Jamal's 15th Anniversary

"Keep 'em flying."

Jamal has been a character of mine for 15 whole years! He has the reputation of being my longest-surviving character.

He was introduced as a cast member of a small series of comic strips I made called "Animal Fair," which involved an odd mix of creatures doing random things. Jamal was the mischief-maker of the bunch, pulling pranks every now and then on the others. Back then he had difficulty learning to fly.

Afterward, he was suddenly cast into an amateur game of mine just called "Jamal," where his old friends were set aside for a new cast made especially for the game, including his older brother Pete and the main villain Astronut. The game was a basic shooter whose goals for completion depended on a target number of enemies to destroy. There were a few bosses and bonus stages, and even a few hidden features. However, the game was long and rather monotonous thanks to a large number of stages and relatively lacking variety of enemies.

Regardless, it is from this game that Jamal attained a new life. And it would be years later that he would attain a new look as well. While his initial appearance was more akin to an actual bird, over the years his head grew, his body shrank, his wings enlarged, and some fancy yet simple boots were attained. The other characters in Jamal's new world later got redesigns of their own. Later on he would even get his own theme song.

It's 2010 now, and Animal Fair had since retired, but Jamal managed to stick around in my mind thanks to his simple charming design and unusual mischievous attitude. His game is being given a major overhaul, attempting to reintroduce the original gameplay style, resolve the old game's problems, and even add a few features like power-ups to deepen the experience. And introduced here is his new revamped logo for display. While the "15" is added to celebrate Jamal's anniversary, the rest is intended to represent his game and his universe. It will hopefully function in other ways too.

So! At the moment it seems as if Jamal has no intention of disappearing. If he does, he'll make sure to go out with a bang. :3

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