What we've been doing (Progress Report)

Hi everybody,

We asked Patrons on Discord if they would like to have some news while we're preparing Realm 2, and the answer was yes. So, in this post, we'll let you know what we've been doing during this "break". We say break in quotation marks as it's not been a break for us so far.

So what have we done? Warning: long post ahead!

We have built and launched our Steam Store! If you didn't see it yet, I've linked it here! Thanks to those who have already put us on your wish list. It will help us massively even if you don't buy the game in the end! Wishlisting the game means Steam will give us more visibility on the platform.

To prepare our Store Page and the build for Steam, we had to work almost non-stop (we were working on it even during work hours). Jay had to proofread the first six updates again because he wasn't using Grammarly the first time; he was doing it without any spellchecking software when editing the code. He realised that several typos were left, the grammar wasn't always perfect, and there were a couple of other discrepancies in the code. So, he retested everything too.

We found and hired a new developer that fixed our code. There were several "wonky" things that could have ended up being a problem in the long term, but they cleaned everything up for us!

They also helped us with Steam SDK, the software used to upload a game build to Steam, as we found it rather confusing!

We had to create images for the store and a new trailer. Everything had to be really particular, and it may not seem like it, but we spent days putting this store content together. We wanted a store that represents how much effort we put into making the game, and we hope we managed to do so.

We have created images for the Steam rewards, but you can't see them because they will only appear when enough players interact with our game. We didn't know that, so we created them already. You will see the badges, trading cards (7), backgrounds (3) and other bits once Steam deems us worthy!

We also redid our website! Check it out because we're really proud of what we've done. Some of you may wonder why we would lose time redoing the website. We want to expand on the lore, and the website will be where we will do so. We will also do this on YouTube. But I will speak about YouTube later.

On our new website, you can find images of the Realms, future characters, detailed species descriptions, and some of their character sheets. More information will be gradually added during development.

We have also added a "Stories" section within each Realm where you can read stories written about the characters. The first one is in Atlas' POV about what was happening with Lucius and the court on the night he met Leyala. I've already written five of these stories (Gina, Leyala, Naya, Ling Guo, Atlas), but we will release them little by little. Characters may have several stories, but we have only created one image for 13 of the character stories so far. We have also published the first Leyala short story alongside making this post, so please check it out.

We will also add a Glossary section with detailed descriptions of all the important ideas in the game. Each Realm will have specific notions linked to them.

We think having a detailed and professional website is important. TSR is a story first VN in a fantasy setting, and much of the story is related to and enhanced by the lore. We've had a lot of questions about the lore, and for the people who are not on Discord every day or aren't in the server at all, it seems important to offer you all the information you may want to know. We will always explain things in the game, but it's hard to remember everything that's been said, so we will gather all the info and put them on the website...and add some more stuff for people who are interested in it.

Those lore explanations will also be on our YouTube channel, where Tae will record herself posing some of the Patron rewards and then voice-over to explain a notion and what she is doing. The first one should be coming this week. Those videos are pretty quick and easy to make, as Tae would have posed the reward anyway. The voice-over is more tedious as she is self-conscious of her accent when she talks.

Tae has also been following a lot of tutorials lately and has been practising a lot. Currently, she is trying to improve her lighting, use of Dforce, depth of field and grasp helper. She has done a lot of images. At least 30 that will be released little by little on Twitter and Instagram. She also tried things for this month's renders. Hopefully, you will be able to see some progress. The goal is for you to feel the improvement in Realm 2. She also followed a tutorial on render composition and colour. Each time the advice was to practice, again and again, so she is doing just that.

She would also like to use this time to follow an animation tutorial. She knows many people have complimented her animations, but she always wants to delete them when she watches them back. So, she is determined to get better.

We have also spent a lot of time improving Realm 2. We have decided to add at least one Scene in each update of Realm 2. Some are short, some are long, but overall, it's a lot of writing to do! While reading Realm 2, we realised that we focused too much on the plot and not enough on getting to know some LIs and Harem Members. Or worse, the last update seems rushed, and we need to add at least four new scenes for the end to be satisfying.

So, Tae is writing those scenes. She is now done with the ones in Updates 1 and 3.

Once everything has been written, Jay will proofread it again and make sure everything is logical from start to finish. Then we will start coding everything even without the images.

Hopefully, this has given you insight into what we've been doing. It's been busy, but by working hard, we hope to get into a great position to keep our regular release schedule going during Realm 2.

Thanks for reading (if you managed to get through all that). Have a great day, everyone, and we'll speak to you again soon!