Happy holidays! When I went and sat on Santa's lap this last week, he pointedly told me:
Firstly, maybe I was getting too old for this lap-sitting business (haha, good one Santa).
Secondly, I should expect only one gift - and I would have to share it.
Ready Player Four
And, in turn, after some further clarification,1 I had two things dawn on me:
- For the last few months, my wife had not inexplicably been carrying a large watermelon everywhere.
- Player Four was about to join our family imminently.
Now, Player Four hasn't decided to join us just yet.2
But in the name of avoiding getting shouted at for possibly abandoning my wife midway through her labours to write my next weekly update,3 I figure it's wise to start my time off now.
Three Months Off
I'm taking combined holiday and parental leave, from now until roughly the start of April.
During that time I anticipate being 96% focused on:
- bonding with Player 4 (hopefully).
- helping Player 3 figure out the new normal.
- helping Player 2 deal with poop explosions.
- helping Player 1
catch up on sleepplay with his new Steam Deck at 1am instead of sleeping. 4
The Last 4 Percent
There are some gamedev tasks that I might be able to accomplish while heavily sleep-deprived.
And I do think it would be good for my sanity to avoid getting too rusty. 5
So, I might find some time to publish something, but I make no promises: whether in plant-form6 or not, I've learned kids are very adept at monopolizing your time.
Radio Silence
Yes, that means I will break my almost-year-long streak of publishing weekly game updates and (usually) playable web builds.
I know: it hurts me too.
But, I remember how much of a zombie I was last time, and I don't need my self-imposed weekly update deadlines on top of that.
See Ya in April
I'll still be hanging out in the 
Slow Rush Discord , but for those of you who haven't taken the leap of joining the Cool Kids Club: catch ya in April!
PS. If you're looking for a playable demo of the game, the latest one was at Networked Multiplayer on the Web. And in case you both missed that update and aren't very good at inferring content from titles, surprise: the web demo there lets you play over the network with other people! Nobody has managed to break it yet, which might just be an early Christmas miracle.
from Santa's security guard friends - it's okay, I get it: Santa is busy this time of year.
So far baby has been ignoring my thinly-veiled suggestions that - when they're older and wiser - they might actually prefer not to be born on Christmas day.
(But as long as baby and mum are healthy then that's all we really care about.)
Though, being realistic: I'm likely to get shouted at regardless of whether I'm present for the labour or not, but if I'm am present for the labour then at least I won't be the cause of the shouting.
My sister-in-law told me I deserved a "pull present" for the hard work I would undoubtedly put in with delivering the baby, and okay, sure, technically she was quick to clarify that she was joking - but by that time my Steam Deck was already ordered, and it would have been mean to ask Valve for a refund, right?
As opposed to getting too Rusty, which is obviously a good thing for your sanity (unless you're writing Go for your day job).
"Babies are basically plants for the first 6 months of their lives: they sleep, they eat, they basically can't move - so it's like you just water them and then that's it."
Hat-tip to Andrew for introducing me to that remarkably accurate framing (though I've yet to meet a plant that could scream as loudly as Player 3 could).