Heya friendos! It’s a small one today: just some updates on what I’ve been playing, listening and working on. We’ll touch briefly on motivation and end with a motivational message as well.

How Am I Doing?

I’m feeling great! The past few weeks have been a bit slow going, but since this week I’ve gotten a spurt of motivation and energy once again. I’ve rested quite a bit and I’m ready to get cracking. There’s something about a shift in focus that allows me to get back to a main project refreshed.

I’ve played a bunch of Slime Rancher, a charming but extremely grindy game that’s not supposed to be my jam, but kind of is right now anyway. It’s not the type of game I’m interested in making or analyzing, so perhaps that’s exactly the reason I latched onto it so hard. The game does exactly what it says on the tin, you capture and breed slimes on a little farm.

It’s one of those games with a super tight loop: you go out and explore a little further each time and come back to your cozy little house to feed your pets, sell your stuff, sweep the floor, and do other familiar chores. At first I thought I quickly saw all the game had to offer, but at some point you unlock a bunch of surprises. I can understand if people duck out before that point though, so there’s an argument to make about the game’s pacing.

I’ve also been listening to some fantastic music in the album ‘Stilleven met Dierentemmer’ by Het Universumpje. It’s quite rare that I’m enamored with Dutch music to this extent. If you’re into weird, heavy rock I highly recommend it and if you understand Dutch I would even recommend listening past the genre if it’s not your thing, solely for the lyrical content.

What Am I Doing?

My low-energy bout the past few weeks threw a wrench in my planning, so everything has shifted a month. I was initially planning to release the first “full” build of Rumorweaver this month to some playtesters, but I’m pretty sure I won’t make that anymore. Especially since I’m also going to the home country for the holidays.

Luckily, I’ve built the game in such a way that the features are mostly modular. I can skip some non-essential features like the search mechanic, NPC patience, and gifting and the game stays more or less intact. I’m also finished with most of the cinematic and gameplay features, so all that’s left is implementing story sequences and scenes.

After that, I need to do some small quality-of-life improvements to make it playtest-worthy. At that point the demo should be playable front to back! I’m already excited to try it.

Why Am I Doing? (this)

I always get asked New Year’s resolutions around this time of year. Usually, my goal each year is to not have any! Because even though this might be the time to look back on your year and reflect, I’m trying to do that constantly throughout the year anyway.

I’m constantly trying to live my life the way I envision it, so that at the end of the year, I can just say: keep doing what you’re doing! And I wish the same for all of you.