The Current State of Adastra and Build 10 (Patreon)

A small teaser for the CG in the next build. Art is by the wonderful Haps.

First of all, I absolutely hate doing this. I've been debating over the past few hours to release what I have, or continue to polish it up. I know I've done double delays in the past, and it's extremely unprofessional of me to do it again, but I just can't release this build in its current state. I have to admit that I'm going through some intense writer's block at the moment, along with some other personal issues.

This might be familiar to some of you that have been around since the early days of Echo. I would sometimes have to take a month or two off due to struggling with getting updates out consistently. While I like to keep my personal life private, I did open up about having severe OCD during one of these times. Due to the frustration that comes with not being able to write as well as I'd like to, it flares up. This results in me writing, deleting, re-writing, and even performing silly, lengthy, mental and physical rituals (compulsions) that make the writing process rather torturous and honestly sometimes make me feel as if I'm going insane. I don't want this to sound like I'm looking for pity due to the missed update, but rather, I feel I owe it to you to let you know why this is taking so long.

This seems to happen around the same time every year, but it's always been temporary. Actually, what got me out of the funk last time was focusing on Adastra which took my mind off of Echo for a little while.

So here's a list of what I'm going to be doing:

1. I will absolutely be releasing Build 10 on October 5th. With the state of completion that it's in at the moment, I have no excuse not to. I simply want to go back and really think through the pacing and story, and also give it more length, as it's currently shorter than the average update.

2. This is the one I hate to do most: I will put Adastra on a one month hiatus, so there will be no update in October (aside from what should have been September's Build 10). Instead, I will focus on The Smoke Room to help get the creative juices flowing again, and which I plan to release on Halloween. Updates for Adastra will resume in November with Build 11.

3. I will pause payments for October since there will be no Adastra update and I want every current patron to have a chance to download it, so you will not be charged next month. There will still be an Echo build along with the first demo of The Smoke Room.

Again, I apologize for this, and I honestly should have seen it coming back when I announced the first delay. Hopefully you'll stick around to see what happens next in the story. I can't thank you guys enough for your support. Your enthusiasm and eagerness for Adastra is what keeps me going, and is honestly what makes this announcement so difficult!

I also want to say that while I've been struggling with the story lately, I think I've found the right path to the end of Amicus's story. There's a good amount left, but we'll soon be heading into the final act!

See you guys on the 5th.

-Howly