Some various updates...some which may be relevant, others less so.  You know how it goes.

Rhythm Quest

Progress continues, as always, on Rhythm Quest.  I'm not really sure whether to say I did a lot of work last week or whether I didn't get that much done, because it was honestly a bit of both.  I only worked on the level select screen, and ended up doing a lot of iteration that ended up being ultimately thrown out, but at the same time that was all sort of....part of the process, and felt like necessary work.  I spent a lot of time thinking about things and reimplementing various systems, so...I guess it's fine?  I skipped my weekly devlog in favor of trying to get the rework finished first; that'll probably happen sometime this week.

Of course, before I embarked on the whole level select rework I was originally hoping to put out a polished demo by the end of the month, so I could submit it to something, and perhaps run another playtest.  Soooo that sort of went out the window, oops!  As long as I'm still achieving steady measurable progress, though, I'm not too worried.  Funny how these games always drag on, though...it's hard to account for iterations and design changes like this.

Dance

I stopped by south bay fusion the other day, that was fun I guess.  I had forgotten that there is a mirror back there, and I guess to no surprise I was interested more in my own dance form than partaking in much social dance.  But still, it was nice to get out and see some people again and such.  I finally got around to filming some dance footage that I was mildly happy with.  It's been a long time coming.  I still have a lot to work on, but it's relieving to know that even despite my on and off efforts, something is starting to sink into my muscle memory.

FFXIV

On a whim I decided to poke my head into the world of FFXIV (free trial) for a bit this weekend, having a looksee to see how everything looks and feels.  It was nice having Sayuri be represented somewhat nicely in the world, and having something new to do over the weekend.  I have been feeling a bit of a lack of community and goals lately, so this could be something to fit that bill, but I remain skeptical whether FFXIV specifically is something I'll commit to partaking in seriously.  It's an option, at least, but I also know that I could just as well start playing Melee online via Slippi, or race ALTTPR/SMZ3 ladder races, or even look for a 5-man Pokemon Unite squad.  There are a lot of options.

TGM

For the time being, I actually ought to brush up on my TGM (Tetris: The Grand Master) skills, as this coming week -- besides being potential jury duty for me -- sees the start of 2022's "Carnival of DEATH" event.  I somehow managed to put up a 690 last year, which is quite impressive given my lack of practice, so I'm aiming to try and at least get an M rank (500+ and break the 3:25 torikan) if I can.  Should probably start by grinding some Master mode so I can remind myself how to stack calmly and more flatly...

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom

I somewhat unceremoniously finished all of the campaign missions in Emperor: RotMK.  I say unceremoniously because it really didn't feel like the last couple of missions were anything special...the last mission, in fact, has you returning to a previously (hopefully well-built) city, which takes away most of the interesting part of it.

Ah, apparently there are 3 bonus campaign missions that I haven't played yet; perhaps I will finish those off as well.

Overall, Emperor was enjoyable, but still Caesar 3 holds the cake in being my favorite Impressions city builder series.  The monument-building in Emperor was, thankfully, not nearly as big of a deal as in Pharaoh, so no waiting years and years for monuments to finish.  There's still a =bit= of that, but not nearly as much.  You have to give offerings to the ancestral spirits, as opposed to simply building enough temples, which can be a bit tedious after you've gotten your city all stabilized, as there's no way to just do this automatically.  The diplomacy and "spying" systems in Emperor were....eh.  The spies seemed very gimmicky and random, and diplomacy on very hard was basically just all hostile cities attacking you at any chance they could get.  Feng Shui was a fun "optional" goal to work towards in your city.  Speaking of which, they did away with the prosperity/culture/etc ratings and just gave two or three mission-specific goals for each level.  Not a bad thing, I guess.

One reason why Emperor falls a bit flat is the level design.  Like Pharaoh it suffers from the same sort of "I've done this before..." rinse-and-repeat level design after a while.  Sure, the first half of the game is interesting as you get accustomed to new city structures and such.  But after that they really don't change things up too much, aside from a few missions here and there (which were admittedly interesting).  Caesar was much more ambitious with the challenging environmental layouts of its cities, and also often required you to reach grander heights with your actual city population and design.  I rarely had to build more than 2 regular housing blocks (plus maybe one elite housing block) in Emperor to meet the desired population goals, for example.

The other reason is simply because Caesar mechanically places more restrictions and challenges upon the city-building.  Aqueducts and fountains are a huge part of this (no water structure that simply uses roads!).  The lack of a global labor pool is also huge (every industry area needs to be near a housing block!).  There are more services to build for each city block as well (temples to multiple gods, bathhouse, theater, library, academy, etc.  Even farms are more restricted in that they must be built on specific areas (in Emperor you can build wherever there is fertile water, which is usually abundant, or can be irrigated at least).  When you finally get Luxury Palaces to be evolved in your Caesar 3 city, it really feels like a big accomplishment, as these houses have access to a fountain, bathhouse, doctor, barber, engineer, prefect, amphitheater, library, academy, 4 temples, hippodrome, hospital, and market with wine, oil, furniture, pottery, and 3 types of food.

So yes, Emperor was still enjoyable, but didn't have nearly as much meat to it.  Someday I'll return and do a very hard playthrough of Caesar 3 with some of the new Augustus 3.0 open source updates... 

Birdies

White chicky has been doing mostly okay, but she had one or two soft-shell eggs.  Hopefully she just needs some more calcium or they were just one-offs, but she seems okay otherwise.

Black chicky....sigh.  She is showing signs of stopping her broodiness...by "signs" I mean she started bawking randomly, which is how I know she's back to "normal" (emphasis on the quotes there).  But as soon as I take out the "jail" grates she just wants to go back to sitting and nesting.  Soooooo I don't really know what to do with her.  I guess I'm going to leave the grates on until she lays and egg, or seems normal for a while.  [shakes head]

I got to visit the duckies too, recently.  I miss how they were when they were still with me...they were so nice to have around and play with.  But it was still nice to go and see them again, and squish Soba, pick up Miso, flatten Dashi, and hug Ramen.  All I can wish for now is that they will have good health, I guess...

Life

Life overall isn't so bad.  The day to day can actually be a little "scary" sometimes.  Scary probably isn't the right word, but I just mean the feeling of not having too much to look forward to.  I think that's something that's pretty important to have in life.  Whether that be XYZ video game, or the thought of spending time with someone nice, or anything like that.  It's not that I don't have things that =could= be that, it's more that I don't quite have something that is filling that role at the moment.  That could be a sign of depression, or it could just be a sign that I'm in a sort of in-between phase at the moment.

I guess that sounds like life IS bad, but there has been light in my life too.  A path to move forward, even when it felt like a lot of things hat I had began to feel jaded about, were starting to not be worth my time and effort.  It is rare to feel this way, like life stepped in and said "hey, you're on the right track.  this is for you."  The last time I remember feeling that way was when a close acquaintance of mine provided me my easy/nice contract job after my stint of unemployment.

Ah.  Speaking of that time period.  That's right...there's been some ah..."interesting" light shone on an environment that I once came into contact to in the past.  Honestly, I can point to any number of toxic environments and toxic people that I've had to deal with in the past -- some whom I have a bit of forgiveness (or at least, a lack of blame) toward, others whom I do not -- but rarely does the outside world turn around and affirm that "hey, there are these things that actually aren't okay".  I don't really have much specific to say about it because I am fortunate enough to not be too involved in particular.  Honestly, I could say way more things about any number of those =other= toxic situations which I was involved in.  But it is still an interesting feeling, to hear things like this.

Everyone needs something to get excited about.  I'll have to keep thinking a bit about what that is going to be for me.  It's actually nice that I nixed the whole polished-demo-by-end-of-month plan for Rhythm Quest as that takes a bit of load off of my back.  The only big thing I really have coming up, then, is Ludum Dare, and then after that I get a bit of a vacation.

It's the start of a new week tomorrow...let's see how we can do.