This break ended up being much longer than I had hoped, but i'm so many years working on this, i don't get flustered over it any more, it takes as long as it does for the mojo to come back, that's all there is to it. I've been worthless for a bit, but I can sense that very soon I'm gonna be back at this bitch kicking' ass.

First impressions after opening the project for the first time in a long time: For the very first time, after an extended break, I am VERY happy with core systems, it is only Design setups that are bugging me.

It's very important to break long breaks from time to time, outside of recharging, because it lets you for a very brief moment see the game as a player does, you forget the systems you were working on, you forget why you think it's supposed to be fun, you realize for a brief instant what is actually fun and what isn't fun, before you pollute your mind with preconceived notions by working on the project again.

My big takeaways and the things I will be working on in the coming weeks as I approach a release candidate for the core demo:

1. TOO MANY ITEM MODS: When I got an item, i was hit with several mods that all kinda did nice things, but it was overwhelming and there was no way i was going to put together a build in my mind, I'm going to do a pass on items and make 2x mod a rare exception and focus on items having just 1 really nice, fun modifier and I may work on the UI (ugh....) to more prominently display the bonus that items bestow. Honestly I didn't really feel like the UI was working, but that's something to worry about at a future date, TOO MUCH TO DO and there are no deckhands to help shoulder the weight, so picking my battles right now.

2. POOR ENEMY SPAWNS: I really enjoyed fighting the enemies in small #'s, and each enemy had a unique feel, but as it stands too many enemies spawn and too many types spawn in specific areas. In the long run this is a good problem! It means I can take what fish I have and use them to create a large amount of content. My plan moving forward will be to break up larger zones into smaller areas with unique spawns and item drops in those areas, so the player will be able to make itemization decisions based on the builds they want, so lets say a player wants a ring with nice regen mods... they will know exactly where they can go to get that ring, and they can strategize play patterns to reach new areas once they are strong enough, and of course I'll add rare loot, and fish that drop varieties of items that are rare to mix things up!

3. REFINE SHARK MOVESET: I'm not happy with the basic right click bite attack combo of the shark, feels underwhelming, I may swap out for the basic charge attack, BUT I have put a lot of design and code into making htis attack grow in attack speed as you grow in size and chungus, but this element of the game feels wishy washy and not fully fleshed out right now, not something that is obvious to the player, while i played I totally forgot about these mechanics so not sure what im going to do.

Random blathers: I'm seeing things shake up in the world which bodes well for the game (assuming society doesn't completely collapse). For a long time quality product has been subverted, markets monopolized, it's hard to describe, but as a small indie dev just trying to make a good game amidst this nonsense things have felt very bleak for a  long time. I don't want to clout chase (not that anyone reads this anyway) but some of the indie developers I follow in various other industries are creating parallel ventures to the mainstream and doing very well right now, and that's really fucking inspiring. I feel as that SeaCrit is doing really well and in a lot of ways I'm just waiting for hte world to become sane so some entity that can see a good thing when they see it can take a chance on this project and help me making it something fucking amazing. It's already becoming good, it can be so much more with a little help...

Overall thoughts: Whew! After a quick play feeling really good! Holy fuck, sometimes i get so obsessed over what's still to be done I forgot I have damn near 5 years of solid work carrying this project forward and I'm proud of where this project is and where it's going. There is a SOLID foundation here. Once I clean up item mods, tune up spawning and create a few more areas, this game won't be perfect, but for a one man band this shit's gonna be pretty darned good. I'm proud as hell of the unique control schemes, the unique combat, the unique itemization, the unique spawn systems, the unique design and code sensibilities i've garnered over the years, the many years of tweaking and tuning the art to be stylized and performant and able to run on a damned potato. The AI's legit, the dialogue is properly smarmy, it's pick up and play, all the core elements are humming and coming together to be something greater than the sum of their parts and each of these singular modules are pretty darned solid if I say so myself.

It's a weird feeling to take these extended breaks, I start to wallow in this lot of created for myself and think abuot what a terrible risk this has all been, and as I let go of the project I kinda get down on everything, but once I start gearing up to work again and my mind fits itself itself back around this giant monstrosity I remember that this project is actually going pretty fucking well, combined with the world slowly waking up to the dumbass shit show it's become maybe SeaCrit has a snowball's chance in hell.