State of the Union: An Anchor For My Soul

Yo yo yo, been a while since the last one of these eh?

I think it was when the demo was released infact! Crazy how time flies like that. So as a reminder, I just write these to keep y'all updated on both the all and the sundry, going over the various projects that I've thought up and think of.

I guess we'll start off with a flash in the pan that only discord peeps would know.

Chaff

Basically I made a Space Hulk ripoff. Check the PDF in the attachments for the rules!

I don't exactly recall why I wanted to make this...oh wait, no I recall now; the house next to my parent's caught fire and everything in their attic was destroyed- which was comprised of mostly my things. Among the things was my very ancient and expensive copy of space hulk that I enjoyed quite a lot, and I guess I must have been thinking about it a lot, and one thing led to another...

So I made this as a kinky proof of concept that's based on Thrallworks lore and leaves room for player hypnosis and is set as a kind of Harvester danger room with latex bondage and all the trimmings.

For the moment it's more played as a boardgame, though it may be possible to convert it to Unity...but for the time being I'm shelving it. I'm aware that in order for it to even become palatable for my audience it needs a certain level of sex appeal that just isn't there at the pen-and-paper stage, and I don't have the time to push the design on this myself or the funds to pay other people to art it up.

So for now, rip Chaff. At least there's some fun lore in it! Who knows, maybe it can eventually make its way into the main game. Much like...

Ponygirl Clipclop

Been on the Backburner for a long time but I'll be hauling it off the shelf. For one I miss drawing ponygirls. For another I want to work in Live2d a little more. For the last I actually have a bit more knowledge of unity now to allow me to make it a lil' more like how I wanted it to run.

So not too much news on this front, just that you can expect a steady drip of ponies emanating out into the TDLosphere. Unlike...

Volition

Sad times. I can't see myself working on this for the Time Bean just because each page takes 3/4 days to do and I feel like I'm so far behind on Thrallworks vs. where I want it to be that taking on something as big as Volition seems wasteful.

Perhaps after the Ponygirls are all done (I expect each bit of art to take 3/4 days there too) I can look at Volition again properly. To be fair to the series though, I do know a lot of people like it and a lot of people ask over it, so I'm willing to be swayed or change my mind about working on it. I've just yet to figure out the 'how'.

Same as...

Moov Gaem

As $10 people will know and have seen, I've a developer chum I'm working with to make a game set in the Movement Universe, a fantasy world where you play as a member of 'The Movement', a cult that follows the Goddess Yi Lin and spreads her influence amongst the polynesian-style island chains full of ancient relics, spirits, piracy and doctrinal wars.

The focus is actually/mostly about getting a cute student character all swole and muscular and inducting her slowly into the cult. Though I don't personally have a huge amount of time to spare to physically add to the development right this moment, we've had some really interesting story and game design progress and I feel we're close to finding that 'fun' button to press. (See attachments for a short vid of monkeying with in-out shapes that will be key to 'moulding' your student...)

At the very least I enjoyed doing the 'Teacher' sketch (which you patrons will get to see in a moment, or you already have on my DA etc.) so it's likely I'll do sketches for all the others in the limited cast while the primary game loop is made in the background.

Funding it is another matter. I'm tempted for a kickstarter to be honest, but I know I lack the marketing chops for it. I also know it's not a simple matter to divide out a portion of the funds I earn here to give to my co-conspirator, so it may be the case that we just make a new subscribestar just for 'Goddess Games' and offer unique moov content there, while over here I continue to deliver on this game what I've always delivered (including demo releases for $10 peeps).

Speaking of Releases...

Labourer Set

Oh lawdy, what a nightmare.

I don't know what its been, but doing this set has been a misery. Maybe it's the short story. I got halfway through writing it before realizing that it just wasn't going right and I need to spend a few isolated days with it.

So for the time being I'll be releasing it with the same kind of content as the other two sets, and will add in the story and 1 additional artpiece at a slightly later time.

Something else coming at a slightly later time...

Drone Exchange

Got a couple more of these outstanding and then I'll be discontinuing them as a commissionable series. Commissions in general take up a lot of time that should be used elsewhere; but I kinda hate not offering at least one or two. There's probably some facility for a good solution here but for the moment I'm willing to just let it sit.

Something I don't want to let sit though...

Thrallworks

Well it didn't go bad, as demo releases go. Seems there's struggling with using the CMS system, but that's a given. I'll rework it and provide more clarity as I haul it into unity.

A process that's going slower than I'd like, but that's down to the assets not being ready to easily slide the work over and in, so that'll all take precedence going ahead. I'm sure you've already seen some of my Cerise reworking, she's the test-bunny for how I'm planning to colour/shade the others going ahead (which, in turn, was informed by an Azula model I'd made). I'm pretty excited!

The scriptwork's been going alright for it too and I'm fairly happy with the rate of scene additions right now.  I've been holding off on going down more involved paths as the characters I'd do them with aren't present, but I'm sure as more assets get done I'll be able to make more such connections, and deeper. There's also some additional thrallmarket introductions I'd like to make.

Misc.

Its been a tough month in general. I tend to use the 6 month mark to evaluate for the rest of the year going forward and to make more long-term decisions, and I don't much like the decisions I've had to make. But y'know, no-one can do everything.

I'll probably be streaming more often over at Picarto as well, for those interested. Mostly TW character stuff but prolly some other things on occasion.

They're re-making Advance Wars too, so that's nice. 

Alright, and that's the whole of it! I'm sure there's stuff I missed off but ehhhh whaddya gonna do. T'moz I'll slap up a bunch of art that's yet to have made it here, but for now the bed beckons.

Cheers all, have a good 'un!