2023 Reflections & December 2023 Wrap-Up (Patreon)

It's the last day of the year!!!

I'd say we did as best we could at GB Patch Games these past twelve months. No complaints, besides the usual "how does the time keep passing so fast". I've written a review on everything that's happened around here throughout 2023. But it's also the final day of this month, so I'm here to let you all know how that went too.

2023 Reflection:

Well folks, for the fourth year in a row, 2023 has been better for GB Patch Games than the year before ✨. 2020 well surpassed my hopes for what could happen for our projects, then 2021 did the same, so did 2022, and now 2023 has joined those ranks.

The last DLC for Our Life: Beginnings & Always, the Baxter DLC, launched, finally completing the main game. Then a second Cove Patreon Bonus Moment came out as a special bonus for our supporters. And after so long, that was the official end to the new playable OL1 content.

We were able to create the OL: BA artbook because everything that needed to be included in that was done. That has only been sent to Kickstarter backers of the project who had certain tiers so far. But we do have it and it will be made available to purchase on Steam and Itch soon. Plus, right at the end of the year, we got to have another piece of OL1 merch: Another limited edition Cove plushie went on sale. It even glowed in the dark.

There was a ton of success with the upcoming addition to the OL series, Now & Forever, as well. 2023 was the year it became our main project in development. Step 1 is practically half down, now and I was able to announce multiple cool features for the project and reveal some cool characters. The demo got a massive update that even included a sneak peek into Step 2.  The game has a trailer now and people got to listen to the wonderful theme song!

And, of course, Our Life: Now & Forever was massively funded on Kickstarter 💕

Not only that, but I've gotten to do enough brainstorming for the game coming after OL2 that I can occasionally mention "Project W" in update posts and Q&As. Someday you might actually know something about it besides that it exists, haha. Baby steps.

Besides all the achievements for our games, the company itself made good strides in the past twelve months. I got actual copywrites for our IPs and did some stuff to make the business a more professional entity generally. And I managed to let go some of iron grip I had on doing everything myself and gave my brother David a position at the company where he handles a lot of emails/player queries now. And it was this year that I began taking two days off per week for the first time since I started doing this commercially, which back was in 2017.

And in my personal life, I moved across the country less than a year since the last time I did that.

Monthly Content Summary:

So, for the normal update, December wasn't as busy as November. Luckily, I don't have to deal with a lot of holiday stress or pressure that can come at this time of year. My work continues as usual, and there was less to manage in these past weeks. It was pretty nice. Here's the breakdown-

51,400 words got done in total for December.

26,100 of that was drafting progress. I created the full detailed outline for Trick or Treat, a Step 1 DLC Moment, and the final fifth free-to-play Moment (its name hasn't been revealed yet). There was a lot of extra drafting this time around. Normally, a Moment's draft is under 10k, so nearly 25k for two Moments is unusual. It was because of that no-name Moment. The last Moment in a set tends to be the hardest to settle on. Instead of only worrying about it being good in isolation, more than ever it's gotta work with existing content- not being too similar to prior Moments, having elements I wanted to include in that set but haven't found a way to yet, etc. But I got it done! Also, a small portion of that was for making a basic outline for yet another Moment.

25,300 words were written. That was creating the script for Hide and Seek Part 2 and Trick or Treat Part 1, plus I wrote some player suggestions.

12,000 words were programmed.  It was exclusively for Fancy Fun Part 1, which got released as a beta to testers.

Besides that normal dev work, I finally finished with all the Backerkit set up. Surveys went out to KS supporters and those with beta testing access got sent a code to access the builds.

The Cove Step 1 plushie campaign ended this month and I arranged for the OL1 DLCs, plus our older games, to be on sale for the Winter Sale on Itch and Steam. There was some business management and tax stuff I had to do before the end of the year as well.

Important Links:

• Our Life 2: December Beta Build

Viewable at Tier 3 or higher

• Our Life 2: Beta Build Suggestion Thread

Viewable at Tier 5 or higher

• December Patreon Q&A

Viewable at Tier 1 or higher

• Our Life 2: Frederick Baumann Sprite Reveal (Step 2)

Viewable at Tier 1 or higher

• Our Life 2: Step 1 Base Moment Order

Viewable at Tier 1 or higher

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We've had two months in a row where I finished all the programming and draft/script work I wanted to! We're one script part away, and less than a week, from being half done with Step 1's overall content. That's fantastic. Of course, it would've been more perfect if the script did get halfway there in 2023, but I prioritized drafting ahead instead of writing. That's better for the long run.

And when it comes to that long run, there's plenty to look forward in the coming month and the brand new year! I'll discuss more about it tomorrow.

Goodbye 2023. A lot happened and a lot has changed, but work at GB Patch continues! I'm so grateful for that. Thank you for being here and giving our stories a try. Happy last day of the year, everyone 🎉

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