The Central Question of PI, A word about Patron Rewards, and a bit of Dev News.

Hi-  We've not done a public update, in almost a month -Sorry for the lapse!  We didn't mean to come off as a "Members only" franchise - we've just been focused on releasing the Alphas.

SO- ARE THE HUMANS WORTH BRINGING BACK?

Now- before I start, I don't have any intention of turning this update into a slow-reel of the worst news of the past week.  That having been said, I could not help but reflect, as I watched these events unfold, how they lay at the heart of the choice that the cats are faced with, in Peace Island.

As many of our older patrons might know, I am a second-generation American.  My father was born in 1941 in Austria.  As a result, his birth certificate still says that he was born in the "Großdeutches Reich," and he had the unfortunate experience of spending his first years in the post-war ruins of Europe.  

He was fortunate enough to come to the USA after the war, but as my sister & I were growing up, he always took care to teach us and remind us of where stuff like we saw this weekend inevitably leads to. 

However, the two most important lessons he taught were free of any ideology or judgement:

The first was that the forward march of time is no guarantor of progress.  History is littered with evidence of societies that enjoyed standards of living and culture comparable to those we enjoy today.  It's easy to find  such evidence, once you find the broken stones that mark where those civilizations perished.

The second was that the collective value placed upon progress can be overturned & reversed with FRIGHTENING speed.  The best illustration of this within my own lifetime has been the condition of Afghani women:

Over the centuries, at great collective cost, we are becoming better and better at avoiding these pitfalls - but yet they still remain.  It as if we're a species that is constantly teetering on the precipice of a disaster of our own making, only occasionally bringing ourselves back after a very hard price has been paid.

In Peace Island, this central question - Are the humans worth bringing back - has been temporarily taken from our hands and placed in the paws of the only domesticated species on earth who might be more critical of humans than humans themselves.

You might enter the game with your own prejudices - perhaps you have even passed judgement now, and you've not even played it.

This verdict will mostly depend upon the approach you have taken towards various challenges the game, and what each of the cats learns along the way.  We are hoping the player will pause occasionally to think about what it is to be human, while they enjoy being a cat for just a short while.

I only mention this, because the one thing I've learned over the past week is that we seem to be in desperate need of recovering our sense of common humanity.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT PREMIUMS:

Firstly, we're VERY low on Postcard Sets.  We plan on ordering a new print run in a few weeks.  There's this itch at the back of my head that says I have a whole box of sets that I might have stashed in the wrong place during our move, but I cannot be absolutely certain...

Secondly, I wanted to remind those who might be hurting financially because of the ongoing COVID pandemic:  If you have paid at a certain level to get a reward, YOU WILL GET THAT REWARD, EVEN IF YOU REDUCE OR CANCEL YOUR MONTHLY PLEDGE.  All we ask is that you do NOT cancel your Patreon account, so that we can stay in touch, and alert you of dev news!

Thirdly:  As always, if you have not received your Print/Postcard premiums, send us a message!

THE DEV NEWS:

We're busily at work fixing the stuff that was missing/broken in the previous PC alpha, and all past & present patrons should have gotten an alert about the latest MAC alpha.  

We're also assembling the list of where our Patrons have asked for their names to be included in the game.  We recently sent out a list of 128 ways that they can be mentioned.

They could be a part of pirate raiding crew, have a sandwich/yoga pose named after them, be a criminal, a cult member, and SO MUCH ELSE.  

The #1 request?

Former librarian.

We have a VERY unique fan base!

See ya'll in two weeks!