#8th anniversary though goddamn

[feartheoldblog]

happy 8th bloodborg-versary

[nomaxart]

Happy Birthday, Conway!

Happy 1st Birthday to Conway!

Yep! It is the 1 year anniversary of the release of version 0.01 (or whatever the versions were called back then) Let's have a talk, shall we? February 8th is when I uploaded and released it on itch. Why February 8th you may ask? Well, I had only planned January as an experimental month for myself, with the oil painting and the VN test. So I'd release it on february 1st... And then it, naturally, took longer. But I guess it works out so that we don't have the anniversary right on update release days.

The past 

And yeah, what a year it's been! Thank you to all of you first of all for making this possible. Quite simply it wouldn't be possible without the support of all you generous peeps here. As it turns out, developing a game is a fuckton of work, and if I would need to pay the bills through commission work or what have you there would be no way I'd find the time and energy to work on Conway on the side. And I've mentioned it before in a few places, but for a while around May, June-ish it did look really dicey. The first half of the year I was bleeding about 500-700 bucks a month of my savings. The game didn't really pick up and a good amount of my walks were spent contemplating just when I'd have to see a sign before pulling the plug. End of June? Maybe it's worth to stretch it to July? At the lowest point, we were about a month away from pulling the plug on Conway. But right around that time, the trend in people subbing here started to pick up. While it's only in the past month or two that I've reached the point where I'm not actively bleeding money each month, the trend was the bit I needed to see that maybe people are interested after all!

The present

I've attached the itch stats of the past year. So those of you who would like to have a peek can do so. As you can see, Update 10 was a massive success at least in terms of numbers for the game. Update 9 was already the first one to break the record for downloads that the release day set, but Update 10 got picked up by the algorithms and sat in the most popular furry games for a while. Soooo, yeah, quite chuffed with that spike! We'll see what the long-term effects are, but for now I just enjoy the aesthetic of -BIG SPIKE-. And yeah, the game as a whole is just sitting in a good spot. We've had about 12k downloads in total, around 80k page visits, and a rating of 4.8/5 with 127 ratings (which btw, easy way to help, is to leave a juicy 5* rating on itch. Does wonders for the placement of the game in the different categories on the site, plus it gives me a fuzzy feeling in my tum tum.) It's also been such a joy to see that all characters end up having their share of fans judging by comments and that nobody is left in the dry. Of course, some of them have a bit of an easier time, like Samuel and Julian being the more sociable lot they are, and just the screen time they've had so far. While others like Raj or Arthur are slower burns and even they get some mentions as the favorites of some people, and that just makes me chuffed. Naturally, they're designed to cover different interests and preferences, but I'm always nervous if the characters are good, resonate with people and hope that they can be fun to be around. So any time someone mentions a character it just makes me so goddamn giddy. Some of them will be difficult to handle with grace, and I'm not perfect, so I'm sure for at least one of the main cast what I've planned will fall flat, or I mess it up in some fashion. But fuck it, I'll try. Not everything has been peaches and roses recently though, so I have to admit Updates 10 and 11 have been/are a bit of a struggle. I just messed up planning for my support writers, and it's been more or less just me handling everything for both updates 10 and 11. That's why art has been a bit sparse... Because most of my time is just taken up doing writing duty, and I'm not the fastest writer, unfortunately. Like, at this point, with the game having all the branches and 125k in total word count, the story for the characters and how they've interacted on the two initial days. It makes it a bit more difficult to actually get people on board in a timely manner. I can't just go and say, "Hey, write me a scene where this character and that character are involved, and they do that." Since a new writer knows absolutely zero about all the stuff that's been there before, all the stuff that's planned for the characters and all that jazz. So if one support writer is busy or just has writing block or whatever, it may be, my solution so far has just been going, "Well, shit." :') Not the fault of my writing buddies, of course. They've been absolutely invaluable and I can't offer nearly enough to expect to be the highest priority for them. I'm just happy they want to help out AT ALL for what I can pay them in return. I should have planned contingencies but didn't. Simple as that. So, I've made the decision to bring on another writer in Televassi, and also want to hopefully integrate Robert Baird more again going forward. With more of them willing to help out I will be able to assign things to people as they're available. Which hopefully will avoid me having to do whole updates on my own and take the pressure off of wonderful peeps like Rubric. So yeah, I learned my lesson there, but since it just takes time for people to get familiar with the Conway world and characters, it ended up with me being a bit swamped with EVERYTHING for Updates 10 and 11.

The future

Speaking of what's planned, then? Update 10 closes out day 2, and Update 11 starts after our first time skip. I don't know if you've ever looked at how slow these ships were, but if we ever want to make it to Cape Town, then we'll need those time skips. Not only that, but it also allows for characters to just develop in the meantime, and also their relationship towards the player character. While Characters like Nomax and Julian ended up having some raunchy scenes right away, it wouldn't exactly fit to have others throw themselves at you on day 2. So skipping ahead just keeps things moving, keeps things interesting because we can focus on specific parts more, and just show the development of characters at a more natural pace.

So the next sections are this first post-time skip section that subbed patrons already get a taste of in the WIP update, and then next up on the itinerary will be Morocco. Both sections I'm really stoked about! And I hope you are too. :)

Stretch goals? Patreon did away with them a while back, but we'll just make our own stretch goals, with blackjack and hookers. Just instead of blackjack and hookers, how about we talk Animations?! Hell yeah! I'm no animator, and it's not really a discipline I particularly enjoy either from the times I tried. So, since Patreon is currently about break-even, we can start thinking ahead a little, and I think the first point I want to tackle is some simple animations. Stuff like moving tails, ears, and eyes. Stuff like that.

So how about that, we're currently floating at around 1250 USD a month, and if we're crossing the 1500 USD mark, I'll be holding out my feelers to get these small animations into the game. If you like to contribute to making animations possible, consider supporting the Patreon over here: https://www.patreon.com/Nomax

Possibly animations, an exciting new section of the story, some more v2 character art, some more maritime menagerie characters. Sounds good for a year 2 plan?

I certainly hope so and hope that you all will be along for the ride, as it's been an absolute blast, and I can't thank you enough for making it possible. I just want this thing to be the best it can be for all of you. :)

[wickedsingularity]

Six Christmases Advent Calendar 2023 [December 9th]

Six Christmases Advent Calendar 2023 Masterlist

Summary: They had their first date on Christmas Day five years ago, and this year they’re planning something special to celebrate the anniversary. We get to know them as they prepare for Christmas and the anniversary, but something doesn’t go to plan.

Pairings/characters: Sam Wilson x reader (but not really) Warnings: Mild language Words: 276

Note: This story is supposed to be in 5 parts and it's already December 9th and we're at 2304 words total and only partly through the second part. This is gonna be a monster 😅

For @iguess-theyre-mymess

Their kitchen wasn't large and it got messy very quickly. But they were having fun together, and Sam made sure it didn't get too messy. They had the radio on, but no Christmas music. It was enough of that everywhere else, so they were listening to some local band from New Orleans. Apparently, the singer was a distant relative of his. Slow, soft and comfortable, but occasionally a fast beat made them dance a little. Sam even sang along with the music now and then, their dog joining in sometimes.

Evelyn was using a small spoon to press lightly down on the dozen carefully rolled balls on the sheet pan in front of her. Sam was stirring a couple of jars of different flavours jam, getting ready to dollop some onto the thumbprint cookies.

"Oh, I just remembered!" Evelyn exclaimed, dumping the spoon into a dirty mixing bowl in the sink. "The restaurant finally confirmed our reservation today."

Sam scooped up a generous amount of raspberry jam and dropped it onto one of the cookies. "About goddamn time. How long has been since I first called them?" He looked at Evelyn as she leaned her back against the sink.

"A couple of months, I think." She shook her head. "It's going to be worth it though."

This Christmas Day would be the fifth anniversary of their first date. There was this fancy and ridiculously expensive restaurant they'd always wanted to go to, so they decided they would treat themselves this anniversary.

"I fucking hope so," he said. The last cookie was filled, and Evelyn put the pan into the oven while Sam put the jam away.

December 8th | Masterlist | December 10th

[thirdmagic]

with all my hype though. i know there is nothing more old hat than complaining about pseudo-servants in the year (checks) 2023, when the game is coming up on its 8th anniversary and waver has been there from the start, but goddamn i wish rasputin could have just been a regular servant as himself and kirei could just be kirei.

[brodorokihousuke]

April 2022 Ace Attorney Events

This month is goddamn awful every time things happen in it. 6 people die in total lmao... not entirely sure how that stacks up to other months though

As always, this post will contain SPOILERS. This one contains them for:

Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Also note that this post concerns only titles with an English release, so GK2 dates will not be present.  All information is taken from the Ace Attorney Wiki’s timeline. I will also assume DGS takes place around 1900 and will use that year as a benchmark.

Heere we go

~122 year anniversary of (~1900):

April 1st: On his well-deserved trip back to Japan, Natsume Soseki sends a telegram back to Ryuunosuke and Susato. April 8th: Sholmes demonstrates his amazing intellectual skills by picking up the entirely wrong instrument from a pawn shop, and mopes like a child because of his own wrongdoings. April 16-17th: Pop Windibank, the owner of the aforementioned pawn shop, is uncerimoniously killed, while Sholmes is injured. Gina Lestrade is put on trial, and Ryuunosuke publicly leaks government information. April 18th: Susato runs back off to Japan, leaving Ryuunosuke to deal with Sholmes & co. all on his own.

7 year anniversary of (2015):

April 9th: Dahlia Hawthorne casually murders Doug Swallow. April 11th: Trial of Phoenix Wright for the murder of Doug Swallow, where the defendant somehow swallows a glass necklace full of poison without ill effects...

3 year anniversary of (2019):

April 13th: Magnifi Gramarye commits suicide, while also indirectly framing someone for murder and…. April 19th: …disbarring Phoenix by having his granddaughter hand him some scrap of paper. What an utterly stupid situation

In 4 years (2026):

April 17th: Shadi Enigmar is murdered by Kristoph Gavin because idk, maybe he just felt like it. Good luck getting those black locks unlocked ig April 20th: Trial of Phoenix Wright for Shadi’s murder and Apollo’s debut. Apollo accidentally fires himself.

In 6 years (2028):

April 23rd: Phoenix arrives in Khura'in and Paht Rohl is murdered by Pees'lubn Andistan'dhin, proving that the mere presence of Phoenix causes murders. April 24th: Trial of Ahlbi Ur'gaid for Paht Rohl’s murder, which turns into a musical for a brief second. April 27th: Manov Mistree is unceremoniously murdered by Roger Retinz, because idk screw the Gramaryes & this random dude or whatever. April 28th: Trial of Trucy Wright for Manov Mistree’s murder.

[wishhful-thinkinggg]

Coming up on my best friend’s suicide anniversary in about two weeks

It’ll be two years... she was up in her parent’s attic for a week and no one knew where she went

We were best friends between 4th-8th grade, we truly only had each other. She was clinically diagnosed with anorexia and depression at 11 years old, and a lot of things went downhill

We ended up cutting ourselves and starving ourselves. I know I’m depressed, I’m not diagnosed but I know I am not anorexic. At home I was dealing with a lot of verbal abuse and more issues.

She would always be admitted to in-patient treatment in middle school and it was always scary, I was a kid and I had no idea what any of this meant.

Anyways, at one point in 8th grade it became a lot to handle and I stopped talking to her. Again, I just couldn’t handle the negativity, even though no one could control it.

Between 8th-11th grade, I was bullied, sexually assaulted, and was the butt of every goddamn joke. During that time, she met the local druggie who got her addicted to fucking heroin.

We only “”talked”” once during that period, and it was because we sat at a lunch table together. Shortly after she was admitted into rehab.

I wasn’t the smartest kid but socially and shit with life, I’m pretty smart. I knew high school was literal ass, and it would all end one day. I could imagine us getting back together one day, and we would see each other all the time and drink. I could see ourselves rebuilding our lost friendship.

December 2018 comes around and she makes local news. My memory is foggy, but she was missing before and after her birthday, December 7th. December 9th, they found her in her parent’s attic with a suicide note and a bottle of pills.

I haven’t found a friend like her and I haven’t been friends with any women since we stopped talking in 8th grade. During the first year, my brain couldn’t process she was up there for a week. Last year, I said the 9th was her anniversary and I was yelled at by her “friends” and I had to relive that trauma again.

They said they looked at her autopsy as soon as it was released. Why, why would you care about that? How could you?

I know we weren’t close in the end, but even two years after it happened, I’m still torn. My first tattoo is dedicated to her and I’m living out the style we loved in 2010. I switch my major just because the trauma... I don’t wish that on my worst enemy...

I still feel guilt to this very day, and I’m still torn. I’m trying to live for her but sometimes I understand why she took her life.

Alyssa, I hope you’re safe. I hope you aren’t lonely. I hope you’re there with someone, if anyone at least your dogs. You’ve touched so many people and people are still mourning after you. You are still loved, I fucking miss you every day

[aloneandunreal]

june 7, 20

i contemplating even posting on here because it’s a bit silly now that i think about it. but i’m here now, writing, so i’ve changed my mind i guess. i don’t know how long this will be but everything i write is always pretty long. this is pretty irrelevant but i’m gonna have to pick out a new theme for my tumblr since the one i currently have is very small and doesn’t hold much—especially not these entries.

anyway, a few things have happened the past few days but nothing i want to reflect on. my life is pretty boring at the moment. school ends soon and i have no clue what i’m going to do. it’s nice that school’s ending of course, but at the same time i’m not going to have much to do. plus, i am going into my senior year and college has been worrying me so much. i feel like i have no time to think. it’s hard to explain and i don’t want to go too in-depth but it’s just that i’m scared. first of all, i don’t even know what colleges will accept me. i don’t know if i am good enough. i don’t know if i want to stay in my state for college or go somewhere else. originally i wanted to leave my area, but now it’s kind of terrifying thinking of doing so. i still have to take my SAT since it got cancelled because of corona. i have to look at schools more in-depth now. applying. asking teachers for recommendations. and when/if i do go to college — how am i going to? i am terrible at socialization, genuinely terrified of it. being away from home. and then of course the pressure of college and how hard it’s most likely going to be. can i really do it? the part that really has me scared is the fact that i have social anxiety and hardly know how to cope with it. i can’t do “normal people things” that i’m going to HAVE to do in college. it makes me feel awful and like a baby, why am i like this? i can’t stop worrying about the future, but at the same time i want to be able to “spread my wings” and be independent. going into high school i thought it would be like in the indie movies with the cool kids, you know what i’m talking about. i thought i’d go to parties, have cool friends, maybe have a s/o. but no. it was nothing like that. so maybe college is where that can happen? i mean, i still have my senior year but it will probably be like every other year. everyone says “high school goes so fast!” which i originally would scoff at but it’s does — it really does. and i wish i had been different. yes, i’m scared of college and being independent, but at the same time i kind of want it. maybe then i can actually be myself, live the high school life i always wanted. i know i sound like a naïve teenager but this is just how i feel. i remember i was online friends with this girl when i was around 13, she was 17. she was super sweet and i totally looked up to her. she seemed to have fun in high school and that’s what i wanted. what she had. but i never really got it. sometimes i look back at old high school videos on youtube from the 2000s or early 2010s of seniors on their last day of high school and it makes me sad for some reason. i don’t even know why i brought that up because i don’t think i’m going to elaborate on it but i just felt the need to say it.

for awhile now i’ve been thinking about the past. old friends, the old me, etc. for a long time now i’ve been sad thinking about it—nostalgic, i guess. it’s weird thinking about the person i was 3-4 years ago. how i am so different now. the friends i had. my interests. one specific grade i always go back to is 7th grade. that was during my emo phase. my best friend at the time, who has been an on/off friend my entire life, was such a big part of my life. we were so close. i started talking to her again this year and it’s nice, but it’s different. it will never be the same as it once was. we’re different people now. i miss it sometimes. although 7th grade was a hard year for me, i still miss it. i don’t exactly understand why. that year i went to my first ever concert for this band i really liked at the time —the 4 year anniversary is actually coming up soon, june 11—and i remember being so happy when my mom told me she had gotten tickets. genuine happiness. it was really one of the biggest and best moments of my life. i wish i could go back. every year i seem to reminisce about the year before and i don’t get it. i had a terrible year in 9th grade but sometimes i think back on it and remember the people i knew and the experiences i had. and feel nostalgic—even though it was one of the worst times in my life. i just miss how things used to be when i was 12/13. i glorify that time in my life too much, i know. it really wasn’t the best year for me. i remember specifically saying “this was the worst year of my life” but now i miss it? what is wrong with me? it’s funny thinking that i’m going to graduate next year with kids i grew up with and have history with—and then we may never see each other again. there’s so many people i think about from time to time and want them back—or at least the person they were when i knew them. and jeez, listening to music that i liked in 7th grade? man it makes me sad. especially since that was during my little emo phase. i just miss people who probably never think of me and it’s incredibly dumb. from time to time i just get like this, though. reminisce about the past and get sad about it. i wonder what 12-14 year old me would think about herself now—what she’s like, what her life came to—nothing really. i feel so talentless and boring and just so, so ugly and worthless. i’ve ruined my own life because of my social anxiety and depression and insecurities. i sound like an edgy teenager, i know. i guess i kinda am in a way. i know i have my “whole life ahead of me” but sometimes i don’t really believe that. i wonder what me, in 4-5 years, will think about the person i am NOW. what will the world be like? what will i be like? will i have friends? will i be dating someone?

anyway, i definitely need to end this now because it’s getting so goddamn long. i know nobody is reading this but i still want to stop myself before i get too deep into my feelings. i just wish things were different, i wish i could feel genuine happiness again. i wish i could go back in time and be with those few people i’ve lost touch with again. just one last time. with certain people, i didn’t even know at the time that would be our last genuine conversation. god my life is so sad. i don’t know why i’m like this. i think about the same damn things from the past and get sad about it. i think about the future and am worried. i wish i could just be happy with myself. i wish i could tell 2016 me to enjoy it while it lasts because that’s one of the last good years before everything seems to go downhill. i’m sorry to past me for not being what she wanted. i wish i could’ve be that cool girl, like in the movies. like those girls who smoked cigarettes and took pictures of their thigh gaps and fishnets in 2013-2015. yep, i wanted to be one of those girls. i’m wishing for so much and doing nothing about it.

well that is all. again, this blog is just for me to write my feelings. thanks for reading if you did, but no one did which is fine of course! this is really just for me and maybe my future self to look back on, because i’m sure i’ll be the same nostalgic bitch in 4+ years, wanting a taste of the past. bye for now, i’m sure i will be updating this at some point to write about something else on my mind. ps: it is currently 11;52pm on june 7th, so its almost june 8th, but i’m still going to keep the date as june 7th. okay nobody cares hahaah bye

[carousels-on-fire]

I won’t be able to leave this shit hole town until I’m 30 probably. I’ll be 30, single, probably still fat, but I’ll have a good paying job I guess. But I’ll be 30, and if I move to a town with actual queer people, assuming that I’m not completely repulsive/undateable, just reaching the life milestone of: “being in a relationship long enough to go on a date and tell other people about it” when most of my highschool friends will be celebrating their 6th or 8th wedding anniversaries.  Now if that’s not goddamned depressing I don’t know what is.  The only quicker way to leave this town is to shoot myself in the fucking head so I can leave in a casket. Though I’ll have to leave a note in my will to be buried somewhere fucking else. How ironic, I try to escape and end up staying for all eternity. But then, I did always want my ashes spread where Kurt Cobain’s were, so there’s that.  Eternal rest sounds good, I’m tired and my bones hurt, and my heart hurts, and my soul hurts, If I can’t be loved by the people I want to love me then I’d rather just not exist at all.

[toddmichaelrogers]

928 Days Later

This post originally appeared as an update across various social media for Spell Saga.

~pre Eh, ya’ll know I ramble. I don’t fucking like it when people who are too old use new language as if it’s their fucking language, but there is a tl:dr (god, I had to google that) at the bottom of the page if’n yer only interested in the sweet stuff (shipments, deck 2 & the like). But I like stories, and I am--if not old, getting older, so my stories take a long time to wind up and spill out. Longer than they did when I was a kid, anyhow. And much slower than these new youths and their dang emotiji’s or whatever.

all the kids’ talk in hieroglyphics It’s good for feelings but not specifics

~1 It all comes down to choices, really. I remember when I was younger--I was very newly 20, and barely 13 in most of my head--I remember I was homeless, not like, starving homeless (though sometimes I was) and not like, sleep under a bridge homeless (I had the couches of friends, and their friends, and my barely-met acquaintances, though no one seemed to own an air conditioner that Summer. One dude shall remain nameless, as I’m fairly certain he might be a super bad guy. He was never around anyway so I used to listen to his CD collections and spread my Star Wars figures around his house (13, remember, 13). I remember he had a box set of Joy Division, and I became obsessed with this one really fast version of “Love Will tear us Apart”. I used to listen to that in the Summer heat and walk around the house naked looking for something to eat. It was really years later that I realized I had lost my mind.

I had made the choice to stop taking my meds regularly. And then some other choices, as my mind spiraled without that ketracel-white. After what some would say was an alarming series of ordinarily dysfunctional life, my parents made the choice to kick me out. I have had to make a lot more choices since then.

here is a pic of me from around that time with original french toaster: Paxson of Ashgarden.

~2 Where are your fucking packages?

~3 I know that there are some people who keep in touch with me regularly and have a better idea of what’s been going on. And I also know there are others who backed this project 2 and a half years ago and think it’s dead, or i’ve been trolling everyone with shipping dates.

~4 I was at a restaurant. I was not a customer. I had just spent three days straight and about 30 hours running around mopping up drinks. By Sunday, I’m usually on my third double, and it hurts to stand, or run up the stairs with trays of food. (who puts stairs in a restaurant)? But I was feeling pretty good about myself, having made it through one more death sentence of a weekend. I took the job to pay for Spell Saga when some other stuff fell through (like, uh, all our plans, & people abandoning the project). Each Sunday usually ends with me depositing a wad of cash into an ATM and then passing out on my couch surrounded by boxes of a fantasy card game. It is not a bad life, if not a little embarrassing. Also this particular Sunday it was tornado weather and I got to watch an entire porch of rich people get fucking destroyed. I was soaked and running around collecting plates being thrown on the wind. Inside I sat down next to people my age, and before long it came time to tell them why I was serving them and not doing something with my life, which is what I always do if I like a table. As it came out, these people were super into games, and Kickstarter, and anything I could possibly like. I had a used deck in my car that I grabbed for them and they thanked me and told me I was doing great. It was a real moment for me. What was most important though, was the stories they told me about other crowdfunded projects, and how much keeping backers up-to-date mattered to them.

~5 Most of my choices about Spell Saga have been insane. Whether good, or bad (there have been both) the choices have been the work of a mad man. That goes for game design as well as business wise. I do not apologize for the game, but man I am fucking trying you guys. And you will have all your shit this year. But it’s taking forever and here’s where we’re at now:

In 2016 I made a plan with my main man J Rizzo to fund a shipment of 300 units, so all of you would get your shit before we finished with all the printing (there were delays due to packaging changes and etc).

Also that year, J Rizz* dropped off the face of the earth, as did most everyone involved with the project, due to various reasons. I took a second job or two and funded the shipment myself. They arrived in July of that year.

*J Rizz and I are cool. We had a very long talk recently that lifetime asked if they could film.

here is a pic of me & paxson of ashgarden & his son! (we are cool too)

I started sending packages out almost immediately, but I had to wait on the mail myself (autographed boxes take some damn time). By the end of the year everything was going smoothly and every. Single. Package. was about to go out by December 31st. What a fucking relief that was.

Then I lost two jobs in a month, and so did my wife. That was around the time the comments started to crop up, “where is my shit” and etc. Which I get. I mean, I don’t leave comments like that, but I get why someone would.

I scrambled and pulled together jobs and money and started sending out packages again. But now there was a problem: It was 2017 and we needed to start thinking about our patient, angelic manufacturer. Right now, they are waiting for us to upload the art to print Deck 2 and pay the deposit on it. Panda Games has been amazing with us. And I’m not saying that I’m paying for everything by working a restaurant--I have other sources of income for this project. But I am putting most of my personal funds towards it this month, just to get it finished quickly.

So in the last month I had to make another choice, in a long line of choices, and not send as many packages out. Everyone in the US who pledged over $25 should have their shit. I sent out a few Internationals, but not many. My ever-shifting goal is that by July everyone has their stuff. But again, I’ve lost two jobs before--shit happens. I used to not want to leave ANY updates because I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. I think looking back that was a bad choice. It was probably also a bad choice to air ship any units over here. The cost alone would have covered the printing of Deck 2. But I like all’a you. Even if you leave a mean comment every once in awhile. And I want everyone to have their stuff. Most of my e n t i r e life revolves around it right now.

~6 More choices have been made since the last update. We are printing new packaging for deck 1 and the prelude deck (which means everyone will at least have a fancy zero edition package from those we air-shipped last July--only 301 ever made)! We are also printing deck 2 AND it has it’s very own super-cool holofoil sleeve. But that’s not even the most exciting shit for me.

Cousin Lauren and I are finishing it up. That’s right. It’s happening. She is illustrating a picture for the front of deck 2’s box (I have been dreaming for years it would match the minstrel/lover pic we use on deck 1) and then she’s illustrating a picture for deck 3’s box.

We aren’t printing deck 3 at the moment. But it’s going to happen. So in the meantime, she’ll be spending the next month getting all the art for deck 3 and the ending finished (as soon as I finish writing her an art list).

And THAT’S NOT ALL. Lauren is going to be working on the art for the a new realmwalker deck you may remember called The Discordant Shore. It is the deck that includes copies of all the homemade Paladin Cards you will be receiving this year.

I don’t want to get too into details on this one just yet, but you play as a girl named Brell, who is also named Scaradh. And it’s an adventure so unlike the highlands you will be surprised at where it takes you. Here is a pic of some character descriptions I sent Lauren:

~7 When I’m not trying to NOT vomit because I am cleaning up a table, or worrying about you, or reading wonderful or disparaging comments in between cleaning up tables and worrying, I have been very hard at work on the next Spell Saga release: 1.5 The Under Sky. This DECK is like 2 games in one. You can use it between decks one and two, or use it as a new deck one. The design of this thing has destroyed me. I had to Photoshop the cards as I was making it because the ideas became so complex. It’s all about The Last Minstrel, but it’s also about how this process of making the game has been. Everything has taken so long, and a part of me is sort of dead inside. But I think maybe that part was supposed to die. In it’s place I have found a new type of strength to make things no matter what.

~8 This December is the 8th anniversary of when I first designed Spell Saga. In my head, there is a sort of countdown clock (198 days as of this posting). When the clock in my head strikes zero, my plan is that everyone will have everything. every. Thing. And then I’ll never work in a restaurant again.

~epi Spell Saga continues to dominate my life. As do other things. My band just finished recording everything except the vocals on our first LP, another project that took longer than expected. And I wake up nearly every morning and try to spend at least an hour working on The Novel that has consumed a decade of my life. My plan is that once everyone has their shit, I will pay to have decks 3 and the ending printed, and then we will Kickstart them to recover costs and make sure everyone who wants one sees it. I don’t give a shit about money. I don’t care if I ever make a goddamn cent on this game. It’s all going to end up going back into it anyway. Ii just want to finish the story. And now we can. I hope, regardless of how you feel or think about me, you will want to finish it to.

-mE. 913 days since the kickstarter started.

TL:DR

-packages still going out -no you have not missed yours -deck 2 the forest being printed with holofoil sleeve -deck 3 the caves being illustrated / finished -deck 4 the ending being illustrated / finished -deck 1.5 the under sky nearly finished -realkwalker ~ the discordant shore being illustrated / finished -paladin level cards part of discordant shore -everyone will have everything this year -most will have everything by july -life is hard but good