31/10/2025, 5 PM
Hey! I'm trying to make these posts somewhat weekly, for now. I'll see how long that desire lasts...
Scarred By Heaven Development
Game development ended up a little sparse this week, because I worked an extra shift, and in general have been feeling strangely listless. All I really got done was a few cutscenes and sprites, which I don't want to share for spoiler reasons...
Something from the other week that I finished early this week, though, was detailing the last two major overworld locations: the 'Downtown' area and its nearby mall.
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Downtown is the largest single 'room' in the whole game, so I saved it until last so I'd have plenty of assets to recycle from all the other areas. It was still a pretty exhausting task, and there's still small bits of polish to add, but I'm glad to finally be (mostly) done with it, and done with outdoor environments in general for the time being.
Personal Notes (And Some Nice Games I Played)
My boss gave me a large sack of out-of-date hot chocolate powder to take home. I'm trying it for the first time while editing this post, and it's not very good.
It was a pretty uneventful week, otherwise, besides all the work. I discovered a big cycling path near my new apartment, and it's made me really want to get a bike again. I don't think I've ridden one since I was about thirteen, and really miss it... I might try and get a second-hand one from a pawn shop.
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For recreation, I ended up paying a late tribute to Halloween with two light horror games, that were both coincidentally ocean themed, but could probably not be more different outside of that.
The main thing I played during the week was mostly an indulgence in nostalgia--the RPG Maker horror game 'The Aquarium does not dance'. Specifically the newer 'Special Edition', since the free version doesn't have an English translation.
...Honestly, it's very rough around the edges, but I ended up really enjoying it, anyway. I have a pretty huge soft spot for RPG Maker games from playing a lot of them when I was younger, and they're probably the reason I got into game development at all... so I might be pretty biased.
It hits a lot of the silly tropes I love, while also acutely appealing to my love of marine life. The maps are sometimes put together awkwardly with mismatched assets, and the writing is pretty cheesy... but I think it does actually manage to capture some really unique and nice feelings. There's a pleasant mix of whimsy and spookiness that really fits the concept of an endless nightmare aquarium, and its passion for sea creatures is very endearing.
In fact, one of the true ending requirements is hidden behind listening to fun facts about tunicates from a random tunicate NPC... so only those who respect the aquarium may conquer it, I guess.
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...This was meant be a short post, so I'll make the rest quick. The other game I played was 'PROXIMATE', which is a short game I saw a demo for at PAX and really liked the premise and visual style of. It's only about 1.5 hours long, but I think it nails the central gimmick of 'blind' horror with some really impressive sound design, and a lot of good subtle scares. The humor was a little hit and miss for me, but the story told through the old chat logs was engaging and very enjoyable, regardless. You should definitely try it, if that seems interesting to you!
That's it for the video games, today. Thanks for reading!
- HSTopaz
31/10/2025, 11 PM
Happy Halloween!
Scarred By Heaven Development
In time for the holiday, I've finished animating the unsettling third boss, 'Iris'.
Without getting into story spoilers too much, they're a nontraditional fighter who uses disjointed spears, doesn't really have any combat experience, and doesn't want to fight. They're probably my favorite character to draw at the moment, and were a lot of fun to animate and design moves for.
Personal Notes
I had to work a night shift on Halloween night... how cruel. Not that I usually do much for the season anyway, but I might play a new horror game or something over the weekend to indulge in at least a little bit of the feeling.
On an unrelated and probably laughable note, I've recently discovered just how good oats are. My work doesn't have a microwave, and I don't really like sandwiches, so for a long time I've been trying to find a nice food I can bring as lunch/dinner on a daily basis that'll still be good after hours of sitting in a refrigerator. 'Overnight oats' have filled this niche perfectly, and are dirt cheap to make on top of everything else.
My preferred recipe is a 1:1 ratio of milk and oats, with a few spoons of vanilla yogurt and a bit of honey mixed in, and some berries on the side. It's life-changing stuff...
- HSTopaz
27/10/2025, 12 PM
Hello again! The days really are passing by too quickly. I'd wanted to make more posts this month, but it's all slipped away from me.
It's 11PM, and I'm waiting for my washing machine to finish so I can set it out to dry before I sleep, so I'm writing this post to help pass the time.
Scarred By Heaven Development
I've been a little slower than usual this month, but I've managed to make some good progress. I finished a new enemy, the "batter thug", and made a handful of new maps.
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Most of the work I've done over the last month has been making cutscenes, still... but I'm finally getting close to finishing Chapter 3, at least.
Once it's done, I think it leaves the story at a good cutoff point, so I'm thinking of trying to finally make a public, "early access" release of the game that contains all the content up to Chapter 3. Admittedly, it's partially because I'm getting a little impatient after all this time, but I think it'd also be helpful to get some feedback on a truly representative version of the game as soon as possible. It'll be helpful for my morale, at least... (^^;)
The next major step will be fully implementing the third boss, Iris, whose moveset and AI is all finished on the coding side of things, but still has a lot of spritework that needs to be done. I also finished composing the battle theme for it today.
It's probably the most ambitious track I've tried to make so far. I wanted it to sound grindy and malevolent, but combine it with some more sensitive piano bits to convey the sense of a confused identity. There's probably a lot of room for refinement, but I like how it came out. FL Studio was crashing frequently trying to make it.
Personal Notes
Things have been pretty laid back, as ever, thankfully.
I attended my first convention this month — PAX in Melbourne, Australia! I spent most of the day walking around the show floor with a friend looking at the indie showcases. A few upcoming games that were interesting to me in particular were Key Fairy, Your Holy & Virtuous Heretic, Apothecary of City X and Angel.
It might have also spurred an interest in cosplay for me — seeing all the wonderful costumes people put together was probably my highlight. I've wanted to learn some basic tailoring skills for a while, and it seems like a fun goal-oriented way to do it, but my current living space might be a little cramped for extravagant cosplay projects... I don't even own a table.
...But thanks for reading!
Here's some bonus art of 'Cross', a character from a non-SBH project of mine.
- HSTopaz