It's now almost 2am.

Probably a good sign it's time to call it a night.

Spent part of my weekend convincing Microsoft Defender my game isn't malware.

Hypnotitron couldn't test the alpha because Defender kept flagging it. Way too much time disappeared into troubleshooting before it finally decided to stop being... Defender.

Switched up the collectible salvage graphics. Doesn't look like a C64 game anymore. Then I added a background image that looked fantastic... and immediately realized it was eating way too much of my 1.44MB budget. So now I'm trying to figure out a procedurally generated parallax background and claw some of those bytes back. Asteroid and UFO graphics are next.

Took a break long enough to see *Spider-Man: Brand New Day*. Spider-Man and Punisher fighting together was worth the price of admission by itself. My only complaints are it felt a little too long and there wasn't nearly enough Florence Pugh. Sorry, not sorry, VantaQueen.

I'm feeling pretty confident about Salvage Run.

Maybe it doesn't win the 1.44MB Challenge. But for the first time, I'm looking at the game and thinking, "Yeah... KhaoticRage might actually play this."

I might even dust off OBS and stream it once it's finished. It's been a while, and this feels like a game worth sharing.