December 9 Update (Patreon)
Content
TLS 0.72.1 is out and apparently stable, so there should be no trouble with the public release. A less rushed schedule means extra thinking time, so it's time to contemplate the future and ramble. Posting the weekly update early because I'm trying to get my head on straight.
While I'm excited to conclude TLS from a creative perspective, I admit to some anxiety from a business perspective. In an ideal world, I'd have a 100% clear plan for the next stage, a new game to present everyone and hopefully keep supporters interested. Instead, I find myself barreling toward a period of greater uncertainty.
I've mentioned on a few occasions that I'd like to do a long science fiction saga, a spiritual success to TLS in terms of scope, management, and decision-making. I have tons of ideas for characters/setting/lore, but I'm still stuck on fundamental questions of engine/mechanics. Long term patrons will remember me discussing this in the past - bad news, I'm still churning on those questions!
But as I've also said, I don't want to launch directly from one multi-year project to another (plus there will be a stage of revision/improvement on TLS). For that reason I want to have a period of time to finish up other, relatively smaller projects. Unfortunately, I'm kind of floundering on those too.
Let's look at some potential things I might do:
- Don't Save the Princess: This long-suffering project is still waiting on the artist to finish primary art. There have been some fun programming developments behind the scenes. Maybe a good Kickstarter trial before bigger projects? But it would need to come at a logical point in my work cycle, and I don't feel like it now.
- Crimson Gray: Yandere Maker: Some of you may remember this experimental project I posted about before setting it aside to focus on TLS. Still feel passionate about some of the ideas for this one, but the fractured audience for Crimson Gray undermines my motivation.
- Waltz of Fiends: I don't believe I've ever mentioned this one, because it's a weird non-project. Some time ago an artist contacted me about potentially working together in the future on an erotic horror game, but we agreed we both should conclude other work first. He's been AWOL for a while... is he gone for good, or will he suddenly show up wanting to do a lot of work? It's an erotic mystery!
- Slave Rehabilitator: A tongue-in-cheek wholesome reverse-corruption game. One of my ideas for a high production value (animation!) game that tries to integrate sex with gameplay in a different way than the usual. I think it'd be worth exploring and it would take less of my time than other projects, but it'd be a big monetary investment.
- Once Ever After 2: I'm deeply excited about my ideas for this, but could I actually get Crescentia for art and would it make financial sense? This one is pure idea/aspiration right now.
It might sound like I'm doing too much, but the fact is usually I'm doing nothing (aside from TLS and writing). Committing to any one of these would mean locking in a lot of time/resources/energy, and right now I'm blobfishing around too much to be confident in a decision.
Writing-wise, the agent rejection was a real blow. I'm not very passionate about doing much here except keeping up with ongoing projects (The Weirkey Chronicles, Depthless Hunger). I've always wanted to write a standalone science fiction novel, and I had it penciled in as a secondary objective during a quiet period, but I don't know if I have the energy for it.
As a counter-balance to the above: overall my life is great. I'm in a strong position to keep creating for the rest of my life and I anticipate some very happy posts next year as TLS concludes. Lots of fun things in store, some expected and some not. ^-^
But the problem with being me is that after I start living the dream, I feel the drive to optimize the dream. Life is finite and there are so many things I want to do, yet I can't possibly do them all. I want to keep building in a logical way so that each project opens up new paths and sometimes it's very difficult to gauge which would be more beneficial.
So those are my thoughts, hopefully they're interesting. There are a ton of things cooking in my head, but not so many cooking in my actual work schedule. In theory that needs to change at some point before the conclusion of TLS, but I don't know when my brain will cooperate.
Thanks to everyone for giving me this career and supporting me this far. ^-^