sierralee

January 6 Update: NGM #2

I am right in the middle of a huge creative run. Hate to pull myself away from it to do other stuff, but better to keep everything moving along.

$5 patrons, you should have received a message containing the link to New Game Minus #2. Please feel free to offer any feedback you like, and if you find any typos, please report them!

Will keep this one short so I can get back to work. Please be patient if it takes me a while to get to any messages, as I'm pretty focused on productivity ...

2018 in Review

Hey, everybody! This is going to be a busy month, so I thought I'd kick things off early with my yearly review and look forward.

Reflections 

At the beginning of 2018 I said I was afraid TLS updates might fall behind given the other major things I would be doing. I actually only released one fewer update than a normal year, and some of those updates were pretty complex. TLS progress in 2018 included finishing the customized base, marrying Janine, g...

December 30 Update

As I type this, it's dark and quiet. The final days of 2018 are winding down. This will be the first half of my year-in-review, looking back in 2018 so that my first post of 2019 can spend more time looking forward.

Today I officially concluded my involvement with Hreinn Games. This has been a major part of my development time over the past three years, finishing one game and launching another one, so it's reasonable for patrons to ask what will replace that time in my schedule. In the ...

December 23 Update

Well, this update is late because my chosen narrator was supposed to get his 15 minute checkpoint to me yesterday and I wanted to let people listen to it. As opposed to the audition, the checkpoint is real audio in final quality, so it's a good time to check on quality issues. Here it is:
https://mega.nz/#!3wMAwAAY!JvjdyWnhcJkswn_q19QZcfWIt_aN0t4rmEuXfkS9Emw 

Please let...

December 16 Update

Public release went out okay. I intend to spend more time making qualitative changes based on feedback (which is still welcome), which will lead to either a special 0.40.6 release, or just included in 0.41.0. Not sure.

Thanks to all who went the extra mile and listened to audiobook narrators. Counting largely positive recommendations as votes, here are the results:

Sarah Colton - 9

Bryan Lamb - 7

Gary Bennett - 4

Seth Podowitz - 4

Matt Weight - 4

Meghan Kell...

TLS 0.40.5 Public Release

New version is up at the blog:

http://the-last-sovereign.blogspot.com/2018/12/tls-0405-public-release.html 

Read the note there: this update could have used more time, but I felt locked into this schedule. But now that it's out, I can focus on making improvements and balance changes that require more time and consideration. Apologies if this release cycle wa...

Audible Narrators

(First, an unrelated note: I just uploaded version 0.40.4 in the TLS thread. If anyone hasn't gotten tired of this content yet and wants to check this one before we do the public release, feel free!)

I guess it's time to do a thread about audiobook narrators, since it wouldn't be professional to keep the narrators waiting. I got another submission this morning, so it's possible that more will come in yet, but I believe I've probably received the majority of the auditions I'll get.

Most n...

December 9 Update

Just uploaded 0.40.2 in the other post. It is definitely not the final balance, but if you were just waiting for a smoother experience, this one should have most of the bugs and typos ironed out.

The Council of Gawnfall updates are done and people generally liked them. This is good, because I'm likely to crash in December. Version 0.41.0 content will be scattered between many different components and require less concentration, so hopefully I will be able to make decent progress on it no matte...

TLS 0.40.0 Release

I'm apprehensive releasing this one. I feel like to balance/test this to the level I'd like, I'd need to take a week to make and/or update a bunch of different saves, and I don't feel good about that use of time. I think crowd-sourcing balance will be faster, just be aware that some details of this might be sketchy. 

So play with caution! I really need to take a nap, but then I will be back in case there are any game-breaking issues. Also going to have to put off updating forums and thing...

December 2 Update

Consistent TLS progress, but some elements are becoming larger than expected. Bit drained. Would very much like to release Friday so the reworking is completely done before Christmas. To keep things moving, I'm going to go back to work and just post something I had pre-written.

-

I say I'm grateful for all of you a lot, enough that I worry it might come off as repetitive or insincere. So I wanted to try to say it in a different way.

You guys have been much better than I expected yo...

Potential Writing Projects

This is going to be one of those posts where I update you on my thoughts of future work, but I'm not really looking for a specific type of feedback (though I welcome it). In fact, I'm not sure what I expect people to say at all, but here goes.

It seems LitRPG authors are pretty friendly people. I've had several of them message me saying "Hey, I liked your book, do you want free promotion?" and they aren't trying to sell me something. Some of this just amounts to getting reference...

November 25 Update

Most important bit first: I've overcome all inertial issues with TLS and had a great week of work! Now that I'm past the early struggling, I have momentum and things are going well. With any luck, next week I will have a positive report about how close I am to completion.

One of the votes next update is... a lot. I knew it would be a complex one, but I decided to try to make it react more to past decisions in the synod and it got out of hand. Not sure how it will feel to play, but... have fun ...

November 18 Update

This week we have two updates in one. First stuff about the launch of the novel, then a conventional update.

New Game Minus #1: Changing Faces 

My new book is out! Since the price is $3, I've sent it via message to all $5 backers - hope you enjoy if you're into this sort of fiction. Longtime $1 patrons, you may qualify as well, so message me if interested.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping the launch will go well. Compared to Steam, which throws you into the oc...

NGM #1: Changing Faces

Hello, everybody. Unusual post for unusual circumstances. I am thinking about the release of my second novel, the one $10 patrons have already gotten a chance to read. But before I do that, I wanted to update you guys and also check in on a couple things.

First, the above is my intended cover. Someone please stop me if the text is an abomination to graphic designer eyes. The artist who did the drawing declined to add the title or choose the font, so I attempted it myself, and I'm bad with that...

November 11 Update

I've had one of those weeks that was adequate when I had hoped for more than adequate. Made some solid improvements to the new TLS release (check out 0.39.3 on the blog, just uploaded), but wasn't able to work ahead on 0.40.0. Released the new novel to $10 patrons, but didn't get as much other writing done as I'd hoped. Took a bit of time to relax, but still kind of worn out. That's okay; solid progress can be made out of weeks like this.

Another thing I did was set the Steam page for TLS to p...

TLS 0.39.2 Public Release

Public version is out, and it's new for you guys as well:

https://the-last-sovereign.blogspot.com/2018/11/tls-0392-public-release.html


TLS 0.39.2
 - Numerous balance changes, on average making the vote requirements easier.
 - New/improved Kerannii expressions thanks to Bug Reporting.
 - Improved musical tracks thanks to Lamsey.
 - High ...

Novel #1

Thanks for your feedback in the last post, everyone. Though I put this off while I was fully focused on TLS 0.39.x, I'm now back to talk more about my writing side projects. Specifically, the first novel I'll be writing under my SFW pseudonym: Sarah Lin.

The probable book title is "New Faces" while the series title is "New Game Minus." Both are pretty theme-appropriate, and I hope that they'll balance ea...

November 4 Update

TLS 0.39.1 is out and seems to be in okay shape. My first objective this month will be to finish polishing it for a public release. I hope to continue into finishing the summit with 0.40.0 with little delay, though I want to avoid burnout and there's one personal thing that could pop up and really hamper my progress.

Other things may happen this month. For example, I will bring TLS to Steam... at some point. Part of me wants to wait for a better stopping point, or avoid the AAA release season,...

TLS 0.39.0 Released!

Well, here we go. New release, potentially not the smoothest one.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: It is likely possible to save in a completely unwinnable position in this version. Do NOT take in only a single save or you risk getting stuck. Balance/rewards are likely to change, anyway. In later versions I'll try to include more features to prevent players from screwing themselves over, but that's difficult without completely nerfing difficulty.

Link: 2018-11-02 22:59:30 +0000 UTC View Post

October 28 Update

First, the new Steam pages are up! Don't Save the Princess and Once Ever After are projects still in the pipeline, but my data shows that it's better to put pages up sooner rather than later. So while you'll get better information here on Patreon, please do check out the links if you want to follow the projects:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/951840/Dont_Save_the_Princess/
2018-10-28 21:19:14 +0000 UTC View Post

Writing and Pseudonyms

Time for another long post, both updating on something else I've been doing and asking for input, if people have opinions.

I meant to make this post a while ago, but ended up getting wrapped up in TLS work and decided to roll with that instead. Still staying mostly focused on that now, but didn't want to let this post sit unfinished for too long.

The Second Project

When we talked about traditional publishing versus self-publishing, part of me thought "Wh...

October 21 Update

Several different kinds of stuff this week.

Store Pages

I'm still waiting on a few stores, like Nutaku. But hopefully almost all the business work relating to releasing Dusk and Dawn is finished now. 

Valve has approved store pages for three games: The Last Sovereign, Don't Save the Princess, and Once Ever After. I wanted to put up the pages for the latter two so they can start gathering momentum, but I'm still waiting on a few assets. I can put ...

October 14 Update

Many of the weekly updates have been pretty long lately. Let's see if I can't keep this one short.

I've begun serious work on TLS 0.39.0. Earlier this week I put together my comprehensive list of notes: everything that will factor into the ecclesiastical summit, everything that needs to happen, and everything that will be decided. It's... a big list. Make no mistake, I love this kind of thing, but right now I'm at the "Well, I hope I can do this right" stage of work.

Still have some othe...

October 7 Update

Well, this week I did an adequate amount of stuff, if not quite as much as I wanted. I got wrapped up in several major pieces of work:

1) The release of Crimson Gray 1.5 on Steam and itch.io. It's selling faster than the first, and it's almost to the ten review inflection point, but at half the...

Crimson Gray 1.5 Release!

I put out the public TLS 0.38.2 earlier today, but it's just polishing. Download from the blog if you want that:

https://the-last-sovereign.blogspot.com/2018/10/tls-0382-crimson-gray-15.html 

Now it's time to hope that the Crimson Gray launch goes well! All $10+ patrons should have received their link to the final game - hope you enjoy! If you want a Steam...

September 30 Update

Okay, September is done. My primary goal was to survive the month, but I managed to finish the TLS update, send out the novel, and beta test Crimson Gray 1.5. I also (mostly) wrapped up some major things like moving, which I hope will make my life a bit easier for the foreseeable future.

But things aren't going to let up, starting with the release of Crimson Gray 1.5! I would like to do it this coming weekend, because the later I get into October, the more I compete with AAA titles and Steam s...

TLS 0.38.0 Released!

New version, everybody!

EDIT: Links updated to 0.38.1:

Link: https://mega.nz/#!T9sD1RhY!OQ-9soplJGcn0ZvU-CTUtjTAw7n6oJyojU22M0S6g4Y 

RTP: https://mega.nz/#!SwlzgJqZ!Ia3ozxLT0a-fYxP3ZBbp13KLPrkQ7m5tgTnXf3rfSfs 

TLS 0.38.0

September 23 Update

So... I haven't been making as much TLS progress as I've wanted, but I have been making progress. I can't make promises, but I sincerely hope that the next update will be this Friday. In addition to investments and research, it will have the lore I promised, plus a little more combat and exploration than you'd expect from a shorter update. Plus the introduction to the next major phase of the plot, which I hope everyone will enjoy!

There's a lot going on, though, so cross your fin...

The Future of Crimson Gray

For once, this isn't a big serious post for $10 backers. I've been going through a lot lately and I just wanted to do something light and fun. This post will be about some of my hypothetical plans for Crimson Gray. They might never come to pass, but I enjoyed making the post and I hope some of you enjoy it as well. If you are 100% opposed to learning spoilerish things about future Crimson Gray titles, skip this one.

Though I tried to make the first Crimson Gray simple and self-contained, the t...

September 16 Update

I feel like every single update this month could end up sounding like "There's too much going on at once, but I'm finishing a lot of things" - it's true, but it'd make for bland updates. This week I'll focus on just one thing that turned the corner in terms of being finished.

(First, a quick TLS update: I made some more progress, but not as much as I'd hoped because of some things that came up.)

You know how I've been talking about stress-writing a novel? Well, the core of the work is do...