My Secret Little Blog: April 2025 Writing Update

Let me clarify right off the bat: I don't have another blog that is secret. Well. I do have another blog. And nobody knows about it. But that's not what the title is referring to. It's referring to the fact that I recently learned that my Blogger blog - this very blog, my self-proclaimed central hub of operations writerly and more - is apparently a well-kept secret I didn't know I was keeping.

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Long story short, because it's also not really what this update is going to linger on: I was under the impression that Google was able to crawl my blog and that my blog posts would show up in the search results. I was under a false impression. Currently working on rectifying that when I get the chance; it's not a difficult fix, but it will require going back into my blog posts and making sure I don't have any redirect loops, which I most certainly probably do have 😓. Among other things, of course. 

I'm interested in seeing how fixing that affects my blog. In the meantime, however, you and I - we're keeping this secret just a little while longer.

And so, with that little bit of housekeeping added to the docket, on to the actual writing update:

Amateur Pixel Art Showcase

The moment I've you've all been waiting for: a little pixel art reveal. I know what you're thinking. Hyba, you said this would be a writing update. And it is. All of this fits into my grand scheme to make The Black Hare - and other stories - more appealing to my readers. At least, that's what I tell myself. But a lot of it is just for fun, too. In any case, if you scroll down a little, there will be writing updates galore. But since you're here anyway, why not enjoy my artistic offerings?

Now, I should warn you, when I say my pixel art skills are not too dismal, I mean that they're not particularly great, either. Now that that's over and done with, behold!

This is a little dude I've been referring to as Julio, a telenovela star. How does he fit into anything anywhere? He doesn't. I was just doodling on Libresprite. But he's got the popped collar, the open shirt, the long slicked back hair, and a curious condition wherein his hands reach only his waist. I also experimented with a few simple expressions. I think it worked out pretty well, all things considered.

The same can't be said of this catastrophe:

I was going for a shop clerk, cashier, that sort of thing. I think I tried too much with the shirt. It looks way too busy. And I'm pretty sure the hair is not really working as it's meant to, either. But you live and you learn. She, too, suffers from the same condition as Julio, but in the pixel art world, I think that's kind of normal. They'll be fine.

But enough about the people. Let's talk about the stuff. First off: the sword of legend.

Okay, so it's not really a sword of legend. It's a pretty simple sword design. I was experimenting with drawing items so that when you're exploring in The Black Hare and pick up or learn about an item that's important, there's a visual to go along with it. I'm considering animating the items, too, whenever possible. For example, I could have a glint of light shining on the sword. Or I could have a ray of light move through the blade. That sort of thing. 

Speaking of animations, here's a little one I made this month, aptly titled "Angry Fantasy Plant":

 

If looks could kill...

He may or may not belong to one of my fantasy worlds. After all, I have an entire forest where the trees have eyes that follow you around, so why not a flower here and there, too? I wonder what this flower can do though... Something interesting that's yet to be determined.

Okay, enough with the showcase. Let's get to the wordsmithing updates.

Writing Updates

I want to keep this short and sweet, so here's the bullet point summary. This month I have...

• 💜 Pretty much finished the Vigilante route Prologue of The Black Hare!
• 🌼  Wrote the Hindsight is 20/20 guide for helping you regain your productivity and motivation.
• 🔎 Started writing entries for a search engine mystery game called Trail, using Twine SugarCube.
• 💛 Completed the narrative design overview for a game I'm working on with a small team.
• 👻 Evaluated my horror writing course, Zombie March, for a planned 2026 update.
• 🎤 Finally finished recording the podcast episodes "Let's Talk About Eyes", "The Black Hare", and "Hindsight is 20/20"
• 🩸  Continued writing my short horror story, currently titled "Hook", which I began in Scareuary.

 

Other Updates

You can now find all of the 'dev' logs for The Black Hare on this blog, and I'll be publishing them to this blog directly moving forward. If you follow me on social media, I'll be sharing the links to all of these dev logs and any other post of interest there as well, though I've decided to back away from the social media platforms.

 

If you haven't already, check out my podcast. There's some good stuff on there. (Also on Spotify et al.)

 

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