Nine Longwinter Wallpapers (Patreon)

Dear heroes,

Hello and welcome to this month of December. No excuses left, winter is truly here. I've prepared 10 illustrations from Longwinter for your use as wallpapers on screens or, if you print them out, the walls of your work-from-home halls.

Last week, after completing v0.99 of Longwinter, I gave myself a mild staycation. I could feel my energy and enthusiasm waning, an early symptom of the burnout blues I suspect, and I knew there'd be an after-project depression to combat. So I decided to pre-empt the whole thing with a few days off to recuper and recoverate. In the event, some administration (joys of bureaucracy!), some introspection (joys of inner voices!), and some wifely wisdom (thank you for being smarter than me, dear), demanded that I extend my time away from writing and creating a little longer. Nigh a whole week.

It was the right choice.

Finishing a big book is always hard, and at 200+ pages Longwinter is big. For me, anyway. I knew there'd be some last-minute tweaks and adjustments, and some errors and mistakes produced in the last-days-rush.

So it was:

• a couple of misaligned sections in the referee's book
• the requisite typos and inconsistencies
• three pictures I forgot to include
• two additional pictures I decided to add (haha, sure, scope creep, sure)
• a redone cover (since I confess, my skills have grown since the original cover back in 2018).

I also took the time to discuss production with Matt from Exalted Funeral. I have to get some last details ironed out, but we should be able to send out the book for pre-print final layout checks and then see about a physical print run in the next couple of months. I'll keep you posted on that.

Concretely, this week, though, should see the heroes receive the final, gussied-up v1.0 of Longwinter. That same version will be available on itch.io and dtrpg.com for non-patreons (un-heroes?) ... though I haven't decided on the price yet (suggestions welcome, direct message preferred).

And, in good news, the bit of a break has also rekindled my excitement for completing Seacat. And Holy Mountain Shaker. And Dark Prologue. And Red Sky. And, in the back of my mind, Heavenmaker. And a new little DM-less game I have in mind. But, I'll try not burn out, and work slow, bit by bit.

It had been too many weeks and days of feeling like I wasn't doing enough every day and pushing myself to write and draw later than I should have, followed by waking up later than I should have liked.

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Here's hoping your December is dawning fine, that Saint Nicholas has been gezellig unto u, and that you're staying staying safe and well.

—Luka, a room, tier 2.5 anti-pandemic measures, Seoul, Winter.