Hey Kinoko fans!

This time last month, I used this blog to formally announce the release of our first public, playable demo… and since then, I’m afraid to say that I’ve barely worked on it! It was always the plan that I’d take a short break from developing the game, but I guess burnout finally caught up with me (as did a few health issues; I’m officially classed ‘overweight’ for the first time in my nearly 32 years!), making the very idea of sitting down and working on the game feel temporarily quite repulsive.

Immediately before succumbing to burnout, I began implementing a new ‘command mode’ for starsprites. I’m not sure I really knew how I felt about it at the time, but now I can see that it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I implemented a way of selecting an ‘active starsprite’, then activating the ‘command mode’ in order to call on a starsprite to use its ability. It worked well enough, but subconsciously I hated it, even if I didn’t really know how to feel about it at the time. It was enough to put me off working on the game for over a month – but it wasn’t until I booted up Godot again on Monday evening, after a long canal-side walk, and stripped the whole thing out, that I realised just how much I disliked it.

On top of that, seeing myself labelled ‘overweight’ for the first time, as well as suffering three times this year already from a health issue that I won’t go into here, has been a bit of a wake up call. Since December 2023, when the worst imaginable tragedy befell my family and I, I’ve treated myself terribly. I’ve shut myself off socially, and I’ve put an insane amount of junk into my body. I’ve put on nearly 30 pounds in the last 14 months. I feel disgusting. I’ve actually been having a hard time fitting into my favourite clothes. In fact, I’ve been feeling so rubbish for so long, I’m actually rather amazed I was able to keep going for as long as I did.

I suppose it was wanting to get the demo out that kept me going. The moment we did, my mind and body had had enough!

So… where does that leave the game?

Well, Chelsey’s been taking a break too, since releasing the demo, but she’s been back on it for a couple of weeks now. She’s currently working on some new starsprite animations, which I have to say are coming along brilliantly. She’s also recently dropped pages three and four of our Galaxy and Blackhole comic, finally unveiling more of their story. She’s been working with Strymes, our go-to musician and sound artist, on some starsprite sound effects too, which we’re excited to try out in-game. On that front, things are progressing very nicely once more!

As for me, I’m slowly getting back into the rhythm of things – but my priority right now is sorting out my lifestyle. I’m drinking lots more water, lots less of everything else. I’m trying to eat better. I’m getting up earlier (not ten minutes before work starts, like I was doing before), and I’m using my lunch breaks to go for long walks around the park. I’m back at the gym too – I don’t have a routine yet, but I want to try and get into the habit of going three regular nights a week – and I’m thinking ahead to maybe getting a new tattoo as a reward for myself when I’m in better shape and don’t have to feel embarrassed getting it done.

Now that we’re both back on the development of the game, we ought to have a more interesting update for our blog next month. I think we both really just needed a break, after pushing ourselves to finally release a demo we were happy with, but we’ve had one now, and we’re excited to be working on the starsprites ahead of our second demo release. We’re not working to a deadline, but we’re very much eager for feedback on the new systems we’re developing, so hopefully you’ll see something on that front in the summer.

Until then, we thank you very much for your continued support!