Time to Break Free (State of the Union: Roadmap Edition!)

It sure has been a time in the world, hasn’t it? But come on, it’s not all bad! I have the time and resources for new, cool stuff, some of which I’m going to keep a little under wraps, but some of which I’m going to share with you here! A roadmap to the future!

I’ve tried to be reasonable based on previous instances of how long it’s taken me to do stuff, so this list of stuff I feel I can deliver on in roughly the timeframe given in the image. To run you through things in a little more detail….

Thrallworks

Game’s going well. Now I’ve got more time I feel I can keep this going at the same pace as before and have time for more things on the side. Unsure as to whether to make it something like 2.5 full-on days of work a week or to spread it out over 5...I’ll probably try both out and see what works.

To be more specific about what the nodes mean:

Guilt Route Completed: Just as you’d think. We put the guilt route into the game and add all the relevant Ty Lee expressions, put the flags where we need them and make it functional!

Fear Route: The Fear route is actually a lot more straightforward than either the Guilt or Trust route- at least so far as Orientation goes- so I don’t believe it will take nearly as long to structure and implement out.

CG Art and Systems Overhaul: This will be a time for me putting in the individual art-pieces that are shared between the different routes and specific to the routes, as well as updating some of the UI elements and how the reference-system functions; though I imagine the only ‘big’ changes will happen in the trust route in regards to that.

I’ll also be adding all of this into a single file along with parts 1 & 2, linking everything together and cleaning up the code.

Demo Release: Well, it comes out en-propero! First week or two patreon exclusive, then if there are any major boo-boos those’ll get fixed and we throw it out in the public sphere! For free! Crazy to do that I know but that was the whole point.

Support Cast & True Intro: This will be me making art for the other characters in the game in the various departments you’ll be talking to, as well as writing up the intro to the game. What we have for the demo is something of an en-media-res. Rather than a true opening, so we’ll be getting some narrative before that.

Base Curriculum Runthrough: This will be the technical part of the game, where you assign research and work out a lesson plan, week on week, as well as deciding how to go up through the stages, spend your project budget and your spare time.

This will be pretty barebones in regards to art/writing, but it will be mechanically complete, so you’d be able to instruct Ty Lee from beginning to end by this part’s completion, for me to then go back and fill out the particulars of the lessons, and the asides/subquests I have planned, at a later development stage.

Trust Route Base-Lesson CG’s: I was thinking that going through the development of these stages could be done in two ways; one would be going Trust=Guilt-Fear stage by stage, looping them, or I could go and get the routes done one at a time. On reflection, I think the end result would be better doing them one at a time as there’s a certain amount of burnout that comes with doing the same stage over again in a short span of time, even if the content is a little different.

So the next thing to do would be to make the Lesson CG images for the trust route.

And then? The write-ups for the lessons, no doubt. Then probably a smattering of asides/sub-quests (I may open polls or even commission slots for ideas for these) before moving on to another route.

Volition

This is pretty straightforward; two pages a month for you $5+ peeps until the chapter’s done and we release the thing out there!

I might be able to swing more than 2 pages a month depending on my activity...to be fair though, every page takes up 2 days of work, and that’s 2 days that could be spent on more free art, or writing, or any other such things of quality. So depending on reception, I may just leave it at just this completed chapter.

If it turns out to be something I could possibly collaborate on, with me writing it and someone else doing the art, maybe we keep it up regardless of how it goes. But certainly, if it does well enough and people like the whole completed chapter, we can maybe feel better about continuing it.

Speaking of other AtLA stuff, would people like a summary of how Lake Laogai was going to go? I don’t really want to go back to the fic, but some people might be interested to know what I had planned for it. Maybe I’ll do a sketch explanation for it sometime.

Thrallopedia

Again, this is pretty straightforward. We’ll have all the basic overviews of the thrall models done soon, then we can look at some drone info and finish off all the details on the page.

My original idea for the Thrallopedia was to include it as an interactable part of the TW Game, similar to the ol’ UFOpedia in the original X-Com game. Who didn’t love that eh? And so it will be! Though we’ll need to round out all the thrall entries at least in order to do that, which means…

Commissions

I’m doing the Harem set as I write this (well actually I’m writing this, not doing the harem set, but you know what I mean) and though I will be doing more ‘Pedia set offers, I’ll also be opening up individual slots to pre-fill some of the entries for those who want them before an official set offer happens.

In general, the commission forms are a bit of complicated business, but I will look at what I can do over the month ahead to spend time uploading an interactive HTML form onto a website for people to use to commission me; and in the meantime put some basic guidelines and slot-levels open to tide over.

Interspersed Activity

As well as the main ‘flagship’ things there’s a bunch of stuff I plan to do and have yet to do I’ll be chewing on between all the other work.

Azula CG’s: They’ve proven rather popular and I like doing them, and I’ve plans for at least 8 more of them. So we’ll get through those in due course.

Drones: I’ve still got 4 Drone designs to do based on $10 polls from about a year ago! Wowzers. But I haven’t forgotten and the variant drones will be available in the game as well, probably tradeable as variants on your starting Ochako housedrone.

$10 Exclusives: I’ve still a mind to do one of these a month, of course. I’m trying to think of ways to make them more visually interesting too. Gotta stretch out and take risks, ya know?

Secretary Short: When I did the Secretary Set, I wanted to write a short story based on the cover image. I still intend to do so.

Movement Tales: Now then, *this* is going to be pretty hefty! This is going to be a series on fiction.live where you’ll be playing as a Matriarch, a newly anointed leader of the Movement- religion that worships the Goddess Yi Lin. You arrive at a new city to make a compound, induct new members, and then depending on what doctrines you ascribe to, spread Her influence to the masses…

Rather than a complete and ongoing narrative, this is going to be structured more as standalone events, each spanning maybe 1 or 2 months of play. The votes on fiction.live will be public and reflect Matriarch orders, but there will also be a channel on discord where people can also ask questions to gather more detail on what the various Sects in the compound are doing.

Each even may be something like detailing an unusual event that effects the compound, assigning holy days, or- like the first one would be- deciding where to base down and what to spend your starting influence on, to set up your inroads into the city.

The rules I’m planning on might be a little fluid- if anything running this will inform the best kind of system and balancing for it.I’m planning on dedicating some 2 hours every Thursday evening starting 18th of June at 9pm-11pm GMT to do the writing and handle decisions on it, and if sketches are required I'll incorporate those as a part of my regular practice. Should be fun!

And the rest: I’m trying to sketch more. Some of these sketches will be fanart, some will be game related, some will just be fun nonsense. I’ll probably collate anything of interest together for the $5 posts on the 28th, else use them in the Movement Tales posts.

Discord: Ah yes, I want to start using my Discord more! Not only for the Movement Tales events, but I’d also like to run a kind of weekly drone/thrall event (using the hunger-games simulator here https://brantsteele.net/hungergames/disclaimer.php ) that people can enter their selections into, with the ‘winner’ getting enthralled or released as their sponsor desires (the rest getting droned offscreen), and of which I’ll likely do a sketch for.

The discord link is https://discord.gg/Jv5u8Z2 and I’ll be glad to see you there for more than just me posting updates about stuff!

And how are you TDL?

I’m fine. Good, even! Just adjusting to the workload. Might be sleeping a little too much. I’m waiting for some writing commissions I splooged for like 6 months ago to drop so I can do some cover art for them.

Also 6 months ago, I made a plan on what stuff to do and I’ve largely managed to stick to it, and its been largely successful to boot. The writing thing and encouraging more hypno-smut has been the one stumbling block, and hopefully that's something that we can see about changing up or pushing toward in the coming months.

Also perhaps some more time spent acting, or writing up DnD adventures, if I have the time. Certainly, interacting with the She-Ra fandom and getting a bit out of this online bubble has proved rather refreshing, and I’d like to keep it up.

Anyway, that’s all folks! Until the next post...enjoy!