A Happy New Year Coming Soon!

Well, it’s the end of 2023. We’re into Year Five of the creative journey, and I’ll be the first to admit that 2023 has not been the huge comeback I wanted it to be. I’ve been streaming slightly more consistently, but definitely not up to my standards. Idle Space Navy making it to Steam launch was definitely a highlight, and version 0.09.0 is nearing completion. So, what is there to come?

Let’s start by focusing on January. At this point, the release of Idle Space Navy 0.09.0 is most likely going to be in the first two weeks of January. I had originally targeted for the end of the year, but I needed the weekend just to recover from a very busy time at work and then it was Christmas. I’m going to be committing at least 3-4 hours a day over the next week to ISN, and will hopefully be done or at least very close to done by the time I go back to work on 02 January. Once 0.09.0 drops, I’ll be taking a break from ISN (except for bugfix releases) to regroup and prepare for 0.10.0, and also make sure I have plenty of time to get good feedback on 0.09.

However, I’m starting on early plans for two more games – an idler, and something else. I’m not sure if these will be announced in January, but perhaps in February or March. I’m also working on getting my Discord bot plans off the ground, so I can create my own bots and not end up paying for premium solutions elsewhere – plus, it gives me a chance to experiment with some server-based stuff in prep for future game development. The plans for games do need to be updated on the Play page, but that update should be done in the next couple of days.

Videos are the next major area I’m working on. I’m still planning how I want to do my gaming videos (and how to deal with my hatred of/lack of time for editing), but my non-gaming video projects are starting to bear some early fruit. Of note are early plans for the following series on the Phoenix Aura channel:

1. SCP Security Briefings, a sort of casual “Arynnia reads SCPs” thing that I plan to make simple “technical briefing” like graphics for. I know what the plan is, I’m just terrible at putting them in words for some reason;
2. Escape to Infinity, a video series on large numbers. Why? Numbers are fun, especially when you start talking about mind-blowing things like TREE(3) and Rayo’s number; and
3. Soaring: A Chronicle of Spaceflight, the history of the Space Race in real time from 1955 through 1975. This will be a very long term project (obviously), but the first part of it will hopefully be happening in 2024, consisting of a 10-20 part prologue series covering the 1930s through 1955 (not in real time).
   
   

All three of these should be kicking off in 2024 – with Security Briefings coming first, Escape to Infinity probably coming mid-year, and Soaring‘s prologue coming either late in the year or in early 2025.

Gaming streams are going to continue, hopefully with more consistency as I continue to stabilize after the move and the end of the year shenanigans. I’m committed to getting to at least three streams a week, ideally on Friday night through Sunday night, but I’m not opposed to different days or more streams as I evaluate my availability.

This is just the early state of plans for 2024 on Phoenix Aura, and I’m sure there’s more to come. My ability to accomplish some of these plans will be aided by supporting Phoenix Aura (it saves me having to spend time delivering food instead), and to that end, I’m working on planning the membership system I had envisioned – which is tentatively named Phoenix Flight. Flight will include perks such as free Embers (yes, that is still coming once I get the Discord bot for them working), access to beta test or even nightly builds of my games in development, perks in them and in the Discord, and more. Until that happens, though, please support Aura through Patreon, StreamLabs tips, and Buy Me A Coffee (link to that coming soon, or you can ask me in the Phoenix Aura Discord).

I’m looking forward to Aura’s 2024 and how Year Five actually develops, so stay tuned for more!