Welcome Back to Beyond Lifeline!

If you've been following my projects, you'll know that Beyond Lifeline was originally a dating sim made in RPG Maker MV where a guy controlling an underwater drone has to pick between a fishgirl and a mermaid.  I ended up getting some severe writers block which led to me postponing/cancelling the game for a later date.  And then later, I thought I would retire from game dev (except for Clash on Steam & Clash 2) to focus on my day job. 

Well, screw all that, we going full horror now!

I'm rebooting the game in RenPy for Thalassophobia Jam, so that right there tells you what we're in for.  Its kind of a remake of both InvaSEAve and Genesis/Nemesis, as well.  Baiji and Brielle are now both fishgirls and twin sisters, instead of the found-family sisters they were before.  I'm using Mannequin for their sprites and NeuralBlender to generate the backgrounds and the sea creature they are searching for (that one was a happy accident, the AI ended up generating two very similar images - one looked like an ancient stone mural, as seen in the cover image, and one looked like ... well, you'll see.  But it was essentially the same animal, which was great).

Speaking of the backgrounds, holy COW they look amazing!  Overall, they look right.  Just like something I may have seen while out scuba diving when I was younger.  But then you look closer and realize...they aren't.  It's so good!  Fits the jam theme so well!

Also, it's funny how I thought I was already retiring from game dev for the most part.  Now, the reason I got back to it is...peer pressure.  Kind of.  Everyone at my day job was talking about their side hustles.  EVERYONE.  Every single person I work with has at least one source of side income.  That realization showed me that yes, everyone is tired - but they still didn't give up on the side jobs they love.  So I shouldn't, either!

Anyway, just like normal, keep an eye on this page.  I will post weekly updates every Wednesday and daily updates on my Twitter.  Just be aware that spoilers may occur.  ;-)