A Personal Update (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to make a proper post explaining why things have been a little quiet lately.

First, some good things.

At the start of February, Adam came to visit, and we got to spend some time hanging out in person. It was honestly really nice just getting to exist in the same space for a bit and show him more of my life over here. We went around, explored, and of course, I made sure he tried a bunch of British foods. Most importantly, though, he had his first-ever Indian meal, which felt like a very important cultural milestone. It was a really fun visit, and I’m glad we got that time together.

Unfortunately, February wasn’t just that.

The month was also pretty difficult on a personal level. It’s not really a secret that for a long time, I’ve struggled with the lack of exposure my projects get. I put a lot of time, energy, and care into everything I make, and lately it’s been hard not to notice that engagement across platforms has been getting quieter. Social media likes and comments are down, and even in Discord, the conversation is often carried by the same regular people.

And I want to be very clear about something here. That is not shade toward those people. The people who do comment, talk, and show up consistently mean the world to me. I’m genuinely grateful for you and your support.

But at the same time, I do want the community to grow. I want new people discovering the projects, joining conversations, sharing excitement, and becoming part of this little creative space we’ve built. When that growth doesn’t seem to happen, it can start to feel like things are standing still.

Which leads into the harder part of this post.

Because of the lack of growth, the quiet posts, and the general feeling that the work wasn’t reaching people, I ended up spiralling a bit mentally during February. I hit a point where I was seriously considering stepping away from all of this completely. It felt like the one creative space I was most proud of building just… wasn’t worth people’s time or attention.

And when your brain gets into that space, it starts asking really unpleasant questions.Like maybe the work itself just isn’t that good.

Around the same time, I also had a conversation with someone about AI in creative spaces. They mentioned that people might assume I use AI to write stories or scripts.

I want to address that directly.

I do not use AI to write my stories, scripts, or narrative work.

The only place AI has ever been used in my projects is during the process of making music for things like VYRE or LEO. And even in those cases, I’m still doing a lot of the groundwork myself. I write the lyrics, record the melody vocals, and outline how the instrumental structure of the song should feel. The AI tools are only used to help assemble those pieces into a finished track because I’m not a professional audio engineer.

And even then, those songs are just something fun I like experimenting with. They aren’t monetized. They’re just a bit of creative whimsy.

But hearing that comment did get into my head. It makes me wonder whether people out there really do assume the writing is AI-generated. And if that’s the case… it’s honestly quite upsetting, because it would mean the thing I care most about creatively is being mistaken for something automated and stripped of all humanity.

When you combine all of that together, February ended up being a really rough month mentally.

But the important part is this.

I’m still here.

After sitting with everything for a while, I decided that instead of quietly giving up, I wanted to do the exact opposite. I wanted to push harder. I wanted to challenge myself creatively and prove to myself that the work I make has value.

Which is why I’ve spent the past few months learning Unreal Engine and building something new.

Instead of just imagining what these worlds could look like, I’ve started experimenting with what it would take to bring them to life as a fully realised narrative game.

And that’s what I’m really excited to show you all what's next.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around, supported the work, and believed in these projects even when things have been quiet. It genuinely means more than you probably realise.

Blayke <3