A year of hiatus, huh?

Well, that was quick.

Scarily quick.

Is there even a point to recap what was going on for the past 3 months?

It's been hell.

16 weeks of literal hell.

I am lucky to be even back out here, it does not feel real.

But it is real.

Why?

Why does this not feel real?

WHY DOES THIS NOT FEEL REAL?

wait, this thing's recording? Oh- sorry.

Hi! Sorry for my sudden arrival back! Didn't except to be back so soon myself, but I guess the stars have aligned, haven't they?

...It's a pretty long story that I personally do not want to talk about, cos whenever I do, I am actually starting to suffer from post-traumatic episodes. It's not good.

But now that I am at some keyboard, I might as well lay out what I have got planned for 2024!

So, I have been traumatised, and I genuinely do not wanna discuss the shit I experienced, so let's start off with something lighthearted.
I finally got the Steam Deck. I know, I am fashionably late. It kind of should not be too surprising, but come on.

This can mean the following:

1. Now that I got the Steam Deck, I actually got a Linux machine that I can develop and test the native Linux version of the game on! An actual machine, not a virtual one!

2. Technically it's my second computer, and it's the one I can actually carry with me and continue developing Stramedia on. No more interruptions!

3. It is the final component that I need for this game's development to continue on, and also the final component I have got to initiate a certain escape plan I can finally elaborate on in this year's first entry!

Though, I gotta get accustomed to how I am gonna use the Steam Deck as an alternative work station for this project and other things in the future, but so far, I can tell that the Steam Deck is absolutely going to be an excellent way to play the game! And I will be putting lots of work to ensure it can be the best fit for the system (seriously, it doubles down as a regular Linux version testing thingamajig, so I definitely see that as a win-win)!

And it's well timed too, cos I ended up getting into some tiny mishap with the legal documents behind the scenes that would allow me to... actually go back and do my things without any more serious interruptions, and I was originally going to be departing to another city where my main workstation is at, so - I definitely got plenty of time to toy around with this thing Valve made!

Previously on Indie DB and Steam, I've mentioned that I was going to make big changes as to how I am going to develop this project, and - while I have decided to stick to the original plans, but also making more and expanding upon them - I still can't quite share many details just yet (most of them, if not all, are pretty secrety stuff!~).

But for the sake of transparency, I have been wanting to go about rearranging how Stramedia's architecture is set.

I will admit: I really like the current state of the game from the technical standpoint - but the way I have all that set up is kindaaa gross? Or at least it's set up in such a way that it would be pretty inconvenient for me to develop certain cool features I wish to include in the game.

So, a grand portion of it is gonna be reworked from scratch again, and I can estimate that whenever I start doing that, it shouldn't take insanely long: I already got plenty of cool stuff I can reuse, but it would be extra dandy if I just set up the way the game is structured, so I can develop and update it more efficiently with little to no nuisances.

So, what that extra stuff could be, anyway, you might wonder? A nice game mode system? 2-player co-op? Modding support?

It could be about some of it! Hell, if I do restructure the game, I might be able to allow for even more crazier stuff! But of course, there's going to be more stuff getting in the way...

...Yeah. Been a long time coming, hasn't it?

I will be starting work on the game's Kickstarter campaign, and it will start as soon as I finish the demo and made sure it's polished enough for presentation! Can't exactly tell when, mainly due to the fact that I really don't wanna jinx myself by starting it at an incredibly terrible time, but whatever the case, I am gonna ask you to keep an eye out on Indie DB, Steam, Game Jolt, Twitter, Mastodon and BlueSky for updates on that.

But yeah - I am personally looking forward to this myself, but the reasoning behind that is far from being pleasant.

In all honesty, I would have been fine continuing developing this game without having to start a Kickstarter campaign: while it is a hobby project - but more or less, a passion project, too! - I got a job paying decently enough to keep doing what I am doing.

But considering where I live right now, as previously addressed on Indie DB as well, it's becoming increasingly more dangerous for me to remain here any longer.

So, the Kickstarter is more or less not gonna be just for a game.

After all, a game cannot be finished, if it's creator is either detained or dead.