Hey, I’m still here!

If you’re a regular visitor to Dark Gaia Studios (or you stalk my Twitter and Facebook), you’ve no doubt noticed there’s been a huge lack of updates lately concerning Derange or any other projects I’m working on. I didn’t feel okay with simply letting this site and blog languish as if I’d just vanished off the face of the Earth without letting my fans know what was going on, so this blog post is just to let you guys know everything is fine.

Yes, I’m still alive. Yes, I’m still working on my games. I’m just taking a little break for the time being and working at a much more leisurely pace. My last major release, Heroes of Legionwood, was a massive undertaking that required nearly 3 years to see to completion. An important part of my development cycle is giving myself time to rest and recharge after huge projects. Usually, this results in me putting out smaller, less ambitious titles in between my major RPG projects (like Mythos in between Legionwood 2 and Heroes or, for those of you who’ve been around for a long time, the One Night games in between new chapters of the first Legionwood).

These smaller titles tend to be require less time to make and I recharge my creative batteries by working on them at a more relaxed pace. Originally, Derange was intended to be one of these smaller side projects, but it’s since evolved into something much bigger. As it turns out, I’ve jumped right from the tail end of Heroes of Legionwood into another complex and ambitious project, without anything to help slow things down in between.

So, I’m working slowly, but I haven’t neglected my game development ambitions entirely. I’m currently getting back into the swing of things by updating my older One Night games to a modern standard with the Ultimate Edition releases (the first two of which are already available on Steam and Itch.io). I’m also fleshing out an idea for a small scale non-fantasy RPG that I’ve yet to reveal, saving time by re-purposing code and mechanics from Heroes of Legionwood.

I like to consider game development my job, but it’s important to remember that I the reason I started doing it in the first place was because I enjoy it. And when the act of creating something is no longer enjoyable, the end product becomes soulless and generic. Each project I embark upon is supposed to be a labor of love. When you play my games, you can tell I care about them, and that’s why you like them. Thank you for understanding.