Thanks to being off the board throughout January courtesy of a viciously interminable common cold, the final mentoring stretch for a self-initiated project and a »Förderprogramm«-Betreuung for CGL students, and several writing & editing deadlines, my productivity curve for the Voidpunk project took a nosedive. Also, when I started preparing my lectures for the upcoming term, I dove into the matter of current AI technologies, with an initial output of a lengthy essay on Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and Transformational Change and linked-list and roundup posts to get things going. Thus, even with the help of my trusty plush bunny assistants, I couldn’t keep up with what I’d originally intended to accomplish.

As for the second novel, I’m closing in on the 40% mark instead of 75%. Bummer. But I’m picking up speed again. (As I planned on pitching the first novel more energetically only when the draft for the second’s done, that’s also delayed.) As for the pen-&-paper RPG, I didn’t get any writing done, but dug further into the rule system question (old school dice bacchanalia vs. current brands of minimalist “dark” style rules). I still haven’t made up my mind completely, but I adopted a new strategy, or strategic perspective: instead of balancing realism and minimalism, I will try to balance agency and friction. (More on that in my next RPG post.) Finally, with regard to an indie game concept, all I managed was follow GitHub threads on the progress of Lua integration into Godot.

I haven’t even gotten around to playing lately! Only right now I’m picking up where I left off, around mid-December, with Detention and several Playdate games. Putting less on my plate has worked out fine so far, but doing more things to relax still has some way to go.