Spooky season has officially drawn to a close, and the warmth of the holiday season is beginning to take center stage. As another daylight saving time comes to an end and the crisp chill of winter starts to settle in, November invites us to slow down, reflect, and gear up for a cozy month and season ahead.
If you look at the card, you’ll notice that the background is set in a vibrant tropical paradise—which might lead you to think, “It’s summer year-round in the tropics!” That sunny backdrop ties into a massive upcoming game release: Grand Theft Auto VI, which is set to launch on the 19th, and the setting is returning to Miami (Vice City). To be honest, I’ve never played any of the games in the GTA franchise, even though it subtly influenced parts of the villainous side in the Drillimation Danmaku Universe. I actually visited Miami and its surrounding areas including the Everglades and Florida Keys nearly two years prior.
Unfortunately, GTA still remains a sore subject for parents of children who grew up from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. Back then, the series was the ultimate poster child for media panic, often blamed for corrupting impressionable youth while simultaneously driving millions of copies off store shelves. Looking back, it’s fascinating to see how a franchise that once sparked intense living-room debates across generations has evolved into one of the most anticipated cultural behemoths in entertainment history—proving that even games you’ve never touched can leave a permanent footprint on the gaming landscape. I won’t be touching on the controversial history; I’ll have to refer you to Company Man’s video on the topic.
Now, it’s time to steer away from that and focus on the bigger picture of what has been happening behind the scenes at Drillimation over the past few months. From quiet development milestones to exciting creative breakthroughs, a lot of hard work has been quietly taking shape. Let’s pull back the curtain and dive right in.
Key Developments
Blockstar Script Halfway Done
I am still actively developing Blockstar, even hot on the heels of releasing Touhou Meishuugeki ~ Cursed Sweeper and Bewildering Parallel last month. While core gameplay mechanics are still being polished and fine-tuned, the primary focus lately has been deep-diving into the game’s script—and I’m thrilled to share that it is already halfway done!
My current writing workflow sits at a steady two stages per weekday, though inspiration often strikes on weekends for a few bonus stages. At this rate, each full episode takes about five days to script out, keeping me on track to wrap up the complete script by mid-December.
Beyond the story, one of my biggest development focuses right now is fleshing out the game modes. Now that Classic Mode is fully complete, I’ve been pouring attention into a brand-new, timed Blitz Mode tailored specifically for players who want a fast-paced, action-packed five-minute session on the go!
All Game Soundtracks are Now Available For Streaming On All Major Platforms
After months of rollouts following our initial announcement back in April, the soundtracks from every single Drillimation Danmaku Universe game are officially up and streaming on all major platforms, including YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and more!
Managing a massive catalog comes with its unique hurdles—including previously being forced to split large-scale albums into multiple volumes. However, we have some fantastic news moving forward: thanks to updated distribution support via DistroKid, we are now permitted to upload up to 60 tracks per album. This major update drastically cuts down the number of separate volumes needed for each game store page.
As we look ahead, we will continue expanding our streaming library, adding new albums and fresh tracks as upcoming games launch in the years to come!
Statistics
The website’s subscriber count over the past two months increased by 79 for a total of 2,692 today.
The follower count over the past two months increased by 224 for a total of 8,324 today.
Bluesky
I forgot to count how many followers we got in September, but as of today, we have 3,465.
Instagram/Threads
Everyone knows that agony: you only have one post that stands out among your others and no matter what you try, none of the others replicate the success of that post. Over the past two months, we managed to rake in over 80,000 views—far more than what we recorded in August.
YouTube
YouTube recently redesigned the analytics screen, making it hard to determine how many views you got in a specific month. Unsurprisingly, the most-viewed videos in both September and October were PC-98 Touhou-style remixes of themes from Plants vs. Zombies.
September:
October:
These videos received nearly 64,000 views and the subscriber count increased by 81.
Future Goals
As we look ahead to the rest of November, the primary focus will remain locked onto driving the Blockstar script forward to completion. With the writing process chugging along at a steady clip, we’ll also dedicate significant development time to building out and polishing the timed Blitz Mode. Following that, the user interface and main menu systems will take center stage as the next major milestone.
Balancing intensive screenwriting with back-end programming is always a demanding juggling act, but having a clear roadmap makes every late night worth it. Rest assured, we are steadily chipping away at the heavy lifting—and we’ll finally be freed from that dual-development yoke once everything comes together!
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