Karma

I was retired. Again! And this time I actually kinda believed it myself. I spent a couple weeks, maybe even a month without opening up LM or even thinking about it much.

But here's the thing:

Taylor Swift used to release new records every two years like clockwork. So after releasing 1989 in 2014, everyone was sure the follow-up would arrive in 2016. A series of unfortunate events happened and her next record, Reputation was released in 2017 instead.

Long story short, lots of fans now believe in the theory that Taylor was working on an album called Karma which was supposed to come out in 2016 but was largely scrapped in favor of Reputation. I think most of the "evidence" out there is delusional but a couple of things actually seem somewhat convincing.

So while I don't believe this lost album actually exists, I do think Taylor is always working on new songs and it's far from impossible that she started a concept for an album that later evolved or changed into something completely different.

And I think it's just fun to speculate about things like this. So the idea of making another Taylor focused hack called Karma has been on my mind for a while. Then I started joking in a few twitch streams that I would make/release Karma once Taylor puts out her 13th record, which was at the time at least 2 or 3 years away. I really was just joking. But then I started thinking. "If I actually make Karma and release it years from now it would have to be something really big, so I better start working on it right away"

Light had begun work on his own project that may or may not be released by the time you read this, while I was putting together ideas and creating a handful of sections for Karma. It wasn't really a conscious decision to do solo stuff next. Things just tend to happen one way or another.

It's funny. Everytime I get close to finishing a hack, it gets so hard to come up with even one more cool level idea. I'm exhausted and feel like I have to retire because I don't have another level in me.

But something about starting a fresh project makes me feel re-energized. Like all the possibilities are open to me again and I can come up with new levels without feeling like I have to force anything.

It took maybe a month until 6 or 7 levels had been started or finished. This may sound like I was getting obsessed again already but I really wasn't. Since I figured people wouldn't see what I've been up to for another couple of years I could take breaks and work on it only when I truly felt like it. The whole idea was to get a headstart so that by the time Taylor would announce TS13 I already had a lot of the work done.

But then I was getting stuck a bit. This was gonna be a full on chocolate hack, Agno style and I just didn't have any more ideas. LM was still fun for me though so I started working on another hack as a less chocolately side-project because that makes perfect sense.

I ended up in a similar situation to Epiphany, where I would switch back and forth between folders, depending on if I wanted to work on a chocolate level or something much less asm heavy.

Eventually I got more level ideas for Karma, including two new uberasm's that I needed someone to make for me. I dont quite remember how I came up with the "corpse-stepping" idea but Koopster immediately understood what I wanted and sent me a perfectly working file in no time.

The "no jumping/coins make you constantly spin or return to normal" idea is less flashy I guess but Koopster also made that work very quickly and I think it turned into one of the more creative levels in the hack.

The idea to make sprites switch direction whenever you jump was also something I had in mind for quite a while and Blaagon was gracious enough to make it work for me.

Ahrion also deserves a big shoutout for the incredible "Style" port he created for me. Obviously I wanted a Taylor Swift port in one of my hacks for a long time now but I just didn't quite know who to ask for it. So glad it finally happened.

After working on this and the other hack for around 5 months, I made the decision to not be ridiculous for once. This hack would have "only" 13 exits instead of who knows how much and I would release it whenever it was ready.

I think it turned out really well but since this recollection was written at the time of release, it remains to be seen how I will feel about it a year from now.

Funnily enough, one of my favorite things about this hack is something I wasn't directly involved in and that's the trailer. I just told Light the general idea and mood but aside from that just let him do whatever he felt like. Every one of his trailers has turned out even better than the one before and this one really blew me away. Thanks Light!