Hi all, I have to be transparent with you lot... Kanalmanac (and by extension, Kanalmanac+) is truly over. It's kind of bizarre to write a "post mortem" post so early into a game page's life cycle, but this was coming for nearly a decade behind the scenes, so let me get this off my chest, yeah?

Now this might come as a surprise, considering I've announced "Kanalmanac+", then rechristened it as "Kanalmanac: Full Deck", and now the name is being used as a sort of epitaph for this project that I've been holding onto for god knows how long. In actuality, it was a long time coming, I'll try to break it down, but first! Some backstory:

Kanalmanac originally began its life as a fangame of OFF, an indie RPG, named ONON (the name "ON" was already taken, so I did the next best thing tee-hee). Created way back in 2017. The entire reason ONON existed was as a testing ground for the--then new RPG Maker 2003 version. It was nothing more than an exercise in the features that this piece of software offered. However...

As I let the project sit on its own, I got the idea to try and evolve it beyond its base form by porting the concepts and ideas present in the original to another engine, RPG Maker VX Ace. This started what I'd like to call a "cycle" of me making a new iteration on the concept of ONON, then scrapping it because I ran out of the immediate burst of energy. Needless to say, it was pretty bad; I never planned anything for it and hoped that just winging it would get me far enough, but there was also a sort of nagging in the back of my mind that left me feeling hollow... I ignored it and kept iterating upon the concept of "ONON". The characters and the villains stayed the same, but the grip of it being something from a past that I regret had not left me.

For a very long time, I had shelved ONON as an idea and experimented with other pastures. Now at one point, I was going through a downer phase and doubted my abilities to make videogames anymore. This was pretty heavy to deal with as I hadn't released any games besides NEW at this point, and was wondering if I'd ever make a fully realised game again. Then I had an epiphany: I'll just make a game with a strict deadline! I was thinking of what to use as the base, and decided to pick ONON as that had been rotting for a while now. Now in hindsight this was a terrible mistake, since the ideas for the game were now unoriginal and I was putting an existing idea into a new idea like a parasite. Needless to say, this made development pretty difficult as internally I had already heavily associated ONON with being a slog to work on that never gets finished.

Somewhere in 2021, I do it, I persevere (and rush the game out) and release Kanalmanac... to extremely midling reception. There's not much beyond that, other than being a portender to the start of a new cycle, instead of "ONON" it was now "Kanalmanac" that would be iterated on... Over, and over... and over... you get the idea.

Later in 2021. My next plan was to "legitimise" Kanalmanac and improve upon it, with better graphics and gameplay and a true story experience, this birthed "Kanalmanac+". This project was also quickly canned due to a lack of vision. This one is quite significant due to boasting a much higher production value compared to all my previous projects. A long time after, NEW DF gets released, and I gain the motivation to publish Kanalmanac again. Though, this time, I've decided to just focus on a small update within the span of two weeks. The extremely small scope paid off, and I was able to get the update out and forget about the game, finally focusing on my current main project: CatJam.

But, as I worked on CatJam (during 2024), I was starting to lose interest in the project due to spending so much time on it. So I was looking for side-projects to divert my attention to, and I got the idea to remake/rerelease/remaster (honestly, what is it??? I have no idea) Kanalmanac. The idea was to create an expanded version of the game that includes new graphics, more gameplay, actual story and an overall better experience. I had forgotten that I've been burned by my attempts at this project before, but I decided to rush in blindly like I always do with it.

As I was working on it throughout the months of this year (2024), I was starting to slowly become more and more jaded, but I pressed on regardless, thinking it to be a mere fluke. Eventually this disilussion toward the project came to a head when I started to resent it, and I was wondering what was wrong. Then it hit me... I never enjoyed working on ONON/Kanalmanac to begin with! I hadn't made any concept art, wrote any potential story, discussed ideas for lore or the world... It felt more like an obligation than anything.

My specialty with games is working on systems, the mechanics of the game and the feel of the game, so these would always get finished first. The problem is that Kanalmanac never went beyond said systems and it would always fall flat on its face after I was done creating the "game" part of the game. It was little wonder that these projects would always "end" when I was done with what I considered the fun part. I simply had no vision or desire to overcome any resistance I might have faced with the project.

So now I have finally decided to bury the hatchet, and never work on Kanalmanac/ONON ever again, with this long-standing "thing" finally being gone out of my life. I know that nobody has any real interest in Kanalmanac, so I'll finally be putting it to rest (for real this time, no revivals).

To you, reader, I offer what I can only call a "museum" of the various builds of the game that have been made over the years, maybe you'll get some value out of it, maybe you're a crazy archivist, whatever the case, know that Ivy Nivek made all of these. To quote NEW DF's true ending: "let's leave this world behind and embrace the NEW".

With that, I can only say to enjoy whatever underbaked remains I have managed to scrounge up as a result of my negligence. For the future, please plan out your videogames and don't let yourself get attached to projects if you have to iterate on them at least three times. Games are hard to make, but finishing games is even harder. :)

I will now be working on CatJam, news of which should be publicised soon, look forward to it.