Update 6 Progress and Other Stuff

Hello everybody!

I hope you all had a great New Years and that your 2021 will be amazing. There's a few things that I want to talk to you all about today, so let's get into it.

Update 6

Just a quick progress report on Update 6 - It's done, yay!

I'm just doing testing and some programming changes, then it should be ready to go out to beta testers (hopefully Monday or Tuesday).

Beta Testers

Speaking of beta testers, I'm going to need a few! I'll be sending out the game on Monday or Tuesday and will need feedback within a week. Beta testers are not required to play EVERY single bit of the game, but the more you play, the more likely we'll find all the bugs. In the past, I've sent out Android and Mac versions of the game to beta testers, but this time I'm only going to do the PC version. If you're one of my Mac users, I apologize. There will be a Mac version of the release, but with my internet speeds, I have a hard time uploading 3 versions of the game multiple times. 

If you're interested in beta testing for me just send me a DM or message me on Discord and let me know that you are interested and will have time to beta test. If you've beta tested for me in the past, just let me know that you'd like to beta test again. I appreciate all the help you give me in making the game as good as I can make it.

January Patreon Schedule

Here is a little preview of what I have planned to post in January. You might notice that the polls are missing from Tuesday. I've honestly just run out of things to poll about for now. Doesn't mean that there won't be any, I just don't have any planned at the moment. I've also thought about cutting back on the amount I post - maybe doing bonus renders all together at the beginning of the month. Let me know what you think about that.

Goals

So, it's a new year and everybody is thinking about goals and resolutions right now. I wanted to make a small list of short and long term goals for myself, both game and life related: 

Short Term

• Add music to the game - This has been a big thing for me. I want there to be music, but it's such a large project at this point that I just haven't had the time to sit and listen and pick out the right tracks for the right scenes and put it all together. I will very soon though. 
• Get a new video card - I really need one. I've started playing around more with lighting and doing more complex scenes recently, and my video card is really struggling. I plan on getting a new one (hopefully a 3070-ti) when they're available in a month or two. I'll have to save up some money for it, and probably use the stimulus check that I guess is coming soon.

Long Term

• Continue releasing regular updates - I'm going to put this here, but this is really kind of a given for me. There's no way that I'm going to stop making the game, unless there is a very serious change in my life. I'm likely not going to finish the game this year, but I expect to release a lot more content.
• Take better care of my mental health - This is probably a big one for me, and one of the more difficult ones for me to do. Everybody says "take a break, take a break", but I feel the best when I'm working. When I take breaks, I feel lazy, unproductive, useless. That's a problem with me, I know. I need to do a better job of not taking things so personally, not associating my self-worth with the content I produce, and not judging myself so harshly. I'm really going to try to do this, along with meditation this year. 
• Create a better work space - This is something I really need to work on. Right now, I'm working at a messy desk in the middle of a cluttered living room. I really need a better place to work - something more comfortable and with a more productive layout. I bought a new monitor (thanks to you amazing people), which should be coming in the mail very soon. That'll help a lot, but I also need to clean up the desk area and possibly move some things around so that I have a little more privacy and can concentrate on my work easier, without constant interruptions and distractions. 

Conclusion

I guess that's pretty much it. 2020 has been awful in many ways, but in some ways, it was actually really good for me. Making this game has made me feel better than any project that I've worked on in recent years. I feel proud of it, I feel fulfilled by it, and I get more pleasure out of making it than anything else that I'm doing right now. I'm so happy that I decided to start making it. 

I'm also extremely grateful to all of my supporters. You have no idea what you all mean to me, and how good it makes me feel to know that you are there, reading the nonsense I write and playing the game that I work so hard on. 

Love you all.