So with the year coming to a close, I felt it only appropriate to take some time to really reflect on what we've accomplished this year, as well as some major missteps we've had on the way.

Firstly, I need to preface this by saying, 2021 might just be one of the hardest years of my life. With my grandmother passing away, multiple Covid scares, as well as my job hounding me in ways I wasn't prepared for in this increasingly frustrating and seemingly never-ending pandemic. I am 100% done with 2021... thankfully, there's only a few days left, so we can wipe the slate clean.

We got 4 builds out in 2021. Which... to be honest, is a lot less than I'd thought we'd get out. That's about 1 build per quarter, which is a somewhat of a bummer in it of itself. However, response on these builds were fairly good, and I'm glad more than anything that we essentially reached the end of the game's first major portion before this hiatus began.

Speaking of the hiatus, we might as well get to that elephant in the room, which has been going on since August. Initially it was for Melo's health, followed by job issues, followed by too many IRL problems that forced us to part ways for the time being. He just doesn't have time to focus on our project and I totally understand that. We'll be here waiting for him with open arms whenever he decides to return in whatever capacity that is. However, his departure did leave us with a bit of a hole that we lacked the knowledge of how to fix.

Thankfully, we had Wattson come in to pick up the slack, but unfortunately we do still have several obstacles in that he has to interpret Melo's code. Each programmer has their own way of styling and organizing things to the point where it's like reading a book in an accent. Once Wattson has fully reviewed everything and made the changes we need to make, I fully hope we'll be charging ahead fearlessly build after build... unfortunately, it's impossible to say when that will be as Wattson himself is busy due to his previous commitments to other projects. (By the way, if you haven't checked out Killigan's Treasure, Where the Demon Lurks, Beyond the Harbor, and Burrows, you should. Wattson does good work for them as well. :D)

Once he's done though, the hope is the project will both have a shinier presentation, as well as be more autonomous to function without the need of a full-time programmer. Some people might look at Psychic Connections and say there's nothing exactly crazy going on in the code, and for all I know, you're probably right. One of the major obstacles Melo left us with though, is that I don't know Python, or any computer programming. I fundamentally understand things like Variables and If-Statements, but if you want me to comprehend how we stack layered images or the difference between easing and moving in a scene, how to implement a new UI, or other ren'py specific facets I'd have no idea where to begin. Which any amount of time I take trying to learn it, would be time less spent on writing, or managing the others and giving them direction on where to put their efforts.

Speaking of where I've been spending that time, I've been alternating between reworking scenes in the prologue and writing later content, that way when we do come back we've got a lot of fresh material for you to absorb, and hopefully a backlog of builds so that we never fall behind. In addition I've been working with Hugh, and Shiuk, and Likri organizing additional pieces for the game, which has presented it's own challenges ever since I paused the Patreon. Unsurprisingly, things do become less affordable when the project is no longer self-funded. For some reason, people still ask me why I paused the patreon, and it's simply because charging for builds we're not producing just doesn't feel appropriate. Besides, it's not as though everything has become impossible to manage, it's just a logistical headache to keep organized at times.

I'm going to be honest, being in this hiatus has been somewhat demoralizing to an extent, because I still have so much drive to complete this project, but at times it seems I lack the skills to finish it. Sans the reworking I've done in my free time, and the assets provided to me by my aforementioned team members, I can't definitively define where the progress we've made since the Hiatus began starts, and stops. 

When I announced this in August I thought worst case we'd be stuck in this until January 2022, now I feel like we'll be lucky to be out of this funk at all. More than anything, I want to apologize for all of the waiting you all have had to endure, because I have no doubt with better planning this mess was somehow avoidable.

Anyway, this post has turned into a bit of a downer, so let's end it on a high note... I'm excited for 2022, and optimistic for our future despite all the adversity we've been facing. No matter what we're going to do our best to persevere. I want to see this project to the end, and I hope you all enjoy the ride however long it takes for us to get there.