Personal Update and Possible Delays

Happy Valentines, friends! This post is totally unrelated to that, but since I'm living that sweet spinster life I have time today for a personal update that may affect the timeline and level of progress I'll be able to deliver this season. Sorry, it's not one of our fun, content-rich posts. I just feel it's important to be transparent as I find my footing on some rather unstable new grounds.

You may recall me mentioning I was being laid off in my previous updates, and as of last month I am now fully self-employed, sans reliable income.

Your support is my lifeline right now and deserves the very best I can give to you and to Moonshell Island, but it's unfortunately not enough to sustain the business and myself on its own. My plan was to dedicate all my time to the project to pitch for more funding sooner, but things have worked out in a different way that I think is ultimately for the best.

I've been mulling over the idea of taking commissions if things get dicey, and on the very day my job was terminated I was offered a rather large commission project. It's NDA and I won't be able to showcase anything until December or later, but the project is right up my alley and pays enough to be worth the time away from Moonshell Island. It's intense work that is taking all I have in me leading up to mid-April, but the money is going into the studio account and will sustain us longer than the equivalent progress we might be losing from my absence during this time.

As it happens, what remains of my work on the demo depends on technical progress that is still underway, so I'm in wait mode anyways while bryan solidifies systems and workflows I will be using for my end of the final stages of demo completion. So in a way, this commission is the best thing for Moonshell Island!

So how does this affect this season's delivery of patron rewards and content?

My hope is that it will at worst be a minimal delay on the Spring 2025 update and our next biannual postcard.

Typically I would run a poll with two postcard drafts to choose from in March, then I would finish and print the winning design on which to write qualifying tiers (Shooting Starfish and up) come early April.

This situation may offset things by a month or so, but rest assured if you qualify for a postcard when it would have originally gone out, that will be honored at the delayed time regardless of status.

I apologize for my radio silence at times and any disappointment these delays may cause. If I do continue with commissions after this one, I hope to balance the time split in favor of Moonshell Island, but I am also optimistic that by then we will be very close to fundable status and a playable demo!

Thank you for understanding, and thank you for supporting me through what has turned out to be a very twisty and long roller coaster ride. We're hanging in there somehow!

Looking forward to returning to Moonshell Island at full force very soon!

Your friend,
Sam