On the backburner...

Hey everyone,

You might have wondered why I haven't posted a blog for quite some time even though the deadlines of my assignments have already passed.

Where I thought I would have every opportunity to work on Mayhem Arena, a LOT of other issues arose again. 🙃

First, my partner's health got really bad, and it took a lot of time from anything else. But I hope you guys can understand my family comes before anything else, right? 🤔

Also, we were given new assignments at the same time, so doing work for all that distracted me from Mayhem Arena.

The biggest problem me and my family are facing, is that we are being evicted from our property. We have till April 11th to sort our stuff out, and things don't look pretty for us at the moment.
It is basically essential for Emma and the children to stay in the neighbourhood, since the kids have made important friends, and ripping them out of their safe environment will devastate them. Both my daughters need extra help, and moving away from friends and family will upset them greatly. The same thing goes for Emma. She needs her family close and the right environment for her to heal properly :/

Because of all of this, I have decided to leave Mayhem Arena on the backburner. The game is simply too large to finish and then maintain, and my family needs the money, basically.

I'm considering starting anew with a simpler andriod/iOS game which will be free to play, with some ads. Not gonna say too much about it yet, as it is in baby shoes, but it will fit the universe I am creating for all of my games. 😊

Mayhem Arena will be completed, but I'm afraid not this year, but who knows...

I do want to ask of you before I end this post, to check out Emma's book which is now available on kobo.com. If you buy a digital copy for just £1,99, you will already help me and my family a ton!
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/project-reboot-terra-firma

Thanks for reading. 😊
- Joris

In the meantime...

Hey everyone,

How's everyone's new year coming along?
Mine's going PERFECT so far, especially because I have been very ill for a couple days now and with the deadlines of uni creeping up I am literally dragging myself from time to time to work.
It isn't too easy with a banging headache and a need for moisture and the loo every hour or so (the list of ailments is non-exhaustive either)  but I am resilient. No way will I let it get the better of me.

But I do need to give myself a break from work, so what better way to get a break from uni work and work on something else, eh? Haha, just kidding, but I did want to share some of my uni work with you guys in case you are interested in knowing what I am doing. 😄

I have been working quite hard on some animations and some of my models this week.
These are my animations:

This one is better watched on a loop.

The looping animation might have a small jitter in it because of the looping interval some players could have, but it doesn't happen in my editor and VLC. 

I have also worked on some models, which need to follow a style and centre around a workbench of someone.

I haven't got to properly texture them, but I have been testing their UV maps with simple textures.

I suppose you can tell what they are. 😉 Can you tell what style I am going for (imagine darker tones and colours (these are just testing colours to see if everything is in place))? 

There is still way more to do, and this is just two out of four modules. I'm still very busy... and the deadlines are on the 25th, and for modelling it's 1st February, but it needs the most doing.

I might be able to extend my deadlines if I need them to, but I'm hoping I can fight through my illness, or fight it off completely. Hopefully the latter. 😷

Thanks for reading!

- Joris 

Happy New Year & new plans

Hey everyone,

Happy 2019!
I hope this year will destroy every remains of 2018...

I have been thinking a bit lately, and I have decided to change some of my plans for Mayhem Arena.

Mayhem Arena will undergo a metamorphosis, and look completely how I want the game to look and sound. That includes maps, characters, SFX and the like. It will have to be completely robust as well with a few tweaks and having the spectator work and such.

This means that any idea of multiplayer is going to be put on hold...



When Mayhem Arena is released as an alpha release, you won't be able to dominate your friends right away in an online match.

The reason for this decision is funding. I cannot afford a server at this time, at all, and I am actually starting to financially suffer...

Also, I want people to dip their toes in the water that is called Mayhem Arena, to give them an idea of the game and have them more involved in the growth and development of this game. An active community is something that will really help me and motivate me even more.

I am still planning on making the game multiplayer, of course. It's just really hard to maintain a server for that ideology.

For the first release, I am planning:
- four maps
- four characters
- speech for characters
- better and more SFX
- tweaks, tweaks, tweaks
- some bug removals
- visuals finalised

After the releases, I will work on a campaign for singleplayer as well, but that is just a shelved idea for the more distant future.

Who knows, maybe I can get the first release done a lot faster now? We'll just have to see how things unfold.

Also, the deadlines of uni are creeping up, so that is going first...

Thanks for reading and till next post!

- Joris