Hello My Friends

Things are starting to settle down, and I am finally able to get back to my Visual Novel, though not perfectly. More time next week. Things are far from perfect, but improving… somewhat.

Ren’Py 8.0.3

With the release of Ren’Py 3, I felt it could be good to update my visual novel to the most recent version from 2.7. My fear was that it would break something, so I tested it out as much as I could, and haven’t run into a problem yet. So from now on I will release it with the new version.  

I believe this will open up a lot of enhancements in Ren’Py in the future. Things that couldn’t be done, or done well with the previous version.

Slowly Working on the Visual Novel

I haven’t had a free, full day to work on the Visual Novel in a couple months at least. But that looks like it will change next week.

I am in the middle of building what is for me a slightly more complex scene, and I am doing a little research to figure out how to do everything. And by halfway, it is half done… the easy parts that is.

As I said in the past, this will be a small update.

Personal Crap (Skip if you don’t want the off-topic BS)

Again, I hate “blogging” about my life, especially when I this should be focused on the Visual Novel, but I believe people need an explanation why things are not progressing like they should. The sad part is this is the biggest section here.

We had a convergence of crappy events all happening at once.

I was starting to burn out, while our finances were going to hell, and we were scheduling a surgery. Our rent was increased dramatically so we decided to move. If it was going to go up, we might as well have more room.

The work I started was enough to cover things, but we also knew we had 2 massive debts coming up, and attempted to get a loan to cover them. Well, the loan fell through, which was no surprise, but I worked on a plan B, which unfortunately means adding another day at work, and I added some freelance work that takes up part of 2 more days. The good news is it pays very well and only takes about 8 hours a week, including the commute, if that. The bad news is it is split between 2 days, so I now only have one day off a week.

I have been playing nursemaid for the past 6 weeks since the surgery, (wasn’t mine,) but there have been 2 upgrades in her condition, and recovery is better than expected. I am no longer responsible for all the household chores, and help out less often. She should start driving soon, so I won’t have to take her to her doctor appointments. (Damn she has a lot of those.) This made it possible for me to work more.

We got one debt split into two, and we will be able to make payments on the other, but unfortunately those payments will be massive, and even with the extra work we won’t be able to make those, so we decided to dip into my partner’s retirement account. This unfortunately results in a tax penalty next year. But by splitting up the debt into payments, we can take out less, and split that penalty into the following year.

I’ve done the math, and it looks like we will barely squeak by this year, and things should hopefully reverse about the middle of December.

I intend on keeping up the extra work next year, and use the extra income to pay off some debt.

Getting my focus back

Now that things are settling down, while getting used to even more work, I notice that I am having to work to get focus.

I have been so distracted dealing with all the events, and trying to figure out how to fix our financial situation that my brain is kind of stuck there. Knowing we have a plan in place does relax things, and stress levels are lower, but it’s still there.

One thing I do not want to do is to force myself into creativity. If it feels like a job, rather than a creative outlet, I could fall out of love with the work, and I do not want that to happen.

Instead, I have started trying to guide my mind into the visual novel. More of a gentle nudge, especially if I am again pondering our finances, or what is coming up.

And I notice it working. I am again planning out everything. I am organizing the scenes and events that I have planned out.

Final Thoughts

Things are getting better, and I am back to working on my VN. It is far from perfect, my time is limited, and I am working on my focus. But I am back to working on it. Even if just side projects for the future, or learning new skills.

I’m coming back.

Game update: ???? (Delayed)

Next post: October 15

As always, enjoy life.