Dev Log - April 2026 (Patreon)

Hi all,

Advance warning, there’s going to be very little in the way of actual development update here, you know… vacation and other reasons that will become clear.

Obviously, I’m back from my vacation to Hong Kong (and have been for about a week).

It was hot (read: really fucking humid), overly busy and generally exhausting, with trips out and hitting 20k+ steps every single day. I’ve come back covered in blisters which still haven’t healed, and for the first time in my life, mosquitos decided I’m tasty and taken a few chunks out of me. Because it's so busy, the only time you get to sit down during the day is when you're eating or the rare time you get a seat on the metro. As a result, my calves still hurt, even a week later.

I took my kid to both major theme parks, three different museums, a cable car ride through the hills during some pretty intense wind that made me glad I'd updated my will recently, the giant buddha, many a shopping mall to buy toys to keep him (and me) happy and literally touched the clouds a few times.

I wish I could say that I was so exhausted that sleep came easy when the days were done, but my in-laws’ apartment where we stayed is so hot even with the AC on, and in such a busy noisy area, that even after going to bed basically naked and with earplugs in, the sleep still sucked balls.

But despite all that, it was still a lot of fun, and I can't grumble too much because other than the flight itself, we didn't spend a penny thanks to the in-laws. Still... please let the next vacation, whenever that may be, be a chill by the pool/beach one.

That was the fun part of the personal life section of this blog, now the not so fun part.

Yesterday, I learned that I am going to lose my full-time job. It seems that my company - in a long line of baffling decisions they have made - has decided to make my entire team redundant for reasons I won’t go into, other than say they it might be the most mind-boggling decision I’ve witnessed them make yet.

I don’t know anything else yet: when my last day will be, how much redundancy pay I will receive, whether I’ll be required to work my notice period or get paid in lieu. Hopefully, I’ll know more soon once individual consultation meetings start. But yeah, looks like my life is going to be upheaved for the first time in seven years, I guess.

And I have very mixed feelings about it.

Firstly, it’s the longest job I’ve ever had, and the one I made the most progression in, and I was once proud to say I worked there… so part of me is sad.

But over the past few years it grew to be a truly awful place to work fuelled only by faceless corporate greed with no care for either its staff or its customers, only profit, and I was ashamed of what it had become. Besides, everyone I gave a shit about who worked there, already got out. So, part of me is happy.

The only reason I kept it up all this time, is that allowed me to be flexible enough to work from home, be more present as a husband and a father, in turn, also meant I got to spend more time developing Origin Story. But my god was it soul destroying, and I hated it so much. So, maybe letting it go might be the best thing for me.

I’m lucky that, thanks to my supporters, I have the money I earn from working on the game to fall back on to, which is more than I can say for the rest of my team who will be fucked. The trouble is, after all the expenses of Origin Story, the music, the assets, the paying translators, paying off my new PC, the fees for all the different shit I have to use etc…… what is left is only about a third of what I’ll need to survive, pay my mortgage and put food on the table (and that’s with my wife’s salary as well). So, part of me is fucking terrified.

I intended to reduce my hours to part time anyway, because I wanted more time to dev but knew I couldn't afford to let it go completely. But that idea is now out of the window, and it’s likely that I’ll need to get another job, even if its only part time to make up the short fall. But maybe Steam will save me. Cross your fingers. Maybe, this might end up being me plunging into full time dev without even planning it.

For the next few months, things are going to be very much up in the air, and probably a little rocky for me. I’m cutting back on some of my expenses and may have to be a little more frugal when it comes to buying Daz assets and such.

As a result, I’m trying to think of some ways to generate a little more cashflow to support me. You may have noticed that the “shop” tab is now available on my patreon. What I’ll be selling through there, is bespoke custom renders whenever you want, without the obligation of a God/Legend/Omega tier subscription. Same rules apply as the customs you would get through subscription (you can preview those by clicking on the product).

Unfortunately, Patreon has made some changes to the way you sell products since the last time I looked into this, and now when you add a new product, its presented as a typical Patreon post. Once you pay for that post, you can’t pay for it again. So, if you were the type to desire multiple custom renders, you couldn’t do it that way.

So, what I’m thinking of doing, is every month - or maybe twice a month - releasing a new “product” which will be an exclusive special render that also comes with the option to submit a custom request. So, for instance, if you buy that one post that’s currently there, I’ll not only make you a custom, but you’ll also get access to that special render too.

Sure, it’ll mean more time making customs and specials, but it sounds like time is something I’m not going to be short of soon.

I know this is not an option to many of you. But for those of you who are in a position to support me that way, the option is there.

Before I get on to the last bit, I wanted to take the time, as usual, to thank all of you for supporting me in whatever way you do, even if that is not financially. Be it word of mouth, reviews, wishlists, voting for me in polls, whatever… Thanks to you guys, I’m not as colossally fucked as I could have been right now.

Ok, time for the briefest of updates on Chapter 10.

Render count is currently 1011. Roughly 300 since last update is pretty good considering I was away for half of it, I think. I left my render rig running when I left for the airport and it was still going when I came back. Naturally, I’m a bit of a workhorse and sucker for punishment, so I was still working a little in the evenings on vacation after the wife had fallen asleep with some writing and proofreading. But you'll be pleased to know that I took some of that private time to just chill too. Just me and the latest updates of Office Perks, Race of Life and I Was A Teenage Vampire (all great).

In terms of actual content involved. I’m in the middle of posing a very big “training session” scene right now, which has a few variations of events that can happen depending on choice. I expect I’ll be working on that for a little while longer but it’s 270 renders long already. After that, there's two more big-ish scenes that I won’t give away, and a bunch of other smaller scenes still to go. And, to end on a tease, the Lake fans are going to have her reappearance to look forward to.

Ok, that’s it. Bye and wish me luck!