Today is the last day of 2022, so it’s time to take a look back and recap how things have gone for us over these past twelve months. Fortunately, I can state that, overall, this year was a rather successful one and a definite step up from 2021, but there were also a few not so great things about it, so let’s get those out of the way first…
The Negatives:
As I have mentioned in last year’s retrospect, things took a very sudden and rather devastating turn in my private life back in June of 2021 and, as expected, the consequences and aftermath haunted me all the way into 2022 and continue to affect me to this very day.
I still don’t want to go into detail about any of this publicly, but everything that happened in the previous year and the various twists and turns that unfolded over the course of this one once again caused some down phases in which it became very difficult for me to work on our projects and so progress severely slowed down or even came to a temporary halt every now and then.
Emotionally, it was certainly a difficult year again. Back in March, I even got unexpectedly hospitalized and needed to undergo surgery. The doctors couldn’t quite explain the cause at first, but later told me that it most likely was the result of all the stress and depression that had been afflicting me for so long. So, if there is one thing I have learned this year, it’s that you should never underestimate the effects these things can have on your body. They can quite literally f up routine bodily functions and… that sure ain’t fun.
Whenever I say “please take care” at the end of my blog posts, it’s not just a habitual pleasantry. I mean it.
Be sure to always take good care of yourselves. I’ve been trying to do that ever since my hospital stay and although I obviously can’t just blend out all the negative and sad stuff going on, I’ve managed to deal with it better and focus more on the positive things in life.
So let’s do just that and move on to the next point already, shall we?
The Positives:
Despite what it may sound like from the above, this was still a very good and a rather productive year when it comes to our current murder mystery visual novel project GENBA no Kizuna and I think the results speak for themselves.
Last year around this time, only the prologue and first chapter were fully playable, with the second chapter still under development. This year, we not only finished up the second chapter and released it to patrons for beta-testing, we also did so with the third one!
Not only that, we are also very deep into the fourth chapter now, which is by far the longest in the entire game, quite literally just as long as the second and third chapters combined! Except for some parts here and there, which I still gotta figure out how to properly finish up, the script is done and a number of the larger new assets required have already been taken care of as well!
So, yes, even though I once again didn’t make quite as much progress as I could (and certainly would like to) have made, I think we can safely say that we experienced a rather drastic increase in productivity this year. Looking at how much we have managed to get done and how much is still left to do, I can confidently promise you now that GENBA will be released in 2023!
That’s a topic I will properly delve into next week, however, when I do our annual “Plans For The New Year” post!
Conclusion:
I seriously feel very proud and satisfied looking back at what we have managed to accomplish this year, especially in the face of all the real life shenanigans going on, both in my private life and generally in the world. I think I have learned to better cope with things and to manage to stay calm and collected. Or, at the very least, calm down much quicker than I used to.
Right now, in this very moment, even though there are still various things that do affect me in negative ways… I feel good.
Everything is going uphill again, which fills me with a lot of positivity, energy and motivation. And given that 2023 is the year of the rabbit and I myself actually am a rabbit (being born in 1987), I take that as another sign that things will continue along this trajectory, that 2023 will be my year and that I will accomplish a lot of my personal goals, GENBA‘s release being right at the top of that list!
That said, I am very sorry that this development journey turned out to be such a long one. If I think about the progress we’ve made this year, it really feels as though GENBA could and should have long been done by now. So the fact that our followers, fans and friends continue to show so much patience and support means a lot to me. Thank you guys so much for continuing to stick around!
Again, our exact plans for 2023 will be laid out next week, but I promise we won’t keep you waiting for much longer!
Once chapter four is done, there is one more left to go and it will not only be significantly shorter than the previous one, it will also barely require any new assets, so… it’s really about time to get serious and start gearing up for the release! In fact, we may already be a little late with it, but that too shall be a topic for next week!
There are a few more things in regards to this year that I’ve left out here, but I will address them in an additional Patreon post that will be published next Saturday. It will be available to all tiers, so if you support us there, keep an eye out for that!
Now, once again, I’d like to tell you to please take good care of yourselves, enjoy this final day of 2022 and have a smooth and safe transition into 2023! See you guys next year :3
