Hello there you wonderful and very attractive people out in the world!

Another week, another month, another year and another progress update!

Before I jump into the recap of my 2021 and what experiences I made etc, I will give you guys a brief overview on the current progress on things.

Work on Beta 3 or the third day has not been going as well as I hoped it would be, but I'm slowly getting there now. I can't really give an ETA on when the beta will be available but I'll do my best to release it this week. For the first time since...Probably ten years? I was able to enjoy the holidays and the days coming after them properly. Now it's back to business though!

My plans for this updated shifted slightly. Since most of you know I used to focus on big things during a whole update. For example, when Sandra got pregnant, when the relationship with Lucy started or when Alice arrived. There were still other events, a lot of them actually, but the ongoing topic was always brought up. This kinda stopped happening these last few updates and I realised that I want to bring this back. So the overall tone of 0.22 will be circulating around a certain topic ( if you are not on this route then the game will give you the option to switch to it if you want ). That doesn't mean that all the characters will just talk about this all the time, but it will be present. I guess this is also part of getting "refreshed" on working with My New Family again.

Now, My New Memories. Since the My New Family update won't take that much longer anymore ( speaking of weeks, not months ) I will do my best to release the second chapter of My New Memories early this year. I can't give any real dates yet, but my best guess at the moment would be April. This is not a promise and this can totally changed based on several factors, but this is what I have in my head at the moment. Take this with a grain of salt, though. Like I promised on friday I made two wholesome render. Well, one is wholesome I guess, MC singing for Lena. The other one is just the girls enjoying some korean BBQ. Not really new years themed but I still think they are cute!

And that's it for the progress update. If you don't want to stick around for a little recap of my 2021, that's totally fine! I'll see you on the next progress update!

2021...What a year. I remember that I ( probably like a lot of other people ) had high hopes that 2021 would be the year where we would finally "win" against corona, where the pandemic would be "over" and corona would be more like a flu, a seasonal thing you get vaccinated for. When the first vaccinations happened in Germany at the end of 2020 I was eager to see where all of this would lead. Well, it didn't turn out as good as I thought it would turn out, but things definitely improved. Don't want to dive too deep into this, but being vaccinated ( and boosted since friday ) is a good feeling.

2021 was also a year where I worked more on something than I ever did before. I released the Alpha for My New Memories at the end of december in 2020 and was more anxious than I was ever before because of it. Feedback was extremely crucial to me and the whole project was very close to being abandoned, closer than I wanted to admit at any time. But as all of you know, I didn't abandon anything and the feedback from the alpha testers was overwhelmingly good. My biggest fears were diminished and I fully focussed on finishing the first public release, the prologue that released in June.

With My New Memories I was able to write a completely new story, something from which I thought I would not succeed with. All the things that I have learned from working on My New Family helped a lot, though, and I think it's safe to say that My New Memories will ultimately end up being a "better" game. I put the better in "" because this is all subjective, of course. But improving was always my biggest goal and My New Memories shows that I in fact did improve.

Once I got closer to putting out a real public release for My New Memories I also did something from which I never even dreamed of - putting my own game on Steam. Even though I can't see the store page for my own game ( because Germany is pretty weird with adult games on Steam ), it was still insane to see so many people start to wishlist my game. I knew that the market on Steam is big - Bigger than any other online videogame market. But, like with putting a game on Steam in general, I would have never thought that this game could succeed on Steam. It did, it did in such a big way that I was blown away. 

When I hit the release button and the game went live everywhere I was already awake for 24 hours - I was too nervous to sleep before and I sure as hell was too nervous to sleep after. The first reviews dribbled in, the feedback came and it was more than I ever could have imagined. So many positive comments on different sites, so many positive steam reviews, new people joining the discord, engaging in discussions about the story, fantasizing on where the game will lead in the future...It was incredible. It was even more intense than it was for My New Family back in 2019, probably because the impact was bigger.

I know that 2021 was a very difficult year for a lot of people and I hope that 2022 will be better for each and every one of you that lost their job, friends or even family members because of the still ongoing pandemic. It will always sting when I see that people lost their job and are now struggling to pay their bills, feed their family or just themself because of something they can't even control or have a saying in. Like I said above, from the bottom of my heart, I hope that 2022 will be a better year for all of you people that were affected by it.

For me personally, 2021 has been a very good year. Not only because of the incredible and amazing support that I got on patreon, itch.io, steam and everywhere else. Every single day I'm more than grateful for the support I'm getting, be it financially through pledges/subs or buying my game on steam/itch.io, or by just playing the games and telling me how it helped someone deal with certain things. I will never stop being grateful each and every day that I'm able to do this full time, as my job that pays my bills.

2021 was also a year where my mental health had it's highs and lows, with the lows being because of almost getting burned out and the highs seeing the incredible support and response I got when I asked if I should transition between games each update. Overall, the second half of 2021 has probably been the best I have ever felt for...Years. Things happened from which I never thought they would happen again and I'm in a way way WAY better place mentally now than I was in January 2021. So for everyone that is struggling with things like depression etc, I really hope you also find a way to deal with these things like I did.

This post has been going on for quite a while and if you are still here, wow, respect :D. 2021 was certainly a year with it's high and lows, just like usual. Let's hope that 2022 has more of the highs and less of the lows. Whatever happens though, I want all of you wonderful and amazing people to know that each and everyone of you has a special place in my heart. I read all your comments, I read all your dms and I read all the comments on other sites as well. If you ever want to talk to me personally, send me a DM here or over on discord. I'm always happy to talk to you guys! Stay amazing and let's make 2022 a good year!