A (Late) review on 2023, and What To Expect: February 2024 (Patreon)

Sorry for not making any updates in a good while: Between me and Eli getting sick over the holidays, and doing my best to keep myself busy through January while I waited for Eli to make pages, I wanted to wait until I had something finished to post here, before I made a boring catch-up post.

So, let's talk about 2023 first: It was a bit of a rollercoaster (which, admittedly, has moreorless been the status quo here, ever since starting this Patron page), but at least it was for different reasons. First off, my dad might officially be cancer-free, which is great! The last year, from starting chemo in October 2022 through 2023 was rough; he was either grumpy (and not to mention, was very sensitive to certain smells for a while, so I couldn't get anything like that black garlic tonkotsu ramen I rarely see at Walmart. XD), or thought he was going to die, especially when we were told it wasn't caught early like the doctor originally thought, but thankfully things worked out, in the end, and he's been in remission. 

Then, both of Eli's grandparents died within a month from each other over the early summer, which was devastating for them; it also happened at a very inconvenient time, right when they were about to start their break. Updates got spotty for a while (which was understandable), but, eventually, we we able to get back to the swing of things, not long after they came back 

Then, around the Autumn months, I had time to continue writing scripts for both Moonlit Brew and ACES; I wasn't chipping away one page at a time, like I was for the past couple years, either; I was finally hit with inspiration and motivation to write good chunks of page buffer for both stories again! This also coincided with Eli starting to upload our older Patreon content on their FurAffinity page, which helped us get more people to join! Maybe it was me slowly losing interest in Fall Guys because they turned into a UGC-focused game with lamer fame pass rewards, or maybe I was feeling a little better from being able to get out of the house more, but I've been more productive in the last year than I was during, say, 2022 or earlier.

This followed into the new year, as well; For starters, I've spent the good part of this month making contributions to Eurobeat Wiki, in my spare time! Specifically, I've been trying my best to add any and all content related to the Digibeat label; I started with adding the Euro albums and giving Jennifer Sherwood an artist page, and then started making song pages for every song that debuted in the That's Eurobeat Now albums. Part of why I did that, was because I kinda got sick of the fact that were was no easy access to the amazing songs this label had, and the past decade or so, I was irked by the fact that there were no accurate lyrics for the early songs (specifically the ones from TEBN Vol. 2), so I had to do something about it, since no one else was! XD

And, more recently, I've been (unofficially) helping out at a local arcade; a couple weeks ago, they added a Sound Voltex cab, which I was super excited to see, since those are hard to come by outside of Round1, but there were some quirks with the software; namely, that songs were locked and higher-level charts were blocked, which would deter non-casual players. So, I was able to get in contact with the owner, and gave him some advice on how he could perhaps connect it to a private server so that customers would be able to make full use of their new machine, and maybe even update it, too. We met in person, a few days ago, and I'm now the arcade's unofficial rhythm game advisor. In other words, the owner will show me auction listings for a potential game he could get, and will ask me if it might be good on-location. I want to take this job seriously, too, because I have to not only take into account if a game would be fun, but also have to consider floor space, if it can be updateable, and if would be something most people would flock to. For example, I think games like Jubeat/Stepmaniax/Beatmania III would do great, because those games aren't accessible for miles and miles, but maybe not a game like Dance Maniax or Mambo A Go Go, because they had short lives and very little content.

Which brings me to what I'd like to see happen for this page in 2024: I would like to have more consistency with our updates. The past few months were a mixed bag, because for one reason or another, we hardly made any new pages for our flagship comics, and the number of patrons leaving sorta reflected this. On the other hand, the FA uploads and uploading Director's Cut pages helped us recover, albeit for the month.  I think, and hope, that once Eli is able to make at least 8 total pages for Moonlit Brew and ACES per month again where we can guarantee at least 2 pages per week again, that will really help us out in the long run, especially once Director's Cut finishes. Once we're able to nail down the update schedule, we can start experimenting with different stuff again, especially when Dorm Life and/or Fuzzy Slithers finishes; I still want to remake ACES Chapter 1, but also ensure we have at least one NSFW comic, in the long term. 

I also have a drawing project planned that's both SFW and NSFW I want to do that involves Alfred; if you've seen the newest ACES page, you'll already know why. ;)

Maybe we can start sometime in February, but I'd have to discuss it with Eli. 

Anyways, I don't know if I'll make What To Expect posts every month again, but I at least want to make sure those types of posts have "meat" to them. Also, unrelated note, dad and I got into contact with some travel agents, and this might finally be the year I head to Japan, so fingers crossed! 

Here's to making sure we make 2024 our best year, and as always, thank you all for your support!