Hello there Steam people! It has been a little over a month since the last news already and I hope you guys had an amazing start into the year 2024. There hasn't been any progress updates lately because... Well, there is not really a lot of progress happening. On the 15th of december, my lawyer send another letter to the state attorney, requesting to at least get the one crucial SSD back that I need. Sadly, the state attorney didn't respond yet and yesterday, my lawyer send me an email stating that chances are high they won't respond to these kind of requests anymore. He proposed a different idea to me, that I should make a list with files that I need and that he will make a request to hand out copies of those files. This might be a higher chance than getting the SSD back before anything, because apparently it can take up to 6 months to just mirror the harddrives here. That doesn't include checking them for any incriminating content, which can take up to 6 months again. We are now 4 months into my equipment being seized and while I was able to get a new computer ( because I had high hopes that this month would be the month I at least get one of my ssds back that literally only contain my render files ), it doesn't change the fact that I'm still heavily crippled regarding work on My New Memories. The files I send to my lawyer for request basically contain all characters. I also had to put an explanation into the email what these files are, what you need to open them and what exactly you see in those files once they are opened in the rendering program, DAZ3D. This is all so the law enforcement worker knows what he's dealing with and can check those files manually to make sure they dont contain anything illegal ( and it saves them time researching themselves how to open a .duf file ). I also suggested they put a link to the steam page and steam TOS into the request so they can be assured that the game doesn't contain anything that is against their Terms of Service etc. This is all... A lot to take in personally. Being robbed of the one thing in my life that fullfilled me with joy ( working on this game ) is becoming harder and harder to bear. I don't want people to support me if I can't work on the game as I should. I don't want people to buy the game if I can't continue the story in an appropiate timeframe. I know that a lot of devs out there wouldn't care since they can just use this time for vacation, relaxing, while still taking peoples money ( especially on patreon, which I also use ). But I don't want that. I'm currently looking if I can pause the ability for the game to be bought on Steam starting in february and will only reactivate it once I received those files or my assets in general back. I will do the same on other platforms where people can support me. Don't worry, I can live of money I saved for a bit and I will also be able to pay my eventual legal fees once it comes to that point in time. I only had to pay my lawyer once in advance and the rest will be paid once this whole case is over - Which will then hopefully be when I'm fully back on working on the game again. I'm gonna be honest people, I'm trying my best to stay positive but things are looking pretty bad for me, at least in my head. I know that patience is the key to this shit, especially since I personally can't change anything about it right now, but the possibility that this is going to take what... maybe 8 more months? Is killing me. I have a plan B which means I will try to recreate these characters as good as I can, but that is the absolute last resort I want to fall back to. It would feel awful to do this and it would probably break my heart and kill all the motivation I have left to work on My New Memories, because I know the real characters are still out there...But I should stop thinking in that direction. I'm putting all my hopes and efforts into this request my lawyer is making because there are cases out there where people got copies of the requested files. It was mainly for stuff like tax evasion, where they seized computers and the company needed those essential files to work on their stuff again. So fingers crossed this will work for me as well. Still, I want to thank all of you people for your amazing support and positive comments I got under my last post. I'm always trying to be as transparent as possible and I can guarantee you that I'm not trying to fish for sympathy or anything. I just want to keep you guys updated on whatever is happening and since there is not that much to share, I usually resort to... Well, not saying anything. I will try to make these updates at least monthly, even when there arent really news. I of course still continue to work on the story of Chapter 4 and I'd say I'm about 1/3th done with the full script. So It's not like I'm not doing anything, but writing is currently the only thing I can do. I expect that the script will be fully done this month and then... Well, you know what I will do in february. After that it's just a very painful waiting game, I guess. In the meantime, have a render of Bethany!