I wanted to start this by talking about actual game progress. A few minor things have been tweaked, but for the most part development is pretty slow as Squeaks has been putting priority on a teaser game for upcoming Shipwrecked 64 content. (Which is perfectly fine! It's great to take a break and look at something else every now and then. Great game by the way, check it out on steam!)
So CPWR has taken a backseat for a short period of time, but we should be back on it more soon. I promise it's not going anywhere.

Though that does bring me to the personal section of this:
Recently more things have been happening behind the scenes regarding the previous co-dev of this game, and some EXTREMELY personal matters she's been lying about in her own public spaces to try and defame me.
This isn't really what I want to make the subject matter about though. (If you want to talk to me about that, I recommend reaching out through Twitter or Discord if you already have me added), but rather the effect its had on me and my view of the game.
Incidentally, this is the same ongoing events that have effected me since this situation started five months ago.

When you have such heavy negative associations with a game, it makes you feel distant from it, and it hurts you so much to see something you love feel like a bad memory.
This is why the game started being rebuilt nearly from the group up by me and my friends, because I want to actively detach that memory from the old co-dev and her actions. Though this is hard when she consistently calls a game with characters and stories that aren't hers "her baby", talks about how she was supposedly forced into working on the game (despite holding the threat to quit over my head multiple times), and generally just having the lingering feeling of dread over my head even still because my name cannot be kept out of someone's mouth.

People actually used to not want to play it all together because they considered it a "Steak game", which I remember always felt really invalidating to all of my work on it, let alone the owner of it. Maybe I still feel like I'm living in a shadow, just a different kind now.

In my heart its not her game, its never been her game. I know this, I know people who care will listen to the other side instead of believing claims without proof, but its still hard knowing that there are people out there who seemingly despise me just because someone told them to.
(And because I know some of you still read my accounts - I don't fully blame you. You can come to me at any time.)

Regardless, its a struggle for me. I love my characters so so much, I've had most since 2018 and some even before that. I love this game, I love this story, I love working with my current friends on it too. But at the moment there's a pretty heavy pit in my heart that makes it hard to fully commit because of everything I've mentioned and more. (Though I really don't want to go into detail on some of her false accusations here. As I've mentioned above, a lot of what's been talked about is extremely personal, including recent developments.)

Like I said, the game isn't going anywhere. I still very much want to complete it and look forward to it, you can all typically see how excited I am to share news about it and even just talk with the fans. (Which I love every single one of you for the record. Thank you for sticking around, even through this.) But I guess you could just consider this an overly rambling vent about my current hardships. So, apologies for ventposting I suppose.
I'm sorry too if it comes off as more of an excuse, I just try to put genuine feelings over more corporate speak, or being entirely silent for months on end.

Things are just rough right now. But I look forward to getting back to work soon, hopefully.

-Rose