Why Version 0.70 will be Delayed

This is a post I never wanted to write. As you all know, I hate delaying the game for any reason, and I always feel like the versions I release never have enough content in exchange for the wonderful support you all show me, but I will have to delay it this time. For reference, the last time a Version update was late was back in November of last year when I was briefly homeless. It's about that bad. In many ways, it's worse.

This Tuesday, I received a call from my in laws that my uncle had passed away. It's a loss that I can only describe as devastating. For someone that writes basically part time, I have no words to emphasize the magnitude of this tragedy. He was not my biological father, but he was my dad. My family has been completely blind-sided by this: he was relatively young, healthy, and extremely fit. From what I understand from the autopsy, and what the coroner has told me, he suffered a mini-stroke that damaged the part of his brain responsible for impulse control, and then he shot himself in his driveway not three minutes before coming back from dancing with his wife. He was still in the driver's seat. It's so horrifyingly bizarre that I can scarcely believe it's real. It's the kind of absurd set of circumstances that belongs on an NCIS episode.

My mother is in pieces. She already lost her father, my grandfather, earlier this year. We're both on bereavement leave, and will be driving out to help settle the funeral arrangements, attend the service, and everything else that comes after. You can imagine what it's like to have a funeral during the current world circumstances. This has demanded all of my attention since Tuesday, and I don't see that changing soon. I'll be busy this week, all of next week, and perhaps a few days after that.

Onto the game, you all know that I like to show you that I'm working as hard and as honestly as possible. I'll be working tonight and tomorrow so that I can release what's done as a sort of "mini" version update. It will consist of the work from the first two weeks, which will be Valentina's 3.5 events. It will be an "early" release since I won't have time to listen to bug reports and fix potential problems. When I get back, I'll resume development of Version 0.70 "from the top." Which means I will be restarting the six week development schedule beginning with Riley, who won that last poll. 

I am so very sorry about this. I've planned for so many things to prevent delays, but I never saw this coming.

Thank you for all of your support,

~Solace