My band has a new album coming out on Christmas, titled AV3RAG3JOS3PH. This is the third AVG JOES release, hence the title. That was a last minute decision (It was initially called Average Joseph), along with the naming convention of all tracks incorporating a 3 in the title. The track list was also a last minute decision, we knew we wanted to drop on Christmas for a few months now and had a ton of tracks, these were just the ones that made the cut. It’s a bit less refined than my last album, but there are 14 tracks, so if you don’t like one then just skip to the next. The theme was being as average as possible, so I’m sure you’ll like something, but only if you’re average like us.

To commemorate this release, there is a new bandcamp page for AVG JOES with the entire trilogy available for under a dollar, or 1, 2, and 3 dollars if purchased separately. There is a bonus track in each and every album featuring songs recorded in their respective eras, so the bandcamp version is the “definitive” version in that sense. VYCE also features some of the tracks on the radio station, and any more tracks I make in the future will be there if they fit the vybe.

Speaking of VYCE, I have continued to work on it every single day since my last post, going on six months now. The last month has consisted of working on the plasma center, hospital, convenience store, adding new VYCE(s), and as of last night, a day/night cycle to make the world feel more immersive. Below, I will expand on these features, but if you wanted the summary, that’s it, so you can stop reading here.

One of the ways of making money in this game is to donate plasma. I’ve done it myself a couple times, and my girlfriend works at a plasma center, so I had plenty of material to work off of. As far as I know, this is the first game to feature a plasma donation mechanic, but please let me know if I’m wrong in the comments below.

Your first time going to the center, you may be denied because you need doctors permission before you’re eligible to donate. To do this, you need to go to the hospital, which also costs money, and if you’re scraping by you can sell VYCE or recycle scrap to be able to afford your doctors appointment. Real red white and blue American shit.

The doctor in the hospital also serves as somewhat of a checklist, logging the number of unique VYCE that you’ve obtained throughout the game regardless of if they’re in your inventory or not. The 100 is a placeholder at the moment, there might be more, there might be less, but at the moment there is around 50 that are fully implemented. After this dialogue, you are asked a series of questions to determine if you can donate plasma or not.

Once you have the “doctors permission” flag set you are able to donate plasma. The minigame is basically a button masher, inspired by Dragster on the Atari. The bar on the left indicates the total plasma you have donated so far, and the bar on the right is somewhat like an RPM meter, so if you “pump your fist” too fast your vein will burst. You can also press interact for fun facts about plasma. Did you know donating plasma burns about 500 calories, which is like running five miles?

At the moment, the minigame takes around a minute for me to complete, which awards you $20. These values may be adjusted later on, as I have adjusted many other variables to make the game more balanced or the VYCE more unique.

Pictured above are some of the new VYCE I have added to the bodega. I don’t want to spoil too much about them, but these are some of the most elaborate ones yet. The two vape VYCE(s) at the bottom have several color varieties that are initially randomized but stay consistent every time you use it. Each VYCE of the rook, bishop, bishop-rook, queen, bomb, and “other” varieties have unique ranges that cause some to be more viable than others. There are even some where the range changes with every move.

Creating the VYCE themselves is by far my favorite part about working on the game, every single one has an aspect that has made me laugh or chuckle and they are so easy to implement. Most other systems are not as easy to implement, but it gets easier as I keep going, which is the best motivation to keep chugging along. I’ve started looking into showing it off at certain festivals as early as summer next year, but nothing is set in stone yet. By that time I would like to have a downloadable, alpha version of VYCE that the public can play, but who knows? No, really, who knows, please tell me.

Have a NYCE NYGHT…