Moonshell Island Retrospect 2022

Happy belated New Year, friends! I'm so grateful for your continued support after my lengthy hiatus. What better way to return and get my head back in the game than with the traditional annual summary of progress? Media heavy post incoming!

Q1: Cozy club interiors and dog petting

The year started off with some decent headway on getting back to what I enjoy most about gamedev - creating artwork for Moonshell Island. Crabby's clubhouse interior was built, and we got to pet Dot, leader of the dog pack!

Above: A tour of Crabby's clubhouse.

Above: Dot is a boss lady with no nonsense about her.

Q2: Lofi beats to recover/cook to

Following the club interior theme, I designed a Lofi Girl inspired postcard and came down with COVID. That was no picnic, but I still managed to cook up a concept for preparing meals in-game with Crabby's Cookbook! While it's likely to change a bit, it's not bad for brain fog, if I do say so myself.

Above: Sam relaxing to some lofi hip hop beats in Crabby's clubhouse loft.

Above: A first iteration mock-up of Crabby's Cookbook menu.

A good dish requires good ingredients, so I then designed a shop system for Hattie's Harvest and improved the Inventory menu design. I also managed to reach 20k followers on Twitter, which seemed worth commemorating at the time so I whisked up a cooking-themed pixel art to celebrate.

Above: Buy and sell produce at Hattie's Harvest!

Above: Crabby and Sam making blueberry muffins and peanut butter pickle sandwiches - don't knock it till you try it!

This time also marked a big change for Cheekynauts, as Schotti stepped back in his involvement in the studio and the Moonshell Island project. This was not an easy decision, yet a mutual one made with friendship and good will intact. I will always be grateful for Schotti's contributions to the studio and Moonshell Island, and honoured I was able to contribute to Santria, a project I hope you'll all continue to support along with me. :) That said, I knew I needed to secure funding for a programmer if I was going to keep my own project alive.

Q3: A ghostly grant and fruitful harvest

Leading up to this point, I had been splitting my time between game dev, renovations, and seeking funding for the resources needed to complete a public demo and move onto full production. My efforts really started to pay off at this time when I was accepted into the Baby Ghosts Concept Grant and Peer Accelerator program courtesy of Weird Ghosts and Gamma Space! The timing couldn't have been better as I had just wrapped up our last big renovation project and I could give more time to working with my coaches. Since we focused mostly on project management and studio development, I became a ghost in more than one figurative sense and disappeared for a while - but not before sending out a juicy new harvest-themed postcard!

Above: Sam meets some WEIRD GHOSTS..!

Above: On Moonshell Island, tomato eats YOU!

Q4: Organized chaos

The Baby Ghost program introduced me to new tools, strategies, and people that have helped me develop a more comprehensive plan for the demo and find solutions to some big studio pain points. The time I've spent with my coaches and the Gamma Space community has indeed been a game-changer for me, and I'm feeling very optimistic about the results and prospects I see ahead thanks to this opportunity.

I must admit, Schotti's absence from the studio has been felt, so I'm grateful he's been available to help tie loose ends, and I'm very glad I've not had to make this transition alone thanks to tons of support from everyone here reading this, from my friend and mentor Kai at Massive Corporation, and everyone at Gamma Space & Weird Ghosts. You've all been tremendously generous, and I couldn't do this without you.

Above: Demo planning on the Moonshell Island Miro board.

Meanwhile, all the pieces for my intended move back to BC began falling into place and the next thing I knew I was packing up and shipping out on a 4-day roadtrip with my family and 3 cats to the island home of my dreams! 

Above: Cats sleeping through the trip in their travel tent.

Moving provinces right before the holidays was both exhausting and magical. My time away allowed me to deal with logistics, reunite with family and friends, savour a fulfilled dream I've long worked toward, and recover from it all.

Above: A welcoming breath of ocean air.

I may have also indulged in a new craft over the holidays: weaving! I made myself a loom from a picture frame, purchased a nice palette of thrift store materials, went down the rabbit hole that is Pinterest and learned a few stitches.

Above: Biggs picking yarn out for his own projects.

Above: Wedge wants to try weaving too!

It's all just a bit of fun and nothing I take too seriously. Biggs and Wedge approve, but if you're worried I'm getting distracted from Moonshell Island again... fear not! As of yesterday I have kicked off next steps with my coaches and collaborators at Gamma Space, and my creative energy will be most devoted to that moving forward.

Social media observations

In keeping with tradition, here is the chart tracking how my reach has grown on my Twitter account since I started posting about Moonshell Island. 20k was a bittersweet milestone that climbed a bit before dipping down as old birdsite went into decline. I haven't had the capacity to be active on social media anyways, and certainly not to migrate to a new preferred platform. But at least what I achieved after all these years has gotten me where I am now with plenty of opportunities before me, and it made me some wonderful friends along the way.

Above: Twitter following for goawayimcrabby from 2019 through 2022

This year I did start making an effort with TikTok. I can't say it's very intuitive or worth the preparation time so far, and I probably missed the opportunity to go viral on it - which is the point if I'm honest. I look at social media numbers as a measure of how well a strategy or platform is working to reach one's community or audience, not as a measure of one's worth. Numbers make a difference when negotiating with potential stakeholders, so it can be worth some effort, as long as it doesn't get in the way of progress. That's why I'm hesitant to jump off a sinking ship like Twitter, because it's the devil I at least used to know. But given the situation, I can't be ruling out other platforms. So if you want to see a little bonus content now and then, you can find me on either TikTok or my somewhat more established Instagram!

Conclusion

2022 was an impactful year, and a lot has changed with Cheekynauts and my personal life. Living in such an inspiring place is sure to replenish my creative energy, and with all the help I'm receiving I expect 2023 will be a year of significant Moonshell Island progress.

I look forward to sharing the adventure with you all. Thank you for joining me thus far!

Your friend,
Sam