Layouts, Backgrounds, & Coding (Oct 2025 Update)

Hi Patrons!

Here is an update on what has been in the works for the past few weeks. It's been a lot of drawing, planning and development. Read on for this spooky month update!

Post-Production & Release Plan

Since we're headed into the busy fourth quarter of 2025 (wow time flies!), I've planned for the next couple months a precise schedule of work activities. As I get older, there's a greater need to make time for family, especially in November and December. During planning for Story 9, I had the choice to:

1. Try to rush for a premiere in December, fitting in as much work as possible on weekends.

2. Push the release date into January, giving us time to work at a natural pace and enjoy the holidays.

I will be opting for the latter option, as it gives the premiere its own space to breathe. It will also ensure we're not rushing any of the background art and compositing, something that caused Story 8 to have quite a few graphical glitches.

I also aim to create another GildedGala multiplayer event, one that will improve on the first two in significant ways. More on that later!

Even though an official release date wasn't yet announced, I know this constitutes as an informal delay, since it's not within the Q4 2025 estimate - so thank you for your patience!

Backgrounds Galore

Right now, we have 101 background assets to digitally paint and render. Split up across two months, that's at least a background & a half a day! Rebonkulous is taking the lead in this department, as she's worked extensively with Photoshop before. This story's environmental requirements are a bit more demanding due to the variety of locations (similar to Story 8). We'll be diving into a flashback, the castle, and a forest - each with their own lighting and texturing needs.

The warm vibes of the Life Factory return, with a tinge of chilliness in the distance.

Revisiting the Life Factory has been fun - it's good that I kept all of our original project materials from Story 0, as it gives us instant background reference to use.

Halloween is upon us!

To assist in this effort, I spent a week or so drawing skeletal layouts for each scene. Since many of our assets can be reused, a layout may have multiple camera markings to designate its use across scenes. It's a handy thing to plan out in advance, so that the background artist can focus purely on drawing.

Some layout sketches for background art. I use pastel colors for the lines to make it easier to draw over.

Part of layout work has also been animating the camera movements - which involves heavy use of parallax. I'm actually trying to keep the camera more steady this time around, to let the character animation take center stage. That's not to say we won't have some dizzying scenes too!

GildedGala 3 - Starring Castle Gilded

Our 3rd annual (is this gonna be an annual thing now?) GildedGala will be featuring Gildedguy's new castle, created in the aftermath of the dragon of Mar. During the multiplayer event, viewers will be able to explore the castle grounds, partake in castle maintenance activities, and compete in duels with others.

This will narratively immerse us into the plot of Story 9, which reflects a personal season in my own life of building a secure homestead, while also being vigilant of the ever present risks of being an artist.

Castle grounds concept from earlier this year!

On the technical side, this gala will push my dream concept of an online RPG even further into reality. I've already implemented secure cloud saves for player accounts, and an update-system for the game. This, combined with levelling, combat and customization may allow us to run around in a little virtual Aegis Town. A persistent world that can exist in the long term (weeks) instead of just a couple days.

It's thrilling to work on, and even more fun to test with Patrons. The test server is up right now, so come join if you'd like to help shape GildedGala's development!

GildedGala Discord Server: https://discord.gg/t27BvX37Xa

Patron Credits & Cameo Surveys are Available

To the Name Credit and Super Supporter Patrons, you can now submit details for your credit/cameos for us to integrate with Story 9.

Submit Name Credits

Submit Cameo

The submission deadline will be lasting for more time now since we're planning on releasing in January.

Featured Commission

We were fortunate enough to be commissioned by SciTechPoke to create an alert animation for his stream overlay, featuring his umbrella-wielding character. I'm very happy with how the animation, cleanup, and overall composition turned out! It has a good flow to the poses, and shows off a jubilant character (my favorite thing to animate).

Commissions are closed right now (due to all of the above), but feel free to contact me or Rebonkulous and we'll put you on the waitlist.

Thanks for checking in! (and happy hween!)