Hiyo,

Happy New Years everyone! Hope everyone's doing well.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been adjusting to my part time job on top of general holiday festivities. But I felt compelled to write something for New Years.

I know everyone hates 2020 and that we should all move past it, so I hope I don't sound too selfish but I found 2020 to be a monumental year for me, personally. Developing, drawing and releasing Shivering Hearts online and sharing it with everyone was... incredible. I felt like there were intense feelings of... regret and failure regarding my previous project, Ili, and I didn't know how to deal with those feelings. But creating Shivering Hearts feels kind of... redeeming? I know it's unhealthy to tie your self-worth to your work output or your personal projects because it creates unhealthy expectations. These are games after all, they're meant to be fun and not too serious. Even though when looking back, I felt like I put a bit too much of my own emotional baggage into the narrative when I felt I'd rather have told a story that doesn't really involve my own ego. But maybe that's something I can't help to some extent, and that it's something for me to learn from for the next project. Approaching Shivering Hearts with a more light-hearted demeanor really helped me to not place too much expectations on the project, and to kind of let it take it's own shape and identity. And I... I feel so moved by everyone's responses, it's honestly the best part of this whole experience.

So thank you, thank you so much to everyone who has checked out this little corner of the internet. Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and/or played the demo, or even bought the full game. I know that money is quite hard for everyone in this day and age, and tying money to art is a tricky thing. But thank you all so much, from the very core of my existence, and it's my pleasure to keep working on updates for Shivering Hearts and to make it even better. Might be weird to say but, I love ya all.

Also, thought I'd share this. Some time last year during March, my tire exploded while I was on the motorway. It was a completely new tire as well, and I had my PC in the car with the latest build of Shivering Hearts on it. I was belting down the motorway at 100km/hr with cars all around me and all I could hear was the screech of metal on the asphalt, and I nearly got destroyed by a bus. I eventually limped off the motorway and got rescued by my sister. It was one of the most stressful times of my life, and I'm so glad that I survived.

Thank you all again. A lot of people are asking for 2021 to be a better year, but honestly let's not place huge expectations on it. I hope it will be a better year for everyone, but let's go into the year with a reasonable frame of mind.

Take care,

Mischa