G STRING mod for Half-Life 2

Hello everyone!

First off thank you all for the support and encouragement throughout this year- and what a year it has been!

It's no secret that I was disappointed with the overall state of the project in the months following release. Half way through the year I was close to quitting and moving on to other ventures however that would not be fair. As always after stepping back, taking some time off and re-evaluating things a better decision was made.

In retrospect perhaps holding off for a year and releasing now instead of 2020 would have been a better choice. Perhaps. The first release is always a big deal in any developers career especially when that first release happens to be a massive monolith of a project that took about a decade and a half to build.

Mistakes have been made for sure.

Also it doesn't help that in order to upgrade the visuals and get everything working G-String had to be ported over four versions of the Source Engine throughout the years.

So was the 2020 release rushed? Yes. After so many stressful years in development and often wondering if this thing will ever go retail or not I was too eager to get it out for sure. I wanted to move on. I wanted it done.

And technically it was done. I did not want to put out a half finished game and I didn't. G-String didn't have any missing parts or missing major features but was it really finished? Was it as good as I could make it? No.

Absolutely not. I would be lying if I said yes.

Took me a few months to accept this but it's the truth. Every map, every area I revisit just makes me frustrated- I can always think of a myriad of things I should fine tune or add, and I am not talking about major overhauls or anything- just a lot of small improvements that add up to something greater. The devil is in the details.

So is the game done? No. Not really, sure it can be played from start to finish and aside from a few glitches, which have solutions listed here and on Steam, works but it lacks that finish, it lacks the polish and depth I need it to have.

At the end of the day I can't move on to another project with a clear conscience at this stage. G-String needs to be properly finished. It's not as good as I can make it even within the confines of the technology it uses.

At the same time I know that eventually the game has to be done and I must move on. A lot of people are waiting, they know deep down this thing isn't done. There is this sense of limbo about the whole project and rightfully so.

And that is what this coming year will be about- to come out of this state of limbo and put the dot on the i.

I will hold a sort of a countdown of about 350 days and at the end of it the game has to be done. It may seem like a massive commitment- nearly another year- but 365 divided by 76 is 4.68... what this means that I have about 4 days to spend on each map which is nothing. The good news is most maps don't need that much work as they have been polished in earlier updates.

To keep myself focused I will try to put out daily tweets even if it's just a "this is day x- stuff got done..." type of post; also I will aim for weekly video updates on YouTube.

Another reason I decided to dedicate another chunk of my life to this project is that once it's done I don't want to work on it anymore at all. Doing these smaller updates just confuses people and leads nowhere. The journey needs a clear end.

Also it is very cumbersome to work with the old dev tools that I am using now and as I push the tech further and further it's becoming harder and harder to keep the gig going. Eventually I need a new PC and a whole new pipeline so using the dated programs I am using now will not be an option. I will most likely not re-install the current tools onto my future work stations.

A year is indeed a long time but I extremely highly doubt that everything will be ready by summer and then if another update is required yet again afterwards to "wrap things up" then that defeats the whole purpose of trying to bring this project to a final conclusion. Until G-String is in the state it is in now I can't fully commit to another project. I'd regret it for the rest of my life if I did that considering I sacrificed so much to bring it this far.

The final countdown...

Once the 350 day countdown will end the game will be declared finished. It is my firm decision to finish it fully by then. Hold me to it. Then one last massive update will come out on Steam and we're done. Also the Beauty Secrets lore book will get a final edit around that time and maybe some achievements will be included too.

And that will be it.

After this last big update the franchise will be expanded upon only through other games, comic books and whatever else may come up.

Eventually I do want to make "G-String: Off World" which is a Rogue Squadron type space battle sim set in the G-String universe as I think the vehicles deserve a closer look. I might do a weird "LSD Simulator" type game first tho which would be my way of learning the Unity engine.

So this is all the news!

Again, no matter how hard and difficult this journey was and is I am very grateful that at least the project didn't die over the years. God knows there were many, many times when that could have happened.

Also major thanks to everyone who purchased or wishlisted the game. Please don't feel cheated for having played the game when it came out. Sure when I am really done it will be a lot more polished than on release but know that even in 2020 we delivered the best game we could. And by "we" I mean me and LunchHouse as by then they were helping me out too. Big shoutout to them as they are awesome and hopefully 2022 is a big year for them too! Keep an eye on them!

We worked with what we had. It's not easy to keep such old tech going.

Also obviously thanks to Valve for allowing this project to become reality and thanks to all those who have helped me promote the game over the year in some way. Everything is appreciated. I can't thank everyone personally obviously but know that you all kept me going and I appreciate all of your contributions. Even the smallest things- like people messaging me out of the blue saying the game touched them in some way and it means something to them. That's epic!

So the overall vibes are optimistic as we enter the new year. I wish you all luck also in whatever projects you are working on. I know many devs follow me as I get encouragement from you almost daily so let's be here for each other and finish our projects together!

Never give up.

No matter how hard it is to carve yourself out a unique path it's better than wasting away in a situation that was forced on you and where you may feel unfulfilled and drained. Even in spite of all the pain and frustration I can say this for sure. It's worth the pain.

Never give up your dreams.

Stay on target.

Eyaura

Links:

EYAURA: YOUTUBE

PROMO: REDDIT

LUNCHHOUSE: G-STRING

EYAURA:TWITTER

G-STRING: FACEBOOK