Hey folks, oh jeez. It's been a long while since I've last made an entry on here, and I sincerely apologize for that. I honestly didn't want to write this as to not alarm any one of you, but I just thought it would be best that I did. I'll start with the bad news (and there are some good ones though).

The Bad News

The project may be going on an indefinite hiatus

I am not necessarily confirming that Stramedia will be on hiatus, but it is, however, an unfortunate possibility, because - aside from having to attend college, even currently in remote format and following the regulations - I've tested positive for COVID-19, the Omicron Variant. And because of that, I may have to slow down development once more to completely prioritize my health in efforts to recover from this f^$%#@& mess. Even if I am completely vaccinated since December which could probably help me recover much easier and faster, but considering that this stuff is still possibly fatal, this kind of s#$^ still sucks nonetheless. I f^$%#@& hate this. So yeah. While things seem bleak at this moment, all I gotta do right now is to heal, recover or whatever somehow. But whenever I finish my recovery and after the gaming industry/market becomes a little more less of a godawful mess, I may be able to start sharing proper development post a little bit more frequently again. Because I've been up to fair amount of stuff behind the scenes.

The Good News

I got a new computer with two monitors and some other things that will come really in handy in developing Stramedia and other possible projects that would follow after it. And believe me when I say it, but things have been going pretty well, despite me being mostly silent throughout all these months (for a few reasons). I hope to be able to share everything in full details one day, but in short summary I can say that Stramedia has gotten a much more robust combat mode in the works (with four types of firearms now implemented!), a new kind of inventory system is also in the works now, I've also been working on a few more new accessibility options, supporting multiple screen aspect ratios, secondary keys for the keyboard controls, possibility to be able to configure gamepad control settings, started optimization work to keep the game running at the same kind of speed on displays with much higher refresh rates (to make sure more specifically that certain things don't get all too trigger happy on higher frame rates - I am not trying to develop a new LEGO Island 1, I don't even have an excuse to, considering the advanced technology we have today as I am writing this), and so on and so forth. But it's really hard to say that the game is nearing development completion, oh heavens no, there's still several things for me to rewrite from scratch and add into the game, areas to plan out, construct ever since I've switched engines last year (and honestly I am pretty happy I did that). So once after I have recovered from COVID, made sure that college stuff aren't big of a problem - I will continue to have a blast making sure that Stramedia comes out as great as it could be and that I continue taking care of several technical problems with it, even if it means having to push the release window further back until I am confident that there's enough stuff in. Right now, I need to go on a break - but I still don't know whenever or not Stramedia will be in a full or partial hiatus - but only my health condition and time will tell. I know this isn't the kind of news you like to hear, but what else am I supposed to do to finish this lolloping project of mine? That's a harsh reality of life we all are going through right now, unfortunately. As always, thank you for understanding and ever so dearly for standing by. I am logging off now. Stay safe and please, don't be a massive p###k - follow the f#####g COVID-19 regulations before someone finally murders you for f###'s sake. -Nickolai 'Cole/Colbeala/Retroey Doofery' Filipanov

[ 2022-02-04 11:59:49 CET ] [ Original post ]