been a while, huh? since the last devlog, i mean. i could've joined choir in that time, started a club, but instead i intentionally threw away those opportunities to waste an extra seven months not working on anything meaningful... is what i would be saying in any other devlog! that's right, i actually did some stuff this year! nothing groundbreaking, but probably earth-shattering.
to start this off, i'd like to report that George 1.5 has made some real progress. if you're in the discord, you'll find the George Series channel to be full of feature updates and random screenshots of new stuff. some of the recent stuff includes a level complete screen with time and ranking, revamped text engine and mechanics, a handful of new cutscenes, and numerous gameplay and graphical updates. i've added so much that it makes my George 1.5 Showcase script entirely outdated. so... i'll stick to that George 2 video for now.

my good buddy hyphen has also been making some real bangers for the game's soundtrack. he started work on the music back in early 2024, and he's currently revising the entire thing since the game has yet to come out. not to mention, he's also made some tracks for Sid's Adventure and pixel art for Labyrinths II. i'm bad at the music and average at pixel art (or art in general), so i guess that leaves coding and game design as my strong suit. i would invite people to actually try out what i have so far, but since hyphen's computer alone would probably combust trying to play the actual game, it'll just have to be me playtesting for now.

i feel like nowadays i really understand why it's taken so long for the next George game to come to fruition. the past four years have been nothing but me working on an engine, becoming frustrated, taking a break, then returning to that engine and promptly scrapping it. this has happened around 4 or 5 times now, starting all the way back in mid-2021 with the very first George 2 beta. each of the betas got progressively better, but also progressively worse.
the first beta, for example, was just a slightly worse version of George 1, with botched physics and a horrible screen transition. the second beta was a Chirpy 4 ripoff, except without any of the charm, cutscenes, or fun platforming. it's actually available to play right here, but it's definitely nothing special. the third beta lasted fairly long, second only to 1.5. i actually got scrolling platforming down for once, but the story is absolute garbage, the levels are uninspired, and the dialogue is baaaaad. i actually got close to finishing this beta at one point, only being a final boss and a credits scene away.
but don't worry—a small number of these problems were fixed in the fourth and final George 2 beta! while the fourth beta is the "best" out of them all, it had its shortcomings. the story wasn't changed at all, meaning it's still garbage. the gameplay was slightly improved, but it still wasn't great.

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now, how about some actual stuff i released this year? first up we have Labyr- oh. oh no. it's the George 2 Beta Soundtrack. no matter where i run, it always comes back to bite me. yeah, so, this is technically the first thing i released this year. if that's not a bad omen and a half, then i dunno what is. i don't know exactly why i released this, since it's probably the worst abomination i've ever had the displeasure of putting out into the world. but hold your horses! i've got a real knee-slapper coming up next. and it just so happens to be- OH FUUUU-

music. yes, i'm being serious. more music. from me. LG Productions. i uh, honestly don't even know what to say. nine months ago, i proudly displayed this album in what is now know as "Fragments of Waves - Devlog". yeah, i must've been REALLY bored to have made a third album. at least this one is passible? maybe?? oh, why am i trying to defend this thing? you can tell from how i'm writing this that i'm not very thrilled to be revisiting this project. neither Thirteen nor The S were so much as mentioned in the last recap post. makes you wonder why i'm talking about this album, huh? well, this devlog would be rather empty without it, so we'll just get a move on already.

okay, real talk for a moment. has anyone actually, like, listened to any of my music? not that i want you to—i truly wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy. but has anyone actually had the courage and determination to sit down and start bumpin' that new LG products? i know i wouldn't. i don't show any positive emotion looking at this album, or any of them for that matter. i'm about as proud of it as i am my second grade comic books. but hey, it's not going anywhere. i definitely put effort into it, and why even bother trying to wipe this thing off the internet over half a year since its release? it'll always be there, whether anyone decides to pick it up or not.

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alright, alright. now that THAT's out of the way, let's delve into the rest of this year's unsuprisingly desolate list of projects, and see what else i did. nothing happened in April, so we'll jump straight into May. this month's first big release was this here web site! specifically, version 3.0, which also released back in May. even though i don't look back on v3.0 as fondly as i probably should, it was a remarkable improvement over its preceding version. a clean, readable design, characters livening up each page, consistent design; it all made for a pretty solid update.
i've had a ton of fun coming back to this site every so often. y'know, it gives me a nice break from doing nothing all the time. never thought i'd get this far, especially over two years after the revival. time really flies by, doesn't it? well, i'm rambling on, so let's keep this going.

next up on my list is Labyrinths II! finally, a real game made with real passion. to be honest, the first Labyrinths game wasn't anything special. while it might've been groundbreaking for its time, nowadays it kinda sucks. terrible art, tortuous grinding, and bugs galore made The Lost Labyrinths a rather mediocre experience. people still enjoyed it enough, but i, too, eventually lost interest.
luckily, over two years later, Labyrinths II arrived to make up for its brother's misdeeds. since it already has its own devlog post, i'll quickly summarize the highlights for you. most of TLL's core elements were kept, but i polished them up and added some new flair to 'em. Case in point: the labyrinths themselves. the labyrinths in TLL, or the lack thereof, were a bit underwhelming. repetitive, hard to access, and extremely punishing. its sequel takes place exclusively in said labyrinths, making the gameplay loop much more engaging and fun.

the game also looks great, despite having been made without the knowledge i gained after making a certain new game. but we'll get there soon enough. so, what else is left?

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only a couple more items on this imaginary list of mine. up next is the George 1 Remastered Widescreen Port! a project which, funnily enough, still has its announcement on the front page. shows you how little i've done since then, heh. been over two years since the game initially released, and only now has it received its long-awaited widescreen port. i was a tad bored working on George 1.5, so i looked at its cousin and went "why the hell not", and proceeded to port the entire game to widescreen in a day. it didn't get much content-wise, but that wasn't the point of this update. the most i added were a handful of borders for the cutscenes, which i didn't bother trying to widen.
overall, a pretty fun update made on a whim. i should do more stuff like this, going back to older projects and spicing them up a bit. that was actually the entire point of me revisiting the Remastered Collection for a new update, which was, tragically, never fully realized. no, there isn't a big surprise here; the update straight up isn't done. i know i was hyping it up in some blog posts before this, but i didn't have any time this month. instead, i spent my December on a brand new game which we will be getting to! just gimme a moment.

just one more thing before this new game of mine. i couldn't forget the new web site update, now could i? yup, we managed to have not one, but two overhauls within seven months of one another! talk about world record pace over here. this update came an even bigger surprise than the former, in that i didn't talk about it much. a few teasers here, a few failed attempts at a dev porfolio there, and we somehow have ourselves an entire overhaul to the entire site?! as i mentioned in my last blog post, the update focused on making these consistent, but more importantly, FUN. version 3.0 was consistent, sure, but it never gave me any room to breathe.

well, version 4.0 solved this problem with flying colors. not only does it look amazing, but each page gets its own flair, colors, and style, while also being tied together by elements like the checkerboard background. i've also come to know the power of images, and how well they can be used to make a site look that much more lively.
the update took a decent while longer to make this time around, likely because of my experiments with layouts and such. i didn't just come up with this design on the spot (unlike v3.0), i had to dedicate an entire page just for testing new ideas. and hey, it worked out, didn't it? the site looks better than ever, and i can't wait to keep it alive for years to come.

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okay, now for the moment you've all been waiting for. i'm very happy to announce my latest endeavour into the horror genre: After Hours X! for my first ever game jam, i don't think i did half-bad. i also won, which was pretty cool. but to be honest, i was little embarrassed while the judges were playing my game. i didn't do a spectacular job of hiding how rushed the game was, and it dropped me down a few points in the gameplay department. the worst oversight was a very stupid softlock that two of the judges got, and it was because of feature that i somehow broke after it was completely finished and ready to go. my genuis is go big,, yes .
at least the latest update fixes all of those nagging issues. i can now call the game "complete", since i don't think it'll get any further updates. i hope you all enjoy it. those last two weeks were hectic, to say the least. i won't talk much about the game itself here, because you should just go ahead and play it for yourself. trust me, it's really not that scary.

overall, i'm decently proud of what i was able to accomplish in the big '25. for this absolute speedster of a year, i certainly kept myself busy, at least in the latter half. but now that the new year is arriving and i've got a new mic, it's time for some streaming. see you all soon, and have a happy new year in the meantime!

^{first lg prodeuctwongs game since the dawn of gaming itself}