iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I don't know how much longer I can bring myself to try and get the Platinum time relic on Stormy Ascent in N.Sane Trilogy version of Crash Bandicoot 1. It's been days, I am a broken man.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I really liked the game!! Your character animations were top-notch and I loved the vibes of it!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

There's some REALLY cool-looking SAGE entries this year. Wish I could have gotten Project Misty Flip in a presentable state to enter this year to join in on the fun, but timing just didn't work out. Can't wait to play some of these awesome games this weekend!!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

That said, Project Reignition is so dang good. It gave me the opportunity to finally play the late game of Secret Rings for the first time (younger me didn't have the patience to get past Pirate Storm). I hope this team considers the possibility of using this framework for a totally original title!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I don't think Secret Rings ever had what it took to be a great game, even in it's ideal form though. The gameplay structure itself was always a step back to try and be novel during the peak era of Wii Waggle and anything short of reworking the levels/gameplay from scratch could have solved that.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I can't commend the Project Reignition Team enough for taking a game as rough at it's core as Sonic and the Secret Rings and made it a game I was willing to play to the ending. The work that went into the countless quality of life changes is incredible.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Item capsules for Project Misty Flip!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I'm trying to make sure the stage I am working on for Project Misty Flip uses both. I'm also trying to make sure that the failure paths are robust enough and have at least a little incentive included to stop players from just restarting the whole level if they don't wind up on the optimal route.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This doesn't add difficulty, per se, so it doesn't become too complicated for a first level by making this change, but it increases the penalty for trying something slightly more risky. The possibility of mild annoyance makes succeeding more satisfying and failure a chance for skill improvement.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

But what if the small beach island area with the spinning spike balls was actually positioned a little closer and in a way where there could actually be a risk of not only missing the jump, but not having the safety of the main path to fall to? Your time save is now a massive time sink.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think failure paths are a great way of widening the skill floor and skill ceiling of a game in addition to making the success paths feel even more gratifying. The boardwalk spindash jump in Emeral Coast can make for a great illustration. For seasoned players, it's basically the main path now.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I feel like 3D Sonic started to remove a lot of failure paths and just replace them with pits, leading to primarily success paths being the alternate path mentality of choice for Sonic level design. It makes a player feel good to accomplish it. That's not a bad thing really, but it has a weakness.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think it boils down to making sure there is a differentiation between failure paths, the ones that result in failing a skill check, and success paths, where the alternative path is an accomplishment and having a healthy mixture of both.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think one of the traps it's easy to fall into when you're a Sonic fan making stages for a Sonic game is designing it with the skill ceiling routing in mind first, not the skill floor. Cool time-saving tricks feel better when there's a perfectly viable, but significantly slower path to bypass.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The more I play the Sonic XG demo the more I am enjoying getting used to the mechanics. I'm only at sub-3 time now, but I'll probably keep grinding at it tonight. It's great from a speed running perspective, but I still do think it has a little too high of a skill floor to start.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Looking forward to further progress on this one! Great job to the whole team!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

My only nitpick is the amount of paths that require slope jumps to progress. I love slope jumping as a mechanic, but I think they are at their best when used to create shortcuts to reward skilled play. I think they wound up a little overused here. But otherwise, top notch experience all around!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

The new Sonic XG Revival project looks sounds and plays great! It's cool to see a new unique take on one of the most classic fan games out there. I really enjoyed the verticality of this version of Final Fall! There's tons of alternate paths which feels great.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Starting to realize no matter how small you *think* you are scoping your game project, it's still overscoped until you know what you don't know. I thought the way I set up my stage for the Project Misty Flip demo was going to make adding graphical assets very quick and efficient... it is neither.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I haven't watched all the way through one of his donut series, so I can't personally vouch for them, but it seems tons of people tend to recommend them as a starting point, so just go with the most recent 2026 one and it will be a pretty good starting spot.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I didn't do a general one. As I was working on learning, I'd find tutorials specific to that or just ones that looked cool. The Sonic one I used back in the day was pretty general bit it's super old and based on a really old version of Blender. Blender Guru's donut videos will probably be ideal.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I started with a Sonic tutorial, that was the first real project I wanted to try, but the one I used is veeeery outdated at this point. I have never actually done the Blender Guru donut tutorials, but I have heard people have learned a ton with those ones. Probably need to check one out myself!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

This is all a long way of saying mess around in Blender even if you have no idea what you're doing and watch and follow a lot of tutorials until you have a *tiny* idea of what you're doing, lol. It all compounds over time!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

If you don't have a specific small project in mind already, I'd maybe suggest just open up Blender, get a feel for the UI and how to navigate it, then start playing around with and watching tutorials on how modifiers work. That might spark some ideas for you to try!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

...to be patient with and realize won't get mastered in a few months or even a few years. I have been messing around with Blender for about 6 years now and I am STILL not an expert and there's still a ton of tools I don't know how to use really (still have no idea how geometry nodes work!)

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

...the future. This approach might feel narrow because it's intimidating to see how many tools Blender has that you're only using a handful of, but that's okay. Eventually as your proficiency and ambitions grow, you'll naturally gravitate to learning more of those tools! 3D is something you need...

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

...a small project in mind you want to create, just open up Blender and start making it as best as you can figure out to on your own and when you hit roadblocks, find tutorials on how to overcome those specific roadblocks and the you'll start thinking about other uses that solution might have in...

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Mostly learned by just playing around in Blender for fun! Youtube tutorials or timelapse projects, etc. are incredibly helpful too. Blender is a massive software and 3D modeling is an enormous field, so how you go about it depends on what you want to accomplish! My recommendation is, if you have...

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Warms my heart seeing Advance 2 and 3 so high! The amount of walk/run cycles for the different speeds in those games really brought it to the next level.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The demo stage for Project Misty Flip is slowly coming together! (Very slowly)

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Did you experience the joy that was the GAMECUBE PREVIEW DISC and agree it remains to this day the finest collection of demos ever compiled for consoles?

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Despite being terrified about finally letting people see something that I have dedicated so much time and energy to, especially because it will be such a short thing for people to breeze through, I am equally excited to share it. I hope you have as much of a blast playing it as I have had making it!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The musicians I am working with just sent me the level theme the other night and adding it to the stage gave me such a second wind that I felt like I just need to finally talk about it a little. Sometimes it takes someone else's creative energy to give me a different perspective on my own work!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

That said, I will be ready to start showing off some footage in the very near future. This is, no contest, the biggest creative project I have ever taken on. I'm proud of it but terrified to share it with the world. 2-ish years is a long time to spend on what is basically going to be a 1 stage demo.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Unfortunately, it's become clear that it will not be ready to showcase at SAGE 26. I really wanted it to be, but the August submission deadline is approaching so quick that I wasn't going to be able to accomplish all I wanted this demo to do in the amount of time left.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

A small group of you might remember years ago seeing snippets of a fangame I was working on called Project Misty Flip. While that version is long gone, that is still the name of the fangame that I am working on and I am looking forward to finally showing some of it off publicly very soon!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

The Battle Network series is one-of-a-kind. I have never played another series that has bridged card based strategy with reaction-based movement and it was a formative part of my life during that time! Not sure if it's too hot a take, but I don't think any other Mega Man series comes close to BN.

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Reposted by TheKazeblade

Sonic The Wereblog @sonichedgeblog.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Artwork of The Tornado, from 'Sonic The Hedgehog 2'.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Regardless of whether or not playing it up close is the issue I am having right now, i started Tunic for the first time this week and that game is DEFINITELY a better fit for my headspace right now. Will definitely revisit Mina when life's a little less hectic.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Thought I was in the mood to play Mina the Hollower this week but after trying it for about an hour, I think it's just a little to much sensory overload for me right now, especially on a huge monitor. Might refund on Steam and buy it on Switch 2 instead for a smaller screen experience.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Just that they build off of the base of Shadow Generations. A lot of improvements there on controls and level design over Frontiers I want to see implemented!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Lol not one but two deep references haha! No Quack Quack, but Project Misty Flip is my current project! Wanted it ready for SAGE this year, but I don't think I'll quite hit the deadline unfortunately.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I wonder if that would have a knock-on effect on Unwiished too. I always thought it was strange how much of a step back graphically it was from Secret Rings and even other 6th Gen titles. Maybe having another core title's resources would have helped there as well.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

That'd probably mean no Secret Rings, since it started as a Wii port of '06 and in this scenario it wouldn't have to be cross-generational anymore. The more I think about it the more I would imagine this would have been an improvement all-around!

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I have to wonder if Sonic Team had held off moving the main Sonic series to the 7th gen for just a little longer how much would have changed for Sonic in the mid 2000's. A 6th Gen '06 may have had a chance to build off of their existing toolsets and may have had a real chance to wind up solid.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

I wish Sega had utilized the art style from Sonic Shuffle's promo art and opening cinematic in more than just that game. We have never seen a more accurate reproduction of Uekawa's art style in 3D officially and that really is a shame.

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TheKazeblade @thekazeblade.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I've been actively working on a project for over a year now but seeing this post makes the finish line feel real for the first time. Hoping to have it ready in time!!

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