AyeeJ's Site

What I’ve Been Thinking About

This week has been a blur. I counted — thirty-nine meetings. Thirty. Nine. I wish that was a joke. Between that and sleeping like absolute garbage (bed by 9:30, still staring at the ceiling at midnight), I’ve had basically no time or energy to do anything serious on the game. But the brain? Still ticking. Mostly about audio and music direction.

I was thinking a lot about the vibe of this game’s soundtrack. The kind of feeling I want when you’re walking around or when you’re deep in a dungeon. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, and Breath of the Wild all come to mind — especially the Water Temple from Ocarina of Time. I don’t even know why that one popped up, but it did, and it stuck.

Also remembered how much I loved the dungeon music in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky — each area had its own mood and tone. And I’ve always liked when a soundtrack repeats motifs, like when the boss music is just a darker, more dramatic version of the intro theme. Would be fun to try something like that — like, the boss theme is a reworked version of the camp theme. Same melody, but slower or more orchestral and epic. Something like that.

Oh — and pan flutes, harps, stuff that feels sort of magical but rustic. I was listening to The Slopes of Blessure from The Witcher soundtrack. No idea what a “Blessure” is (I haven’t finished the game), but it was so good. It feels like the right kind of track and the right amount of pan flute.

So yeah. Not a lot of work done, but the music brainworms are strong.

What I Said I’d Do

Last week I said I’d focus on the item list and spreadsheet structuring.

I did none of that. I’m not even sorry.

What I Actually Did

Literally just thought about vibes and music. And tried to survive this week. I did some streaming (Tuesday/Wednesday), and I fed Lenny some musk sticks. That’s about the extent of my accomplishments.

Also been thinking a bit about NPC design again — especially the 2D portraits for dialogue scenes. I reckon I can use the existing concept sketches as a base. Most of them already match the character’s vibe and posture pretty well, so I’ll probably just clean those up rather than start from scratch.

Might focus on that “conventionally attractive guy” next. He feels like a strong, friendly archetype and might be a good contrast to the other NPCs. Plus I want to knock out the old lady and him early since they’re both early on encounters and that would give me a clean “the first 4 are done”.

Also — League update: met a Grandmaster smurf yesterday. A Brand/Xerath two-trick. Insane mechanics. Made me realise how much I still have to learn. I’ve paused ranked for now so I don’t fry my brain.

Lenny Update

I rode him last weekend and this weekend we have a small competition! He was a bit spicy, but nothing unexpected. I haven’t ridden him in a while, so it makes sense. He’s very fluffy right now. And he’s weirdly into trying new snacks lately?? He ate musk sticks like a champ, which shocked me because he used to be suuuper picky. Proud of my adventurous boy.

What I’m Doing Next

Honestly? I don’t know. Next week is going to be hell at work. We have a big deliverable due Friday and we haven’t even started. I don’t even know if I’ll have time to stream, let alone work on the game.

So I’m not going to promise anything. But if I find a sliver of time and energy, I’ll probably keep going with NPC visual design or maybe write up an audio direction doc — something chill and creative instead of spreadsheet hell.

Also need to buy a dress this weekend for that wedding coming up; yeah, I still haven’t done that lol.

Thanks for reading, as always. I know this one was light, but it still means a lot that you’re keeping up with the project 💚

If nothing else: remember to sleep, drink some water, and avoid 39 meetings in a week.