Bi-Weekly Report (#8) - CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT

Man, this one's different.

Had a real rough week a couple weeks ago. Didn't get much of interest done. Got pretty mad about it. Just wasn't feeling well at all. Last week, I pushed to try and make up for it a bit, though ultimately my goal was really just to do better than I did the week before. And I think I did! But I suppose you all will be the judges of that, eh?

First, though...

ANNOUNCEMENTS

I've got two! I guess being kinda off my game gave me time to think on some things.

FIRST UP: I am officially announcing a funding campaign I've been going back and forth with myself on for a while now! I think it will spark joy?

THE DOUBLE THE SMUT CAMPAIGN!

If we can get backer support up to $1500 / month, I will put out two pages of the smut comics per week instead of the present pace of one, and will aim to do so for as long as we stay above that line unless the tide significantly changes on me.

People seem the most interested in these, but particularly in Hare Moon, so to that end, if the campaign goal is reached before The Contest ends, I will be updating both in alternation, meaning one page of each story every week until Contest is wrapped up, at which point Hare Moon would likely take over for the remainder of its second chapter. We'll see how the palette cleansers go from there.

SECOND, and complimentary to the first:

Backer Streams are getting a significant overhaul.

I do not believe the present private stream format is working. Further, viewers were routinely reporting technical issues with Picarto that rendered them unable to watch the streams, private or otherwise. That sucks ass, so I've switched platforms entirely. I've been championing Picarto since the beginning, so just try to imagine how absolutely done I am that I've done this.

With regards to the format, last night I piloted a new concept that returns a bit to the KTC's roots and purpose, and everyone seems pretty happy with the dry run. So, for now, members of the KTC tier can make character requests for bi-weekly sketch streams! They've also been working together to choose themes for the sessions, giving us some very cute beach pin-ups I'll be posting shortly after I'm done here! Last night's goal was to do four randomly-selected single-character sketches within an hour a piece, because I've been slow as dirt lately and felt I needed the fire under my ass. It was stressful, but pretty fun, and the Committee over on Discord has already come together to decide the theme and pitch their character choices for the next one, so I think it's gone over well!

As a bonus, since the rewards are innately bound to the KTC already, there's not really any reason to keep the streams private, so anyone can come watch when I do it and see how it works first-hand! Who knows, maybe I'll figure out the audience participation bit at some point too and we can make a whole game of it.

If you'd like to throw your own hat into the sketch request ring, you'll have to join the KTC to do so! They also get to narrow down the prospective animation subjects, have a standing discount on all standard commissions, and just generally get to help me decide things when my silly little brain comes to a self-inflicted impass. Power! Glory! Tits!

Anyway, on to the stuff you're normally here for.

GAMEDEV

The thing about feeling all drag-ass and mopey is that I inevitably end up poking my game projects as if math is some sort of comforting meal made by my grandmother in a hazy dream.

Slime Forest benefited immediately from the main thing I did on that off week: burn through an entire course on GODOT's shading language in about three days. I promptly took that knowledge and applied it directly to the game's game over screen, whose overlay now sloughs in like a nasty blue goop.

Also, I finally made a proper mouse cursor, with its own simple animations and a little particle effect when it goes off. Behold, through the power... of GIF!!

Also LM found a wild nightmare bug that I somehow have missed for weeks, so I fixed that post-haste.

Peppermint Creams, meanwhile, had some of those new monsters from last time implemented, a new map area drawn up, encounter and loot tables fiddled with; a lot of this and that, none of which is very interesting to show off, but all of which matters.

COMMISSIONS

Beep boop, here's the scoop.

Finished:

• Vale beach pin-up.

Present queues:

• Artistic Freedom: Another Vale, and a promising threesome.

• Less Freedom: Spritz's ode to a YT short film he likes a lot.

• Old junk: So hey fun fact this number changed. Three of the 10 were old-ass sketch tier rewards for a guy who is too busy with college right now to be interested in them, and one was a request from my wife that wound up becoming The Contest, so... s... six??? Maybe??? For now?? Huh. Okay!!

WRITING

Oh good God okay.

SO!

Obviously, The Contest has started. The first few pages of that have been written, though I don't intend for it to be as writing-intensive as Hare Moon. Who ever knows, though. Characters do what they want.

Thralls's 10th chapter, meanwhile, has undergone some pretty significant rewrites, expansions and revisions. It needs a final proofreading pass before I'll slap it up on here, but it's basically done, and 11 is started. 10 is the end of what I'd had drafted before I got laid off from the day job, and back then it was meant to be 9, so it's nice to finally hit the double benchmark of leaving that part of my past a little further behind AND hitting double-digits on the chapter count. It should be ready really soon. Maybe even tonight???? Maybe even tonight.

ANIMATION

THIS AIN'T MOVED FOR SHIT. Sorry. Hopefully I'll be back at it by this weekend. My bat wife needs me. SHE NEEDS ME!!

AND THAT ABOUT DOES IT

I've really downed my pace on Valheim. A real one-two punch, that one: I realized just how much time I have to spend to get anywhere in the game, and how little else I got done while playing it. Still poking it a little. Fought the Bonemass. With an axe and a bow. Stalemating with a boss that I spent weeks preparing for does not make me feel less like I'm wasting my time, I'll tell you that.

Anyway, Spark the Electric Jester 3 is pretty slick so far and feels a lot less like the gaming equivalent of staring at a brick wall until it develops life. Lake Feperd's come a long way. Good for him!

Until next time.