New half update! If I managed not to add any major bugs in the frenzy of new stuff, I'll be making this post accessible to $1 people as well, so let me know once you've played.
Link: https://mega.nz/file/PsEF0CRQ#4MrvWsXxb4fF1WZwShjCRMWVbzvp9KydYv9WUN9Ll1M
Some more art, but first, a question! For TLS 0.55.3, I'm going to include a new room where sprite animations can be seen simultaneously. I could theoretically have let players input something and view any given animation, but I felt that method would be a pain on several levels. That means there's going to be duplicate Simons everywhere, along with other copied characters.
Do you think I should just lean into this and organize all of a character's scenes together? Try to space them out...
2021-01-26 23:39:04 +0000 UTC View PostThroughout the course of TLS, I've done a lot of thinking on how I take notes. I keep a huge number of them, but I have a habit of keeping even more things in my head. In the heat of creative work, there are a lot of things that feel tedious to stop working and record.
I tend to rely on my memory, which works pretty well in the short term, but it's not adequate for a multi-year detail-heavy project. It's become clear that there's a gap between what I expect to remember and what I note d...
2021-01-24 22:20:00 +0000 UTC View PostNew release is out! Get it at the blog:
http://the-last-sovereign.blogspot.com/2021/01/tls-0552-public-release.html
You can find links and release notes there, but I wanted to copy over some thoughts that will be relevant to patrons, plus a question.
So, this release... I think it's a pretty good broad update, with a ton of content of many diff...
2021-01-22 23:20:59 +0000 UTC View Post
TLS 0.55.0 is out and I'm glad people seem to be enjoying it. Since there aren't any fatal bugs and there's likely to be more polishing reports, I intend to put out a .1 version after receiving all feedback. I'll push an update to that post when the time comes.
Meanwhile, Annikath made an animation for everyone! This wasn't something I commissioned, just something she did for fun, as she's been working on animations in her spare time. The format isn't supported in the game, before anyon...
2021-01-17 21:43:59 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: Okay, I'm back with a cleaned up version, as I believe all major bug reports have come in. This version isn't significantly different; I'm releasing it mainly because I know some people are waiting on this version.
Various people have made suggestions for expansions to current content, and I've had some ideas of my own. These aren't quick changes, though, and I don't know about pushing them later. I'm considering taking a bit longer to make a 0.55.2 version that has more dialogu...
2021-01-15 23:29:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Update pre-rambling: I'm fairly confident that TLS 0.55.0 will be out on Friday. It's not a question of if, more about how much content will be finished and what state it will be in. Please look forward to it. Image is one of the many scenes to be included, just as a taste.
Rambling: Working while mildly depressed is always odd. I'm still functional/productive, but I'm not fully confident in my judgment. I'm glad I wrote all those sex scenes earlier - I'm pretty sure they're good. But a...
2021-01-10 20:39:47 +0000 UTC View PostThis has been quite a year, huh? Thanks to all of you, I weathered the year okay, but I do find myself more tired than normal despite the fact that this year went pretty well by almost all metrics. Thank you all for letting me take a break, or the end of the year would have been brutal. I'm glad that the things I created could be positive notes for many during a rough year. ^-^
Growth
This year was rough for my audience. The number of patrons looks neut...
2021-01-04 01:39:08 +0000 UTC View Post
As is tradition, I keep the holiday update quiet. People may not be spending as much time with family this year, but I hope you're all able to have rest and relaxation over this period. Please look forward to my yearly review next week, then an aggressive slate of updates.
The Sabitha picture is just for fun. ^-^ She requires more mammals, but these two objects are sufficient.
2020-12-27 19:13:34 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm actually taking a real break this week, I swear. Mostly. Somehow, events have conspired to make this update seem cluttered.
OEA Progress
Look at the new maps! Give feedback if you have any thoughts.
Overall, this game is moving very close to the point where I can pick it up, finish a huge chunk of my remaining work, and then put out a build. Decanter especially has been immensely helpful in taking care of coding issues that have been obstacles...
2020-12-20 19:29:21 +0000 UTC View Post
There's not too much going on this time, but I do have many images to show. First, a potential 90% finished cover for Blades Falling Softly. Second, two different version of a cover for A Hollow Mountain (TBS2). Third, the first finished draft of Bangville Forest for OEA. Please look at all of them and give any feedback, criticism, or thoughts!
For the rest of this update, I wanted to talk about fun TLS stuff. First, look at the tons and tons of sprites! Over fifty, in fact. These are t...
2020-12-13 23:02:50 +0000 UTC View Post
I don't have a lot to say this time. Look at the pretty art. ^-^
Annikath is back from her break, so this set is finished and we're moving on. Please check out her Twitter if you haven't already!
2020-12-10 23:51:02 +0000 UTC View Post
As usual, there's too much going on. I'll divide this into sections so you can check out the parts that interest you.
The Weirkey Chronicles: The first book launched on Amazon, and unfortunately has done worse than I'd hoped. If you've already read it, please leave a review. Otherwise, please take a look! If you're interested in a little comic (kinda) made about the magic system in the...
2020-12-06 18:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostIt was just Thanksgiving for some of you, and a holiday for many. I'll simply say that I'm immensely grateful to have all of you supporting me. ^-^
The holiday isn't much of an event for me, so I am about as productive as usual, but I've gotten the sense that everyone is busy this time of year. So instead of hitting you with a lot of announcements or updates, I'll just share a random silly thought I might never have opportunity to share otherwise.
As most of you know, Crimson Gray...
2020-11-29 23:58:15 +0000 UTC View PostNot too much to say for this weekly update, mostly because things from the Friday post are still ongoing.
Street Cultivation 3: My newest book is doing well on Amazon. It's planted itself solidly in the top 1000, peaking at 426. We'll see how long it stays there or if it gets an inexplicable boost in a week like the others in the series.
Once Ever After Testing: $5 backer...
2020-11-22 18:05:02 +0000 UTC View PostI have a couple of things for you this weekend!
First, Street Cultivation 3 has been released. If you're interested in reading it, or if you've read it and want to support me with a review, you can find it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NFJWWBF
Second, I have an unusual build of Once Ever After for you. I decided to open this one to $5 backers as special thanks for your support during my b...
2020-11-20 23:07:28 +0000 UTC View Post
NEW: Hey, everyone! Normally I don't end notifications for updates to weekly posts, but the design of the first Tale is especially important. Please check out the two new maps: one is a revised Bangville based on your feedback, while the second is a sample interior map for the same location. Thoughts?
Every one of these weeks continues to be jam packed. -_-
Novella: Blades Falling Softly
Let's start off with the thing I have ...
2020-11-15 20:27:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Despite my efforts at mindfulness habits and self-reflection, some aspects of my mind are opaque to me. In theory this is a great window to do creative work in between obligatory release/promotion events, but my brain protests with great fervor. I guess I'll take the opportunity to thank everyone for being understanding about taking a break.
I've done some decent relaxing. I'm already reading as much as I want to, so maybe I need to find a game that really hits the spot, since I haven't...
2020-11-08 17:53:18 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm doing a good job of actually relaxing sometimes and knocking out a few secondary objectives, but a bad job of gearing up for something else big. Normally I might push, but I'm not going to drive myself as hard, at least right away.
Meanwhile, we have new scenes! I'm quite happy with Janine's, it was almost painful deciding which moment of Iris/Megail to illustrate, and we decided to give Ginasta a non-sex scene for the sake of more diversity. Hope you enjoy. ^-^
2020-11-04 22:24:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Look at the chibi art I commissioned from Annikath! If Halloween existed in their world, Wynn would love the costumes and Trin would be putting razor blades into apples.
I once hoped this could be a short update with a "Happy Halloween" and just the image, but there's simply too much going on. Weeks feel very long to me.
On one hand, I finished writing something for next year. This made Present Sierra happy and will make Future Sierra's life easier, so this is pretty much...
2020-11-01 18:59:21 +0000 UTC View PostThings haven't gone according to plan and the day has been weird, but it's the release day nonetheless! This will be the last time I throw out this link, because the book is finally in the wild:
https://www.audible.com/pd/177424568X?qid=1600795838
Also, I've made a promotional post on r/fantasy that includes a giveaway of free audiobook codes. If you're interested in that or signal b...
2020-10-28 03:02:17 +0000 UTC View Post
This was technically my first week of break, but it didn't really feel like it, because I've had a pretty steady stream of TLS-related emails, comments, and messages. Thanks to those of you who are understanding that I won't be addressing everything immediately.
Meanwhile, the OEA mapper is tearing through interior maps (above). Doing this kind of parallax mapping is actually a bit of a pain, preventing me from working on the same stuff, as there's no way to merge our changes into one p...
2020-10-25 20:27:38 +0000 UTC View Post
There's enough stuff going on, I'm going to divide this post into appeals and thoughts about the upcoming period.
Support Me (if you want)
That animated cover up there? It's for the upcoming audiobook for The Brightest Shadow. I'll say more about it in the future, but for now, Podium wants me to spread it around. If you're interested in pre-ordering it, you can do so on 2020-10-18 23:28:43 +0000 UTC View Post
You can get the new version here:
https://the-last-sovereign.blogspot.com/2020/10/tls-0542-public-release.html
I hope to take a break soon, but I will be around if there are significant bugs. More changes happened at the last second than is ideal. Expect to hear from me Saturday or Sunday, because there's just... a lot of stuff going on.
2020-10-16 22:13:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey, everyone! This is going to be a short update, as a lot of stuff is WIP.
TLS 0.54.1 seems pretty stable, so I don't predict any problems with the public release. I should be able to relax this week, or more accurately work on other stuff.
Maps for OEA continue to move forward. Feel free to comment on the ones above if you have any thoughts! Enough of these are finishing that the next build I make for patrons might have a chunk of the parallaxed maps. Maybe, maybe not.
I'...
2020-10-11 20:11:55 +0000 UTC View PostLater than usual, but I have an updated version out this weekend! Thanks go to Decanter and Fulminato for helping me review the numbers; given how my attention is split, it felt like a hurdle to load all that stuff into my memory again, so they accelerated the process.
Link: https://mega.nz/file/jgVTEKxC#AJbjDzCgrY-E1vkKvKVYBmyDNnfnBlioeGHADTDYwMI
RTP:...
2020-10-10 00:37:41 +0000 UTC View Post
This update is coming to you on an unusual day so that I can highlight something new I've been working on. Unless you closely follow my SFW stuff as Sarah Lin, you're probably not aware that I have a new serialization out. You can read it for free here:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/35660/the-weirkey-chronicles
If any of you have a RoyalRoad account, I'd be very gratefu...
2020-10-06 22:19:31 +0000 UTC View PostRelease time!
Link: https://mega.nz/file/bwsiDLqY#9pZPxCKSw_ThqshZlXO8emnqOjNDvQI2crpcwf8YW5w
RTP Version: https://mega.nz/file/Lh0EDbYR#qHioDnkX92rPz2pIv2YK7YKXQcU9p9HeL8fsSuZNEK4
TLS 0.54.0
- New segment finis...
2020-10-02 22:10:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The TLS update should still be on time, but I am just... wiped. The energy to do anything creative simply isn't there. I didn't even feel like renaming the image files so that I could update the art pack and make this post, but I made myself do that.
The pack hasn't been updated in a little while and has reached half a gigabyte, so you might want to download the new one. Still at the old post:
2020-09-30 22:07:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Resisting random creativity has paid off: the update is coming next weekend, barring disaster. Everything is in good shape, the core pieces have been reasonably well-tested, and there are no likely obstacles in the remaining work. I'm a bit tired, but there's no need to run myself ragged this time, so it should work out.
This one is going to play shorter than the last, but hopefully the intensity of the update makes up for it. Not a lot of combat, but what's there should have an impact....
2020-09-27 18:11:43 +0000 UTC View Post