Now that I’m on something I can express things in more than 140 characters, I guess I can talk more at length about stuff, personal and work.



So, Starbound:



With most of the team occupied with moving to England, there hasn’t been much to do but follow up on what old work I can and take care of personal stuff during downtime, having recently moved house. Ship upgrades were announced a while ago, and those of you who follow Twitter might have seen updates posted. We hit a minor hurdle in realising the existing Floran and Hylotl ship styles weren’t really feasible to expand and make bigger while still looking good, so both are undergoing a complete redesign. I handled the Floran ships, and used the opportunity to make them resemble more closely what their lore dictates. It’s an extremely tedious process of copying and pasting, filling in gaps, calculating block space, which is why it’s taken so long thus far.





The remaining Hylotl ships are being undertaken by the other artists, but have taken a sort of back seat for now as they get all the moving stuff out the way. From what I know their visa stuff’s done and they’re all due to be there in early May, except bartwe, myself, and Omni. Once everyone’s there and set up, things should be back to normal. The upgrades shouldn’t take long to do - the Floran’s assets are all done, leaving only the Hylotl to do, and then hook them all up.



A lot of people have asked why some of us aren’t going to England with the others - I can’t speak for the others, but for me it’s pretty simple - I’m a British citizen so I can go to the UK whenever I want, but in 2012 I immigrated permanently to the US to be with my partner after an arduous process predating Starbound’s development. After spending so long to get here, I’m not too keen on leaving so soon. We just moved into a place that allowed us to follow one of our lifelong dreams of being able to keep livestock we can make our own food with (which is SO fun, albeit like having a second job), so I’m fully committed to staying here for the indefinite future.



On top of that, it may be seen as unorthodox but after spending 22 years of my life living in Europe, I genuinely prefer life in the US. I won’t go into it any further as it’s pretty much a matter of taste - I just find people here to be much more accommodating and friendly than those in Europe. That said, I do plan on visiting the office in London whenever flight prices permit.



Aside from that, once the ships are done Molly and I are planning to start work on a content pack we feel would add a degree of management and replayability to the game. That’s probably all I can say about it for now!

As a bonus, goats: