Hi everyone! Now that January's over, I've had my rest, and the year's starting for real, I'm finally able to get back to work on BUDD! I just wanted to take some time to write up my thoughts on how 2023 went, and my plans going forward.

SAGE 2023

2023 has been... a wild ride, honestly.
I moved out in June, and I decided to use most of my time after settling in preparing BUDD for SAGE 2023 in September. I actually wasn't sure if I wanted to release a demo or not, but SuperFreaksDev convinced me, and I'm glad he did.

I was already working on the mechanics for Satellite missions a couple months before the deadline, so I figured it'd be a nice way to test get peoples' feedback on how these felt, as well as practicing some level design. If I couldn't finish them in time, I could just gate the demo off in Mizuli.

Habitat's design actually went pretty smoothly. It was loosely based on a certain inside joke me and some friends had about a certain 90's FPS. I already had most of the monsters finished, so all I really needed to do was put the levels together. 

Ludicrous World is based on the world of the same name from Super Freaks 1: Ultimate Edition. Super Freaks was at SAGE (in addition to Strato-Scruffy, a bunch of polished versions of his older games, and a ton of cameos in other games to go with), so it honestly felt like the best time to get it done. It was honestly really fun trying to adapt a lot of the mascot platformer elements to work with BUDD's combat, and seeing what all I could cram into a single level. #SUPERFREAKSSWEEP!

When SAGE happened, the response was honestly overwhelming. A TON of streamers and Youtubers played the game. It also ended up as The highest rated game on SFGHQ, no big deal. I honestly have to thank a lot of my friends for jumping in Streamers' chat and asking them to play it. I'm not a very outgoing person, so I don't think I would've done nearly as good a job promoting it myself. I also met a TON of really cool people thanks to this event.

Christmas SAGE

Before SAGE itself went live, RummySM, the host of SAGE '23, asked me if I'd be interested in participating in a Thing happening in December. If it wasn't obvious yet, this Thing would be a smaller surprise Christmas-themed version of SAGE.

At first I wanted to do a Christmas themed side story, but it was clear I wouldn't have enough time. I figured I'd just throw in a fun Christmas-themed reskin and some silly extra settings, on top of the QoL changes I made for 1.1.

One big sticking point for the original demo was the lack of original music. Everything aside from a few jingles, stuff taken from BUDD Classic, and the Super Freaks BGM (graciously provided by philRaco) was placeholder, taken from various Genesis games.  A friend of mine, Ivelischpfuli, has been asking me for years if he could do the music for one of my games, so he was the first person I asked when I started getting offers. I think the soundtrack is shaping up pretty well, so far! The update still had a few placeholders, but it gives everyone a good idea what vibe the final game will have.

I couldn't get as much done as I wanted, but I did get to help SuperFreaksDev out with art for his SAGE booth, and Arrietty asked me for help with art on her games, Prototype N and Nadine in: Diamond in the Grave. it was good fun all around, though I did need a break after working on gamedev for practically 5 months straight.

Towards the Future

I got ridiculously sick towards the end of December, and kinda spent January goofing off and trying to learn Godot, getting art done, and getting my energy back. I have some plans for how I can juggle art, my random pet projects, and gamedev without burning out, and I'm excited to see if this experiment works!

As far as BUDD is concerned, here's my plans so far:

• The third planet is mostly done and just needs the boss fight and its associated story beats.
• Writing a lot of the post-demo cutscenes. I already know where I want the story to go, it's just a matter of getting there.
• Starting the final dungeon and the final boss. (Wild that it's almost time to actually worry about this!)
• Designing the first satellite mission you're supposed to encounter. If Habitat and Ludicrous world felt like a significant difficulty spike compared to the rest of the demo, this is why.
• Designing the remaining satellites. The plan is at least one key hidden on each planet, with a final satellite mission unlocked for clearing the others.
• Revisiting Verdeo and Mizuli, streamlining Mizuli's layout, and giving both planets additional areas to explore.
• Figuring out more interesting ways for enemies to interact with Eris.
• Redesigning the pause menu with more space for additional menus I plan to add. (I want to keep that a surprise, tho!)
• Maybe some post-game extras? I'll worry more about this as the game gets closer to completion.
• A lot of code refactoring so newer features I want to add go way smoother.
• Rewriting the save system in BUDD Classic for the sake of save file forwards compatibility.

Again I want to thank everyone that's played the demo so far, everyone who's supported me over the last several months, and all the other BUDDs I've met along the way! I don't know if the game will be done this year or not, but I'm excited to see where things end up.