Exciting Changes

Heya everyone,

Since the launch of The Seven Realms, we've worked incredibly hard to improve the game as we go. We've wanted to add new features continuously, but it was becoming progressively more challenging due to a lack of time. There has been a lot going on in the background for us, and we're excited to share some of those things in this post.

Lighting

We've begun working with a talented 3D artist, Shoe_Lac3, to light our in-game images and animations, as well as the post-work. Getting everything into place has taken a while, but we are incredibly excited to work with them. The change will take place from the seventh update of Realm 2 onwards (the next two releases will still contain images and animations in our current style). We've included some images done in collaboration with Shoe_Lac3 below:

We will also post a preview of one of the new animations on our Discord server in The Seven Realms chat (as we aren't able to upload the video to Patreon). The animation is between Leyala and Atlas.

We're working on adding "cinematics," too. The "posing" of the animation is not the problem; it's the rendering time. We're looking to buy a new computer soon, but we must wait a while as we've decided to hire people to work with us.

Posing

We've also hired people to pose images alongside Tae. The long-term goal would be for Tae to focus on the writing as the Realms and the cast grows.

We're still working out all the kinks, so we will update every 3-4 weeks for some time instead of updating every 2-3 weeks. Our workflow is improving, but we still need to iron things out.

Development Struggles

Meet SWOLE ATLAS:

When working with other 3D artists who have their own libraries in DAZ and with the requirement to synchronise our assets, problems like this are relatively common. Whether it's Kali loading into a scene with a baby face or Leyala having little sharp teeth, it can be time-consuming to get everything sorted, but we are getting there.

One of our posers encounters a problem where the scenes take two hours to load before being able to start posing. As he's working in his free time, it makes him lose most of the time he would be able to work on this. We've been trying to find solutions, but it's a complicated process...

But here is an image he has posed (not rendered yet) without the final lights or postwork. We think it's worth the headache!

Because DAZ has limitations, even with a good computer, Shoe_Lac3 sometimes has to wait 10 minutes per render to put the lights. In an update that has 250 renders, it's more than 41 hours lost waiting.

We are confident that we can work around these issues and optimise them in the long run, but it is taking a lot of our time to make things run as smoothly as possible.

Character Bios

Likely around the completion of Realm 2, we are looking to have character bio screens within the game. As the game's cast grows, we appreciate that remembering everyone's names or backstories can be tricky. Below is a mock-up of the UI that we will add for this. It will contain a character description and their related stats.

We have also collaborated with another 3D artist, Mr. Vargas, for the character bio images to ensure that these look nice. I have included a few previews below:

Overall, things are hectic for us (all the more because we still have full-time jobs), but we've never been more excited at the direction the game is moving in. All the money we make from our Patreon pledges and game sales is invested directly back into it to ensure we produce the best quality game possible.

Thank you, everyone, for supporting us and allowing us to make this game the best it can be. We hope you'll stick around with us until the end.

Jay & Tae