SamanthaSnow
patreon
Hiatus Explained
🕑 Added 2022-08-20 16:02:23 +0000 UTCHello, it's been a while since something was posted here.
Let's get introductions out of the way first; I'm Lillith Blacktip, Lily for short. You've seen me in the discord (if you're a part of that) and probably know me well enough then. For those that aren't there, I'm a close friend of Samantha's and I'll be taking over posting updates for the forseeable future in Sam's stead.
I've worked with Samantha for quite a while now, helping her set up and moderate the Occupational Hazard discord, recruit people for back-end stuff and at one point I even wrote a few things for her.
Now, the reason you haven't heard anything from here for so long isn't my story to tell, but Samantha asked me to in her stead. The last few years have been hard on a lot of us whether financially or mentally thanks to COVID-19 and it's ramifications.
Not the least with Samantha, who started to experience symptoms of burnout even before the last post here (October third, 2021.) but afterwards had a multitude of things drag her down fully. A lack of motivation to work - most importantly, to write - led to not wanting to post updates where there wasn't "enough" to justify pushing an update out, which turned into a vicious cycle of looking at the days sliding past and feeling ever more burdened wanting to give people something meaningful to justify the wait..
But as you can clearly see, the mounting mental pressure took it's toll and solidified the burnout to the point where just thinking about working on the game directly was anxiety-inducing.
Once this feedback loop was - for lack of better terming - in place, Samantha's personal life started to further exacerbate the issue.
I won't go too far into private matters, but seeing as she has shared some things in the Discord in the past, I'll briefly touch on the fact that Samantha has had issues with income off and on since the onset of the pandemic.
At first being furloughed with no pay, with the government denying emergency aid for clearly backwards reasons. Then paying back money borrowed during that period and moving into an old house and buying an electric car to try and open up a small amount of extra funds each month.. Both of which turned out unlucky as well; The house has water issues, needing expensive filtration systems just to have potable water and the car's battery dying weeks after the warranty and the dealership not wanting to replace it.
The string of bad luck and attached stress compounded already present issues (the aforementioned burnout) and Samantha got in touch with professional healthcare, whereupon she was diagnosed with symptoms of depression.
However, Samantha has a job she has been on sick leave from for several months while working on the issues and has barely started returning to work at a reduced capacity.
While she is focusing on her mental health and real life situation, she has put me in charge of managing her Patreon as mentioned before.
There will be a follow-up post with some updates and changes that will occur hereafter now that the sudden and unannounced hiatus of the past months has been explained. If there are any questions or concerns don't be afraid to send them in a private message (preferably on discord) and I'll try to answer as quickly as I can.
-Lily
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DOGOBOMB
Let Samantha know we understand are patiently awaiting her eventual return to loving fans
