29/05/18: Temporary Hiatus (Patreon)

So some of you may have heard from Discord or FA, but I'm taking a couple of weeks off from game development while I get my head together; on the 27th my father passed away suddenly in the house, I'm afraid to say. He was waiting for a heart operation and I guess it wasn't scheduled fast enough, and despite the very fine efforts of the paramedics... yeah. 

So as you can imagine, I'm not in the best of states right now; this project started originally because I elected to take care of him in his declining health over getting a job and such, and most of my days were spent between the two activities; it gave me something to do in the downtime while staying at home, and to my and especially dad's joy it started to take off. He was really happy that I could get to do what I wanted and be able to live on doing it, and though he didn't know the exact nature of the game (if you get my meaning) it was a worry he'd had since I started taking care of him that I wasn't able to live my own life; thanks to you guys and your support he was markedly happier in these last couple of months knowing I was working toward something cool, so from the bottom of my heart thank you for that. I only wish I'd thought to communicate that to everyone before this happened.

I want to stress this isn't the end of the project; my wish to carry on has if anything only increased, partly to give myself a distraction of course but also because its something I want to do, it's like meditiation to me doing this animating and coding and everything. But a friend said to me, or warned me rather, that I should take some time to keep work from my mind in this period until things are less destroyed, lest I start associating doing my work with the feelings surrounding this and that takes my enjoyment away from it. The last thing I want to do is ruin the thing I love doing most, and I think on the whole it's a better idea to err on the side of caution at least until me and mum are out of the shock.

I just attempted to carry on and talk about how mum is dealing with this, but I'm afraid I just can't; needless to say she's decimated. My aunt, her sister, is staying for a few days to help her out and such and I'm directing my efforts to doing the same; you wouldn't believe the paperwork forced upon you in a time like this, thank god they're both very savvy in that department! 

So yeah, couple of weeks and I'll start up again, just until the worst of this is over, but for now thank you all again; I can't stress enough what it meant to him to know his son was doing alright finally, and what it means to me that you all provided that for him. 

Have a good day everyone, 

-S