Happy New Year!
2023 was a year of big changes for me. The biggest change has been teaming up with Erabit Studios. We've been figuring out how to work together, and so far it's been great. We have a lot of things in the works that I'm sure Methods fans will be super excited about. It's great to have more hands on deck to help me with marketing, merch, and community management while I'm busy with development.
Now for my yearly project round-up — here's the current status of projects under development!
CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT
Wow, my estimation on how long File 02 would take last year was EXTREMELY off! One month per file seems like utter insanity now. Who knew five chapters could be so challenging to write?
With two Files completed, I do have a better sense of the parts of development I get stuck on the most, and how long things take me on average. Hopefully I can complete Canada Files this year. That's my main priority. After that, I will have to re-evaluate my plans.
ON HOLD
It seems like every year Broken Spirits gets pushed back, which is a bit sad. But I think that's due to how ambitious my plans are for that game, it's intimidating to start on it, knowing that it could easily turn into a three or even five year-long project. I do feel that my next project after Canada Files needs to be non-Methods related, so that I don't feel too creatively stagnant. Unlike last year, I'm being more realistic, and putting it on hold.
ON HOLD
I actually have most of the sets and characters I need to finish Act One of the story already. It's just about finding the time. So maybe this is the project I'll work on after completing Canada Files.
I stuck to my goal of "focus" for the year, and did not get sidetracked by other projects like in 2022, for the most part.
However, I did set aside a few days to make a short game called Death's End, and two weeks in order to help compose the soundtrack for a game I collaborated with other mystery visual novel developers on. It turned out to be very worth it, because to my surprise, our soundtrack won the award for Best Original Soundtrack in the Spooktuber 2023 VN Jam.
My new goal for the year is "time management". It feels like something I struggle with every year. I know I feel my best when I'm productive, and yet I still get distracted by Youtube and Twitter. Even blocking them doesn't last long — I always end up right back there. It feels like a battle I'm always waging against myself.
So this new goal is about being aware of how much time I spend doing things, which will in turn hopefully lead to spending that time more productively. The addictive nature of those websites makes time feel like it's going faster, so it's easy to lose sight of how long I'm actually spending there. With awareness, better self-control will hopefully follow.
Here's to another year of mysteries!
Until next time,
— LockedOn.
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