sierralee
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2018 in Review
🕑 Added 2019-01-03 23:36:06 +0000 UTCHey, everybody! This is going to be a busy month, so I thought I'd kick things off early with my yearly review and look forward.
Reflections
At the beginning of 2018 I said I was afraid TLS updates might fall behind given the other major things I would be doing. I actually only released one fewer update than a normal year, and some of those updates were pretty complex. TLS progress in 2018 included finishing the customized base, marrying Janine, getting involved with Ardoheim's succession crisis, waging war against Erosia, visiting Stenai, meeting a certain someone, and deciding the future of the Ivalan Church at the synod.
Looking back, I'm pretty satisfied with that progress. 2019 should see more interesting updates, including major changes throughout the entire world, a couple significant return visits to old locations, and the resolution to the war with the Fucklord. I'm not certain exactly how far we'll go beyond that, but we'll be a lot closer to the end of the game.
2018 also saw the completion of Desecration of Wings, a project that has been sitting in semi-finished form for a very long time. I also released Dusk and Dawn, which concludes the story of Crimson Gray, at least for the time being.
Of course, the biggest change of last year was beginning to publish novels. I was pleased by how well my first LitRPG book was received and I look forward to putting out several more. It will be interesting to see how the numbers change when I have more than a single title - I'm curious where I'll be one year from now.
Major Projects for 2019
Unlike some years, I can't lay out in exact detail what will happen in the coming year - my plan needs to be more flexible than that. Instead I thought it might be more useful to report on what all is on my plate. Most likely this year I will put more energy into finishing current side projects than into starting new ones.
The Last Sovereign: Always on my mind.
New Game Minus: I intend to release books #2 and #3 this year, then I will evaluate how the series has gone and decide whether it should be extended. I'll also be announcing my work to blog readers this weekend.
The Unknown: There's a formless possibility that could also join these two as an ongoing project, but more on that later.
Other Projects
Lesser projects that have a definite ending point, roughly in the order of how much they are on my mind and/or how close they are to completion.
Once Ever After: My fairy tale RPG made serious strides in 2018. I'm not sure how much it will develop this year, but you'll hear more about it soon. More info below.
Unnamed Serialized Novel: $10 backers will remember that I was workshopping ideas for a serialized novel to attract more attention to my work. Well, at a low creative point, I just went crazy and started on a new novel. XD I didn't get as much done over the holidays as I'd hoped, but I have 80k written and I want to finish while I'm inspired. The plan is to completely finish my creative work early, then release it in pieces throughout the year (patrons will get to see it early).
The Brightest Shadow: I'm in a weird place about this book, but it's a story that matters to me, one of my concepts that would be as expansive as TLS. You will hear more about it at some point this year, I'm just not sure when.
Don't Save the Princess: Basically, I'm waiting on more stuff I commissioned. You can safely assume that we'll see the demo version of the first two worlds this year, but I don't know how that will go or how much more will be done with it.
Dungeon Core Novel: I've written 20k words of a novel about the lifelong friendship between a little girl and a monstrous sentient dungeon. I still think this idea has promise, but I'm just struggling with going back to it for several different reasons. Though I'd still like to finish this at some point, right now it's been put on the backburner.
Platform Shenanigans: As I mentioned last post, I'm considering creating a secondary crowdfunding account with one of the other sites, but haven't decided. Also, with Tumblr banning adult content, I need a new place for all the TLS fanart. It will probably be Newgrounds.
The Unknown
This year also has the potential for additional changes that are not yet certain in my mind. There are some things I've been considering, but haven't been able to pursue until recently. $10 backers, you can definitely expect a thread discussing some of these.
The Near Future
As I said at the beginning, January will be a busy month. Lots of things going on, presented roughly in order...
New Game Minus #2 beta reading: The sequel is already written and ready for people to read soon! I'd like to not rush this one so that we have time to hopefully catch more of the typos than last time. I intend to release on Amazon near the end of the month or thereabouts.
Once Ever After: I said little about this project last year, but I've been working on it. While it isn't done, it has reached a state where I want to show everyone my work. Expect this to happen this month.
New Game Minus #1 audiobook: For those of you waiting for this, production is underway. The narrator's deadline (which he set) is January 16, but we'll see how the timing works out.
TLS 0.41.0: All those above items are doing more with finished work, not raw creative work. I've been working on TLS in bits and pieces, but I look forward to really throwing myself into the next version soon. There's a lot of content, plus retroactive changes to the synod.
Serialized Novel: This will take a break while I work on other things, but eventually you guys will get your hands on the edited version.
TLS Steam Release: This is still planned for sometime, it's just a question of when I have time and energy for it.
As you can see, there's a lot going on. Hope everyone has a good 2019!
Comments
Sierra Lee
Though this is a fine place to ask questions, based on what you described, it will be pretty difficult for me to diagnose the issue you describe. I would recommend asking on the wiki and perhaps uploading saves, as people there will be able to look into it faster than I can.
Hi, me again. I hired both the Dusty Horde and AriGarda in Chapter 1, but after the invasion, the Dusty Horde petitioner was present. The wiki says that's only the case if they're never hired. Speaking to them post-reunion, they're ready to follow orders. And AriGarda didn't help in the invasion. Speaking to them post-reunion, they say they'll guard Ar-Yhilina. A bug? Or is that the synergy penalty for hiring both that isn't explained in the wiki? (If there's a better place to ask these questions, let me know. Thanks!)
Sierra Lee
Thanks, glad you enjoyed my work in 2018! I'm already extremely grateful to all of you who follow and support my work. For anyone who wants to help more, clicks and reviews are always helpful - and recommending my work is great, since word of mouth is one of the most powerful factors. Otherwise, all I can say at this time is that I'm not wasting everyone's generosity and hope to have increasing security as a creator. Good luck with your VN! I'm glad that my work can be an inspiration.
Desertopa
I missed responding to your last post when it came out (and this one when it came out too, I need to check my updates more carefully,) but I just wanted to say, as a fan, I feel like this has been a great year from you to us, and I hope you feel well about what you've done. I know a lot of your livelihood depends on the actions of platform providers who often can't be trusted to make great decisions from the standpoint of your business, and I wish I could be more comfortable that you always remain secure to keep doing what you're doing, but if there's anything we can do to help on our ends, please feel free to say something. Another upside to your work on New Game Minus; I’ve started recommending your work to people I know who I wouldn’t have ventured to recommend 18+ works of fiction to. I joined a sci-fi/fantasy group in my area recently, and I’ve had a couple people tell me they’d check your work out who were already committed sci/fan nerds back before Revenge of the Nerds came out. I don’t want to say too much about this now, since I’m trusting in other members of a team to actually be able to bring this to completion (at least we have the binding power of money holding us together,) but I’m working on a VN right now which hopefully should bring something to the market for 18+ games with an emphasis on characterization. It’s not nearly as ambitious as your work (I came up with the premise in the first place thinking of ways to make a VN with a modest budget and scope which would be creatively interesting, but hopefully marketable) but since I don’t think I can match your tremendous rate of productivity, I’m trying to at least be somewhat efficient in terms of audience reach. But having you in the field has been a huge inspiration to me, and I hope that if I find any success with this work, or others later, I’ll be able to direct people back to your work.
Sierra Lee
I don't like to commit to an exact number, but we're getting somewhat close. If you want to wait to play until the fourth chapter is complete, you'll get to play in 2019.
DankPotatoes
Good to hear! But out of curiosity, can you put a rough estimate on how many updates remain of the 4th story arc of The Last Sovereign? I love the game, and i cannot wait to play more, but this is exactly why i dont want to play following every update. I would hate overexposing myself to the game for fear of eventual staleness and boredom. Doing a new full playthrough from start to finish following the completion of a story arc is my prefered way to play the game. Is it possible to estimate if we are nearing the end of the 4th arc?
Sierra Lee
Not a dumb question, but I think that it isn't a viable option. In addition to being a monumental undertaking, the new site would struggle - part of the reason people use Patreon is because it's a large and convenient site. People who have moved to alternative platforms have all seen huge dropoffs. In addition, I think that we can be fairly certain the restrictions are coming from higher up (PayPal, credit cards, etc). There have been about three Patreon alternatives that launched claiming they were going to be 100% free, then as soon as they started getting money the banks either shut them down or they abruptly added more rules (sometimes more than Patreon). I am trying to take steps to ensure that no single platform can shut me down, though. Getting a lot closer.
Sierra Lee
A whole lot of stuff will happen when the Fucklord goes down...
onepot
This may be a dumb question, but: Why not just make your own 'Patreon'? I mean, make a website where we fans can register with tiers just like here on Patreon and link with Paypal or whatever. I have no idea about laws, business economics and stuff, but maybe the obstacles would be worth tackling if it would free you from the ones Patreon imposes on you and us? Also, really looking forward to get to know more about Once Ever After! :)
Taium
I'm feeling random, and you just happen to be the one I'll be directing this at. After the Fucklord goes down Simon should be swarmed by halfling groupies during the stopover in Stenai.
Sierra Lee
Entirely unrelated novel, yes. I believe I made it available to either the $5 or $10 tier in a November post, or it's available here: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMMT9TX/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMMT9TX/</a>
Sierra Lee
Thank you very much! I won't always be able to finish books that quickly, but based on how the ebook market works, I wanted to prioritize getting more than one available.
Retromancer
Is New Game Minus a different book than The Brightest Shadow? If so, where can I get it?
StormyAngel
Well this is pretty awesome! I was hoping to see the sequel to NG- sometime this year, and now you tell me it'll be out sometime in the next two months?! I look forward to seeing it, as well as the rest of your work, because you continue to impress at every turn. :)
Sierra Lee
Haha, I'm not very well-suited to social platforms, so that's not likely. >It didn't do well, or inspiration drew you in other directions? None of my games have been financial failures, but Dusk and Dawn performed worse than the others. Calculating the budget that would be required for a hypothetical Crimson Gray 2 suggests I can't really afford to create it in the foreseeable future. >Also I know you've sent me some messages and I hope to respond over the next day or so now that I'm not constantly busy with family. No worries, I've figured people have been busy with holiday things!
Sierra Lee
I'm afraid I don't know what you're referencing there. In any case, I hope you enjoy the things I'll be showing everyone soon!
Decanter
I look forward to whatever you create, on whatever platform you do it (within reason; please don't make me join Pinterest or something). >I also released Dusk and Dawn, which concludes the story of Crimson Gray, at least for the time being. It didn't do well, or inspiration drew you in other directions? Also I know you've sent me some messages and I hope to respond over the next day or so now that I'm not constantly busy with family.
Dmitry F
I hear "monsterous sentient dungeon," I immediately get reminded of the eerie art and sound from submachine 4-10. Don't know what mood you want, but I eagerly await the next piece of "unpleasant" work from you, whatever that may be.
