The Mini Project
Well, it’s finally here. For the past month, I’ve been working off and on to bring a project to life I’ve been interested in for a while, but never thought I could pull off. I didn’t think I had the skills necessary to bring it to life, but after dabbling in pixel art and realizing that I’m not as art inept as I thought I was, I decided to see if I really could pull it off. Finally, after a month of work, it’s actually done! Before we get into that though
Quick Updates
Just to touch base on other happenings before we get into this week’s main entertainment, there are some things in the works that I at least wanted to mention. As always, I’m still working on trying to land a literary agent, and my next round of queries should go out soon. I’m learning more about this process the longer it goes on for, and while I haven’t gotten any positive hits yet, I’m feeling more confident as I figure out more what I need to do to stand out.
In terms of updating the art on this website, there are a few assets that should be coming along soonish. First and foremost, I’ve begun dabbling in digital art, mostly to see if I actually can pull off something more complex. It’s a slow process at the moment due to limited time, but should hopefully take off over this weekend. Getting a portrait created of Vargoth has been my first priority, and I’m still working on a tentative sketch that I feel like I’m close to approving. On another front, the UEC ship arsenal has popped up in my queue in full. Expect another round of 3d ships in the form of the Trident class Frigate, Cutlass class Battleship, Katana class Carrier, and the Hornet fightercraft!
Short stories are also in the cards more seriously than they were before. My tentative plan is to start working on Yenza’s story at some point in the near future, probably in the next month or two. Once it’s done, the chapters will release weekly until the story is fully uploaded. Maybe 6 weeks of chapters in total for this one, though later stories will undoubtedly be longer.
The Main Course
ALRIGHT! With that out of the way, let’s cover this week’s main course! Roughly sixish years ago, maybe five, I discovered something I had never seen before referred to as the ALLTP Randomizer community. I had never seen a randomizer before, let alone played a Link to the Past, but I found it fascinating to watch. Each match in the tournaments was different, and it looked like an immense amount of fun! I wanted to get involved in it, but neither had the time nor mental energy. I didn’t get involved back then… but then the pixel art happened.
When I watched those old tournament matches, I always thought it was cool that EVERYONE had their own link sprite. It made the tournament feel unique and special, kinda like you were watching the runner themselves go through the world with their own avatar. I was entranced by this idea, and I really, REALLY wanted to play through the game with an avatar for none other than Sapphiria, the main character for my book (IF YOU SOMEHOW MISSED HER PLASTERED ACROSS THIS WHOLE WEBSITE)! Back then, I didn’t know how to bring it to life, but when I started dabbling with the idea of pixel art, the idea came roaring back to me. I checked out the resources on the community discord, experimented with a sprite sheet, and looked at more than a few sprite sheets of other runners because I could NOT figure out which sprites were front or back. Fast forward through the month of May and a bit of June, and here I am! Despite my initial fears, I did what I thought was impossible, and I can finally show off that I did in fact ACHIEVE SUCCESS! BEHOLD!
That is probably the LEAST exciting picture I could have taken, BUT you get the gist! I have successfully created Sapphiria FULLY in A Link to the Past in PLAYABLE form! She can slash, she can dash, and she can confusedly get electrocuted… Yeah, can’t alter game mechanics even if they don’t make sense for her character, but she can pretend to take damage at least! This was an IMMENSE efforts, but I am incredibly proud of myself and excited to have this DONE! With this sprite, I intend to fully go through the entirety of the game and FINALLY get into some randos at some point! But first… I have to actually play through the game and beat it… Yeah, I’ve never beat this game before, but that changes this month!
Now, why else am I excited about this? Well, the answers is simple. I was using this as an excuse to not stream. With Sapphiria’s sprite completed… I no longer have an excuse, so tonight shall be my first stream in EIGHT YEARS. God that’s hard for me to reread… REGARDLESS, tonight, June 12th 2024, I shall finally stream once again, and hopefully this time my world doesn’t come crashing down around me in a plume of fire like it did last time I tried. With that said, at the time of publishing this blog, I will be live on twitch for at least 2 hours, so, with all that being said… Until next week, CHEERS!
The Flying Fennec