Gee, it's been quite a while since I sent one of these out. It's really easy for me to focus on working and before I knew it, 6 months passed! I'm now dual streaming to both Twitch and YouTube every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday at 1900 UTC and I set aside a dedicated time every week to do some writing and video editing. My hope is that this new schedule helps me deliver newsletters more consistently.

I should have posted about development on fishy facts more. But, since I didn't, I'll provide a summary of what's happened since the last newsletter.

I finished preproduction and made a production schedule with a target release in the summer of 2027. Players responded well to the game at events, but I got to a point where I felt I needed to rework the beginning of the game to provide a better new player experience. Because of this, I spent a significant amount of time over the last month or so refactoring the game which caused me to fall behind my production schedule. However, I think doing it was a good choice. I'm very happy with the new code and I'm optimistic that the changes will help make the rest of the game much easier to make.

That said, I'm still frustrated. I'd like to move onto making the next thing already (there's a new game idea that I've taken to calling starfare...) and I feel like I need to do a better job of sharing my work. As for DOSIMETER, Tanuki and I are still working on it quietly in the background, but very little progress has been made on the game in the last few months as I focus on fishy facts.

news

📷 hwy 1 trip photos - I took photos while traveling Highway 1 with my family, visiting national parks in California and Oregon. Read...

🌌 no signal controller support - no signal now has improved controller support and several long-standing bugs were resolved. Read v1.8.4 changelog...

🧩 fishy facts refactoring - In building out the new player experience, I've completely rebuilt several things, including completely redoing how tiles in the puzzle are implemented. Read...

📔 old writings migrated - I've updated my website to include some of my old writings. I also added a star next to file entries that I like or consider important for whatever reason. View....

reviews

🧊 ★★☆☆☆ (2/5) Subnautica: Below Zero - Below Zero is more or less just like the first game. The game is paced quite well at the beginning, providing more of the same enjoyable experience. However, it quickly runs out of energy and I found myself wondering what to do. Read...

🚀 ★★★☆☆ (3/5) Hardspace: Shipbreaker - I think this game would have been much better if it was shorter, had deeper non-choreographed mechanical systems to play with, and responded to player choice at least a little bit. It would be nice to see a sequel or a spiritual successor do this. Read...

🪐 ★★☆☆☆ (2/5) ΔV: Rings of Saturn - A game that, on the surface, looks like exactly my kind of jam. However, while it is very detailed, it does not have the emergent feeling I am looking for. In fact, the game remains simple in spite of its complexity. Read...

🚗 ★★☆☆☆ (2/5) Car Park Capital - I want Car Park Capital to be an incredible game, one that delivers a strong message while still being a really fun game to play. Unfortunately, as it is right now, I think a few issues hold it back from becoming what it could be. Read...