I'm back! - Big Update Time!

First, let's hit the personal stuff. If this isn't interesting to you, scroll down to the business stuff.

Non-Precinct Omega Work Stuff

I've spent two months working on a contract as a union official for the Royal College of Nursing, primarily helping nurses and other health workers resolve disputes with their employers. This is something it turns out I'm very good at. Going into bat aggressively for people being f***ed over by either incompetence (usually) or malice (occasionally) is quite fun when you are substantially better experienced, more qualified and less busy than the people you're putting under pressure.

I enjoyed the work, but... it was a somewhat weird experience because I really could do the work in about half the hours I was being paid for, which should have meant I could commit some time in and around that to working on Precinct Omega stuff. But... I really didn't. For a start, I was on call, so I did have to be available to respond immediately to calls and emails from members and my superiors. But it also felt wrong to be working on my own business when I was being paid by the union to work for them.

However, it did mean earning a reasonable income for a couple of months, and it also meant securing a follow-up contract. So I'm committed now, until the end of June, to a £2bn healthcare project. I'm not in charge of the project. However, I will be kind of responsible for making sure it happens. The big up side is: yay! money! I'll be on a very comfortable compensation package for my services, so my family's financial security is assured.

The down side - sort of - is that this will mean no ability to commit full time to Precinct Omega for another six months. But that doesn't mean nothing will happen.

Robey Stuff

The other thing that the last couple of months has given me is the time and space to give my mental health some much-needed care and attention. I let my enthusiasm spread me very thin across Precinct Omega. I was trying to run a retail website, a game development company, a YouTube channel, a podcast and a Patreon all at the same time. There were too many balls, I was dropping loads of them, I was committing myself to things on the basis that I had "the time" without considering that I didn't have have the framework or energy.

Being back at a salaried role has shown me just how much "down time" I actually need to perform at my best. I was good in my union job - and I was really good: they're actually going to be using some of my casework to try to show people how it ought to be done - because I gave myself 2-3 hours per working day (aside from lunch, tea breaks and stuff - just to chill out. To perform at my best, I actively need this time not feeling under pressure to do stuff. I thought I needed to cram ever second of every day with work to make Precinct Omega succeed without considering that this meant (a) I was burning out faster than a roman candle, and (b) the work I was doing was suffering in quality because of my refusal to let myself take a break. Then, when I did let myself take a break I became so guilt-ridden as a result that I descended into a depressive slump that made it impossible to get out.

Everything about Precinct Omega became a reminder of my "failure".

Stepping away from it, but with the discipline of a job to do, has reminded me that I'm really good at some stuff (did I mention that?) and that people want to pay me to be good at those things. This is good for the ego, which doesn't hurt. But this also gave me the time and space to fall back in love with my hobby.

I'm not kidding. I think, by the time I released Infinite Dark, I really hated miniatures wargaming. I couldn't really face going to the local club even as things opened up. I found the hobby frustrating and intimidating. The social media side of things, of course, made things worse. I couldn't bear to even look at my studio, let alone go in there.

But now I'm back. I'm in the studio, tidying it up, throwing away the accumulated crap and re-organizing with a new plan for 2022.

Business Stuff

OK, if you read all that, well done and thank you. But now let's get to Precinct Omega.

First, Precinct Omega is a game design business. I let myself get dragged into the social media side of podcasting and YouTube because I thought it was a way to attract attention - and it was! But attention on the Internet is a double-edged sword. And sustaining it was a lot more work than the actual pay-off.

I will be going back to where we started, and focusing on game design. This means three big things:

- Managing the existing content with updated FAQs and tutorials.

- Creating new content for existing games.

- Creating new games.

The priority for these is roughly equal. People who've invested in Precinct Omega games deserve to be supported, to have their questions answered, the mistakes fixed and the content updated. And new content for existing games service to broaden and expand the appeal of the games.

New games, meanwhile, are the hardest topic. I've come to realize this more slowly than, perhaps, I should have. It's easy to look back and see how Horizon Wars and, then, Horizon Wars: Zero Dark were developed in white-hot, high octane development fugue states. But I also look over the constant agonizing I put into both games before and after their core mechanics were developed. Trying to put out Infinite Dark as quickly as I did was probably a mistake. The end result was pretty good, but it was at a cost - both financial and mental - that I shouldn't have forced myself to pay. I poured way more money into Infinite Dark as a project than it deserved, too quickly.

This year, I am working on two new games: Horizon Wars Midnight Dark, and Ballmonsters. But when it comes to general releases, I am making no promises. What I am promising, though, is that this Patreon will get first sight of everything. Every half-baked idea, every roughly-formed concept, every vague flash of inspiration... it'll all be here pretty much as it appears in my head.

Because whilst I'm going to be 95% ditching the media side of Precinct Omega at least until June, there's no way I'm walking away from the Patreon.

First, let me be completely honest: I'm keeping this up because it makes money!

The business has some debts it needs to pay which, with its current assets, it can't afford to do. So I'm going to need to loan Precinct Omega a chunk out of my pocket to keep it above water. I'll get that money back eventually, probably, but I'm not going to service the company's debts out of the income you guys provide.

No, rather, I have some specific objectives and needs for the next few months that the Patreon is going to pay for. And I look forward to sharing those things with you, as I acquire them. 

Of course, if there is content you would like to see (as long as it's not a podcast or video for at least the next six months), then you can always let me know here and I'll do what I can.

And Finally...

Thank you, again, for coming with me on this journey. We will look back on it, one day, and see it as a bump in the road. How many more we have to face, I have no idea, but I know that for most of you, supporting this Patreon is as much about being a part of the journey as it is about the destination. So the least I can do is make sure we take the scenic route when the opportunity presents itself.

A Merry Christmas to all of you and a Happy New Year!