The year began with losing our dog, Mater.

He was an old chihuahua-daschund mix, and we knew it was a matter of time, but that didn’t make it any easier.

We adopted two adorable chihuahua mixes named Poppy and Bruno from a local shelter. The loss of a close pet is always still there, but these good dogs needed good homes. Their wagging tails and big ears made it easier.

-Kittems from the Future

For the better part of the last six months I’ve also been struggling with cubital tunnel syndrome after tendonitis in my left wrist didn’t seem to ever fully recover.

Typically an illness like this just comes from overuse and heals from resting, but unfortunately my job and hobby involves constant typing. Despite hundreds of logs with twelve variables in a spreadsheet, I have not been able to find a consistent factor aside from stress that correlates. It only seems to be worsening.

It has made it difficult to gamedev, though I miss it terribly.

So… I’ve just had to wait.

My sister and Blaise, the two artists who have been (in their spare time) aiding me with fantastic character design, concept art (see above), and animations have both graduated from college and got jobs. It’s fantastic news, and they will do wonderful work, but it also means they won’t have time to create art for Skymagi anymore.

Game development can be lonely sometimes, and I will greatly miss their presence.

Adventuring is better with a party.

Where do we go next?

My idea list for Skymagi is over 200+ entries, and there’s plenty of core mechanics left to build.

Sometimes we don’t expect our castle to teleport into a battle, but when it does, we make the best of the situation.

Congratulations to my sister and Blaise, and thank you for all the fantastic art and design you’ve contributed since we began in 2020. I wish you all the best, and I cannot wait to see what greatness your future will hold! I will do my best to take it from here.

Cheers to a better 2022 going forward.