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The weekend is finally here again~

I finally got to actually relax with virtually no work last week. It's been really nice.

My store has gone very quiet without American customers, which is generally a bad thing but right now specifically for me, it does kinda line up nicely for giving me a break 😂 I still get a few orders here and there from other countries but it's really cut the workload down.

From what I've heard, 25 countries have stopped shipping to the US entirely. When or if these self imposed 'sanctions' will end, only time will tell. There's no reliable communication about any of this. I suppose all I can say is that I'm glad I'm on break and that my store is basically empty right now anyway!

aside from that, I've mostly just been spending time with Willow, friends, and family. I've gotten to meet my friend's new baby for the first time, which was really nice. They're doing so well and I know they'll be great parents. Willow's doing great too! We are struggling a little bit with 'scarf and barf' tendencies, but a new feeding mat seems to be really helping [ It's only been one day though haha ]

I don't have a pic of her using it but it looks like this:

So now she has kibbles available at all times on the tricky mat, and wet food for dinner. No barfs yet! [ I'm pretty sure the issue was overeating because, sorry for the gross TMI, but the sheer volume of her poops and the barfs was clearly impressive, and her behaviour has been otherwise very perky and healthy ]

Anyway! My arm has healed pretty well too. I've been able to play video games again ^o^

I am thinking about getting back to work, but I'm not going to rush myself. I think some boredom is really important to mental health and crucial for creativity, so I want to let myself get bored.

If I do decide to get into it next week, I'll be figuring out how to fire up BTD2 so I can play through that the same way I played through BTD1 to remember the game and log fresh critiques and ideas. I think I will record myself and put up the video later, but I don't think I'll do it live on stream this time. I'm just more comfortable without a live audience 😅 I love to make art but I am not a performer LMAO

I think that's all I've got though! Not much of an update but I am enjoying my break!

Thank you all very much for allowing me to take this down time so I can recharge before starting the next game. I really appreciate it!

And of course, stay safe and see you next week!

Files

Comments

Yuuka

so hyped! glad you’re getting some rest and OMG KITTIES 🥰🥰

Mashyro

gato playing btd2 again, what a sight it'll be...

ResidentReptile

So glad you've been enjoying your break so far! And RAAAAHHHH 🔥🔥‼️‼️ I'm already frothing at the mouth knowing a Lawrence brainstorming vid is coming soon

decaying moth

YIPPIEEE im glad u n willow doing great rest more if u have the opportunity to actually with ur saturday updates i feel less lonely even though its hard now u help me to stay stable ily gato ur the best!! :3

LykWolf

HI GATOOOO, HAPPY SATURDAY! am so glad to hear your arm healed pretty well and updates about Willow!! - give her one kiss over the head for me pleaseee -, for the video it's okay if you don't do the live - I have the same issue, I feel unease doing them so I dropped when people asked me to stream YKMET 😭😭😭 - and am glad to see you play while am drawing!!! For the resting, it's okay sometimes get bored and take time, it helps to get some routine in art and come back refreshed. Have a nice weekend and rest well, you deserved it ❤️

Star Dust

Does that help cats eat more slowly? Or what is its function? I never understood that kind of thing... I recently received what I ordered from your store! The quality of the keychains and the dakimakura is wonderful! I hope that soon there will be shipments to the US again. Play lots of video games, eat a lot and rest as much as you can! May you and Willow stay safe!

SproutMole

WHAT A SWEET THING 😭❤️❤️

Pumpkin

Perhaps a silly question but something I’ve been curious about is if Lawrence’s name purposefully also has ren in it? (Because in btd2 Lawrence’s route is also his kinda) or is that just a funny coincidence?

Lolhopetch

Cats will overeat because its in their nature 😔😔 they're used to being out in the wild and being without food for days on end so when food is available they over eat because they dont know when the next time they will see food is! My kitties have that same habit we give them half the bowl full morning lunch and dinner! They do yell at us for more but its better for them in the long run to not be constantly throwing up 😔😔 glad you're able to take a break :D!

Pumpkin

Yeah the idea kinda is to slow down eating (they kinda have work a bit more to get the food so it’s more slowly consumed thus less vomiting)

Tferret

YYYAAAAYYY IM GLAD YOU’VE BEEN GETTING A WELL DESERVED REST!! dealing with new cats is definitely a challenge, but a fun one! Quick question about your daki’s / bodypillow covers, will there be any new designs in the near future? (So i know which one to save up for hehe) AND IF ANYONE HERE, FANS INCLUDED, knows where and what type of pillow to buy to stuff it with because the ones ive been looking at are EXPENSIVE 😞😞 I hope you, and anyone reading this, has a great weekend and the start of a few month!! <33

Ginny

Glad you had a relaxing week! So good to hear your arm is better!! 🙌 I love those mats for cats, super helpful for the food scarfers 🤣 I also like spread mats for wet food. Give Willow some love from us, hope the tricky mat works well for her!

kapibara chan

The American Federal courts have found the tariffs illegal. So HOPEFULLY. The courts will do something right and I will get my hands on the merch soon. I’d love to see you do a playthrough of BTD/BTD2 and maybe give some like facts and thoughts behind the process of the game :)

Moon

YAY glad u can play video games again! U shuld always be abled to take time off and do things you like and we as your comunety are here to suport you in every situation! You and willow have a great new week gato(s) 🎀✨️

Feralmutt

For starters I'm glad you're hand is going better!! What kinda games have you been playing? Also I sometimes go back to the first two BTD games bc they really were my introduction to playing visual novels IN GENERAL and even moreso to this extreme genre and it's been so eye opening for me and I'm glad I can introduce some friends to it as well and see them enjoying it.

Chance Hansen

Yay I'm glad you're getting a good break and I love the kitty updates sm! She's so precious

x4vslice

So glad to know you've finally been able to rest Gato! Seems like the first week of true rest since the game's release. As a Canadian I will be there to support you as soon as the new merch comes in, including the plushie I want to tortu-SQUEEZE him! The art on the new keychains and standees is delicious I keep staring at it. 😌 Thank you for your weekly updates, Willow is very cute and I'm happy my support goes towards her too! Take care and looking forward to seeing more of your boys in any capacity 💚

Lina

Still super obsessed with ykmet, you defo deserve a break after dropping such a banger!! Wishing you the best and also would love to see you play through btd2 <33

REDRUM

Ahhh glad your hand is better now! It’s be so cool if while playing btd/btd2 you added fun facts or give a little commentary on some things, but ultimately I get the whole not a performer thing. Honestly it be the no commentary walkthroughs that have the funniest reactions through their actions hehehehehe

Luminoxie

Aye glad you're taking it easy Gato! You deserve more than enough rest right now and should go spend time with those around you before you fret on Larry and his funky route. Still... We're gonna need more Willow tax in the future or we might begin to riot outside with pitchforks (no torches since we're all banned from fire)

ThreeYrsLost

I'm glad you were able to get rest and that Willow is doing good! Take all the time you need to make sure you're ready to work again; you're doing great! :) Even if next week is another break week, I can't wait to see what Willow is up to LOL she's such a cutie !!

silliest

Glad you’re doing better gato!! Super excited for when the new merch comes in as well as the btd2 vid gameplay :D

Lucacytes

Wahoo! Enjoy the boredom and game time! Also, if helpful, I've had BtD2 run okay on Win 11. It gets some funny menu screens, but a reboot helps. However the biggest technical hang up I've had was that the native file extractor in Win mucked up unzipping, but unzipping with winrar gave me no issues. Good luck!

Vee

Hurray for healthy Willow poop! lmao

P4N1DA

Super excited to see the new merch !! I'll try to get my hands on em aswell hehe,, Enjoy the gaming :3

Agnes G

What kind of video games do you usually play? Any all-time favs?

ky

gato hop on ow2

Gatobob

Yup it's meant to slow down their eating! With Willow specifically, she seems to take her time deciding how to take a bite, or sometimes she tries to get some kibbles out with her paw. Before with a regular bowl she seemed to stop for several bites every time she walked by the bowl, but now she seems to eat only when she's actually hungry 🤞

Gatobob

It's just a coincidence haha!

Gatobob

I don't know any good pillow cores that aren't expensive [ sorry! ] but I can answer the new design question! I plan to create new designs for Strade and Ren dakimakuras to match the YKMET art style, but these will likely not be coming for a long time. I haven't even started the art, and daki art takes quite a while to draw [ due to the file size/resolution needed ] I originally planned to do all the new products at once but I've pushed the new daki designs back to give myself more of a break- and with all this confusion with shipping I'm not too keen on sinking even more work hours and money into products right now 😅

Gatobob

I have heard about that but I'm not about to trust anything I hear about courts or law decisions coming out of the states lately... it seems like information on everything is going back and forth daily 😩

Gatobob

I've been playing the new donkey kong game for the switch 2 [ I know, expensive... but 3D platformer collectathon games are my absolute favourite genre and they've become so rare that I'm willing to sacrifice a lot to be able to play them again ]

Gatobob

Let's see if I can even remember anything from 2017 LMAO I haven't played it since before it was released 😂

Gatobob

it will likely be even more complicated for me since I'm on a mac LMAO but I will figure it out. If worse comes to worst I can use ancient development files to launch it within Renpy in developer mode probably

Gatobob

My favs are 3D platformer collectathons [ so rare these days... currently playing the new donkey kong ], farming simulators [ harvest moon/story of seasons, stardew, harvestella ], and tactical RPGs [ final fantasy tactics, triangle strategy, tactics ogre reborn etc etc ] My all time fav games ever are Final Fantasy Tactics, the original Spyro trilogy [ reignited is good too though ], Stardew [ since I've played it many times ], and I would say the recent open world Zeldas are right up there too

Gatobob

I used to have around 3000 hours on original OW I don't need to go back to those dark times LMAO [ most of my hours were on lucio and roadhog ]

Tferret

OKAY OKAY THANK YOU!!! seems like if I want a good quality core I simply need to spend that amount of money 🙏🙏 please take your time with the new daki designs, if anything it's better for me this way because I can save up and snatch one when they come out, before they ultimately get sold out BECAUSE I KNOW THEY WILL BE GONE IN LIKE A DAY (not whining tho, obviously good art from a famous artist will be bought out)

6RobotMonster6

Happy to hear you're healing up well and that Willow is adjusting to her bountiful home LOL💗 Yay for breaks! We love to see it

Taheca

I'm so glad you're getting the break you need! Also, thank you for the picture of the food mat, I might have to look into that. I totally understand not streaming the playthrough, but I'm happy that you're thinking of recording it! I wasn't able to join the original Strade stream because I was at work at the time, but I also watched through the video post-stream enough times get the idea to provide timestamps for people to jump to the different parts. On a side note, I have a Ren'py emulator on my (Android) phone, and YKMET seems to run pretty well on it! Only thing that's a bit wonky is navigating the basement, which I expected, but once I figured out the trick, it worked well enough to play.

ky

OUGHHH LÚCIO IS THE BEST

Agnes G

Stardew is so fun. Have you looked into Sunkissed city? I think it’s less farm sim, but looks and plays a bit like it. I’m not sure if you play oldies, but banjo-kazooie and DK64, for the n64 are good collectathons if you’re ever in the grind mentality. Back in the early 2000s McDonald’s used to give out little Spyro handhelds and I foam at the mouth thinking about getting my hands on one again, even tho it’s …realistically, probably really shitty lol

Lucacytes

OOF but hey if it works, it works!

Gatobob

That's really great to hear!

ResidentReptile

If money is an issue regarding the pillow core, may I possibly suggest making your own? That's what I did for my Lawrence daki. I have virtually no sewing experience and it turned out great! A pillow is one of the easier things you can make; takes a couple hours at best.

Pineapplecasket

Glad to hear there's are going well and that will is adjusting to their new home! I have to have slow feeders for my own cats so I understand that pain. 'Lick mats' for wet food does wonders if theyre also rambunctious and need to have a little extra to not be bored :3 I'd love to see a little Willow cameo in any of the future games ;; such a precious baby. Here's hoping all future updates are just as chill! ❤️

donttouchme

Wait, are you not able to ship to the US anymore?

Bonsai Dryad

I’m so glad you’re resting and Willow is doing well. Lawrence is my favorite so I’m excited for the livestream! His route was amazing and I’m so excited to see your growth as an artist and storyteller. My favorite was the ending where you take too many drugs lol It was so cool the way the interface changed to show the hallucinations. So I’m super excited to see how it will look in YKMET! I’m so sorry about my wretched country. A certain foreign born billionaire has blatantly admitted to buying the election and our entire “congress” is paid off by them to ensure they reach the goal of making hell on earth. The won’t win in the end. Fascists never do. Sending love to all the good people of the world! Never give up the fight. I’m with you all. 💕

dankFangirl

hey Gato! i’m glad you’re getting a break, you’ve been working so hard, you really deserve it nwn. i wanted to ask you for some advice about your work ethic, honestly that’s what i admire most about you. i just can’t seem to stay consistent with anything. lately i’ve been slacking on my responsibilities. i can’t study because i keep waiting to feel “motivated,” and even when i force myself, i can’t focus. i can’t even stay consistent with the things i actually enjoy!! and even when i do nothing, ignoring chores and just lying in bed all day, i never feel rested, because deep down i know i’m not making progress, and it stresses me out so much. i’m constantly beating myself up for being lazy, and by the end of the day i’m totally drained. how do you manage to stay consistent? do you think it’s just a personality thing? do you think there’s a limit to self-compassion? it feels like everything’s set up perfectly, except for me, i’m the one stopping myself.

FlaretheHare

Glad to hear that the break is actually being restful, and good to hear that your arm is healing! :D YKMET has really motivated me to get back into art and find the fun in it, so wanted to thank you very much for the inspiration!

ShinanaEvangelian

Honestly as someone from the US, I have a fear of missing out especially not seeing your merch on Etsy. I could order another body pillow of my fox hubby. And I still want a new YKMET keychain and standee. But until he-who-won't-be-named kicks the bucket (there's been talk about that especially how bruised his hand is and how he walks) or gets impeached, I can only wait and hope for the best. I honestly hope you enjoy your rest and especially rest your arms so you don't aggravate it.

Max Hodek

Que lindos los michis!!!, que bien que te dieras un descanso. Muero de ganas por ver ese vídeo. Ahora mi duda ¿eso afectara los paises de LATAM? D:

Unifuckincorn

My cat Kumi, is a stray runt who was constantly bullied by the neighborhood cats. She has the same issue with “scarf and barf” because she thinks it’ll be taken from her due to her trauma outside. I feed her in half portions first before I bought a slow feeding bowl which helped her IMMENSELY. I recommend looking into those if you haven’t yet. You yourself are gonna be a great parent to Willow, I see it already 💜

Unifuckincorn

Also I loved watching you go over BTD so it’ll be fun to see you critique BTD2 for Law’s new game :D

Strade's Kitten

A lot of places aren't atm, due to the new tariffs I believe? I know even here in the UK we aren't shipping to the US at the moment for that reason, so I'm guessing it's the same for Canada? 🤔

donttouchme

Oh jeez,, that makes sense, that sucks 😭 ty for telling me

Strade's Kitten

Yeah, these tariffs are ridiculous, I used to occasionally order from small sellers in the US, but stopped after the whole tariff thing, shipping was already expensive before the tariffs were a thing if you're an international buyer purchasing from the US 😭

Mae Mae

Since it’s a revamp of BTD2 is it specifically gonna be specifically about Rens route or Lawrence’s? I keep hearing mixed messages and i’m confused 😭

Tferret

I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT!!! thank you so much!! I have SOME sewing experience and def the stuff for it, so it shouldn't be as difficult and won't cost like 200€ without shipping 💔💔

Bonsai Dryad

Gato said the next game will just be Lawrence and the game after that will be Ren.

galaxy potato

yes!!! let yourself be bored!! you done have to start working on something new so soon, so please give yourself more time to heal. it’s really important gato ❤️

Sumi

I’m happy to hear u have some time for urself :) be bored, chill out, cuddle kitties. I love the part of vacay when I can rot and play video games for a bit! Life is so hectic otherwise that it’s hard to force urself to relax. Whenever u choose to upload the BTD2 Stream the Law girlies will be jumping w joy! He’s my favorite!! (I’m absolutely ending up in the woods 🫩). Glad ur arm is feeling better too!! have a wonderful weekend 🫶

Gatobob

This one might be a little above my pay-grade, but it sounds like you're struggling with something like depression and might need more complicated help than a short reply can give you. I can try to give a little bit of advice though. For 'motivation' I always tell people that I simply don't stay motivated. I don't think it's even possible for the length of projects that I do. I just treat it like any other job and get to work in the morning even if I don't want to. And, well, it literally IS my job and I do need to show up every day to keep my business running. The other thing that you didn't ask but I find it comes up a lot with people saying they have 'art block' or something: This kind of stuff can happen a lot when your expectations get out of control. If you're actually very afraid of not doing a good enough job, you'll have a very hard time starting. It's easier to work consistently and move forward in projects if you lower your standards and just allow your work to suck sometimes. I generally impose strict quotas and time limits for my work- this keeps me on track and forces me to do a crappy job instead of staying frozen waiting for the 'perfect' work to come out.

Gatobob

I already don't ship to Mexico or Brazil, but that's for completely unrelated reasons [ my packages just disappear in their mail systems and I get angry customers every time ] The US Tariffs will only affect my US customers [ it is a new tax they are charging their own citizens to import products ]

CL0WNYGUTZ

I'm so glad your hand is doing much better!! Willow is just THE CUTEST little thing I've ever seen > w < also, I know you've already answered this in the past, however I'm having the worst time finding it. Sorry for asking this again, but Kangaroo and Rhino aren't Anthony and Chet from TINR right? Again apologies for asking this once more! I just cannot for the life of me find the answer to it xAx

dankFangirl

Sorry, i turned that into a bit of a trauma dump, i wasn’t trying to unload everything on you, guess i went a little overboard (;´∀`)

Gatobob

Yes they are absolutely not the same characters x_x

CL0WNYGUTZ

THANK YOU SO MUCH Im so sorry you have to answer this again xAx I hope your day is going well though!! ^^

Kuri

Do you have the stream of you playing BTD1 up anywhere? I’ve seen it mentioned a few times and unfortunately it seems I’m out of the loop! This sounds really interesting and I’d love to check it out and see how it influenced your thought process for YKMET!

freyito

sorry if its an over-asked question, but do you ship to germany by chance? (my way of getting around these evil tariffs is possibly sending the package to my friend in germany and having them send it to me TwT)

YourDearCreatorMel

Dear Gatobob— I been wanting to ask something extremely serious…What are the taste of Rire’s tentacles? :,D I wanna bite one so bad! but I just don’t know what would be their taste like!!!

Gatobob

I'm pretty sure I ship to Germany right now yep!

Gatobob

Rire isn't my character 😂

Dani

Hello, Gato! Just wanted to say that I've loved your new game! I also have some questions about your characters, if you wouldn't mind answering. 1. I don't really remember how the story followed, but Lawrence died before or after BTD2? I think I've seen something like "He drowned before BTD2", but I'm not sure if it was the case. 2. What is Strade's preferences in terms of personality and physical appearence for his victims? I saw the he called Anna pretty in the game, is he more attracted to conventinally pretty people? 3. How was Ren's life before getting kidnapped? Did he had a nice family and friends, or he was lonely? In YKMET he said he didn't had anywhere to go in one of the endings, so I was wondering about it.

FLESHMAIDENN

Just got my lawrence Keychain today from your Etsy and it's top notch! Love your work and the YKMET business card I geeked out about a little bit have to admit. Hope you are doing well and wishing you all the best! (Very sad I can't order more lawrence merch because of me living in the US but.. oh well..

Gatobob

1. Yes, Lawrence died before, during, and after BTD2 2. All that matters is the reactions he gets and if they're interesting 3. Sorry, I'm not the type to tell backstories 😅 If it's not in the games, then it's AO3's job to decide

Gatobob

I'm so glad it got there safe and you like it! Hopefully rhings will change and trade between Canada and the US can become normal again!

kazhonk

I was actually able to figure out how to open BTD2 on Mac pretty easily!! If you struggle at all I can help :)

REDRUM

Hii I seen you answered a few questions regarding ur characters and I was wondering if you’d entertain mine hehehe. If strade, ren and Lawrence had favorite movies what do you think they’d be!! I like to imagine strade liking horror movies and forcing ren to watch them with him and ren is a big scary cat (fox) hahah!

Gatobob

Sorry, that kind of thing is for everyone to decide for themselves!

femratxz

Hi gato! I’ve been loving YKMET— :) out of curiosity, would you ever consider adding an option for the player to choose their genitalia? I was kind of surprised at /That/ office scene when it appears that mc is AFAB, but that no gendered language was actually used on them for the entire game regardless. It felt a little jarring towards the ambiguity and i’m sure it would be appreciated by a portion of players; myself included ^^ Thank you for taking the time to reply to comments! I hope you have been having a good week thus far!

bear

hi gato! do you have any plans for after ykmet ren releases ? will there be more tpof ren content? will you ever make comics again ?

Gatobob

All scenes including that one are meant to be ambiguous, it’s written and drawn with the intention of the MC having any genitalia

femratxz

ohh, i see! like a barbie doll! thank you for the clarification LOL

Gatobob

That would be four years from now at best and I really don’t want to make serious plans that far out, especially considering how volatile everything surrounding my work is currently [ for all I know adult content could be fully banned everywhere by then ]

nagi_nats

I’m so happy to read that you’re FINALLY getting some rest! ♥️ Fingers crossed all the Willow troubles get sorted out quickly and easily… honestly, I’m just really glad you get to spend time with your cat, family, and friends. Don’t rush back into work — soak up that strength and some healing “boredom”! I’m rooting for you~ And a random little lore question: I got curious — will Strade still be dead in the Ren storyline, or are we in for some changes there too? And speaking of dead Strade… am I gonna see his demon version somewhere in future games or any content? 👉🏼👈🏼 I’m so normal, so sane about him bahahahhaa Thank you for your work and updates ♥️ be safe~

Gatobob

The current plan is to keep everything regarding dead Strade the same in Ren's story, but I won't actually be writing for that for 2 years so I wouldn't exactly call my current plans written in stone or anything. For the content of my upcoming games, all I can really say is 'we'll see' because I genuinely don't know before I actually make planning documents haha

YourDearCreatorMel

He isn’t?! Damn— sorry 😭 I was curious for so long just to know this now

nagi_nats

✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 got it~ thank you so much!! I will mentally cheer for the reappearance of the demon Strade somewhere again 😈🙏🏼✨

-

Commenting on this post before the next. It's really good to know your hand is recovering and I can understand why you'd be slightly off put by the quietness of your Etsy shop due to the lack of American customers. But on the flip side, there is some chance to recuperate physically and to get any restock done in the meantime. That said, things like Etsy pausing Canadian sourced shipments to the US along with many other countries doing the same is honestly kind of understandable considering the fuckery that is Tarriffs. I get some of my stuff overseas so it honestly does suck, but I just keep in mind that its temporary and the companies in question are just figuring out how to go about the tariffs without it affecting their customers directly. Or so that's the gist of what I read. I do admit, I have a concern for missing out on ykmet merch but that's months down the line and things may very well be figured out by then. The surpreme court I think, is challenging the whole tariffs thing over there being an overreach of emergency tariffs but the deadline for the administration to challenge this is in October. So chances are, maybe no tariffs. Hopefully no tariffs. I'm kind of tired of typing the word. But, I am looking forward to your future work and to buying more merch from you once things clear up. I truly appreciate every thing you do and when the BS regarding Visa and MC started regarding nsfw content, your response to it was not only inspiring but encouraging. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I think the approach of fighting against that instead of taking it laying down is honestly the best we can do. I'm not worried about said content getting sent over to the shadow realm of banned content but I am also not loving the situation at all. Sorry for the long comment. I'm on mobile and this has been stewing for a bit. I usually try to reply to everything in the post but @_@ I got a bit carried away about the damn tariffs. People like to say that people in the US asked for this and wanted the oompa loompa (and his flying monkeys) in office. A lot of them did, but not entirely every single person in the US. I am definitely someone who didn't want any of it.

Kuri

Thank you so so much for the reply! This was such a fascinating watch, I’m excited to see the future Lawrence video!

Mia

trump is stopping me from getting ykmet merch.. :(