It's once again that time for a major life / work / Limit Theory update in text form
As usual, TL;DR comes first, with details following (probably not as much as last time, after all, I'm on a work schedule now )!TL;DR
Restructuring of Josh's life, brain, and work environment are complete. LT work is and has been officially 100% resumed for about a month now (before it was at something like 40 or 50%). Communication will be rather sparse as I focus more on wearing the developer & producer hat until a suitable checkpoint is reached. To sum it up: I recently mentioned to a wise person that I almost feel the past month has been 'too good,' and I wonder what payment I'll have to make for it. Their response: "sometimes in life, it's just your turn." And that, I think, sums up the state of the final stretch.
And now, details, separated into parts, but in no particular order.
The Brain
As you all probably know, in my last announcement I described with walking-a-fine-line detail that I had worked myself into a pretty dark place and ultimately ended up with serious mental issues due to it. I mentioned getting professional help. It's been about 3 or 4 months of that now, and I'm very, very, very happy to say that...well, I'm very happy! I've learned a lot about stress, anxiety, the brain, and pre-existing conditions, and worked with professionals over this timespan to find the right solution. It took a few months, but we found it. When I say we found it, I mean it so strongly that I guarantee if you were to meet me at this moment, but had met me a year prior, you'd have no clue how I could be the same person. I mean, in a good way
So basically: I'm in a better place than I've ever been to actually handle Limit Theory in all of the dreamy beautiful glory that I've always wanted.The Life & Work
Throughout these three years, I've heard from numerous people on numerous occasions that I've been operating in a dangerous way (isolation, erratic sleep patterns, too many work hours, etc.) Like every good early-twenties-year-old, I took that advice, nodded my head, and re-routed it straight to /dev/null (
). Obviously I paid a hefty price for that and have learned that, indeed, you guys were all right. The whole time. 
Since the last post (in fact, in the past month alone), I've more-or-less solved each and every one of those issues to a solid 90% or so. The story is quite interesting, actually. Some of you may know that I'm originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (to where I moved back once the 'dark days' started to get too dark for me to handle). Conveniently, Louisiana is trying very hard to incentivize the entertainment industry (did you know we're actually the new Hollywood?? No, I didn't believe either when I was told..). Lucky for me, Procedural Reality, LLC (AKA yours truly
) falls very much under the umbrella of the tech industry, which is under the umbrella of LA's incentives. Long story short? I applied to become part of what is essentially a mini-silicon-valley-type incubator, was accepted, and am now fully moved-in to an awesome (and exceptionally low-cost) office space in a building filled to the brim with nerds like myself working on games, startups, etc., as well as mentors who are ready to give professional guidance where needed. I've got to give a mandatory hat tip to the Louisiana Tech Park**, which is the building/program/awesomesauce to which I'm referring (and no, I'm not on the client list yet, probably because I don't have a logo yet 
).So what does all this mean for all that advice that you guys gave to me over the years? Essentially, it's all now implemented
I have a workspace to which I've moved all my equipment (not gonna lie, it's surely the coolest small office in the building, because, you know, the graphics monkey likes to have an inspirational atmosphere 
). Thus, life and work are separated at last! I have reasonable, daylight work hours that I (generally) stick to. No more crazy 48-hour coding sprees that ultimately destroy my sanity! Finally, I've got a boatload of mentors and friends just a hall-walk away when I need professional advice or just someone to tell me that I'm not going crazy At first I was skeptical that all this 'traditional' working model would do is lower my productivity. Given that this week alone I've solved two major problems that have haunted me for years as well as made great progress on LT, while simultaneously maintaining sanity and reasonable sleep times, I'm willing to admit it: I was wrong. In a big way. I'm now more than happy to admit it
Limit Theory
Ironically, I've got the least to say about this topic, because there's never really been a problem with it...only with me and how I handled it
Development is ramped back up to 100%, except that this 100% is far more effective than the previous 'crazy 1000%,' because my new brain actually gets things like the 'big picture' and how making some obscure feature a tad better isn't worth a day of my time (seriously, can you believe Josh is saying that?? It's jarring even for me )From here on out, I'm going to focus 95% of my work time on development, and, more specifically, getting to alpha (of course, beta by extension). I've never been in better shape to do so. The bad news for you all is that, much like a more traditional developer, I won't be posting logs every day or posting constantly to the forums. I also won't be sharing too many details, screenshots, or videos until I've reached solid checkpoints and am ready to do so. I'm going to play this last stretch pretty close to the chest. Ultimately, that's both for the sake of me as well as for the sake of the final quality of LT
Conclusion
When I started "Road to the Beta," I intended for it to be the beginning of the end. Indeed, it was. The end of my sanity, that is. But everything has changed now, and not because I've got some brilliant new node-based-LTSL-procedural-elegance idea, but rather because I've actually finally changed the things that were wrong with the development process. And me.
So this time, when I say this is the beginning of the end, I can say it with confidence that, in fact, it will be the Limit Theory development cycle that will be ending -- with the release of what I've promised you all (and what I've dreamt of since my days of Freelancer).
Until our next meeting, take care, stay positive, and remember that Limit Theory is a train that will never be derailed until it reaches the destination
<3 Josh
** Gratuitious awesomeness: Louisiana Tech Park = LTP = Limit Theory Prototype.
Cool coincidence...or is it? (wanders off muttering about harmonic underpinnings of the universe and a directed, non-random collapse of universal wave functions...
)EDIT: KS Update
Forgot to mention! I realize that these forum updates are not reaching all backers and that the last 'official' update was far too long ago. To that end, my next major communication will indeed be an official KS update with a tad-more-professional summary of the last two forum updates. It's in the works
The results of logic, of natural progression? Boring! An expected result? Dull! An obvious next step? Pfui! Where is the fun in that? A dream may soothe, but our nightmares make us run!
Happy you found an office space you truly like - and I like the progress it sounds like you've made towards keeping a level head from now on. 
