sierralee
patreon
May 2 Update
🕑 Added 2021-05-02 20:52:44 +0000 UTCWeeks like this are really necessary for my creative well-being. I worked quite a bit, but instead of it being all toward one driving purpose, I was free to flit around between many different objectives. I feel much less behind now, so let me do all the normal update stuff, plus give an account of non-TLS stuff that's on my plate.
NORMAL STUFF
Look at the above image Annikath made! I've been trying to use it to promote TLS, since promotion is one of my weaknesses. I tried to put it up on Hentai Foundry, only for the original to get rejected for being too high quality. -_- If any of you want to share the above image, feel free to download the better one from Patreon. You could follow my HF account, not that it's very active. I'm also open to ideas of places to go promote.
Right after that, please look at the ghost sprites! I've wanted to replace the flame enemies in OEA, since they're obvious RTP, and my best idea so far is to use these ghostly spirit things. Anyone have strong opinions or alternate suggestions?
Still no Ulfina rework. T-T I'll keep poking the sprite artist.
Map-wise, please take a look if you're into that. Mostly more New Canisan stuff this week. We worked a while on the exterior aesthetic... I think the clifftops are still too bland, but what do you guys think? There's also a new version of the rafters in which they're translucent; I may yet remove them, but I want people to at least play with them first. The game makes very little use of overhead layers, which is a key indicator of visual fanciness.
SIDE PROJECT OVERVIEW
Once Ever After: Lots of hard work was done last month, so this isn't really a primary focus. It comes down to two things: doing promotional work, and waiting on mapping/coding/spriting. For promotion, I'm taking steps to make a trailer for the game. I also intend to make a Newgrounds demo of the early sections, once I have some quality of life improvements to the game overall.
Don't Save the Princess: I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I have sometimes thought that dropping a project would instantly clear my plate. Don't want to fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy, after all. However, I still intend to keep moving forward with it, for a number of reasons.
One of these is that I think the core gameplay loop is solid, even if not to the taste of some here. The Newgrounds demo has a pretty decent rating for a simple experiment - what's especially notable is that while my games usually have a higher early rating from fan support, DStP's rating started off low and actually increased later, long after fans stopped rating.
There's a new build of this coming, focused less on new content (it only adds one world) than on some core improvements. I hope that build will feel like a step up, but I'll fully evaluate my investment in this one after the new version launches.
Book Stuff: I have completed all the writing and editing I'm contractually obligated to do through early 2022, though I'll probably choose to write some more stuff. I put off the release of the second book in The Brightest Shadow for several months in order to focus on TLS, but I really need to get it out soon. Perhaps more info later.
Other Stuff: As I've mentioned, I try to restrain myself from starting up on new projects, as much as I want to sometimes. That said, I've been getting more offers lately, including some that might give me a chance to make use of old work that got abandoned. I hope I can finish up some of these to make space for them, but will hold back meanwhile.
Okay... I think that's everything. I'm pretty happy with my work overall, but I do sometimes miss the days when my weekly updates were like "Uh, here's a screenshot of some stuff I'm working on."
Comments
Sierra Lee
Fortunately, that sort of thing can be fixed with blocker events. I suspect that the moss is set wrong and/or the wall autotiled a version without a lower edge, but I'm just going to default to the fastest fix.
DukeLeto7
TLS Bug from the wiki forums. Theltiar map coordinates 007, 006 and 007,007 can be walked through. Please don't ask me how long that's been there or why it's happening though.
Sierra Lee
Thanks for all the feedback! I am probably going with the mouthless ghosts. Having them change color in each Tale is an interesting idea, but it doesn't have one disadvantage: I can't swap in a new image and replace them all. Right now I'm intending to use white for normal enemies and black for bosses. Map thoughts are appreciated, and you'll see some of those in the next drafts.
Lamsey
I think the ghosts without the mouths probably look best for monster mobs. It would possibly be a good idea to use different colours for different Tales, e.g. grey ones for the Bleak Tale, white for the Frozen Tale, and so on. I could help with recolours if necessary. The faceless hooded sprites might work OK for humanoid enemies, but I'm not sure if it'd be better to just standardise on a single style for generic mobs. Canisan Plains: the plateaus on top of the cliffs do look bland, but I'm not sure the player is likely to pay much attention to them, so I dunno if it's worth spending much time on them. I like the vegetation in general; the squinty conifers fit well with the generally dishevelled feel of the rest of the Tale. Some of the the flower placement is a bit random; I like the cluster in the northwest, where they look like a natural growth in a secluded spot, but conversely the group in the southeast seems a bit too spread out and/or too far out in the open, especially since they're on the natural line towards the forest path, where they'd be likely get trampled. Canisan Bathhouse looks very idyllic, so much so that it might be worth adding a flavour conversation on the first entry to the map, given how it's so different to the griminess of the city. I like the mix of finished and unfinished tunnels in the Canisan sewer, and the darker slime in the southwest looks much better than the lighter version. For the vault approach, it looks like the water channel continues uninterrupted from the previous map; it might be an idea to add some sort of visible barrier to make it clear that someone couldn't just wade through the muck from the west to get to the vault. A grille in the water channel would be simplest, but difficult to depict since it'd span north-to-south. Perhaps a clearer change would be to raise the entrance to the vault area so that it's not accessible from the waterline? That could be done simply by extending the bridge to the north by one tile and adjusting the shadows on the wall below it. I think the translucent beams in the Canisan interiors are an improvement, but I guess the real test will be seeing how they look as characters pass underneath them. The Canisan Vault looks a bit bright; it'd maybe look better if there was a bit of SSAO-style darkness in the corners of the walls opposite the lanterns. I like that Fenris appears in the mirror and the golden apples are properly represented, so you shouldn't need to use the sparkles to draw the player's attention to them.
Sierra Lee
Thanks for the feedback! I'd also go with the more generic figures for the same reason. I've already used wolves for certain enemies, and if any enemy is going to receive a special sprite in LRRH, it's wolves. However, I'm reluctant to go too far with giving enemies unique sprites, since I think it's difficult to get right. The generic ones may not impress anyone, but they also look like a conscious decision instead of assets cobbled together.
Decanter
Maps seem good. I like the flowers. For enemy sprites I would favor one of the mouthless ghosts or top row of hooded figures, as if you get too detailed I feel it undermines the genericness. That said, in some cases you might want to use wolves instead, like Wilhelm's Tale.
Sierra Lee
Yeah, we partially redesigned the sewers. Glad you like them! You're the first person to comment on the sprites, thanks. I am leaning toward the second set, simply because they convey "entity" and nothing else, but I wanted to get input. DStP was meant to be a really brief side project, to experiment with the casual and phone game markets. Two programmers and lots of artist group later, it really hasn't gone the way I wanted at all.
Grim8P
OEA art looks great! I particularly like the area outside of New Canisan and outside the spa. I did not initially recognize the sewers as the map that it is but I am also a fan. Regarding the ghost sprites, I think they look good. I basically prefer all of the first page's sprites, then the bottom right sprite for the second page, with the bottom left sprite group (still on the second page) being my least favourite. However, I don't think any of them are bad at all! "I have completed all the writing and editing I'm contractually obligated to do through early 2022" this sounds like an amazing accomplishment worthy of celebration. Congratulations! I tried out DStP which is a thing I didn't know existed. It is not for me but the idea is quite amusing. I would take another look in the future though. I shall look forward to the next update!
Sierra Lee
I believe that rule34 doesn't cover images of things that were originally porn, so TLS is disqualified. I am completely unfamiliar with the boorus, but yeah, maybe it would be a good idea to use those more.
Sierra Lee
Hmm... I believed I've referenced it obliquely, but it was never anything I shared a build of publicly. The one I'm thinking of in particular actually had a functional core gameplay loop, but issues made the whole thing go bad and it languished for a long time. Publishers and collaborators. I do get commission offers occasionally, but I've been declining those for a long time.
Sierra Lee
Thanks! The new version has some quality of life improvements that couldn't be included in the test build, so I hope it will be enjoyed.
I don't know if their rules would result in similar results as HF, but you could probably upload to rule34 and danbooru/gelbooru, all of which get a lot of traffic. Just tag with a few common things as well as "The Last Sovereign" and let google do the rest. Edit; Turns out gelbooru already has one image for TIL: https://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=the_last_sovereign+
Desertopa
What sort of old work you abandoned? Is it stuff you've shared around here before, or stuff you haven't brought up previously? Also, I'm curious who's making the offers you're referring to. Publishers? Collaborators? People going "I will totally pay you to work on this?"
genericname12345
Am very glad that you're happy with your work - always nice to hear when one of my favorite creators is doing well mentally. I do hope 'Don't Save the Princess' takes off - it was interesting.
