I got some down time today to get on the computer while working, only to be shocked at what I saw when I took a look at the Vega Development Blog. Project Vega has been canceled. Wow

Carnevil, the project leader (if you weren’t aware), had finally finished up the publisher demo a few days ago and also found a legit name for the game. From what I saw on his Twitter, he was trying to find a willing publisher, although it was proving difficult to get in contact with any of the companies. That was two days ago, I believe. Today I get online only to see this. And my heart sank . The short version is this: it would be nigh impossible to find a publisher given what we have so far. So in order to get one of those publisher’s attention for funding, the game would have to be in a state where it would not need funding. Yea, it’s a viscous cycle. The problem is that none of us, myself included, can put all of our time into getting the game to that point without some sort of income coming from it. Carn probably has the time, but not the skills or talent to make textures, models, maps, or the art required to get the game to that point.

And so, it seems that Carn is pretty much dead set on dropping the project entirely. Where does this leave me right now? I’ve already said it a couple times now (read my comment there), but with this turn of events I’m seriously second guessing my plans to go into the game development industry. Aside from the occasional lucky indie game developers who make a break into the industry, no one really cares about anything else other than the big name games being made by the big name companies because they make big time profits. And that was one reason why I was stoked to get a chance to work with Carn on his project. It would be my chance to get into an environment where I wouldn’t be drowned out in a huge development team, where I and everyone else would have a say, and where ideas are genuinely heard. I dread working for a giant soulless company and would much rather take a risk and go into business with someone. I have no idea if I’ll ever get that opportunity again. Right now, I’m just not nearly as excited as I use to be about the possibility of going into a game design career.

So I’ve been pondering what I’m going to be doing form here on out. I have been thinking about trying to finish up college starting this coming spring, personal issues willing. I was working on a game design degree the last time I was in class so I’ll probably finish that up. I’d also like to possibly do something in relation to Architecture and then use the knowledge from that for level design. I’ll probably also start to focus on Doom stuff again. I was conscripted to contribute to The Shores of ZDoom, although after I started Vega (and due to the lack of activity of TSoZD at the time) I sorta fell into the background of that project. But now that I’m no longer working on Vega, I will probably try to help out with that effort. There’s also Vaporware, although I was never really planning on dropping from that project. And then there’s Supplice, and now that there’s no longer a Project Vega, I’ll be hitting it pretty hard. My man Jimmy91 has been helping me out with it. I’ve made mention of Supplice here and there, but not enough to really go into depth about it. It’s still in the planning/pre-alpha stages, but once I have my goals all set in stone, I’ll be making a post about it here. Also, I’ve had my eye on Quake I for a while now since I got a taste of 3D mapping from Vega. Now that I won’t be able to get my 3D mapping fix, I think I’m going to get my hands wet with Quake mapping some day soon.

It’s always sad to see something that you are genuinely interested and that you’ve got lots of work into go down the tubes. I felt the same way when I eventually made the decision to cancel Sabbat Martyr II. But that’s the way it goes sometimes, and the best thing for you do to is to look forward.

Staying up later than I should, I was just about to head off to bed right before I decided to take a quick wander over to my beloved GameHits forum from the years of yonder. 9 times out of 10, nothing new is posted; the forum has been buried by all of the dust it’s collecting these days. Occasionally an oldie AC friend from those golden days will post something, making me giddy with nostalgia. But most of the time it’s a ghost town. Sorta sad really.

Until I saw this thread. I’m sure if you’ve ever had a conversation with me, I’ve brought up that I’m a pretty crazy Armored Core fan. As of late though, AC4 and its sequel has left me kinda trigger-shy when it comes to From Software’s newest ventures in it’s super Japanese robot killing franchise. AC4 was ok and it’s sequel was slightly better, but they weren’t really up to snuff when I compare the fun times I had with Master of Arena, Another Age, and Silent Line, quite possibly the 3 best Armored Core games to date (in my entirely humble and unbiased opinion, of course ). Yes, I am a bitter fanboy who longs for the old days of Armored Core….shaddup . Heh, I won’t even begin to get into a long-winded rant about AC here; unless you’ve played the game or have been active in it’s community, I would just be wasting my breathe. But even given my past experiences with the next-gen Armored Core games, I always secretly held out hope that they would continue the franchise with a 5th lineup. It’s actually one of the biggest reason why I even bothered purchasing a 360. The AC franchise hasn’t been all that popular here in the states; the AC3 and SL years were the “golden” years as far as stateside popularity is concerned. I wasn’t even sure if they would port AC:For Answer to the states or not, and I was somewhat relieved when they did, even though I was expecting pretty much the same dismal flavor of game that was given to us in AC4. And my hope that they will port AC5 stateside is pretty much just as bleak as it stands right now. I guess I’ll just have to sit back and see what the news brings. Needless to say, I’m glad I stayed up late. Although I’m pretty sure all glad and happy feelings will be long gone when I have to wake up in 3 hours

Claustrophobia 1024 2: The Mystery of Too Many Maps (aka. just “Claustrophobia 1024 2), the direct sequel to Claustrophobia 1024 which was released on June 2009, was released today! Initially an overflow of subpar or unusable maps from the original Claustrophobia 1024 project, it has turned into a full-blown megawad. During the original project’s development cycle, we had way too many submissions. So towards the end of development, Jodwin came forward and offered to do a sequel-esque side-project featuring all of those maps. The maps that didn’t meet the quality requirement were fixed and polished up. There are also quite a few brand new maps from some of the original contributors of Claustrophobia 1024. I didn’t have anything to do with this wad, at least not directly (other than making the TITLEPIC and the rest of the graphics that were brought over from the original wad ). However, if your a fan of the 1024 theme and you were a fan of the original Claustrophobia, I highly recommend giving this a download!

Download @ Akinomori.com
Screenshots

It should be on /idgames sometime soon, so keep a look out for that link

*edit*

Here’s that /idgames link! Go give it a few downloads and ratings