It's been a year since the launch of Bird & Bee's Adult Activity Center on November 28th, 2023. This post is a few days late for reasons I'll get into, but I wanted to look back on what I've accomplished so far, sharing trials and tribulations, give long-awaited shoutouts to those who have played the game already, and give a glimpse of what lies in store for the future.

Over the past year I have gotten a few Let's Players to play the game. Bo55 Fatwod is currently the only one to have posted an entire playthrough, but Beef Gravy Studios gave it a try as well. I'm still waiting on WasabiSoda's video. I asked them if they were interested in playing back in February, they got back to me 5 months later saying they played it and will be uploading the video soon, but haven't done so yet. They're a small channel who seem to be doing it as a hobby, so I don't want to rush them, but I'm still eagerly awaiting to see if they still follow through. As for the other channels, you can find their videos below and give them a like and subscribe if you can!

As for what I've been working on for the past year, I've been starting work on sequel projects, but I have to admit that progress has been slow. For this next "phase" of what I hope to be a series, there are two games, with the first being Project Tours, a browser-based Bird & Bee game set in the world of the first installment. I've only made a few sprites for Bee in the hub screen so for, as well as a work-in-progress for said hub screen. For the second project, being the next numbered Activity Center game, I've spent months working on one section of one background for one shot of one scene. I want the backgrounds for this project to blow the first game's out of the water. Each numbered installment will take place in a different location each time. The first one took place in a park, and while the second will technically be at that same park, you'll be exploring it at a tiny size as our titular Bird & Bee will be shrinking themselves down and embarking on a Fantastic Voyage-style journey through the body of their friend Taffy the space girl!

I think it's better to be open with these next installments as opposed to keeping them under wraps. Sharing progress on the sequels is a good way to naturally promote the first game, which I did keep under wraps for the entirety of its development, mostly because of the novelty of the concept. Even so, I still feel like I have to very be selective about who I promote it to with the nature of the game making fun of anyone and everything, lest I catch the attention of someone raring to try and take it down. I would like to have at least a bit of an audience for it before that happens, though, with a few more Let's Plays and perhaps some fan art as a way to preserve it (even if I'm the only one who thinks it's worth preserving). The game itself I'd like preserved, but also open to updates if I spot any grammar errors while watching other people play, and the creation of fan art I'd like to happen naturally through people's enthusiasm. 

I would like to get to a point of financial stability so that I'm able to commission artists I trust to help out with future projects, as I'm definitely going to need it. I still consider Bird & Bee to be a hobbyist passion project, with it becoming a business only when I start making money off of it, but I want people to get paid for their work if they do help out. I'll be making the post about it when the time is right.

Now for some bad news that happened this past week, and the reason this post is so late. The old hard drive that I developed the first game on has finally gone kaput. Luckily, I've occasionally been saving everything in my documents folder, including the game itself, the art assets, and sounds, to a USB drive, with the latest save being right before the hard drive went past the point of no return. I would've liked to have migrated the entire thing before it did so, that's why I'm currently looking into repairs, in addition to preparing for other big changes in my personal life which I won't get into because the Internet doesn't need to know about that shit.

I had plans to join this year's Newgrounds Secret Santa, which could've resulted in that first piece of fanart, as well as me returning the favor by drawing someone else's OC, but me being busy kept me from doing so. There are also a few illustrations I completed months ago, but haven't gotten around to uploading, a few of them being made for that trip to LVL UP EXPO in Vegas that was one of the biggest highlights of the year. Despite the ups and downs, 2024 had a lot of amazing moments. I'm really looking forward to what comes next.

I'll conclude the post with this: The illustration I made of Taffy and Bee to close out 2023 got 0 stars, and yet I still love it. It represents the bond between these characters, which is what I believe to be the heart of the series. I'd like for it to be the final shot of the second numbered game, obviously with a little polish. It's been a rocky road getting here, with many people trying to make me doubt myself, but I still believe what I do is worth doing. Works need to hold value to the person making them, no matter what other people might say.