won't be there no more
Any major dude will tell you





.

Battle System Update: Monster Animations and Team Attacks

For the past few days, I've been doing some interesting tweaks to the battle system. I've edited the monsters attack animations to come up and actually physically smack the character for damage rather than just stand there. (Was actually easier than I thought it would be.)

Another concept I am working on is going to be "Team Attacks". Party members will be able to string attacks and join in on other party members attacks in battle. I'm planning on having them introduced early on and they may be the primary strategy to winning fights in the game efficiently.

I'm planning on having some basic team attacks that Mage and his female companion (shown below with magenta hair) can do in the Alpha Testing for the battle system which will be available starting June 27th.


For more info on battle system alpha testing, you can go here.






.

Nope!

No blog entry today. On Tuesday, I will show more of the battle system of the game. :D

Happy Father's Day!

Mid-June Rant. Summer Goals, Plans, and Stuff.

An old-fashioned rant. A lot of this stuff wouldn't fit in a simple status update, so a blog post is more suitable. That's the original purpose of ranting now, isn't it?

Finals:

Now that my finals are over and I can enjoy a couple of days off until the next term starts in the middle of next week, I am going to relax and take it easy.

Actually, it won't be very easy. I'm anxious to see what my grades are. I am really hoping I didn't do bad enough on the Physics II final to warrant re-taking the course. I am also worried about Combinatorics, but to a lesser extent. The problem with Physics as far as my university is concerned is that it's only offered once a year due to budget cuts so the class sizes are through the roof. It has as many people as a standard G.E. (general education) class, yet it still covers an enormous amount of material.

Other classes that are this difficult do not have class sizes this large. (Calculus/Multi-variable Calculus comes to mind.) and I really think that large class sizes take away from the learning experience. And let's face it, I'm pretty Physics-retarded. Maybe it's because it doesn't appeal to me, but I just do not get it.

Anyway, I have a back-up plan if I am to not pass the course and that's to retake it from January-May at nearby San Bernardino Valley College while dual-enrolling at CSUSB in order to graduate in somewhat of a timely manner. I really don't want to do that, and it would eat up quite a lot of gas and make me stressed to no return going back and forth, but I'll do it if I need to.

Anyway, I'm predicting (optimistically) a B and two C's. In a pessimistic view, it's likely to be a C+, C, and C-. I felt like I could have done so much better, but I was bed ridden sick the week I took my Physics midterm, I was at the hospital during the study session and a combination of that and just being too ill to study I ended up getting a 14 out of 100. I felt like if I had just felt better and went to said study session I would have scored much higher and possibly passed. Oh well.

_

Laptop Fix:

On a somewhat less stressful note, I am planning on finally going around and getting my laptop fixed. Something in its interior snapped a few months ago and they didn't have the part to repair it. It causes my USB ports to be dislocated which makes traveling or getting documents across very difficult. In most laptops, the USB ports are soldered to the motherboard, so breaking/snapping that piece would mean it's game over.

Luckily, Toshiba Satellite models have USB ports that aren't soldered on. But I need to find a whole bottom case online, and I just haven't had the time to look for it. I also don't want to rush and be ripped off. Lots of computer dealers like to rip off their customers because they don't know what the hell they're buying or how much it's worth.

_

Nintendo 3DS:

While we're on the topic of rip-offs, did you know all of the hardware for a Nintendo 3DS only costs about $100 to make?

I still want one really badly. and I just so happen to have found a lot of my GE textbooks that I don't need anymore. I'm planning on selling those off and put that towards said 3DS fund. I'm torn on whether or not I want to actually sell my Nintendo DS Lite, though. Even though I went through (and accidentally broke two out of three over the past 7 years or so) Nintendo DS systems, it remains to be one of my favorite consoles. But the 3DS not supporting GBA games... that just doesn't run well with me. I hope they offer Virtual Console for the GBA soon, I'd like to get Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2, some games I want to play but missed from the GBA era.

I want this color model in particular.




Only because it's my favorite shade of blue. But you wouldn't know that now, would you? :)

A man can dream...


_

Codename: EPIC:

I'm working on the battle system some more. And a new dungeon, and new abilities. It's a lot of work. (Though it is a lot of fun!)

That being said, here's some sample stuff of what I'm working on. Note, I had to keep the names/menu pictures out of the project since it's still being determined who (or what) we are going to name them and menu pictures are still being designed. The only one that's sure-fire to be kept is "Mage" for the main character.

Anyway, some development shots of what is being worked on. I went through the work of designing the new user-interface with the blue-black color scheme. I think it works well and looks pretty unique. Plus that's my style. (I also made a matching header for this blog based on the user interface scheme I designed for the project.)




I need to work on the visuals for damage output. They look really ugly and do not match the cleaned up interface AT ALL. I'll be working on that a little later this month.

_


BETACinema:

Next weekend we will have our June meeting. I'm not going to spoil publicly on what we're filming/scheming this month. But it will feature one of the characters from our "BETACinema Presents" skit we filmed earlier this month.

For the majority of this month (and last), I had a video reel up of some of my favorite sketches we've done this last year, but it was taking up too much space at the top, so it has been taken down for now. You can watch our videos here.





That's it for now. Maybe I'll actually get to finish Final Fantasy XIII this summer.

Naoki Yoshida "Yoshi-P" Part VII

See also: Letter from the Producer XI

See also: All Previous Naoki Yoshida posts / FFXIV Notes


A new letter means a new blog post ! Yoshi-P released a new letter yesterday unveiling footage from FFXIV's up-coming battle system.

Here is footage of the current battle system taken from a XIV player.




Here's a preview of the new battle system as presented in the Letter from the Producer:





Not much of a difference, you say? Well...

-They're getting rid of pushing the same damn button to attack and bringing back Auto-Attack used in FFXI and FFXII (Good!)

-They got rid of the annoying, laggy ATB-esque Stamina Bar. (Good!)

-They're redoing a lot of the boring animation(s). Let it be known that I think the re-done "Rage of Halone" (the last sword skill) done looks badass! Now that's the kind of weapon skills I miss seeing from FFXI. Reminds me of a mix of Vorpal and Savage Blade. The new Lancer thrust weapon skill also looks great. (Good!)

-The attack icons look well differentiated and there's a visual timer for when the ability can be used next. (Good!)

-You'll now be able to switch from active to passive mode while moving. Minor annoyance, but what the hell? No reason why not. (Good!(?))



Now he also stated that one of the two raid dungeons are complete and they're currently testing out the second one. He then went on to say that the release date for this monumental patch will be later than mid-June as anticipated.

Now some people on the forums got angry that they have to wait a little longer for the patch. But I say let them take as much time as they need. Rushing content to the masses got them into this situation in the first place.


In the meantime, I'll be working Gladiator to 50, Conjurer to 38, and all other classes to 30.

Second Game Project: Battle System Alpha Test Details (α)

Hey all!


My original plan was to have the alpha testing for the battle system for our project we're working on in the Codename: EPIC development team start today and go until the 19th. However, some plans came up in real life which called for an immediate halt on all my projects until I got that sorted out. Because of this, the testing dates for the project are from June 27th to July 9th.





At the bottom of the post, I will post some system requirements. This particular project is running on a heavily modified RPG Maker VX engine. When the game itself is completed, I'm planning on putting my share of the proceeds of the project into a fund for purchasing a Unity and Unreal license.

Anyway, back on topic. The purpose of this test is to not show off the game itself. The game is very early on in development. But I am almost finished with the bare-bones battle system, and I'd like to see others play it on their computers and get feedback on lag and performance before I go into optimizing features like the user interface and how the graphics look in-game.

What to expect to play through are parts of the first dungeon, and some of the world map. Areas involving story/cutscene sequences will be omitted from the battle testing.


System Requirements:
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 / XP / Vista / 7
CPU: PC with 1.0GHz Intel® Pentium® III equivalent or higher processor

RAM: At least 256MB of system RAM
Minimum Disk Requirement: 100MB available hard disk space

Resolution: 1024x768 or better video resolution

If you are interested in testing, you can comment on this blog post or message me privately. Invites will be sent via e-mail on the 27th.


.

E3 2011: Trailers and Thoughts Compilation Part 2: Other Conferences and Games

See Part 1 (Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo) here.

Ubisoft:

See also:
Ubisoft Press Conference: Part 1
Ubisoft Press Conference: Part 2
Ubisoft Press Conference: Part 3
Ubisoft Press Conference: Part 4

I can sum up the conference with two words: Mr. Caffeine.





His bad jokes make me cringe, but still some good games:


Rayman: Origins:





Assassin's Creed: Revelations:






EA

See also:

EA Press Conference: Part 1
EA Press Conference: Part 2
EA Press Conference: Part 3
EA Press Conference: Part 4

Need for Speed: The Run






Other:


Metal Gear Solid 3D (Konami)

E3 2011: Trailers and Thoughts Compilation Part 1: Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo's Conference

Today's Blog Post: E3 Part 1. This shows what I think of the Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo conference and games that are going to come out for the system that may not necessarily have had time in the conference itself. On Saturday, I am going to post the EA, Konami, and Ubisoft conferences and games I'd be interested out of those.


You can see the official E3 Expo website here.



Microsoft:

See also:
Microsoft's E3 Press Conference - Part 1
Microsoft's E3 Press Conference - Part 2
Microsoft's E3 Press Conference - Part 3
Microsoft's E3 Press Conference - Part 4

Microsoft is the only one out of the big three that didn't really announce any new consoles or hardware. But more of additional software features for the Xbox (like watching YouTube and TV via Xbox). For games, they mostly capitalized on sequels/remakes/reboots to their existing popular franchises.


I'll get the franchises I don't care too much for out of the way. New Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer. Yay.





And a new Halo trilogy is announced. That means not only will there be a Halo 4, but there will be a Halo 5 and 6 as well. (Why the hell would they announce more than one game in the same series at the same time? That's just bad planning.) None of which are being developed by Bungie, so there will probably be a major shift in gameplay elements in these new installments unlike the Call of Duty series. (Above).





As for Kinect? This movie sums it up in a nutshell.






Games I am looking forward to (Xbox):

Tomb Raider: (Careful, you may want to turn the volume low for this trailer. People may get the WRONG idea.)






Ryse:





Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Also for PS3):




Mass Effect 3:





Sony:

See also:
Sony's E3 Press Conference - Part 1
Sony's E3 Press Conference - Part 2
Sony's E3 Press Conference - Part 3

I don't know, I found Sony's conference to be very lackluster this year in general. The fist part of it was all about apologizing for the whole hacking mess. But they did announce the official name for their new hand-held, the "PS Vita". It has a touch screen and some interesting game-play elements. It's also teaming up with AT&T's for dozens of mobile hot-spots.





It seems to have about the graphics capabilities of the PS3 and will release for the same price as a 3DS. A $249 for a standard model and $299 for a 3G model.

Games I'm looking forward to (Sony):

Twisted Metal:






Uncharted 3:






Final Fantasy XIII-2: (See: Microsoft)

Nintendo:

See also:
Nintendo's E3 Press Conference - Part 1
Nintendo's E3 Press Conference - Part 2
Nintendo's E3 Press Conference - Part 3



And now the best for last. Mainly because I'm a Nintendo fanboy, but I digress.

Nintendo finally unveiled its new console. Well, actually we've known it for quite some time, but only as "Project Cafe". But it now has a real name: The Wii U.





Nintendo always has a way to innovate past Sony and Microsoft. And they always tend to copy them later on in their console. Though, I'm interested to see how an i-pad like controller would work. I also hope it's sturdy enough. Most Nintendo products are, because I tend to be clumsy and drop my Wiimote often. lol

I'm really looking forward to getting a Wii U console. It'll probably be my gaming ticket to finally catching up with this gaming generation.


Games I'm looking forward to (Nintendo):

Super Mario 3DS:






Luigi's Mansion 2:






Mario Kart 3DS:






Kid Icarus: Uprising






The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:





Paper Mario 3DS:






Sonic Generations: (This one is multiplatform, but I'm getting the 3DS version)

I lied

No blog post today. Thursday, I will be doing a whole write-up on my opinion of the three conferences at E3 2011.

BETACinema Presents...

Today's blog post: Launch of new skit!

(See also: Direct link to video.)






It is mainly comprised of footage of stuff we filmed in our last meeting in May and some of our meeting in April. Due to some circumstances with a skit we were going to do, we had to postpone it and we just mocked a bunch of popular movies and games and what not for the meeting instead. Depending on how the reception is, we may do more sketches like this and make it an episodic series, we'll see. :)

All in all, it's nothing too serious. But then again none of our stuff is meant to be taken seriously. :P

We may be doing a serious skit with Batman. (With a proper mask this time.) I'll probably reveal more information about that later. But the person playing Harley Quinn already finished her costume.


Anyway, it's a short blog post today, and I'm sorry about that. I spent more time video editing than writing. I'll come up with something lengthy on Tuesday.




.

The Future: Game Design Jobs and Internships I'm looking at.

Today's blog post: Plans for the future!


See also: "The Rise of Game Degrees" by EA Games.

So I'm going to be graduating soon with my first degree in Computer Science. Not soon after, I'll be graduating with my second degree in Computer Systems: Game Design. And I'm looking for some starting jobs that I can probably look into with internships and the like. I would preferably like to stick around in the Inland Empire/Orange County/Los Angeles area. But I guess I'll end up wherever the jobs take me and re-locate back here later if I want to.

Though I want to eventually go for a dream career as a game designer, it's a very loose term. Game designers can be producers, level designers, software engineers, programmers, there's no strict term for the profession. So I am really trying to diversify myself, get a starting position, and get a feel for what aspect of design I may like best. (Though at first I really liked being behind the actual design of the game, maybe I might be better suited for a producing job as a game career. Who knows what the future will hold! I'm keeping my options open, don't hold me to this entry!)

Some places I am considering for an internship/work: (Nowhere near a complete list. I have some time to look through many and find out the qualifications now so I know what to expect that employers will want for the future. I don't want to take the wrong classes and have that "oh sh*t" moment when I realize I don't meet any qualifications even though I hold a degree.)

Broken Circle Studios
Crystal Dynamics
Rockstar Games

and many other independent companies that may be willing to hire.

Personally, I would prefer the freedom of an independent company over one that is large, but again, nothing's set in stone. I have about two years to figure out what path I want to choose and until then I need to figure out what to do to get there.

What I've noticed though is that people want more than just programming experience and want knowledge in Unreal and Unity 3D game engines, as well as modeling software, like Maya. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, CSUSB doesn't have such a course in learning the ins and outs of Maya. I may have to dual-enroll somewhere else (like Crafton, for example) to get some knowledge of that program.

I also need to work on my knowledge of Microsoft Visual Studio and C#, even though it's not too different from standard C++. I'm also working on my Ruby knowledge through the Codename: EPIC project.

One thing that concerns me though is that the Codename: EPIC project will need to be finished before mid-2013 if I want to be able to actually work for any of these companies. Most (if not all) will contain a contract with a non-compete clause, which means I won't be able to release it for-profit. So I definitely need to complete it in a timely manner while still retaining quality.

I think I'm right on track for going for my dream job, though. That in itself makes me really happy.

:)



.

June: The time for new beginnings. Finals, too. I hate finals.

Today's blog post: A nice healthy rant to kick off June!



_



International Game Developers Association: Orange County


So I just got home not too long ago from the best IGDA meeting of recent times. Well, for me at least.

I got to meet several producers from Blizzard and Obsidian Entertainment. I also learned that Blizzard was right down the street. I knew they were based in Irvine, but didn't know that they were so close!

While I was at the meeting, I also got to meet the Computer Science club of UC Irvine who had a lot of their members at attendance.

And the coolest part was that I ended up winning a poster of Dungeon Siege III signed by the whole development team. It was given by a trivia question asking about what games caused the greatest chance of divorce. I instinctively replied with Call of Duty, and eventually gave the answer with World of Warcraft (which were both right), and they gave me the poster. Fun times! (It also is a good indicator of why I'm never getting married. Who the heck divorces someone due to games? There are much better reasons. Like, cheating for example? Or being abusive? I just find something so harmless/trivial to be laughable.)

Anyway, I really love the atmosphere of Irvine, though I need to get used to the freeway suddenly changing from a parking lot to everyone going 90+ MPH. I definitely wouldn't rule out living there in the future.


_

University Goals:

I've been really slacking in PHYS222 and MATH372. I need to change that and get my rear in gear. The end of the quarter is nigh and I need to pull through with somewhat good marks in hopes that I can pass all of my classes. Starting this week, no more procrastinating!

Upcoming University Class Schedule:

Summer 2011:

SSCI 316 - Race and Racism
NSCI 325 - Gender Perspectives
MUS 180 - Studies in Music
SSCI 306 - Writing in Humanities

Fall 2011:

CSE 489 - Senior Seminar
CSE 524 - Supercomputing/Visualization
CSE 420 - Computer Graphics
PHYS 223 - Physics III

Good thing the summer is split up into two halves, or I wouldn't have any time to breathe! It seems likely that I'll graduate on time with my first degree. I'll probably have to stay an extra year to finish my second degree. We'll see how that goes.

_

Codename: EPIC:

I'm hoping to start production of cut-scenes and designing abilities this month. That's going to be the main focus of the project. I also want others to test the fluidity of the battle system which that should be done between June 13th and June 19th.

_

Gaming:

It's been freaking five months since I've made this promise, but I really need to just finish Final Fantasy XIII. It's an unbelievable thorn in my side now. :/ I'm so close to finishing, but I just don't want to!

And as for Final Fantasy XIV, I'm almost rank 50 in Gladiator and Sentinel. I'm determined to get that along with physical level 50 before they dump the physical level concept in the future and I'll never be able to get that achievement. Arg!

And that being said, as of today, Crevox Shadeseer has ascended to the position of new Viva Eorzea co-leader!

_


_

BETA Cinema Hiatus:

I also had to put BETA on hiatus while I focus on getting a lot of these projects done. Unless someone else takes the helm on editing our footage together (which is unlikely), our newest skit will probably be done (by me) after the hiatus is over, which if everything goes well, will be released between June 18th and June 25th.