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April 15 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2018-04-15 21:37:08
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

A week ago, I'd have said there was too much stuff going on, getting spread in too many directions at once. But I had a pretty productive week, and so my plate is looking a whole lot clearer today!

TLS 0.34.0: Work is well underway, but too early to predict a date. Will depend on many variables.

Stress Relief Project: Kept working on this occasionlly, but sadly I can't introduce it yet. The gameplay isn't ready mainly because I've been working on more important things. I'd like to introduce the story/concept with art, which I'm waiting on. But I hope to show people this project during April, May at the latest.

Ouroboros: I've taken a few more steps toward the Steam release. Made my life a lot harder by trying to support the Mac version on Steam - the idiosyncrasies of Steam and RPG Maker synergize in an irritating way. Hopefully I will figure that out. Also need to figure out achievements, which for some reason are harder in MV than VX.

Crimson Gray 1.5 DLC: The core writing is done, along with many of the other details. No art yet, so release time is unknown. But the heavy lifting on my end is done.

Feels weird to have had such a great week and yet not have anything actually ready to show. But things are moving forward, and you can expect to see more of them soon!

Comments

Studio Danza (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-25 01:00 I'm excited for more of your games. My review of Desecration of Wings is gonna be ready in 1-2 weeks. Loved it so much!
2018-04-15 21:43

Dubsington

Excited to hear about the Crimson Gray DLC moving forward already. Hopefully you're able to get the same artist.

sierralee

Glad to hear you liked it, and thanks for the review! Let me know when you post it.

sierralee

Redd is theoretically game, but her schedule is troublingly full. In any case, the first step will be polishing the story itself with a limited alpha.

aosdh

Hope we get to see some hotblooded shonen action fight scenes against the cooperation in the crimson gray DLC.

Dmitry F

Really look forward to the Crimson Gray DLC considering how much I appreciated the game itself due to some interesting parallels with a family member's Bipolar Disorder. Good luck finding an artist, I have begun to have my own troubles in that area myself.

sierralee

I'm afraid it's kind of the opposite of that, a quiet and personal story focused on Lizzie and John. I would totally write a shonen series if I somehow got the chance, though. =P It would be the lovechild of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter, and Dragon Ball. Don't know if it would entertain anyone else, but I'd happily indulge my desire for more strategic combat integrated into a more complex political situation.

aosdh

Just do what Nasu did and write a 50+ hour battle royal porn game with historical characters from different time periods. With how popular Fate has gotten today, there’s no way that could be a bad idea.

Dubsington

Might be worth waiting for. A change of art style in middle of a game is extremely jarring. (I know this is more of a mini-sequel, but still.)

Dubsington

People, no giving Sierra interesting ideas for huge games until TLS is wrapped up :-P

Desertopa

You definitely have an audience for it. I say if you ever have some specific plans, go for it. I don't know if you've read or watched it before, but I got the impression Claymore would be more your speed than DBZ. It's got all the crazy power levels and shit, but they're way more diverse and strategic, and artistically depicted, than in DBZ. Plus way more interesting pathos. Of course, DBZ's "Fights at every power level look pretty much exactly the same once the the characters are badass enough to fly" deal does fit the graphical limitations of RPGMaker...

sierralee

Dubsington: Haha, I give myself ideas for huge projects on a regular basis. XP Desertopa: I enjoyed Claymore, but I really hoped the primary plot twist would pay off more. That's because I was actually holding it to a decent standard, though, unlike a lot of shonen where I just hope for a minimum level of interesting content. DBZ is mainly a case of me wishing it could be something with more substance. I enjoy a great many of the trappings of it, I just want to see them done better. The concept of a shonen game is one that I've given a lot of thought, but I'm not sure it would work at all, much less in RPG Maker. I feel like the core of what makes the fights and progression interesting would be diminished in game form. So this is all just a mental exercise, really.

Desertopa

The old RPGMaker game Romancing Walker is kind of interesting, less for its romantic interactions in my opinion (which are pretty much all cliche shonen harem romantic hijinks,) than for the fact that much of the combat in the game is basically shonen-style combat translated into a video game medium, with characters learning new moves in the middle of combat to overcome the gimmick of the latest boss during talking-is-a-free-action scenes taking place during battle. It's notable less for being done well than for being attempted at all, but I did find it an interesting source of ideas. It might be worth checking out since I get the impression that we have in common that both of us get some of our best ideas from seeing interesting concepts done badly and thinking of ways to make them not suck. I've also been thinking recently about some ways to implement some evolving attack animations in RPGMaker without any custom scripting, which could be good for a game which uses that sort of dramatic scaling of combat prowess from beginning to end, without giving the characters an endless parade of new moves. It's probably kind of late to implement something like that in TLS, but it might be fun to use in another project.

Rachnera

Monster Girl Quest does a good job at creating shonen-style fights with very few graphical assets. Basically, all important fights are puzzles. You have to find the right combinations of moves to survive/progress until you reveal the opponent's weakness and/or gain new abilities, in true shonen fashion. The (too short) part in the end *minor spoiler* where you get to play the Four Heavenly Knights *end minor spoiler* is especially satisfying in that regard It's not perfect, but it has some interesting ideas. For example, you get your final attack mid-game, and can use it in any fight from this point on, even against mooks. However, this move is as impracticable as it is stupidly powerful (think Piccolo's spiral beam level of impracticability), so you actually end up _choosing_ not to use it in most battles.

aosdh

I’d be willing to like MGQ more if it hadn’t turned into elder abomination vore quest halfway through part 2 and all of part 3, Alice was very cute though.

Seil

The thing about MGQ is, it was a conscious decision. The game wasn't really supposed to be fap material in general. When the author discovered that fans were actually enjoying that that part of the game, he then proptly went with eldritch abomination vore quest in part 3.

Decanter

I dunno, some people are completely open to certain kinds of consumption by eldritch entities.

Rachnera

Source? Cause I find it hard to believe. The defeat scenes are clearly written to pander to a certain audience. Although I admit they're a bit different in tone/writing from the mandatory "plot" scenes (Alice/Luka). My own theory for the start of Chapter 3 is that they wanted to give a whole different look for enemies to underline how different from those we've fought so far, and they went a little overboard. This chapter is not all bad however, with genuinely awesome moments, and some new characters which are disturbing in a good way (complex, flawed, unsettling yet understandable): the necromancer, the AI, Promestein, the true final boss…

aosdh

The thing was that a large amount hype for MGQ was for the guy who drew Alice and the vanilla Alice scenes, when the rest of the game was done by the other guy who was mostly vore. It’s also a long stretch between what the game over scenes show and what the main scenes show.

sierralee

One of the primary issues I'd have making a shonen game is that I don't feel the space for the player is actually that interesting. What I find most compelling about shonen involves how power and the narrative intertwine - I haven't thought of a way for the player to engage with it that would be satisfying to me. Desertopa: Hmm, I will have to take a look at Romancing Walker to see if it generates any ideas. I'm actually not sure what you mean by evolving attack animations. Arachne: MGQ is something I know, but haven't pursued because of my first impression of it. I'll give it another look.

Lord Forte Games

In case it's of any use to you. I thought I'd write a bit about a Shonen-esque part of a game that I found pretty compelling... Note: Main scenario spoilers for Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood to follow. Also, I know this is long, I mostly wrote it because of how much I liked the character involved and the off chance that it might offer something useful. ------- Zenos yae Galvus is the main antagoninst of FFXIV's latest expansion, and he invokes a lot of shonen dynamic tropes in part to counter the narrative staleness. By the point he's introduced, the PC has known as the Warrior of Light and generally a god-slayer who's handily defeated any challenge so far (including the primals, who are essentially false gods conjured up with belief and enough aether to give that belief form). In spite of all that... The first encounter with Zenos is a crushing defeat. As a raider with basically the best gear possible for Lv 60, I hit him for like several minutes and barely chipped off 5% of his HP, having to avoid devestating attacks and not die until he got bored and used something unavoidable. All of this during a very tense moment where his army has found the hidden resistance base you were supporting and laid waste to it... And then, after very decisively winning, he just walks away. At that point, the entire course of the narrative is derailed and the story changes focus to defeating Zenos, both militarily and personally. About halfway through, you get to fight him again--but of course, in classic superpowered rival style, he just powers up when you're finally making some headway and manage to get him below half, and it's back to desperately fighting to stay alive while being unable to meaningfully damage him. This time, a bunch of npcs intercede after the fight--and this time, instead of casually leaving, Zenos shouts at the PC to live, to return stronger, before ordering a retreat, and it becomes increasingly clear he has no real loyalty to his father (the emperor of Garlemald) and actually resents his orders to completely pacify occupied provinces because it crushes his enemies' will to fight back. This culiminates in a confrontation during the final dungeon of the expansion, where he essentially admits what I said before. "Doma, Ala Mhigo, Garlemald... What do these matter to us?" As well, he basically admits he only feels anything at all in the midst of battle. After finally beating him, some of your NPC allies come in and talk about bringing him to justice... I found it quite fascinating that at that point I was actually extremely irritated by the prospect, since these were people he had effortlessly crushed when they fought him, and in general he would've just laughed at their idea of justice because he simply had no ability to -care- about any of that... My reaction was along the lines of "Would you please stay the hell out of this?" I felt a strong connection to Zenos as a personal enemy--one he mirrored, easily dodging the npcs' attempts to capture him and falling on his sword with the parting words, "Farewell my enemy... My first friend." Of course, in some ways this highlights what you said about not making the story super interactive because FFXIV's storyline is quite linear--in this case, successfully implementing a shonen power rival storyline distracted from the lack of agency more than anything. In some ways, the player and Zenos -are- cut from the same cloth, powerful warriors fighting for a cause not truly their own because that's the side they happened to end up on. On the other hand, I think that kind of rapport could provide the basis for diverging storylines. Could a softer version of Zenos be redeemed by a relationship with a female PC who could consistently make him feel something by matching his power? Or how would the antagonistic relationship differ if, instead of being basically a similar loose cannon, the player who defeated him had made choices along the way that established him/herself as a true believer in the cause they were fighting for? I think there's a lot of potential to create interesting dynamics that way.

Xagnam

For those of you who enjoy MGQ, check out MGQ NG+.

Runcible Technician

Found a weird glitch maybe. Playing the last sovereign 33.4, had 5,000 ProN leftover at start of Aka's path in Yhilin. I get the 10,000 for finishing the mine in favor of the nobles, but back in the throne room ProN resets to 5,000 continuing on to Megail's route. Was that intentional?

Decanter

Well, think about it. Megail's route occurs simultaneously with Aka's (and Yarra's). How would Megail start with the ProN that Aka only earns later, after Megail has left for Aram? (Aka makes a comment about this when you get the reward, actually.)

Michael Majere

Did its devs give up on it? It seems like they started to do a part 3, but 2016 was last communication on that page with them

Xagnam

Current Development: ecstasywastaken.blogspot.com

sierralee

Decanter is right about the logic of it - don't worry, you'll get your 10k later!

Desertopa

By evolving attack animations, I mean that what's nominally a single technique could have different attack animations at different times, depending on factors like the number of times it's been used, the level of the character using it, the character's stats, etc. It'd take original scripting to achieve this with only one move entry in the game's database, but by attaching events to move effects, I think you could covertly swap out moves for identically-named ones with different attack animations. I think this could be particularly fitting in a game where, like TLS, basic spells like “Fire” or “Ice” remain tactically important for a long time, rather than being replaced with a running succession of more epic-sounding techniques. Even without access to original graphical resources for attack animations, I think you could get some good impact out of tweaking a move so that, say, “Fire” starts out by producing a crackle of flame and a low-volume fire sound effect, and gradually scales up the size of the animation frames, the intensity and duration of accompanying flash effects, and the volume and/or selection of accompanying sound effects, so that at high levels the same technique depicts a whole lot more visible and audible “oomph.”

Jan Dietrich

Yo Sierra, little question regarding investments in this chapter: How regular do you think we'll get our cash/Pron? I'm asking because i was a little bit surprised by the optional 200k investment in 33.4.

DukeLeto7

Once per Ch4 Iterate event. Going by the precedent set by Ch3 iterate, every time you make a major excursion out of HQ.

sierralee

DukeLeto7 is correct. You'll be getting another round in 0.34.x.

DankPotatoes

Never thought i would find the most productive and creative content producer i know in the NSFW parts of the internet. Keep it up Sierra. We all love you for what you do!

DukeLeto7

Baseless speculation: There'll be more than three total payouts but no more than nine. (Actually, I'm assuming that the number of potential research projects, which are also completed when the Ch 4 iterate event fires, is accurately represented in the current research projection map at HQ. Which means the base for that spec is the layout of part of the base.)

DukeLeto7

Deep Lore question: How long has the Church of Ivala been a thing? Since the JRPG setting has overtones of the Late Medieval/Early Modern with a lot of "Sufficiently Advanced Magic", I'd be inclined to say "millennia". OTOH, theology doesn't seem to be even remotely stable as schisms are happening all over the place, and this seems more in line with the rough and tumble theological world of Late Antiquity, where it seemed like Constantine would have to put down 7 heresies before breakfast. So that would be "a couple centuries". Was there a period before the 1st Arclent War when there was a Roman Empire analogue uniting the human nations of Arclent with a common religion? The only clue on this is Yarra's debate with the nun in the Stineford Academy in Ch. 1, where we're told that the 3rd Holy Book was adapted from a text from Thenours. Unless contact with Thenours was lost prior to its (re?)discovery less than 400 years before Ch. 1, that makes the terminus post quem for the period where the foundational Ivalan scriptures were written the discovery of Thenours. (That's obviously tacking on the assumption that there's an agreed upon canon of Ivalan Holy Books that's been stable for some time.)

sierralee

1000+ years with the origins not actually the same as the official timeline of the Church. There wasn't a Roman Empire analogue, but there was a period prior to the 1st Arclent War where the Church was a powerful central organization that had its own capital and more power than smaller kingdoms. The current Church's military branches and widespread nature are inherited from that time, but the modern kingdoms are less influenced by it. Regarding Yarra's debate, that's an ancient connection that was only learned after Thenours was rediscovered. I had this in mind as a Dead Sea Scrolls type event, where there was an established status quo that was unsettled by new discoveries. The canon has been mostly stable, but there are different versions of some of the books that are the source of much argument.