The end is near, at least this year's, and with that all of our lives are at stake because most of us nearly kill ourselves to get more stuff done, just so we can relax for a week or two.

I don't have much to talk about today, other than...

• A month ago, somebody sent me a screenshot of Halfquake Sunrise being played on Android using Xash3D. I've heard that Halfquake in Xash3D is buggy sometimes, but if you want to try it, here's the Android version.
• My friend Patchy released a new album, in which one experimental song called Black Sphere uses a sample of Craving. You might not notice it, but it's there!
• I interviewed Laurie Cheers, creator of Spirit of Half-Life, which helped me create Halfquake Sunrise.
• I came up with a small game idea called Chess TD.
• I took a look back at designing The Farm.
• And finally, thank you, Florian, for supporting me all these years and still being around.

As for myself, I'll spend the next few weeks working on...

Y'know, I'm not going to say anything. Whenever I say I will work on something, I do something different. Putting it in words here feels like carving it in stone, and those stones rest on my shoulders, weighing them down. My brain then keeps reminding me, "You said you'd work on this, so get to it," but, even though I wanted to work on it to begin with, now I feel forced to do so and look for something else.

Weird.

So, yeah, the least I can tell you is that I'm going to work on this and that over there. And that, as always, I'm looking forward to your reactions in the future.

Oh, and speaking of the future...

Here's a Halfquake comic by djigallag, which I collected on its own little page. You should also check out his instagram profile for more art.

Dmitriy has been busy again and sent me more screenshots of his Halfquake-style Postal 2 mod Useless Soul:


Szaladin has created a new musician facebook page and needs your attention, so give him that delicious like.

Kowi has apparently been working on a Halfquake map for a bit; at least he shared a little video.

Now for some store news!

The Rotten Melody Pure Pawesome Editions will cease to exist after the next four items have been sold, so if you're still on the fence, check it out.

The store's free Halfquake DVD offer (above $20), as well as the Halfquake Amen comic (above $40) will also go away soon; I'll offer different rewards instead, but those two in particular will be phased out by the end of the year.

And in other news...

I'm still working on my new experimental Unity game, it should be done within the next month or so. Working with Unity gets easier every day, and I'm having fun, which is very important! After this game I'll try to either make more little experiments or make a bigger game, I'm not entirely sure yet.

Walter's Deal needs a bit more work after all the feedback I've received, and I'm actually looking forward to improving it and creating its cover.

Over on Patreon, I've posted more images of my cats, took a look back at the flash game Moosy, shared an unreleased Taskless Sheep song, and posted old screenshots of early Half-Life maps of mine.

I've got nothing more to say, other than... You're all super important to me, and I hope you all have a good time.

Have you ever entered a theater and as you walk to your seat you look into the dozens of eyes of the audience, imagining that they're here for you?

No? Okay.

Yesterday, I saw someone doing it too; I can totally relate, it's an exciting feeling, even if it just lasts for a second or so (you can't do it longer, otherwise you look like a strange fool; or more so than usual).

Note: I watched "The Importance of Being Earnest", with Davit Suchet playing as Lady Bracknell, it was quite excellent!

I used to have more eyes on me, that's for sure. Nowadays it's mostly dead eyes, or eyes meeting me by accident (with a few brave and kind exceptions). My personal projects, my creative life - it's all over the place, right now. I have things nearing completion (my book, music stuff), but a part of me wants something bigger, something that would require my full and undivided attention.

Maybe I just need to finish what's on the plate to be able to see the bigger picture again - and I'm trying. Feedback for my book is trickling in, giving me more things to correct and rewrite. I've begun working on a piano album on the side and I'm adding to it whenever I can. And I'm currently working on another update for PHQ, which will be the last for a while.

I'm also slowly getting accustomed to Unity (making a quick Pong clone was quite helpful), and right now I'm working on a little game for my girlfriend. Unity is nice and all, but I find myself programming way too much with it. In the end, I just want to create, which is why Hammer was so convenient. There are Unity plugins that let you do stuff with visual logic, but since it's not built-in, I expect the compiler to yell at me whenever an update for Unity gets released, which isn't fun.

I'm just waiting for The Next Big Thing. Will it be Halfquake related? I don't know, maybe, maybe not.

Speaking of Halfquake (which I rarely don't!), I've written a small article about The Voice of Somos and interviewed Mike Hillard, who's the voice of Somos in Halfquake Sunrise.

And since we're still talking about Halfquake (I'm not even sorry), Robert Yang released a new game called Rinse and Repeat, which, at first glance, is a sexy shower simulator. Halfquake doesn't have sexy shower scenes, that's not the connection here. In fact, Robert was inspired by the Patience level (among other stimuli); having to wait for twenty minutes influenced his decision when coming up with a way to schedule the shower scenes. There's an in-depth blog post about it, which you should definitely check out.

In conclusion, I'm hoping to be able to at least finish one more thing this year, otherwise 2016 will be there to catch everything falling through the cracks. And right now, judging from the demolished house right in front of my window, those cracks are pretty damn huge.

More screenshots of Dmitriy's Postal 2 mod; check it out by clicking the image above, I wrapped it in a neat link just for this occasion.

And speaking of Postal 2 mods, here's an unfinished mod called HQ: The Last Escape. It's weird and delicious.

Kowi, a long-time lurker in the shadows, has released a new album called "Garbage Truck on Duty" - no wait, it's called RamBazAmbaLbUm and it's actually pretty good, especially "Malt". Give it a listen!

There's been another Personal Halfquake update, fixing lots of things, changing not that much. (The world is still on fire, I hear.)

Over on Patreon, I've posted more random trivia updates:

• Some insight into Antaran's Journal (including an alternate ending)
• A look at how a Taskless Sheep song was made
• Game idea: The Royal Beam
• Game idea: Space Taxi Tycoon

And finally, here's a shout out to my magnificent friends over at Patreon for reaching a certain cumulative reward: thank you H4ndy, thank you Michael. *tips hat*

As for me, I've been playing Until Dawn, it's very well done and has entertained us greatly. I give it a hearty recommendation, if that means anything to you. If it doesn't, just know that it has a song about death.