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December 9 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2023-12-09 18:00:08
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

TLS 0.72.1 is out and apparently stable, so there should be no trouble with the public release. A less rushed schedule means extra thinking time, so it's time to contemplate the future and ramble. Posting the weekly update early because I'm trying to get my head on straight.

While I'm excited to conclude TLS from a creative perspective, I admit to some anxiety from a business perspective. In an ideal world, I'd have a 100% clear plan for the next stage, a new game to present everyone and hopefully keep supporters interested. Instead, I find myself barreling toward a period of greater uncertainty.

I've mentioned on a few occasions that I'd like to do a long science fiction saga, a spiritual success to TLS in terms of scope, management, and decision-making. I have tons of ideas for characters/setting/lore, but I'm still stuck on fundamental questions of engine/mechanics. Long term patrons will remember me discussing this in the past - bad news, I'm still churning on those questions!

But as I've also said, I don't want to launch directly from one multi-year project to another (plus there will be a stage of revision/improvement on TLS). For that reason I want to have a period of time to finish up other, relatively smaller projects. Unfortunately, I'm kind of floundering on those too.

Let's look at some potential things I might do:

Don't Save the Princess: This long-suffering project is still waiting on the artist to finish primary art. There have been some fun programming developments behind the scenes. Maybe a good Kickstarter trial before bigger projects? But it would need to come at a logical point in my work cycle, and I don't feel like it now.

Crimson Gray: Yandere Maker: Some of you may remember this experimental project I posted about before setting it aside to focus on TLS. Still feel passionate about some of the ideas for this one, but the fractured audience for Crimson Gray undermines my motivation.

Waltz of Fiends: I don't believe I've ever mentioned this one, because it's a weird non-project. Some time ago an artist contacted me about potentially working together in the future on an erotic horror game, but we agreed we both should conclude other work first. He's been AWOL for a while... is he gone for good, or will he suddenly show up wanting to do a lot of work? It's an erotic mystery!

Slave Rehabilitator: A tongue-in-cheek wholesome reverse-corruption game. One of my ideas for a high production value (animation!) game that tries to integrate sex with gameplay in a different way than the usual. I think it'd be worth exploring and it would take less of my time than other projects, but it'd be a big monetary investment.

Once Ever After 2: I'm deeply excited about my ideas for this, but could I actually get Crescentia for art and would it make financial sense? This one is pure idea/aspiration right now.

It might sound like I'm doing too much, but the fact is usually I'm doing nothing (aside from TLS and writing). Committing to any one of these would mean locking in a lot of time/resources/energy, and right now I'm blobfishing around too much to be confident in a decision.

Writing-wise, the agent rejection was a real blow. I'm not very passionate about doing much here except keeping up with ongoing projects (The Weirkey Chronicles, Depthless Hunger). I've always wanted to write a standalone science fiction novel, and I had it penciled in as a secondary objective during a quiet period, but I don't know if I have the energy for it.

As a counter-balance to the above: overall my life is great. I'm in a strong position to keep creating for the rest of my life and I anticipate some very happy posts next year as TLS concludes. Lots of fun things in store, some expected and some not. ^-^

But the problem with being me is that after I start living the dream, I feel the drive to optimize the dream. Life is finite and there are so many things I want to do, yet I can't possibly do them all. I want to keep building in a logical way so that each project opens up new paths and sometimes it's very difficult to gauge which would be more beneficial.

So those are my thoughts, hopefully they're interesting. There are a ton of things cooking in my head, but not so many cooking in my actual work schedule. In theory that needs to change at some point before the conclusion of TLS, but I don't know when my brain will cooperate.

Thanks to everyone for giving me this career and supporting me this far. ^-^

Comments

Elena Tyler

TLS is a brilliant game, and Once Ever After is just a good. The stuff you do is great and I'm in whatever you decide to do afterwards!

Captain Hair

*Insert shameless begging for "Ouroboros 2: Back to Reality" here.*

bradley Gordon

Long time gamer I've played so many rpgs. TLS such a fantastic twist investing in certain things effecting the game. The story always kept me on the edge of my seat didn't want to sleep would rather play. You did an amazing job 👏 hopefully more to come love your work.

DragonWarrior45

Slave Rehabilitator sounds awesome! I haven't finished once ever after yet, and never played Crimson Gray, so the projects related don't interest me as much, but they still seem interesting. The sci-fi TLS would be awesome too!... But it'd probably be good to pump out some shorter games first while you stew on that right? Besides it'd really suck if you start getting burnt out fast due to going from big project right into big project

Arramos

Slave Rehabilitator sounds amazing! I love the idea of sex as a healing force rather than a corrupting one. We need more cultural signals that sex is healthy, not degrading! And as a scifi lover, I'd be quite intrigued about a TLS successor in such a setting. I'll take this opportunity to mention that I'm very fond of your early literature, particularly Wet Dream Planet and Breeding Trials. Though I don't expect you'll continue those, perhaps consider if future projects might incorporate such themes? Especially monster sex: your shtick of taking a silly premise and playing it seriously would be a welcome relief to the genre.

Darthjake

Slave Rehabilitator sounds neat, OEA 2 sounds good too, although I wouldn't mind revisting Desecration of Wings either. Whatever you choose, I'm sure the ride will be quite fun and interesting. even if it is a side scroller type game.

An_Insane_Rogue_AI

Once Ever After 2 is one of the few games that I could see myself immediately buying abd binging, the first one was so good!

Aramis

I can say on my end that I support you as an creator first and foremost rather than over any one product. I’m that applies to others as well. A TLS like in sci fi sounds amazing. I will back what others are saying that the rehabilitator sounds amazing.

Makesin

Another vote for the Slave Rehabilitator. I feel like the porn/erotic games are really lacking in the more wholesome department.

sierralee

It is a nearly 100% certainty that my future projects will include both: 1) Monster sex 2) Silly premises played extremely straight.

sierralee

As much as I loved making DoW, I'm attached to the older era of RPGs that are self-contained. I may do occasional series (like OEA), but I like games that come to a true resolution.

sierralee

If I do make it, I'm pretty hopeful that people who enjoyed the first would be excited for it! Lots of ideas building directly on everything in the first game.

ushiroace

I'm a big fan of how you handle the JRPG genre, so I'm admittedly partial to the Sci-Fi Epic (tm) or OEA2. Though I'd be happy with whatever project you decide to pursue next!

Runcible Technician

I vote for Crimson Gray. I know I'm minority vote, but it's how I found your work at all dammit! It's good. The other projects sound fun and I can't wait to see what you do with the sci-fi concept after you are done with TLS. Tacit vote for all projects. But Crimson Gray mostly.

cpip

Rehabilitator does sound nifty, and so does another Crimson Gray game, and when you're ready to jump into another epic game, I'd love to see your take on the SF genre.

Mycroft

Of all the project you mentionned, both Slave Rehabilitator and Once Ever After 2 are the ones I'm most interested in, personnaly. Also, when you say "after I start living the dream, I feel the drive to optimize the dream", it make me ask myself a question : Is Iris a self insert ?

AnonOnline

I think the Slave Rehabilitator would be a big hit and would really appeal to a wider audience than say TLS does. I personally though am most stoked for the sci-fi spiritual successor to TLS, sounds awesome! On a separate note, I checked out The Weirkey Chronicles and ended up binge listening to what’s currently available on audible and am looking forward to more releases. Even got a friend of mine hooked :)

sierralee

>Is Iris a self insert ? No. =P

sierralee

Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed the series! Word of mouth is really appreciated. ^-^

beening .

I agree with the others here that Slave Rehabilitator sounds interesting, and I would definitely welcome a Once Ever After sequel, and Don't Save The Princess sounds good. I guess I'm indecisive.

Dubsington

Can't help much with the blobfishing (great verb, btw), but I wanted to say this is 100.00% normal when you wrap a big project. I'm in a technical rather than creative field, but I get the exact same feels when I finish some huge deployment that took lots of thought and energy for months on end and now I need to decide on which of my many to-do items is next. That's just how it goes. I don't know of any cure other than to listen to your gut-- I often find that asking for feedback (like you just did) to help set priority is useful not because of the feedback itself, but because you find that you have a visceral reaction to some of it ("aww, crap they want me to do X right away.... hmmm, why am I annoyed? I guess I don't really want to do X just yet?") As for *my* feedback-- I do recommend you avoid RPGM in the future. That seems crazy since you've done truly great work on the platform, but it is downright depressing how many times I have described TLS to someone on discord and seen them get enthused about trying it, only have them refuse to even download it once they realize it is an RPGM game. The engine just has a lot of bad connotations, which is almost entirely unfair but still is something that must be dealth with.

sierralee

Thanks for your thoughts. I hope I'll be able to push onward, and reading everyone's comments has actually been surprisingly helpful in putting my thoughts on different tracks. I'm very aware of the RPGM bias and it's definitely on my mind every time I choose an engine. Unfortunately, it's so widely used because it's so easy, and I'm really not sure what engine I could jump to and continue development at a reasonable rate. I can use others for smaller projects, certainly, but I think something as massive as TLS is beyond my reach in any option I'm aware of.

Treant Balewood

Any future plans for an Ouroboros chapter 2?

Lillian

OEA2 would be incredible, as there is so much potential in the basis that OEA established. That said, I would also love to see your approach to storytelling and game design applied to a sci-fi setting. I can empathize with the concerns for what the future holds financially, but I want to say that I have been so impressed with all of your works that I have consumed. Your works are among some of my favorite games of all time. I believe in you, and your future.

sierralee

This is a frequent popular request, but the truth is that I ended Ouroboros where I intended to leave the story.

sierralee

Hopefully I'll be able to do both in time! Thanks for the kind words. ^-^

Nathan Phoenix

I vote for Rehabilitation. For some reason Japan imports have been on a corruption addiction so a game were you actually try to be the good guy and sexually heal the girls would be a neat change of pace. You could even add drama with a story about being a undercover slaver trying to discover the big boss.

Trisk

A sci-fi spiritual successor to TLS sounds amazing, but it definitely makes sense to switch gears to a smaller project before jumping into another giant epic. From that list my first choice would be Once Ever After 2. I loved the first one, and it left off with plenty of room to expand the setting and tell new stories. I'm also really intrigued by the Slave Rehabilitation concept. It feels like the sort of thing that would be good for attracting new players. A lot of your games take awhile to reveal what they're really about. Which is fun to experience, but can make it hard to explain what is special about them without spoilers. But "reverse-corruption" immediately stands out as different and interesting.

Abso Haram

Once Ever After 2 all the way. The first game def screams for a sequel, and Bangville was a hoot. Wanna meet that Storyteller.

CrazyChameleon

A scifi TLS does sound like an interesting game, And one i'd definitely play. To be honest I'm not sure how to feel now that TLS is nearing the end. Honestly your game has been one of my comfort foods for so many years that honestly I don't really want it to end. As far as engine goes from a personal standpoint if going to a new engine meant sacrificing some of the political complexity of TLS I'd want you to stay with RPM. But otherwise I am agnostic on the issue. It wouldn't bother me that your new game was also RPM and after this many years I'd trust that a move to a new engine was a considered one. I do think there are a couple of points where TLS could use some refining. Things like the entity spoiler and the spoiler for the one behind the chosen I feel have very lukewarm reactions from some of the party. And some of the music choices for certain moments really don't match the vibe. Particularly every time Igo into the orgasmic city I think my ears bleed a little. Considering their import It's important to match the music and allow certain moments to breathe before moving past them Which sometimes I think gets missed. And there's still a LOT of unanswered questions at least from my perspective. So even post ending padding out TLS could theoretically go on for a long time. Once the headlong rush to the ending is over. Honestly I think replacing a large project with something a bit more niche like don't save the princess might be a mistake. Personally the only game of yours I've really gelled with was TLS. And yeah I've loved every minute I spent in the game. Depending on how you choose to end the game you could also make postgame content. I know this is really getting to be a wall of text but consdier my vote for the scifi project.