chellaytiger
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Looking Back on 2025 (And Looking Forward)
🕑 Added 2026-01-01 02:47:13 +0000 UTCGreetings, everyone. It's the end of the year, and with that comes a lot of reflections on what went right, what went wrong, and what we plan to do the following year. And of course, the best way to start a reflection on 2025 is by talking about 2024.
Before I continue, I'd like to mention that I have a survey going on that asks what projects my audience are interested in seeing me work on. If you want full context on the survey, it's highly recommended that you read the entire devlog. You can take the survey here. Now back to the post.
I've mentioned bits and pieces here and there, but 2024 was a terrible year for me. I don't want to get into too many personal details since some of these details involve other individuals, but I fucked up. A lot. As a result, I spent most of 2025 acting very erratically and directionlessly. I lashed out at people who didn't deserve it and said some unwarranted things that pissed off people close to me. I felt like I was in a state of constant belligerence, ready to snap at anyone in my way. That was all private, by the way. I did my best to hide it in public, but some of the cracks showed. For those who know me personally, I apologize for my behavior. To be honest, even I don't know what caused my harsh words. I'm very lucky to have friends who have stuck with me despite everything.
Towards the end of the year, however, things started to look up for me. I made new friends and helped them out. I started to go back to how I was during 2021-2023. It was a painful process, but I think things are starting to go right for me soon. 2025 was very bittersweet. I learned a lot over the past two years, and I hope to use that knowledge to carve out better years for me. With that in mind, let's take a look at all the things that happened this year.
By Your Hands
2025 marked the first time By Your Hands received a large hiatus. There have been times when the game had a month or two-month break, but never one that lasted over six months. This was not planned. Why did that happen?
Well, for one thing, part of it has to do with my behavior I mentioned earlier. Due to me feeling lost, part of me really wanted to branch out of the VN and do other things. I feared that I was only going to work on BYH for the next several years of my life. I also felt like interest in the game was dwindling, and that people wanted to see something else from me. And so, I decided work on other projects for a bit. The first instance of this was Every Date Has Its Progs And Cons back in November of last year. It was a fun detour, but it didn't get the type of attention I was hoping it would have. Then there was Farewell, Wanderlust, which I released this year, and I had a lot less time for it than I'd like to have, so it ended up very unpolished.
Besides those two VNs, I also tried getting into other side projects that I ended up having to can due to issues I'll mention later. This disorganization led to me not being able to focus on By Your Hands, leading to several delays. Another thing that happened was that Nemo got busy with his personal life, and didn't have much time for writing. And well, I couldn't update the game without a script, so there was that. Finally, during 2022-2024, I worked myself and Nemo very hard into getting consistent updates. I felt bad for doing that, so I decided to be more lenient with updates. In that case, I overcorrected by not having any updates for several months.
For 2026 onwards, I think we'll be aiming for a bi-monthly release schedule. Not too strict, but also not going to leave anyone hanging for several months. Due to the hiatus, we weren't able to make much progress on the routes. Owen's completed Act 1 was released to the public this year; there were only two days added to Vlad's route. I hope we'll be able to get a lot more done in the next year. Please enjoy Day 4 of Vlad's route tomorrow.
In addition, I'm going to return to working on the commentary and guide of the game. I already explained on Patreon, but essentially, it was a lot of work, and I didn't have a lot of motivation to work on it. But I will work on it next year if all goes to plan.
Also, we released the demo of By Your Hands on Newgrounds and Steam! After the whole itch.io fiasco, I realized that I needed to expand my horizons concerning the VN. Cover my tracks, so to speak. It is just nice having it on those platforms, especially Steam, for convenience's sake. It will be annoying having to update on three separate platforms (four, including FVN.LI), but you just gotta roll with the punches. All in all, I'm really excited for what the future has in store for this game.
Other Projects
So if you have read either of my jam games, you'd know that they're unfinished in terms of art assets. I also stated multiple times that I would update Every Date Has Its Progs And Cons with an epilogue and never got around to doing that. So let me explain.
I worked on finishing all the art assets of EDHIPAC several months ago, and I actually finished. However, I've been meaning to rework some of the game's dialogue so that Billy is less of a strawman and the relationship develops more naturally. I consulted Nemo to help me rework all the dialogue, but as mentioned before, he was busy with a lot of other stuff and I wanted him to prioritze on BYH. Plus, I wanted to update some aspects of the game, such as adding a CG gallery, a Replay Room, and updating its UI, and I just never got around to doing any of that. That's not even getting into how I made zero progress on the epilogue's script because I procrastinate so hard with writing. It doesn't help that the political climate has drastically changed since last year, making it so hard to get back into the headspace of 2024 me writing the VN. I could just update the game with the art assets and do the other stuff later, but I feel it would be better if I could update everything in one big update so I can finally wrap it up with a nice little blow and never have to touch it for the rest of my life. Since it has taken longer than expected, I will show a sprite of a character who will be in the epilogue. Here it is:
Gee, I wonder who this is?
That leaves me with Farewell, Wanderlust. I planned to finish all the art assets of the game, as well as polish a few things, after I was done with EDHIPAC, but I never got to finishing any of that. That's still the plan so far, so look forward to that. When I eventually get to that, anyway.
What Else Happened?
In a surprise twist of events, I managed to appear on a YouTuber's video! Specifically, Nemo and I voiced a few lines in Agent of the Spade's video. Okay, Nemo had more than a few lines, but still. It's actually part 3 in a video trilogy he made over the course of several years. By Your Hands appeared in part 2 of the trilogy, alongside Minotaur Hotel and Tennis Ace. It was a lot of fun talking and working with Spade, and I really enjoyed seeing my work in a YouTube video. You can check out the trilogy here.
Another thing that happened was that By Your Hands had its first fan fiction written about it! Well, sorta. A character from By Your Hands appears in a fan fiction that has characters from several FVNs. Specifically, Owen. The fanfic is called Danganronpa: Mayhem of Bewildered Guests by GatoRon. It's essentially a Danganronpa game in written form, but all the characters come from established FVNs. There are characters from Burrows, Minotaur Hotel, and Password. I haven't actually read the entirety of the fanfic, so it might be spreading propaganda about the lizard people for all I know (this is a joke; it most definitely doesn't do that). If there is some crazy shit in it, I will delete this section of the post, but I read the first few paragraphs, and it's pretty decent. This might appear strange to mention, but it's a sign to me that By Your Hands is slowly building up momentum into something really big, and that's got me very excited. It's only a matter of time until the Dr. Abraham X Wyatt slash fics start appearing (Please don't actually write that). Anyways, you can read the fanfic here.
What Didn't Happen This Year?
If you guys remember, I mentioned that I wanted to start making video essays earlier in the year. I even posted a script for a video on my Patreon. This never came to fruition for the simple reason that I don't enjoy recording my voice. I often procrastinate writing, but I at least enjoy doing it. Doing a recording session is just agonizing for me, as I have to worry about how clearly my words sound, my tone of voice, and if I'm pronouncing words properly. It's just a lot. Plus, I already have a bunch on my plate that I need to finish. I will still write blogs when I have the time, but I'm an entertainer first, commentator second.
What's Coming For 2026?
I'm pretty sure I mentioned almost everything I'll be doing for 2026 already, but to recap: I'll be focusing on By Your Hands and hopefully updating the game. I'll also be wrapping up EDHIPAC and F, W, hopefully next year. I might be participating in more game jams this year. I have two ideas in mind for game jam projects. It really depends on whether there's a jam this year that fits the project I have in mind, how busy I am, and how prepared I am. I really want to make a jam game that's just complete and doesn't need further updates after the jam is over. We'll see what happens.
Now, I want to clear something up. By Your Hands is a collaborative project between Nemo and me, alongside some extra help from others. This means that Nemo does effectively half the work for BYH. The amount of effort I put into By Your Hands is manageable enough that I can work on a second project simultaneously. I also want to go back to writing after not writing for any public projects for a while. For a long time, I was set on working on a specific project, and that was the project I was certainly going to work on during 2026 and beyond. I realized, however, that I don't exactly know what my audience wants. I have a decent idea, but I never asked directly. I've always worked on what I wanted to work on, which worked out well for both me and my audience. Right now, however, I want to make something my audience wants. So, I decided that before deciding on what second project to work on, I'm going to conduct a survey on what people want from me. Here are the options:
The first one is... well, By Your Hands. More specifically, I have a sizable to-do list of all the features I wanted to implement into the game that I just haven't touched for a while. For example, I wanted to implement a replay room, where you revisit the game's sex scenes and potentially other scenes as well, if there's enough interest. Another feature I wanted to add is for the game to describe all the game's visuals so that the game would be able to be read by blind readers and not miss out on any information. I've also been meaning to revamp the CG Gallery and codex to be more easily edited. Note that regardless of the survey results, I'll still be putting my priorities on adding new story content to the game whenever it's time; I just might not be implementing any new features or revamps anytime soon. Hopefully you aren't confused by this.
Next, Barachoda Bloom. Hey, that's a VN that a certain redheaded horndog has been bothering me about every month or so. For those who aren't aware, BB is a visual novel featuring humans I was working on before I started work on BYH. I originally was supposed to work on both projects simultaneously, but BYH got a lot more attention, and I just lost interest on working on it. Recently, however, there's been a spark within me to work on the project again, and it has been almost three years since the last update. I'd like to revamp the entire game, redraw the sprites, redo the UI, streamline the mechanics, and rewrite some of the game. I also want the game to be more of a direct parallel to BYH, being more of a light-hearted romance compared to BYH's darker elements. I don't get a lot of new ideas for the VN compared to some other projects I have mentioned, but there have been people who have been asking me non-stop to get this game off hiatus, real people, so I'm really interested in seeing how much interest there is in reviving this project.
All In Love In War: Remastered (Working Title). "Wait? Isn't AILAW already finished? Why does it need a remaster?" I mentioned the idea of remastering the VN a few months ago on my Patreon, but essentially, I was looking into porting my games onto Steam. However, I'm pretty dissatisfied with the current state of the game, and wanted to give it a fresh set of paint to make it a game more appropriate for Steam's storefront. That means updated art, some editing of the script, new features like a CG gallery, and more. 2026 will also be the 5th anniversary of the game's first public build, and the five anniversary of me devving in general, so it would make sense if I did something for it. I can also make it connect to BB better. The issue is, of course, it would take time away from my other projects. Instead of updating a previous project of mine, I could be working on a new project. That's a valid concern, and so I want to see if people want to see a fresher take on the first story I wrote.
This next one is an original project, and it was the project I was planning on making my secondary project before I thought of creating the survey. The codename of the project is "Project Delusion Tax". Yes, I know that's the name of a Hatsune Miku song, but it fits with the story. The basic plot is about a pro-free market content creator goat named Gabriel who becomes close friends with a religious conservative podcaster dragon named Derek. Gabe is smitten by Derek, but keeps his affection from afar as the dragon is married with kids. Everything changes, however, when the two arrive at the goat's place, drunk and alone, and they have steamy sex with each other. They continue this affair, at the risk of their entire livelihoods falling apart. This project is a political satire mocking right-wing political commentators and exposing their hypocrisy. It would be written in such a campy manner to emphasize the absurdities of right-wing beliefs. It caters directly towards people with an infidelity kink as well as those who want to see conservative, traditionalist men get fucked in the ass. It's definitely not for everyone, as it features unfiltered depictions of right-wingers, which might make some people uncomfortable. Part of the reason I reconsidered working on this project is that it's the most pessimistic thing I've ever come up with. And well, I've recently been filled with a bunch of positive and uplifting energy, and I don't want to waste it on such a cynical project. That being said, I still want to work on it at some point.
For this project, I can't explicitly describe what it's about, as it would spoil the very nature of it, as well as how the project would be formatted, and generally ruin the mystique of it all. What I can say is that it's a horror project that pays homage to FVNs made in the late 2000s and early 2010s. This project would contain a bunch of meta elements that are a bit unorthodox to the typical FVN. It's also mostly SFW, although it does contain violent content, so it's still for adults. The codename of the project is "Project Restart". Everyone I discussed this idea to were pretty enthusiastic about it. It might be a bold move to ask you to rate this idea when I've given you so little information about it, but honestly, if what I told you doesn't intrigue you, then you probably wouldn't be interested in the final project anyway.
A five-part fantasy turn-based RPG series that I've been meaning to do for a while. The codename of this project would be "Project Everything" . Out of all the projects in this list, this is the one I am the most passionate about, particularly the fourth part of the series. If I knew for certain that I'd die in five or ten years, God forbid, I'd make sure that I'd get this one finished first. Each part of the series would have a different protagonist and a different tone. It's an SFW project, and it would feature both humans and furries. The first part of the series is about a rhino being raised in a tribe of humans and his human brother being separated from their tribe after an enormous titan woke up and carried their village on their back before walking away from the rhino and his brother. The two brothers then go on a journey to find where their village went. It would mostly be a light-hearted story that focuses on world-building. If you ever played the first Trails in the Sky, you'd know exactly what sorta vibe I'm going for. I'm also taking influences from the Xenoblade Chronicles series. I'm not going to discuss the plots for future parts, as that information can wait for later. What I can say is that I have certain albums that describe the tone and vibes of each part:
Part 1 - Days of Future Passed by Moody Blues
Part 2 - Deathconsciousness by Have A Nice Life
Part 3 - Discovery by Daft Punk
Part 4 - Since I Left You by Avalanches
Part 5 - Destiny by DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ
No, it's entirely a coincidence that four of the five albums I mentioned start with the letter D. If it seems like a bunch of random albums, don't worry, it will make sense as I release parts of it. Now, there are two issues, one minor and one major. The minor issue is that I have never written a fantasy story before. Okay, I have, but that was over six years ago on my now-deleted Tumblr when not a single person had actually read it, and I had no writing skills. But all of my released projects have been contemporary stories. This would be a major shift from what I usually do, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to write in such a different genre. The major issue is that this would not be a visual novel, but rather an RPG. RPGs take a lot of time to develop. One obvious example would be Deltarune, which has been in development for over seven years, to be generous, and it's only halfway finished now. The first part should definitely take a lot less time to develop, while the second and third parts shouldn't take too much longer. The last two parts, on the other hand, would take a lot of time to develop. Not to mention, I'd need a team of developers to help me out. There's also the fact that I have never worked on an RPG before, so I might run into issues. That's partially the reason why I have split it into five parts. I want to work on the first part to break into making fantasy RPGs and see if I like it. If it turns out I don't like it, then I'll probably make the rest of the parts into VNs with minor bits of gameplay. We'll see. One more thing is that I might take a break from the project between parts. So after finishing Part 1, I might not work on Part 2 for a while.
This one was something I initially thought about excluding from this list because it's not a project I often think about, but it's interesting enough that I do kinda want to see it come to light. The name of the project is "Cannon and Tank," the names of the two main characters. Cannon and Tank are the superhero aliases for Cory (The crocodile) and Takashi, AKA Cash (the tanuki). Cory used to be part of a group of crocodiles based on the TMNT, while Cash used to be part of an airwing squad based on Starfox. However, due to scandals of Cory having sex during the crocs' TV marketing campaign and Cash accidentally killing one of his squadmates during training, they have been booted out of their respective boots and were heading for jail when an elephant lady bailed them out. They're still forbidden from entering the space megatroplis they loved being in. She has plans for the two of them and assigned them as vigilantes who destroy the violent AI in the space outskirts of the megatroplis. They decided to scrap together some metal to create a mecha that can transform from an airwing to a giant robot. As they are not allowed to fight crime anymore legally, they use aliases of "Cannon" and "Tank". Together, they fight the evil robots on the outskirts in hopes that they can recover their reputations. It's an action-based sci-fi superhero parody with dark comedy elements, taking heavy inspirations from Star Fox (Specifically the fan animation A Fox In Space), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SWAT Kats, and Panty & Stocking. I'm not sure if it would be a comic or a visual novel, but I am leaning more towards it being a comic series, which would be a new thing for me. If it does become a visual novel, it would be like Hearts Faster Than Light, and have a lot of comic panel-like art in it. I'd also try to make it distinct from Glory Hounds in some way. I don't want it to overlap with the major superhero project that has received a lot of praise. This was an idea I was playing around with last year (in 2024), but I lost interest in it when I found out they were making a second season of Panty & Stocking. I figured it would be redundant to work on a story that's basically an anime that recently had its second season freshly released to the world, but with a gay furry coat of paint. That being said, there was a lot of interest when I talked about this project with others, so I'm curious to see how many people would like to see more of these two.
The final concept... is your idea. So it might not be a good idea, but I'm really curious if you have any ideas for what I should work on next. Now I will say, if you have an idea for a visual novel, comic, or game, you probably shouldn't depend on me to make it for you. Rather, you should make it yourself if you want to see it come to light. Also, don't get mad at me when I use your idea for a project of mine when you gave me the idea to use. As a nice hedgehog once said, "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" Still, who knows what will happen? Maybe I might find your idea interesting enough to make into a full project.
The purpose of this survey is mostly to gauge how much interest these projects generate from people. The project with the most interest may or may not be worked on next, as there are a lot of factors to consider. And before you mention it, yes, I am going to factor in my personal investment in each of these projects. I'm interested in working on all of these projects. But this information would help me a lot in deciding what to work on next. Also, if you have any questions or want to provide any feedback on any of the concepts I mentioned, please let me know in the survey or in the comments of this post. Regardless, any project I choose not to develop next is always on the table, and I could bring these concepts back sometime in the future. And to reiterate, for the foreseeable future, I am going to focus on updating By Your Hands, finishing up EDHIPAC and F, W, and maybe do a game jam project regardless of what the survey results are. It will take some time before whatever this project is comes to light, so please be patient.
You can take the survey here.
Closing Thoughts
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me. Perhaps that's not the right thing to say, considering what happened this year, but I'm really excited to work more on By Your Hands and any other project I decide to undertake. I feel like 2025 is just the beginning of something bigger.
Thank you for following me, and I hope 2026 will be a great one! Have a nice new year and see you later!
Comments
Salman Eyes
Glad to hear that! I hope whatever I put out meets your expectations!
Hyou Vizer
so many games down the pipeline woah. I have missed Barachoda Bloom, glad you are revisiting it. All of these upcoming projects sound and look 👀 great thus far. Curious of Project Everything, being an avid RPG fan. While Tax Delusion premise is quite bold haha looking forward to it.
