BRS Development on Hiatus

Well, fuck.

Putting Shit On Pause

I haven't worked on Black Road Sky at all for the past few weeks. I ran into way more bugs than expected, and will probably have to roll back some of the new features as a result. Which is a bummer, because this was already going to be a pretty lackluster update. It just got to a point where I dreaded getting out of bed in the morning, knowing that I would have to work on this game. Dumb, I know.

Black Road Sky isn't the problem, really, but it's one of the few time sinks & sources of stress in my life that I can choose to just, like, not do. I've been feeling generally overwhelmed and I can't just quit going to work (or can I?) and I can't just quit being dragged along in an unrelenting social, economic and political nightmare (or can I?) and I can't just quit perceiving reality as a bewildered speck of consciousness awash in a staggering deluge of universal suffering (OR CAN I?) but ... I can definitely just quit making my little video game for a while.

I feel shitty stepping back so close to version release, and I feel especially shitty for having suggested that it would be finished before this year. And I feel extra especially shitty because this was just supposed to be a little catchup release before moving on to ship systems, which I am still, even in my current state of minor existential distress, really, really looking forward to working on. But I've moved past the stage of beating myself up over it and am pretty comfortably into the ah, fuck it, this is just the way it is stage.

The Future of Black Road Sky

I have every intention of getting back to work in the not-too-distant future. I'm feeling a lot like I did around the start of 2022, and I've been considering the same 'give up' / 'start over' / 'muscle through it' options that I did back then. I've decided that it's definitely not time to give up, and although starting over does sound hella refreshing, I'll probably just keep muscling through. That's kinda my jam. Just need to gulp down a few lungfuls of air before diving back into the thriving madhouse of bugs that I've managed to foster.

Hopefully the world doesn't end between now & then, but if it does, you know, that's one less thing.

Coming Up Next

I won't pretend to know. But today is the first warm, sunny day we've had in months. I think I'll go for a walk.

o7

Well, shit. Again.

 

BRS v0.3 COMING ... 6 months ago ... ? Aw fuck.

PCG 2020 Shareholders Profits Report

 Welcome, welcome. Your time is valuable so we'll cut to the chase. As you can see, we are on track to complete BRS version 0.3 last summer? Wait ....

BRS Progress Report

Huh. Well, shit.

Potato Clock Games Fall Sabbatical

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ SEE YA.

xoxo
Potato Clock Games

Family First: Quantum Leap and Samsara

After the wildly successful release of Harvest Booze, I found myself drowning in a heady cocktail of fame, drugs, and obscene wealth. I was a crack-addled Scrooge McDuck and the fans just couldn't get enough ... yet a man has only so much to give. Less than a year after release, I could feel myself breaking down, my spirit caged and my body in shambles; I had lost my way. I had lost the way. I gazed down to my hands; whose hands were these?

I began a rigorous program of self-rehabilitation, which involved getting drunk and watching Quantum Leap starring Scott Bakula, until finally I found myself deposited into a parallel universe in which I had abandoned development of Harvest Booze long before it could inflict its wretched torment upon me. I booted my old development computer, sweat cold on my brow, and raced through the labyrinthine file hierarchy to find it, that incubating darkness, harbinger of the fall. I hovered my cursor over the folder, my finger over the delete key. I looked into its eyes; my monster, my folly ... my child.

I knew I must, yet I could not. And I wept. For I was home.

Windows 8 Calamity!

Well, this is dumb. For boring reasons that I won't get into, all of my Game Maker games were crashing on Windows 8 under certain conditions; they seemed to play fine until too many sounds were played simultaneously, then BOOM they're done for. It actually turned out to be a Microsoft problem rather than Game Maker or an I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-I'm-doing problem. Anyway, I figured out how to fix it & I've uploaded updated versions of all the games to the website. #1 CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR THE FANS.

Edit: That's a lie. Only some of the games work reliably on Win8. Here are the ones that still don't:

Dog Catcher Jones of the Future
AlienSexist
Jack Ham's Maze of Tribulations
Jack Ham Zero

They work mostly but they're pretty unstable. #0  CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR THE FANS. Maybe I'll fix them someday.