Blog XXVI - December Retrospective

Hey, everyone! Fae here, and welcome to 2026! I hope you’ve had a lovely holiday period and new year. This year’s shaping up to be a big one for Void Dreaming!

While there’s no update build today (I’d like to give the one I’m working on another week or so to cook, if that’s alright by you all), there’s still a new short story up for the Patreon supporters, featuring everyone’s favourite 2IC: Caleia! In the meantime, let’s get stuck into the transparency update for the month and see where the project stands, and where we’re headed!

State of Affairs

December proved to be a difficult month for me. While the health issues that were plaguing me did wind down, the day job wound up being more difficult that usual in the last lingering weeks of the work year. This wound up setting me back a bit more than I’d like, but some essential work did wind up getting done. Day 8 continues to make me suffer, but this month wound up being all about the bug fixing and corrections… necessary work, but not good when I want to move forward.

Still, we can get to that shortly. Let’s look at the monthly stats; those are much rosier!

 - Since the initial release, Void Dreaming’s various versions have been downloaded from Itch.io over 15.4k times now. There were a lot of update builds (with another to come!) for Day 4 so that may have inflated the number somewhat, but I’m glad that more people are enjoying the project!

 - The project’s 5-star rating on Itch continues to hold for another month! While still technically a 4.9 (4.92, as it happens!) the 292 total reviews include 279 perfect 5-star ratings. Every kind word that’s been posted to the Itch in reviews and comments is read and appreciated!

 - The Patreon support for Void Dreaming has picked up a little bit, though I expect if Day 4’s release had been more stable that it would have done better! We’re up to 265 active subs now, and 32 of those subs are subbed at the higher Officer tier to better help Void Dreaming out. While the subcount is up overall, the decrease in Officer tier subs is definitely slowing the income growth there. Still, I’m grateful for any and all support the readers offer me; thank you so much for helping make Void Dreaming what it is!

 - Over on the Discord, we’re now up to a huge 590 members there. Between bugreports, typo notes, theorycrafting, chatting about all manner of things, and rampant memery both Void Dreaming related and not, there’s plenty of readers there to chat with. It’s great to have everyone hanging out there!

- And last but not least, we have the Void Dreaming Bluesky page, where we’re now up to 1029 followers! Between Youtube Let’s Plays of Void Dreaming, fanart, updates about Void Dreaming, and all the other wonderful projects I get to share around? There’s no better place to get your Void Dreaming news!

Transparency - December 2025

It’s time to give the monthly transparency update! It’s the start of a whole new month, so where are we at now that we’re getting into January?

Writing and Programming

 - Progress on the actual writing I need to do for the VN has been slowed considerably by the corrections necessary for the Day 4 and Day 5 builds released at the start of the month. As mentioned, it wound up being an absolute shitshow and dominated the first half of December which, combined with the day job, resulted in far less work being done to advance the project than I’d like. Between that and finishing the short story released today to the Patreon, December was probably my weakest month so far in over two years of working on Void Dreaming. I may be exhausted, but that’s no excuse. I look forward to rectifying this moving forward!

 - Bugfixing has been, as noted, everything this past month for better or worse. That said, I’ve begun to repopulate my testing team with some particular individuals that I believe will be able to help me considerably in this endeavour. They should be receiving Day 6 Part 1 builds soon to test, which should mean that Day 6 should be the start of builds being far more bug-free than more recent releases. It’s my hope that with their help, I’ll be able to ensure that the project you all get to read both on Patreon and on Itch is up to the standard that you deserve, rather than just the best I alone can do. Clearly that alone isn’t enough.

Art Assets

 - Rico’s been busy, and is only going to be busier soon! He’s got a lot of Day 7 and Day 8 backgrounds to work on, and I look forward to soon being able to give him Day 9-13 content to get to work on too. Exciting stuff!

 - Vallhound is about to dive into some big CG work for Day 6, as well as more spritework for Day 6+. And then, after that, we get into the real fun…

Project Finances

 - Patreon’s earnings have held strong as noted above, though I imagine they’d have been better if the Day 4 update wasn’t quite so messy. We’re now sitting at around AUD$1.92k per month at the time of writing. This is an increase on last month, and I’m immensely grateful for the support of everyone who’s helped to support Void Dreaming! Given how many cool things I want to get done over 2026, every cent you support the project with is gratefully received; this time next year, I hope you’ll agree with me that Void Dreaming is really hitting its stride, and it’s all thanks to its generous supporters!

January’s Goals

 - Ideally finish the majority of Day 8 content and push into Day 9.

 - Coordinate testing of Day 6 Part 1 beta build for Feb release.

 - If time permits, begin outlining for April’s short story upload

Upcoming Main Updates:

Feb 7th: Day 6 - Inflection Part 1 (Patreon Release)

Mar 7th: Day 5 - Mendacity (Public Release), Day 6 Part 2 (Patreon Release)

Apr 4th:  Short Story Kindling (Patreon Release)

Release Plan Status: On Target*

Well, that asterisk is sticking around a lot longer than I’d like, but I’m kind of getting used to it being there, honestly. That’s not to say I like it, but I need to make sure I’m being completely honest and transparent with you all with the project. Void Dreaming is, after all, a massive undertaking and biting off more than I can chew is absolutely my thing.

That said, I’m confident that the completion of the project is not just within my power, but will also be very vindicating when the time comes. Day 8 has taught me a lot about forward planning and the nature of my work, and I can now see more clearly the roadblocks that will be in my immediate future. As much as Day 8 is a struggle now, I can see Days 9 through 14 being vastly easier than anything that’s come before. And they’ll need to be, since Days 15 and 16 (and the finale epilogue) are going to require everything I’ve learned and more. This Day 8 struggle is painful, but necessary.

2026 is a new year, and we’re coming up on the anniversary of Void Dreaming’s launch in April as well. I have a hope that there’ll be a nice little update for the project for it, but I don’t want to promise anything just yet. It’ll depend on whether or not there’s sufficient funds in the project to do it, and if I can get the right help to see it done. Fingers are crossed, but we’ll have to wait and see for now!

And on that note, it’s time I got back to work. This is going to be a massive year and there’s a lot of Void Dreaming to enjoy between now and this time next year, but not if I slack around in blog posts! I’ve got stakes to raise, twists to implement, code to correct, and your favourite blorbos to torment.

Don’t worry. Tormenting them hurts me, too.

Until next time, stars guide you.

 - Faora