I am really sorry for keeping you folks in the dark for this long. Honestly, Ive been wanting to get this out by the New Years Eve, then at least sometime in January, then... other things happened. Some still are ongoing, and due to several factors I had to redo this whole devlog from scratch. It kind of sucks, but at this point its been becoming kind of a status quo, for better or, ultimately, worse.
Kinda? But honestly, throughout 2024 its been more like seriously trying to get back to working on it kind of work, but if you werent paying attention to the previous devlogs from last year, or simply forgot I honestly wouldnt blame you, especially since its been taking me a good while to push another one out, Ive still been mostly trying to focus on recovering from... being in a very unfortunate position, to put it lightly, and I also ended up having to joggle around real life stuff, like my nothingburger of a job and my pet passing away, one of my family members feeling very poorly health wise, so I didnt have much time and energy to spare for significant game development progress. Addendum to one of the bits from previous devlogs referring to my boss suggesting a different workflow that could have gotten me more time to work on the game: it didnt work out. Because of me often having to wait for a certain somebody to give me one more task or give me an OK to leave early, and its been often taking that WAY later into the shift, it just threw me back to square one, I resorted into buying a laptop to try stealth-work on whatever I got going. In addition to joggling game dev shit around with recovering from a rather traumatic experience and my job, I wound up going through a post-traumatic mental breakdown at work at a sight of a coworkers induction physical notice I was supposed to forward a photo copy of through email. Stramedia could have actually gotten canceled if I were to go through more of these similar episodes as Id try to work on the game more, so... that had to be put aside for a while, so I immediately began work on something else. [previewyoutube=93IS60pXB_w;full][/previewyoutube] Though, its become more of an experiment for what I would like this game to be like, so, while I am still not certain how things are gonna go whenever itll still end up as a standalone, entirely separate thing or somehow gets integrated into Stramedia as a secondary campaign I will spare any other details for now, because I dont want to oversell things nor make any more promises until I make a more formal announcement. This year, I am gonna try to see if I can actually get back to working on Stramedia, even if it will mostly mean doing smaller things like preparing a concrete game design document, an eligible to-do list that I at least wont forget about, like, 3 months later, concept art/blueprints and so on and so forth. The lack of those things have also contributed to last years progress being slow, because while trying to get back to it with a half-functioning brain, I was completely lost without em. I literally had no idea what to do. Guess the consequences of having a bad habit of keeping things just in my brain have caught up to me, and its my responsibility to fix it. And Ive actually been getting into that while Ive been moving over to Linux as my primary go-to daily driver operating system. Ive been able to switch to different software since some of them arent inherently supported on Linux, I got some stuff working fine through Wine/Bottles, and basically other stuff Ive been using for Stramedia already had native Linux versions so I had nothing much to lose, but getting Unity to work on something that isnt explicitly Ubuntu was more of a headache until I decided to hit up the Arch Linux wiki and... a solution to my issue was listed there. And its funny, cos I dont even use Arch (if we dont count me often gaming on a Steam Deck, with SteamOS being Arch based, btw) they might as well call that wiki an Everything Linux Related Encyclopedia at this point, cos it wasnt the first time Id look it up for a Linux-related problem solution. And that time I didnt even need to use the terminal, so all I had to do was pull up a text editor and do what I had to do. But while I am mostly happy with the state Ive gotten to, all that Linux stuff is beside the point of the devlog. Chances are that Ill be talking about that separately, either as a personal blog or some silly YouTube video. I havent decided, still.
A series of Unity related fiascoes and similar BS has given me an aneurysm so painful enough, I just had to start exploring Godot as an expansion to my game development toolkit. Not just simply reading the documentation stuff, but actually going as far as dicking around in the editor and messing with its API. So far, I am loving it. While I am still learning it, I can easily see myself using it for my future stuff! Including Construct 3 - I am actually using Construct for something else, too, now that its within possibilities of my love partner and Patreon supporters.
...But now I am not sure if I really want to switch engines again because of all that nonsense, normally this is considered a bad idea to migrate engines mid-project, which is fair enough, but I at least know that no matter what happens, I will probably be using different stuff for the future... stuff... of mine. Cant really focus on that yet, though, I am still going to be sorting out plans for the game and rebuilding the work pipeline amid several changes, in both terms of software and the flow of things. And also gotta make sure I dont burn myself out while I am at it. One thing I know for certain is that things are gonna be drastically different, regardless of whenever the game stays 2.5D/semi-3D or not depending on what engine Ill pick, if I dont stay with Unity. I definitely feel like I got a proper story in mind to tell, but... noticing a recent trend amongst some recent games becoming somewhat... samey and monotone? I will figure out how Id want to spice things up. But in all seriousness I am very indecisive, but Godot genuinely looks pretty exciting to work with as I am continuously figuring things out!
Long story short, 2024 just wasnt a good year for productivity, and several unrelated factors just werent helping in the slightest, so Stramedias development has been staggering for a while (also accounting for a small factoid that Ive never been able to work on this thing full time since Day 1, so... yeh). This year, I am really hoping I can change that by first rebuilding the work pipeline and preparing more concrete plans for the game. Dunno if I wanna stick with my current engine or not, but after I sort out the pipeline and plans first, I will see. I am still kind of indecisive, but Godot is seriously looking exciting more and more. So, for a while, you probably wont be seeing longer public posts like this, but whenever I feel like sharing something, I would post bite-sized things on either my personal BlueSky and Mastodon accounts or on my games BlueSky and Mastodon profiles. Whatevers more convenient. In either cases, Ill be boosting/reposting my posts from either ends. And heres another thing I wanna take a second with, though - if you are 18+ and are capable of making financial decisions responsibly and can create your own PayPal account, feel free to click on this tempting "Show Details" prompt. [expand type=details] haha you activated my trap card-- Basically this is a reminder that I also have a Patreon! ...I know, Im shilling, but I really dont wanna do this very often. Besides, theres not really a need to send me anything here if you dont want to, and its perfectly fine! Ill still occasionally share updates publicly every once in a full moon, and I also actually would rather that you dont engage with it if youre not 18+ and arent capable of making financial decisions responsibly: as its more of a personal Patreon, I have to put out a warning that I tend to mix things up with fetish pornography. Yknow, something that no child should ever see under any circumstances. While that stuffs separated in specific tiers, making that junk entirely optional to opt-into, its still something you should at least be wary of, other than Stramedia being a game thats definitely gonna feature mature content (even if it isnt that crazy, though at most itll still get the game an M17+ rating). Otherwise, Ive started posting updates on there more frequently, even if some of those are more like ramblings of a madman. But, again, you dont have to subscribe to my Patreon if you dont want to! Its perfectly fine, besides, Ill still occasionally share public updates here and there and... there. But if you were to spare even at least a dollar for whatever, it would honestly mean a lot to me and help in several ways you wont be able to imagine! ...And it also would help me stop relying on furry vore porn so much just to keep this boat afloat. Having to do it more than what Im really passionate about makes it even more boring, if I am being honest. But I guess its my own fault, huh? LOL [/expand] Anyway, I feel like this time I could actually pick up work on this thing again, and while I am cautiously optimistic about things actually turning out the way Id want them to, I still have got to hang onto the steering wheel and not crash and...die. Gruesomely. Thanks for sticking by, as always! And Ill see you whenever!