Progress Report #59 - Weird, hard times... (Patreon)

Hey lads!

First of all - I'm sorry, but this post will be quite lengthy and chaotic (I've always played Chaos in  the Warhammer games, so habits and stuff, you know how it is), so I wonder how many people will actually bother to read it :v But thanks a lot to anyone who bothered!

I've been postponing writing this progress report for some time already, because a lot of stuff happened, so also a lot of stuff piled up. VLDL lads kinda encouraged me to get my shit together, thus there are few things I feel that I need to share with you, since there's no point in delaying the inevitable and also I feel like like being honest with you all, since you are the ones supporting me and allowing me to work freely on the Unaware of the World. This post will be split in 2 parts - about my situation and about the game itself, so if you don't want to read about my problems, then just scroll to the bottom.

Basically, there's been a lot of stress lately in my life and a lot of stuff happened, so my efficiency dropped "a bit". I've been also suffering from insomnia, so some of you might have noticed me being online on Discord in weird hours (6 am, lol), but in the last few days I managed to finally sleep normally, so I'm getting better. I've been always a guy working under a constant pressure, so I'm resistant and used to it, but it was too much this time, I guess.

While I feel mostly fine after recent covid, my wife was bedridden for like 1,5 month (she doesn't get paid while she's not working) and in danger of losing her job, but last week she finally managed to beat this crap and get back to work, so we are saved.

Pandemic was a real bitch to almost everyone in the world, so I'm not gonna whine about it, but it took it's toll on me big time, too.

Then we have a war going on next-door. I live in eastern Poland, not so far from the border with Belarus and Ukraine, and lately I hear more of the Ukrainian language on the streets than Polish, lol. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against helping Ukrainians, but it will be a major hit to the polish economy (which is already devastated after pandemic) and there's nothing we can do about it. Prices are already skyrocketing like crazy and it will be much, much worse here, especially if war escalates. Fleeing the country is not an option for me, so I'm gonna stay if anything happens.

I've visited a few doctors, did a few check-ups, and aside from various health problems (which I'm already dealing with and feeling better!), the doctor diagnosed me with recurrence of depression and prohibited me to work (which is bullshit). I refused to take any drugs (not gonna deal with that shit) and I will fight it my own way, as always. And obviously I'm not gonna drop this project, since it's my only income, and I'm not gonna waste my time on doing nothing or playing computer games 24/7.

Everything above sounds pretty shitty, I know, but it's been worse and I'm getting better already. Spring officially started, for last few days I have cloudless skies with 15C degrees temperatures instead of 5C as a week ago, so my mood improved big time. Upcoming weekend I'll be leaving my town for a small 2-day trip, for the very first time since 2019. I decided that I want to do something with my life and to move forward. Due to my disability, travelling anywhere and even daily activities are a real nightmare, that's why from time to time I'm working on gadgets in my dad's workshop, to make life easier. And finally I feel confident enough of them to give this trip a go. Yeah, I'm like a Bat-Man, aside for them not looking fancy at all (or rather like a real garbage) and they don't increase my fighting capabilities either, but it's something!

Ok, enough of whining, let's get to the project itself.

If you have read the above, that's precisely why sex content in the game was so scarce lately and you still didn't get to see the promised Ben content. We have a lot of drafts, plans, some roadmaps etc., but I couldn't force myself to animate and script the sex content...  I'm a workaholic and despite all my problems I'm still totally fine with doing raw programming, that's why instead of crying I focused on technical stuff of the project, like fixing bugs, increasing stability, performance and finally porting project to newer Unity version, so I didn't slack that much during this time. Porting project to newer Unity version gave me more tools and ways to add new features, since Unity devs abandoned the Unity version I've been working on last year and that caused a lot of problems, so it's a really good thing that I managed to do it, and better now than later.

Starting next month I'm gonna change Patreon's currency from USD to EURO. There are 2 main reasons for that. Firstly, majority of my patrons use Euro, so you won't have to pay extra tax for conversion. Secondly, Euro is more stable and all surrounding countries use Euro, so it's safer. Sorry about that.

My graphic artists also didn't waste their time (ok, maybe a little, since they have a habit of slacking whenever I'm not around), so they are working on future updates already. On screens above you have WIP sneakpeak of upcoming (dunno when) metro which will allow a fast travel between south (Main Street) and north (Slums), but mainly add few sex events.

There are also few features I've been working on, but not gonna talk about them right now, since I still don't know how many of them will get to see the sunlight (I might have to scrap them), but there's one upcoming neat feature I've been kept being asked about for quite some time and I'll reveal it in the next progress report (still this month) once it's more polished up.

Since I'm feeling a bit better, I slowly resumed working on the sex stuff, so there should be some for v0.25, but I wonder how it will turn out in the end. I'm focusing mostly on the Slums and Jane being homeless here, but I might add something along the way. Regarding Ben, I have it much harder on trying to focus on lovey-dovey stuff right now, so this awesome lad has to wait a bit longer. Sorry.

I've spent a lot of time working on v0.24c, so please treat it as a part of v0.25 update. Thus v0.24c won't be shared with the public this month, but v0.24b will be instead. Patrons from previous month can access v0.24c normally.

I'm gonna add a few new re-colors of existing clothes in v0.25, so if you want to see any specific colors, please let me know!

Yeah, I know this is pretty shitty news and please don't treat this post as asking for sympathy or more money - I fully accepted my "awesome" situation, and it's not the first, nor the last, time I've encountered such problems. My mood was pretty foul lately and it still is bad to be honest. I just had to take it out off my shoulders and explain why updates are mostly focused on technical stuff, but I'm not giving up and I'm gonna keep working, although a bit less efficiently than usually, again. 

All of us have various problems, but it's all about not giving up, finding a way to get up and move forward. "After every night there's always a morning" - one of my favorite quotes.

Big thanks to everyone who stayed until the end of this post, and even bigger thanks to everyone who still supports me despite all the problems! Thank you! You are the best!

Here's a bonus with mentioned VLDL lads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8if3TZJfcY