Heya, Mythies!

“What’s this all about?” You may be asking. “Nine’s never done anything like this, before!”

You’re right, I haven’t! I wanted to, though, because I just wanted to talk to everyone as we sail into 2025. There’s very little about the game involved here, so I didn’t wanna clog up my weekly update with a whole bunch of sentimental and personal drivel. If you’re looking for game progress info, just wait for my next weekly update — no hard feelings if you don’t wanna read the new year’s ramblings of a middle-aged game dev. 

For those who were keeping up with my personal life, 2024 was a challenging year. Morgana and I both had medical shit to deal with, to the point where it was a huge struggle even to pay the bills. Compounding the financial issue is our roommate/tenant had a stroke, so his rent as a source of income is still unsteady. Turns out my grandfather also had a stroke, and it seems his end is very near. 

Also, the cat shit on my head. Don’t think I forgot that — I don’t plan on letting anybody else forget about it, either!

I’ve never been one for “New Year’s Resolutions”, really. I’ve always been the sort that makes (and breaks) resolutions regardless of the time. I started going to the gym because I wanted to feel healthier, not because the calendar flipped. I started working on Mythos because I felt like it (and probably because the pandemic gave us lots of free time where I couldn’t do anything else).

But moving forward, I do wanna become better. One thing that’s been brought to my attention (perhaps jokingly, but still) is how I sometimes create my own stress. There’s plenty in my life to be stressed about, for sure, but it does seem kinda like my brain wants to be stressed. Maybe that’s the only way I feel I can function? Either way, that can’t be healthy, so I’m going to try to stop doing that. 

The release date I tentatively set for Mythos may seem like part of this, and while it may be, it’s also something Steam has kinda pushed me in to. When I originally set up the Mythos page on the Steam store, it made me put in a release date, even if that date wasn’t public. The date I’d optimistically set was December 27th. As we came to the end of November, I realized there’s no way I could hit that date, so I went to adjust it… but couldn’t. I actually had to contact Steam customer service to push the date out. Being as I don’t want to have to go through that again, I had to set a date that was realistic, while not being so far out that I’d be done with the game and just sitting on it. Valentine’s Day seemed both reasonable for a timeframe as well as thematically appropriate. 

I have learned a lot while making Mythos, and not just as far as teaching myself the coding and Daz and making music and stuff. I’ve met a lot of great people through this process. I’ve also learned my limits. I assure you, the future games of Mythos will not have fifteen different endings and this many characters! I’ve also gained some confidence in my own abilities, though I rarely admit it. People genuinely care about my story, and seeing people trying to puzzle out who the villain is in Book One has me giddy beyond belief. It makes me wonder if screenwriters feel this way when they see videos from channels like the New Rockstars who go in-depth trying to figure out where things are going. 

Eric Voss, if you play Mythos, you only have about a month and a half left to post your theories on it! 

If you’ve read this far, thank you for taking the time to actually read my thoughts. As an author, it’s nice that people do seem to like getting to know me as much as they enjoy getting immersed into the story. I only hope that Book One will resolve things to everyone’s satisfaction, because it’s a necessary step in introducing you to why the world is the way it is at the start of Book Two. 

… perhaps I’ve said too much…

But anyway, I wish you all a happy 2025. And, as always, keep the legends alive. 

– Nine