Have you ever noticed that there’s always something to write about when something goes wrong? When everything goes smoothly, these end-of-month reports end up being short. Which is good, of course, because if there are no problems, that means the work is progressing well. And right now, it is progressing well. Essentially, I’ve reached the point I wanted to reach by the end of this month. Although I haven’t been able to finish this section yet, for the most part it’s just “routine work” left—that is, I need to set the facial expressions for the three characters in the conversation (Rick, Kendra, and Felicité). There are also a few minor details and one more complex scene left in this section, but nothing too serious or time-consuming.

With that, I’ve made it past more than half of the chapter. What’s left consists mainly of conversations or scenes that can be portrayed with a few images. There’s also one scene that “repeats” a scene from Chapter 10 (Rick brings money to Terence), but those go by quickly, since I just have to adapt the existing images to fit the new day (well, okay, it’s not a 100% exact match, so there will be a few more tweaks here and there).

And that's it. Work is coming along well. I wouldn't dare give a release date yet—I don't want my optimism to get the better of me again—but I'd still like to release Chapter 11 this year. Right now, I'm feeling optimistic and can't see any obstacles in the way.

Until the next post thank you for your kind words, your honest criticism and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my patrons for their support. I'm available on Discord (where I also post pictures and little news of my progress) or here, if you contact me about anything, I'll answer. Maybe not right away, but I'll do my best. Or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Be good and take care of yourselves!

Have a great day, everyone! Is it hot where you are, too? Because here, in my little country, it’s sweltering. Unfortunately, this is affecting my work as well—especially since an energy crisis has erupted in Hungary after the Paks Nuclear Power Plant had to be shut down due to record-low water levels in the Danube, meaning that a facility producing two-thirds of the country’s energy needs is being taken offline (thanks again to the Fidesz government for its inaction—may they rot in hell).

So, due to the ongoing record-breaking heat, I’m rendering less than usual to prevent any technical issues from arising in my PC because of the heat (it’s 40 degrees Celsius outside, 30 in my room—I don’t have AC—and my GPU reaches 90 degrees Celsius while rendering, which isn’t good for me either, not just the computer). In addition, I don’t work at all between 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., because even on an individual level, we’re trying to do our part to reduce energy consumption (I’m proud of my fellow citizens; over the past day, through our combined efforts, we’ve saved an amount of electricity equivalent to the output of a single reactor unit at the nuclear power plant).

In addition, unfortunately, a tragedy struck two weeks ago. My nearly 21-year-old old cat, who was born here at my home (her father was mine, who sadly passed away suddenly in the months before her kittens were born), and who was literally a part of half my life, passed away. Junior had reached the end of his life. I’d been expecting it for a while—even though he wasn’t sick (quite the opposite, in fact; even a few hours before his death, he woke me up to ask for food)—but given his age, it was clear that the sad moment could happen at any time. And unfortunately, it did happen. His body collapsed from one moment to the next, so I had him put to sleep. That week was obviously emotionally draining as well; I didn’t work for a few days either.

That’s why the animations aren’t ready yet. Unfortunately, all of the above also led me to make one mistake after another. I had to re-render more than one video because I made small but noticeable mistakes, mostly due to simple carelessness. I really wasn’t at my best mentally. However, I’m slowly but surely getting back on track; today I only had to redo one video out of the ones I finished yesterday. And the good news is that there are only a few videos left.

So, with a little luck, I’ll be able to upload Rise of the Crime Lord v0.12c this week, which will be the absolutely final version of Chapter 10. Not only will it include the animations that were still missing, but I’ve also fixed three major bugs, and there will be some minor tweaks here and there.

In the meantime, I’m working on the v0.7 update for Distant Horizon; it’s coming along nicely, and I plan to release it in late August or early September. I plan to focus mainly on this this month, but I won’t be neglecting Chapter 11 either; based on what I’ve done so far, I should be able to make good progress on that as well—and of course, a big part of that is that Chapter 11 returns to familiar settings. That is, to Rick and Cora’s home, the SSG and H&W offices, but Perfection’s elite restaurant, the Royal, will also play a role again.

So, Chapter 10 of Rise of the Crime Lord, version v0.12c, is coming out this week (maybe as tomorrow, if things go well); Distant Horizon v0.7 will be released toward the end of this month or early next month at the latest; and, according to my plans, Chapter 11 of Rise of the Crime Lord should be out in October. That’s the plan—hopefully nothing will come up to derail it.

In the meantime thank you for your kind words, your honest criticism and thank you very much to my patrons for their support. Take care of yourselves, your loved ones, and your little pets during this unbearable heat—and always, of course—but let’s be especially mindful of one another right now. And I'm still available on Discord (where I also post pictures and little news of my progress) or here, if you contact me about anything, I'll answer. Maybe not right away, but I'll do my best. Or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Be good and take care of yourselves!