We did it, folks! Ace Combat is LIVE! (Patreon)

Hey. So. Times have been tough. Since my last update, I've posted a few articles, including the most recent, yesterday's 5200-word summary of the Ace Combat series.

 https://medium.com/@DocSeuss/playthis-ace-combat-c2e2a56851e6 

Here's two others, in case  you missed them.

 https://medium.com/@DocSeuss/i-completed-57-games-in-2019-and-here-are-all-of-them-eb220bfac390 

 https://medium.com/@DocSeuss/playthis-death-stranding-d22e660d2581 

So, what's been going on with me?

Well... Covid hurt GDC, which hurt our reveal of the game. Lots of fallout from that. We're on script lock, hard at work getting all our voice recording gun, all our character and creature models are complete, nearly all of the sets are finished... a lot of it's about implementation of the mechanics now. We might have to make some cuts, but I can't wait to show you what we've got.

At PAX East, I semi-announced the game while on a panel at PAX where I talked about Death Stranding and how its seamless blend of plot and gameplay is one of the more impressive attempts at storytelling in recent AAA games, which is kinda surprising for a guy like Kojima who's always relied a bit too heavily on cutscenes when he could tell so much more in gameplay.

What did I say at PAX?

"We're making a game about a pig farmer who's decided he no longer wants to dispose of bodies for the mob."

It's an experimental narrative game building off a lot of what I'd laid out with my design specs for Paratopic; where that was a game all about  "what if a walking sim had other people in it and was rich with verbs," the goal for this one is to take that further--what if a walking sim focused on intimacy, on being able to speak and do things at the same time to better mimic real human interaction? I don't know if we'll get there; we're trying to pay people fairly and not overwork them or anything so we don't end up with anyone getting hospitalized and in need of heart surgery like I was after Paratopic. We're doing our best, the voice actors are amazing, and I genuinely hope you like the game. We've submitted the store page to Steam for approval, and we're getting work on ~other platforms~ worked out now. I'm seeking additional funding so we can get a few more months with our amazingly-talented artists, who we'll be announcing very soon. :)

...then I arrived home... and... got covid. Okay, I don't really know if it's covid, but I mean, when was the last time I was running a high fever with a dry cough and all of the other symptoms of covid except difficulty breathing? Suffice it to say, I've been down for the count for a bit, but I'm starting to feel a bit better.

I also wrote this for Vice, in case you'd like to see it:

 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xkgw/why-destiny-2-isnt-working-and-how-to-fix-it 

And we've been streaming nier automata on mixer.com/docseuss as the latest Stomp stream. I've never played it before, but it's been a delight so far. I'm so grateful to everyone who's tuned in to talk about it.

What's next?

Well... I'm still trying to get the Wii fixed so I can get back to streaming and writing about Metroid Prime. I've got a couple drafts going on, and I'll definitely be writing about Nier Automata when we're done streaming it. Might get started on the Planescape: Torment piece next. ;)

As always, any comments, questions, feedback, you've got my discord, twitter dm's, and here, so please, hit me up. Heck, if you just wanna chat or play co-op games, I'll gladly make time for you. I cannot thank you enough for all your support. Whenever I'm discouraged or struggling, it means so much to know you got my back. With each of these pieces, I do my best to give you something I hope you find entertaining. Thank you so much.