New Playable Build!

Yes, new build! But we'll get to that in a second -

- I've been down in a development hole working like a demon to get this game polished, feeling great, and worth your time to play. I'm finally coming up for air to show you all the shiny new progress that's been done, and I'm sorry it's taken me since January to do so - but here we go!

NPCs Finally Added, New Dialogue Font!

The mining prison is now teeming with characters you can interact with in the current build - their stories might continue on from here, or end tragically depending on how you handle these interactions. I also completely redesigned the dialogue font for better legibility while retaining the dark fantasy theme:

There is also a new KEYS section in the inventory to store mundane Iron Keys, Gold Keys, and unique quest keys and items:

Updated Controls, Tutorial Prompts and Sequence

The game FINALLY has a tutorial sequence with appropriate prompts (the prompts are purely optional and can be interacted whether you choose to or not) at the start of the game, leading up to the intro story bits:

There is now also a DEDICATED GRAB button for grabbing objects, pushing/pulling them, lifting and tossing them:

Tutorial prompts have been placed elsewhere in the game world where necessary, also:

GUI Madness, Mouse Support and Options

The user interface elements have all gotten an overhaul (visually and mechanically) and now have mostly functioning mouse support! In addition, you can now fully remap either a gamepad, or mouse and keyboard to play EXACTLY how you want to play!

Swapping between gamepad input and keyboard input will also be reflected now across ALL prompts, user interface elements, and HUD elements:

New Essence, Level Up, Restore Point

You can now gain Essence Points from battle and spend them at designated restore points (or, for the lore junkies, "Essence Vessels"; artifacts left behind by ancient beings as they carved their way through the old world):

Spending Essence Points on your three primary stats (FAVOR is a liquid stat, which can also raise and lower depending on other actions) will increase your level, but also increase sub stats like knockback resistance and knockback power, dodge speed, allow you to equip more powerful gear, and lots of other things that we'll go over closer to release!

Vendor System and Gear Comparisons

You can now sell and buy things! FINALLY!

As is included in the vendor system, you can also compare potential weapons, shields and armor stats against your currently equipped gear to see whether you will gain any increases (or decreases) in things like damage output, resistance, armor hit points, and whether you have enough MIGHT or RESOLVE to use a piece of equipment:

New Music

Here's an assortment of new (and redone) music tracks that have made it into the game! These are mostly done, but still need an eventual final pass for EQ-ing and mixing/mastering:

... And MORE

There are many other improvements, additions and bug fixes in the latest build - to many to go into detail over, so here are the patch notes!

DreamHack Austin

I had the spur of the moment opportunity to bring the game to DreamHack in Austin over the weekend. 

I was incredibly nervous and didn't quite know what to expect (and wasn't sure if we were going to make it), but the show went well! I got a LOT of good feedback, and PC Gamer came over and did a video interview and captured some game footage. Here are the videos if you fancy watching me be a sleep deprived idiot in front of a camera!

(the Youtube comments sections are especially hilarious) 

Here is the article featured on PC Gamer also.

If you are a backer and already activated your Steam key, the new build should automatically update in your Steam client!

After this update, builds will also differ between what's available via Steam and the other live demo locations:

GameJolt

IndieDB

Anyway, thanks for checking out the update! That's all for now - more to come soon!

-Matt

New Stuff, Old Stuff

Took me long enough. Anyway, yeah, it's right over here:  

http://www.planettobor.com/savage/2013/9/3/state-of-the-project-update

That is pretty much what has been taking up a good 16 hours of my day - nose deep in UI/Inventory systems code and coming SO CLOSE to a working state! Er... the Inventory system, that is, not the game itself, unfortunately. I do want to be finished, or pretty darn near at the end of this year, but we will see what happens. 

There has been a lot of traffic here lately, and I just wanted to extend a big 'THANK YOU' (big = caps)  and a sincere 'welcome!' to any new visitors (and returning) and let all a' ya know what exactly is going on here.

What is going on here? I ask myself that daily - and although I never really seem to arrive at any self-satisfying conclusion, mayhaps (<== spell check doesn't like this, >:]  ) I can provide you with one! ... Maybe.  

I have been pouring most of my time into the aforementioned Savage - a game I've been developing off and on (more like tearing down and destroying, building back up, repeat) for the last 3 years. As a result, I haven't been putting any time into my Comic over the past month/two months... but it is definitely something I want to get back to. And will get back to, on occasion. The comic started as an experiment with the daily-gag formula, mostly to see whether I had the chops/liked the format enough to do something like that long-term. A couple years later, I'm still not entirely sure, ha!! But I do dig a few of the characters, so I'm sure some other iteration of it will rear its ugly head eventually - however dissimilar to the original it might be. 

So there you have it! A very vague-ish, murky report on my goings on here with a series of magic 8 ball 'perhaps'es and 'too soon to tell's.  One thing I know for sure: I like making comics. I like working on video games. Expect more of both.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you didn' hurt yourself too badly during your visit. Band-aids (or, adhesive strips) at the door.

Love,  Matt

Where Was I Again?

I just did a fool thing (but what else is new?): So  - I had this amazing, meticulously conceived, well rounded and (possibly) award winning blog I've spent all morning laboring over... and I accidentally deleted it. And the world is way worse off because of it, I tell you... Honest! Or, better, maybe. It's a matter of perspective (probably).

Oh well! here's kind of  what I was going to sort of say before my mouse up and decided to listen to some stupid impulse my hand suggested: We're in our new place! We made it out of the fire and landed in a much better living situation, a cleaner complex and an apartment that smells like a bunch of new stuff! Because it is. New, I mean. We've had our little Amazon shopping spree (thanks, insurance money!), received all of it and we're feeling a lot happier and more comfortable.

July has definitely kicked my ass. So much has happened: There was the fire on the 4th, and... well, that's pretty much it, but hot (heh) damn, what a loaded event! Each day after within those first two weeks felt like a whole month of their own. We are so lucky and blessed and have had so much help from so many wonderful people I can't even begin to compose another weighty run-on sentence like this! Actually I probably could, but I won't (for now). I can see the trail of red tape behind us and we're making tracks.

Here's what my shiny new "office" looked like about a week ago: 

Not demons, not deadites, not Ted Raimi in a giant, sweaty latex suit can bring old Ash (I will spare you any more fire-related jokes on that one) down - Hail to the king, baby. And thank god for buying crap on the internet. Without all that packaging material, I would not have been able to construct that luxuriant designer desk you see pictured above. I have a future in carpentry. 

I feel like I have about a bajillion (or some other equally absurd and hilarious fake number) hours of sleep to catch up on. Like that's going to happen.  I have too much to do, and I'm too excited to not do it. I think that came out right. More comics to do, a game to release this year, a shiny new podcast to do with my buddy Gabe (ya know:  that brave soul who braves the under-dark of the film industry to bring you outrageous/disturbing/funny reviews of such classics as (The) Legend of Sorrow Creek, and Killjoy, all that and more RIGHT HERE ) and... other stuff I haven't thought of yet or forgot to mention.

Anyway, I'm going to go try to fight through the aftermath of a Benadryl coma. Thanks for reading and stay flame retardant!

-Matt

The Roof Is On Fire

And it really was yesterday morning! What a crazy way to start a 4th of July holiday - opening up the front door at 6 a.m. to a wall of very angry and very real flames. Our apartment is pretty much destroyed with most of our belongings. No one was hurt or killed in the fire, but there are a lot of (something like 50?) other residents who shared the building with us that are kind of left scratching their heads and wondering where their new homes are going to be. It's been a pretty crazy day today, and the fire feels like it happened such a long time ago, as opposed to just yesterday. Lots of trying to get a hold of property management - lots of talking to our insurance provider - lots of not sleeping, ha!  

It's a pretty surreal situation, and we don't really know what's coming, so needless to say, updates on the ol' Planet Tobor are going to be a little thin in the coming weeks... at least until we find some new digs.  

We are so grateful to all the awesome firefighters who were braving the blazing inferno that was our place of residence, and the amazing folks at the Red Cross that showed up on the scene, providing everyone with comfort and information on what to do and where to go next. 

I'll keep you guys posted on the goings on here as often as I can. Thanks for reading/listening/watching, and there is lots more to come!  

-Matt

Mayday

So, our computers here have been suffering from a strange case of WTF I CAN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING ON THE &*@#* DESKTOP syndrome. Stupid, stupid viruses. I swear, this sumbitch is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick. Or something. I seem to be cracking it's disgusting membrane open and I've regained some semblence of control over my wife's laptop, but it still feels like an uphill battle. A big part of me wouldn't mind taking that dark and dangerous road up the scary volcano and casting into the flames from whence it came...

Anyway, in much better news, some of my music is featured in this episode of Gridlock TV; a show for cycle, car, generally anything that goes vroom gearheads.  The show is put together by my very talented buddy Eddy Montiel of Compadre Productions - watch the badassery at work:

There is also a shiny new animated intro in the works for the above show being stitched together by yours truly. More updates to come!

I ain't got time to bleed,

-Matt

Estranged

It has been way too long since I updated this site and for that I feel nothing but shame! Thanks to all you readers/viewers who keep coming in to check the comics and the pages out - that means a ton to me and I shall hence forth strive to keep this an entertaining (and frequently updated) place to visit.

I'm in the process of wishy-washy-ing back and forth with whether or not I want to choose a different hosting service and giving the site a face lift, so I apologize for any haywire behavior you might be experiencing here.

Work on Savage is going nicely - I've been pumping a lot of 20 hour days into the project ever since I finished animating the music video for the talented guys at Texas Microphone Massacre. If you haven't seen it yet you can check it out here.

The Spellbook (by super awesome Escaping Westlawn Productions), a short film I lent my goofy acting abilities to will be available for viewing soon. The director, crew and the cast were all awesome and super talented people! I'll post a link for it here when it's available for those who are into demonically posessed toys and sorcerous evils (who isn't?).

Escaping Westlawn Reel:

Two awesome fellows who worked on The Spellbook (and also comprise PointShootRecord) also threw together a production for the Austin 48 Hour Film challenge and asked me to be a part of it - I excitedly and happily accepted. The link for that film should be up sometime soon, too. 

PointShootRecord reel:

TL;DR:

Computers. I mean, wow, man.

xoxo

Hooray Social Media Things

As the title suggests, I've been trying to wrap my head around Twitter (which until recently I thought was some kind of extensive digital library of exotic bird mating calls where, universally, the time honored 'tweet' was the goto favorite), creating a Facebook page for this guy, and lumping the comic feed and news feed into one comprehensive RSS feed - Mission (I think) accomplished!

You can now seek Facebook's approval in liking us and such - and following our Twitter, should you feel so inclined!

So for those that prefer feeds and such, it's all back up and running. To the best of my knowledge.

I may just be conquering my fear of the social network boogeyman. Scary.

-Matt

P.S. Check out these awesome T-Shirt designs created by my one true love, why dontcha?

New Art... And Stuff

I thought I'd throw a little mention up on here about getting rid of the RSS feeds littering this site... in that I have smote them down upon the mountain side (most of them). Having so many on here seemed a bit cumbersome to me, so I decided to leave just the one sort of catch all feed in the form of the News feed. I think.

I don't know - all this web/computation machine mumbo jumbo gives me a rage induced headache the size of a bantha! So, here's a pretty new picture I made between strips (no pun intended) that's part of a concept piece for a project I've been wanting to get off the ground for some time.

IMAGE PROBABLY NSFW

(No, it's nothing raunchy despite what the scantily non-clothed magic wielding harlot in the illustration might suggest)

But with Savage in the works, Warpaint on the back burner and Planet Tobor kicked into a 5 time a week update schedule, I might not see this project for some time. That's ok! Being too busy is a good problem to have, right? ... Unless that causes me to miss out on too many of my kid's little league games or school plays.

But I don't have a kid. Problem solved!

-Matt

Warpaint?

No, I am sorry to say no Warpaint today. For that I apologize. It will, however, be back in the next couple of weeks. There's a lot of work that still needs doing on the site and good things are in the works so expect to see it again very soon!

-Matt

Oops. But No Longer!

First (completely unrelated to 'Oops'), Planet Tobor is switching to a Monday through Friday update schedule. 5 days a week you'll get a brand new page! Now, onto the oops:

It seems like there were some dead links and images not displaying for a handful of pages in the Planet Tobor comics as well as some pages numbered with goofy inaccuracy. Fixed! I'm sure there are still some dead links floating around the site after the redesign, so I'll try to get to those as well. I guess I was putting a bit to much faith in the Force and went and switched off my targeting computer.

And what's with Gray Skies not getting updated this or last week? Gray Skies is getting it's own shiny new website, that's what! Along with the launch of a new Gray Skies site, Eric is also going to be launching his own hub site to house all his awesome artwork and creations. He's a very crafty man.

Details forthcoming forthwithly!

-Matt

We Can Make You Stronger

Maybe not faster, but certainly better looking. Arguably, at least. Or at the very least give you something you can argue about. I don't know - excuse the minutia(e).

I have another update for the Planet Tobor Comic - and yes, yes I know; What happened to Nocturnal Transmissions, you ask? Somebody? Please ask? It's the same thing! Me and my wishy washy ways have decided to go back to just calling the comic Planet Tobor because I liked it better. But from now on, you have my word, Planet Tobor will remain just that - Planet Tobor... the comic.

I thought it was appropriate to rename the comic (again) in light of the shiny new site overhaul I did last night. Let me know what you think of the new layout - if it rocks, blows, just sits there, or whatever.

And hopefully I can wrap my head around a better navigation for the comics pages in the coming days.

Until then, live long and prosper.

-Matt

She (he) Dreams In Monochrome

Slowly but surely, I'm gaining some ground on the color front.

Please excuse the wonky navigation. Our scientists are hard at work devising a new system that will (maybe) knock your pragmatic socks off!

Meanwhile, I'll be turning toward a piece of software that just maybe has diverted my addiction from Taleworld's black tar heroine of a game, Mount and Blade.

Two Worlds.

I know! It's badness is practically legend... for those who only stuck with it for about fifteen minutes. I was guilty of the same moments after I snatched it off the digital shelves at GOG.com. I found the presentation down right insulting, and listening to that dialogue had me squirming uncomfortably in my already butt-numbing-ly uncomfortable computer chair. Like when you're watching the A-Team, or some similar show, and somebody says something goofy at the end and protagonists A and B have a hearty chuckle at protagonist C's antics. Freeze frame. Totally embarrassing stuff.

Seriously, it's like they paid the voice actors a pool of 5 dollars to lay a sprawling minefield of "Forsooth"s, "Aye verily"s and Mayhaps"es across the span of the game.

Despite all that, somehow, somewhere, the magic kicks in. Once you get past the janky animation, horrible pre-rendered cutscenes and laughable (yet somehow not completely cringe worthy) ren fair voice overs there is a good and vast game in there. I promise. Or I'm a blue assed knave's unle.

Aye, forsooth.

-Matt

A Long Time Ago...

... In a late news post far away:

In all seriousness, please excuse the lateness of this update. I have no good excuse what so ever (whatsoever?) for my tardiness. But please, do enjoy another fancy pants page in the Warpaint saga of space... of the outer variety.

-Matt

Same Bat Time

... same Bat channel. Here's another.

Looks like Marty has made a new friend... in color.

-Matt

Toying Around On Tuesday!

Here's this week's installment of Gray Skies!  Maturity was absent this week... as it is with EVERY week!!!  I really hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: No Burger King crowns were harmed in the production of this comic.

-Eric

Manic Monday

Kind of. Too early to tell yet, I think. Manic or no, here's this:

And more where that came from throughout the week!

-Matt

Scheduled Updates are for Wieners

Oops! Typo-city. What I meant was, scheduled updates are for winners. Anyhoo, feast your peepers.

I'm starting to catch up with coloring all the old black and white Nocturnal Transmissions, so I'll have some brand new ones on the way soon.

Catching up - yes - despite our recent obsession with that show, Jericho. Thanks Netflix (and Eric for recommending). And yes, I'm usually the one who's late to the party. But what a party. I was pretty satisfied with where the series ended (or, according to most, violently and prematurely ripped from the womb) and I am looking forward to finishing up the journey in comic book form (aka Jericho: Civil War).

Sweet post-apocolyptic cancelled early goodness aside, expect colored updates on the old stuff every Monday and Wednesday... maybe even Friday if I wake up feeling extra saucey.

Heheh. Wiener.

-Matt

Noc Tran Update (or insert witty play on words using color synonym)

Voilá, as they say.