As you may have noticed, I always preferred Guilded over Discord for chat server. I even mentioned something about reviewing Guilded in one of my previous blog posts related to Makendo Central to explain why I feel Guilded is a better platform. Unfortunately, that’s about to change since Roblox, as the owner of Guilded, decided to make it required to use a Roblox account for Guilded. I’m not going to go deep into explaining that part of the situation and instead just link to this page where the whole issue is explained and how users are not ok with this change. But what this means is important changes to how the chat servers of my projects are managed. The short version of the story is that all the Guilded servers I manage will be shutting down. Specific details on each situation is listed below.
N Masters
On N Masters, the idea I had was to make Guilded the main chat server while Discord would be like a backup. The Guilded server had more options and used more the advantages of Guilded while also bridging the regular text channels between both sides.
With the Guilded situation that’s going on, the Guilded server will be shut down completely and all activity will be moving back to Discord. A Matrix space will also be made that will be bridged with the Discord server. This time, both bridged locations will be treated equally and neither side will be the main one. Both sides will be backup of each other.
Currently, I’m working on making sure most of the Guilded channels are available on Discord. Some features, unfortunately, won’t be able to make it since an equivalent does not exist on Discord. For example, the calendar channels.
You can already access the Discord server through the link available on the community page. The Matrix space link will also be available there as soon as it’s ready.
NovaFan Games
The servers for NovaFan Games, my indie game developer stuff, were planned to be completely bridged and mirrored. Neither the Guilded or Discord server was the main chat server. Because of this, neither side used unique service features either, or at least for the most part.
Due to the Guilded situation, though, the Guilded server will be completely shut down. In fact, I have already disabled the bridge that existed between the Guilded and Discord servers and alerted everyone who was on the Guilded side to move to the Discord side or a new Matrix space.
Similar to N Masters, the Matrix space will be bridged with the Discord server. The server was pretty small overall still so that’s all about it for now. It is already ready and available here for Discord or here for Matrix.
Makendo Central
Makendo Central was the one that is getting hit the most with the Roblox/Guilded situation. With Makendo Central, only the Guilded server was planned to exist. That server was designed to have and host a lot of things, making the most out of Guilded. There was no Discord side at all.
But with the Guilded situation, the plans have been completely changed. The Guilded server will be shut down and the text channels will be moved to a new Discord server that I’m already working on. The forum channel is very likely moving to being on the site itself as a selfhosted forum. And the gallery channel will be a forum channel inside Discord. A link to the Discord server will be available here as soon as I make sure everything within the server is set up and ready.
Well, it’s been a while. Apologies for that. 😅 But things have been a bit busy on several fronts that I haven’t gotten a chance to properly sit down and write things. The usual stuff on N Masters YouTube channel keeps going on, for example. But anyway, I’m gonna focus on the the topic of 2024 and the hopes and plans for this year related with my projects. Also, if you’re wondering about the stream for January 22, please check the Makendo Central section.
N Masters
I’ve talked quite about this before but gonna state it again just in case. First of all, a huge thanks to everyone who has subscribed to our YouTube channel. It has already gotten more than 1,000 subscriptions. Yes, I did notice it happened and something is still being planned to celebrate it. Sorry that it has been taking so long. I have it logged happening on September of last year. Specifically, it happened first on September 9th but YouTube verified it and notified me on September 12th. That’s probably when the number of subscribers stabilized. So one of the plans is to finally announce this celebration stream and it having everything I want it to involve. You’ll see it announced when it happens. Apologies for the huge delay on this, though. Like I’ve explained before, I’ve been busy with several things.
Besides that, more YouTube videos are planned to keep being added including more playthroughs and guides. I do have a few recorded already but haven’t been able to edit them. Also, please remember that the N Masters channel is also available on Odysee as an alternative to YouTube.
More guides will also be added to the website, specifically PSO2 ones since those seem to be pretty useful to the community. And of course, more reviews or preview articles are planned and are currently being worked on already.
Now something I’ve been considering for a while and I want to announce already. I’m seriously considering taking down both forums. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone really using them. Definitely at least I will be taking down the old forums as it’s a hassle to keep managing both. Of course, a back up will be made before I take it down. And at the moment, I’m thinking of giving the new forums at least one month to see if people are interested in it. If not, they will definitely be taken down on February. It’ll be a shame but it just seems people aren’t interested in this type of web platforms anymore. People just prefer chat servers instead, and that’s already covered by the bridged Guilded/Discord servers.
NovaFan Games
NovaFan Games, my game development part. Being honest, I really want to get some work done here already and I will make sure it really happens this year.
The whole site still needs to be fixed up a bit although I already touched it up a bit. There is actually already a Guilded and Discord server that are fully bridged. This is slightly different to the way I’m handling it on N Masters.
On N Masters, Guilded server is considered the main server and Discord server is a mirror or backup. They are bridged but Guilded server still offers a few more channels because they use features Discord does not offer. But for NovaFan Games, my plan is to make them as equal as possible. Both will be considered main servers and backups of each other. So this unfortunately also means that neither side will take advantage of all the features available but there’ll be parity with most channels and content. There’s still things the bridge can’t do so some content will still be unique but I’ll try to keep those things to the minimum. The invites for the NovaFan Games servers will be published soon, although, don’t expect much in them yet since the games are still in development. And I would still recommend joining the N Masters server for generic gaming topics.
Now for the actual games, first let’s bring up this post I did years ago. Some of these things are things I’ve already mentioned in the NovaFan Games group I did on the N Masters Guilded server. But let’s make them a bit more public this time and officialize them overall.
Exit Door full version is pretty much cancelled. I have no interest on working on this idea anymore, basically. Those ideas were overall rushed and it was mostly to have something done for Ludum Dare. Besides, everything would need to be coded from scratch.
Castle Climber’s official name is Tower Climber. It will still be a Game&Watch styled game but it will be done on GameMaker. This is currently under development and I hope it gets released sometime before March. It’ll be free and downloadable. Initial platform will be Windows but I’ll see about making it available for Linux and Mac as well. Web version of the game is unlikely, though. At least not currently in the plans. And even more unlikely there’ll be some sort of mobile version as I want to start focusing on my next game 0nce this one feels complete. As for the plot of the game, you won’t have to wait long before it’s known. Although, don’t expect much considering it’s a simple LCD styled game.
Last but not least, there’s project codenamed “Never Stop Dreaming”. Not much of this has changed compared to what I wrote on that old blog post. The biggest difference is that it’ll now be done in GameMaker instead of Unity3D. More info about this game will start to show up only after Tower Climber is done.
Additionally, if you want to see exclusive early previews related to my games, you can get them through my Ko-fi page or through special Supporter channels on the NovaFan Games chat server.
Yeah, I guess this blog post ended up being published on the exact day of Makeruna Makendo’s birthday. As for the plans for Makendo Central, it’s similar to stuff I’ve said in recent posts. But let’s go over it again.
The site is still under construction and the plan is to hopefully get it up and running soon. The basic social networks are all done and ready with a new logo and banners. The chat server will only be available on Guilded as it’s intended to use the full features of the software. The community forums will also be available inside the Guilded server, for example. I’m still thinking and deciding a bit related to where to sort or place the gallery. It could still be on the web or inside Guilded too. Or maybe having both options in some way. Anyway, still undecided on that as you can see.
Related to today, the anniversary, the plan is to stream Makeruna! Makendo today on N Masters Twitch channel. I know Makendo Central has its own channel but like I said a while ago, I’m not really sure when that will be properly used or for what overall. If I do Makendo Central exclusive streams, I’m even leaning towards YouTube instead of Twitch.
Finally, one extra thing about Makendo Central is that I hope to also make a wiki for the franchise hosted on the site as well. But of course, the site needs to be done first and the plan for it is have basic coverage of all the games and the OVA and that it should be easy to be navigated.
This Blog
Well, might as well include a bit about the ideas for this blog for 2024, right? 😅 It’s not much and I think I’ve already mentioned some of the stuff before but, basically, here’s the plans.
If I feel like it and write them, guides related to technology or software would end up going here. Things like helping people understand how to Fediverse, for example.
That About page is definitely getting some content this year. It’s been too long now.
Some other ideas I have is making a page with software I recommend. Maybe having a post with a quick review of each at one point too.
And finally, maybe just blog posts about stuff behind the scenes of my projects or stuff I’ve worked on like my drawings. That actually reminded me something I want to share about related to a Creative Space I worked on in PSO2 New Genesis. That’s definitely getting a post here sometime soon.
Alright, let’s get straight to the point and talk about the things that have been going on.
On N Masters, a few more videos were published before I decided to properly focus on writing a new article. The new article is now published and can be seen here. It’s a new guide for Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis, which is what I had talked about in my previous log. Additionally, two reviews are being worked on atm and will be hopefully published soon. As for videos in the channel, I may simply resume the Splatoon 3 playthrough. I don’t know when another stream will happen due to the current weather and situation currently going on at my place which I will explain in a bit later.
The other thing that I’m pushing on at the moment is actually NovaFan Games or my indie game dev stuff. Yep, I will soon be announcing the first small game I’ll be working on. The site has been slightly updated to fix some things like the social networks links but bigger changes will come later. A new logo too, most likely.
I also made a small section for NovaFan Games in my N Masters server at Guilded in which I post really quick and small updates about the game development stuff I’m doing at the moment. Kind of like a micro-blog, but even more chill and frequent than if I was posting on Twitter/Misskey. You can also ask questions about my games too. I made that since I feel it would be too much if I made a whole community server only for NovaFan Games. At least at the moment since it’s been a while since I posted or talked about one of my games or released something. But if you want to hear about what specific thing I’m working on at the moment or ask some questions, feel free to join the server and then the group itself. I’ve already talked about and shared a few extra details about two of my characters, Yixa and Tina. Those who are verified supporters, either through Ko-fi or another accepted method, also get access to a special Early Access section.
Development of Makendo Central is currently on pause after I did the work on the videos and presentation of the social network accounts. Like I said earlier, at the moment, the plan is to focus more on more N Masters content and revealing more about game development stuff, NovaFan Games. But if you want to submit or share me stuff about Makeruna Makendo, feel welcome to and I’ll read it. Maybe GungHo will finally remember they have the rights to a fun franchise if they see that activity.
Like usual, if possible, please consider supporting me through my Kofi page. It would be super helpful and it would be a way you can support the development of N Masters, my games, and Makendo Central. And like I said earlier, it would give you the right to access Early Access content on my Guilded server or in my Kofi page itself. Right now, summer weather has started and the room where I work from does not have AC. So you can imagine how rough the days have become in the last few weeks. That’s without counting on the fact that I still need to finish paying for my new PC. So yeah, I would really appreciate it if anyone could support me and I guarantee you would see your tip being well used.
Yeah, it’s been a while since I post another project log in here. But if you’ve been following me outside of the blog, like at the N Masters social channels or Makendo Central, you must have noticed lots of activity that has been going on recently. So here’s a quick summary of all of that.
On N Masters, the YouTube channel has been quite active overall. There’s been new videos, posts, and shorts. I finally got around covering the whole Booster Course Pass DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, since I had been delaying that since last year, I admit. Of course, there’s still more content being prepared such as resuming Story Mode in Splatoon 3, some more PSO2 stuff, and more from other games. (And yes, that Noroshi video was more of a joke video that I wanted to make since that’s really all the scenes where Noroshi appears at the moment and it’s been a joke in the community)
What’s been lacking and what I really want to start focusing more on N Masters is written articles. The site’s actual content hasn’t been updated in a while and I do really want to fix that. Like I said in the last post, the plan at the moment would be doing more PSO2 guides since people frequently look for those.
On Makendo Central, it took me a while but I finally published the old videos that were available in the YouTube channel. If you’re wondering why it took a bit of time to just simply make them public, it’s because I was struggling finding a design for the thumbnails, one that satisfied me and looked different than N Masters style. At the end, what you see there is what I came up with. It’s different enough but still shares the same ideas. Additionally, I did get a bit more ready for the anniversaries of Makeruna! Makendo 2 and Makeruna! Makendo Z and published completely new videos related to each on the specific dates.
Next to do for Makendo Central would be resuming the work on the site and hopefully make it go live. But that’s currently on hold as I want to focus on finishing material for N Masters first.
Besides this, there’s NovaFan Games still under work. This is the game development side and it’ll be part of what I do at the same time as working with both N Masters and Makendo Central. Not much to say about the main project at the moment but 1 or 2 small projects may show up before.
A quick reminder, I would really super appreciate it if you could support me as I’m still working on paying my computer. My Ko-fi page is linked on the sidebar or by clicking here. And again, super thanks. It would really help me a lot to be able to keep focusing on this work without worrying on money issues.
PS. One of these days I’ll do the About section of this blog, I promise. 😅
Let’s talk about plans for 2023… Also, happy 30th Anniversay, Makeruna Makendo!
First of all, happy anniversary, Makeruna Makendo! Yep, today is the 30th anniversary of Makeruna! Makendo. I admit, I didn’t check this data until yesterday. So a big apology to anyone who was hoping I would do something special for the franchise’s birthday. But hopefully I’ll get Makendo Central up and running soon. Since I’m already touching the topic of Makendo Central, though, let’s focus on that first.
Obviously, like previously stated, one of my plans for this year will be finally getting Makendo Central up. As you saw in the previous update log, a lot of work has been done for this. All the social network stuff is pretty much ready and only a few final touches are left to do. So hopefully the site is ready soon, at least within the next 2 weeks.
On N Masters, the plan is to have more written content more frequently. This definitely includes reviews and guides. Guides may be grouped together with videos. Also, considering PSO2 guides have been frequently sought for, that’s something I may focus on for the next weeks.
As you may have noticed, the N Masters Twitch streams have moved to its own channel. They will no longer be hosted on my personal channel. Instead, they are now on NMasters_ch. I did this move so viewers aren’t forced to watch ads anymore. It also lets me do multistreams on Twitch and YouTube, or just immediately publish videos from Twitch on other services since this new channel is not an affiliate.
Finally, let’s talk about the other big project. The part about game development. NovaFan Games’s website will a lot of updating first of all. It’s pretty old and I’ve just done basic maintenance on it in the whole last year. But I really want to start doing more art and game development in the next days. I want to start talking more about Project Never Stop Dreaming, actually reveal its proper title, present characters and basic story, and more. Share art about it too, for example. So yeah, now that I have a proper computer, it is something that I really want to start working on more. It is something I am really looking forward to share with everyone.
As for this blog, the plans for it remain the same. Maybe also finishing up some sections, like that About area that I’ve never touched since launch. 😅
By the way, I still need help to finish paying the new computer I’m using before I can comfortably use donations to further improve any of the sites or projects. My Ko-fi page is still available by clicking on this link or clicking on the button on the side bar if you would like to support me.
And I’m back online now. Well, with an actual computer to work with, I mean.
What happened was that someone offered to use his credit card to get me a new computer as soon as possible. At the same time, it means I agreed to make the monthly payments to pay for it. So this means I’m now back on a computer and able to work even better than before. But it also means I really would appreciate and need any kind of tips or donation to be able to pay off the computer as soon as possible. The overall final goal is the same one stated on my Ko-fi page. At least, I need around 125 USD per month. If it’s more, I would also be very helpful as I also need help with other kind of things like bills or food.
To sum it up, N Masters, Makendo Central, and game development stuff are coming back and even better than before. More info available on N Master’s Guilded server.
Posting this from my phone. Just a quick update related to what’s been going on. Unfortunately, my laptop does not work anymore. Fan and monitor have stopped working now, fan being the problem that didn’t even let me use it for more than 5 minutes. Much less record or stream something.
What this means is that there’ll be no updates to N Masters, Makendo Central, and game development updates for now. At most I may stream from Xbox.
Like the title says, I decided to make a Ko-fi page so anyone can support my projects. I felt it was the better option than depending on something like Streamlabs donation page like before or Streamelements which never got any donation. Those two were really stream related and connected to my Twitch channel only. And that’s not the only thing I do.
So on my Ko-fi page, you’ll see it linked under my name because it covers all the stuff I work on. Things like N Masters, Makendo Central, and game development stuff. Maybe even about things I write only for my personal blog, such as software reviews or guides. I already added a button on this site on the right sidebar and it’s linked on my Twitch and YouTube account. It’ll soon be added on the other sites as well.
If you would like to follow it and support me, you can check it out at the following link:
Like I said in the previous post, here’s a new update about what’s going on with all three of projects I’m publicly handling: N Masters, Makendo Central, and NovaFan Games (or its games, to be more exact).
Similar to last time, here’s he short version first: All three things are still active and a work in progress. N Masters is the one that’s seen the most activity recently on the social aspects like Twitch channel and Guilded server. Makendo Central hasn’t seen much activity except for a quick name change and things behind the scenes. NovaFan Games or game development hasn’t really changed since last time.
Alright, let’s get into detail about the plans for each thing then.
About N Masters
The main idea for N Masters hasn’t changed much for the most part. The new website will now focus more on game reviews and other community aspects. Chat and galleries are now available at our Guilded server, which you can preview here before joining. Not all channels are available to preview but you can at least see something of how it works before joining (unlike certain other service). As to why I am now using Guilded? That is something I will explain later in a quick review blog post about the application. All I can say for now is that it offers much more than the other one.
Anyway, that’s for the main website. As for content, it’s possible it may expand to content outside of Nintendo stuff. The focus will still be mainly Nintendo stuff but there may also be content that is just from general gaming. It won’t be much, though, just really specific things. One easy example is just the alliance in PSO2. Maybe some reviews from games that are not really in Nintendo consoles, specially if they are planned to be released later on a Nintendo console. Or reviews of games that are on Nintendo consoles but were played on a different console, of course specifying it was played on a different console than a Nintendo one.
I don’t know exactly what to do with the forums. I’m considering just restarting them using a different software. The current one is an SMF installation but they barely update it anymore. It feels very stuck in the past. It really sucks for mobile users unless you find a theme for it, for example. So it’s probable that I may just leave it archived and in read-only mode and install a whole new forum and better organized.
And related to that, there’s the current card generator feature. I’ll be honest, I have not checked it lately at all. I don’t know if it still works or not. I know one of them requires a log in from the forum and the plan was to upgrade all of them to that better log in system. But as I explained before, I think I’ll just get rid of the old forums overall. You can’t even register to them since a while ago. I’m not even sure if keeping the old forums online is a good idea since I would still need to give it maintenance from time to time. So with that said, I am also announcing in this post that I will be completely disabling the Card Generators. At the same time, I will be deleting all the current saved cards. This will all happen in one week, February 8th. So please remember to back up your card or card profile if you want to keep it or keep showing it off. There may be something in the future that replaces and it’s more global but I am not sure of it yet or when it will even happen.
Besides this, the only other thing I can add related to N Masters is to expect more updates on other services such as YouTube and Twitch. To keep up with everything, please join the Guilded server which I already linked above.
About Makendo Central
The first change with Makendo Central, as you may have already noticed, it’s the name of the website. The reason why I’m doing this name change is because this is actually the closest way the Makeruna! Makendo franchise has ever been localized. You can see this on the English version of the studio that did the OVA and more officially on the title screen for Makeruna! Makendo 2. So from now on, all references to the games or the franchise will use this spelling instead of “ou” that I used before (which is still technically correct but not localized, just a literal translation from “ō”).
Plans for the site are still the visual redesign while still hosting the same content. I just need to look into what tools to use to apply this update. Like I said before, this will also probably be practice for N Masters.
The other ideas I have for Makendo Central are actually setting up a wiki and fixing up the gallery system that is already installed. These will be the main things being worked on for now. A few other things may come up later and will probably be announced here, in this blog, before being released or worked.
Related to the wiki idea, it’s likely I will be using the default MediaWiki software. I have looked into alternatives or something that feels more modern but I really don’t see any other good option. If you have a suggestion, though, please let me know in the comments section.
About NovaFan Games
NovaFan Games is probably the most forgotten website of the three, I’ll admit that. But well, it’s updates are more about game development and projects than anything else. Like I said the last time, NovaFan Games website will be getting a redesign, first of all. I need to find what exact look I want for it based on the type of website that it is. It’s probably going to remain being a WordPress install to make everything easier.
On the actual game projects, I will first need to reorganize all the game development ideas I had before deciding on what project to actually tackle next. It will probably be something small to start getting used to game development and programming again since it’s been a while. But I can tell that it is something that I am looking forward to and hope to share with everyone soon enough. My current set up is getting old and it does make it hard to work on some things, specially 3D projects. But it is still enough for 2D game development which is what I will be starting with.
I will also definitely go and check every social profile that I had done for NovaFan Games and give them a clean up and updating. Because I can tell you for sure that I haven’t really touched up or checked on my Itch.io or GameJolt profiles in the last few years.
And that’s pretty much it about the three projects or websites. As for this blog, I’ll be updating it with several types of content such interesting downloads I find (like the Nintendo LINE wallpapers I used to share), commentary about gaming news, reviews or quick reviews for computer things and services or games, specially if they don’t fit in N Masters. Guides, like the recent PSO2 ones, may be shared too. Other content may be just drawings I make and fun or interesting gaming things I may encounter while playing. And of course, update logs related to the status of my projects.
Like I said in the last PSO2 Guide post I made and how I mentioned it here in the NovaFan Games update plans, my current work set up is becoming a bit old. So if it’s possible and you enjoy the content I have been making and want to support me to keep going on, please consider giving me a tip through the following methods. I would appreciate a lot and assure you it won’t go to waste.
Considering N Masters is now linking directly here for people who want updates about it, I should post something recent about it.
Basically, the idea for the site (and all projects) is very similar as it was back on this other post. In other words, N Masters is still under construction of some big changes. The focus will probably change to just reviews and other community things such as the game cards. As for the other projects, their idea pretty much remains the exact same way as described in that post.
That’s pretty much it for now so hopefully you’ll be seeing some changes to at least one of those sites in the next few days. (Also hoping to start posting other stuff here too that isn’t just sharing Nintendo Line wallpapers.)
