sierralee
patreon
July 28 Update
🕑 Added 2024-07-28 17:00:07 +0000 UTCBefore today's roadmap update, we have another lovely piece of fanart. ^-^ Argo actually approached me with this idea months ago, but I asked him to hold off until I posted the final battle. It would have been in bad taste to make a ME3 joke if people didn't like the final battle of TLS, after all. Fortunately, players have been overall positive, so hopefully this gets a chuckle. I'm passionate about this sort of game, so I certainly tried to bring everything to the sort of conclusion I find satisfying.
Now, let's talk about the remaining TLS updates in greater detail.
TLS 0.75.x
Final optional dungeon
Minor consequences for the final battle
Combat balance changes
Dialogue bust system
Misc changes like windowskins
Map reworking (Withered Mountain or Stineford interior)
The main content for the next update will be the optional dungeon, which is a reasonable amount of work on its own. Content like the last harem member, plus I'll enjoy trying to create some fun challenges for combat-focused players. However, this update also sweeps in a number of smaller issues - this is obviously the time to make some balance tweaks, plus some random stuff.
The unfortunate truth is that I'm just not making as much progress on this as I wanted. I feel like I'm working so much, but how am I at the end of July with so much yet to do? I think players will really appreciate all the additions I've worked on, but it's just taking a lot out of me. We might need to split this update into two in order to keep up momentum.
TLS 0.76.x
Epilogue
Steam achievements
Map reworking (Withered Mountain or Stineford interior)
Misc revisions?
The epilogue is the last linear plot section, meant to be a final celebration of the characters and wrapping up lingering plot threads. Whichever choice you made at the end, you'll see the consequences here. I also intend to finally add Steam achievements here, now that I won't have to worry about supporting them over many versions, plus more miscellaneous stuff like mapping.
TLS 0.77.x
Postgame
So much postgame
Final reworking and misc stuff from above
In contrast to the above updates, which dealt with various reworkings, the postgame update will just be a massive chunk of content on its own. It's another world tour, but really trying to go all out with showing the consequences of your decisions. New maps, new sex scenes, and just so many conversations. This section will have a "conclusion" (a place you can go to formally finish the game and roll credits) but otherwise it is an open world.
TLS 1.0.0
Big public release
Promotion -_-
Now, based on the above plan, there actually won't be a ton left to do for the big release. However, I think it's likely that new little things will crop up, and I'll want to continue polishing everything for the formal release, since it will be the largest number of eyes on TLS in a long time. Hopefully by that point everything will be in good shape and it will be about picking a good moment to do the promotional rounds.
Should be a fun time for patrons, though! We'll gather up some final numbers on the game, do final reflections, and maybe indulge in another demographics survey after so many years.
So that is the remainder of the roadmap as I see it. Not entirely sure how long it will take, but you'll see steady progress through the remainder of the year and of course there will be your regular weekly updates. ^-^
Comments
Sierra Lee
This is a tricky time to decide when to replay, because the next several updates will include feature or QoL updates that would affect the whole game. I'll keep giving info in my updates and you can figure out what works for you. Patreon says you have been supporting since 2015! Thank you very much for your support over the years. ^-^
FeyOne
I've been holding myself back for... oh... wow... year's now - to stop myself from doing another run through the game since last time I played it. Even having kept myself from playing it again for so long, though, I always get excited by each new progress update and have to stop myself all over again from jumping back into it for another play-through. Especially now that we are in site of actual completion, I just don't want to ruin it for myself. That all said, it is also really sort of weird for me. I've been supporting this game for I don't even know how long now and as much as I'm looking forward to seeing the final product, a part of me is a bit sad too.
Sierra Lee
I plan to have an event at the end of the game that retroactively gives you all the automatic achievements, as a benefit for long-running players. With additional work, it could check for other achievement conditions as well. But eventually the game will switch to only checking for new playthroughs once we get closer to version 1.0.0.
Annikath
Yay for steam achievements! I have a question about them: will they work retroactively with already played saves? Or will they only activate with new playthroughs after the update implements them?
