I'm still alive!

I've been silent for longer than maybe ever before. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but basically my life went off the rails at the end of last year:

burnout → job loss → financial stress → scrambling to stabilize → finally in a place to focus on YK again

The signs were all there before things started going downhill. I'm urging anyone going through something similar to slow down and make changes early. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps doesn't always end well!😵 It's been a pretty rocky ride for me and my whole family, but I'm so happy things are looking much better for us now. I know we're not the only ones experiencing harder times, so I'm sure a lot of you can sadly relate, and I'm grateful to finally be in a position where I can devote real time and focus to finishing what I started so many years ago.

I should have shared this information months ago, and I'm sorry I didn't. It's a pattern with me... I keep thinking things will turn around soon, and I don't like sharing bad news. Even through this 💩storm, I kept drawing, writing and planning, so the project never fully stopped, but I ended up retreating to my "mental basement" to wait out the rough times. I know it wasn't fair to just disappear, and I'm really sorry for that.

The good news: the script and location art for Chapter 09 are finished. I still have the CG art and the build to complete before the update is ready, but I'm aiming for a release within the next 30 days. All in all, I would love to finish YK this year. But the last 6 months taught me things can change in an instant... so I’m just taking it day by day and pushing forward until I'm done.

Working on this mostly solo has let me take real creative risks and do exactly what I want, but it also means everything takes longer than I'd like. There are plenty of moments I doubt whether I have the capability or the skills to pull this off. But I can only keep moving forward and try to keep the inner critic at bay.

Thank you for your patience, your support, and for sticking with me on this nutty ride. 🤍

— Yume