Dev Diary, July 29th, 2022 (Patreon)

Always when I do these dev updates, I have fresh coffee prepared and put my feet on the side of the desk. My coffee cup is old and has seen an enormous amount of coffee over the years. It's even started to fade a little bit, but I don't care. It's still my favorite. It's one of those 5-dollar "world's greatest dad" cups, and it always puts a smile on my face.

So, In this dev diary, I thought I'd share a story.

Many years ago, when my daughter was about 8 years old, she came running into the living room shouting "I got something for you, dad!". She had just returned from school, and of course, I'm thinking she'd been picking up some flowers from the neighbor's flower bed or something like that.

She stands in front of me with a huge grin on her face, her face shining with pride, handing me a box.

"Where did you get a box from?", I reply. "Go on, open it!" she says almost jumping with excitement.

So I open the box, look inside, and feel my eyes well up.

"It was only '5 dollars'", she says still grinning.

That morning I had given her the money so she could buy herself some snacks or whatever she wanted on the way home. And instead, she had used all of it on this.

So out of the box, I lift the $5 "world's greatest dad" cup. I am having serious problems holding back the tears at this point and I stutter something like: "But, the money was for you."

She gives me a hug as she replies, "Yeah, but it was so cool, don't you think?".

I barely have a chance to say "I love it" before she's off again. Running outside to her waiting friends. At which point there's no way I can hold back the tears anymore.

So now you know the backstory of the $5 reference in the game, and the "World's best Cece" coffee cup render.

I know some people have raised the question that I fabricated what inspired Leap of Faith for economical gain. I don't know why they would say that, and it doesn't affect me.

But what I do know is that today would have been her birthday.

That image is from today. And today, like every year there was a letter there from someone who writes she cheered up his day by just being there. She didn't even know. I saw him at her funeral, crying. Even though they'd never exchanged a word.

She's not here anymore, and I respect what she did. But she did leave me with an enormous amount of good memories and even knowing the outcome I'd go through it all over again.

All the best, and stay safe out there.

// Drifty

ps1: Put out more than 200 renders this week, stopping at 1,841 story renders.
ps2: Release date reveal next Friday