A Much Needed Update

hey everybody! it's been a while. a much longer while than i would've liked, for sure.

so, just to start things off: i'm sorry. i've spent way more time sitting on a completely inactive patreon than i feel is at all acceptable. i've been blessed with some incredibly generous supporters, and i do not think going this long without any new posts, or even an update, was at all a reasonable response to that generosity. a day hasn't gone by where this hasn't been weighing on my mind, and all i can really do for now is to express my deepest apologies.

now, as much as i have to say on this matter, i'd like this post to be more of an update than an apology. first, an update on where i've been, and a few of the circumstances that contributed to my absence, and secondly, the much more exciting part, what i've been working on!

so, there's been a lot of reasons as to why i've been away, a lot of things probably too personal to get into in a patreon update, but even so, even with how busy of a year it's been, i've had plenty of time to work on game development and art that ultimately didn't end up resulting in more patreon posts. so what gives?

i'd say the main contributor was really just performance anxiety. i've advertised this patreon mostly as a patreon for moo-moo manor, which is fine, but moo-moo manor is a large, complicated project, with lots of large, complicated assets and scripts and setpieces that need to be completed before i can post any kind of substantial update on it, and this has been taking a toll on me. i have a very high standard of quality for the things i post on the internet, and most of the work i've been doing just isn't all that exciting to talk about. a whole lot of my time goes into implementing new bits of game logic, like the farming minigame, or the 'event system', and then fixing the many, many things that are inevitably broken by the implementation of these new systems.

speaking of the farming minigame, another big problem i've been having has been feature creep. a lot of the features i'd initially planned for moo-moo manor ended up being very bad fits for the kind of game i'm making. i think there's something very appealing about adding a farming minigame to a game themed around cows, but people are playing this game because they like soft cow women. finishing the farming minigame that has nothing to do with soft cow women would be dozens of hours of my time that most players would probably just see as a diversion from the part that they actually care about.

so: what am i going to do about all of this? well, two things, mostly. firstly: moo-moo manor is going to become a smaller, more focused project than i'd initially planned on. i'm thinking somewhere between 5-8 characters in total, but with characters that have significantly more ways to be interacted with, like more dialogue, story, and unique animations. the part of the game that matters to me, and probably to you, is the characters, so this should've been the focus all along. no more farming minigame.

secondly: i want to spend more time on art and media that isn't moo-moo manor. this does mean more illustrations and doodles, but i've also been getting really into 3D animation! i've spent a ton of time tinkering around with more complex 3D models and animation techniques in blender over the past few months, and i've been really happy with some of the early results. i'll be talking more about this in a different post, which should already be up if you're reading this!

i still really like doing this stuff, and i'm still really, really appreciative of anyone that's ever supported my artwork in any way, whether that's through my patreon, or just saying something nice about my art. all i can hope to do is to earn that support through the stuff that i make.

thanks a ton for even being here! i can't thank you all enough for being so very patient with me. here's to making more cool stuff in the future!