It is time for an announcement.

I am the head admin of the Indie Game Utopia Discord server and we're hosting our first game jam over there!

The IGU Summer Jam starts on June 21 and will last for two weeks. The gimmick is that your color palette will be limited to the colors of a Pride flag of your choosing. (different shades are allowed as long as the colors can still be recognised as those from the flag that the participant picked)

The prizes:
1. A special "Game Jam Winner" role in the Discord server to let everyone know that you won the jam.
2. An itch.io key for a game of the winner's choosing.
3. The winner will have their game covered by Indie Hive.

Link to the itch.io page: https://itch.io/jam/igusummerjam

Link to the server: https://discord.gg/ZyYt49B

Greetings,
​-Bas

I know it's been a while.

This post is mainly for those who follow my Twitter account or are in the official The Outbreak Story Discord server. I haven't been posting much about the game lately, and I haven't been that active on social media in general, and I figured I'd explain what's up and where I've been during all of this time.

First of all, I want to say something to those of you who might be worried about the state of the game's development. Please don't be. The game's development is very much ongoing and I have been making progress, but a lot of that is stuff I don't want to show because it would spoil the story. I know what I want the game to be, how I want the plot to go and what I want the ending to be. I am confident that I'll be able to finish the game either before the end of this year, or if not, early next year.
I know that people might want something more concrete, like a release date, but I don't like to give people expectations and then potentially letting them down.


But why have I been inactive on social media?

The short answer?
Depression. I have always been open about my struggles with mental health, so this might not come as much of a surprise.


More than that, though, I've just been kind of... burnt out on social media (Twitter in particular) at the moment? The whole climate can be... tiring at times. For me, anyways, but a lot of people in online spaces that I hang out in express frustration with being on Twitter and their feelings on the matter are similar to mine, so I know this isn't just me.
A lot of people on Twitter (and I know this isn't exclusive to Twitter but I think Twitter is one of the worse platforms in this regard) seem to just have to have an opinion on everything, even if they don't know what they're talking about, just to have an opinion on the matter.
And people have to be RIGHT all the time, which is something I find to be rather annoying as someone who would rather try to actually solve the world's problems.

At a certain point, it just doesn't feel productive to follow all this discourse.


Aside from that, I've also had some IRL issues to deal with. My cat, Casper, disappeared a few weeks ago. He was only gone for a few days and he was fine when I found him, but it was a horrible situation. I didn't sleep at all during the first night.
I don't know what I'd do if he died.
I mean, it's a risk, since I live in a suburban area and there's a busy road right next to my house. There's a lot of cars.

But he's back, and I'm making sure to cherish all the time I get to experience with him!

Love you, Casper!

That aside, a few of my close online friends have also been dealing with their own mental health issues. I've been giving them emotional support to the best of my ability.

I have also been dealing with a particularly frustrating situation in a Discord server where I'm a moderator. A person in that server who several other people had issues with had to be banned after, when confronted about it by the server owner (who is also one of my close friends) he tried to emotionally blackmail the server owner. This person has since been constantly bothering us to unban him, and since that didn't work, he has started to bother third parties about it and trying to get them to bother us about it instead of doing it himself.
This has been pretty exhausting to deal with, not just for me, but also the server owner (who already has his own mental health issues) and the other moderator.

The whole issue has been going on for more than a month, by the way. Just putting things into perspective here because I don't think the short summary I gave of the situation really conveys what an exhausting experience it has been.

So, yeah, plenty of stuff has happened.


Moving on from that, here's some gif's!

The first gif is of Noah, James, Marie, Alexia and Shelby fighting the Antlion, a powerful boss. It has the ability to regenerate itself, making it hard to do any real damage to it.
​(check the original tweet here)

On to the next gif...

After the party manages to deal with the healing factor and damage the boss, it starts shooting out giant lasers.
​(check the original tweet here)

And here's a still image.
​(check the original tweet here)

I have made some graphical upgrades to existing areas as well.
Here's the town of Seafort.
(check the original tweet here)

And, finally, here's some light-hearted dialogue. The party is visiting Alexia's grandmother, who lives in a little cottage in the forest, and Noah is preparing to knock on the door.
​(check the original tweet here)

That's it for now, as far as the progress update goes.

I would love to promise that I'll be updating consistently from now on, but if you're a long-time follower, you probably already know that I'm not good at that.

​Even putting aside the fact that I struggle with mental health issues, I'm just not that great at sticking to a schedule.

I'm trying, really, but improving at this sort of thing takes time.


If you've made it this far and are reading this, thanks a lot! Please consider following me on Twitter (@BasMakesGames) or checking out the demo for the game on Itch.io or GameJolt. If you would like to get in touch, become a tester or get notified whenever I post something about the game including progress updates, join the Discord.

Greetings, and stay safe!
​-Bas