My First itch.io Update! (November 2024)

Hello everyone! My name is KrimsonKatt, and this is my first blog post released on itch.io for my game Chronicles Meteorfall. This game has a long story behind it, so stay tuned for all the juicy details. Anyways, you may know me from another site, rpgmaker.net. However, this April, April 2024, rpgmaker.net met it's unfortunate end, at least for now. Since then the servers for that site have gone kaput, and the website likely won't return for years on end. With RMN largely gone and relegated mostly to it's discord community, so goes my original community, but also my infamy. You see, I wasn't exactly... the most well liked person on RMN. I got into fights, I got combative, I said a lot of stupid things many times, and was just overally not the nicest dude. But what can I say, I was an emotionally unstable teenager back then before I really got my stuff together. I'm not BANNED from that site, don't get me wrong, but I definitely wasn't in the good graces of the mod team over there and was kind of on thin ice due to repeated mistakes, mostly in my youth. (alongside one really big misunderstanding regarding game reviews)

Anyways, with a new website comes a new start, and I'm happy to say that itch.io, at least for now, will be the new home of all my games, both released and future! Gone are the days of RMN, and now lies a greater, more professional, more mainstream future. Anyways, who am I? What am I about? What is my history? Well, I'll tell you.

It all started in the Christmas season of 2014, before a lot of you were probably born. Since I first got introduced to video games in the late 2000s with the Nintendo Wii, I had always wanted to create my own video games and tell my own unique stories through that medium. I tried to write a few silly comic books and mini-novels in my elementary years, but they weren't really able to fully capture what I was going for and what sort of crazy ideas were in my head. A video game is the perfect medium to tell a story in, a perfect combination of visuals, music, fun, and interactivity. You weren't just watching events happen, you were actively participating in them by controlling the characters. Detailed stories turned into living, breathing worlds, far more in-depth, expansive, and explorable than worlds portrayed in movies, TV, or books. You could actually talk to the characters, explore in real time, and the entire story was gamified into a sort of evolved board game with rules and gameplay that perfectly intertwined with the stories being told. I wanted to create my own video game so badly.

However, I ran into a major problem. From everything I learned about making games from my friends and family, you NEEDED to understand and write code to be able to make ANYTHING. Some of my friends used the website "scratch" to make crappy maze games and the like, but even that was too complex for my math-hating brain to handle. Was there any way for me to be able to create my own video game without a single bit of coding knowledge? Well, one day, while looking for things to add to my wishlist on Amazon and with making my own video game on my mind, I randomly searched on Amazon "game creating software no coding". And that's when I discovered it. True magic. RPG MAKER!!!

It was like a dream come true. A software to make my own video games, without any coding knowledge or even any artistic skill? What sorcery was this? I was amazed and flabbergasted that a software like that even existed. I immediately put the software in question, RPG Maker VX Ace (deluxe physical box set version), at the very top of my wishlist, and that Christmas day I not only got the software, but also a book. "RPG Maker for Teens." It was this book right here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11414448-rpg-maker-for-teens This book was a MASSIVE part of my childhood and basically introduced me to the RPG Maker community through it's detailed chapter almost fully consisting of shilling the website rpgmaker.net. I couldn't join then since I was only 12, but I joined the second I turned 13 and began posting my games there. Thus, the legend of Dragonsprit99 (misspelling unintentional) began, and eventually, the continued legend of my current username, KRIMSONKATT!!!

My first ever RPG Maker game was called "The Legend of Light." It was very bad. While technically a finished product, it used almost entirely RTP including the built-in skills, enemies, and items, just slightly edited. The game was full of bugs due to not fully understanding the engine and having absolutely no idea how switches and variables worked. I finished the entire game in only a few months, and in spite of how poor the overally quality of the game was I was EXTREMELY proud of the finished result. Sadly I no longer have the files to that original game and I'm afraid that it is lost forever on my old Windows XP home computer that's long since been recycled and trashed, so it's impossible now to directly see how far I've grown and improved since the very beginning, the absolute origin of my gamedev career.

After The Legend of Light wrapped up, I immediately began work on my next game, which was also my first publically released game, Zero Gear Fighters. You may have seen that game floating around on this very page. I released it on RMN and expected tons of praise for my hard work. Instead, I got very harsh but fully constructive criticism, which I did not take very well to at the time. What? I was 13. I was a child. It was impressive enough that I was able to create ANYTHING, let alone an RPG. Nevertheless, ZGF defiantly deserved a 1/10 for it's laughably bad quality, multitude of glitches, overall bad and amateur design, unbelievably bad and childish writing quality, poor balance, and other such factors. The only praise it's got was for it's "charm", aka it's "so bad it's good" and "a little kid definitely made this aw so adorable" qualities. Me, an immature 13yo with a massive ego, insecurities regarding my masculinity, and severe lack of self awareness, took my game being called "adorably terrible" as a grave insult to me as a person, and had an entire multi-week long temper tantrum over getting negative reviews. Honestly one of my lowest points on that site imo, something my reputation never really recovered from.

While ZGF was getting slammed by makers who actually knew what they were doing, I was actually making a sequel to ZGF. Originally called merely "Zero Gear Fighters 2", I renamed it in development to "Dragon Ascension" to disconnect it to Zero Gear Fighters and removed all details of it being a sequel despite the game obviously being one. Dragon Ascension was also pretty notably bad with damage sponge bosses and a broken class system, but something was changing. With every game made, with every failure, I was becoming better and better at making games. Not only in design, but also in writing quality, creativity, art, and gameplay. I was evolving.

Dragon Ascension's development didn't end smoothly. I never ended up finishing development the game, and took a long hard break from RPG Maker for 2 to 3 years, both due to my depression and due to being burnt out in RPGs in general, but that's a whole other story for another time. (My Complicated Relationship with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, movie coming soon to YouTube) When I came back to the RPG Maker community for good in 2019 after multiple failed attempts to get back into gammak such as the doomed "Draco Anima Origins" game and various event games on RMN, the RM scene had drastically changed. MZ, a very contraverisal engine, was on the verge of releasing. Yanfly, the biggest RM plugin developer, had quit out of sheer spite after one Russian scumbag stole and illegally resold his plugins, paywalling all his plugins when they were previously free and started attacking the community viciously. The dreaded plugingate, though thankfully that's all calmed down and Yanfly's new team, visustella, is on good terms with the community now, I think.

But due to Yanfly's actions combined with multiple other factors such as RMN shutting down, the quitting of the majority of the old guard (Yanfly, Galv, SRD, Echo, etc), stricter rules in the community over rips and piracy, and the shift from paid content (plugins, assets, music, games themselves, etc) being heavily looked down upon to being outright expected, and the "professionalization" of RPG Maker, the engine and it's community were changed forever, and maybe not nessessarily for the better. 2019 was the beginning of this transistion for the RM community, and it wasn't the only transition happening. Also at this exact same time, I myself was breaking down. Short answer: gender dysphoria baby! Long answer? Let's just say that I was in denial of my true self for quite a long time after initially questioning my gender after discovering genderbend fetish content on DeviantArt in 2017 or 2018 or so, and used hatred and bigotry to cope, being led down dark places by the people I hanged out with online and the videos I happened to watch. "SJW" this, "woke" that. If you didn't realize already, I'm talking about the alt-right pipeline, and I nearly fell head first into it. Using hatred and conspiracy to cope with my own self-loathing and dysphoria. Not healthy. My own breakdown due to my long-standing insecurities and delinquency at school as well as the total breakdown and cultural restructuring in the RPG Maker community caused everything to fall apart, in my life both in reality, and online.

But then, in the endless darkness, there was hope. A woman reached out to me, a woman of light. I cannot name her due to privacy concerns, but let's just call her... "the lorekeeper."

Early on in 11th grade, I was expelled from my high school due to repeated poor behavior skipping class, running away from school multiple times, deception, general rudeness, and other disorderly conduct. Before I got expelled I had detention every day, partially because my teachers were total authoritarian butts, and partially because I was just a bad kid. I got sent off to a school for kids with emotional issues, and honestly it was a HUGE help. Yeah, it completely ruined any chances of me making a single friend since my new school had like 25 total students and not a single one liked the same things as me, but I did make an adult friend. A shining light to give me hope, the lorekeeper.

She helped me work through my issues, helped me confront my inner darkness, my insecuries, my fear, my hatred. With her guiding hand, I broke free from the chains of hatred, and decided on my own to abandon the sons of hate and move forward down my own path. I faced my fears and began to explore my gender as the pandemic hit and we were all left locked inside. At long last, after many years, I finally discovered myself. I was actually a woman all along, repressed and confused all this time. Through breaking free from all that hurt, I was able to discover who I really was and who I really wanted to be. Who I was CREATED to be. And through that revelation came greater spiritual understanding, and through that understanding came a revelation. The Legend of Light, Zero Gear Fighters, Dragon Ascension, Draco Anima Origins, even earlier stories like Super [Redacted], Duper [Redacted]. the Adventures of Ninwalk and Aussie, Ninheys, and the Legend of Zinja, all led up to one revelation. One world, one sky, one beautiful new universe. A grand tapesty of space and time, a story to tell for all the ages, a tale so grand that it would transcend all that came before. A story everlasting, repeated over and over across the ages, echoing across all worlds, all made one through it's transcendance, this is...

1. My series. My life's work. The culimiation of everything I had made thus far and everything I will ever make. The tale above all tales, the story above all stories. This story, this "Chronicles of Chronicles", will be my life's mission. The series that will change the world. And it all starts with this one little game, the game who's page you're on right now.
   
   But it wasn't always like this. Originally, the series was going to begin with "Generic RPG Quest III". Originally just meant to be a short parody FF1 clone made to tide me over until I finished "Firebrand Chronicles" (more on that later), inspired by my research on gnosticism, the plot expanded into some massive metanarritive discussing free will and the human condition. The game's development never got to that point as the game being larger than it seemed was going to be a major lategame revelation, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the files to this game, Generic RPG Quest III, were corrupted and therefore lost. I thus had to find a new start for this ambitious series.
   
   During this time, 2019 and 2020 in particular, I was slowly starting to piece together this grand series, this epic tale of light and darkness, of hope and despair, of order and chaos. The various story arcs set across 20,000 years of history, going from the dawn of man all the way to the far future battle of Armageddon, were all being planned and plotted out. Various sagas from Genesis to Crimson Meteor to Dark Chronos to Rebellion to Incursion to Endbringer, all tying together to make one grand story stretching across the legacy of an entire world. But where to start? Of course, we could start at the very beginning, with Chronicles Genesis and the war between Ryu Satori and Archon Adonis, but what long-lasting stories do you know of that start at the very beginning of the timeline? Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, they never started at the beginning, there always being a prequel to tell. No, they always started near the beginning, but not at it. A "second arc" chronologically if you would. So, that is where I would start my grand series, not at the very beginning, but merely at the second saga. The crimson meteor saga. And thus, development of my first game in my grand tale, the Chronicles of Chronicles, began, "Meteo Chronicles."
   
   Development on Meteo Chronicles did not go as planned. While incredibly ambitious, the game just didn't turn out in the way I hoped. This is due to a combination of factors, ranging from my experience with game development and writing not quite being there, a rushed development expecially near the end, and a major lack of playtesting lead to Meteo Chronicles being a disaster upon it's initial launch in early 2021. (I began development in December 2019) This also included a large amount of planned content being cut for time, leaving a large amount of in-game areas obviously incomplete and lacking. While I wanted to start working on the sequel, Chronicles 2: Zero Gear Saga, immedatiely, I couldn't leave Meteo Chronicles in the state it was in. It was too much lost potential, and there were so many more ideas I wanted to impliment, so many things I wanted another shot at to tell the story I wanted to tell. Thus, development on Meteo Chronicles, the "1.0 Release", came to an end, and I began development on a new version of the game. A "remaster" of sorts, "Meteo Chronicles R."
   
   Meteo Chronicles R's development went arguably even worse than the OG Meteo Chronicles. I was extremely indecisive on the direction I wanted the game to follow. I constantly switched engines from MV to MZ back to MV. I switched battle systems and mechanics in and out constantly. Almost every month I could completely restructure the skills of my game to make everything JUST right, or change the terminology of some lore thing or some system on a creative whim. Development of this version was a complete mess. I almost wished I could start over from scatch with a blank canvus, to start anew without the pressure of fixing a broken game and story into something I was truely proud of. However, I was too attached to what I already made, the countless years I spent on Meteo Chronicles, both 1.0 and 2.0, and didn't want to throw it all away for the sake of another whim. I was stuck in a endless loop, reinventing the game over and over. Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. When would this god-forsaken project ever finish?
   
   However, during this time of endless stagnation, there was other things that I was doing. Well, mainly one thing in particular. In October 2021 RMN hosted an event called "Miselanious Book". Based on a book of ideas by the famous horror author HP Lovecraft, each entrient would be randomly given one prompt from the book to make a game out of, of course after filtering out all the sus/racist ones. FYI, HP Lovecraft wasn't a very good person, even for his time. He was kind of messed up, and was an exceptional racist and bigot even for a late 1800s New England commoner. Sadly, these pregediouses are reflected commonly in his works, which sully a normally exceptional horror author that created an entire new gnere or horror with his sheer genius and writing prowess. But regardless, I too participated in this game jam event, and was given this prompt:
   
   "A vast colossus waits in a vast desert. None have gazed into it's one eye and lived."
   
   My imagination immediately started doing it's thing, and what imediately came to mind upon hearing this prompt was the game Octopath Traveler, which I had recently played. Particularly the monster redeye from Hannit's story from that game. The "colossus" in the story promt seemed very similar to redeye from that game, and I immedatiely started making connections in my head between the two. An eldrich golem that turns whoever gazes into it's crimson eye to stone... the perfect horror monster! Then I thought, "where could I fit this sort of storyline into my established continuty?" Desert? Horrific monsters? Spooky setting? "Eureka!" I shouted. "The period directly after the fall of the crimson meteor would be the perfect setting for such a game!" I had my setting, but what about the protagonist?
   
   Well, my game features a long line of heroes, the Satori Family Line. However, during the period of the Crimson Meteor's fall, there was not a single member of the Satori bloodline that I have thought of that would inhabit such a time period, 1000 years before the events of Chronicles Meteorfall. During September/October of 2022 I was playing Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade for the first time. (translated ROM) In my playthrough I used a certain cavalier who I got MAJORLY RNG blessed with, to the extent that he was able to outclass the Jagen of the game, Markus, within only a few levels. His name? Treck. Treck Satori. That would be the protagonist of the new game. An alchemist and master of runes, Trck would be the sole warrior to take on the collossus in my newest game only developed within a single month, "Lost Colossus," later known as "Chronicles: The Lost Page."
   
   The game was fully developed, finished, and released within only two weeks. long before the October 31st deadline. Safe to say, I was very proud of finally getting a finished game out there after all these years of stagnation. And best of all, when people actually got their hands on the game, especially after multiple updates improving the game and adding new content, they loved it! Well, loved is a bit of an exaggeration, but I got 7/10s! That might not seem like much, but getting that sort of score for a developer used to 1s and 2s is extremely exciting! I finally had my first real success!
   
   However meanwhile, Meteo Chronicles R's development was going as rocky as ever. But soon, disaster would stike, a blessing disguised as a curse. Well, I guess I finally got my wish. One day my computer that I had for 4 years completely cracked open. Screen cracked, CPU and storage damaged, hinge completely busted, parts falling out all over the place, it was a disaster. I thought I had things covered with a file backup service that came with my hard drive, but when I tried to install the recovery software on my replacement computer, it wouldn't let me, as the software was no longer supported in any way! My files were encrypted with that software too, so besides the files I already uploaded online, I had lost everything!
   
   But this disaster might have actually been a blessing in disguise, because with the loss of all the files for Meteo Chronicles R, my regretful wish was finally granted. The wish to start anew from a fresh canvas, a new beginning for Meteo Chronicles. Thus, with newfound vigor and determination, Meteo Chronicles died. And it it's place, a new project rose to the occasion, the true version of Meteo Chronicles, the game I invisioned all along.
   
   Yes, it's this game. The game you are looking at right now. The culimation of 5 years of work and struggle. And soon, it will finally be complete. Well, relatively soon. I still have a long way to go before it's truely finished. However, the demo for this game, which I have worked tirelessly on for all year, IS GOING TO RELEASE NEXT MONTH! Can you believe that? Mark your callenders, December 24th 2024 is when this epic demo is finally launching for the whole world to see, right before the holidays. Featuring 4-8 hours of stunning gameplay with the first 3 chapters of Chronicles Meteorfall made avalible, this demo isn't going to be something you want to miss!
   
   Finally, if you came here from RMN's fall, or are new to my ongoings due to joining from my BlueSky or Tumblr, here is everything that is currently completed in Chronicles Meteorfall's development, and everything that needs to be worked on:
   
   

Completed

• The overworld maps for Ari Flatlands, Banna Woodlands, Beasteria Highlands, Zerithia Wetlands, Aetheria Skylands, Eternia Frostlands, Ozma Darklands, Baetas Boglands, Alphes Drylands, Omegas Badlands, and Ferris Farlands. (may be redesigned in the future)
• The dungeon maps for Ari Caverns and Banna Sewers.
• All eventing for the first 3 chapters.
• 1/13 of the secret events.
• All actors and their information, minus the biographies for Jeht, Amadeus, and the Tayo alts.
• All sprites for all the actors and NPCs. (may be replaced in the future)
• All classes.
• All items.
• All weapons.
• All weapon images for Swords, Katana, and Daggers. Around 20% of the axes have images.
• All armors.
• All active arts for all classes.
• All passive arts for all classes.
• Around 20% of the enemy arts.
• 95% of the states.
• All enemy listings.
• All enemy statistics through Ch3.
• All enemy sprites through Ch3.
• All cutscenes through Ch3.
• The in-battle UI.
• The 3/4 of the battle animations for Koros. (human and base forms)
• Most of the plugin settings. (I think)
• About 85% of the OST.

Not Completed

• Playtesting in any meaningful form.
• The overworld map for Uran Deathlands.
• The map for the town of Aetheria.
• The dungeon maps for Bronn Cave, the Crystal Cavern, Dragon's Eye Cave, Magitek Gardens, Aetheria Castle, Skyseal Ruins, Mt Gara, Everfrost Crypt, Shou's Manor, Ozma Keep, Memoria, the Cavern of Torment, the Proving Grounds, the Accursed Well, Castle Naughtmare, the Tower of Babel, Hero's Rest, and the Forsaken Cavern.
• The area maps for Downtown Eternia Interior, Monster Isle, The Villa, Silkwood Isle, Miner's Paradise, and a few more.
• Eventing for Chapters 4-12.
• Bascially every single sidequest.
• The rest of the weapon images.
• The majority of the enemy arts. (80%+)
• Coding the remaining states.
• Added stats and moves for the enemies and bosses in Ch4-12 and all the quest-exclusive enemies and bosses.
• Making the enemy sprites for Ch4-12 and the sprites for the quest exclusive enemies and bosses.
• The cutscenes for Ch4-12.
• Custom UI for the menus, including brand new menus like the "party menu" that consolidates a ton of seperate menus into one space.
• The final battle animation for Koros. (using magic)
• The battle amimations for every other possible battler. (Amadeus, Tayo, Zenith, Stacy, Ascended Tayo, Jeht, Ascended Koros, Ascended Zenith, Ascended Stacy, Ascended Jeht, Asta, Evil Tayo, and Young Tayo)
• The rest of the OST, mostly composed by me once I get and learn FL Studio (title screen, opening song/dead alive timeline, crimson premonition redo, fighting fury redo, penultimate boss theme/Knight of the Fallen Meteor, final boss theme/Meteor Crushing the Earth, the nameless god redo, barbello battle theme/the answer, king of rebellion redo ft lotus juice, overworld themes redos/edits, credits theme)
• 12/13 secret events.
• The new enemy encounter system.
• The nightmare hour event.
• The DLC quests and encounters.

Possible Additions

• Redone overworld map with new graphics. (parallax mapping+oil painting style)
• Voice acting (featuring me and only me under a bunch of advenced voice filters, I have theater experience)
• New overworld sprites for every character including NPCs.
• Hats, different for each class.
  

As you can see, there is still a lot more to be done outside of just the work needed for the demo, and development will continue well into the following year before this game, Chroncles Meterofall, can see it's long awaited, final release as v3.1. Thank you for reading all of this if you made it this far. Can't wait to release my demo. See you all soon! Happy gammak!