Let's summarize 2023 by looking back at everything I've done in 2023. And I didn't seem to have done much... But I think I did do something. But first things first.
If you want to learn about Five Nights with Froggy 3 and you're not interested in the rest, you can skip the whole thing and go straight to it, doling out the post almost to the very end.
Beginning of the year
After the infamous 2022, I started to slowly get back to my business.
The year started with the opening of a Telegram channel, the opening of a community on Reddit, and small patches to Simple Battle.
One of the features of these updates was a visual change near the end of the final battle. Otherwise, various small improvements and changes were made.
After a while, I started cooking something a little more interesting. But first a couple of other things.
Fix-patch for Five Nights with Froggy 2
With moral decline during 2022, I still couldn’t get around to the important patch update for Five Nights with Froggy 2, and the state of the game at that time left much to be desired due to constant lags in the mobile version and a broken ending that was impossible to obtain.
In early 2023, I was finally able to start working on this update and it was finally released.
In addition to the fixes, the game received a new trophy, new paid bonuses, a rebalance of random night, and other improvements.
The lost demo of the original MC2015
For most, this isn't the most exciting event of the year, but personally, I was glad I did. I managed to recover the deleted source of the original demo version of Mystery Chamber (2015) from my old laptop.
There aren't many differences from the classic game, but someone might be interested in how I designed my games back in the very early days when I was just starting to dive into game development.
The most important thing I tried to restore the source code of this version for is the unfinished final battle. The boss in it was supposed to be a character called Fireice, but he didn't have a sprite yet, so here we see the familiar King of the Hill.
Mystery Chamber 2015 — Update 1.2
Inspired by the restored demo, I decided to add this final battle to the release version of the game.
The update brought a new level, a final battle, and various improvements.
In addition to everything together with the update, this game was released for the first time on Google Play. And it was supposed to be released there three years earlier, but then it turned into the all-famous Deluxe edition quite by accident. I don't know how that happened.
Mystery Chamber 2015 Forever — Sneak Peek
Here we go with perhaps the most interesting thing of the entire year, but first let's take a quick digression from 2023.
Not everyone knows that at the beginning of 2022 I started the development of MC2015 Forever all over again, because originally in 2021 it was made on the basis of MC2015 Deluxe, and the technical state of the game is quite deplorable in order to be convenient to implement what should be in MC2015 Forever.
In the spring of 2022, I released various videos of the new development, but at one point the development was halted. You can read more about the reasons for the stoppage in the results of the year 2022.
But then I didn't continue to make the second version of MC2015 Forever, because it was already decided to develop it on another game engine, as the current one didn't meet the requirements of the project. So it was necessary to start again from scratch.
Nevertheless, I decided to make a small game out of my existing work, a kind of Sneak Peek with some pre-rendered game content.
The end result was a small game with a number of different levels. Its job was to introduce the player to new graphics, some new music, a couple other things and new player control physics.
Some new locations were shown for the first time, namely the new sewers, the Big Mountain Caves, and the creepy Dark World.
Initially the first version was published for sponsors only, then about a month later the game was released for everyone.
During the whole month the game has undergone significant changes. During all this time it received a lot of improvements, a finalized main menu, support for custom skins and, most interestingly, online multiplayer.
If you're interested in seeing how the game evolved, you can watch recordings of various play sessions with other players. It was fun.
Mystery Chamber 2015 Forever — Sneak Peek (Premium Release)
Mystery Chamber 2015 Forever — Sneak Peek (Public Release)
Boosty
In May, I finally officially launched my blog in Boosty. Prior to that, I was, you could say, only trying it out. Subscription levels were finalized and described.
Boosty is a platform to support authors. You can sign up for a paid subscription on an author's blog. Each of the subscription levels gives you different bonuses.
If you prefer, you can subscribe to my blog on Boosty. You can learn more about the rules, subscription levels and bonuses here.
You can become part of the platform by following this link.
Mystery Chamber 2015 Deluxe v2.0?…
Somehow I've been writing a bit too much about the Mystery Chamber this year, isn't it?
It seems that after releasing the MC2015 Sneak Peek, I wanted to start doing the 1.2 update for MC2015 Deluxe. I released a proper teaser showing the very legendary Rashid Tower.
Along with that, I've been trying out a new engine (GameMaker) that I plan on switching to completely once I get my old games sorted out, and I... "accidentally" started making MC2015 Deluxe in it.
The development was a secret for the first few days, and only then did I reveal it to the sponsors.
I was enthusiastic, because this version of the game could have potential. I managed to implement a few things from the original game and even a couple of new ones; I made an announcement that I would be hosting development streams, and I did indeed host them for a while; I started porting levels to the new version.
But... then I got discouraged for some reason, and from that period I never went back to developing that version. The broadcasts were discontinued, and I got kind of discouraged. I wrote about both in these posts: post 1, post 2.
Later I reevaluated the state of the original game, and I had a dilemma for a while: continue doing the remake on the new engine, or finish the original game. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For now, I'm leaning towards the second option, as the re-evaluation has shown that all is not so hopeless with the original game.
Fall Dash — Rethinking the game
Over the summer, I lost the ability to withdraw from Google Play again, and somewhere around that time I got an idea of what I could do.
Back sometime in the first half of the year, there was an idea for a full-scale reimagining of my little game called Fall Dash, which is pretty small.
It was the simplest arcade game, where there was nothing but a falling multicolored circle and flying towards uvadrats. It was not released anywhere except on VKontakte, when flash applications could still be published, so the game is unknown to many people.
Due to financial problems, with the discontinuation of sales in Google Play and display ads from AdMob in Russia, and the impossibility to implement ads from other platforms (e.g. YandexAds) into old games, I decided to make a small mobile game on another game engine, which I just started testing.
And so began the development of the new Fall Dash. This game was going to be even more than just an arcade game. It would have levels, locations, power-ups, a store, and even some semblance of a story. Yes, a game about a falling circle.
I did some development work on this game sometime over the summer. I created concepts, created objects for the game, and wrote code. I managed to make a few different types of hazards that the player would encounter in the game. I even released a few videos of them. I also released a teaser introducing... a character?
I was so confident that I could release this game soon enough that I even did something I try never to do - announced a release date, or rather a year. And it would be better if I didn’t do this.
And a problem appeared. It was necessary to update all of your applications published on Google Play. There was a deadline, so I had to postpone the development of Fall Dash and once again start tinkering with my old games.
I almost forgot. In connection with the development of the new Fall Dash, I've updated the classic version a bit and published it. You can access it from here.
FNwFroggy: Super Garden
At one point I remembered the roller coaster in my long ago little game FNwFroggy: Super Garden. I wanted to make some carriages there, but at the time I developed that game, namely in 2016, I didn't have the skills to do that, so there was only one carriage.
With that in mind, I decided to correct this long-standing oversight and release a modest update for this game.
Long pause and upcoming updates to old games
The update to Super Garden and the teasers for Fall Dash were the last things released over the summer. Then there were no publications from me (except for sponsorships) until October.
In all this time, I've been doing some random stuff. I managed to separately poke around and do something in FNwFroggy, in FNwFroggy 2, in MC2015 Classic and in MC2015 Deluxe. As I wrote above, I needed to update the apps on Google Play in time, which is what prompted me to update the old games again. None of the updates have been finalized yet.
At the same time, I figured out how I could add extended localization to my games. This had its own technical difficulties, but now I will be able to do it.
I officially announced the extended localization in my games only in December. From now on, in addition to Russian and English, the following languages will be added to the games:
French;
German;
Italian;
Spanish;
Portuguese;
Polish;
Ukrainian;
Belorussian;
Chinese;
Japanese;
Korean;
And more.
You can find out the status of each of the localizations in my games here.
Froggy vs. Mother-in-law Carolina... v3.0
I've been working on updating old games, and decided it would be best if I started with a simpler game. I started working on an update for Froggy vs. Mother-in-law.
All I had to do was to add an extended localization and update the logo, because I decided to change the name of the game for certain reasons. And then... it started. I decided to change the music, then I decided to redesign the main menu, update the interface, add coins, store, new attacks for Carolina. So the development of update 2.9 turned into the development of update 3.0.
The update is nearing completion at this point, so expect a release soon.
Other things I haven't told about
Throughout the year, all sorts of other things happened and were invented that I haven't written about anywhere else.
For MC2015 Forever, VNGames wrote even more cool soundtracks, which gave even more ideas for the game.
The concept of MC2015 Forever grows stronger over time. It was originally just an improved MC2015 Deluxe, but now it's some other game. Trust me, there's a lot you won't even realize yet.
The world of MC2015 Forever will be bigger than planned. It will now be based on my notebook sketches of MC that were drawn in 2010. I drew one third of the entire world of MC2015 Forever.
You won't be able to see much at this resolution, so you're left wondering what's shown here.
I wanted to have a presentation called GKProduction Direct in early April, but I came up with it too late and didn't even have time to start preparing for it.
For the sake of monetizing games alone, there were attempts to bring Froggy vs. Mother-in-law and FNwFroggy to GameMaker with VNGames. This was canceled due to impracticality.
The pages of all my games on Game Jolt have been updated.
New titles (names) are planned for MC2015, MC2015 Deluxe, MC2015 Forever Sneak Peek, and MC2015 Forever and have already been thought of. They will be revealed at a later date.
And finally...
Five Nights with Froggy 3
This game is the most anticipated game from me at the moment. And unfortunately, it's the one I can't start developing right now.
Warning! If you really know why I can't start game development and understand everything perfectly, you can skip this part of the post. These words not for you...
This part of the post is somewhat aggressive in nature, and is directed at people who:
are constantly asking for the game to be released;
are constantly asking for the game to be released;
don't follow the news, but ask questions about the game release;
don't check the information before asking about the game;
accuse me of being lazy;
accuse me of being late;
demand things from me that I don't owe them;
insult me for not releasing or making a game;
donate to me and then resent me for not developing and releasing the game after their donation.
If you think that FNwFroggy 3 has been in development for a few years, you would be wrong. The development of FNwFroggy 3 has not started yet, and development progress is estimated to be 0%.
I tried to interpret the reasons why in the teaser trailer that was released in early April. Here it is.
But, if even these words are not enough for you, then... so be it, I'll try to explain to you in more detail why I still can't start the development of the third part of FNwFroggy.
Read carefully, or you won't understand anything.
The concept for the third installment of Five Nights with Froggy has grown a lot in recent years. In my (as yet still undocumented) mind, the game will become much more than just running around a hotel room. The scope of the game will increase by leaps and bounds. I'm not ready to reveal all the details yet, but believe me, there is a lot of work to be done on the game.
Since FNwFroggy 3 is going to be a much bigger game, I need the most comfortable conditions to work on it, and, most importantly, a lot of free time.
If anyone still doesn't know, I go to work, and I spend eight hours a day, five days a week on it. I mentioned work in the results of the year 2022, as well as in my second post about my state of affairs.
It may seem to some that work doesn't take up much time, and there are still 16 hours left in the day. But 8 of those are spent sleeping, about 2 on getting ready, leaving and arriving from work, and some more time spent on various things in life.
Even taking into account the fact that every day after work I have some time left, besides time I need energy like any other people. After work, I don't always feel like doing something complicated (game development), so I can't fully work on my games on something every day after job. Trust me, you couldn't either.
That leaves weekends, but two days a week isn't as much as it may seem either. I can't exclusively do game development in every spare moment, I need rest and entertainment too. I'm not a robot, I'm a human being just like you.
Now, I'm going to be sincere in this paragraph... The largest portion of the audience for the FNwFroggy series is children. If you're reading this right now, you're probably a kid, and the younger your age, the harder it will be for you to understand the true reasons for delaying the game that I'm trying to convey to you right now. You don't live off your own dime, you don't earn anything, you have food, they already do some of your chores for you, you have plenty of free time, you don't work, you don't get tired like a working person does.
Well... This time I went a little overboard. I'm sorry to have to explain things in such an aggressive way.... I shouldn't have written it like that in the first place. It's not like me. Okay, let's back to the topic.
Let's summarize. To develop FNwFroggy 3, I need comfortable conditions and a lot of free time.
Comfortable conditions consist of financial stability, lack of pressure from the audience, and plenty of enthusiasm.
Remember my productivity through 2022. Do you remember?
Until 2022, my games brought me enough money so that I could live and not bother, so that I could do my job and make you happy.
I had enough money until 2022, so much so that it never even occurred to me to open a donation collection. Remember, there were almost none before, only in 2022 I started to open Boosty and VK Donut.
The sanctions deprived me of most of my income, so I had to get a job, but even with a job I don't get as much money as I used to.
There's actually another reason why I took the job. It's mobilization. The job gave me a reservation from it. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't gotten it. So we'll just have to wait for better times.
Pressure from your side - this factor is up to you. Take my situation with understanding, take the pressure off me, and I will feel more comfortable.
I have hardly told anyone about this, but my enthusiasm has really diminished over the past two years. I've noticed for a long time that I have a decreased desire to do my projects. This also has a big impact on productivity.
My enthusiasm used to come from audience response and interesting content on my work (especially on YouTube), but lately all of that has been pretty scarce. Yes, I realize that this is due to the fact that I've started to release less often, and therefore there's simply nothing for the audience to respond to. But... it turns out that these two indicators (enthusiasm and frequency of release of my games) are pulling each other down! What should I do then?... Maybe someone can give some advice....?
I've already written about free time above. Because of job, I can't get it yet.
There is nothing more for me to write. I tried to give a complete picture about the reasons why the development of FNwFroggy 3 is not starting. If you still have questions, you can ask them in the comments of this post.
I don't want to develop FNwFroggy 3 under my current circumstances, which I described above, otherwise developing a game as large as the one I'm planning now would be hell. Along with that, the game will turn out to be far from what I would like it to be. Instead of a game, you'll get a completely failed... something. In general, it will turn out to be garbage, not a game.
The start of development of FNwFroggy 3 is still a matter of time. When will it be released? I don't know.
What to expect in the near future
Right now I can afford to support old games for the time being, so updates will be coming out soon, but no new games. When I'm completely done with updates, I'll start making Fall Dash, and only after its release I can think about FNwFroggy 3.
A list of expected updates and games:
Froggy vs. Carolina - Update 3.0;
Mystery Chamber 2015 - Small update 1.2.2;
Five Nights with Froggy - Small update 4.0.11;
Five Nights with Froggy 2 - Small update 2.3.3;
Mystery Chamber 2015 Deluxe - Update 1.2.
There's a chance for small updates for the games:
Mystery Chamber 2015 Forever Sneak Peek;
Froggy vs. Carolina 2;
FNwFroggy: Super Garden;
Red Ball Saga.
There are thoughts of releasing classic versions of games, including on Google Play, but I don’t make any guarantees yet.
The End
These were all the results of the year 2023. Thanks to those who stay with me. May the patience be with you.
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