Snack Powered Mage

After a lot of thought and soul-searching, I’ve decided it’s time to say goodbye to Snack Powered Mage. As much as it breaks my heart, after going over my contract with a magnifying glass, I’ve come to the harsh realization that it’s a highly restrictive contract. For anyone considering publishing on Webnovel.com, I strongly recommend reading everything carefully and knowing what you're signing. You can find a detailed breakdown of the contract here to help you make an informed decision. Always protect your creative rights.

Now, I’m focusing my creative energy on The Fractured Wizard. You can find it here: The Fractured Wizard. This new story is where my heart is, and I’m excited to bring it to life without any restrictions. Who knows, I might even redo Snack Powered Mage one day under a new guise, but for now, it’s best left behind.

I’m also planning to move to ScribbleHub. Why? Because it’s better in so many ways. ScribbleHub offers more creative freedom, better reader interaction, and none of the headaches of restrictive contracts. Plus, the community is fantastic! You also get to keep your rights to your work, which is a huge win. ScribbleHub is like The Duck or Comic Fury, but for writers. If you loved Snack Powered Mage, you’ll adore The Fractured Wizard. If not, well, this is where we part ways—no hard feelings. Let’s all go live our best lives! If you want to hang out or chat, feel free to join my Discord server: discord.gg/JKKQENM.

Thanks for sticking with Zoe and the gang for as long as you did. I’ll see everyone on ScribbleHub. And for those of you who want to follow along, don’t forget to check out Zanden Xade, where I’ll continue blogging about my adventures and creative projects.

Lately, life has been a whirlwind of activity, and I’ve been fully immersed in working on my game. It’s been a thrilling but demanding project, and every day I find myself chipping away at it, making steady progress. At the same time, I’ve been slowly working on my book, enjoying the process when I can squeeze it in between everything else. Taking some time off has been refreshing, and I’ve really been savoring the break—even if it’s been a busy one.

That said, I’ve decided I probably won’t be continuing Snack Powered Mage beyond the conclusion. I want to make sure it gets the ending it deserves, though. I currently have five chapters written and expect at least five more to bring the story to a satisfying close. It’s a bittersweet decision, but it feels like the right one given how much I’ve got on my plate right now.

As for my game, I’ve shelved the idea of my clothing system and decided to follow this YouTube series: Unreal Engine RPG Tutorial. The series has 82 videos—yes, eighty-two—and I’m hoping that once I’ve completed them all, I’ll have a base game ready to launch any RPG I dream up, along with the knowledge to do so. I have so many stories that I’ve worked on over the years, and while I can’t adapt Snack Powered Mage due to my contract, I’m sure it will be a great story nonetheless.

I’m loosely thinking about creating a dungeon crawler featuring either a pair of women heroes or a customizable choose-your-gender story. I debated turning "The Fractured Wizard" into a game, but I couldn’t think of engaging gameplay for it, so it might work better as a movie instead. Honestly, I don’t feel like getting wrapped up in a full movie project right now. Over the years, I’ve made a few models to help visualize stories, but who knows? Maybe I’ll toss everything into a blender (pun intended) and see what comes out—perhaps even a massive multiplayer open-world game where people can explore all my ideas.

Speaking of past projects, I’ve dabbled in Second Life and still have my store there: Xade Creations. I’m pretty skilled at modeling buildings, and I have a bunch of incomplete and finished ones waiting to be added to the marketplace. Since they updated the platform, I’ve yet to tinker with it and get everything working again. It’s just another task to add to the back burner for later.

Between being under the weather, juggling DoorDashing, and diving headfirst into game development, my schedule has been packed. If you want more details or updates, you can find everything on my BlueSky account: insanexade.bsky.social. I’m excited to share what’s coming next and keep you all in the loop!

This blog will soon come to an end, and I’ll be moving my updates to my original blog, now renamed Zanden Xade. You can find it here: Zanden Xade. That will be my new blogging home moving forward.

I'm leaving everyone with an AI concept of Snacks the Dragon that I did when I first created him. Enjoy!

Anyhow, I guess I should get going. Have fun, everyone!

After a few days of solid thought, I decided to completely shelve SPM for now. It really breaks my heart, but I’ve gone over my contract with a fine-tooth comb and there is most likely no way to break it since I’m in the US and they are in China. I signed my rights away. Thank goodness I didn’t do that with Aden’s Adventure. The thing with Zoe’s is it’s actually pretty generic. Unless my editor, who has mysteriously vanished like a side quest NPC, can talk me into continuing, I’m done with SPM.

Update: I talked to my editor and decided that I’m going to finish the current storyline, then shift into the endgame—when I’m back in the mood for writing again. So, SPM will update once more, but I’ll wrap it up with a thrilling, full-stakes, all-or-nothing, multi-team battle royal. Think Hunger Games meets Mario Kart chaos.

In the meantime, I’ve moved on to a new project: Zanden’s Unreal Engine Clothing System.

Below, I've included images of the development of the bare-bones clothing system. At the top is the UE 5.5 mannequin wearing the nightshirt and wig I whipped up in Blender. It only took me about two hours from start to completion, but then it took another half hour or so to get it into Unreal. Updating the 4.27 blueprint to 5.5 took an additional two hours. Below that, on the left, is the clothing in the third-person blueprint. The right-hand image shows the clothing in-game. I could have made a camera boom or adjustment to zoom it in, but I want to keep the initial state of the template as much as possible so future users can buy and study it.

Since an old friend never replied, I’m assuming he either vanished into the void or got swallowed by a wormhole. It’s been pre-Covid since I heard from him, so I think it’s been long enough to officially claim rights to the clothing system we worked on together. With ChatGPT’s help, I’ve updated it to version 5.5. Now, it just needs a polish pass, a shiny interface, and a fail-safe to prevent people from doing silly things—like adding multiple hairstyles at once. (Because we all know someone would try.)

After browsing the marketplace, I couldn’t find a quality clothing system. That’s my cue. I’m thinking of offering two versions: a basic version for the casual devs and a pro version for the hardcore creators. Who knows? Maybe this is my ticket to finally making something worthwhile—and profitable.

Keep an eye on my BlueSky for updates at insanexade.bsky.social, and if you’d like to be part of the testing or just want to drop by and say hi, you can catch me on my Discord server at discord.gg/JKKQENM. I’d love to hear from you!

Today I learned something that really shook me. After over a month of pouring my heart and soul into Snack Powered Mage, working late nights and revising tirelessly, I finally checked my earnings. The grand total? $3.42.

Seeing that number hit me like a slap. Less than four dollars for weeks of effort. It felt like a punch to my motivation—a sharp reminder of how brutal creative work can be sometimes. I’d slaved over every chapter, invested emotionally and mentally, and this was the return? It’s hard not to feel like quitting altogether.

My editor already knew I was taking February off to regroup, to take a breather and recharge. But now, even with that plan in place, it feels like I want to quit entirely. The disappointment is overwhelming like all that work amounted to nothing. I have 51 collections, but it seems like hardly anyone is really reading or unlocking anything. Or are chapter unlocks so cheap that each one only pays chump change once it filters down to me? I don’t know.

I’m tempted to say forget it and try working in Unreal Engine for a while—maybe create a game that might make me a little money on the marketplace or something. Who knows? I’ll still update the blog every so often. Maybe I’ll even work some on my other book.

Snack Powered Mage Web Novel link

Today, we did a few dashes in Niles before deciding to get the new truck legal. That turned into a multi-hour adventure involving finding a notary, going to the title office, backtracking to the house for the handicap placard, and returning to the title office, only to finish at the BMV. About two hours after starting this quest, we finally had the truck officially moved into Milo's name.

Then came the next challenge: swapping out the old plates for the new ones. What should have been a quick task turned into a raid-tier ordeal. The previous owner, in their infinite wisdom, used some kind of rounded Phillips screws instead of regular hex-head plate screws. I had to drill those out.

Did I mention it was 28°F? That’s about − 2°C for those of you on the metric system. My fingers were numb by the time I got the final screw to relinquish its death grip on the plates. It took nearly three hours—well after dark—and a full arsenal of tools: screwdrivers, hammers, drill bits, and even vice grips, because one screw decided to act like a stubborn top. When I finally trudged into the house my glasses fogged up instantly as the warmth hit me.

Milo asked if I was ready to go to Walmart (or as I like to call it, the real-life Zoeverse ValueMart). 'Not really,' I thought while fumbling to put the tools away, but I said out loud, “Sure.” My body, however, had other plans. It demanded a pit stop on the white throne. Not one to waste time, I used the opportunity to dictate the shopping list while the rest of me took care of business.

With nature’s call answered, Milo and I headed to Walmart. Once there, I tackled the shopping list until I reached my hidden cookie mission. If there’s one cookie I love more than mini chocolate chip, it’s Great Value butter cookies. You know the kind: the ones that come in tins around the holidays, stacked in cupcake liners, each tin a treasure trove of buttery perfection.

The problem? They’re $15.88, which is a hefty price tag on a budget. My solution? Hide them. It worked brilliantly last year with a jumbo Hershey bar that dropped to $5 after New Year’s.

So, before they sold out, I stashed two tins of cookies in what I considered the most unlikely of places: the vacuum section and near food sealer bags. Flash forward to today. Armed with my trusty phone, I checked the first hiding spot in the vacuum aisle. Nothing. Someone had discovered my stash. Disheartened, I moved on to the second location, only to realize that every box in my reference photo was labeled in French.

At that moment, I realized I’m not Star Ride’s artist (the brilliant creator of my favorite Star Trek parody comic). So, what did I do? I turned to ChatGPT for a quick translation.

Turned out they were vacuum sealer bags. The kind you put food in and it sucks all the air out to maintain freshness. Away I went, a few aisles over, the irony not lost on me about where I chose to put the second tin. After a few minutes, I shifted a couple aside and saw a shiny curved tin. I pulled it out and resisted the urge to raise it above my head like Mario. I tossed it in my cart, shifted some stuff over it to hide it from view, and went back to groceries, my hard-earned loot secured.

About 15 minutes later I collected the rest and checked out, sorting through the mountain of stuff that occasionally fell if I turned too fast. Blip, blip, blip, bag, bag, bag, stack, stack, stack, until I reached my loot. I scanned it. 3.75. 'SCORE!' I thought, smugly double bagging it.

This makes it all worthwhile. Which would you read? (edited to break it up for easy reading)

--Before Deep Third The cool breeze from the AC wrapped the room like a perfectly chilled soda can on a summer day.

Outside, the temperature was already creeping toward the low 80s. It was the kind of weather that whispered, Come outside, it’s nice—but Zoe was having none of it.

She was exactly where she needed to be: deep in the heart of her snack-filled fortress of gaming excellence.

Her oversized hoodie slouched off one shoulder.

The cartoon sushi pajama pants she wore had seen better days, but comfort was king.

Zoe wasn’t small—not by a long shot.

At 270 pounds, she was all plush edges and unapologetic softness.

And she owned it. Why fight the inevitable?

Snacks were life, and the gym was someone else’s problem.

She sat cross-legged in her plush gaming chair, which squished beneath her weight just right, like it had finally surrendered to her lifestyle.

It knew its place, and so did she.

A rogue sock dangled from the corner of her monitor, like some weird trophy of her laziness.

She could probably move it, but… ‘Eh.’ It wasn’t hurting anyone.

--After Deep Third

The cool breeze from the AC wrapped the room like a perfectly chilled soda can on a summer day.

She swirled the icy can of soda, savoring the condensation dampening her palm.

It felt good—better than good.

This was comfort, the kind she built her sanctuary around.

Outside, the temperature was already creeping toward the low 80s

. It was the kind of weather that whispered, 'Come outside, it’s nice'—but Zoe was having none of it.

Low 80s already, probably worse by noon.

Sunshine promised fresh air and open skies, but she wasn’t biting.

Why would she?

Beyond her walls lay a world of obligations.

She was exactly where she needed to be: deep in the heart of her snack-filled fortress of gaming excellence.

Her oversized hoodie slouched off one shoulder.

The cartoon sushi pajama pants she wore had seen better days, but comfort was king.

The cartoon sushi pajama pants hinted at better days, their fabric softened by time and too many washes.

A recent bout of stress-fueled dieting made them a touch loose, but she shoved that thought aside.

Comfort ruled here. Everything else? Irrelevant.

She sat cross-legged in her plush gaming chair, which squished beneath her weight just right, like it had finally surrendered to her lifestyle.

It knew its place, and so did she.

The chair’s padding had long since surrendered to her weight, but it cradled her perfectly.

It understood her, got her priorities.

A rogue sock dangled from her monitor, swaying slightly in the AC’s breeze.

She could move it… but why bother?

The sock wasn’t hurting anyone. Its defiance amused her.

She smirked, taking a sip of soda.

First off, I need to take a breather for the rest of January. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s necessary. I’m a little burnt out after pushing hard to finish five chapters for December 31st (super fun, but also super exhausting). Yesterday’s 9-hour lag in posting updates was a big wake-up call for me.

I’m going to spend this time rebuilding my writing buffer and reworking earlier chapters of Snack Powered Mage to match the deep third POV I’ve switched to recently. This new style feels more immersive and elevates the story for a better reading experience. Over the next few weeks, I’ll upload these adjusted chapters in groups of 20, giving the earlier sections of SPM a fresh new feel.

Also, I’ll be unwinding by gaming—channeling my inner Zoe to recharge. In the meantime, I want to stay connected with you all, so I’ll be updating this Tumblr daily with little slices of Zanden’s life! Think of it as a peek behind the scenes as I share progress updates, fun tidbits, and maybe some sneak peeks of upcoming chapters.

TL;DR: I’m taking January off to recover and rebuild my writing buffer. Expect daily updates on this Tumblr with fun snippets of Zanden’s life and writing progress. Bulk updates of SPM chapters (now in deep third POV!) will be coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and join the conversation on:

BlueSky

Discord

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