Hey all,
I did post this last night, but upon checking it just now, I realised I saved it as a draft and never actually posted it to Steam. That being said, Merry Christmas ( or happy holidays ).
I want to apologise for the radio silence over the last month or so too. As some of you probably know ( and I'm sure some don't ), I work full time on another game called Where The Heart Is, and over the last year, myself and CheekyGimp have worked tirelessly to finish the game, and a couple of weeks ago, we finally did. The scale of WTHI is insane, and just to give you a little idea of the size, episode 25 ( the final episode ) had over 5,000 renders! That's more than all of The Cabin! So, my focus over the last month was getting that finished and squared away. That being said, though, just because the game is finished, that doesn't mean I'm done working on it. We still have multiple Steam versions to do, epilogues and more. But, with the main game being done, I am able to take a step back and focus more on The Cabin and my own projects. The last week or so working on The Cabin has been more productive than it has been in the last few months, so work is back on track.
This post also isn't supposed to be a dev-update or anything but I wanted to use this time to address a few things:
AE2 - As some of you may know, I'm currently working on a sequel for Adverse Effects. Originally I needed to get it out within a certain time period, but that window is no longer needed, so I've opted to take my time with it and make it a little bigger. Currently it's looking like it might be about twice as big as the original, but it's hard to say at this point. I have the brief finished and am currently in the scripting phase, where I write all the brief out in game format. I do this while working on the cabin, as the script work can be done while I'm waiting for assets to download, scenes to open or sample renders to be done. As for the art, that won't be started until the script work is finished, and it won't be worked on during The Cabin work hours. It'll be more late-night and weekend work, meaning I'll likely only get a couple dozen renders done a day.
Translations - I've seen many people asking for different translations, and I'm afraid my stance on them is still the same. As much as I'd love to add different translations to the game, it simply isn't possible at the moment. Let's say, for example, I add French, German and Polish to the game now. The first thing I'd need to do is find three reliable people who are capable of translating the game into those languages. I refuse to use people that message me saying, "Hey, want me to translate the game? I'll do it for free!" I'm sure people saying that are just trying to be nice, but since I'm not paying them for the service, I don't know what I'm getting, and they could add anything into the game that I don't know or approve of. I can't go through every translation and make sure every line is correct. I also refuse to use AI. I stand firmly on the hill of not letting AI take jobs of people able to do the same thing; just because AI can do it in a split second doesn't mean a human shouldn't get the chance to do the work. Furthermore, even if I did find three reliable people to do the translations, I would then need to send them the script for the most recent episode and wait for them to do the translation before I can release the game ( which I have no idea how long a translation takes?... ), which will delay the already over-delayed release of the game. And then on top of that, say we get to episode 12 and all three translators have to stop doing the work for future releases; I then can't release on Steam again until I find three more people. There are just too many variables at the minute, and I simply can't justify doing translations until the game is finished. Once the game is finished, I'll be adding translations like there is no tomorrow.
The End?... - When will The Cabin end? The game was released on Steam late in 2022 but was first released on Patreon in early 2021. My original plan for the game was 2 years of development, spanning 15 episodes. That plan did not work out at all. May of 2026 will mark the 5th year of development, and we're currently working on episode 10 ( although, technically speaking, when I first released on Steam, episodes 1, 2 and 3 were all merged to make episode 1, and episode 2 had 2 parts, so technically we're currently working on 13 right now... ). That being said, I've not been happy with the development of the game since the end of the first year. I've had a lot of things happen over the last few years, and a lot of that has caused delays. I've crashed out before, I've been burnt out, and there have been a lot of times where I've thought, "fuck it," and thought about just walking away. I know I'm in no position to complain. I get to work from home, which is a huge thing for me since I'm massively anti-social. I hate working with other people ( in person ) so working from home is a blessing. But it also has its downsides too; it's affected my health a lot ( mostly my eyes since I'm sat looking at a screen all day ) to the point where I now can't sit at the PC without wearing glasses, even if I do look devilishly handsome in them.... I'm just kidding; I'm the fat nerdy slob you're picturing :P BUT... I always come back to the same thing... it doesn't matter if I get burnt out or if I get to a point where I no longer like making the game, I always come back to what I've always said, which is I'll never... ever... cancel or abandon the game! We may go a few too many months without a release, but just know, I am working on the game still! And if I go more than a year without a release... assume the worst o.0. That's the only thing that'll stop me. Like right now, I'm the happiest and most excited I've been to work on the game, and progress really is ramping up! So stay tuned; I will be doing a dev update in Jan.
The Story! - You may have noticed that not a lot of the story makes any sense, and I think this is in part due to the fact we've had 4 different people writing for the game. When taking over for someone else, it's understandable that certain plot points might get missed or new plot points might emerge that might take a branch down a path that wasn't intended, causing other paths to lose focus or not really make any sense anymore. Take Crab, for example. Before he joined the game, I had the plot for episodes 9, 10, 11 and 12 all plotted out. But, after going over what I wrote, he had some notes and a few ideas for episode 9 himself, which totally threw 10, 11 and 12 out of whack, making them unusable. Which is good; I want that from a writer. I want him to have his own ideas, and a lot of them are way better than what I had planned. He's also replaying the game as we speak and making sure to pick up plot points so if they're no longer being used, they can be closed off and continued if they are being used. That being said, we might still get some issues where merges between writers don't quite make sense. Which is why, once the game is fully finished, I plan to release a "developer" version or some form of rewrite of the game where I fully rework the game. It'll have a bunch of new scenes and some old cut ones that I liked but, for whatever reason, decided to cut, and after release, I actually decided I really liked. It'll also be full-horror. I don't think we can classify the game as a horror game right now... it had a couple moments, but... the horror just never came. And keep in mind, I'll only work on this once the game is finished, and it will not replace what is already in the game; it'll be an entirely new game in terms of the writing and some new images ( I'm estimating it'll have about 20% new images/scenes ). And I know what you're thinking... "Oh, it's just a money grab!" ... no, the game will be a DLC and 100% free to those who already own this game, so you won't need to buy the new version ( but again... I won't be working on it until this game is finished... I just want to make that 1000% clear! ).
My Personal Life - As lacking as it might be at times, I do indeed have a personal life. The last two years have been some of the worst of my life; having lost my dad almost 2 years ago, everything fell apart from there. You know how people say, "That person is the glue that holds this family together"? Well, I've come to learn over the last couple of years that was for sure my dad. Pretty much my whole family had fallen apart since he passed, and not to go into too much detail, I'm not sticking around. I know it might sound bad to abandon your family, but if you knew my family, you'd do the same. I've been told by multiple friends to get the fuck out and move away, which is what I plan to do. I'm going to spend the next two years working my ass off and saving as much as I can so I can afford to move down south. I know you don't need to know this, but I want you to know I have a newfound motivation for working, even if it does stem from abandoning people... But it has to be done. I wanted to move away long before my dad died, but I never wanted to abandon him, but now that he's gone, I truly have no reason to stick around. And I also mention this so you know I have that new motivation for working, and I will be smashing shit out of the park!
.... Alright... I rambled a little. Just to give you an idea of how long that took to think up and write, I started writing it at about 7:30pm and planned to watch a movie at 8pm... it's currently 9:42pm, and I'm just wrapping it up o.0
TLDR; Merry Christmas... We good...