Hi Everyone
It's been a while since the last update and I've been wanting to post something for a while now but a lot has been going on so I'll do my best to recap what has happened the past few months.
What's The New Update About?
So a new update came out, is it chapter 4? Nope, sorry. I've updated a number of the older levels, adding new objects and small events which should add more stuff to discover while exploring.
Most of these contain smaller details that are meant to add more depth to the universe. Some Easter eggs and other things to discover as I mentioned above.
A Break
As I mentioned in the previous news post I took a break. After working on the game for so long it started to take a toll on me and the opportunity came up for me and my family to go back to Holland where my mom and brother lives and Spain where my dad resides these days.
I haven't seen them for about 4 years at that point so I had to go. I stayed there for about three months and it was something we really needed. On top of that my mom and dad haven't seen my daughter as well. The last time they saw her she was only one year old.
I tried to work on my laptop but it wasn't up to the task. I did some prototyping for chapter 4 and it's paying off. I wanted to do something a tad different from what you've guys been doing since the start of the game while making it work due to the ending of chapter 3 and I think you'll like it. It's nothing drastic and it won't last for too long but that's all I want to say about that.
So, Chapter 4?
It's coming. When I got back I was met with a PC that wouldn't work anymore. It would boot up for a bit and then it would blue-screen on me. I tried several fixes but nothing worked. It seems my motherboard just gave up.
With no money to replace my desktop PC (The game makes me able to survive but not much beyond that, plus the whole trip was exhausting my wallet as well (I have no regrets) but there was a blessing.
Someone at Intel reached out to the winners of the Level Up Contest, us included, and they sent me a NUC Skull Canyon. The overall specs blew my old PC out of the water, except for the GPU. It's good enough for me to continue work and this truly saved my life regarding being able to actually continue work on STARDROP. Because I'm paranoid when it comes to data I luckily backed up pretty much all the important work files on several HDD's including my external one, so I was able to pick right up where I left off.
If it wasn't for Intel I would have a really hard time trying to work on my laptop. I am currently saving up some cash to get a eGPU case so I can use my Galax Geforce 1060 GPU which should fix my graphical woes.
On top of that one of my homies, Dec Doyle from Digital CyberCherries stepped in and set up a SVN server to host my project files, so that was an incredible weight off my shoulders.
So while I don't have that much to show just yet I am finally back into action with STARDROP and in full dev mode once again. I have a lot more to announce soon but will have to wait until it's all settled and official.
Well, I have a new screenshot to show of one of the new areas I'm currently working on.
Sorry
Lastly before I go I want to say sorry for the lack of updates and perhaps giving the impression the game might be abandoned or something. This will never happen. I have too big a stake in this to give up. The game, story and everything means too much to me. A lot of myself is in this so I hope this should reassure anyone who might be in doubt.
So I hope this cleared up some confusions etc, and also sorry if anyone thought this was a chapter update. I'll do my best to get that done ASAP.
Again thank you all for your support. A few new let's plays popped up and have been enjoying them quite a great deal.
So, I'll stop right here and get back to work. I have a lot of cool stuff planned and I really want, no ,need to get the game finished.
So please have some more patience and thank you for understanding and all your support for allowing me to get this far. :)
Sincerely,
Joure & TeamV