Not a whole lot of news to report, but I wanted to give you all an update since it has been over a year now.
I was hoping I'd get my game finished in 2022. Unfortunately, that won't be happening for various reasons. I'm still working on it nearly every day, though; it is just a lot of work, and life's obstacles can often get in the way. Right now, it is writing out the random encounters (essentially CYOA short stories) that is taking up my time. While I also have a smaller-scale, procedurally generated story system -- where paragraphs are broken down into their core sensory elements, and then random (but environmentally appropriate) selections are made to create the story -- the encounters currently being worked on are all the custom written, hand crafted ones. As the game is largely text based and horror themed, this is an area I'm being fairly meticulous with in order to capture the correct mood while also giving each skill check a chance to shine. But once I finish these encounters, it should be smooth sailing from there: finalizing assets, testing, general polish, etc. I'm aiming for a release next year, but the timeline for completion is harder to predict than it is with music production.
Speaking of music, some progress has been made there, but I'm very much focused on finishing this game. The songs for the next Sequester album are all loosely arranged, at least, and a bunch of the lyrics have been written, and most of the guitar tones and synth patches have been finalized... So with those types of decisions already out of the way, I should be able to just slip into the recording process without too much hassle. And damnit, am I looking forward to it. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," indeed.
