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March 24 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2019-03-24 18:39:22
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Over the past week I've been spending a lot of time thinking about TLS art. If you didn't see the $5 thread you might be missing some context, but I wanted everyone to see the above. The picture for this post is the first one Annikath did where I actually commissioned it and was involved in the drawing process. What do you think?

As for the picture itself, it's not a specific scene from the game, just something I wanted. Lots of games aren't really about characters, just various porn scenarios. So I wanted to have a picture portraying the characters after sex, focusing on personality and comfyness. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. ^-^

Nothing is decided yet and minor details could yet prevent art from going forward. But I figured using this as a test was win-win, because everybody gets a nice picture. Depending on how things go, there may be critical threads about art decisions in the future.

In other news, Street Cultivation hit the trending list and the number of readers exploded. Even with some people giving 0.5 star ratings, it's stayed in the top 50 in the site's quality rankings, once getting as high as 31. It's drawing new attention to the Sarah Lin Patreon and my other work, which is also nice.

Having said that, the ranking doesn't really make me happy. I don't like the pacing of posting chapters every few days and I don't think RoyalRoad is the site for me. This has given me some very valuable knowledge and ensured that I won't ever try to publish my fantasy books in serialized fashion. I think the experiment was good for me to do, but I probably won't be repeating it once this story is done.

Anyway, that's all for now! I'll get back to work and be away for a while, but let me know what you think of the picture.

Files

Comments

WaxerRed

Is it weird to say I really like the hands in this picture? But I like how Hilstara's hand gently rests on Simon's chest, how Simon's wraps around the other two (especially how it run's under qum's hair) and I like how even without dialogue you can tell Qum is eagerly describing something! The only thing I kind of think is a negative may be more of personal preference but I would kinda want to see Hilstara a but more muscled. There is already some obvious definition comparing Hilstara to Qum here but that's more what I'd imagine Varia or Aka's body would look like definition wise. With all Hilstaria's armor and shield I'd say she'd be pretty darn ripped! I feel like writing so many words might make it seem like a big problem but it's again more just personal preference to see greater diversity in the art! I'd say my opinion of this picture is a 8.5/10! And look forward to see if there is more!

RevGen

There is a site that is similar to royalroad you could try. Scribble hub which is newer but has much better navigation. It has a respectable amount of traffic and an active community.

Handsome Stalin

I hadn't commented on the art post because I wasn't really sure how I felt about about it, but I have to say that I really do like this piece. I wouldn't object to art like this in the game.

Desertopa

It's interesting, I have the opposite intuition, where I envision Aka and Varia as both being leaner than Hilstara. Partly because Hilstara is older, but also, while her training would give her plenty of muscle mass, I don't see her worrying so much if she puts on a little extra fat with it. So compared to Aka, I see her as having more muscle (maybe not more than Varia, who's a dual-wielding powerhouse,) but less definition because it's more covered up.

DukeLeto7

I may be out of the loop owing to being at the $5 contribution tier, but it's been a while since we've heard tell of the next TLS update.

WaxerRed

That is true. Though the line between a sexy 'strongfat' and a washed up 'fatstrong' body is a thin line that only a master can walk.

Desertopa

Strongly approve of the art sample. Depictions of the different character relationships is one of the strongest points of TLS, and in my opinion the illustrations which convey that are more important than any of the sex scenes which are less characterization-heavy. I can see how the serial format of Street Cultivation imposes limitations on the pacing relative to releasing works in complete form, but I think your ranking on Royal Road is also limited by your relatively obscure genre choices. Hopefully your site rank will continue to rise, but with Street Cultivation, I doubt it's going to reach a level commensurate with your skill. I love how you bring wit and artfulness to genres where genuine skill is so scarce, but in terms of audience exposure, it probably can't help that audiences who can appreciate the level of your craft aren't particularly concentrated in the fields you've been writing in.

Dubsington

I feel like the artist really gets the characters, and if you plan on personally providing feedback to her then I suspect that will continue to get better. There are a few nitpicks with the actual art-- Simon looks like he is coming down off a cocaine high (something about his mouth and eyes) rather than chilling in the after glow, but on the other hand the girls faces are just lovely. But like many have said in the other thread, an artist who is a fan and loves the character is far more appropriate for TLS than someone that can execute a gorgeous drawing but miss the point.

Dubsington

Some specifics about "getting the characters": Cumdump appears to be happily prattling on about something, like she would be, and Hilstara is patiently and benevolently giving her full-but-sleepy attention, because even though it's probably silly nonsense Hil loves her and knows it's important to Qum that others listen. Simon, cocaine aside, is enjoying the physical warmth and, in a loving but slightly-aloof way appropriate for the lord of the harem, is just letting Qum talk without actually engaging because he knows that Hil has it covered and nobody's feelings will be hurt. Maybe I'm reading it differently than intended, but that's how it looks to me and it fits the personalities wonderfully.

DankPotatoes

I love the art, it seems like the artist is improving steadily over time... But when will we kick the Fucklord's ass though?

sierralee

It's not weird at all! Hands are nice. ^-^ Anyway, regardless of how exactly each character is drawn, I am certainly supportive of trying to give the TLS cast a wide variety of body types. I definitely imagine Hilstara as being on the buffer end, given her tanky role.

sierralee

I will take a look! Mirroring on multiple sites increases the time investment, so no promises, but I'm always open to alternatives.

StormyAngel

Well, I was favorable to the art idea before, but now I'm really looking forward to it! If this is the quality the game will be getting from Annikath then that's perfect. I hope it works out. :) I'm still enjoying the Street Cultivation chapters, but to be honest I prefer publishing that comes in larger chunks. So while I'm sorry to hear the experiment isn't working out for you, I'm happy to hear we'll be getting more of your projects as books as a result. Thanks for the update.

sierralee

No, you're not wrong. While it remains important to me, I'm in a rough place with the upcoming update.

sierralee

Glad you like the picture! I could write a lot about different genres, but I should probably hold off and get back to work. I intend to try to write fun stories in a variety of different genres, then try an epic fantasy series without any subgenres and hope people like it.

Trevor

I like the art but the size difference between HIistara and Simon isn't something I expected. The piece makes him look a head taller than she is!

sierralee

I think Simon's face looks alright here, but I agree it's important to get right. Annikath has been great about improving things, it's just a question of pinpointing the exact details. As for your specifics, you're definitely on the right track. I wanted Qum exuberantly talking about something and thought Hilstara would be a good affectionate counterpoint.

sierralee

Glad you like the picture! As for books, it definitely seems like future work will be more toward what you'd prefer.

sierralee

Simon's canon height isn't actually very tall, though he can change that a bit via magic. This is possibly something I didn't communicate well enough to Annikath.

Pete

I had more trouble finding anything worth reading there, though maybe that will change when more authors put stuff on it.

Alan Howard

I'm happy with the artwork. I had precautions about it, but if she can crank out work like this regularly, then it will definitely be a nice addition to the game. Give the whole thing a visualization along with the narrative. Or just the occasional nice 2D pic to give an idea of what you envision the characters looking and acting like.

Sower of Systems

I am a fan of everything but the shading technique. Personally, I think the very Japanese style in Once Ever After makes it look vastly more commercial and professional. Not to say that this technique is bad, I just think that cell shading makes the art look cleaner and stands up against art in other commercial games.

SEEQYR

The bodies are great, much better than before. Criticisms: Simon: Simon's eyes are *bizarre*. Because he's on the far left of the picture, my eyes are drawn to his first, and they're weird. They don't portray *any* emotion whatsoever. Is he looking at the girls on him? Fondly? (His mouth implies that, and pretty well. His eyes do not.) Is he looking at the ceiling and thinking about the future? Who knows. It's not clear in the picture. It should be. (There are also way less scars on Simon's body than I think he should have - and speaking of, where's the scar on his face?) Qum: Qum's cute. Has piercings in her ears - are those Lust Earrings? Lovely detail and nice touch. Her ears are way more pointy than I thought, though. And Qum is...bustier than that. Even with breasts squished. She's really cute, though. Hilstara: Where's the muscle? =( Fetish-wise, Hilstara hits the muscular-girl fetish straight on, and in this picture...minimal muscle. Maybe it's padding in the armor, but Hilstara has broad shoulders - her default weapon is an axe - she's got to have at LEAST lean packed muscular body. Although, cute butt. And in line with at least one of the stories. Background: Those are sure some interesting curtains. And it looks like the bed is very firm and the characters are floating on top of it. No sensation of weight. No sensation of Simon ameliorating the weight, if that's what he was after. But much better background than the last one we saw. If I'm not wrong this one looks like it's set in the ambassador's area of Janine's palace. Otherwise, yeah, she's good. Re: RoyalRoad - there's a scheduled release button on the Add Chapter page. It's possible to wait a bit and add chapters in a burst, just schedule them to be three days apart. Entirely possible to finish writing first and then just slowly release them without really looking. I'm publishing as I go (and languishing somewhere around #17000 =P), but then, I'm much worse at writing long-form than you are. But it's sad to hear that RR, and serialized publishing, isn't the way forward for you. Still, looking forward to finishing Street Cultivation!

Badger66

I still stand by the fact that I do not think TLS needs art. I am worried not only how it will slow down things on your end, but also the workload involved for the artist. It just really feels unnecessary. However, I do really enjoy the picture above, and am definitely not against the artist continuing to make art using the game as inspiration. I especially enjoy Qum in this picture, because I feel like her playfulness comes across in it.

DukeLeto7

If there's anything the peanut gallery could do to help. let us know...

sierralee

Thanks for the feedback! You will see a future experiment with shading styles, FYI.

sierralee

Thanks for your detailed feedback! Is there any way you could pinpoint the precise details regarding Simon's eyes that don't work for you? Re RoyalRoad - I have the whole story written already, it's the reformatting for RR and replying to comments that I don't like.

sierralee

I respect this opinion and do hear you, I just think that there are a lot of other people who feel the opposite way about art in TLS. Glad you like Qum's playfulness, as that was what I was going for. ^-^

SEEQYR

Maybe half the flaws I mentioned were because the picture wasn't zoomed in. Huh. No way the picture got updated in that short a time. But the eyes are still off, if much better than before (with a smaller picture it looked like Simon had 'googly eyes', with no outlining or wrinkles.) Okay, so this is what bugs me: where are the pupils pointed at? The emotion in this scene, as pertaining to Simon, is unclear. Right now, the pupils are pointed - if taken from Simon's POV - at the top part of the four-poster, dead center in the middle of the iris. And he's staring at it, wide-eyed, unwaveringly and a little creepily. If his eyes were *closed*, the smile on his face would make him look fond and enjoying the physical intimacy. If his pupils were pointed at the girls (and his head angle changed to properly physically be looking at the girls), then it would read as being "fond of the girls". If his pupils were pointed upward (and head angle changed - and angle of push into the pillow changed) then it would read as "thinking about something in the future" (maybe with a scowl). As it is, it's just plain...creepy. Or maybe if the pupils were just changed to be off at an angle. Actually, I don't know if this is intentional, but ALL characters in there are have iris that are in the dead center of the whites of their eyes around them. I think. Man, now I'm having existential confusion about how eyes work. But something's off about Simon and Hilstara's eyes involving pupils, irises, and the whites of their eyes. Hilstara's less than Simon's but definitely still there. Qum looks perfect. (This comment was edited a lot, sorry. Existential dread.) Simon has a lot less jawline in this picture than ingame, I feel - his head kinda looks like a strawberry. Also, on deeper look, I don't know where Simon's elbow is placed. Is it resting on the bed? Is it digging into the bedsheets? It's not clear, perspective-wise. ==== Re: RR. Yeah, fair enough. Formatting for RR's tables is a pain, and you've got heaps in SC. And comments are...yeah. If it's any consolation, a LOT of authors in RR don't respond to comments, they mostly let them go unmoderated and unresponded. I'm thankful, grateful, and very happy that you do respond to comments and it's a part of your Sierra(Sarah)ness, but it's really not that common (or required) on RR.

Decanter

Can kind of see where the "cocaine high" thing is coming from, although I wouldn't go that far. Possibly the eyes should be more lidded for someone looking downward? I'm not sure though, and Google is being stubborn about giving me a reference image for this.

Leveler All

A game like yours, should focuse on the characters and after the act, i find you due to my boredome with standar naughty games, and over time i grew to care for the characters and plot, yes that plot not the other one :p, sex is a secondary thing now for me on TLS, the same way kill la kill make fanservice feel natural, you make it not only a mechanic of the game but a natural way to see things, and even if i feel that art will help is more about what scenes or fealings you want to focuse on as well.

Decanter

Hm, looking at Qum's bust image on the wiki... Not sure I agree on the bust, but good catch on the ears at least. The earrings are also from the bust art, so are presumably nonmagical earrings or the Church wouldn't have let her have them in captivity. As for Simon having more scars - maybe, but that's more details for the artist to keep track of, and Simon wears armor and lives in a world with magical healing.

SEEQYR

Huh. I might be misremembering, but I feel like her bust is...bustier, in the descriptions ingame. I checked the wiki - you're right, her bust IS that small. I just feel like...the shape of it is off, somehow. Even squished. But that's a very minor point. No, that's true, Decanter - but I feel like Simon's got a body that moves like he's got lots of scars. That's kind of the point of his "old man veteran" character - but in the picture he's got the body of a younger and untouched man, which feels.... out of character, IMO. Even for someone with Lust Shard powers. Scars are a point of satisfaction with someone like him...and speaking of which, no sword calluses. Those things are *necessary*. (If they're not there anymore, they should be mentioned ingame. Because they're not, it's weird that he doesn't have them.)

genericname12345

I like the art above, but I agree that TLS doesn't really need it - the sex scenes can stand on their own, imo. The artist does look like she's getting better, and she's clearly a fan - which is important. That said, while I think she draws the women fine (Hilstara could be a bit buffer though. Or a lot buffer.) Simon always looks a bit weird - like he's just come off smoking a joint or something. Dunno. Maybe I'm too used to stern Simon from your games. Also, if I have a Once Ever After question do I post it here or down in the 0.20 thread?

sierralee

Thanks for your feedback! Feel free to use the other thread for OEA stuff.

sierralee

Thanks for the additional details! After I passed along the feedback, Annikath said she can think of things to improve on the eyes. There are some differences between graphics and text because not all the character graphics are 100% the way I imagine them in my head. Qum, for example, should be curvy and bouncy. Regarding how many scars Simon should have, we discussed it and didn't get into it. I plan to ask patrons this and a number of other details in the future.

Trisk

I've love to see more like this. Non-sex intimacy is just as important to show as the actual fucking. One of the scenes in the game I'd most like to see illustrated is the one that (I think) is triggered by maxing out Qum's affection. Where Simon just holds her in his lap and listens to her try to explain her feelings. It's not really a scene, but I'd also like to see art of Simon and the early harem members dog pilled into his bed in Feroholm.

StormyAngel

This is an excellent point. It would probably be adding an extra...30 or so? scenes, but having something just depicting the characters with Simon whenever they have their affection locked would be pretty awesome. Preferably the depiction should be of however the conversation presents them as. I.E. locking in Lynine ought to be a drawing of her and Simon watching the sunset from the wall of the home base.

Edward Culham

I will admit that I play TLS for the story; and the decision making. Though truthfully I skip through most of the sex scenes due to the fact that I want to get back to the story. The game does need them for it is integral to the story but something for down the road if someone starts to create art to your standard that you can implement starting out. Cant wait to the next update

StormyAngel

Reading through the comments here and with the earlier picture discussion, I love seeing how people are admitting that what they Really Love is the Story. It's a funny reversal for a NSFW game, because we're all admitting that the smut isn't the main draw...as if that's abnormal. It's like we're all worried some normal smut fan is going to come around the corner and cry out in horror. I can hear them now, "What have you done! You dirty intellectual, you."

Desertopa

Do you have a specific canonical height in mind for Simon? Personally, I've always kind of liked the convention that used to be common in JRPGs, where characters' official heights and weights would be listed in complementary materials. Although the specifics would often betray the fact that Japanese developers seem to have no idea how much actual human body tissue weighs. Most writers, I think, don't share the kind of numerical nitpickiness that motivates me to actually care about that kind of information. But since you're also experienced writing LitRPG works, maybe that kind of excessive quantification isn't foreign to you.

Dubsington

Decanter, if you're seriously out there doing google image searches for "cocaine high face", then no matter what else happens this week I feel like I accomplished something positive.

sierralee

I don't know if I've gone into as much detail as you'd like, but I've given it some thought. Specifically, I started with deciding that even though the world of TLS is medieval-ish, the existence of magic means that average height/weight is about the same. I wanted Simon to be of average height, so he's 5'8" but grows to 5'9" after getting the shard.

sierralee

It'd definitely be a large extra amount of work, but I'm not opposed to the idea of including at least some of those scenes. Some of the conversations aren't very visual, but the Qum example would be cute. ^-^

Dubsington

Apologies for somewhat randomly posting this here, but the community tab appears to be missing alla sudden (and I can't ask in the Hrenn TLS discord any more). Can someone tell me what the purpose of the Ardford visit during the Gawnfall Summit is? I've talked to everyone and everything in the town (I think) and while there's some nice flavor stuff there I don't see what was important enough to make it a required trip. What am I missing?

Decanter

No idea about the community tab, but at least individual posts from it are still accessible if you have the URL. For Gawnfall, conversations that might matter are: The Silver Stump's front desk, redhead errand boy at Silver Stump, restaurant manager in the Business District, and succubi in the guardhouse (if present).

DankPotatoes

Hey Sierra. Now that the next TLS update seems a bit far off, have you concidered doing a new community poll? Favorite game character seems obvious, but it could also be something else, like favorite section of the story or favorite country. I know the wiki does something similar occascionaly but I think it could be fun to make it "official"

DankPotatoes

And if you are too busy, well, to quote a pretty important character: "I understand the concept of delegation"

Lamsey

There's also the conversation about the distortions when first arriving at Ardford from the summit, which leads to some critical plot development.

sierralee

I understand the benefits of keeping people engaged on stuff, but I was hoping the art would help with that.

Dubsington

Ah, yes. Thanks, folks. The distortions I remember from my previous playthrough (I am replaying the whole Summit to see if I can get the Succubi accepted), and of course the Succubus band-- did that when I first hit the ground and promptly forgot about it.

Nathan Phoenix

When I first played TLS I kind of wanted pictures to accent the sex texts but seeing this picture changed my mind. It would be far more fitting to have art for before or after the sex. I have read a lot of NSFW vn's and there is only so many ways to draw "the act". Its honestly refreshing to see work done on characters enjoying the afterglow moments. Focusing more on the quiet portion of intimacy just feels right for a game that prioritizes character over smut... Side-note is it weird that a women who names herself "First Slut" has better personality then the majority of vn girls?

Nathan Phoenix

Just to add. His point of view looks a little off partially from the shape of his right eye and part from the lack of cheekbone/wrinkle in his right cheek. The right eye will naturally look bigger because of the angle but there's to much white space which gives him a odd wide-eyed look. The lack of cheekbone or dimple under the eye looks less like an enduring smile and more like a Botox accident. The two effects combine to give him a sort of Ken-doll plastic expression. I'm not trying to be critical here but that's a hard angle to depict so I wanted to add my thoughts

Decanter

Community tab appears to be back. I will say that I could totally understand removing it on purpose since people tend to miss anything posted there anyway.

Dubsington

/me waves brightly at the community tab