Future Project: Don't Save the Princess

First: This is the first update about future projects, but we have TLS stuff first! The achievements update has gone public, without any major complaints but also without much feedback. Some details:

• Please consider retweeting Qum's trading card, the only one rejected by Valve. Too offensive for general audiences, apparently, so sensitive players may want to avert their eyes.

• A couple of people have said that something is wrong with Orilise's library calculation. One of the checks may be incorrect, but I don't want to sort through them all again. =/ If no one else double-checks, I will get to it once I'm on top of everything else.

• I tried to set card drops as permissively as possible, but people say they aren't dropping. I'm honestly not sure what Steam requires.

Anyway: DStP!

The theme/story of this game is best introduced by the trailer, so I hope you can view it on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/951840/Dont_Save_the_Princess/

DStP is me trying to do something fun and different as a break between my heavier projects! So many of my games are story-heavy and catering to optimizers, I wanted to have at least one casual game in my portfolio. I personally think the core gameplay has a fun timing-based flow.

Unfortunately, this project's history is not so fun. I started this years ago, intending it to be a short and quick side project. Instead it lagged for various reasons, including hiring programmers who just made things worse and the artist going AWOL for months. In general it has been easy for this to stay on the backburner while I prioritized TLS and other things.

Now, however, this is actually happening! I have playtested a build that, if not fully polished, is feature complete. The programmer I'm working with now is doing a good job, and the artist... well, he only has one scene left, so it can't be too bad. >_<

My plan has always been to use this project to dip my toe into Kickstarter, making some early mistakes and establishing a history on that platform before I try for something more ambitious. The trouble is finding the right window: running a Kickstarter takes energy and requires a whole block of time.

Things are finally close. I have partnered with Annikath and we have a lot of the campaign set up, plus some fun things like an animated sex scene over two minutes long! Currently we are waiting on a video editor and a background artist... both of whom I commissioned multiple weeks ago. =/ Hopefully this will come together.

If it doesn't happen soonish, it will probably need to be much later, because there are limited windows where I don't need most of my attention on TLS. In an ideal world I would like to have this one already in motion before the conclusion of TLS, but we'll see. I also have a book launch coming up and a bunch of other WIP TLS stuff. Regretting scheduling that vacation again. >_<

So you will definitely hear more about this! At minimum, $10 patrons will get to see the animated scene, plus other preparation. Expect further updates on the campaign as things come together.