KigyoDev
8 supporters

Hiatus

Feb 22, 2022

Hey everyone!

First of all, my apologies for not making this announcement sooner.

I was never a particularly fast writer, but I've been plagued by writer's block for a while now. I really tried my best to break out of it during 2021 - be it by working on side projects or by starting this whole BuyMeACoffee thing. Unfortunately none of it seemed to help, and at the start of this year, I figured out why: I wasn't having fun anymore.

Artificial Selection is my passion project. I used to completely forget the time, spending 8 hours so immersed in working on it that I wouldn't even notice how hungry I was. Making my dream game used to be more fun than playing any already existing game. But right now, it only feels like a chore.

I take full responsibility for that. My biggest mistake was releasing the demo as soon as I had written it, instead of silently holding on to it and only publishing it once the game was almost 100% done. Building a fanbase early on was very rewarding and motivating at first, but this new responsibility quickly made things go downhill from there.

Since it's a big project, Artificial Selection was always going to take a long time to complete. But whether I told myself to write 100, 500, or 1000 words a day, I still never seemed to make progress fast enough. I became so obsessed with word counts that I wrote scenes I knew were bad/pointless just so I was writing something. And while this strategy does work for some writers, it only left a bad taste in my mouth. I never wanted to approach Artificial Selection like this.

That's why I've decided to take a break. I know I've been throwing out vague release date/year estimates before, but I want you to forget about those. Artificial Selection will be released when it's ready. It may be a cowardly move, but I don't want to worry about living up to your expectations anymore. I'd rather you didn't have any expectations at all. All I can promise, and all I want you to know, is that Artificial Selection will come out eventually.

I also want to apologize if this post comes across as me blaming you - that is not my intention at all. I sincerely appreciate every single person who expressed interest in Artificial Selection and said they looked forward to its release (I do too!). It's very reassuring to know that my creation has already reached and resonated with some people. Your support means a lot to me, and I hope you'll still want to play the game when it comes out, whenever that may be.

Furthermore, I will be deactivating memberships for the time being. After all, there is no point in me accepting monthly donations if I can't guarantee to regularly publish content. I also want to offer some form of compensation to members who feel like they haven't gotten their money's worth the last 2 months (since I haven't been posting anything at all). Whether you want a free commission, a refund, or maybe a free game key - all of those options are fine by me, and I deeply apologize for letting you down.

Last but not least, I know this post is kind of depressing, but I want to let you know that, mentally, I'm doing pretty good. My apologies to anyone who was worried due to my absence.

Thank you for your support until now, and I hope to come back with better news soon.

Until then!
Kigyo

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