Hello everyone!

Well, where do I begin this? First of all, I posted this as a 'personal' devlog because I haven't been able to do any developing on the game since I last posted. This year has been the hardware refresh year at my IT job. We manage multiple companies (around 800 users). And since I'm the one that manages hardware inventory and also hardware purchasing... well... It is a huge, complicated pain in the ass for one person. Dropped in my lap at the last minute... I had to travel this past week to Texas to do some computer setups and swap outs myself as well. Thankfully, that trip went smoothly and without issues. But I'm physically and mentally exhausted because I put all of my energy into making sure I got everything done in the time I had. Twelve hours one day, sixteen on another day... I was barely in my hotel room (only to sleep, shower, and do it again the next day). Fortunately, that is the only site I had to travel to. The other guys will be travelling to the rest. I have two local sites to work on and I'll have help at those.

I know it's been five months since my last release. I'm well aware that it has been a long wait for you guys. Due to such a long delay, a lot of people have dropped their subs and I totally would do the same. It really sucks that if I had enough subs, I could probably retire from IT permanently and have ALL of my time to work on my games. Release much more often, more activity from me in general, the list goes on. But then I come back from this trip, and I have a few people in my DMs giving me shit about the long delay who obviously never bothered to read any of my posts, anywhere. If you don't know what someone is dealing with, then keep your bullshit to yourself please. I'm dealing with enough of it already. That plus dealing with depression and trying to manage my stress at the same time. So, if you were one of those people and didn't get a reply, it's because I have to ignore you for my health.

With all of that said... there is light at the end of this tunnel. There always is, but sometimes when you can't see it yet, it's still stressful. There are only a few sites left for us to upgrade. And all of these upgrades must be completed before the end of September. Next week I'll be working on getting computer quotes and orders completed for the rest of the sites and then I'll finally have a bit more free time. Outside of the two weeks I'll be working in the two local sites (one of those is our largest site with 150 users).

Okay, I know the last thing you wanted to read about in a new post from me was me talking about my other job. But in my effort to be as transparent as possible, I feel you deserve to know. Especially those of you who actually sub and give me money. FWIW, I'm never going to quit the game development stuff unless I just get to a point where I simply can't because I can't come up with new material or content. Stories are my life though... and I have enough shit written down to make more than the two I'm already working on. Anyway, just know that in between all of my IT job crap and 'real life' stuff, I am picking away at the next LH update as much as I can. I'm hoping to have every evening next week to just work on LH Episode 3 art. When I left off, I was still working on scene 1, which is a long scene (around 200 or more images). And it is also a new scene because it has different background and surroundings that I had to build basically from scratch (with help from a few modders of course getting me some much-needed assets). I will also have some time over this weekend outside of a few things I need to do around the house.

And by the way, if you're going to drop your sub, it is totally fine. You don't have to explain to me, and it doesn't hurt my feelings. If it were me, I might do the same (and have). Once my IT work gets back to the normal stuff, things will go back to the way they were. And I am also considering doing shorter, possibly monthly (or close to it anyway) releases. I don't prefer shorter releases because its less content. But basically, I would do half an episode per update. It might make things easier for me to manage. I don't know yet, I may try that for the next update (not this one because I am committed to getting you a full episode after this long wait). So, we'll see how that goes.

So, that's what is going on now. Time for me to work the IT job and focus on getting that shit done as soon as possible. I hope you guys can hang in there with me a bit longer. I WANT to get back to my games and I am excited about the new direction I have planned for Serenity once this LH update is completed. I love all of you, see you soon!

...Fire