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Hey guys-- quick update for you!
We've recently joined the brand-new social media platform Bluesky Social! I've also updated the Megatoxic website to have links to our Bluesky Social feed.
Looking forward to seeing you all there! :)
- Tom
Hey guys!
Well... uhh.... This is NOT the kind of blog post I was expecting to write anytime soon, let alone this year xDDD
Miraculously, we have a new game out! Not only that, but it's the first Megatoxic release made exclusively for the Sega Genesis platform!
To give you all a bit of background, The School of Torture is actually a game I made when I was around 12. I created it using Game Maker 3.2 (now known as Game Maker Studio), and it was one of the first games I had ever made. After I had made it, I sent it to a couple close friends/family and burned it to a CD-R.
Over the years however, I had lost the CD it was on, and the original game was lost permanently.
Fast-forward to 2024, just for fun I started dabbling in C programming, specifically Sega Genesis development. It was the first time I ever had a go at making a Sega Genesis game, and it was also my first experience programming in C. Probably not the BEST idea to leap right into Sega Genesis without having prior knowledge in the language, but I was really just messing around.
And sure enough, 20+ YouTube tutorials later, and a little less than a month of time, I had successfully built a complete School of Torture remake that runs on the Sega Genesis. I did everything I could to build in everything I remember about the original School of Torture to keep the game as faithful as possible, but I also did everything I could to make it as polished and feature-packed as possible:
For my first Sega Genesis game, I think it turned out pretty good!
And to top this blog post off with a nice cherry on top, I'm thrilled to announce that The School of Torture is available to play and download TODAY on Megatoxic! You can find the full game for free HERE! :)
Once again, thank you all for the support, and I hope you enjoy the game!
-Tom
Hey everyone, Tom here.
This might be a long blog post, so feel free to grab a drink and let's talk.
I'll cut right to the chase: lately I haven't really had any desire to work on games, and at this point in time I don't really plan on doing any more projects in the future. I have a couple projects that I was working on, and they're still safely backed up on my media server in case I ever want to revisit them in the future. But as I mentioned a few blog posts ago, Game Maker Studio has become a subscription-based model, so it's pretty impractical for me to use it again unless I'm really serious about game development again-- which I'm not... Never say never, but I'd say it's highly unlikely.
Now, all that's not to say I'm doing BADLY-- I'm actually doing quite well in fact! I'm still happily with my partner Jordyn (can't believe it's been ~8 years already, sheesh...), and I've been at my new web development job for 2 and a half years now. Everything's going great! But I do feel like it's getting close to time to say goodbye to Megatoxic. >.<
I don't really want this to be a completely depressing post, so I'll quickly jump to something a bit happier: As you can see, we have a new website! :)
Some new features include:
I actually had a lot of fun building this version of Megatoxic's website. As you can see, the Forum is pretty much gone forever (though I do have a link in the footer right now, but it's likely not staying). In its place though, I've built a new section of the site called "Fun Stuff". This is a whole new section of Megatoxic dedicated to nifty little HTML and web experiments I've been doing in my spare time.
Another great thing about this new version of Megatoxic is its use of Javatari-- which is an Atari 2600 emulator for your web browser. That's right-- now you can actually play most of the games on the site without downloading them! ;D
And finally, there's an easter egg I've planted on the site somewhere. I won't reveal what it is, but here's a hint for you: be sure to carefully examine that footer. ;o
Well, as you probably can tell, this is very likely going to be the last version of the Megatoxic website I'll ever make (though again, never say "never"). I want to end my run with Megatoxic on a happy, high note. And I think I actually did. :)
Have a good one, and I'll burp you all later. xD
- Tom
Hey everyone. I mentioned yesterday that I would keep you all posted on what will happen with Ballzerk and Megatoxic in general. Now that I've had some more time to process everything and look into the situation with Game Maker Studio, the situation is not as dire as I was making it out to be yesterday. Frankly, there's a lot going on currently with myself and I felt like there wasn't a lot I can do with all these factors coming into play.
So without further due, here is the rundown:
Hey everyone. This is a post I've been sort of avoiding to make this week, because it's not really good news. I'm still trying to process in my head how to negotiate through it, and whether or not I can even continue Megatoxic. It's been about 20 years since I've been making independent games under this name, and I always felt like at some point I would quietly stop making new games for Megatoxic. I just never thought it would have to be anytime too soon.
I actually have 3 game projects in the works right now that I've been steadily trying to develop. It's just taking me a long time to announce them or show off any gameplay trailers, merely due to the fact that I have a full-time job (that's not particularly enjoyable I might add), a long-distance relationship with the best person in the world, and an entire life outside of my job that I'm trying to tend to. So I simply never get the time, energy or motivation to work on my games for Megatoxic.
But even with all the "life" stuff I mentioned above, that's actually not what's making me feel like I may need to end Megatoxic. Here's what's going on: