A Huge Wall of Random But Important Text (Patreon)

Sometimes, I question what I'm doing with my life. As some of you may know, the fault series started as a simple creative exercise - a mere workout regimen. I never anticipated any level of success. I assumed it was going to be a one-off project that would be read by perhaps 50 or so people, maybe even three digits if we were fortunate. Yet, fault milestone one, two A, and Mhakna combined have seen over 600,000 activations on Steam, with hundreds and thousands of people reading the series. My other ideas and stories eventually merged into fault's world, becoming part of the same project. Fused and bound, if you will. When I think of anything creative now, I think through the filter of the world of fault, and it's been this way for a while.

Fortunately, we now have a stable team. Every member is irreplaceable and highly devoted. Considering the circumstances and average age of our team, ALICE IN DISSONANCE is a miracle team, made up of individuals who are skilled, supportive, like-minded, and dedicated to the craft, regardless of monetary compensation. I use to think this level of commitment to the craft is what people call "passion" and perhaps it is with the right coating of paint. But it's only passion if the desired outcome can match the level of enthusiasm. Otherwise it's a curse. Or an obsession. These are all the same sentiments with different varieties of varnish.

We want more out of us. Because why? Why did we abandon the Visual Novel format? Why not just stick the landing with a format that made us who we are? I think it's because I never intended my life to be in Visual Novels. It was only meant to be a brief phase. A large part of why I insisted on visual story telling rather than written text in our games, stems from the fact that I've been a video guy prior to this endeavor and at the time at least, this style distinctly set us apart from other titles. But even before I was a video guy, I was a video game kid, then a video game teenager, and still now, a video game adult. Did I ever intend to be a video game creator?? No be frank, no. But of course I’m gonna have opinions about the genre.

The thing is, none of us were "game creators" until recently. We had ideas. We've seen the Extra Credits. We were silently critical of other games in our minds with many differing but passionate opinions on what they could have done better. We understood the theory and the jargon -- or so we thought. Like anything worth doing in life, knowing about something intellectually vs actually putting pen to paper is a completely different ballgame.

So why am I I bring this up today so randomly?

Folks, I am in a phase of my life what the laymen call, “latter 30’s.” In a few years I will be what the scientific community refers to as “40.” When I was a kid, I believed that “40” was retirement age. These people know what they're doing with their lives and they are wise. Once you're 40, you're mother-fucking set. Rest of life is just soaking in the success (yeah, I was a dumb kid). Asides from your back starting to hurt a bit, nothing really changes when you're focussed on a single project for so long. Time passes so quickly and slowly at the same time. You begin to notice how far apart you've diverged from people who have chosen a "normal" career path. They're focussed on things like families and saving up for their children and worrying about... I don't know? What do normal people worry about? Politics? Gas milage? The economy? End of the world? All paltry things when you're making a game you know?

Outside of Hare's routine artworks, we've tried heartily over the past 6 months or so to update our Patrons at least once a month regarding MS2’s progress. Being able to showcase progress visually is always at the back of our minds, but we keep encountering patches where there is no visual update. System-side things such as figuring out whether a particular action should be activated at the end of a long button hold, on release, or does the daily progress reward happen at the beginning of the day or the end?? are not particularly interesting things to discuss. The end of the month draws near, and the mind begins to race. "Is this normal??" We're easily working 12-16 hour days. We do the whole "prepping food for a whole week on Monday thing" to shave time off lunch so we can get back to work asap. Needing to go cut my hair is like the end of the world because it’s almost impossible to get back into flow. "What the hell am I doing with my life?” A mild sense of familiar panic sets in. Time slows to a crawl. Deep breaths that lead nowhere. Screen fades to black. Silence ensues.

Silence. I look around, and it's quiet, how can silence be so deafening?? What have I accomplished with my life? Am I proud of the situation that I'm in? I honestly don't know. I have literally have no idea because making games takes forever and the emotional ups and down during production can be unbearable. Then I remind myself that what we're doing is more than just about me and the team. There are still a couple of hundred of you here, patiently waiting for the continuation of the fault, and I try to fathom what that number signifies. I envision 200+ people. Some of you could be graduating school; some of you might be fighting with your partner, spouse, or work's boss. Some of you may be exultant that you've landed that promotion that you were reaching for, while others might be teetering on the brink of a depressive episode. Each one of you exists as an individual, living your own life, but tied together with a shared theme, your support for fault and the 3 girls that are just trying to go home. That’s something, right?. If there were 200+ people standing in group somewhere you would notice. If you rioted, you would make the news as a sizable group.

That's one thing I've learned that's really settled in my 30's (not the rioting bit, please don't riot). Even if you don't have children, you begin to understand that your life transcends beyond just yourself and your goals. You're connected to everything and everyone you've engaged with until that point, whether you like it or not. It engenders humility and focusses your attention on being grateful. That, of course, includes you, dear patrons. If it weren't for you, I probably would have given up a long time ago. In a roundabout way, you give Selphine, Ritona, and Rune life. When is all this gonna come to an end? I have no idea. But for now... I wanted to thank you all for sticking around.

We appreciate it.

-Munisix and the AiD Team

Some new Ritona idle animation for eye candy.

PS  Oh and to new folks, Vilserio. We hope you are doing well. Here's a quick TLDR of what's going on with us: We've shifted over to an 3rd person adventure style game where you are in control of the protagonist (in MS2b's case, Ritona). We're working hard on MS2b right now but we really don't know when it will be done. We have our eyes set for mastering up in about 8 months but that's just the Japanese side of things and we also don't really know if it will go by plan. The system mechanics that we are implementing for MS2b will become the basis for subsequent milestone series.

That's all for today folks.

Have a wonderful day.