Yesterday marked 4 months since I created the first sprite for VYCE. That’s a lie, I made the first sprite in like 2019, but it’s since been lost. I started developing it on 6/24/25, but you can count either date as the “start,” but like I said, I initially came up with the idea in 2019.

I had wanted to make games since I was a kid but never knew how. I’ve had lots of ideas, whole worlds created in my head that I would play out every time I was bored in class, on a long car trip, or going to sleep. Somewhere along the way, I had lost that and started thinking about other things, stressing about school, work, relationships, and just general life stuff. And by thinking I mean overthinking. It’s like my passion for creating was overridden by obsessions over things ultimately out of my control.

It wasn’t really until recently that the overthinking has been throttled and twisted back to what it used to be. I feel like how I did as a kid again, or I finally feel like myself. Still overthinking, but about the “right” things. I could attribute this to an improved quality of life, thanks to the people around me and the circumstances I’ve been given, but I owe a lot of it to this project as well.

I had always known that if I made a game, I wasn’t going to make some arcade-like just for fun kind of thing, I was going to tell a story. I don’t care how long it takes me, but VYCE will have a fleshed out story. Nothing too grand, but here is the premise: A town in decay harnesses a troubling secret deep below. Your character is not a hero, in fact they might do some pretty heinous things along the way, but it’s ultimately you as the player choosing to peel back each layer to uncover what is really beneath the surface. And I assure you, it gets deeper, and deeper…

visuals not final

Anyways, besides fleshing out the story, there have been various quality of life improvements. For one, the game can now be played in 2:3. The default aspect ratio will remain 1:1 but the player can change it in the settings if they want. I’ve been working on the bar interior, which includes a fight club like the club in the initial demo had. I’ve also started working on the hospital, town hall, plasma center, and the church. The church has the entrance to the catacombs, which is the first layer below Vanilla Plains.

As of now, I’m thinking the demo will go up to the point where the player goes down past this layer, then the sublayers will be included in future versions. At this pace, I think realistically that the demo could come out in the first half of next year, but that could just be me being optimistic. The game still needs a massive face lift, particularly in the animations department, but rest assured, I am committed to this game and have made an effort to work on it every day, even if it is just a little bit.

When I made that first sprite 4 months ago, I made a crucial decision, to make every sprite 47×47. I just like that number, but I chose it for a reason. Most games use 8, 16, 32, or 64 for their sprite sizes because they are easily divisible and allow for balanced sprites. I specifically chose a prime number because I believe working within that limitation will give the game a visual edge. Every time I watch indie game showcases I think “oh that game looks like Earthbound” or “that game looks like Pokemon” or “that game looks like” WHATEVER but there are games i have subconsciously written off for simply resembling another game too much. I feel like that cheapens it. While I definitely draw inspiration from the game I listed, I think this will be one of the defining characteristics of VYCE. It’s funny how the defining characteristics of other technology ends up being it’s limitations, such as the blaring bitcrush of chiptune or the static on a VHS. This mindset is what the art direction of VYCE is based on.

Thanks for reading, have a NYCE lyfe…