I’m pouring my heart out in this month’s devblog, and I’m starting with a raw, honest plea for your support.
I don’t reach out like this every month, but I’m at a point where I have to speak up.
Life here is getting harder every single day, and it’s weighing on me. Taxes, energy bills, the bare essentials I need to survive—they’re all spiraling out of control, some jumping by over 50%. And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, energy costs are set to double next month.
I’ve always fought to make do with the absolute minimum, scraping by with whatever I have.
But these price hikes? They’re crushing me, and I’m not the one causing them. I’m stuck, just like so many of you, watching my income dwindle to almost nothing.
The $ to € exchange rate is also a punch to the gut, stealing over 10% more of my earnings compared to the start of the year.
I’m not the one raising taxes or flooding the world with money that’s worth less every day. I’m just trying to keep my head above water.
In my last devblog, I said I might have to raise prices for new supporters. I didn’t want to, and I held off, clinging to the hope I could keep things fair as possible. But the truth is, I can’t keep ignoring the exchange rate losses that are eating me alive.
So, with a heavy heart, I’m raising prices starting in early August.
For those of you in Europe, the exchange rate should soften the blow a bit. For my friends in the US, though, you’ll feel the difference more.
Until early August, prices stay the same, and if you’re already supporting me, you’re locked in at the current rates—my way of saying thank you for standing by me. After August, new supporters will face slightly higher prices.
Please know I’m not doing this because I want to. I’m doing it because I have no choice. I sat down and did the math for the last three months, and after fees, taxes, and the costs to keep this going, I’m left with about €1.20 an hour. That’s what my work, my passion, has been reduced to.
And if that wasn’t enough, my last devblog probably didn’t even reach you. So many emails were lost, deleted, or buried in spam.
As if I wasn’t already struggling, some people decided to twist the knife by reporting my domain, tarnishing its reputation and making sure my messages didn’t reach you.
I’ve also had to delete over 15% of the accounts on my site—fake emails, cruel usernames, and outright attacks aimed straight at me. It hurts, and it’s exhausting.
I’ve tightened account creation and beefed up email rules, praying this devblog finds its way to you.
I’m fighting to keep this going, but I can’t do it alone.
Your support means the world to me, and I’m counting on you to help me through this.
Thank you for being there.
A few weeks ago, I shared a TEST version of Kinky Kart built in Unreal Engine 5.6 on discord in the First Lovers channel.
This is an early prototype, not a full port of the previous Unreal Engine 4.27 version.
Beyond the level geometry and assets, I had to rewrite the entire codebase due to significant architectural changes between UE4.27 and UE5.6, including updates to the Chaos physics system, the new World Partition system for level streaming, etc.
Since UE5.6 was released few weeks ago, I built this test version quickly while balancing other projects, prioritizing core functionality over feature parity with the UE4 version.
I’ve also ported Chiks’n Eggs from UE5.5 to UE5.6, which required updates to address engine differences. Key changes included adapting to UE5.6’s improved Lumen system, and updating Blueprints. I expect to release a test build soon, though it won’t be a finished polished game.
I started this project a few months ago, and alongside learning UE5.6’s new features, I’ve been optimizing character models and refining animation pipelines to support high-quality animations in-engine.
For The Holistic Adventures, I’ve begun porting from UE4.27 to UE5.6, a much larger undertaking due to the project’s scope.Â
I finished the intro montage sequence, ported many things, already reworked from scratch many things, but still remain lot of work to do.
I’ve evaluated the technical choices to optimize the visuals-to-performance ratio. I’ve been discussing these trade-offs on the Discord server, focusing on balancing GPU/CPU loads for scalability across mid-to-high-end hardware.
Additionally, I’ve started migrating my animation workflow from 3ds Max to UE5.6’s built-in tools. UE5.6’s animation system is now more mature, with robust support for Control Rig, Animation Blueprint improvements, and Motion Warping for dynamic character adjustments.
I’m developing an advanced controller rig to streamline complex animations.Â
As shown on Discord, once it will be finished it can significantly speeding up iteration.
However, the rig setup is still in progress, particularly for advanced facial animations, procedural secondary motion and some other interesting things show in discord.
