This was a very difficult year.

• My longtime German shepard/ Yellow Labrador mix Sasha passed in february.
• Stopped going to church.
• Almost had a breakdown back in June. Quarantine really got to me.

However, I think it is moments like these that have made me realize life is more important then the "things" we think we were made to be. For some of you; animators, artists, game developers, etc. You probably had the idea that u were gonna sacrifice everything to be "the best" but I am here today to say that I am no longer a part of that race. I started a twitter trying to become more "popular" but it has never made me really happy. Real happiness for me came from starting to meet people and understanding them. I've made some new friends that I can confidently say that I hope they are a part of my life from now on. I can no longer base my happiness on whether Etehfowr Against succeeds or not. It's not healthy.

So after that, I guess it'd be strange to say that the game is nearing completion. Etehfowr Against (once known as Arcade Quest) is looking much better. All the base characters are currently playable in game. Right now I'm in the process of adding some things to the combat universally, things like:

• for some reason all normals use to launch the opponent, now you can choose to launch the opponent while holding down.
• for a long time, the game never had knockdowns. If you're a big fighting game fan, you'd know that knockdowns are very essential to the offensive and defensive portions of a match. It's weird to say that the game has no sweeps either, but I'm just adding it in to make the oki(or setplay whatever) more interesting. I'm adding them in first thing for the new years.
• I tried to add it in on christmas day to fuck around with my friends on, but 4 player mode is gonna be a thing. I remember pre-covid going to NYC game developer meet-ups and people would always ask if the game was gonna have a 4 player mode. I remember saying no, because the game is more focused on learning how to sync and de-sync both characters on your team. but because this actually makes the game a little harder because it has fighting game motions in it. So it seems fitting to add a 4 player mode so people can interact with the game on a much more casual level.
• 
  

Also I said it before but I'm gonna release the game on NG. because there's no single player mode yet, I'm thinking of adding a Combo Leaderboards mode. Basically it's a mode based on getting the higher combo. There's going to be a standalone story mode for the game too, but I haven't started that one yet 😲. Initial cast is gonna be 7 characters... but 4 more will show up after that. Sorry if you're a "gotta have a huge roster" kind of guy.

I'm gonna go into next year posting stuff on newgrounds. I just started actually developing for @3p0ch's metagame collab. Prototype is functional !

I also have been dreaming of doing a newgrounds based fighting game. The framework for that kind of thing is already there in Etehfowr Against, so I believe it's possible to make. Brainstorming the cast as well. It prolly won't have any command motions either and the idea for that one is more along the lines of "getting two people to share playing on a keyboard" sort of thing.

I've also picked up drawing again and will be posting more of that throughout next year. I'm sick of trying to play with the indie big boys so I'm just gonna focus on doing newgrounds stuff again. Making stuff on NG was where I had the most fun creatively in my life so it feels right that this is the place I want to be at for 2021.

2020 was such a hard year but I'm so thankful that I've learned that this is a world that loves me. I don't know what I exactly mean by this, but I feel like this scene from Mad Men might explain how I came to that realization.

Might be considered SPOILERS if you'd like to watch the show. Highly recommend it

Thanks for reading and have a Happy New Years!