The Diary is a short experimental game. You can unlock the true ending in about ten minutes, probably less, and you have a good chance of doing it without doing anything special. Just approach the game as a curious person who wants to know what happened. But just because it’s short doesn’t mean it’s meaningless. In The Diary, you are a student who finds an abandoned apartment building and in it, an apartment that’s not completely empty. It seems the last tenant left some things behind: books, documents, a fully-charged laptop that clearly was meant to be found. Look—and listen—to […]
I didn’t think I’d actually be doing this, but I’ve updated She Who Fights Monsters: Choice Edition. It was prompted by a random person caring enough to tell me 1)they enjoyed the original game and 2)they had run into some issues with the newer version. They first emailed me about a month ago and I had less than zero intention of ever touching that game again. But the fact someone still wanted to play it made me want to fix it if I could. So hopefully, some random things that would make the game stop working won’t do that anymore.
The truth is I’ve had some less than ideal experiences connected to my game projects. Ages ago, someone lovely gave me money to submit She Who Fights Monsters to Steam Greenlight while that program was active. I was so excited about the prospect of more people seeing it, playing it, maybe getting something out of it… until it seemed like everyone there was hurling insults at me for daring to submit my little project whose very existence apparently was Everything Wrong With Video Games. Even after I changed the potential price from $5.00 to free. So in the end, I withdrew it.
I also made a little experimental game called Erase Me. I wasn’t expecting a huge response or any response, really, but the only response I DID get was someone telling me it sucked.
When you’re just one person and you don’t have a huge fanbase or many (any?) people encouraging you, little things like that can eat at you like cancer. Looking back, those two things are a big reason I eventually just… stopped. Part of it was the drain of a 9 to 5 job. But the rest was just “Why bother? No one cares and you suck.” The good experiences I’d had thanks to creating and sharing things just faded from the picture, eclipsed by the threat of more bad ones and a lot of overwhelming indifference.
But living life like that hasn’t gotten me much. And the good things DO matter. Like the one person who emailed me with some nice things to say and just wanted to finish the game. To that person: if you’re reading this, thank you.
Hi, Everyone! I just wanted to make a brief post to let you know my ongoing game project Homicidal Jenny is still going on. I’ve even included photographic evidence in the form of some questionable concept at and the somewhat less questionable semi-final product. As you may have guessed from the screenshot below, it’s the boss room for stage three.
Right now, because I really have no idea what I’m doing and didn’t plan much in depth, I’m focused on getting the stage layouts and graphics done. After that, I’ll work on any normal enemies I haven’t created/programmed yet as well as the bosses. Then, the menus and generally making it playable followed by cinematics and such. Music will more than likely be the last thing I sort out; my composition talent is minimal and even if I just scrape together free resources or something (after all, the game itself will be free), I want it to sound halfway decent.
But one way or another, this game WILL get finished. Eventually. In the meantime, thanks for your patience—and for being interested enough to check on its progress!
Hello, one and all! I said I’d update this site more often–and since I’d been updating it once every other blue moon, making a new post within a month is a vast improvement. :p
Since I’m here, I’ll share some of my progress with Homicidal Jenny, the on-and-off platformer project that would probably be done by now if life and especially all the garbage in my head hadn’t gotten in the way. So far, I’ve completed the graphics and layout for the first two stages as well as stage 3-1. There will be eight stages total. As for story (which I might have mentioned before), it’s a sequel to She Who Fights Monsters that branches off from the Hate path. I haven’t gotten started on the cinematics yet, but I have written the script. I might say more when once some cutscenes are in place, whenever that may be.
Not much of an update, I know, but I wanted to post something. To help make up for that, please enjoy these new screenshots—and know a video is coming in the next week or two.
(It’s been a while, hasn’t it? This would’ve been done sooner, but a lot of things happened — including me generally putting things off as well as trying to tweak the game within an inch of its life. Frankly, it’s impressive that I got this done at all. :p)
The Diary is short and strange and has a story that you need to piece together yourself by exploring an abandoned apartment. I can’t say much without spoiling it (though there is a more in-depth description on the game’s page), except that it might not be ideal for very sensitive players.
The Diary is a short experimental game. You can unlock the true ending in about ten minutes, probably less, and you have a good chance of doing it without doing anything special. Just approach the game as a curious person who wants to know what happened. But just because it’s short doesn’t mean it’s meaningless.
In The Diary, you are a student who finds an abandoned apartment building and in it, an apartment that’s not completely empty. It seems the last tenant left some things behind: books, documents, a fully-charged laptop that clearly was meant to be found. Look—and listen—to learn more about this absent stranger.
IMPORTANT: The password to access the game is SWFM .
I went digging through my digital closet and found this under an old teddy bear and a couple of mismatched socks. It’s the very first version of She Who Fights Monsters–the version that existed before that was even the title.
Don’t expect a lot from this; it’s very short and I think I threw it together in a few hours. But it is kind of neat to see how a game evolves.
Hi, everyone! I am still here and working on Homicidal Jenny. But about a month ago, I finally got Game Maker 2. It’s a lot different from 1.4; I pretty much ran away screaming the first time I opened it. :p
But I did eventually get back to it and I’m trying to familiarize myself with all the new stuff. Since this could take a while (and I have a full-time job again), I guess I’m aiming for a “Sometime in 2019” release date now.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Maybe I’ll have something more exciting to share later.
This one began with a morning run in the snow on Christmas weekend. It was cold, gray and quiet; it felt like no one else was left in the world–like I was a character from a post-apocalyptic novel. So after I got home, I took that idea and, well, kept running with it.
I didn’t really know what this was about until after I started working on it. For me, this one is about loneliness. It might mean something different to others. (more…)
This is just some test footage of a new weapon I’ve added to Homicidal Jenny. I’m thinking of making it bounce off solid objects instead of being destroyed by them.
(Side note: When I played this one for a bit after months of leaving it alone, my first thought was “Holy crap, this is like playing a suicide note. And I’m the one who wrote it!” So, uh, 1)I guess it expresses how I was feeling around that time? and 2)I’m very, very glad my life has improved since then.)
(Gameplay Hint: If you can’t seem to move fast enough to get through a certain area, hold down the DASH button while you run. It’s Shift on the keyboard and X on a controller.)
The very first game I created was a Twine game called The Choice which deals with suicidal feelings. It was inspired partly by another game–a wonderful game–called Today I Die. I wanted the game to be helpful for sorting through those kinds of feelings, and I guess it works on some level, but it isn’t anything I would create now.
I never, ever thought I’d follow up on that game. But in a way, I have. Erase Me is actually a bit darker and in a way, more honest. The Choice is all about a voice that’s begging you to live. Not so much a game as an expression of feeling, this one is… less so.
But just because it’s dark doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. And there’s a slight change I’ll return to this one as a full-fledged horror game.
Initial completion time: About 5-15 minutes. (more…)
