Progress Report 1-29-2026 (Achievements Shop, Alraune reworks/upgrades, new H-scene preview, upcoming stream schedule, and a promise)
Added 2026-01-29 23:00:07 +0000 UTCComments
Hello, we used to talk pretty frequently on ULMF like... a decade ago. I doubt you remember me, but my profile picture was a charming picture of a cat vomiting if I recall lol. Anyway you have no reason to think I know enough about you to extrapolate in the way I'm about to. Feel free to assume I'm crazy, but I'd prefer if you just took my word for it that I've seen enough of your writing, game design, and personality to conjecture the following: I think you are a lot like me. I think you, like me, have developed one of the most abstract, tenacious, and impenetrable defense mechanisms a person can: I think you use thought to avoid suffering. I think you rely on your giant brain to provide you with an endless stream of plausible ideas, considerations, hunches, hypotheses, things to research, topics to bring up with loved ones, and anything else it can to achieve what is subconsciously your true objective: to make your problems so complicated and so specific that you become fully immune to outside influence. No one can change your perspective. No one can even try, because they don't have enough information to make a credible assessment of your problems. I accidentally became middle-aged because I (unknowingly) used this same strategy. I spent ten years talking, talking, talking to therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and neurologists. I read dozens of books, meditated with strangers, and contacted famous authors. None of them said anything I hadn't heard yet, and it made me feel hopeless. I believe, as absurd as it sounds, that was my goal: to be hopeless. Being doomed is liberating. People stopped calling me lazy and weak, and started to see me as a brooding anti-hero instead. "Look at how much he's suffering - how could anyone be so petty as to think he isn't trying to change?" I wasn't, and I don't think you are either. I think you have engineered the same bizarre and invincible psychological construct that I did, and you're doing it for the same reason I did: I was afraid to have wasted ten years of my life grappling with a problem that turned out to be as straightforward as any teenage girl's angsty myspace post. I wanted it to be overwhelmingly difficult, special, and unsolvable so nobody would judge me for it (and consequently, so I could stop judging myself for it). I didn't want to have to explain ten years of miserable stagnancy with "eh I realized I was just lonely. I asked my coworker out, got turned down, made me realize that's all it was. I'm fine now." I think you are dealing with the same awful cocktail of ennui, insecurity, fear of change, and a dozen other things that everybody else does, but you've used your giant brain to juice it up and make it sound bigger than it is. That's it. That's all. That's the end of the story, and you fix it the same way everybody else does: you exercise, maintain a healthy diet, try new things, challenge yourself, etc. The superficial nonsense people told you the first time you ever told someone you were sad about this. That was the answer. It's not superficial. That's why everybody says the same fucking things: those really are the fucking answers. Moreover they are the ONLY answers. They work every single time, for every single person, since the dawn of humanity with absolutely zero exceptions. They can work for you, too. Like I said at the beginning of this long and increasingly embarrassing essay, I am totally fine posting this knowing you are overwhelmingly more likely to think I'm dumb, wrong, or crazy than you are to take my words to heart. I'm not. Nobody writes shit like this insincerely. Posting this will be humiliating. I'm doing it anyway. That is how confident I am that you are like me. You and your life aren't as complicated as you think or want them to be. You're just imaginative and resourceful enough to have constructed an invincible suit of armor for yourself to die in. You could be happy a few weeks from now if you chose to be. Just do all the dumb shit everybody told you to do from day 1. If you decide that your problems are simple, they don't become simple. When you decide they are simple, they ARE simple. It took me ten years to identify the distinction between them, and I am gambling that spending an hour of my workday gushing to a random guy because we like the same bizarre pornography might nudge you into avoiding the same fate. That, or you'll make fun of me and I'll feel ridiculous. PS. Make a dog that does an anal knot animation pls. This was all I was going to type originally lol.
textbook7
2026-02-03 18:59:28 +0000 UTCYou got this. The simple fact is you haven't stopped.
Chris Johnson
2026-01-31 14:09:19 +0000 UTCI also suffer from depression for over 20 years, and I can assure you that these negative thoughts are not yours; they are symptoms of an illness. If you suffered from a heart condition, you would feel chest pains. In our case, they are bad thoughts, something to be fought. I have been following your work closely. I have played dozens of games on this platform, and yours is undoubtedly the best I have ever played. I was impressed by the quality; it looks like the work of a large company with dozens of people. You are an inspiration to me. Don't blame yourself for going slowly; slow is better than standing still. Millions of people can't do a fraction of what you have done.
Wagner Santos
2026-01-30 02:51:24 +0000 UTCTruly is good to see you back at it. Your comment that CPE should be done by now hits hard even for me, but better late than never. Actually just picked up playing an old demo earlier today and it felt bittersweet. Wishing you best of luck not just with your game but your irl struggles.
シェイ
2026-01-30 00:38:58 +0000 UTCThere is no time like the present to seek personal improvement! Like mr Lebœuf one said: Just do it! I think if you get going you’ll be quite satisfied with yourself. Just posting this update must feel quite good. Keep up the schedule and soon enough you’ll be back on track. I’ve kept being a Patreon all these years cause I believe in you, your talent and potential. No trying just do it ! <3 <3
Mikhael B
2026-01-29 23:59:45 +0000 UTCYou're incredibly kind, thank you so much ;v; I hope you can find success in battling your own demons, too - I'll be rooting for you!
Anon42
2026-01-29 23:34:08 +0000 UTCWhat a great update! At times I was worried about when you'd post again (because I don't keep an eye on Discord). But I wanted to say thank you. In case no one has told you this in a while, I wanted you to know that your work and abilities are incredible, and whether the steps are small or large, you're making progress. I'm going through the same thing with my own projects. I can empathize with your feelings. We can't do anything to make you feel better, but if there were a button that could make you feel better instantly, I'd press it without hesitation. Take good care of yourself, Anon42.
Death Arrow
2026-01-29 23:23:08 +0000 UTC
