It's Friday, and it's been a while since we sent out an update.

I've been battling some severe burnout from pushing too hard, both on Infinite Stars and my day job, but the good news is I'm no longer feeling paralysed when faced with the prospect of work. The last time I had burnout like this was over five years ago, and I'm usually highly vigilant in avoiding it. It snuck up on me this time with the exhaustion and lack of sleep from the baby, the pending Infinite Stars release, the unannounced project and my day job.

The cause and effect has meant that November hasn't been as productive as I had hoped. Luckily, the amazing team has been pulling more than their weight, so we still made progress. (Looking at you, Crowbie and Stoffies! <3) It has given Stoffies some time to catch up on the backgrounds, so yay!

Looking at the timeline, the planned release for November may be a bit unrealistic, as nearly three weeks of work have been lost. I know it sucks, and it's disappointing, but I promise you all, I'm more disappointed in myself than any of you can be.

That said, I feel like my creative spark is slowly returning, and I'm actually starting to feel excited about writing and coding again. I do feel accountable to my Patrons, as you've been sending me your hard-earned money during this globally financially trying time to support this project. Living in a 3rd world country myself, I don't take it for granted, and I understand the value of each dollar sent my way. I don't want anyone to feel like they are being taken advantage of, and if you want, you can reach out to me on Patreon. I'd be more than willing to refund you your November pledge. I believe in forging long-term, mutually beneficial relationships in my professional life, and the same goes for my Patrons.

Enough about what hasn't happened, and over to what has actually happened!

We have a lovely Pinup of Matthias this month, both SFW and slightly NSFW, for our patrons.

We have a bunch of new backgrounds, including the– (SPOILER AHEAD if you haven't finished the current content yet, skip the rest of this paragraph!!) –the makeshift Cephilusk quarters on the Tabitha, as well as some off-ship locations that you'll explore in the upcoming content.

Doing a release in December probably won't be a good idea, as people are away with family and doing other festive things, or they are playing the latest AAA game releases. It's a terrible time to release a game as an indie studio. We'll open beta testing in December and do the release in January 2024, giving the team more time to polish the content.

I'm also finally comfortable mentioning our unannounced project to our patrons, codenamed project syndicate. We've made enough progress that I'm happy to announce it, and our patrons can read more about it over at the link.

Lastly, in a proactive attempt to combat future burnout, I'll hang out with you all in a more relaxed environment. I'll be spinning up a heavily modded Starbound server for our community to have some fun together over the festive season. Head on over to our Discord server for more details!