Dev Diary #109

Hey, how's everybody doing? Long time no see...

Well... it has a simple but long explanation. For those who don't want to read the whole post, here's a summary:

• Since my "holidays", I've been sick, not fully recovered yet, although I hope to feel better in a few weeks.

• Throughout these months I've had to make a few decisions at a professional level (and those that remain), one of the main ones is to leave Discord due to an autoban without justification or reason provided leaving the server without moderation and years of work down the drain. I wanted to leave that platform anyway, but I wanted to make the decision when.

• Now I've moved to Twitter, I'm currently "borrowing" memes I see on my tl and adapting them to the LA universe.

• Despite all the setbacks, my idea is to get back to the normal pace in September. I would like to do something in August, tho.

And that's the summary, pretty much in a nutshell.

I don't want to make this long either, I'm doing it because I think too much time has passed without writing a post, especially because I promised to try to post something once a month... The Discord misfortune had me pretty down for a whole month (it happened in May if I remember correctly), especially because after a whole month I didn't manage to talk to a human person who could give me an explanation of what happened, or the possibility of appeal (the worst support I've ever seen in my life). I don't even know the reason why the inefficient AI they have implemented (less than 70% accuracy) decided to autoban me... As I don't like my messages being analysed without my consent (this AI analyses everything, including dms, files, etc), it was the perfect opportunity to leave the platform and move elsewhere. The ban reason? I will never know, and after a month of trying, I gave up and started to assume that I wasn't going to come back to DC anymore. For the curious, the last things I talked about before the ban were things related to LA and future projects, nothing weird/shady, I didn't share anything weird... etc? That account was for professional use only. 

Anyway, I've read crazy stories of people who have lost years of work and even had their work compromised due to random autoban (this has been going on since the end of last year, and looks like it's going to be like this forever). I still feel frustrated every time I remember the shtty month I had to go through with all this plus my health problems, but it's time to move on, forget about it, and move on to the next chapter of this story. Luckily, it's not the end of the world, it doesn't affect my work in the slightest, I'm just losing a direct way of contacting each other.

But don't worry about that, I'm on Twitter now, and of course, anyone can send me a DM there to talk about anything related to the LA universe, or just to know how I'm doing. I'm also on Reddit although not very active, Twitter on the other hand... I check it every day. Even as I said in the summary, when I get bored, I "borrow" memes and adapt them to the LA universe. When I saw that vtubers/vrchaters steal memes from each other... I said, why not? Don't blame me later.

As for my health... well, the summary could be that I've been feeling really sick since before I decided to take a break. The problem is that it's been getting worse over the months rather than better... It turns out that I have a stomach virus (Pylori), and until a few weeks ago, my doctor thought it was just a fcked up gastritis... all that during these last months until a couple of weeks ago, when I insisted on taking some tests to see if there was something else, because I never recovered completely, I was feeling worse and worse. So yes, it turns out that I have a virus (technically it's a bacteria), so I've been taking a lot of pills for a week now (about 4/8 pills per day, two of them antibiotics), and I still have another week to go. After that, wait a month, and take the test again to confirm that the virus is gone.

Also, we add a small aside: during the whole spring I have been suffering from allergies, this year it has hit me hard, so much so that I still have allergy problems in my eyes. I had an allergy test today and I am not allergic to anything, although my symptoms have been there during the spring... I will have to investigate further, again...

As of today, I feel "okay", I could feel better, but for the moment I guess that's as good as I can feel. And this is practically the main reason for not being active here.

I'd like to say that I've had time to think, but until a few days ago I didn't feel like doing anything, I've limited myself just to exist, try to play some random game to distract my mind, but nothing else. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but this helf year has been tough... I hope that by the end of the summer, we can focus on everything with a more positive outlook and end the year with good vibes.

For the time being, changes are coming in September, both here and in Itch (in terms of management on my part), I will try to be active on Twitter (technically, the account is managed by Lisapi, so you know what that means, wink). As for the project, roadmap, etc... I want to rethink everything, but until I make the final decision, I won't talk about it.

Maybe I can say something... I want to rethink how I want to continue with LA and how to finish it. From my point of view, it's a "big" project, but it's still my first project, and every time I work on it, I only see bugs/flaws and things that should be improved (starting with the code, dialogues, etc). So... I don't know how to approach everything. Of course, there will be a continuation of the first LA, because in LA 1 the main arc of Dany/Vanessa ends, and in the continuation, the arc of X begins/ends. We'll talk about this soon.

I'll say goodbye by saying that, much to my regret, everything related to the MC's daughters is going to have to take place in adult years, so unfortunately I can't do something I had in mind that was going to be a bit inspired by Anya's role in SxF. I don't want to suffer the same fate as CK's dev, I'm comfortable here and it's much more comfortable than other platforms in terms of taxes, etc, so as I always say, my projects are not out of the friendly rules that Patreon wants.

That said, I'll say goodbye for today, gonnna drop here my Twitter for those who want to follow me there, and if not, I'll see you here.

https://x.com/StudioKeisi

See you!