The leaves around here are turning all sort of pretty colors. The wind and the rain just don't seem to let up for days at a time. It's autumn, at least in my neck of the woods. I love this time of year, so I'm doing pretty well.But how does the change of season affect Missing Stars? We're a volunteer outfit, and that means we all have lives outside the team. A lot of us are also pretty young, with school starting up again and consuming a lot of what would have been free time. Oddly, though, the last week or so has been the most active, productive period for months.Some of you will be surprised by this; most will probably be shocked it didn't happen sooner, but Somnova has had its first real roadblock, the first major hiccup, the first time I've personally had reason to step back and wonder, "Are we going to make it?"Of course, I'll never know the answer for certain -- not until Missing Stars is released, anyway -- but for now, I'm confident that we will. We've gone through one of those trials that could easily have broken us. Instead, what I saw was everyone coming together, making suggestions, repairing bridges, applying band-aids where necessary.What I also saw was a renewed passion for the project. The dev channel is alive with a creativity I haven't felt since the early days. We're not starting over by any stretch, but we're taking the opportunity to reevaluate what we've got. Inject some fresh ideas. Throw out the ones that have only been hindering us. Tighten up the graphics on level three.From the outside, it'll probably just sound like a delay. Or worse: the last thrashings of a dying team trying to assure itself that it isn't really dying. If that's what you believe, a blog post isn't going to convince you otherwise. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. There's no doubt we've had a setback, but we're still here, and the final product is going to be that much better for the hardship.We're doing better than expected, all things considered. Wherever you are, whether it's autumn there or not, I hope you're doing well too.-alabaster