https://www.patreon.com/posts/22370242State of icycalm's Projects Oct '18 EditionTime for a comprehensive update on all my projects. Remember back in the summer when I mentioned a bunch of projects I was working on [
> ]? There were several of them, most of which I'd never mentioned before, and I am sure that to some people the sheer volume of work involved must have sounded excessive, and perhaps even unbelievable. Today, however, I am glad to announce that I've been making heavy progress in pretty much all of those projects, and even in a couple of new ones, or at any rate older ones I've resurrected, and I am ready to show it to you. So here are the details, broken down by project.
• End of PhilosophyAfter a change of programmer, and a move from Unity to Unreal Engine, which set us back several weeks (though it will be a good development in the long term, because for the sake of our ever more ambitious future games, the faster we learn the best engine available, the better) we finally have a playable build to give to people. It is already available to the $25+ tier Sponsors in the private #cultdev Discord channel, and their responses have been very positive.
Sergei and I are committed to delivering nothing less than a modern videogame masterpiece with JRPG-levels of playtime content, and we are well on our way there. Look for more advanced, feature-rich builds with longer playtime in the coming weeks and months, and also for a kickass trailer that will demonstrate the game and connect it to my upcoming multi-game multi-genre philosophically-themed videogame universe, Endgame, which I intend to develop over
decades and of which
End of Philosophy will be the prologue.
• The Best Videogame Player In The WorldI am finally ready to launch my revolutionary new contest based on my titular essay from
Videogame Culture: Volume I. Three people—me, Sergei, and a video guy I hired—have been working for a week to deliver the trailer that will be available before the end of the month, to go along with the announcement post, and let me assure you it will blow you away with the sheer magnitude of its scope and ambition and eyeball-melting videogame action.
On the first of November I am launching what will surely become nothing less than a videogame institution, and perhaps, in due time, something far greater than that: a brand-new, sci-fi
political system, believe it or not. For the time being, however, forget I said that last bit, and just enjoy the sheer madness of the thing, either as participant or spectator. P.S. The entry fee will be €20, to cover a host of costs I've already incurred and will keep incurring, but will be waived for Uber Sponsors pledged on Patreon at the $50 tier. [
Update: Trailer is up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rboJGO_2SpE]
• Endgame: The End of PUA TheoryThis is my PUA book that is in no way related to my videogame universe; "Endgame" just happens to be a super-cool title to use with both videogames and pick-up theory, and it also fits perfectly the content of both works, so I'll be using it for both. So I've started publishing this book in my philosophy forum, in its very own brand-new subforum, and everyone with access (i.e. $25 tier Sponsors or PayPal subscribers) who is interested in modern dating and the wider social framework in which it takes place, as well as both female and PUA psychology, should head over there and have a look.
Updates will be posted on a weekly basis, until the full book has been published, concluding probably a few months from now. After that there will be a print edition, and later still a digital one, both of which will be sent to $50 tier Uber Sponsors at no additional cost. A couple years down the line there may be a website too. A really cool one of course, as should be expected of me by now.
• icyblogFor over a year now I have been posting all kinds of art and literary criticism in my philosophy forum. Reviews of movies and novels, non-fiction and documentaries, extended fitness and nutrition essays, and of course tons of content on politics and various social issues, including dating. Basically everything I am interested in that's not strictly about philosophy or videogames, and therefore doesn't belong on any of my two existing frontpages. However, the way the forum is set up, it's quite laborious for people to read it, because there are dozens of subforums and, on a busy day, whoever wanted to check all of it would have to click back and forth quite a bit, which can get annoying. So I've been working on a blog page that will work exactly like
Insomnia's redesigned frontpage, pulling every post from all the subforums and throwing them on a single page, so that by checking that page once a day and scrolling down, the reader will never miss anything, and will be able to further explore any subject he is especially interested in by clicking through to it. In addition, there will be a sidebar with the top 20 or 50 or whatever of all my favorite movies, novels, music pieces and so on, all eventually with linked reviews, pretty much in the manner of
Insomnia. Originally, I had intended to make separate websites for all these subjects, but a more elegant—not to mention more efficient—solution would simply be an icycalm blog, with a detailed sidebar serving as a guide to the content, and that's what I'll be launching in November, if all goes according to plan. And to go with it, I will be performing a major revision and expansion of the Reading List, with a brief biography section added for all the major philosophers including me, and at the same time finally publishing my critique of civilization on the frontpage which will be a philosophical triumph of stunning proportions, so look out for that. All in all, it will be a massive expansion of my philosophy site, which needed some love too after all the attention I've been lavishing on
Insomnia these past few months, so that will be my main focus for November. (Oh, and there'll also be a Project Gutenberg-attempt to make available online all the great philosophical works NOT featured on Project Gutenberg—i.e. essentially
all of them, especially if we are talking quality translations, since Project Gutenberg's tend to suck—and a reading club to go along with that.)
• The Evil OneThis is my novel. It's coming along nicely, in the rare times when I am in the right mood to work on it, and I'll be dropping it on the world at some point with no warning. $50 tier Uber Sponsors will get the original print edition right after I have received mine and okayed it, and a little later everyone else will be able to order it from
Lulu.
• Insomnia and CULT merchandiseFinally, I've made some progress in this project too, but so far strictly of a research nature. Our FTG player
Effay asked for a shirt a while back, to represent the clan in several tournaments he's been entering, but I didn't want to just cook up any old cheap shit and send it to him. I don't want to produce anything that I myself would not be happy wearing on a daily basis, around people I wanted to impress no less, like pretty girls for example. So I've been looking around to see what can be done, until I finally came upon this Razer team jacket shown below that's gorgeous (nerd not included).
However, I have not the faintest clue of how to go about making such a thing. A few searches I've done on print-on-demand jackets turned up only ugly stuff, so unless one of you has a link for me, I think I will be contacting Razer to find out where they make their jackets. I know it's probably a dead-end, but I'll try it, and I'll keep trying to find where I can make clothing of this calibre. I am sure I will produce some cool shirts too eventually, but I would like to launch the line of merchandise with something super-special, so I will put some more time into this jacket business before I give up and fall back on simpler stuff like shirts etc. Eventually, I'll work my way up to that damn jacket if it takes me a decade of trying. I can be very stubborn with this stuff, and won't give up. And once more, everything produced will be sent to the $50 tier Uber Sponsors at no additional charge (unless it costs something crazy like hundreds of dollars, in which case guys, I might ask you to chip in something, if you want to order it, to avoid bankrupting me as there are quite a few of you now).
And... that's it from me. If it seems to you like a lot, it sure as hell is, and now you know what I'd been working on in the 16 months I took off the internet in 2015-2016. I was in let us say a rather
constraining environment, not so much in terms of creativity as of its
expression, and so had little else to do all day but create stuff in my head, leading to this
explosion of expression when I got out of that environment, whose results you've been seeing in my sites for the past two years, but which I've not yet exhausted, not even close. So back to work for me, and I'll be looking forward to your feedback over the coming weeks and months.
P.S. I recently set up the Discord so that only $1 tier patrons and above can post in the text channels. Everyone can still read the publicly viewable ones, but only my patrons can post. This way, I get rid of trolls entirely, essentially eliminating the need for moderation. So if you are on there and puzzled about why you suddenly can't post, simply go on my Patreon page and click on "Redeem Discord rewards" or whatever it's called to link your two accounts together. A small percentage of people have issues with this process, but I know how to solve them, so message me if you are having trouble (direct messages are allowed even for non-members). For most people it is a smooth process though. Plus it gives you access to the private #cult channel and the voice channels where all the fun happens.