9/21/25

You know what’s far more appealing than working on a class project? A blog post. So here we are.

It’s been almost a year since my first entry. I should probably write these more, but I didn’t want them to feel like a chore. Haven’t really edited anything on the website either except for my portfolio. Eh *shrugs* I’ll get around to it.

So what’s happened in almost a year? Well, my brother Caleb and I revealed our studio’s first independent video game, The Great Coffee Caper, and started marketing for it. He’s made a couple trailers, and we entered the game into two indie game showcases that took place in June. We have over 18,000 wishlists on Steam now, so that’s amazing! We released the demo in August and sent out the official email for the release after doing some more bug fixes and minor edits. We also released the soundtrack for the game on Steam, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music! Our composer, Zectro, is awesome and I’m so glad we hired him. Caleb was wanting to make the music at first, but there’s a certain point in developing something as big as a video game where you have to evaluate how much two people can actually do. Neither of us had experience in composing music, so it was a better choice to hire someone who actually knew what they were doing. If you have time, please try out the demo and join the Everyday Magic Discord server! We welcome any feedback. It’s been such an awesome experience so far with this video game and Caleb and I feel so blessed.

I also made a Steam art capsule for a video game called Retro Relics. The developer reached out to me after he saw a post of The Great Coffee Caper’s capsule art on Reddit. He was great to work with, and I hope I get more capsule art commissions in the future.

I graduated college in May, and started a master’s degree in Creative Writing! I’m not sure what it will lead to in the future, but I’m just trusting God with this one. He opened up the door for me and now I’m walking through it.

I guess that’s all the big stuff? What else, what else… I started watering tomatoes! They’re not my tomatoes (I don’t even like tomatoes!), they’re my family’s, but I ended up being the one in charge of watering them. It’s been cool to see them grow everyday. I also learned a bit about tomatoes too, so here’s a few factoids

• They start off as yellow flowers that later sprout a small green tomato.
• Their unique smell is actually a natural pesticide that insects hate. (That doesn’t stop some of them from eating holes in the tomatoes though!)
• If the soil has a lot of clay (and if that clay happens to have a lot of nitrogen stored in it) then the tomato plants will get really big, but not have more tomatoes to match that size. There’s 3 tomato plants at my family’s house. The biggest one nearest to the house is super big, but has produced the least tomatoes (it looks like it needs a haircut!). The middle one is of medium height and has produced an okay amount of tomatoes. The last one is the smallest, but has been the most fruitful! Once its current batch turns red, it will probably be the most productive of tomato plant! That means the smallest one got more soil with good nutrients and less clay (either that or that particular clay had less nitrogen and good nutrients… clay is weird. It’s like a sponge and doesn’t inherently have nutrients and collects it from other stuff around it).

Here’s some stuff I’ve been into lately:

• The Stormlight Archive: Wind and Truth – This is the last book in the first arc of the Stormlight series. It came out last year, but I didn’t get around to reading it until the summer of this year. It’s been a great read so far! (I’m around 3/4 of the way through it). Readings for college have gotten in the way of me reading more of it, but I still plan on finishing reading it this year.
• Animal Crossing – I actually wrote about this game last year too! I fell off it then got back into it recently. I loved having small little tasks to complete everyday. I rolled credits on the game, so I probably won’t play it as much. However, I might hop on every once in a while (I seriously need to keep playing Metroid Prime Remastered though! I started playing that a few years ago and it’s been very much off-and-on since then. I need to lock-in and force myself to not play other video games until I finish that one, haha)
• Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – It’s difficult to find an anime aimed at an older audience that I feel comfortable with watching. I don’t want to watch a ton of gory violence, swearing, or graphic romantic stuff. I just don’t want all that in my head, and want to stay true to my Christian values. Frieren is one of the best animes that I’ve come across in a while that doesn’t go outside my comfort zone and excels in its storytelling. Have you ever wondered what happens after the good guys defeat the ancient evil? How do people become ideas and legends? What’s legacy and grief? And how does it feel for someone so long lived to start caring about what they once regarded as fleeting friendships? Frieren is about an elf mage who has lived for hundreds of years and only just beginning to learn what it means to care about the world and people around her. It does have some bloody moments and there are a few times where characters swear, but the majority of the show is about the themes mentioned above. There is action, but the overall tone is relaxing and introspective. I’ve halfway through season 1 and I can’t wait to watch more of it.

That’s all for now! See ya later.