Last Days of Summer
Dear Last Piners,
With summer winding down into autumn, I find myself feeling reflective. I’m thinking a lot about this newsletter and what it’s for, and wondering if part of why I haven’t been updating it as much as I’d like is because there is no clear goal or structure. Something for me to think about.
Work has been more stressful as I’ve taken on additional responsibilities, and as the crowdfunding campaign moves into the fulfillment phase, I’m learning more about shipping and logistics than I ever thought I’d need to know. I feel like if I’d had the knowledge that I’m gaining now back when I was trying to run Elmwood Townhall (my now mostly defunct “record label”) I probably could have been a lot more successful. But so it goes.
This does mean, however, that I’ve been reflecting on the crowdfunding campaign now that it’s almost all done. (The first set of books has been delivered! More shipments will be going out from Indie Press Revolution in the next couple of weeks! We’re getting ready to send out pamphlets, stickers, and postcards from our living room!) Firstly, I want to say that it was more successful than I ever could have hoped, and I am so grateful to the community of supporters that have glommed onto my weird little game, my friends who’ve held my hand through the process, and the folks at Walsworth and IPR for being just super supportive and understanding with someone who’s new to this whole thing.
I’ve also realized there were things that I probably could have done to make it even more successful, such as better advertising and marketing, and so on, but I don’t have a single regret about how things went. Maybe next time I’ll put more effort into those things, maybe I won’t. Who knows if there even will be a next time, I suppose, but I am working (at various capacities) on three different games at the moment, so … we’ll see! Anyway, the book looks fuckin’ great, I’m excited to get it into people’s hands, and I appreciate all of you.
Media of the … week?
I’ve been reading the Heartstopper books which are very good. Volume 2 in particular felt like doing very healing inner child work with my queer and closeted teenage self.
I finally played all the way through Citizen Sleeper. I had picked it up early on and made it through the first few sections before putting it down for unknown reasons (probably just got busy). Well, I’ve been sick with some end-of-summer crud and stayed home yesterday and ended up playing through the entire game from the beginning (according to Steam, it took me about 14 hours not including breaks). And what a game it was. Absolutely heartbreaking at points, it’s a moving and thoughtful exploration of loss, identity, and what it means to be human. Hopefully there isn’t anyone left in the year 2024 who thinks video games can’t be art, but if there is, they can fuck right off, because this is art.
Over the last week or so, I also played through Stray with my six year old. Another really incredible game, though the themes of sacrifice were probably a bit too heavy for her. We did our best to talk it through, and she’s a very emotionally intelligent child, but Saturday morning, when we finished the game, was a very difficult morning with a lot of tears. Not a bad thing, per se, but a difficult thing to help her grapple with the hugeness of what it means to love someone so much that you would die for them or be so dedicated to a cause that your life and dreams come second to it. It’s heavy stuff for anyone, honestly. Highly, highly recommend this game to everyone, especially those at the intersection of cat lovers and cyberpunk fans, but everyone really.
We also watched X, which I mostly enjoyed, and we’re seeing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice this weekend. To say that I haven’t been a fan of Burton’s later work is an understatement, but after seeing early reviews and hearing from friends, I’m cautiously optimistic.
That’s all for now.
Until next time,
jex