Welcome back, slither in and curl up somewhere warm.

I'll get right to the meat of it. Step one in my diabolical plan for Laernia was to make the game, as it is (or was) at first release. Step two involves (apparently) joining a whole other game jam just to finish it. Between looking for work and continuing my degree, I have not dedicated any time to Laernia since its release. The thrill of coming up with something is one beast; the dedication of adding a tutorial and refactoring code is another altogether. I find that, for better or worse, I can commit to the latter more easily when there is extrinsic motivation. You know, head pats and stuff. 

As it happens, I found a game jam that focuses on just this aspect of game-making: Portland Indie Game Squad's Finish Your Game Jam 2022! Now, I am very, very far from Portland (Oregon, USA) but it being an online jam, and the people seeming nice and welcoming, I decided to have a peek. I only had a few days to wait before the theme reveal and intro stream over at twitch.tv/PIGSquad, where I got to meet some of the organizers and other participants. It's a great vibe! And what's more, the theme they announced is 'Transition/Transformation' - the game already has those elements (the theme for the Roguelike jam 4 where it was created was 'Evolve/From Within').

So that's it! I am entering this game to a new jam to progress with the finishing touches on it. Making a tutorial, tweaking the fog of war, making the UI feedback for resorces less noisy and overwhelming, and a bunch of things are on the list (along with - oh yeah - implementing the missing mechanics for the evolutions that currently don't do anything). I'm looking forward to the end result and learning some things along the way.

Slither forth and devour, until next time!