PHANTOM_HOUSE, July 2022

"Living Room"

you probably deserve this

it's been too long, little birds.  thank you all for sticking with me for as long as you have.  this game is not the larger thing that I've been working on and previewing in my updates.  this is a new, short thing that I started making because I had to.  'expression' in the sense of something lanced and drained.

the honest truth is, I hate this game.  I hate how it feels, I hated working on it, I hate that I needed to make it exist.  it's pure artless self-pity from beginning to end, ham-handed and obvious.  but sometimes we have to make things like this.  art in good times is a passion; in bad times, a coping mechanism.  i'm at least glad to have made something.  for a long time I've been thinking maybe I just couldn't anymore.

please take the content warning seriously.  look after yourselves.  this one comes from a very real and very unhappy place.

if you have any pets, hug them tight and tell them you love them.

the discord and streams are on hold for the time being.  i'm at something of an all-time low point with my mental health (but taking steps to improve things so please don't worry) and I'm about to undertake my second out-of-state move in less than a year, so all of my energies will be going to those things.  I may update with smaller things here and there over the next couple months, because working on things helps me; but more games, that larger project, the discord, streams etc won't be a focus until I'm relocated and settled again.  I'm making this post available to all patrons because it's been a while since I've put out anything, but also because I don't want to have to double-post this info to let my moderator volunteers know what's up.  To those of you who volunteered, I'll still be reaching out to you when the time's right, if that's okay, but it could be a few months from now before I do.

i love you, little birds.  really i do.  you keep me going and give me hope when there's very little of that to go around, and that's the truth.  i'll talk to you soon, dear darlings.

♥