Apparently the site's been inaccessible with a 403 error for about a day. This was because the host (HostGator) manually disabled the site when the noticed that it was being too much of a drain on their server.

What I assume happened was that the chatroom got too crowded, perhaps... Maybe there was an Internal Server Error? Or more than one? When these happen, I assume that peoples' reaction is to refresh the page, which is the exact *opposite* of what you should be doing!

Those errors occur when the server's overloaded; when too many pages are being requested at once. I'm no expert at this kind of thing, but what I think happens with sites is that when you request a page, it gets added to a queue thing, and the server handles things at the top of the queue before moving onto the next one. Or something. If the queue gets too long, then the Internal Server Error occurs. Refreshing just adds more to the end of the already too-long queue, eventually causing the whole thing to, well, break.

So if you ever see Internal Server Errors, *wait a few minutes* for the queue to reduce in size or whatever, otherwise you'll just cause the site to go down, causing frustration for everyone.

I'll try to do what I can with the code to maybe prevent this kind of thing from happening, even though I had plans for today, ugh.

I know I said I'd start using this only for game updates, but I feel that this might be something mildly interesting to a few of you since both of these personality systems are used on this site.

I've essentially abandoned the use of temperaments myself since discovering Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram, since they're inferior in many ways. However, I've just been reading something that assigns one of the temperament names to certain interaction styles, and lists each Myers-Briggs type that fits each one.

These four 'interaction styles' are based around the idea of Directing/Informing, and Responding/Initiating.

Directive behaviour is commanding, while Informing is not; compare "give me some help" with "I need some help here!". Both are meant as a way of communicating a request, but the directing one is blunt, imperative and to the point, while the informing one merely conveys information and expects the recipient to act on it of their own volition. Some directive types can be oblivious to informing types' requests because they don't realise they're requests at all, while informing types may find directive commands brusque and rude.

Responding and Initiating are in many ways introversion and extroversion, or background and foreground; initiators get things going, while responders wait for others to make the first move, essentially.

The four temperaments are pairs of these, and four Myers-Briggs types tend to fit into each one:



Choleric ("In Charge")
Directing + Initiating
Types: ENFJ ENTJ ESTJ ESTP


Melancholic ("Chart the Course")
Directing + Responding
Types: INFJ INTJ ISTJ ISTP


Sanguine ("Get things Going")
Informing + Initiating
Types: ENFP ENTP ESFJ ESFP


Phlegmatic ("Behind the Scenes")
Informing + Responding
Types: INFP INTP ISFJ ISFP



As an INFJ, I'm directing and responding, and that fits well enough with Melancholic, which is good to know. Despite being naturally directing, I actually don't like the directing style at all, and tend to consciously use informing language and prefer to be on the receiving end of it too.

Does your type fit with your temperament here?!?

I think that I might start using this thing for just game development reports from now on! I shall now write about what I'm currently up to.

I've started lots of games over the last year or two or three or whatever, which isn't really the best idea, but maybe I'll finish one one day!! Maybe!! There's hope!!!

Currently, the ones that I consider 'in progress' are:



CLARENCE RPG, which is taking a back seat at the moment. I'm trying to write the entire script, but it's taking time because I want to actually make it funny, and it's not always easy to be funny if you're not in the right state of mind. It's not exactly near completion!

I don't really have any new images of this since the last time I showed it, since I've just been doing writing!



MIASMON, which used to be a top-down game, then I started work on the side-scrolling Beast Signer spiritual successor called Programon, THEN I combined the two so now 'Miasmon' refers to what will be an ongoing side-scrolling monster-catching RPG thing, with updates every week or something. Ideally.

I've done a lot of work on it, but I'm currently buggering around with other stuff and rethinking the plot and setting...

YOU SEE, I'm currently building this world called 'Alora Fane'... which in many ways is based on the game with that name which I was working on a while back, but which I, in typical form, never actually finished.

Essentially, Alora Fane as a world is a conglomeration of many ideas I've had and liked, but which never made it into full, finished games.
It's bothered me for a while how I set each new game I make in a different world... I mean, they're *sort of* related in that they're based in the 'Astrostles Galaxy', but that's a really wide scope so there's not exactly a lot of crossover. Arkus is unlikely to meet Mardek, for example, and then there's Clarence which probably is in its own silly universe.

The general idea behind Alora Fane is that it's a world in a 'pocket dimension' created by a race of magical aliens called the 'Aolmna'.
They're a hive mind, and so they've never known conflict; what one individual feels, they all feel, so they only know cooperation and never war.
They see other races wiping themselves out through senseless combat, and they FEEL SADDENED by this... so they try to solve the problem in their own special way.
They gather up genetic information of various warmongering races, and use that DNA to create 'children' of those races... who they plonk in artificial worlds that they call 'fanes'. They call those races the 'Barbari'.
These worlds are divided into several 'petals' - one for each race held in that fane, with the environment being the ideal for that race's specific needs and desires - surrounding a central multicultural city called the 'Nexus'. Each race is expected to stay in its own petal until it reaches adulthood... during which time each individual is taught spiritually in the ways of what the Aolmna call 'unisis'. It's basically just empathy, stressing that anything done to another is effectively the same as doing it to yourself, so BE GOOD and DON'T HARM. The 'gods' - the Aolmna - aren't distant myths like Earth gods are; they actually directly interact with their Barbari 'children' and teach them what needs to be taught.

Alora Fane is one of many fanes... and it was originally home to six Barbari races: Bold, Meek, Mhandisi, Sindrels, Varnyn and Elarna. I've mentioned all of these before!
The Elarna developed technology that could capture and train monsters (the gauntlets), and were by far the hardest race for the Aolmna to 'educate' due to their destructive tendencies. Eventually, they did some terrible thing that completely shattered their entire petal, wiped them out, and sent the entire fane tumbling away from the gods and away from the universe.
Hundreds of years have passed since then, and many of the Barbari have reverted to their barbaric tendencies. Some races remember the unisis concept and the Aolmna, but it's now seen as an old religion, which many don't believe.

This is a concept that appeals to me, because for one thing, it's a world essentially based around empathy! It also has a variety of races rather than just being white humans all the time... and I'm able to implement many ideas I've previously been working on; the ruined wasteland that was once the petal of the Elarna is Fracture, for example.

So I'm basing games in that world at the moment. Not ALL of my games will be based there - Clarence and MARDEK won't, for example - but I might adapt some other old game concepts to fit in this new world.

Miasmon is set there, of course, and you'll be able to play as any of those five Barbari races as you explore the ruins of Fracture.

Another notable thing about Alora Fane is the ELEMENTS that it uses! My games like MARDEK used fairly standard things like fire, water, air, earth, light and dark, as well as the more idiosyncratic aether and fig elements.
Alora Fane's elements are based on EMOTIONS, however.

Monsters form from the miasma, you see... this is something that's been established since MARDEK, and it's true for Alora Fane too. Essentially they're caused by strong feelings agitating the omnipresent miasma; if someone fears wolves a lot, then a snarling wolf monster might appear from thin air before them, for example. 'Species' form when thoughts occur a lot and form natural vortices or 'patterns' that the miasma more easily manifests as. Different feelings affect the miasma in different 'elemental' ways.

Magic, then, rather than simply being "magic because it's magic", without explanation, is similar; mages essentially amplify their own emotions to the degree that the miasma takes on their form; they might feel a deep surge of sorrow, for example, which might make the miasma form into a brief eruption of pure 'sorrow' energy. Emotionally sensitive people make the best spellcasters in this world, because their emotions are stronger and more easily triggered.

The six elements - or 'sentiments' - are Courage, Fear, Bliss, Destruction, Creation, and Sorrow, with each one of those being strong against the next one in the list (Courage beats Fear, Sorrow beats Courage, etc). So a person might be 'Courage elemental' rather than 'Fire elemental'!

I'm rather pleased with this system, since it's relatively novel and allows me to focus things around EMOTIONS, which is meaningful to me anyway.

Oh, and each of Alora Fane's races is associated with one of those sentiments. The Bold are Courage (they're a race of gutsy fighters), the Meek are Bliss (they're a race of gentle priests), the Mhandisi are Creation (they're gadgeteers who live in a steampunk city), the Varnyn are Fear (they're lupine lawless thieves who lurk in the shadows), the Sindrels are Sorrow (they're toga-wearing moody reptilian artists who live in ivory towers amongst crystal cliffs) and the extinct Elarna were Destruction (which is WHY they're extinct).



DREAMQUEST - I haven't decided on the name of this game yet, but it's the one that I'm currently devoting the most attention to.

It's mainly a map editor of sorts, similar in concept to the 'FHO' thing I've been planning for years. It's set in Alora Fane - or rather, it includes the five Barbari races and the six sentiments and such - but you're able to make your own 'quest' things which you could share with others.

It would have many limitations! It would NOT be suited for essentially 'making your own games', or for making grand, epic, hours-spanning adventures full of complex twists and turns. It'd be simpler than that, and more suited towards making short, possibly amusing quests instead. It's more like a 'level editor' than a 'game maker'.
I'm hoping that it'll be a lot of fun to play around with, though.

Here are ten screenshots of it!!1












As you can see, there are things that aren't done yet - the battles take place in a brown void, for example - but there's also a lot that IS done, and I've only been working on it for about a month (which also includes time spent doing other stuff like TRYING TO SORT MY LIFE OUT and so on).
Mostly what's missing are art assets, like music and many graphics, which I'm working on slowly but steadily.
Here's the Main Theme, for example!1 ∞ Fig Hunter ∞



So yes, as you can see, I'M NOT DEAD, and while I've STILL not released anything in ages, I'm getting a lot closer to that point and seem to have a better idea of the direction I want to go in now. Things look hopeful!

I've been wanting to make a new community that has a different set of values or attitudes or things like that than Fig Hunter, and I've mentioned that before... I'm curious though about whether any people here would prefer a community like that.

It seems that Fig Hunter has developed a certain attitude over the years... One where 'Intelligent Discussions' are the ideal, where objective discussion and criticism and debate are the norm, and where argumentative young geniuses can find a place where they can engage their critical thinking.

My ideal community, though, would be one where essentially disagreeing with other people was, well, wrong; where if you didn't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Where people could happily express their (non-aggressive) *feelings* and whatever (non-aggressive) thoughts are on their mind, as well as their favourite things and so on, and they'd get friendly, supportive, probably detailed replies and NOT arguments or debates. Somewhere where you didn't have to brace yourself for replies telling you how they didn't share your preferences, or how they think there are flaws with what you like or believe, or how they think you should behave or think differently.
Somewhere where sensitive people can thrive, rather than feeling frustrated or hiding.



Which of these communities sounds more enjoyable to you?

A 'debate club', where all views are discussed and analysed objectively, and civilised, intelligent, rational disagreements were the norm? Somewhere where you could come to hone your intellect; a place to refine your mind.

Or a 'support group', where being *nice*, friendly, and emotionally expressive is expected and welcome, and debate and arguments are forbidden? Somewhere where you could go for emotional support and a mood boost; a place to lift your heart.

A few comments on the last blog post seemed to think that I was going to be shutting down Fig Hunter... so I wanted to make it clear that no, I've no intention of doing that any time soon.

I do want to make another community site thing where I can go to find what I'm looking for, but it'd be nice to have both Fig Hunter AND that one active at the same time, so the people who aren't really the right sorts for that place can spend their time here instead. That way, we're all happy... right?!?

Another thing I wanted to say is that I do acknowledge and realise that people here care about me... I appreciate it, and it's certainly better than being hated and criticised, but that alone isn't enough to fill the holes in my heart or something like that.
It's not like friendships can flourish when only one party is interested... Or like unrequited love can lead to fulfilling relationships for both parties. While I understand the people are interested in me, it's not something I can really reciprocate when the people in question simply aren't naturally wired in such a way that they'd be able to engage me on the wavelength that I want to be engaged on.

That's the big thing... The fact that we're all naturally different. The way we think isn't the same, and what's natural to me has to be forced by others, and vice versa. I don't want to interact with people where either one of us has to grin and bear something we find difficult or unpleasant, like me enduring their blunt analytical debate or them dancing around on eggshells so as not to offend me. I'd rather just recognise that yes, we're different, and talking will lead to both of us being upset so it's best to not even try. This is easier for me to say because I'm on the receiving end of many peoples' attentions, while to me, those people are always just one of many...

ANYWAY. I've no desire to hurt anyone; that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid and prevent. I just need to find a place where I can feel comfortable, and I do intend to keep this place for people who value it. I just hope that some of them will stay here rather than coming over to the new place, if they're not the sort of person it's designed for.

Hello, Fig Hunter. As I've said many times already, I've been mostly avoiding this site recently, and I've talked about why that is quite often, too.

I've still been working hard at games development, though it's a pain that I haven't actually finished anything in far too long; instead I've got a load of in progress things that I thought would work but then later wondered whether they were worthwhile enough to spend the time and energy on. Essentially I've been experimenting around with different things hoping to come across some kind of 'ideal project', and postponing things that didn't fit the bill.

I suppose what I want most of all is a game to build a new community around... One which would be to me what Fig Hunter couldn't be.
However, I'm very, very scared that it'll be impossible because there'll be no escaping what's already been established.

I made Fig Hunter years ago, when I had a different kind of mind and different priorities... I tried to set it up to encourage certain behaviours, but was naive in the ways I went about trying to achieve that...
I mean, I'd always got frustrated by other forums where brevity and apathy defined the atmosphere and culture; I hated it because I wanted people to bond on a more personal level, to share their souls rather than simply writing one-line quips to show how abrasively witty they could be, and how little they cared. I wanted to gather people who thought, who *cared*, and who'd talk at length instead so then I'd find a place where my own willingness to share things about myself in detail would belong.

I tried to achieve this by practically enforcing 'intelligent discussions', though... By adding loads of rules and *rating systems* and character minimum limit things, all to really strictly enforce this kind of discourse...
What I didn't realise back then is that people have different personality types to me, and something that means one thing to me may mean something very different to others. What to me is encouraging subjective soul-baring and emotional bonding, to others seems like encouragement of formal, objective debate, and showing off how much of a genius you are and so on.

So what I think I ended up with was an elitist, snobbish sort of atmosphere; a culture that was built around this notion of 'formal debate', as that seemed to be seen as the most logical way to interpret the rules by many people... or something. Those that didn't want this kind of thing (perhaps including the kind of person I'd most want to get to know) were repelled by it; even my own girlfriend couldn't stand to post on the site because she found the environment too hostile and unforgiving. And that was years ago. (I also seemed to rant at her basically every day about something on Fig Hunter that was making me frustrated...)

I'm sensitive and conflict is toxic to me, so having everything I ever said questioned, argued against, or assessed really did get me down a lot. I found myself getting constant stress headaches; I couldn't go in the chatroom without some damned person or another criticising everything I said, poking holes in my expressions of feelings, asking me to rationalise them or things like that. Trying to knock me off the high horse that I never felt I was on.
I suppose the straw that broke the camel's back was the harsh response to the new sunlit look of the site, which I worked on in the first place because I was finding the site less and less tolerable. Since then, the very idea of becoming active here again has been making me physically sick. THANKS, FIG HUNTER.

Overall, it seemed like I'd made a haven for INTJs, rather than for INFJs as I'd originally set out to do (not that I knew what either of those things were at the time). I understand that many people did find their place here, and appreciate the site for all that they've found through it... and as such, I do intend to keep it going.
I've even fixed a bug with the bubbles layout that allows you to view it again, for those of you who prefer that layout to this one.

However... This isn't the sort of place that I belong at all, and I don't think I'll ever be satisfied trying to force myself to adapt to it, or trying to 'fix' it (which is impossible without kicking out the current members)...
So a lot of my time and mental energy recently has been trying to come up with various new communities that I could make instead, setting them up with a foundation based on everything that I've learned over the past few years.

My ideal community would be one built on friendliness and feelings, not on logic and debate. One where expressing yourself is encouraged, but in a soul-baring rather than argument-destroying kind of way. A community which encourages the *support* of others, or showing interest in what others think; one where you can talk about what you love without other people telling you what's wrong with it or why they don't like it or questioning or starting an argument or any of that stuff that drives me up the wall.

Perhaps I'll never be able to make a community like this... Maybe it's impossible, if I'm going to keep making the kinds of games that I make. Maybe they'll never attract anything other than 'young thinky males', and the testosterone-and-rationality-filled atmosphere that they bring. Or something.

But I am at least trying... And I've actually built such a thing! Sort of. Though it's not open to the public yet.
However, it will be based around games at least in part. Two games in particular, both of which would update regularly rather than being standalone sorts of things. One is the Programon/Miasmon game that I've been talking about recently; I hope that a community that encourages creativity and contribution will turn out to have at least some of the friendly and supportive aspects that I really want to see.
Another is a sort of FHO-like thing where you make your own short 'quests' in a fantasy world, for others to play... This, I fear, will attract the same crowd as this site has... and I do dread that a lot.

I realise it can't be pleasant for the mild-mannered readers to hear me speak about this community - technically including them - in this way... and I am sorry that I do; it's not fair, and it's not likely to be your fault that I feel this way about the place. The people who are responsible largely know it either because I've *directly told them so* on one or more occasions, or we just generally haven't got along when I've had the, uh, pleasure of interacting with them, due to different values and personality types and so on. It's difficult to really get along with someone who assigns great value to something you dislike, while dismissing the thing that you hold as most important. And so on. (Like me having a discussion with someone who feels that subjective feelings are for weak, immature people and that no discussion is worth having without there being an argument or debate involved; 'why talk about something if you're not going to be discussing it to unravel some objective truth or solution?', they seem to think, which doesn't play well with my getting-things-off-my-chest emotional venting...)
It's only really been a few people who've made this place so toxic for me... but it also seems that these people have a habit of sticking around regardless of how their presence makes the owner of the site they're using feel.

I really am dreading that these individuals will pour over to my new site as soon as it's made... especially since one of the things that people I don't get along with tend to have in common is a complete disregard for whether or not they'll be welcome; what they want is apparently more important than what I'd want. I wish I could simply ask them not to, but I'm doubtful that it'd achieve anything other than yet more toxic conflict...

So hmm. That's what I've been working on recently. Making new games for a new community that can finally give me something positive in my life, and a place where I'm comfortable and where I feel I belong rather than one where I'm constantly frustrated, while constantly fearing that it'll all be a complete waste when the very people that drove me away from this site come and INFEST my new home too... It's not an easy situation to be in for one who hates conflict and really, really wants to find (or make) a place to go to avoid it.

I've been wondering whether if I keep Fig Hunter alive, the people who drove me away from here will stay here rather than moving to the new site when it's opened... But I bet it's more likely that they'll just be active on both and I'll have nowhere to go. Sigh.

Now, I wonder if the comments on this thing will demonstrate exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to get away from...

I'm thinking of making Programon and Miasmon into one combined thing!

I worked on Miasmon, as it is now, for a long time... but it's getting harder and harder to even so much as look at it, and I feel like in many ways, I've designed my way into a corner which is very difficult to get out of. Bland characters, too many monsters, an awkward split between chapters and all the problems that would bring... However, there are some aspects of it I'm rather proud of, like the music, setting, and some monster designs.

Programon, on the other hand, has been coming along well enough, but I'm not sure about the setting. I've been seeing it as a 'reboot' of Beast Signer, where the game takes place in a virtual world and the monsters are born of bugs in the code. Each of the small, weekly-added Worlds you'd visit would be a separate server or something.
But it just doesn't interest me for some reason... and it seems too similar to Digimon, probably; some Digimon games had an identical plot and setting, where you ventured into a virtual world and battled with monsters made of data.

Combining the two would be easy! I've been coding the engine of Programon, but I've not done much setting-related stuff yet, so there's nothing to erase there. I could make the setting Fracture, and each world would be one of the many tiny islands orbiting the naked core.
I could reuse music and monster designs from Miasmon, and I could add Plot Missions that would tell the story that that game was originally going to tell.

The idea of capturing monsters formed by thoughts from an omnipresent miasma in special gauntlets reverse-engineered from the technology of dead ancients is perhaps slightly more interesting than a Digimon clone! Slightly.

There are a bunch of other reasons why this is a good idea, but, well, I think I've made my decision, and it seems like the best course of action.
It's a shame to think of never finishing the top-down version of Miasmon, but I suppose I could upload the unfinished version to the 'Miasmon Online' site in the future or something, so people can at least see what it was like!

So yes! That's news! I bet everyone hates it though!!1

I've updated the Games page to include my most recent developments; apparently I'd neglected it for YEARS and it wasn't very accurate!

I also corrected the Myers-Briggs image thing on the last post to make it the right size.

I'm currently trying to apply to go back to university!1 Or rather, to go to university properly this time; I did go a few years ago to one in Australia, but I dropped out due to the whole moving back to the UK thing, and since then I've just been trying to make games.

I'm going to do a 'Game Art' course in one of three UK-based universities, and it seems like it'll be much more up my street than the blander, more technical 'Game Development' thing I did years ago, which was mainly cold and lifeless programming. The design aspects are always my favourite parts, and art is currently perhaps a bigger part of my life than ever.

Speaking of art, yet again I'm going to fill my post with pretty pictures for you to ogle, to make up for the fact that the university stuff has been taking up my game development time this last week (since the deadline is this Sunday, and I've put it off until the last minute).
Look! Painty faces of MARDEK characters! Wow! Gasp!


This is Rohoph in Mardek's body! Doesn't he look like a happy chappy?


This is Deugan's head and also a green wolf's head, for some reason. IT'S NOT ARK THOUGH.


And this is Emela, looking unintentionally bored and miserable because I need to work on my facial expression drawing skills.

I also drew a self portrait of my own ugly mug, but you don't need to see that; even I can't bear to look at it!

Yet another thing that I'm sure you'll all SPOIL YOUR PANTALOONS over is this long and tedious thing about Myers-Briggs that might shed light on a lot of things if you bother to read it!!11!1



Did you read it?!? Did you learn anything?!?

Either way, hello. I'm probably not going to do much on games over the next week due to the university deadline and my worries about that, but afterwards, I'll be able to focus on them quite a bit, so I should make good progress on Programon and Clarence RPG! Hopefully!!

Oh, sorry, I've been avoiding this place recently, so I keep forgetting to add Weekly Updates.

I've been doing more work on Programon, but I've also resumed work on the RPG sequel to Clarence's Big Chance. Working on two games at the same time seems to be working well enough, because when I lose the motivation to do work on one, I can switch to the other for a short while, and I end up juggling them between days like that and getting more done than I would if I just spent that 'developer block' time procrastinating and praying to my heathen gods for some kind of magical motivation boost.

Clarence RPG is fun to work on because it's a pure comedy game, so I can just be silly without worrying about too much really making all that much sense. Rather than rambling on about it, I'll show you a dozen screenshots:


















I've also been doing concept art for Programon... I can't remember whether I've mentioned this or not already, but you can make your trainer one of five different races. It's a purely cosmetic choice, because your trainer probably won't DO anything (or if they do, your race won't be a factor), but I thought it'd be a nice bit of customisation for players to enjoy.

Here are five sketchy drawings of the as-of-yet-unnamed races:











So yes! Screenshots. Progress. I'm still alive, and so on.