Sorry to shock all of you, but today I announce that I'm leaving the SRB2 team and community as a whole. I never thought this day would come, but my batteries have been fully spent. And let me tell you, said batteries have been kicking for a long time.
It can seem sudden now to read this, but in retrospect, it's crazy to think of how long I've truly spent in this game. I've joined this community back in 2007, back when I was just 12, to get to know the other people around and slowly work on other mods for the game, getting unspeakable amounts of art experience in the process, and eventually becoming a dev for the game back in 2014, to which I had helped as much as I could develop the game... it's been more than a decade since then! I'm surprised I didn't get burnt out much earlier!
But even though I thought I'd never get tired of the game, unfortunately, age has been catching up to me. I'm no longer an eager young man who can work on the same project extensively. I'm soon entering my 30s, and I no longer have the energy to do the demanding amount of sprites that SRB2 requires like I did in my younger years, and working on the same thing for over a decade will get exhausting, no matter what it is. A lot of you may have noticed a heavy slow down on any sort of SRB2 related work of mine for the last year, and it's because I've hit my limit for a while now, and I've been struggling to make anything else either for the game or mods. On top of that, I've gotten a professional career for a few years now as my main focus, and projects of my own that I'd like to focus in the future.
When I made my contributions for the game, I had the partial goal to recreate the main style in a way that would be easier to analyze and reference for community members to understand, giving a more flexible base that was more animation friendly for starting artists to work with, so I think I've offered everything I could. Not just in terms of sprite work for SRB2 and some community mods, but I've tried my best to teach the community how they too could achieve better results at making the art that they love for their own sprite work and mods, providing guides and tutorials and direct feedback on how to get better at it. I'm beyond happy to say that the community has learned greatly, and some times I dare say even surpassed my own work, so I feel comfort in knowing the community will be able to keep creating amazing things when I'm no longer around!
Even though I'm quitting and I might not come back, I think both the game and its community are in a great shape, MUCH better than it was back when I joined it in my young years. What's being made for the future updates of SRB2 is genuinely mind blowing to me in ways that I didn't even dream possible, and I wish I could talk about it, but it's something that will have to be shown later in the future. I just know it'll be worth the wait!
I have a lot to thank SRB2 for. As crazy as it sounds, it's how I managed to even become a professional at art that I am today, and hell, it's how I even managed to learn how to speak English fluently, having been born in Brazil and not having any experience prior, so speaking with the community gave me much experience on such. And I still thank you all for having been such a supporting community, and I hope you all keep on creating amazing things together!
Maybe one day you'll come across something else I've helped work on. I do intend to keep creating and animating things I enjoy!
Thank you all for everything,
-Roach
