npckc

it's january! welcome to 2023 update (also NEW GAME!)

hello! here's my monthly update a little later than usual because i've been very busy!

over the weekend i worked on a small game for ludum dare with a bunch of friends & you can play it RIGHT NOW, HERE! the theme was harvest so the game is about entering a vegetable into a harvest festival (you're in it to win it!). i did the story & ui stuff & i'm very proud of what we put together - check ...

out now: stuck in the airport

my game about my experience being stuck in an airport is out now! mostly this exists because i was incredibly stressed while being stuck in montreal & not knowing when i would be able to get out or if i would be able to find my luggage (yes) or get a hotel for the night (no) or get a refund for my cancelled flight (pending...) or any reimbursement at all for the overall awful experience (unclear...) - making this game helped me take my mind off things & survive the experience!  2022-12-28 12:40:04 +0000 UTC View Post

download: stuck in the airport - early access

so i wasn't planning on making a game for december specifically but then i got stuck in an airport overnight after my flight was delayed twice & then cancelled entirely. i made it entirely on my phone in an engine called mosi (https://zenzoa.itch.io/mosi) which has a really nice mobile interface so i recommend it to anybody who gets stuck in an airport for hours & has pent-up frustration that requires a creative outl...

end of year postcards & thanks page update!

hello! this is going to be my last post of 2022 - a bit early since i plan on being mostly offline until the new year!

postcards have been sent out to everyone & the thanks page on my website has been updated too.

2022 was really hectic for me (i feel like i said this in 2021 too...) but i'm excited about 2023 & switching to full-time game dev to bring you more games!

the screenshot is just something i wanted to share because apparently you can't play one night, hot ...

testing gameboy printer!!

for my next game i want to use the gameboy printer in gb studio so i've been messing around a lot with it - ran into a number of problems like the plugin i used throwing kernel errors & then the printer not printing enough margin...

but i've finally got it working so i can actually start on the main game bit! 

right now my goal is to have a demo ready for 1/15 next year since i want to show the demo with a printer at tokyo game dungeon which i'll be exhibiting at... peopl...

december update (big news for me!)

it is the end of 2022 & it comes with big news for me personally!

starting next year april, i will be leaving my current fulltime job and focussing instead on game dev as my main source of income.

there are a lot of reasons behind it (one not minor one being my current company is pivoting towards nft/blockchain stuff & i want out...) but the main one is that i want to focus on making games & right now i put too much time into both game dev & my fulltime job, so thi...

out now: wednesday night

my new bitsy game about visiting a jazz bar is out now! check it out: https://npckc.itch.io/wednesday-night

november postcards sent & thanks page updated

i've sent out the postcards for november! please check your inboxes. it's a rework of art i made earlier this month because i think this is an important topic.  

today (11/30) same-sex marriage is in the tokyo court - more info on this page: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-awaits-same-sex-marriage-ruling-crucia...

download: wednesday night - early access

i made a small bitsy game for the jazz bitsy jam! i wanted to try out using new bitsy with the music editor. it's going to be out later this week for everyone (: 

it's mostly me musing a bit on the bars & cafes i've missed since the pandemic began. a lot of the places i used to frequent are no longer open because they couldn't survive these past few years & it's made me feel a lot more grateful for the ones that are still open. support your local bars & cafes if you can...

A YEAR OF SPRINGS now on google play pass!

hi! A YEAR OF SPRINGS is now on google play pass! (i didn't really know about it myself either but essentially it's google play's equivalent of game pass)

it's a bit of an experiment for me to see how things go but i hope that this will let more people play the game on android 💐

as a note it was kind of a pain setting it up because i had to deal with android studio to make a build that worked with google play pass. for some reason i assumed that google would handle all the back...

drew a comic 👀 timelapse video!

this manga i like called "she loves to cook, and she loves to eat" is doing a charity project supporting marriage for all japan, a charity that's working towards same-sex marriage in japan, so i drew a short comic to support it! comic here on twitter: https://twitter.com/npckc/status/1593394856818520064

here's the timelapse video... i actually scrapped another draft before because i tried to do ...

event reports!

i exhibited at two events this month so here's some photos and stuff of how they went!

the first one was retro creators, which was a new event just for retro game creators. i exhibited with my gb studio game (as did a few other people) but there were a lot of other stuff, like a super famicom game, chiptune music made on gameboy and megadrive, & this one guy with like a whole table of incredible homebrew gba hardware like a real-time clock module, an analogue stick, something that a...

november update!

happy november! here's what i'm up to this month.

• testing renpy 7.5 for my already released renpy games and if it's ok i'll be updating my older games to this, because google play is unhappy with me for using some old android api but 7.5 uses a newer one.
• related to the above i'm also going to be trying something new for android - i'm still in the process though & can't talk about it in specifics until it actually happens though but for a general idea, i'm going to ha...
  2022-11-02 23:52:49 +0000 UTC View Post

ghostfriend out now!

for halloween i have a new spooky game! 

in ghostfriend, take care of a virtual ghost until they are ready to leave the mortal realm.

get the game here!

https://npckc.itch.io/ghostfriend 

postcard & thanks for october!

the postcard for october has been sent out so check your inboxes! you can see a timelapse of the postcard drawing in the video in the post.

the thanks page on my website has also been updated https://npckc.site

thank you for your support this month too!

download: ghostfriend - early access

after a loooot of weird bug fixes (see screenshots for reference...) i have ghostfriend ready for you all in early access!! (it is no longer called egghost. thank you for your title suggestions!)

codes are being sent out gradually but you should all receive an email by the end of saturday.

planning on releasing on halloween proper!!!

i've uploaded both a .gb and a .pocket file - i have tested on .gb but i haven't on .pocket (because my pocket hasn't arrived ...

a pet shop after dark is now in french, italian & spanish!

as in the title, a pet shop after dark is now in french, italian & spanish! hooray! 

it's also 10% off on steam for the steam scream fest. (if you prefer purchasing on itch, wait until the itch halloween sale & the game will be on sale there too ✨)

thanks to everyone supporting me on patreon which is how these translations are able to happen 💜

your dead ghost pet can now die in my ghost pet game

i've found out that wow it's very annoying dealing with timers in gb studio! you are only allowed one timer at a time so i have to make everything work in one global timer and it's.......... been a trial, haha. 

there's also an issue with the very low sprite limit - originally i had big hearts across the top of the screen, but having those made it so that the pet started glitching out (see the second image)... so now it's just one very small heart icon for each of the things i want...

working with gb studio 3.0

this is my first game in the new version of gb studio and whoa there's so much new stuff!!! here's a quick look at what i have so far.

egghost (tentative title... i'm deciding between egg ghost and egghost because i feel like egghost might read as 'egg host' instead of 'egg ghost'...) is going to be a little spooky virtual pet! my goal is to have it ready for halloween.

new gb studio lets you choose palettes for stuff individually which is really cool... i'm going to have a theme ...

october update!

it's the month of halloween!! here are my plans for october:

• making a gb studio game! i want to make another one of these with the 3.0 update so that's my current plans - i'll share some art for this once it starts coming together
• prepping for digital game expo which i'll be attending in november!!! tokyo game event which i've always wanted to exhibit since attending as a regular visitor so i'm really excited about this
• translations for a pet shop after dark - i ...
  2022-10-03 02:53:12 +0000 UTC View Post

IMPORTANT PATREON QUESTION!!! please read

apparently patreon has the option to pay on the day you start supporting now instead of the first of every month.

currently i'm not planning to change since i think it makes more sense for me - if you sign up at any time in the month, you will get the postcard for that month as well as the game for that month if i'm releasing anything - but would you personally prefer to pay on the day you first joined this patreon? 

currently, if you join at any point in the month, you will ...

september postcards sent!

september postcards have been sent out & my thanks page on my website updated! check your inboxes for the postcard (:

(don't watch the video yet if you want to see the finished postcard in your email first!)

i'm really also just happy that patreon finally has a video option where i can just upload videos right into the post (before you had to use ... vimeo? i think? which i don't have) - it's so much more conve...

not working on debug tool any more!

i found out that the function i was most interested in (a persistent variable viewer) is actually currently being worked on for renpy so i'm not working on a debug tool for public sharing any more! (here's the renpy github link - https://github.com/renpy/renpy/issues/3973)

since i don't plan on working on it any more though, here is the as-is code in case any of you want to take a look. it's very barebon...

adding a hint option to a pet shop after dark

i've decided to add a hint option to a pet shop after dark! 

i'm still testing stuff out and am waiting on translations but i'm hoping to get it out within the month (: 

here's a sneak peek of what it'll look like!

(for some reason this posted delayed and after the actual hint function post was released o:) 

hint function added to a pet shop after dark (also on spotify now)

i've added a hint function to a pet shop after dark to help out anybody who's been having trouble with the puzzles! you can download the update on itch.io/steam now.

also the game soundtrack is now available for streaming on spotiy (and other streaming services). check it out here and give the composer sdhizumi a follow! spoti.fi/3BPPF2V

little interview in wired japan's gaming feature!

i did a very little 2-question interview for wired japan's gaming feature! the magazine doesn't come out until 9/14 but i got a preview copy so here is a sneak peek at it 👀 

the section i'm in features various indie devs & their work environments, so you have me at home at my desk. one of my guinea pigs is in a photo too! (i guess since i work from home, that makes my guinea pigs the office pets 🤔) 

i always feel a bit weird doing dev interviews because i don't...

indiepocalypse radio @ 9/10 7pm et

i'm going to be talking on indiepocalypse radio this saturday on 9/10! you can tune in at 7pm et. indiepocalypse is a really cool zine project that supports indie games that don't normally get a lot of attention - i participated in one a little while back. i highly recommend checking it out! 

see details here: https://twitter.com/PIZZAPRANKS/status/1567616214968434689

september update!

it's finally september, which is a relief for me after a very busy august with a pet shop after dark's launch at the end of the month. thankfully it's been going well, but there've been numerous things i've had to troubleshoot 💦

as such, here is my schedule for this month:

• fixing any issues that come up with a pet shop after dark!!! 
• considering: working a debug tool for renpy to share with people
• monthly postcard as usual for you all
• parti...
  2022-09-02 05:23:10 +0000 UTC View Post

a pet shop after dark is out now!

a pet shop after dark is out now on both steam & itch.io!!!

itch.io: https://npckc.itch.io/a-pet-shop-after-dark

steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934800/a_pet_shop_after_dark/

i hope you all enjoy your stay at the pet shop 💜

also i'd appreciate it a lot if you left ...

itch.io build up for a pet shop after dark!

hello! the itch.io build is up for a pet shop after dark so you should all be able to download and play now... 👀

since this is ahead of the actual release day (a little early access for you all!) i would just like to ask the following:

- please don't share spoilers ahead of the game's public release! this includes posting on social media, streaming, &c.

- if you are playing on mac, please make sure to move the game from the downloads folder to a folde...