Okay, it's time I stopped staring blankly at this abbreviated bullet-form version of this update and began filling it in proper. All I really need is an exhilarating, eye-catching and enrapturing opener. I'll remember to come back and sort that out later, I guess.
Newsletters! The fifth instalment of the Parsnips Supplement is out and contains seasonally (now late) spooks and ghoulishments. Autumnal and vampiric comics accompany haunted crosswords, soul-stricken picrosses, ghastly recommendations, petrifying puns and, uh, Emm. She's there too. With waffles.
The other major thing I probably ought to make you aware of is that Chaos Chess is - are you sitting down? Preferably on something sturdy like a concrete plinth? Mhm? Yeah? Good - in the testing phase! 🎉🥳🎉
After finishing up my long-shunned to-do list, the game is ready to be downloaded by some close friends and tested to see how confusing my UI is and how easy everything is to break.
It's already freaked out one friend's antivirus for reasons I could only glean from a tangential remark in a forgotten post unearthed after a 3-hour forum-dive. Microsoft had, in the time it took to finish this game, found and blacklisted a security bug in a built-in Windows method for storing data. Nobody told me that! Still, hopefully that's all been replaced now and people can get on breaking it without worrying if I'm both smart and stupid enough to make and give them a virus.
Many other things have been occurring to and from me betwixt instances of head-static and cat-distractions. The next highlight video is now solidly edited to about 21 minutes. That sounds pretty brief, were it not the fact that it's yet another 'Part 1'. Many assets, jingles, wobbly pngs and silly songs are yet anticipant to be made for it, but the slightly un-sillied cut is in the proverbial can! No, not the toilet, the other one.
Festive cards stencils and the filming/video editing thereof are steadily being cut and, uh, cut. The former sit ready for test-printing this week whose filming will be added to the already edited first act. I obviously can't release the finished video until everyone receives their cards, but the point is that it's being made. Is that the point of a video? You know what, now that you mention it, I'm not certain...
Other minor distractions include a fair amount of cat-sitting, being corrupted by Cheeb into doing a Jay-based Pokemon playthrough, doodling said playthrough and, uh, something else. What was it again? Oh, yes! Commissions! That's the ticket.
Despite popular demand, streaming is still ongoing! Having eventually rid ourselves of the curse of Alone in the Dark (2008) - and washed it down with a delightful multi-chaser of Euro Truck Simulator - we have finally dived... dove?... endiveninged head-first into the bell-pit of Hollow Knight: Silksong! Much anticipated, surprisingly tricky, many lesbians, 9.8/10.
Friend streams see us once again plundering the game-design depths of Dying Light, which is beginning to shine flickers of intrigue albeit in its side-missions. And thence our Sundays have been dual-wielding chill doodle times and silly Gartic nonsense, now with 75% fewer nightmares!
As for the next fortnight, all being well Chaos Chess will release here for all of my supporters to play to their chaotic hearts' content and be decidedly underwhelmed. I'll be trying to blitz through this commission I'm on whilst my brain has uncharacteristically tuned into a valid frequency, whilst also working on an actual non-newsletter comic for once in my recent life. Videos also need editing, cards need printing, streams need prat-about-ing and food needs eating. And not just by me. Go get something nice, you deserve it.
Look after yourselves,
Crispy 💜