Puckamon new demo, first FYS:AHS demo release, 8-bit graphics set update

Wow, I haven't updated this thing in over a year? Whoops! Well, I have been kinda busy with various things, ranging from getting a new job (technically I'm on "new job #3" since my last post here... though I'm also still working at "new job #1," preparing to get my hours cut back a bit) to various game-making projects to moving into a new apartment (which will be happening again in the not-too-distant future) and of course that whole "I have a girlfriend now" thing, which still seems like a pretty new thing to me even though we've been together 7 months now (I guess this being the first time I've ever had any luck with that sort of thing will do that. XD)

Anyway... what's happened in the world of stuff relevant to this blog since my last post here? Well, in chronological order...

1.  Puckamon got a new demo release right in time for Christmas of 2016.  This new version adds Hammerspace City and Icepick Town to the ranks of the hammer-themed town names already featured in the game, and of course there's two new gyms to go with them.  There's also several new route and dungeon-ish areas in the vicinity of the new places, some new Puckamon to catch, and the first of many Gym Leader rematches (with the game's weakest Gym Leader, that Pikachu-obsessed creep Brandon who lives in Lumpen Town.)
2. Fnrrf Ygm Schnish: Alleghany Hell School is now available to download and play.  There's some bugs in the version that's currently available, but yep, you read that right -- after spending so many years in development hell (this game's been in production on and off since 2008!) FYS:AHS has finally been unleashed upon the OHRRPGCE game lists.  The game is not complete yet, but it does cover a significant chunk of the story, from the power outage that starts the whole thing off all the way up to the discovery of Mr. Higgins' secret mad scientist lab underneath the school.
3. My 8-Bit Graphics Set has been expanded.  Some notable new additions -- a bunch of new weapons (nearly double what was included originally) and hero sprites (more than double the original amount!), a decent chunk of new enemies (there are now 150 total!), and a good pile of new attack animations (bringing their total to an odd but impressive 127.)  If you've already got a game going with the old version, don't worry -- all the newly added sprites are also available for individual download on the OHRRPGCE Wiki's Free Sprites and Free Animations pages.

And what's next? Well, first up is probably a bugfix-plus-some-added-stuff update to FYS:AHS -- there's a nasty bug that lets you sequence-break into the outside areas and see some cutscenes involving a character you won't even have until you can get outside the school legitimately, so getting a version of the game out there with that hole plugged soon is a priority.  I've also gone through and added a bunch of extra details to the maps, ranging from stuff as insignificant as scuff marks and cracks on some of the floor tiles all the way up to a couple of new rooms and more student NPCs inside the rooms that were already there.  I also went ahead and added in two optional bosses (one of which was planned way in advance, the other I got the idea for sometime later along based on what was originally just a random joke detail in one of the maps), one of which has its own dungeon area beneath the sewers... and also, one non-optional boss leading into the next part of the game's main plot.  I'll probably add at least two more rooms to the school before I upload the new version, but aside from that, finishing the second optional boss's scene and adding in one more NPC so that the comic-book-trading sidequest can be completed are all that's left to do.

I'm also going to be making a new game using my 8-bit graphics as a base.  So far that's mostly just in the planning stages, but once the FYS:AHS bugfix demo is out there I'll be focusing mostly on that so things should start moving along a good bit quicker.