Dark times, friends. As some of you know, the Wyrmring team and myself mainly were based ... In the land of Moscow, where shadows lie. tl;dr - I have [strike]fled[/strike] undergone urgent relocation to Serbia; the team has suspended collaboration and my own development has been severely impacted. Previous plans and timings had to be discarded and new ones are only now in the making. Now, that is practically all the news, the rest of this post is my attempt to come to terms with it all. First, just for the context, I'll say that I've disconnected from the news from/about *that country* on purpose at this point. Being able to do that is one of the big pros of having fled from there. The main reason for the sudden move is just that I've had enough personally. Of lies, more than anything. Just to think about it - prior to the events of 2022, I actually almost believed that the regime was starting to change and adapt. That was an illusion. Another reason was my ability to focus on game dev evidently waning in the growing hysteria, polarization and oppressive policies inside *that country*. I thought at first that surely people won't stand for it, the big brother taking away both their immediate well-being and their hopes for a better tomorrow - and it seemed like something was stirring indeed... Well, that was an illusion as well. I have to say, to relocate so frantically was a vast setback in my preparations for the game's release. Economic damage aside, my daily life now is filled with all kinds of concerns related to adaptation and legalization. So far my plan is to invest time into getting stable income outside *that country*, that's the best way I can put it. I expect it to take between 3 and 6 months, a time that I am sure to spend on refining whatever parts of the game do not require massive parallel resource investment (i.e., active team development). Expect to see the core Game Design get leaner more crafty :) So that's the situation. However since this project has always been a long-term one, I strongly believe that it is for the best - so that the foundation that's needed to realize this game's ambitions is built on more stable ground. The episode certainly wasn't without positive lessons and experience. As some of you may know, Eidolons has over years been worked on by many freelance artists - including one great freelance composer from Serbia, coincidentally! It was a heartening experience to meet with Edwin Pickett, and learn that in a way, much of Eastern Europe shares a common burden of its past. On this note, I want to express gratitude to Serbia and its people for welcoming people in need, regardless of where they come from. That's all for now, I should get back to the interview preps I suppose. On a personal note, it is rather sad how my homeland cannot seem to escape the cycle misery, like an eldritch curse. I feel the urge to ruminate more on this, but now is not the time. One thing is for sure, the game's narrative is not going to get sunnier in light of these events. I wished I could find some good words for whoever might be reading this that has been affected even more directly by this catastrophe. But then, words aren't much good at this scale.