It's been 84 years... (Battling the process, Itch.io keys, some cool stuff)

Olá! It's been a while since I stopped by with news, and I'm glad to see the locks haven't changed. Let's have a seat.

I usually write one of these every time I release a new chapter but I was so incredibly burned out then I don't think I'd have been capable of stringing together more than two cohesive sentences here.

The release of 4.0.0 and how I battled the process.

Against what some of you might think, in 2022, I wasn't working on MW just as a little side thing while focusing all of my efforts on my other, more... "profitable endeavors". Sometime in the first half of the year, I realized Chapter 4 would be no ordinary chapter, and it'd take a lot more work than I anticipated. I worked hard through those 18 months, and in the last four, I worked full time (sometimes 16 hours a day) just DREAMING to complete my vision. I'm pretty sure you folks are smarter than me, so I'll let you all do the math. If I worked hard for 18 months and four of those full-time, how much work really had to be done? How much did I have to battle the process to push 4.0.0 out?

On top of family issues and hardware/software problems, I amassed violent amounts of debt, got burned out to the point even my ashes were no longer material and neglected several vital aspects of my life just to satiate the hunger for making something I was proud of, all in four months. Those four months felt like eons as I struggled with my mind playing tricks on me whispering how it was never going to end, and that was now what my life was going to be -- forever. The payoff to all that work? Well...

In the two and a half years since I released MW, generally speaking, this is by far my best month/phase. I have money in the bank and no unpaid bills, two computers to work on, and a stack of scripts written by a more versed iteration of me. To top it all off, I have enough money for a Steam release!

Not only that, but because I had to push myself so much, I feel like I now see every process differently. Things that were hard for me last year now feel like a cakewalk. Things that were unfeasible before now feel... feasible? This whole thing seems like it was my anime training arc. Do you guys remember me saying I wasn't going to rework earlier chapters because they amounted to more than a thousand renders? Guess what, while working on 4.0.0, I threw 1/4 of that away because I just didn't like the end result (some fully rendered animations, too). No joke, I can rework those thousand renders in my sleep now. It's so amazing for me to be able to look back and see how much I'm learning and adapting.

To quote me, "I started this whole thing by just throwing stuff together hastily without any prior knowledge of how it's supposed to be or any definitive direction. After working tirelessly for years, I feel like I've finally matured as a writer and my head is exactly where it needs to be, creatively. I feel more than ready to bring some really next-level stuff to the table. My work loop has been completely refined, and I have a deep process for every step of building a chapter update." (You can find this on my "information hub" on F95Zone, or, very soon, on my Devlog/FAQ on Itch.io)

This month I finally took a breather, went back to playing the guitar, tried beating Devil May Cry 5's bloody palace, wrote new stuff, and tomorrow, February 1st, I'm coming back stronger than ever.

This month wasn't all about goofing around, though. I've already begun writing Chapter 5, and I've finished writing the new short story, which I'm gonna be unveiling soon, so stay tuned!

Special thanks.

At the release of 4.0.0. I thought about giving every one of my patrons a key for the Itch.io version of Mad World. I wanted to do this sneakily as a way of thanking everyone who's been supporting me and to make sure everybody got a key to that version before I upped the game's price from $1 to $14,99 forever. I realized I was about to miss an opportunity for some real businessman -- pro gamer marketing strat.

So, if you're interested in getting access to Mad World on Itch.io, make sure you're subbed to my Patreon before February 5th. You can opt for the slickity slick approach and just be subbed on February 5th (UTC-3), get your key at a discount, and unsub right after to make sure I don't charge you the next month. That'll work, too (though I'm really hoping you won't).

The Itch.io version means all-access to every bit of special stuff I release for MW... forever. Permanent access. All included. Cool, right?

Make no mistake, though. Right now, there is no difference between the free version and the Itch.io version, yet. Still, considering it's a one-time payment to get everything I put in that version forever, it's a bargain if you ask me (although I might be slightly biased).

Next steps.

Those cut animations I mentioned? You didn't seriously believe I threw them away, did you? Heh.

I have a lot of animations I made in 2022 that I'll be sharing with you guys in my little "Animation Workshop" very soon. Really cool ones that I'm sure to use in-game someday... still, if you'd like to see those sooner, make sure you're subbed.

Tomorrow, I'll be officially starting my work on 4.1.0 and, soon after, Chapter 5. Expect more reworks, too.

Despite my fears and concerns, all my effort was not in vain. If February is at least half as good as January was, we're looking at a very bright future for this project and all future ones.

Thanks to your kind support, I'm still at it.