My crystal ball(s of steel!) (Patreon)

Time for an update to let you all know what to expect from us this month! That's right! It's crystal ball time!

On the first of this month I started probing how the coder was doing. I also started work on the real next build. From scratch(!) using the stuff I had already drawn and sent to the coder, with the same sort of zeal I slapped the Halloween side story together with. Just a matter of being super cautious and proactive about the current state of things. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst etc.

I learned a few things along the way of creating the Halloween side story and figured I might as well assume a worst case scenario until I was proven wrong.

One of the things I suggested to the coder was for him to just send me all of the things he had already finished so I could try and tie it up myself. If he didn't feel up to doing anything serious himself yet I'd have been happy to jump in. I'm even happier to say he was very much against that idea. Sometimes you suggest things the same way you use canaries in a coal mine. I thought suggesting something like that and the reaction to it would tell me a lot more than just a simple "hey how are you doing?"

I think it's a good sign he doesn't want to take the easier way out of letting me handle things, but I also want to be very careful of not having him immediately jump into the thick of things once more. 

He still hasn't entirely convinced me he's back to full power so I suggested he'd slowly start poking the new build (if he feels he's up to it) for literally five minutes a day at the start and just work his way up and see how it goes. Depending on how far he got until I told him to take that break a couple of weeks back, I figure an end of the month build should be possible. 

For some of you that might not be nearly fast enough, me neither, but I prefer being careful/safe now and not being sorry later. Also, I very much doubt the coder was creating his best stuff in the weeks leading up to me forcing him to take that break. He pretty much already admitted as much in between the lines. I've put my own efforts to create a new build of the main story on ice and hopefully it can stay there forever. But if worse comes to worse I'm ready to fire up that plan B once more. 

Soooo... what am I doing right now? Mostly going through the scenes I had already finished and  taking the opportunity to add some small things I hadn't at first because  the time/result balance wasn't in favor of doing them. But I'm also noticing some small things I hadn't at first. That's the advantage of not looking at something for awhile. When you come back to it, it's almost like you're seeing it for the first time and pick up things you hadn't noticed at first. 

It usually is something like a head which is too big or a skin color which isn't entirely fitting anymore when combined with a darker background. Simple stuff, but still the sort of thing which can be a timesink. So I'm doing that sorta thing right now. When that's finished I'm going to work on the art for the final build of this route. 

I've also had to take measures against getting thin skin this week. Literal thin skin. If you'd ever see me draw for a few minutes you'd probably have to puke. I zoom and rotate pics so often it's like a roller coaster. I mostly use my left index finger which races along the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, but the skin on that finger started getting reeeally sensitive. I try using my other finger, but that one just isn't positioned right relative to the mouse wheel.  I came up with a solution which is more of an improvement than a solution, but still much better.  

I already told you guys I'm pretty much a dumping grounds for family who has an old pc etc so I rummaged through my collection of old mice and found what I was looking for among them. Now naturally this just happened to be the one mouse whose scrolling wheel was broken, so I had to fix that first (using glue, a screwdriver and a sharp knife.) 

What was so special about this mouse which I wanted to try out? It has a rubberized concave wheel instead of hard and convex one! And that... helps a lot. I'll sketch up a quick example for you to instantly see what I mean.

I'm still trying to use my ring finger (instead of the sensitive index one) to scroll as much as I can, but whenever I do forget, this new mouse wheel is much preferable.

If there's anything to take away from this update, it's the following. 

We're not out of the woods yet, but we're slowly walking in that general direction and I hope/expect to end this month with a fresh new build which doesn't smell of overworked coder. And that's a good thing because my motivation takes a hit if I don't know when or if something will get done. I'll admit it, I'm the sort of person who likes to have dates and schedules and can become fidgety without them.

Peace!