Update 36 - Starting From Zero

When you've spent long enough on the journey, sometimes it's easy to forget the destination. When Yugure no Kagami was first conceived four years ago, I had no idea it would be this long before I got there. But as this devblog stands to witness, it's been a long process of laying the foundation for the purpose of saving time in the future. By building VNgen once and building it right, I've positioned myself (and other developers!) to quickly and easily create content without compromising on functionality or presentation.

Well, I've been teasing it long enough. As of today, I'm proud to present to the world Yugure no Kagami ZERO, the first chapter of this epic saga, set to release independently later this year. Check out the fancy teaser site here, and read the official press release here! In a new tab or two, preferably—because that's not all we have to talk about today!

Say Hello to XGASOFT 2.0!

It's hard to believe almost a year has passed since XGASOFT's main site first went live, and along with it, the unveiling of Yugure no Kagami to the world. Since then, however, my development efforts have been laser-focused on completing VNgen, the engine designed to make it possible. It might've looked like nothing was happening, but the planets are aligning and it's time for that to change.

And change it has: xgasoft.com has been completely revamped from backend to frontend, and is about to see a lot more activity very soon. As described in a previous devblog post, future development updates will be featured by XGASOFT, leaving ThinkBoxly for more personal content instead. What's more, you can now subscribe to receive XGASOFT updates by email and receive 10% your next purchase of any XGASOFT product (like VNgen)!

And speaking of VNgen, keep your eyes peeled for a new update hitting the Marketplace and Itch.io this weekend! Feedback and development have both continued post-1.0, and the new version contains multiple fixes to text and vox actions, plus adds easier NVL-style presentation with auto text positioning.

And... that's about it for now! A bit of an abbreviated post this weekend, I know, but for good reason. What reason? Stay tuned to find out soon at XGASOFT!

VNgen Pre-Release Update

Hello, World! As you may have noticed, today is the last day in October, and in the last devblog I said VNgen was on track for an October release. Well, the truth is... it's done. The build I have in my virtual hands right now is 100% functional and feature-complete. But as eager as I am to get it in people's hands, I've decided to hold off releasing VNgen for a few more days.

The official release date for VNgen is Friday, November 3, 2017.

Between now and then, I'll be doing everything I can to make the launch as strong as possible. It'll still be Early Access when it gets here, mind you, but with new product launches comes a plethora of images, text, and demos that have to be prepared (even if they're often just taken for granted) and I'm confident VNgen deserves the best presentation it can get.

Stay tuned for this weekend's regularly scheduled devblog for the full details. I'll see you there!

Update 16 - Total Eclipse of the Start

Well, the USA's first total solar eclipse in nearly 40 years has come and gone, and along with it my promise to formally announce the project I've been keeping under wraps for the past two-and-a-half years. Overall it was a successful day, with hundreds of visits and interactions on sites and social media pages literally no one had ever seen before. You can check them out here (Twitter), here (Facebook), and here (official site), by the way.

Now, 'hundreds' isn't a very good number in the long term, but it's incredibly difficult to penetrate all the other voices on the internet. The initial task of raising awareness is a long and slow process, and often happens organically despite any efforts you may make. As an example, this site itself didn't receive much attention until I started operating as an indie developer, where traffic is now fueled largely by sites where I sell my work—and where I've done next to zero marketing.

Marketing can often seem an enigma, so perhaps as I work and learn I can one day share my experiences on this devblog. But! In the meantime, it's been an incredibly important past two weeks for me, and this intro has gone on long enough, so let's get started reviewing the highlights, shall we?

Update 15 - Announcing the Announcement

If you've followed this dev blog for very long, you've probably seen a hint or two dropped that more has been going on behind the scenes than just VNgen. Well, the planets have aligned—literally—and that means it's finally time to take the wraps off the super-secret project I've been teasing all year.

But don't worry! Work on VNgen continues, so as is custom around here, we'll also be spending time looking at how it has changed and evolved over the past couple weeks too.

It's a bit of an unusual list this time around, so be sure to take a look after the jump!

Update 12 - Introducing XGASOFT and X1, the new face of ThinkBoxly Docs!

If you've been following this dev blog for a while, you may recall at the beginning of the year I announced that, along with converting this site into a dev blog, I'd be spinning off my other creative efforts into a separate brand, then called Shaft. However, due to potential confusion with a Japanese studio of the same name, I was strongly advised not to move forward with that branding. Well, it turns out coming up with names is hard, but after days (and days, and days) of bouncing ideas around and checking on their availability, I've finally settled on how to move forward.

Oh, and don't worry: VNgen is still making progress too. All this and more after the jump!

Update 01 - Introducing Shaft Interactive and the Future of Edge Engine

It has now been five years since I first launched ThinkBoxly. It's been a fantastic experiment and learning experience from day one—one that hasn't necessarily turned out like I imagined, but that certainly has prepared me for bigger and better things. For the past two years I've slowly shifted from commentating on what other people create to being a creator myself, and now at long last the planets have aligned and it's time to share some comments on my own work.

In my last post, I teased that everything is about to change. Well, I meant it. And today, that change has a name.