Movin' and Shakin'

It's been a bit quiet around these parts, so I figure I should clue all of you in as to what's been going on since February. In fact, maybe monthly updates are in order? For starters! I have been enrolled in a job training program. I've been doing a bit of volunteer work at a local thrift store, down in the sorting room. As part of that job training program I'll be going through some educational stuff soon-ish. I've also got two weddings coming up in short order, so there's been a bit of prep for that. One wedding will see me travel out of state for the first time since I moved to Colorado almost 25 years ago, so there's scheduling for trains and stuff to consider. I was in full swing on a Game of the Year video, but that had to be put on hold temporarily while I set up a new Hard Drive (your patreon dollars at work!) Unfortunately, the HDD makes a funny "click" sound that I'm not entirely sure I agree with, so I have set up an RMA with Newegg just to be safe. I submitted my RMA just under the return deadline, too -- I think I was on day 28 of their allotted 30 days. A shipping label should be getting printed for that today, I just need to wipe the HDD and get it sent out. Once I get the replacement all set up, I can resume the GOTY video and the second Sonic Boom glitch montage video. Another idea was to use the new HDD for a sort of "Let's Make a Game" video series, but that's just a concept in my head and I still need to work out logistics of how I'm going to make that not boring. It'd be a small game, nothing complex. Like the sort of iOS games I made a few years ago for Diablohead. In the interim I started developing a level editor interface for Sonic Worlds, with the intent on recreating that old "Sonic Level Creator" that was on PlaySega.co.uk back in the day. I have the basic editor interface working, but some features are giving me trouble. Once I iron out a couple of bugs, it's just a matter of entering in all the tiles to the object database and building a system to load them in Sonic Worlds (which is probably a lot harder than it sounds in my head). I also put some new shirts up on my Redbubble, finally. I have a couple more ideas, too, and I'll get around to those when I remember to do so. Some friends also pointed me in the direction of something called "Boss Fight Books," which are 100-200 page books each dedicated to a specific game or franchise, as viewed through the eyes of somebody with a personal connection to them. They're having a book pitching period in May, and after some discussion and consideration, I've decided to try pitching a book on Sonic 2006 to them. I've spent the last week writing up a couple of samples (which I could post here, if anyone's interested.) With any luck, I'll be able to immortalize my thoughts and feelings on that game in an actual book. How weird would that be? And finally, with regards to future Patreon goals, I've considered doing sort of a "pilot" program for both the Tumblr Q&A Podcast and the Sonic Unleashed LP. The idea is to produce one or two episodes of each just to provide a preview of what those would look and sound like should we get to those goals. I have enough material for the podcast, and I've almost sat down and recorded it a few times over the last couple days. I should probably do it before I send this HDD back for a replacement, or it'll be another week... I also said on Twitter that I would update some of the game builds here with newer more polished ones I worked on back in Feb., so I should get on that, too. Anyway, that's where things have been. Sorry for being so quiet. I'm still new to this Patreon jazz. Don't hesitate to light a fire under my ass if you're unhappy! I'm doing this stuff for you guys, after all. - Ryan