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As far as I can tell, his intention was to never buy Twitter, but to instead stir up trouble. Which in turn landed him into trouble, and forced him to buy Twitter. Now he's trying to make lemonade out of lemons and seems to be failing.

Does this spell the end of Twitter? Possibly.
But if it does, I can only see that as both inevitable and good.

I mean, didn't Instagram pretty much already replace Twitter in the same way Twitter replaced Facebook and Facebook replaced MySpace? It's an never-ending cycle, of which Instagram itself isn't even the latest in the chain. I think that might be WhatsApp or Discord or something.
It's all the same thing either way. And it's a thing I never understood. 

My goodness! And that's only from a few years of letting it grow! 
Give it a few more years and you'll go straight into ancient wizard length.

Awesome beard by the way. 
I bet it's tough to keep it clean and tidy.

This week I finished fixing up the problems encountered during alpha testing, and have sent the beta off to two different people to play through in their spare time.

Now it's just a matter of waiting until I hear back from them. So if I don't make an update next week, just assume that it's because no progress has been made as I'm still awaiting feedback.

Once I hear back though, it should only take a week or two to sort it all out and release it.
Unfortunately there's no screenshots to show this week, but rest assured that the game is basically in the last stage of development.

The description of what you had to do to get that AI generated image is absolutely brilliant, and showcases just how much of you own effort you have to put in to get something worthwhile.

It's a very useful tool for amateurs like me. But it's not quite there for being wholly independent. 

That being said, I don't think anyone should use it as a tool to help them make a contest entry.
Maybe to help come up with ideas, but that's about it.
Like tracing, it'll be rightfully frowned upon.

You've just described the "Dead Internet" theory. So in other words, there are people out there that already believe what you've said as having already happened. 
And seeing their arguments, you can definitely understand why. Everyone is so invested in appeasing an algorithm, that everything popular is indistinguishable from something made BY an algorithm.

That being said, thankfully everyone is trying to train AI to be competent. No doubt because the information on how to do something terribly, simply doesn't exist, because we already do it naturally. So those "so bad they're good" movies will likely always be made by only humans.

Also, if you want to ensure that the person you're talking to is indeed real. Just perform a series of turing tests. Technology is really REALLY far from being able to allow AI to truly comprehend their surroundings rather than simply imitating human behaviour.

This week I finished the boring and laborious job of spellchecking the entire script, and then entered the alpha testing phase, which is where I have other people play through the game while I watch and make notes.


Here's a screenshot of what one of the bedrooms now looks like. It's changed a bit since it was last shown.

During the alpha testing, I've fixed a few minor problems, a missing hint here, a bigger clickable area there.
The only real major change was one of the puzzles, where I realized that there essentially wasn't a puzzle where there should've been one.

Next week I plan to enter the beta testing phase, where I give the game to other people and wait for feedback.
I'm also hoping to get a short trailer made for the game. I'm not too good with cinematography, so I'm planning on conscripting my little brother for the job, since he's got quite the knack for it.

Youtube has been making subtle changes to its UI since forever but the latest one is just jaw-dropping.
The info box below the uploader's name will say "3 years ago" for a video that came out 3 years and 364 days ago. This is truly some next-level math. I get what they're trying to do there but that's a pretty spectacular fail.

To add to this, it grinds my gears how Youtube has gradually been making their entire website worse over a very long period of time.

I still miss when nested replies could have their own nested replies. 

I haven't seen my chin since I started growing facial hair as a teenager.
Does that answer your question? 

[Jazz Jackrabbit 2]

At the time of writing, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is currently free on GOG for the next 60 hours or so.

It's an absolutely awesome platformer, that I'd personally highly recommend to anyone. If you've never played it, then trust me, you won't be disappointed. 
Especially if you get a friend or three and play through all of the levels together. 

The polishing phase continues apace. It's taking a lot longer than I expected, but I should "hopefully" be out of the pre-alpha stage sometime next week and into the alpha stage.

I've fixed a lot of problems with the game, but it's all been either coding bugs, or additional dialog. So there's not really anything new to show art-wise. So why not another background from the flashback portion at the start of the game.



The next item on the agenda is to spellcheck the entire script. After which I plan to give the game a quick test to make sure the bugs I fixed are actually ironed out. Then finally, I'll be getting someone else to play the game while I watch! 

An example of game based on an AI-generated story:

https://meiri.itch.io/bohemian-symphony

_

Do they ever say what they used to generate the AI-generated story?

After all, saying something is made by AI is one thing, proving it is another. And a lot of people seem to be using it as a way to jump onto the hype-train and grab some attention.

I'm sure it is indeed based on an AI-generated story, but considering I've seen people repost pictures from a decade ago, stating that it was made by AI, when in fact I know that it wasn't, has made me skeptical with these things.
(Even more so when they say they used a certain tool, and whenever you use that same tool your results are barely decipherable messes, while there's somehow looks perfect.)

The polishing phase continues. I've tested the game, made a list, fixed everything on it, tested it again, made another list, fixed everything on it, and now I'm in the process of testing it again. And to top it all off, I've still got to go through the entire script, spellchecking it all! 

The things I've been fixing are more than just simple bugs though. I've also been putting hints into places where someone might try a sensible (but incorrect) solution, correcting artwork or adding something to it, and just generally polishing everything up.



As an example, the inside of the barn now has flickering shadows, and the sprites of the guys who I took from the previous game, now have ears. I've also improved the setup icon a bit more.
It's taking longer than I anticipated, but I'm getting there.

Congratulations on getting the funding so quickly. 

Also, I wish you good luck on hitting all of those stretch goals. 

I've finally entered the polishing phase of the game development process. What this entails is testing, making notes, fixing, then rinsing and repeating. I ended up with nearly 40 items to fix or change from just playing through the introduction of the game, and it's taken me all day just to mark most of them off (I've still got nearly ten items left). I can't imagine how many problems I'll spot after actually managing to play the game all the way through.

But that's just today, for the rest of the week, I've been prepping myself for entering this polishing phase by doing up the GUI elements and making an icon for the game.



I'm very proud of how the icon came out. It took me an entire day to make it though. It resizes nicely as well.

The polishing phase is all about prepping the game for Alpha testing, where I have someone else play through the game while I watch and make notes. So I need to get it to as good of a standard as possible, since the person I'll have do the Alpha testing, can only play through the game for the first time, once. (And he probably wouldn't want to play through it a second time anyway.)

After fixing the problems identified during the Alpha testing, it'll be onto Beta testing, where I send the game to someone I know for them to play it and report back any problems they encountered.
Then after fixing those problems, it'll be onto the release.
The biggest uncertainty is the Beta testing phase, since people are busy doing other things, and will get around to it when they get around to it. But I'm hoping to enter the Beta testing phase by the end of this month.

I feel like I've gotten nothing done this week, but that's only because I've been working on a bunch of the smaller stuff. For example, last week I showed an animated screenshot of some burning hay in a barn, but this week I fixed a bug where it stopped animating whenever someone talked. I also added a pool of blood for someone who dies, because I finally realized it looked odd without it. So it's basically been a whole lot of that.

Oh, and I also finished adding in that easter egg. That took up a lot of time.

Next week I plan on brushing up the menus and GUI elements, and finally make some icons for the game. And after that's all done, I need to play through the entire game from beginning to end, fix any bugs I encounter, then rinse and repeat.
In other words, I'm onto the final leg of the race. The end is in sight, although it's still too early to give any release dates, because who knows what could happen. And I do intend to give the game to some people I know, in order to find and squash any remaining bugs, and who knows how long they'll take to get around to playing my game for me.

Still, I need to show something, so why not show off how the living room looks now, in all it's glory.

This week I fixed a few minor problems which I encountered during some of my testing, such as a missing sound effect here, or no grab animation there. I also improved a bit of the artwork I originally grabbed from the previous game, to try and make the artstyle more consistent, while not drastically changing anything (after all, I want that flashback sequence to still be a clear flashback sequence).

Here's a quick example of that:


Lastly, I added an extra step to one of the puzzles near the end of the game, and I've also been hard at work on a hidden easter egg that I doubt anyone will find.
Why am I putting in so much effort for a very well hidden easter egg? Well, because I dread bug-testing that much. 

Thanks for sharing your progress. How much time do you need to finish it?

I can't give any specific deadlines just yet, because who knows what hurdles might pop up, but I am aiming to finish it for November. And worst case scenario, it will definitely be finished sometime this year. 
Also, welcome to the forums. 


This week I spent all of my time coding in responses for everything I drew in the rooms last week.
Those are responses for left clicking, right clicking, and using an inventory item. Because for some reason I always feel obligated to code a response in for everything instead of simply relying on the "unhandled dialog" that would appear if I didn't code in a unique response.

I also made a fake-intro-credit sequence, to give the game a bit of extra flair at the beginning.



I think there might have been an encoding issue with that gif. The characters have red eyes at the end there, which they shouldn't. Ah well, it shows off that credit sequence.

I'm starting to notice a lot of little bugs that will need fixing. And I can't imagine how many bugs there are that I'm not aware of. So that'll be fun... 

This week has been all about improving the artwork for the rooms. I've mostly been adding random junk, shadows, and a foreground. But occasionally I'd change something I'd already drawn or add some texture to something where there wasn't any.



I've just about finished improving all of the rooms. I've only got one more left, and then all I need to do is quickly look over everything I've already done (to make sure I haven't missed anything) and then assign all of the new hotspots.

Also, I think I may have become a little too reliant on boxes and books. Since they're both easy to draw and make sense to be in almost any room.

The game looks way prettier now though. 

As said in the 'Discord Server' of this community, where I'm already in....

I always forget that we have a Discord server.
Welcome all the same though. 

Loved the original game and loving the way the sequel seems to be shaping up!

Thank you. 
It means a lot.



This week I finished off the introduction. Now three characters sit on the sofa, instead of standing awkwardly in front of it.
I also finished the endings. They were mostly completed already, but I had to make a few animations and a whole lot of sprites to finish them off.
I've also recently started going over all of the backgrounds and improving them. Adding useless junk, shadows, and a foreground. The basement was the first on the list, since it was the most empty, and I've now finished improving that.
Lastly, I finally added the game over screen. (That's right, you can die in this game. Although thanks to auto saving and how easy it is to avoid, it shouldn't become annoying.)



I wanted to show off a background I've never shown before, but at the same time I don't want to end up revealing everything (got to leave something for players to discover). So I decided to go for a cropped screenshot as a compromise.
Then a certain someone decided to come out of nowhere and attack me. So I've decided to include him in the screenshot a little bit (rather than just completely cut him out).