SHERLOCK & WATSON
From the creator of the open world RPG series, "Infinity".

With the release of Infinity IV in it's unpolished state, I could now focus on a new project that will take my game development in a completely different direction: a linear adventure game with the open world design I love doing. My next game is the first game outside of the Infinity series in years: Sherlock & Watson.



After years of catching cheating spouses, investigating blackmail schemes, and taking unique cases of the strange and surreal, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson face their most challenging case yet: a shocking cold blooded murder. In an original story based on the public domain characters, we find Sherlock and Watson in a vast new world fighting to solve the case.

Sherlock & Watson contains a mix of what I do best, with a set linear story that will test the player's detective skills. No battles, no stats to manage. This is also my first game using the new RPG Maker MV engine, and will be the first of my RPG Maker games to be playable online.

Find out more here, and subscribe!

I'd also like to thank everyone who has supported me during some rough times in my life with their supportive comments, and to everyone who has played my games through the years. The Infinity series has brought me alot of joy, and I look forward to moving forward with my next big project! :)


Nick

Hello everyone,

First off if you're reading this as one of the original subscribers of Infinity IV, words cannot express how warm that makes me feel. When I announced Infinity IV back in 2014, I had hoped to finish it within a few months, as I did with Infinity 1, 2, and 3. But after my mother's passing in November of 2014, development stalled completely. At one point this year, I retrieved Infinity IV from the depths of a broken down laptop. The sheer existence of Infinity IV in it's uncompleted state is a miracle in of itself.

Multiple times I've tried to get back into developing the game. The core technical elements are done, there is a full-blown main storyline quest complete, many mini-games are complete, etc. I thought it would be easy to jump right back into it. But I realized as I explored my game world, alot of work still needs to be done. It's the kind of work I can't focus on anymore. I never got into game development to make money from the start. Yes, one day that would be a dream. But even now I find it hard to dedicate hundreds of hours into something I won't see a dime on, when financial difficulties for me and my grandmother are ever present.

Instead I see my future working on other web projects, and maybe even continuing game development but in different.. quicker, forms. The best thing about the first 3 Infinity games is that they were made within a few months. I promised myself from the first game.. I will ONLY develop it if I am having fun doing it. When it feels like a chore, when it feels like work, I'm done. Working on Infinity IV, feels like work. It's hard to get back into a project you spent months working on, left it for a year plus basically, when you don't even remember what variable leads to what, or why a b*stard error is popping up that never popped up before. I would rather focus on developing games that are simpler, smaller, and better. Bigger is not always better when it comes to game development. That's why someone nowadays can make a black & white stick figure game and make millions. Go figure.

So without dragging this on any further and making you anymore bored.. I announce the release of Infinity IV: Open Source! Yes I am very well aware that the VX Ace engine is not "open source", but if anyone has a better title, please comment and let me know. Basically this will be the complete release of everything I've done with Infinity IV. Sure I could remove major elements and try to make a smaller game so it is more complete, but why? I'd rather get it up and running, only remove stuff I have to, and release it to the community. Instead of spending months making my friends bug test this fat baby of a game, I'd rather let my fans of the series play it.. and also let anyone else who wants to build an open world themselves have a starting point. Maybe someone can even finish it. I'd love to see it, as long as credit is given to yours truly. :) With Infinity I sought to change the opinion that RPG Maker can't be used make open world games. With now 4 games in the series, I think I changed that opinion.

Before starting development, I sought a premade open world game I could fix up, merge into my Infinity series. I was shot down by everyone I contacted, even on completely abandoned games. I refuse to be that kind of developer. Infinity IV is a gift to the community.

So once I have the game running correctly, without any nasty errors right from the start.. we will have an official release! For those just wanting to play, you WILL be able to right from the get go.. get into the game, explore, fight, take on quests, all the good stuff (with some stuff missing of course). I will be sure to test stuff out ahead of time to make sure of that.

I've been waiting a long time to say this:

Infinity IV is coming. Expect to download the game between now, and July!

Comment away!

Time for yet another fascinating and life-changing Developer Blog!

First on the menu, are some map previews. These are what the open-world exploration maps look like from above. Naturally these are a work in progress, so some buildings and areas haven't been built yet. But the majority of the finished product is there. These are the the larger maps you can explore, not the small ones that will also be in the game. Large areas to roam with no transferring/load screens. YAY.


Starting Area (Seen in the demo):




Port Town Area:




City Area:




I'm also happy to announce a new gameplay feature: adoptions. In the south-eastern corner of the starting area map, you'll see a small village. The largest building is actually an adoption agency. There, you can pick from one of many boys and girls who can be adopted. Upon adopting your child, you can train them in battling by taking them along on your adventures, and they will fight alongside you. Level them up, buy them weapons and armor, or let them stay at your farm house. Yet another feature that will be in Infinity IV.






More to come!

This is self-explanatory.

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update. The demo is almost ready for public release. Believe it or not, the demo is still being debugged. When I sent the first copy over to my tester, she found some glitches, and then I found some "WTF DID I DO" bugs. So those are being zapped currently.

The second copy, the fixed one, is now being tested by the tester. Once I get the clear from her, and hopefully it will be bug-free now, it will be publicly released here!

So have patience, it's coming! :)

-Nick