Hey Kinoko fans!

This time last month, I used this blog to write about succumbing to burnout immediately after releasing our first playable demo, and the steps that I was beginning to take in order to try and overcome it. In that post, I mentioned that I’d put on nearly 30 pounds in weight since losing my brother, and all the things I had begun doing to try and shift it, so I could improve my mood and get back to the game…

And things are going well! Really well!

I’ve been walking a lot, and that’s already having an incredible impact on my mental wellbeing. I bought myself some wireless earbuds, so I can take them out on walks with me and listen to the radio. I started out with daily 30 to 45 minute walks to the local park and back, but I’ve since plotted out a bunch of walks that I can do in my one-hour lunch break, in order to really make the most of my time, and I’ve been avoiding the weekly grocery shop for as long as I can in favour of daily evening walks to the shop instead. I’ve been counting my calories for the last three weeks, averaging 1,640 a day over 21 days, which, combined with all the physical activity, is resulting in a decent calorie deficit each day.

One of my favourite new pastimes has become walking to the coffee shop for an Americano – except that instead of going to the local one five minutes away, I go to the one two miles up the road, so that I can earn my 20 calorie coffee by burning 350 on the walk there and back.

The result of all these walks? A loss of nine pounds for starters!

I’ve also started using Asana to organise my life a bit, with a view to eventually using it with Chelsey, in order to try and give the game a bit of much-needed project management. I’ve stopped procrastinating when it comes to dealing with my freelancing responsibilities (I’m lucky my clients have been so patient and so compassionate with me!), and I’ve also started decluttering the house. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned it in this blog, but our office has been out of bounds for a year, and we’ve been working out of our living room. I tore down the wallpaper in the midst of my grief, hoping to give myself something practical to focus on, only to realise too late that I’m not a decorator. I’ve finally hired one, so we should be back in the office – and have our living room back – within the month.

But, as important as all that stuff is, what I really wanted to get out of all these life improvements was to be able to overcome my burnout and get back on track with the development of the game – and I’m getting there. I’ve managed to work on it quite a bit this month. I finished developing a new mechanism for selecting and switching between starsprites, and I’m nearly finished working on introducing a way to dismiss them. Once that’s done, it’ll be full steam ahead with castable starsprite abilities. As great as the feedback from our first playable demo was, players were rightfully confused about what starsprites are supposed to do, and to that I say ‘just you wait!’

Chelsey, meanwhile, is currently busy working on the final part of the Galaxy and Blackhole prequel comic, which so far has shown the rise of Galaxy, her abandonment of her firstborn star, and the birth of Blackhole. When the final page drops, you’ll finally discover exactly what happened to Galaxy – with the biggest tease we’ve ever dropped as to what happens next, and the direction in which the Cult of Galaxy franchise is headed.

And that’s pretty much where we’re at. We’ve got a lot done this month, but I’ve got a feeling that June’s going to be even better, now that I’m in a much better place mentally and easing my way gently out of burnout. I’ll be making a start on starsprite abilities next week, and Chelsey will be contributing art and animations for that, so hopefully we’ll have something really interesting and visual to show off again in time for next month’s blog post.

Until next time, we hope you enjoy the sun. Happy summer!