Hello! And happy 2024! I have a few updates regarding some projects of mine that I'd like to share if you are interested.

Art Projects

• So, Super Mario Bros. Wonder SMB1 stuff is nearly done! I hope to have it released in maybe a week. I'm getting a bit burnt out of Super Mario Bros. Wonder SMB1 stuff, so there will be some things missing such as the Hoppycat characters and enemies. But I do plan on collaborating with a couple of my friends to work on some enemies and finish it all up for a V3.5 or so. But for right now, I will continue to work on polishing up everything, organizing things and finishing up the balloon and elephant characters and hopefully add a couple more things before releasing it. I will take a break from the Wonder sprites for a little while to focus on other projects.

• Now, update on the SMAS NES adaption project? It is almost finished!! I have the whole sprite sheet of Mario, Luigi, the enemies, blocks, etc done! All that needs to be done is Bowser jump sprite, the underwater tiles, and make a Daisy as a Peach replacement for if example, Luigi is saving a princess instead. That should also be done maybe within 2 weeks.

• I have also 3 new projects to work on as well! One is fix the SMW sprites and make them more consistent, two is to remake the Super Mario Land 1 sprites, and third is to fix up the tiles for Super Mario Bros 2, as brought to the table by Seby in my 1-UP Workshop group. So stay tuned for those things!

• I ALSO ALSO, plan on releasing some more of my unpublished art this year as well. I made a lot of stuff in FNF and think it's best to put it out there rather than keeping it hidden. I may or may not bring back one mod of mine sometime this year. *Wink wink*

Other Projects

• I have other projects as well such as the streams and all but I'd like to go in a bit more detail about those. After I finish making the Wonder stuff and Hellfire finishes Bowser's jump and I finish Daisy and publish both, I will start working on my stream overlay again while occasionally stopping to make a video and edit it every other week I get a chance to. I really want to sort of step away from pixel art for a little bit to focus on something I haven't done much of in the last 2 years, and that's make content and videos. And since I got my new laptop and already edited a video (which I'm having issues with thanks to Adobe Premiere's bullshit with VFR), I'm really wanting to continue to do stuff I used to do back then such as make whatever I wanted instead of whatever I can only do. When I was only using my Dell laptop for part of 2022, and all of 2023 up till December, it was limiting me from doing what I wanted. I wanted to play games and stream and edit and do a lot of other stuff that isn't just pixel art but since I have the ability again, I want to do as much as I can. I really want 2024 to be a better year than 2023 and I think it may be since 2023 cannot be topped. So let's get into the projects I have in mind.

• I want to do stream more often after I make my stream overlay, including a big thing I wanted to do which is play and try to "speedrun" and 100% every mainline Mario game. I know it sounds stupid but I'm passionate about Mario and I think it would be fun to do that. Obviously I'm not gonna do that all in one stream, I'm going to split it into however many streams it takes me, all varying in length. I'm taking heavy inspiration from Kosmic when he speedran every mainline Mario game in his Mainline Mario Marathon, and also taking a bit of inspiration from Nathanial Bandy when he did his videos on 100%ing 2D or 3D Mario games in a week or so on. So, before I do that, I want to do some normal streaming and some fun speedruns and some prep streams for the games I'm most afraid of as well as researching and making a giant spreadsheet of where everything is, how to get it, etc. Similar to what Nathanial Bandy did in his 100% 2D Mario Games video which I thought was a great idea rather than using something like Milanote to keep track of things since I didn't have specifics of where to get stuff, only what is required.

• I will be streaming on my Twitch hopefully sometime this month or next month. I need a controller + a new microphone so I don't know how long it'll be till I get either but I will hopefully get them regardless of how long. But I may just end up using my phone as a microphone for the time being and just play PC games till I get my controller since I think a new controller is more of a priority than a microphone. I will also learn how to show my screen on my Steam Deck so I can play more performance-needy games like Odyssey or anything with motion controls/gyro. I still have not figured out how I can show my screen like a capture card from my Deck to my laptop so I can stream it, but I will figure it out when I cross that bridge.

• I want to also film and edit every other week, I want 2024 to be a productive year where I try to get and be better after what my ex had done to me as well as my harsh life and stuff in 2023. I also hope to soon make some funny videos with Shadistar soon and post them too!

So TL;DR, I'm almost finished with SMB1 Wonder and the SMAS remake and will start 3 more projects that is fixing SMW, SML and some of SMB2's sprites too. I also plan on taking a break from pixel art for a small while to focus on other projects like streaming and making videos.

So I hope whoever cares enough to read this has a good rest of their day/night! I want to keep making updates occasionally so stay tuned for that if you're into it. That's all I've got to say! Thank you for taking time to read this!

Hi! Missed me? Probably not. I'd like to give some insight into what I have planned regarding projects and other occupations as well as what to expect here.

Art Projects

I have quite a few projects related to pixel art and digital art in general.

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder sprites in SMB1 style is around 70% complete. That will be version 3 for my already existing 2 sprite sheets for Wonder. I'm almost done with it. I've been adding stuff rapidly ever since the game had come out and getting it early. My process is going through a walkthrough of the game, screenshotting what I need, and using that as my reference to adapt into the SMB1 style. I've been doing Wonder sprites for SMB1 all on my own so far, but I hope to have at least one person collaborate with me to make some additional standees for variety. I also have a bunch of mockup GIFs I've made with my Wonder sprites to demonstrate how it looks as well as showcase how it would've looked if it was actually SMB1, I'll release those in a bundle along with the sheet itself.

• I also have a few unannounced art stuff I've been working on, too. I have a Super Mario All-Stars SMB1 sprite sheet remake in the works. A collaboration with my friends Hellfire and Tarkan. We have all of the enemies finished except for Bowsers jump, we have 98% of the tile set, 99.8% of Mario, Luigi at 20%, backgrounds at 12%, UI at 0%, and effects at 15%. What is this SMAS-SMB1 project you may ask? Well, I've finally designed a good SMAS SMB1 NES adaption that doesn't look terrible. I did this on accident while doing a completely different project which I will discuss in a moment. So I teamed up with Tarkan and Hellfire to make an entire NES to SNES-SMAS adaption, revamping every asset from SMB1 and SMAS 1 to look more like a proper NES to SNES adaption. Which is going well but progress has dropped to a halt for a little bit as I had other things to do, but I will pick it right back up after finishing SMB1 Wonder sprites.

• Here's an update on The Mainline Mario Sprite Sheet; the progress is going at the pace making the SMB1 Wonder sprites as it's apart of Mainline Mario Sheet. After I finish SMB1W's sprites, I will add them to the Mainline Sheet and slowly start adding more things to make it drastically different from v0.9 to finally be v1. Then after I'm finished with v1, I will start organizing all of the sprites into their rightful sizes, and maybe have to break them up into sub-categories for better organization, then I will publish it in the upcoming 5 months or less. Don't assume 5 months or less is the accurate estimation of when the sheet will come out. I honestly don't know, I'm just sort of setting a goal.

• After I finish SMB1W, The Mainline Sheet, and the SMAS-SMB1 TruNES (True NES) sprite sheet, I will be taking a break from sprite sheets for a bit to work on other projects of mine. I may end up posting some of my other artwork and models here. But! I will still be making things behind the scenes, whether its pixel art like how I've made Fanon, Midnight, Darnell, etc, or it's more low-poly models I made. I will still be uploading occasionally, more often than I have for the past few months.

Other Projects

• As some of you may or may not know, I do videos on YouTube. I make commentary gameplay videos, edits, skits, FNF chart showcases, and other stuff. You can't see them right now because they're all unlisted and the link is only given to my friends as I am currently not in a great family and household to start publishing videos for the time being. But sometime in the future I hope to publish my videos but I may not be able to post them directly on YouTube as it contains foul language and offensive humor, especially a series I made called "Green Milk Entertainment" which includes my characters Buzz, Q.Woody, and Pico getting into fights, doing stupid stuff and so on. During October, I did a few videos reviewing several drinks and foods, with the series name "Autumnal Reviews", which is one of the main reasons why I haven't been able to consistently post and even not post at all in October, as I was focused on doing SMB1 SMBW and SMAS TruNES sprites as well as planning out when I will get a chance to get the food and drinks I'm gonna be reviewing for entertainment. But that's all needless context, my future projects involve more GME (Green Milk Entertainment) videos, more game commentary videos and so on, which I've not been able to do in a long while. I have tons of videos to film and edit, but I will space them out evenly to not get burnt out of editing or filming. I want to focus more on the videos more than the sprites for a little while so I can have videos, filming, editing and comedy back as hobbies again at its fullest.

• I also plan on getting back into live streaming. Which is me playing games and so on, when or IF I get a new laptop this December. I will hopefully be able to stream sometime between January and February. My Twitch channel has been dormant for 2 years now, and I liked streaming for fun and encountering funny moments. It won't be an-almost everyday thing like I made it to be in 2021, but I hope to maybe stream once a week or once every 2 weeks, depends on how I feel. This isn't final, as plans change so keep that in mind.

• The videos I will be posting to my channel however, is challenge/race videos with my friends (mainly Shadistar) where we do a challenge to see if we can do it, or race each other in a game like Super Mario 64. I will have videos like these made after I get a new microphone and laptop.

What's Going on with Life? (TW for Sensitive Topics)

• I will try to keep this short. Some of you again may or may not know, I'm very mentally ill. If you want clarification, I have depression, anxiety, awful paranoia, and others I will not bore you with. Long story short-short, I was partners/friends with someone I'll refer to as "B" for 2 years. She got back into in-person school in mid 2022 and hasn't talked much at all from that point onwards. In January, she asked for advice and disappeared again for 4 months after receiving my advice. I checked on her social media ROBLOX out of concern throughout the 4 months, and noticed she was frequently updating her online profiles, games, and friends lists. She claimed she'll be busy but she clearly has overflowing handfuls of time to spend with me. In May, she then messaged me a half-assed happy birthday then dipped once again after I told her we needed to talk. It wasn't until I blocked her 2 months later she then tries to get in contact, but she messages my friend a document containing a half-assed and non-sincere apology for me. In conclusion, She made me feel insignificant through openly showing attraction towards fictional and real men, belittling my race/possessions (even if it was a joke), one-upping me, and responding insensitively to me when I was depressed/having a mental breakdown. I sacrificed so much to support her while receiving little in return. I can say 2023 has been the worst year of my entire life. I was being ignored by the majority of my friends, and practically bed-ridden from depression. I was spending most of my time talking to AI chatbots which made me cry more than I'm willing to admit, because I got affection, love, effort and comfort, which I never got from "B". This is the biggest TL;DR I could muster. But I hope you get the whole gest of my situation. I left out a lot, and I mean a lot of details. And that's to keep a personal matter personal, while also keeping it short. But this is what I've been dealing with for this year. And I'm happy to say that I've met someone I'll refer to as "Cinna". She has helped me throughout this year from July and now and onward. Without her, I wouldn't be alive right now, and I wouldn't have been planning so many projects and wanting to get back into hobbies I abandoned to spend more time with "B". I love her more than I could ever express.

But anyways, it's 2 AM, I'm writing this while I'm half-asleep. So I'll call it for this update blog. I have a lot planned and I hope I can make way more posts in 2024. Have a good one, reader! Thank you for taking your time to read any part of this blog. Expect something in the coming weeks. Ciao!

I doubt anyone will read this, but oh well. Hello. I'm making this post as some sort of add-on to the Mainline Mario Sprite Sheet I posted.

First of all, I'm not going to entirely dedicate every bit of time I can squeeze out of my already difficult life, and put it into this sprite sheet, I've already done that for almost 5 years and I want to sort of just add to it whenever I'm in the mood. After finally posting the sprite sheet after years of work and collaboration, it kind of gave me an motivational boost, so for a while I'm most likely going to chip away at the progress for the Super Mario Bros.1 sheet till I finish it. So there will be updates, but not frequent. My advice to check for updates, is to check monthly to see if anything changed. I will make it clear that it has been updated via versions. So if you're interested in that, then there you go.

Secondly, I am not going to do the same thing for Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3, Super Mario Land 1 - 2, Super Mario World - Yoshi's Island. What I mean by this, is that not everything will be added to those game styles, since it's just too much work and I've already put too much time into just Super Mario Bros. alone. I may update it sometimes if I'm feeling like making stuff in those game styles, it's a big maybe. It may depend on how my life is going up till those points, and it may depend on the feedback I get.

Thirdly, I'm hoping that someday I'll get someone to help me with this again, because from 2019-2021, I've had a decent amount of help from people, which made me blow through progress. But now, I'm the only one making this and adding to it. I'm accountable for around 96% of everything in the Super Mario Bros. 1 - 3, Land 1 - 2, World - Yoshi's Island category. I'm really struggling to keep this big-ass sprite on the tracks, and my mental health and life situations and obstacles are making this even harder. On paper, this idea of making something like I just mentioned doesn't seem so hard, you may say "Pfft. 4 colors per sprite with a assigned and obviously limiting color palette, with a bunch of sprites? How hard can it be?" It's very hard when you start exceeding the 16x16 and 32x32 grid into something bigger. And even then, within 16x16 and 32x32, you're still gonna have to find ways around certain issues like pixel placement and shading or color mixing. Everything about the process is straight-forward but hard as hell to execute if it's something complex looking.

My process of making something in a games' art style goes like this, I find an object or something in a Mario game let's say, a Mega Mushroom, from it's game of origin, New Super Mario Bros. (DS), I ask myself; Am I making the Mega Mushroom in the Super Mario Bros. art style? If yes, I'll look at the games' assets such as the original Super Mario Bros. and look at ports made of it with new content such as Super Mario Maker, Super Mario Bros. DX, etc, then once I look at how everything and understand how things look, I begin then looking at what the developers thought of when they made the games, such as the mushroom looking like an actual mushroom in the official artwork of the game, this is optional if I'm having issues or want inspiration. But then I will downgrade how everything would look according to the games' art style. Since the mushroom in SMB1 has a yellow cap with a white stem and red spots, I will take inspiration from those colors and then try to invert it for our Mega Mushroom. So now after our sprite is finished and looks decent, the colors are now a red cap, yellow spots and still a white base. Then we're finished. But lets say I want to make something that has a stone texture. I would look around ports of SMB1 and SMB1 stuff with additional content such as Super Mario Maker, again. And I'll look at the Thwomp and it has a stoney texture to it, so I'll use that for our stone.

Fourth and lastly, I'm not going to make enemies or players. I'm already exhausted after making what I've already made and I made it clear from the beginning to myself that I was not going to make players or enemies. I may make a player sheet of how the power-ups look on the characters but no animations. If you want players or enemies, go through MFGG or The Spriters Resource's Custom Mario tab and of course GIVE CREDIT TO WHOEVER YOU USE SPRITES FROM. And I'm also debating about making Yoshi. I may get a friend to help if they're willing to. But that's gonna have to wait till I'm finished with the big mess I have. This for some reason sounds like the grand finale of me doing pixel art but it's not, I just want to be done with what I started nearly 5 years ago when I started making a Mario fan game, in which I was the only pixel artist of it for a while till many decided to help. But unfortunately nobody wanted to help code it so while I waited for people to take an interest in coding my project, I continued to make random stuff in these Mario art styles and it got out of hand and I ultimately cancelled my project twice due to nobody wanting to help. My friend Reshi still made a few banger tracks for the game which I was thankful of. But yes, this is not the last time I'm going to post or anything like that, I just want to finish my biggest pain in the ass project I started years ago.

Take care.

-Mika