In some odd way, I’m looking forward to revisiting Max Freeman and Mike Steele, as it’s like going back to two old friends you haven’t seen in a long time.  Of course, Max is never far from my thoughts and I have spent some time writing stories about his exploits and one day hope to get them published.

Now that so many years have passed, I can reflect back upon what happened to these projects in a better frame of mind.  It’s hard to believe that I started so many projects in that short time frame.  The issue back then was that I would start a project and then realize that it was getting too large for me to handle alone, which led me to transfer that energy to something a bit smaller in scale.  Of course, this would lead to the new project getting too large and the cycle would repeat.  In the end, I settled on Dark Guardian and Native since the code base for both projects were close.  I could experiment with Dark Guardian and apply some things to Native.  Working on both projects gave me a way to try some new techniques.  Contrary to belief, I had a lot of fun working on those projects.

However, not everything was fun and games.  At some point, I realized that even though I was chugging along with my projects, there was always this group that was constantly dogging me or other people within the community.  More than that, I figured that people would be more appreciative of the work those on the inside were doing.  It’s funny to look back on now, but at that time I was constantly frustrated.  I tried many times to just ignore the community happenings, but sometimes it was hard.  At some point, I just got tired of worrying about it and with my personal situation getting worse, I felt it was time to let it all go.  I understand it was hard for some people to accept that and of course, it proved all of the nay-sayers right, but at that time I had to do what I felt was right for me and getting involved in this constant stream of drama wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time.  Especially when I was staying awake sometimes until 2 or 3am working on Dark Guardian and Native.

I can’t say that I regretted that decision.  After shelving those projects I was finally able to play some games and get through the backlog I had started to build up over the years.  I met my future wife and moved to Japan.  We’ve had some ups and downs, but overall it’s been pretty awesome.

Last year, I started working on Blood City Online (BCO) which was set in the world of Eternal Darkness and Mike Steele.  It was an ambitious project since it is an ORPG (online RPG).  The concept was simply to make a futuristic cyber-punk MMO.  Anyone who has worked on an MMO would know that it’s a lot of work, takes a lot of time, and sometimes the planning is harder than the actual programming.  At that time, I wanted to do something large in a 3D world that could capture the feel of actually being there.  I learned a lot about online play, server setup, database manipulation, 3D graphics, and many other things.  It has been a great experience.  That said, this project will be the hallmark of my life’s work.  It’s far from finished and as much as I’d like to continue working on it full-time, I’m going to have to take a break due to lack of funds and being in a position where I can’t do it alone anymore.  Which means that as of now I’m just working on the planning and leaving the programming for when I can tackle it full time or get enough money to really work on it seriously.  And this brings me to where I am today.

A lot has changed since I started working on The Assassin all those years ago.  The console landscape has changed dramatically as well as my attitude towards them.  I won’t deny that I have been extremely bored with games over the last couple of years.  Not really even sure why, but I’m starting to think it was just some phase I was going through.  These days I’ve been in the mood to work on something new in order to fund my larger project.  Which means a resurrection of some old games I was working on.  Unfortunately, I can’t go into more details about it, but there will be an announcement in the next few months.

As I said all those years ago, I want to put together the best game I can.  Unfortunately, I’m only in the planning stages of the project, and though I do have an idea for what console its going to be on the logistics of that are still not finalized.  I also want to say that the project is actually new and while you’ll know the characters and even the world, the type of game will be different.  So that means it’s not The Assassin.  The world will get a chance to play The Assassin, but it needs more of an introduction first.  I’ll also state that The Assassin will be on the same platform this new project will be on.

The next year will be fun and interesting.  I’ll try to keep everyone up to date on the status of the project.  It’s far too early to say more, but I think that those who like action games will enjoy it.

Currently, the HieroGraphix Game Journal site is up and running.  It’s still a little incomplete, but I consider all of this a living work of art.  Things will change and hopefully for the better.  If you haven’t noticed the HieroGraphix site is setup as a blog.  I won’t go into great detail about that except to say that it’s easier for me to keep track of everything since the whole process is automatic and I don’t have to worry about designing every page like I did in the past.  This new setup will be better for everyone.  It will allow articles to be found in a more timely manner and keeps things organized.

The other sections I’m still trying to figure out the best way to handle them.  At some point there will be a section for the old stuff I was working on and who knows, maybe there will be a revival of sorts.  My current project is something different, but fits better with the PC crowd.  Lots of decisions still need to be made about the fate of the old projects I was dabbling in.  Those were good times, but also extremely stressful.  Needless to say, I do respect those who were following the progress of those projects and I would like to do something interesting with them.

The forums are functioning, but sometime in the near future, they will be replaced by a better form.  For the uninformed, Ikonboard is no longer being supported, so I’m going with another board.  Unfortunately, it is not final, so I have to wait for it to be completed.  Functionally, I think the new board will be better.  There are some features that a few people have asked for that should be active with the new forums.  I haven’t had a chance to play with it much, but from the demo I’ve seen of it, I like it.  Should be a bit more robust and more flexible to todays needs.

As for everyone else, I hope you enjoy the site and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.  I’ll leave this section open for comments.  I hope everyone had a great holiday and here’s to a successful year in gaming.