Hello everyone and welcome to another Under The False Sky release-devlog!

It hasn't been too long since my release devlog for [heca;tomb], haha—and yet here we are! We made Kein:[Über]Leben as a Winter VN Jam and Dying Year VN Jam entry; Winter VN Jam in particular as an homage to Blood:Coverd Snows' 1 year anniversary, which released for Winter VN Jam 2023. ♥️

I had the idea for this project and to make it as homage for Blood:Covered Snow in summer, actually. I think it came to fruition during one of my many bath-thoughts sessions, where I just let my mind wander for a bit. That's also where I came up with the project's title.
As you might've noticed already, Kein:[Über]Leben isn't really English. It's German, actually (cause I'm German, haha). It's supposed to be a word-play for Cain, the male protagonist of this side story & Micah's biological father.

And not to praise myself too much; but I think that title is actually pretty clever. 🤓

Moving on to the actual development of the project, the process was just like [heca;tomb] pretty smooth and without any major hiccups. I think it took me the longest to get the script and coding done this time around.
The quickes to complete were the BGs, as I reused some of them from Blood:Covered Snow, since its taking place in the same location and in the same season.

I'm really happy with how the sprites turned out and I think you can see a clear development & improvement of my art style since [RE]:Idealize. This is also the first project where I was able to incorporate expressions to my sprites.
I coded them in until 5am / 1 hour before deadline last night. The last 4 hours before we met the deadline I was freaking and stressing out while coding in all expressions.
I was so scared we wouldn't make it on time; but in the end we did. 🙏🏻

All in all I think Kein:[Über]Leben is one of my favourite and best stories that I've released thus far.

I kind of have to retract the statements I made within this section of my [heca;tomb] devlog , haha...haha...ha.

Starting the release of this devlog, I will be going on an indefinite hiatus, which is why the completion of [heca;tomb] will also be pushed back indefinitely. At times like these I really need to prioritise my mental and physical health. I feel like I've run a constant marathon within the year of 2024. I participated in so many projects and jams, that it didn't just take a toll on me psychologically.

I know, I'm proud of the development and achievements I was able to make throughout the releases of UTFS, but it also felt like I was losing sight of my actual goal; which is wanting to be passionate about my projects and not run from one tight deadline to the other.

And that's going to be my goal for 2025: I want to re-learn to be passionate about the things I love, to not see them as a chore but as a. I want to sit down and play a game from start to finish or watch an Anime or Series WITHOUT having to work on something. I want to breathe. I want to sleep.

You'll also be able to find this notice on my itch-page now:

As it's usually the case before I end my devlogs, I want to send big hugs and thank yous to my team, to the amazing people who took their time to work on this project—especially with all the holidays and festivities in the midst.

And now that the year of 2024 has come to an end I also want to say thank you to all the amazing people I was able to meet & grow closer connections with throughout the year—to the people who have been with me through ups and downs, who have seen me through my highs but also my lows and decided to stick around, to accept me for who I am.

Thank you; Chatter, Max, Naarel, Ebi, Chim, Butter, Autumn, Chaz, Thoe, Elina, Elizabeth and Nyima.
I love you guys so, so much.

To a wonderful year of 2025.
To us.