2021 End of Year (the Big Bundle) (Patreon)

Hello! I say this every year, and each time it seems more true... time really flies!

First up -- if you don't want to scroll through the whole post: here's the download:

• 2021 Patron Archive Bundle

This .zip file includes most of the regular patron releases that I've shared every week throughout 2021. The bundle zip doesn't have the orc battlers from "orc week" because I have all of the battlers together in a bundle of their own:

• Orc SV Battlers

NOTE: Some browsers have a hard time with .zip files. If the download isn't working, make sure to right-click and 'save as', or try a different browser.

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Okay! Now onto the yearly review. 

I like to revisit some of the important releases from throughout this year-- not just a "top 5" list, but as a way of reviewing the lessons learned along the way. These are patron releases that stand out for any number of personal reasons, or releases that embody a theme or idea from this year.

I think that this kind of reflection is important for growth, so I love that this patreon page gives me a reason to put all of this down in writing. Even if people don't really read the whole post... you are reading it, right? Maybe not LOL. It's okay, I'd probably skip it myself too... I'd write it whether you read it or not, so don't feel bad.

Anyways, here's my yearly review. 

First up: some highlights from the regular patron releases:

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• Tool Use Animation Bases 

These are one of the first releases for this year, back in January of 2021 (feels like yesterday...) These are fun because it's a clear precursor to the Time Elements character animations that I finally finished last week.

These animations for the Time Fantasy have been requested ever since the original release years ago, and making these animations (in addition to the fishing and mining ones from 2020, among others) was a useful practice to know exactly the kinds of motions that will be useful for the next base style, and how to use different tool overlays to maximize the animation itself.

• The Wyvern (Dragon)

This huge guy is really fun for me because of the comparison to the original dragon sprite that I made years ago. The difference is insane -- I'm really proud of the improvement I've made as an artist, and it's because of the consistent work that we've put in every day for this patreon page. Seeing that improvement in such a clear way is really rewarding...

Also it's just a big honkin' monster sprite. That's pretty cool on its own!

• Some Cool Bushes

You'll recognize these spiked bushes from my platformer game, Jubilee.

And that's exactly why I think this release is special. I put this one together after a weekend of doing a lot of work on the game-- and came up with the idea to edit and adapt some of those graphics into the Time Fantasy RPG style. The resulting tiles are pretty successful, I think!

• Greenhouse Tiles

I wanted to briefly highlight the greenhouse tiles because they're a good example of a release method that I've been using more and more recently.

A lot of requests lead me to ideas that are bigger than a single release-- things like the Beekeeper and Skeps, or the Monster's Belly, and more recently-- these Greenhouse Tiles from this month. Some months end up being dominated by a single theme, that I keep expanding over multiple releases. Usually I get more and more ideas from patron comments!

Let me know if you like this approach for larger themes with patron releases, and if you want more like these going forward into the next year-- I'll keep these kind of expansion ideas in mind while I browse the request threads!

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Orc Week!

This summer, I introduced something a little bit crazy... Orc Week was something that I put together to have a pre-scheduled series of releases for a week -- because I needed to spend a week at my parents' house over the summer with their dogs, while they went on vacation. It ended up being a nice vacation for me-- and a ton of new content for you. Win-win! :)

I frontloaded a huge amount of work so that we'd have all of these releases in an insane week. Two SV battlers every day for a week is a lot -- and then after the week was over, I finished up the orcs with some extra releases afterwards. I think everyone liked Orc Week... maybe we can figure out some other sort of "orc week" for the summer of 2022... Hmmm.....

Orc Week: SV Battler Releases

• Orc1-1 and Orc1-2
• Orc Week Announcement (Day Zero)
• Orc 1-3 and Orc 1-4
• Orc 1-5 and Orc 1-6
• Orc 1-7 and Orc 1-8
• Orc 2-1
• Orc 2-2
• Orc 2-3 and Orc 2-4
• Orc 2-5 and Orc 2-6
• Orc 2-7
• Orc 2-8

You can download the full .zip of orc SV battlers here.

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Next up, I want to review this year's bigger releases...

• Mecha War

This one is fun because I teased it as an April Fools' prank. It was so obviously a fake... but then the next day I released it for real! Did it catch you by surprise?

• Time Fantasy Minis

These sets were something that we put together throughout last year and this year, at first as regular patron releases, and then finally compiled them all into a single expansion pack.

I think that these are special because I was able to share them as a free expansion for all Time Fantasy users. I really love releasing things for free-- the whole reason I got into making assets is because I want people to use them! And it's only because of the support here on patreon that allows me the freedom to put out expansions like this as a freebie.

• Time Fantasy: Animals 2 

This one started with a single shaaaaaaark. After that one, I had the idea to expand the Time Fantasy series with some more exotic animals. Of course-- this was an unplanned project that ended up eating a few months that I otherwise was going to dedicate to elements. As with everything, there's a give-and-take. It's not easy to balance new stuff when I also want to keep updating the original series with more and more expansions.

But I think everything turned out pretty good in the end! :)

Speaking of elements...

• Time Elements Tileset Prototype 

This set was released for the high-tier patrons earlier in the year. It's mostly remastered stuff from the TF steampunk set, as I developed a style that's intended to work with the elements characters.

Now that the Time Elements character set is ready to go, I'm looking forward to revisiting these tiles in 2022!

• Inside the Monster's Belly 

This release wasn't originally planned at all... in fact, we ended up throwing it together entirely from patron requests and suggestions! After making a bunch of stuff based on requests, I realized that there was enough content to put it all into an asset pack!

• Time Elements Characters (Patron Pre-Release)

This is the big one that I've been building all year long. I shared it with you just last week. I don't need to write any more about it here!

Oh... and lastly... I finished a game!

• JUBILEE
• On Steam!
• And on itch.io!

I've talked about this one endlessly, so no need for more here. It's enough to say that I've been working on this as a personal project on and off for the past couple of years, and finally releasing a full game of my own is a big deal. It's so rewarding to see the positive reviews.

I hope that you enjoyed it if you played it!

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As always, looking back at all of this: it's really cool to see how much work we got done over the year. It's easy to lose track of it while working on it, but at the end, when you take it all like this, it's pretty impressive. 

And I'm not saying that to toot my own horn, but instead because it makes me really appreciate this whole patreon thing. None of this would be possible without your requests, ideas, suggestions, and of course your support that pays the bills 😅

Thanks for sticking with me. 🥂 2022 is looking bright! 🥂

Okay -- that's it! 

See you tomorrow with the first request thread for the new year.