Sitrep for November + Thoughts on December

Okay ladies, gents, and others. I'm planning to put the polls up later today, but for a variety of reasons I wanted to put this up first. There are a few things happening this month that may complicate things for me a bit. And, well, December last year was absolute hell, so I'm starting to try and figure out what I want to do about that this year.

First and foremost, I have a surgery planned for late this month. It's nothing serious, just part of a dental implant procedure. But I have zero clue how out of it or miserable I'll be after it. As such, if at all possible, I'm planning to try and push Haven's Port out early, leaving other rewards to be worked on in the last few days of the month (the procedure is on the 29th). Between the late start and the early ending, it's possible this will mean a slightly smaller build than most. But if this is the only issue, I don't think it will be an overly large difference.

The second issue is a bit more serious. Specifically, sadly, it's very possible I will be needing to attend a funeral. My last remaining grandparent was just put on hospice care today. That doesn't necessarily mean she's about to kick the bucket. Some people last for months on hospice. But, well, none of the other three grandparents lasted longer than a week once they were put on hospice care. So my family is assuming it's highly possible we may be attending a funeral this month or next month.

This isn't an unexpected surprise or anything. My grandmother has been in a long term care facility for advanced stage dementia and steadily going down hill for something like a decade. But we were all close enough to her that there's no question the entire family, myself included, will drop everything to attend her funeral (and she's out of state, so that means several days of traveling, hotels, arrangements, and so on). Needless to say, if this does happen, it will play hell with what I'm able to get done. There's absolutely nothing I can do about that. I can't even predict it with any chance of accuracy. So I'm going to function as normal, development wise, and just do my best to work around it if it does happen. I did feel that you all deserved an advanced warning, however, so that's what this is. If it does happen, delays or missed rewards are likely. To say the least.

That's mostly it for November. If things don't go sideways for either of the above reasons, my primary goal for the month is to erase the existing delay we had the last two months, while building up the Order of the Rose faction island for Haven's Port. Though, there will be a focus poll on that topic later today.

---------December--------

I'll try to keep this short, since the post is already running long. December last year was nightmarish. Worse, it caused the longest delay ever for this patreon. A delay which proceeded to haunt new releases for months afterwards. I've been seriously considering different ways to deal with that, this year, and I'll be asking opinions and running a poll later in the month about which way to go. I'm not doing that now, because the possible delays if I end up needing to attend a funeral may affect what's possible with December. So I'll wait until later in the month, when a major delay is less likely to happen, to ask for help choosing between possible options. Currently, the things I'm seriously considering are:

1) Doing another Haven's Port Build in December, instead of switching to Left Hand Magic as I usually would. Haven's Port is the less time and energy intensive game.

2) Simply downsizing the content amount expected from Left Hand Magic, as well as  eliminating a short story.

3) Doing a holiday special for one or both games, with no regular release, just a sizable event or set of special events for each.

4) Pausing both games in favor of a short single-month Choose Your Own Adventure holiday game. Likely using Twine and either found art as I did with The Dungeon of Lewdity, or possibly A.I. generated art. Or some mix of both.

None of these are set in stone. I'm simply toying with possibilities at this point, and will discuss options later on in the month. Feel free to discuss, but be aware I won't be making the call what to do for at least a couple of weeks yet.