Welp, I've been dreading making this post, but I best just rip off the Band-Aid. I had genuinely hoped that I would be in a better position with Psychic Connections when I'd made the last devlog, a lot has happened between then and now yet from many perspectives, it may look like nothing has happened with the project. For that, I apologize. I've drafted this post a number of times, and each time I do it's never hit the right notes, and I definitely also put some pressure on myself by declaring the last devlog to be the last one I'd planned to write for the hiatus. However, these are just excuses, and that isn't fair to you all and you should be more aware of what's going on.

I've posted idle things on Twitter (Or X if you're into the rename), to highlight some of the changes we have coming, but I realize not everyone is following the project on other socials so I should take the time to properly share those details here, and perhaps a bit more. 

Before that though I'll get into a bit of a personal life dump here and then sandwich some at the end. *Feel Free to Skip this Paragraph if this doesn't really interest you.) Part of the reason this hiatus took so long is my decision to prioritize my education, which I don't regret, however at some point I lost the ability to balance, and this project became completely sidelined. I still would hire the artists for work (though more infrequently as I paused the Patreon back in 2021, so I'd had to go back to out of pocket commission-work), and I was doing storyboarding for various plans, but I wasn't making any major strides on actual scene scripts like I was back in the Quarantine-Era of the project. Even now, I can't be certain that school won't be taking my time; after maintaining my grades the opportunity for a master's degree is on the table and if I pursue it, I have to factor that into my schedule as I move forward. (Though I don't think I'll be pursuing that full-time like I was with the bachelor's so I'm hoping for more availability moving forward.)

We've gotten a lot of updates to the Art by Shiuk, all of the Sprite Assets are now shaded, and in addition to that Shiuk has done some extra posing and expressions for the main lads, as well as finalized a lot of our CG work that we had initially done.

Additionally, outside of Shiuk's sprite-work, we've had a custom UI implemented which I'd mentioned in the last dev-log but wanted to highlight it again here: 

Though if I'm being frank, I'm still playing around with some elements like font-size and such. But I also know a lot of those elements aren't new. I'd mentioned the UI, and the Extra Menu Screens like the Music Lounge, and other elements in the last dev-log. (Though some of those elements upon further testing needed a fair amount of tweaking to function properly.)

As I'd mentioned in the last devlog, a lot of the holdup had been me, and that's still the case. I've been doing a lot of work rescoping the story, analyzing what story I'm trying to tell, and how to tell it in a concise but fulfilling manner. I've been working on some scenes I have planned for the next build, in addition to the rewrites of earlier days. I've also been tackling a lot of personal issues within my family, too many to name as it's been a tumultuous year. However, I know I'm not the only one with struggles, and I'm handling it, and I appreciate everyone's patience despite the last update being... 4 years ago. (It's frankly miraculous if anyone even reads this post after so long.)

I'd like to turn around and tell you that the next update is the end of Summer, or Winter, or this year, and if I find myself with enough spare time it should be possible, but I made that promise in the last devlog, and truly I do not know if I can guarantee that. I'm optimistic, but I've let others and myself down with these deadlines, only to let life and other elements sideline me. 

All that to say, I can assure you all of the following: The project IS still in progress and has NOT been abandoned. I am still working on things albeit at a snail's pace, and it will come out once it is in a state that I think it is ready. I do hope when the next update does come out, folks enjoy where it is at. In the meanwhile, I'm going to work on doing better about keeping folks updated on all the various platforms, and apologies again for the wait on a proper update here. (I'm hoping the next one won't be so negative and wordy.)