CyberAnima - Important 2025 Update

I've been working on CyberAnima for nearly 4 years with little to no progress for my game. Despite being a first-person shooter, it's still somewhat of a crappy walking simulator (due to the lack of a variety of systems), and I've decided after all this time to put the game on hold for the time being.

Why you may ask? The main reason is in my skill in game development, specifically coding. Coding has been my Achilles' heel throughout my journey in game development, and I've learned a lot during my ventures into creating games. However, poor advice has caused me to lose morale on a lot of skills I'm very good at, and causing me to idiotically focus on code in a bad way. This is bad since CyberAnima, without spoilers, lacks any kind of proper story or game plan. It does have, for say, Notion pages, but the story and concepts are still incomplete because my brain was poorly rewired to focus on the game's project file instead of any other elements. I understand that coding up prototypes comes first before proper development, but in a lot of cases in game development, indie or not, I've felt worn out on focusing on nothing but the game on a project/coding perspective, and not within a design and story perspective. Without design documents and a plan, I can't really easily go forward executing those plans within the game itself.

And over the past 4 years, I've burnt myself out trying to figure out how to implement specific stuff without really writing down a tactical plan to do so. Stuff like weapons systems, NPCs, and other back-end stuff that is extremely important for what I'm making. And that's with and without AI assistance. Not to mention it's core focus has shifted over those past four years, which also hindered development. First CyberAnima was a simple boomer shooter, then it evolved into having more slower, cinematic Half-Life-esque elements (a "half-like" if you will), now I'm giving it even more fresh ideas at the point where it could have it's own identity. But this unfocused shift in style has caused issues and I want to stop with this form of feature creep.

Going forward, I want to figure out how to restructure my approach to CyberAnima in the future. I want to focus more on the elements I have more skill and passion in. Stuff like music/sound design, 3D work, world-building, documentation, etc. I want to take some time off to rejuvenate my passion on working on a game without being fed poor advice, especially so since it's summer now and it's hard to focus on game development once I'm bombarded by unfairly hot weather and Geoff "Dorito Pope" Keighley's multitude of gaming conferences (or not-E3) to peer through. I want some time to just relax and not worry about competition or drama. I want any of you to understand that I'm going through a lot in my life, and working on CyberAnima in this way will just cause more problems in the future. I now have a part-time job (for the very first time) and I'm getting promise that I'll get proper education on driving. There's a lot going on in my life that's going to be exciting, but with me working on CyberAnima in this current state, it could probably cause issues with me on a mental level.

So no, CyberAnima is NOT cancelled, but it is on hold until I have the power to work on anything but the engine/code elements. Also alongside figuring out a plan to make development less stressful.

 I've learned a lot over the past couple of years trying to create CyberAnima. I started with Unreal Engine 4 back in early 2021 when I wanted to create a game, then restarted development in Godot in mid 2022 when I found out Unreal was too bloaty and un-configurable for what CyberAnima is trying to be. And as of right now, I'm still using Godot. I was at one point reconsidering using Unity, despite my disappointing thoughts on the engine, but someone random immediately DM'd me and begged me to NOT switch for a multitude of reasons. It didn't seem like poor advice, so I'm sticking with my guns regardless of what you think.

Plus even when I do get back into the engine/code elements of CyberAnima, I want to figure out how to use templates and tools and modify it beyond repair to fit it within CyberAnima without it being an asset flip. I heard the recent success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did this, along side a smattering of successful and critically acclaimed indie, mid-budget and AAA games. So I definitely want to make things easier by having some systems already within the game, then slowly modify it to be more unique and so forth. And then for coding by itself? That's still up in the air. If things hit the fan with my coding skills again, I want to get someone on board to help me in regards to coding, but even then I feel afraid due to the lack of budget on CyberAnima. Like I said, I just got my part-time job, and I'm not getting paid much, but even then I really don't know if it will help with CyberAnima's development. I did have thoughts on creating a Kickstarter, but that's still up in the air. The budget for my game is still a mystery. Unless a funding group finds my wicked ideas for CyberAnima amazing and decides to give me a budget with no strings attached, the game will pretty much be budgetless until time changes.

In the mean time, I want some time off. I want to feel good goofing off for a while during the summer, and I need some time to rejuvenate my mind working on CyberAnima. It will return when it reaches a presentable state. I was just naively steered off course and my mental health diminished from this philosophy. I care about this game, I want to make it the best as possible without issue. But hopefully I'll figure out a proper plan, and hopefully I'll work on the elements that don't seem too daunting once my creative juices and motivation picks up.

And in this period of meditation, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

- stixc (Charles)

2024 Wrap-up

 

Stock image I found in relation to this post. Just for the hell of it.

NOTE: This post was written in a text editor and posted to my socials around Thanksgiving. I have uploaded it here for convenience.

CyberAnima - 2024 Status Update

JUNE 2025 UPDATE: The information in this post is outdated. Despite mentioning CyberAnima being on hold, the game was still being worked on slightly, with some work being done at the start of 2025 until June 2025. The game is now on hold again for the unforeseeable future. You can read about it here. 

The Return of the Blog

So this is a bit awkward. I'm gonna try to blog again. Why you may ask? Welp for context, I started to blog around the end of 2021, and stopped around early/mid 2023 for various reasons. Maybe it was because a good chunk of my posts had quirky, unprofessional writing? Maybe I was worn out and thought blogging wasn't my thing at the time? I dunno, but regardless, I'm gonna try to bring it back.

Another reason why it's coming back is me trying all sorts of sites to be on for the hell of it. After all, Twitter (no, I'm not calling it X) is hitting the shitter due to meme inventor man implementing all kinds of dumb policies and decisions into the site. A lot of people are migrating to other sites such as Bluesky (which I'm also on) and so forth, but I thought it would be funny to bring back this blog as another way for me to express stuff about myself, regardless of game dev or any other project.

I kinda wish I was in the late 90s/Y2K when .plan files we're a thing. Basically a UNIX code updating system made in the 60's or so, turned into a proto-social media platform courtesy of John Carmack. There's a whole archive of various game devs from this time frame (i.e. from id Software, 3D Realms, etc) who used .plan files to not just talk about stuff they we're working on in said studio, but also just stuff about their life. Real life shenanigans; movies, TV, music, anime, and other stuff they want to talk about. And with an infinite character limit compared to most social media sites limiting themselves to 100 characters or so. Yes, blogging is like .plan files, but I swear .plan files felt a little more social media-esque compared to blogs.

Regardless, I want to use it to REALLY talk about a lot of things, but I will also try to talk about a bunch of stuff on social platforms too. And of course, updates on stuff I work on (i.e. CyberAnima) are also talked here. Long dev posts, if you will.

Thanks for reading, hopefully I can post a lot of crap here. 😊

FYI: I know the site says it's unsecured. This isn't some custom blogging engine or anything, I'm using Blogger (a Google thing) and I linked my blog to my domain, and somehow it's not allowing it to be certified. This site is not shady, and I will try to figure out a way to resolve it. Apologies.

21st Birthday: An elucidation for an decaying one, now ingurgitating alcohol

Today is a big day today. I am now 21 years old. I'd never thought I would reach this age, even though it's normal for most to reach this age. I'm just amazed at how my life changed and expanded as time flys by. I was born with low functioning autism, later diagnosed with high functioning autism (Asperger's), alongside ADHD and other neurological issues. And from the start of my life up until the late 2000s or so, I suffered with the inability to speak, loss of function, auditory sensory disorder, alongside a plethora of other problems. But a good chunk of these are gone, some still persist (like the sensory issues), but for the most part, I am much more stable human being that what I was when I was young. Yes, it's terrible that I still suffer from a lot of these issues, but the fact I'm still alive is just wild. And since I finally reached this age, I can finally accomplish something that I was unable to do due to laws: drinking.

I'd admit, alcohol was something I kinda feared for a while, but at the same time, I was mystified by what exists. Beer, wine, whiskey, bourbon, vodka, gen Z seltzers (i.e. White Claw), stuff like that. I had some sips here and there when I was underage, and I thought it was fine and I still stand by that to this very day. Not to hate alcohol or anything, it's not all bad, but it's not at the point were I would be an alcoholic. But hey, if someone offers me a drink, then I'm all down for it. Yes, I know it's bad for a lot of cases, but it's probably more tame than cigs, hard drugs, or any other form of toxin out there. But it can still be very bad if you abuse it, which is something I'm not going to steer into. I prefer sodas, fruit juice, and stupid stuff like that; hell coffee and water already fills in those gaps if I'm being honest here.

And as for the future, that's something I'm really wishing would speed up. The 2020 was already bad, last year was fine, and this year wasn't exactly the best with what's going on, but I'm really hoping things can change. I still lack a job, driver's license, or anything to get on my toes, but like I said, hope is something I should look out for. And since things are clearing up, I really hope the pandemic can settle down and I can get a job out in public, but only time can tell.

Despite the ups and downs, I'm still glad I have reached this far into my life. And for the projects I'm working on, CyberAnima is still being worked on, but don't expect much since it's still somewhat of a walking simulator. I'm trying to implement a lot of stuff, and hopefully a lot of things can be shown by 2023, but again, time can only tell. I'd rather take my time than crunch for this. Aside from that, things have been pretty well lately, and hopefully I can improve on myself physically and mentally sooner or later. This year wasn't exactly the best, but I'm hoping by next year things will be different. To those who are still with me, thank you for sticking around, and I hope the future is much brighter out there. To all my friends and followers, and family as well, I would probably be fucked if weren't for you guys.

Thank you all,

stixc

stixc makes a Quake map!

Flatzone Maximus (qbj_stixc)

 That's right, I've (theoretically) released a Quake map out there in the wild! Mainly for fun rather than any other reason, but I'm glad I made it as it could account for level design practice and all that. But still I made this just for the hell of it and I'm happy it's out. The biggest part however, is that this map is a part of a jam. Specifically Makkon's Brutalist Jam for Quake. My map alongside a lot of other contributions from a lot of cool people, from random peeps all the way up to people within the AAA gaming industry making these in their spare time, it's chock full of variety and a spectrum of talent.

You can officially download it here from Slipseer. Other mirrors to Quaddicted and other sites are coming soon I hope, so if you use software like Quake Injector, expect that in a couple days.

An introduction to stixc's blog

Hello, my name is Charles, or stixc. This is my blog where I will post whatever I feel like.

Why am I running a blog? For a lot of things. Maybe I want to post long updates involving specific things. Maybe I'll post some CyberAnima stuff. Maybe I'll post my extremely long controversial and horrid opinions out there for the world to see, it's all up in the air. Don't expect anything SUPER personal however, I'd prefer to keep those kinds of thoughts to myself.

With that being said, feel free to share my posts with others if you agree with something I said, or want to show off what I do here.

 (Yes, this post was made in 2021, I had a blog up until early 2023 or so, but I'm gonna try to bring it back. This has since been updated since Oct. 2024.)