I wanted to wait until April Fools was over so I could post this message.
I've come to a few decisions that most people probably won't like. As much as I like rom hacking and working on LC, I need to start concentrating fully on the rest of my life. Ever since beginning rom hacking my personal life has been greatly affected, both physically and mentally. I try my best to keep a bright face for all my fans and to continue to work on stuff as much as possible, but it's tough trying to keep up with everything all the time. You can only push yourself so far before you reach a point where you have to stop.
I'll be 22 years old in less than a month and I need to start moving forward with my life. I've worked on LC for almost 6 years, during which time I was not able to properly dedicate myself to anything else. My personal interests as well as studies started to decline to the point where days pass by and nothing is done. Eventually, I was unable to keep working on LC in the capacity I had done around 2009 when releasing Beta 2.1. For these last 3-4 years I've been stuck, not being able to fully work on LC but also not being able to move on and start anything else.
I don't know if you guys remember, but on the 10th of October 2010 at 10:10:10 I posted the Liquid Crystal Continuation Program. This was after I had the first signs that I couldn't carry on without damaging myself further. So I tried to get out of it and released that. But, that didn't help me get out of it. I was addicted to rom hacking and came back a month later after becoming bored.
I wanted to finish LC by the end of 2010, and I could have done it if I worked as much as I did originally. Studies got in the way, I felt mentally and physically drained from all the projects I was involved in, and I lost motivation to hack most of the time. The amount that was accomplished during the last 4 years was not comparable to the progress from years before, and this made me sad every day that I was no longer the LaZ I used to be.
Even during my free time, I was unable to settle down and get work done. I wasn't even able to commit to small things like playing games and watching TV. I was just sitting around in limbo watching the days pass by being paralyzed by all my thoughts. Some days are better than others of course, where I'm able to work on LC for a short period while I have the energy and drive to do it.
For these reasons I've decided to take a hiatus from rom hacking until further notice. This means that the development of LC will stop as well. I've spoken to the other members of the LC team (Zeikku, Jambo51, FIQ) and they are aware of my decision. My main focus needs to be university and building my life in game development. By this time next year I need to be making a living and surviving or I'll end up on the streets with no job.
Rest assured, people will still be able to download LC from Linkandzelda.com in it's current form. You can still submit bugs in the same places as before, and the RHO Social page will continue to remain open. Why? Because I'll be back at some point in the future, after I have a chance to stop thinking about LC for a while. In a few days time I'll request the thread to be closed.
In addition to this I will be stopping pretty much all my other projects in some way or another, except for those related to game development: my core focus for my life.
Lot's of people will be sad and will probably disagree with this outcome. But, this is my choice and my decision. I've reflected enough upon this and this is what I want to do.
I hope people are considerate of my decision and I thank everyone who has worked with me over these years; it's been truly irreplaceable.
Regards,
Linkandzelda