Happy Boxing Day!

So! It's been awhile. I had really intended to post more than a measly 2 dev logs in 2025, and to be honest I feel pretty crummy about the amount of work that's been done on the game in the past couple months (read: very little). Working on Star Beasts and the Crossword were a lot of fun, but it ultimately meant State Route 52 got put on the backburner for a bit. Even before that though, I really wasn't spending as much time as I wanted to working on the game. That can be chalked up to a lot of factors, not the least of which was plain old fashioned "being really sad and unmotivated." Still, I'm committed to the project, as I hope has been made clear through continuing to post Friday Doodles every week.

That's kind of its own issue, though. The Friday Doodles are great and all, and they make sure I've always got the game on my mind. But especially at this point, the more time I can spend actually working on the game itself, rather than ancillary material, the better. I want to get something playable into peoples' hands! To that end, I'm going to be changing how Friday Doodles work going forward.

Rather than a new doodle every Friday, it's going to be a new... something. More broadly, you will get something new from State Route 52 every Friday. Sometimes it'll still be a doodle, but more often going forward it'll be some card effects, a video of gameplay, a visual or audio asset, something like that. Stuff that actually contributes towards the game getting made. I'm hoping this will be the best of both worlds, giving me an incentive to continue making State Route 52 stuff, but also making that stuff actually work towards the game getting finished.

I don't want to commit to anything concrete, like "I'll release a demo in 2026" or anything like that. But I'm hoping to make a lot of progress on the game next year, and hopefully have some parts of it in at least a rough fully playable state. I've also been having some preliminary thoughts about expanding the team beyond just myself, especially in the art and sound departments. I've got a lot of changes in my life coming up in the new year (I'm going to be moving across the country and I'm still looking for a new permanent job), but if possible I'd like to start setting aside some cash for a "comissioning art and music for this game" fund. Those thoughts are largely going to wait until I have more than like, 2 screens of the game done, but if you're reading this and would be interested in contributing to the game in any form, don't hesitate to get in contact.

Well this was kind of rambley, thanks for sticking with me. I really, really want to finish this video game. It's going to take a long time, and I've accepted that. I'm in this for the long haul, and I really hope I'll be able to see it through. Hopefully y'all believe in me, and the project sounds cool enough to you that you'll continue checking in to see how it's coming. If you're reading this and aren't aware, I also post the Friday Doodle (they're still gonna be called that even when they're not literal doodles for the record) every week in the Magic Set Editor Discord and ping the "QwikStop Rewards Member" role when I do. If you're interested in following the project and want notified whenever something new is posted, you can hop in that server and pick up that role.

Thanks for reading. Hope you have/had a Happy/Merry Holidays/Christmas/New Year!