Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

I want to get something out of way right now before the start of the next year, 2017. For the next few months or so, I’m going to stop giving out weekly updates to my game for two main reasons being:

1. My last semester of college before graduating starts this January and I still have a lot of projects and an entire thesis requirement that I need to get done by May. I really do not like academic life and am not particularly excited with getting my Computer Science degree but I still find it important that I get this stuff out of the way with as little hindrance as possible.

2. Over the past few months, I’ve slowly come to realize that developing games isn’t actually my biggest creative passion in life. I thought it was, but I discovered this year that working on games was not the biggest thing I was excited about everyday for. On January 2015, aside from starting work on my first ever non-university game project, (This Is My Planet), I also decided to buy my first sketchbook to draw random stuff on because I’ve always been hung up on not being able to draw well in my childhood. Working on my first game was tough but so was getting a handle on how to draw properly. Eventually, the more I practiced, the better I got both in game design and in drawing and I’ve also learned a bit of electronic music production so I could make my own music. On August 2016, out of desire to push my drawing practice further, I decided to make it a daily habit (no excuses) and also make it a lifetime commitment and just see where it will take me. As of today, I still have not missed a single day and I feel proud for each artwork I make no matter how bad or derivative it is. That’s ultimately why I have never given up the habit. If you’ve seen me in the GJ forums recently, it was likely to post a drawing I think was worth posting. As for my game work… well. . . it mostly feels like just work. Sure, I sometimes feel proud of designing a big level or coding the behavior of an obstacle but it feels tedious most of the time. Nowadays, I only work on KzzzZZZzzT! when I have the free time whereas I’m happy to still spend an hour or two drawing something even when I have a really busy schedule for the day. I just have that inherent drive for it.

So what’s this mean for KzzzZZZzzT!?

1. I will still continue to work on my game! In many ways, I regret having started this project in the first place (because it has taken up so much of my time that I wish I could have spent elsewhere) but on the other hand I also have great passion for finishing this project and the potential it has to impress and entertain my friends and whoever encounters it on GameJolt. This is a huge creative project, especially for a single developer. The decisions I have been making on the challenges and experiences that the player faces have so much care, detail, and dare I say… passion/love put into them that players will have no doubt in their mind that I, as a developer, cared a lot about this project.

2. Expect to only receive a Devlog Update when I feel like it, rather than on a weekly basis. Making these updates on a weekly basis basically pressures me to have a certain standard for the amount of progress and effort I put in it on a single week. Combine that with all the other stuff going on in my life, my daily drawing habit, my university work, even my daily meditation habit, and I just have a recipe for overworking and stress, It ain’t healthy for my life.

3. Expect to have a delayed release. I originally expected this game to be released by mid-2017, now it seems that that’s going to be highly unlikely especially since I am expected to graduate by that time. I really need to focus on graduating first before I focus mainly on working on this game. It’s going to take a while, if you happen to be interested in playing this game soon, please be patient and bear with me. I am but a petty human cursed with physical limitations.

That’s it, if you read this entire thing, I sincerely give thanks for you spending the time to do so. All I ask is for your sense of understanding.

I want to end this message by asking that you check out my Deviantart page where I post most of my drawings. In my practice, I usually like to draw cartoons and comics but sometimes I practice with realistic stuff too like Still Life drawings and occasionally pixel art. Below, I’ve handpicked some of my favorite works I made this 2016 (excluding the comics, you can check them out at my DA).

Note that I sometimes write the date of the drawing on the top-left corner of the page.

I hope you have a Happy New Year and on-wards to 2017!