I’m James Martini, a game designer and writer. This website features all of my work.
Check out the links below to see some selected works and learn about me. Below the list are all of the posts on the site. Feel free to use the categories in the top bar to sort by the kind of work you want to see.
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BYTE
itch.io link Write your vows in blood! Release date: 12/12/23Estimated play time: ~2 hours BYTE is a tactics RPG/visual novel based on the book Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Play as Jonathan as he moves into the Count’s castle to assist in acquiring new plots of land. Very quickly, though, Jonathan begins to suspect something nefarious…
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Apricot and Fern
Itch.io link In Apricot and Fern, have a relaxing evening exploring this cute cafe nestled deep in the woods. Talk to the patrons, who love to spend their time lounging, playing games, and chit-chatting the night away. Technology Timeframe 5 months Role Sole developer
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BYTE Devlog 11/17/23: ACTUALLY Content Complete!
Frankly, I don’t have a lot of visual stuff to show for this week but take a look at this log! I did all of this in the last week! It’s been a big week in BYTE and I now have all the core content. It’s playable from start to finish (it took me an…
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BYTE: Write your vows in blood! Content Preview
Est. release date: December 12, 2023 Follow the game on itch.io: https://jamesmartini.itch.io/byte BYTE is nearly back and it’s time to write your vows in blood! This new content update for BYTE introduces bundles of new mechanics, characters, and scenarios, dragging you further and further into Dracula’s castle. Follow Jonathan as he learns more about himself,…
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BYTE Devlog 11/3/23: Art, Battle, and Church
This week in BYTE was a full content week, just churning out the next steps in the plot. Firstly, I created the final round of battles. There are another three battles, one per computer in the chapel, and the player needs to install the DJ software on the computers so it’s ready when they get…
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BYTE Devlog 10/27/23: Meet Arthur and Lucy
Delightfully, we’re running out of new mechanics and systems that need to be added to BYTE. For this week, because I was a little busy, I focused just on getting the story to the next big combat section, where Jonathan needs to install the DJ equipment on the computers in the chapel. To do that,…
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BYTE Devlog 10/20/23: Just some art
This was a lighter week in BYTE, but I still managed to make some good progress and also get some good polish elements in. My first chunk of work was making a couple of small bug fixes on Keons’ sitting animation, ensuring that his robes were properly bending with his knees, and then adding the…
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BYTE Devlog 10/13/23: GARGOYLES
(Happy Friday the 13th of October, btw. I will be celebrating today by watching Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola if anyone would like to join me in honoring the occasion.) Last week I made very little progress. THIS WEEK I MADE A LOT OF PROGRESS. The major thing I did this week was…
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BYTE Devlog 10/6/23: Welp, I tried!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Listen, last week, when I said that I wanted to get the entire next week of content into BYTE I did say that I thought it was an unrealistic goal. I knew that it probably wasn’t going to happen. Unfortunately, I undershot expectations even with those caveats. Largely this had to do with me…
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BYTE Devlog 9/29/23: Week 2 Complete
BIG WEEK IN BYTE! This week in BYTE my goal was to complete the second week of content, introducing Jonathan (and the player) to Keons, Dracula’s friend, and getting the player to unlock the chapel. And, well, MEET KEONS Keons is Dracula’s friend and a priest at the local church. Dracula enlists his help to…
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BYTE Devlog 9/22/23: Back-end and narrative
X! M! L! X! M! L! As if I’m back in high school, this week I started out by doing a bunch of work in XML. I needed a way of tracking which characters are in which scenes on which days and where they go, so I decided to drag a rabbit out of my…
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BYTE Devlog 9/18/23: Making it all work again
Admittedly, I’ve had a very busy week so I don’t have a ton to show visually (which is why I’m just reusing images from last week’s preview), but I did manage to get a lot of housekeeping/testing tasks sorted out. The main focus of this week was getting the game to work with the new…
James Martini 