This is mostly a check-in so everyone knows I'm good and still working on the game.

First off my computer is back from the repairs I had to have done due to a failed motherboard.  I didn't lose any of my data and was able to keep working on an old laptop while the repairs were made.

Progress for this month

• finished the pixel art for the radio station
• fixed the receptionist in the business hell not automatically talking to you
• fixed an infinite loop bug that stopped the code from triggering a new dialog box every frame 
• more card stuff, mostly inventory-related

Stuff I did while my comp was MIA

• Did a bunch of story outlines.
• Made a bunch of concept art I can't really show you guys yet.
• Came up with a new boss scenario.
• Worked on the game's ending some more.
• came up with, prototyped, and then scraped a new game mechanic. ( it wasn't fun. )

Why The Clay sculptures?

some un-used sculptures of two inventory items in the game I made for the itch.io page

Well, it's not just Earthbound nostalgia but a deeper fondness for early Nintendo power and stop-motion animation. Part of the reason Nintendo gave Earthbound the sculpted model treatment is that they were already doing it for other NES games and would continue to use small models well into the future. If you didn't know the original mother models were made by an amazing artist Masao Tottori. 

Before computer animation was the go-to for anything 3D it was very common to just have someone make a model of the thing you wanted. I saw a lot of stop motion and claymation growing up but I didn't just see it on TV but in print as well. 

Here you can see a polymer clay Mario and its Nintendo Power cover, this is from the private collection of  Art of Nintendo Power  on Twitter(X).

Making a few polymer clay models felt like a fun side project while making SlumberNapped.  I'm essentially making a game for my 12-year-old self and that kid loved some Clay-mation.  I try and keep them on the small side and I don't put any detail into them that won't be in the pictures I take of them so below you can see that the backs aren't finished.

In a world where I have infinite time to waste I'd sculpt every character and monster in the game but I think I'll stick to getting the game done instead LOL,