First of all, it's been a beautiful year for me as a developer.

From the continued success of Happy Bones I and Happy Bones Infernal, to my newest full-length
game release this year, 'Waking Atlas'!
Y'all have poured out your love, support, and coin in order to keep pushing me to do what I do, and I appreciate the HECK out of that.

Let's take a look at some of the big achievements!

Happy Bones I hit over 500 players worldwide, which is crazy to me!
Looking back at this dinky project that I started back in 2016, it's wild to see where it's gone.

Happy Bones Infernal sold THREE TIMES as many copies this year than it did last year when it launched, for a total of nearly 300 copies to date. This probably means the most to me, as while I love the narrative story of that game, I do regret doing the game in 3D vs.. the hand-drawn style that made so many people love the first game. (You live and learn I guess)
Overall, I'm glad to see that this entry is seeing a resurgence of sorts.

Waking Atlas became my fastest selling game to date, which also took me by surprise as the only other game made with GB Studio at the time on Steam was a game called Dragonborne, which literally got negative reviewed into oblivion, the dated mechanics and graphical style being cited as the culprit. (It got so much dislike they actually ended up unlisting it from the Steam store)
My worries ended up being unfounded, as it sold twice as many copies on launch day than Happy Bones I did on it's respective launch day in 2021, and you all showered (mostly) praise upon my inbox!

Then there was Captain Cone!
*crickets* *crickets*
Don't worry, his time to shine will come eventually.


If you follow me on Twitter (X?) you know that I announced that I was remaking Happy Bones I in HD, I did a silly teaser trailer for it and it was a grand time! You can see that teaser here if you're interested!

It's still in development despite the Unity fiasco.

OMG BUT FROSTEDFEARS WHY ARE YOU REMAKING THAT?! IT JUST CAME OUT TWO YEARS AGO!

Well, for starts, it won't be releasing for a while. So by the time I'm projecting to actually launch it, it'll be more like 5 years since the original came out.

Secondly, there are features that I wanted to add to the original, that I simply can't because of how I developed it. I never thought about adding major features when I made the original, it was just a hobby project for years. Therefore making it from the ground up but prettier, *chefs kiss*.

Lastly, I want to be able to reach the console audience, those guys deserve weird RPGs too!
Porting RPG Maker MV games to modern consoles is a convoluted process, and the porting services are simply too expensive when I can just remake the game but better, ya know?


Lots of places...just not for a while.

I don't want to come off like I'm crying on the internet here but bear with me.

Ever since I released HB1 I've been plagued with a pattern of mobility related health problems. I had a motorcycle accident in May of 2021, which lead to be being unable to walk for several months, and I wasn't able to truly walk normally again until the later months of 2022.

Flash forward to 2023, in March (several days after finishing development on Waking Atlas) I woke up with an awful deblitating lower back and leg pain.

Turns out I'd herniated a disc and it's since been causing me movement deficits and just awful pain all the time.

Presently, I'm seeing a spine specialist, doing considerably better, and the end of my (sorry to sound dramatic) suffering is in sight.

With that, I've been thinking of all the things I can't wait to do, all the things I've missed out on the last few years. I'm an outdoorsy person, and I can't wait to go all the places I've been wanting to go, go do all the hikes I've been wanting to hike.

Naturally, my mind isn't on working on my games right now, there's just other things I'd rather do now that I'm able to again. I've sat in front of a computer screen every day and I just need a break :(

I've released a game every year since starting, but this is the year I'll most likely break that trend.

This isn't goodbye so much as it is a see you later, alligator!

Thank you all so much for you support, and I sincerely hope I have it when I return, whenever that is.

For now, I'll leave you some completely wild screenshots of some things I've been working on, and you can probably look forward to.

Greetings! A new patch for the new year.

• Added a 'Streaming Mode' that lets you hide all hidden tokens and maps on your screen for moments when you may be sharing your screen with others. It's accessible by hotkey with the default keybinding being 'M'
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented 3D models added to your library from automatically generating a 2D preview image.

Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 are done!
Right now we are working towards Chapter 10 and the game will be released on Steam around 5 April 2024! So mark that date!

Currently, the game has:
-4.027 Full HD quality renders

-150 animations (It contains 11.879 Full HD renders)

-6 looping animations

-8 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Videos (It contains 43.347 HD renders)

-So in total Chapter 8 provides 4.027+43.347+11.879 = 59.253 Full HD renders

-161k Words

-72 Background Music

-257 Voice Narrated Lines



Here are some new previews of the game:











Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to explore the depths of our narrative!

- Added tooltips for most icons and buttons
- Buttons are highlighted when hovered over
- Visualizing tiles blocking buildings
- Internal crash log

Howdy everyone! To everyone else who had to return to work this week, I hope the transition back was smooth. Mine was okay, though I still wish I could sleep in until 10.

I decided to go back and edit the intro of chapter 3-V as I felt that the transition from the last chapter was rather weak. I also added an additional mandatory scene with Dorian before you are allowed to rest in the coffin to proceed. As it stands, he has very few worthwhile lines in the story, similar to Amber, pre-chapter 3 in the main route. He will be getting more presence in the story as it goes on.

I’ve also made an adjustment to sparring with Ophelia. For balance purposes, I’ve added a level cap for training. What this means is if you surpass a certain level while you are at a point in the story where it would be too high, you will no longer be able to train with Ophelia for BP. In chapter 1-V for example, the level cap would be 15. If you pass that, Ophelia will say she’s tired, until you proceed to the next story segment.



I’ve also added in a bit more for the new Slime Queen side quest. I added her cave somewhere in the world and I've also finished her sprite and character portraits. This Slime Queen’s name is Oozora.



I added a bit more weight to her design. I think it better distinguishes her as a Queen compared to the other slimegirls. I went for a motherly, caring look. As for her personality, well, she certainly has that going for her… as well as a few other traits some may see as… concerning. I have all of Oozora's character portraits available as a preview for my $5 and up Patrons. Check ‘em out, if you wish.

https://www.patreon.com/MKRUdesign

I’ve still got plenty to do, so I’m going to get right back to work! Until next time everyone!

Dear Obey Me community,

We regret to inform you that Obey Me will be delisted from the Steam Store on February 15, 2024.

If you already own the game (and/or any Obey Me DLC), these will remain in your library and be playable in the future. However, there will be no further updates to the game, and you will no longer be able to purchase the game or DLC after February 15.

As a token of appreciation, we're hosting a final sale from February 6 to 14. This is your last chance to grab the game and DLC at a special discounted price.

🛍️
Start Date: February 6, 2024
End Date: February 14, 2024

Thank you for being part of the Obey Me journey, and for all of your incredible support. For any concerns, please contact our support team.

The morning is mostly done, all that is really left to do for morning content is finish a bunch of queued animation renders.

I am working on PM renders right now, The afternoon and night for day 6 was a bit of a process, I knew what I wanted to do, but had no idea how to pull it off in Daz studio.

Daz doesn't like it when scenes get too large. And they are large. But was able to get it figured out and working without Daz freaking out on me. Trying to work in a big open area with a lot of props, buildings and people is a bit much for daz, but its working.



Other info - The house in day 6.

As most of you know, I have worked on increasing the quality of character shaders and skin design since the start of all this, while trying to avoid drastic jumps in changes in each day so its not a big noticeable difference. I think the skin is looking real good now, but it had a side effect.

While rendering in the house in day 6, the new character shaders and lighting just didn't fit and/or work well in the house how it was. I have wanted to redo sections of the house since the start of this, and upgrade its shaders, but some issues with the way the house was built made this a bit difficult, from 45 degree texture maps to random textures inside the house being linked to textures outside the house, Its a nice house, just doesn't do well when being upgraded or enhanced.

So since we haven't been in the house since halfway through day 4, if the house is going to be fixed, it was going to be now, So I did.

The house has a yard now, and neighbors, and grass... grass.. that was fun..

The walls have been upgraded with much better shaders, I spent way to long making a good drywall shader, I had some fun with stable diffusion creating new art for the walls.

While the kitchen layout is the same, the fridge area has been redone, The original fridge, cabinets, stove, etc. didn't actually function so we couldn't open the fridge, now we can, same with cabinets and the oven.

And the yard is a yard, pool is now visible from the house, I don't know if anyone noticed before but the pool and house were disconnected, the house's original yard was to small to support a pool.

so yeah, all that happened, I hope the almost 2 days away from the house in game will make this change less jarring, but it looks so much better, to me anyways ;).

Of course, all this happened after I already started rendering in the house, so I did have to rerender a good 200 images, but that's already done and past now, all in all, with the rerenders and house rebuild, it took about a week, so not to bad.

You can now turn off grain visuals in the settings.

The Corruption is a new dimension where the enemies are stronger, and the loot is better!

- New Weapon: Corruption Sword
- New Helmet: Corruption Helmet
- New Armor: Corruption Armor
- New Spell: Into the Corruption (teleports you into or out of the corruption)

Spawn: 1 black skull
Forest: 1.5 black skulls
DLC forest: 1.5 black skulls
Swamp: 1.5 black skulls
DLC beach: 2 black skulls
Muddy Caves: 2 black skulls
Desert temple: 3 black skulls
Coldheart: 3.5 black skulls
Rocky Peaks: 3.5 black skulls
Graveyard: 4 black skulls
The Midnight: 4.5 black skulls
Heated Stones: 4.5 black skulls
The Head Grand General: 6 black skulls
The Dark Lord: 7.5 black skulls