HappyDaedalus

An Angry Sarah

A small preview for one of the upcoming cg's featured in the next update. Sarah has plenty to be angry about, but what could it be here?

The work on the upcoming update is coming along very well, and this cg is part of a total package of about 17 cg's, making this update even larger than the previous mage-path update. I hope to be able to give you all a concrete estimate on the release date very soon.

Scorching

This is the highest quality version of this scene you're ever going to get, coming in at a solid 4661x2926.

This was an important piece in terms of establishing a few important elements:

It's the first time in the story where we visually see Sarah use magic. After the time-leap, Sarah has grown quite a bit in terms of her power, and this image is very much supposed to communicate this.

Secondly, it's also the first time we really get a CG where magic is represented, so it...

A contemplative Sarah

An isolated picture of Sarah from the upcoming update, waiting around for...the the release date to be announced?

Sketch > Final

Another progress picture for the development of a scene from sketch to finished-in-game-product.
This time it features the kiss of Sarah and Samayra in the garden of the palace.

Development for this scene was a particular challenge for a few reasons. The first was the setting and design of the garden itself, needing to strike a balance between feeling both large and yet also capture the intimacy of the moment that I tried to communicate about the relationship between these two chara...

A New Character

A sneak-preview for one of the new upcoming characters. This character won't make an appearance in this update, but she'll appear in the one after.

A new friend? A foe? Something more?

You'll have to wait and see.

Up Next v0.20

With the last update now about a week behind us, production is already under way for the next update, v0.20. I can't yet pin-point the exact release date, but I can certainly reveal the main content for the next update.

For those with an attentive eye, the image atop this post gives you a good hint. The next update will cover and expansion for the warrior-storyline!

As before, I'll aim to walk a tightrope between both revealing new and upcoming content, while also not revealing so...

From A to B

Here's a little background look at the different stages that art for the game goes through, from its very inception all the way to the final product as seen in the game.

The pose for the characters was consciously chosen to communicate something about both characters. In the mage-route (specifically after the time-skip) we encounter a Sarah who is slightly more confident in her place in the world, and this rediscovered confidence comes through in her relationship and attitude towards Sa...

Release of update v0.15

The release of v0.15, the very first official update post-initial release. It's an exciting moment for me. Before this, I've always worked on TSSR in relative isolation, no deadlines, no obligations. To now have people like yourself that are interested to watch the game develop is both exciting and humbling.

Creating on a deadline has been incredibly educational, and I've already learned a good number of lessons that I'll be taking with me moving forward.

Above all, I hope you enj...

Steady as she goes

Not too much to report with this patron update, hard at work to iron out the last kinks (or write them in, I suppose) ahead of the next update which will still be out on the 5th as planned.

As I've written before, the core focus of the next patch will be expanding on the mage-narrative, but included as well is one image that had been in production but failed to be ready just ahead of the initial release; completed and now included in the game.

This cg features Sarah in the oasis o...

Release date for update v.15

As mentioned in my previous post, I would provide a more concrete release date estimate for the upcoming update this week. I'm happy to say that I feel comfortable that, unless a meteor hits, the first update post-release will be released next week on the 5th of March.

This update will feature an extension on the mage-path storyline, a new location, new characters and several new CG's. Following the release of this patch I will also begin updating the Patron feed with h...

Progress report on v.15

Just a short heads-up on the current progress, as well as a small sneak peak image for the upcoming update. It's hard to strike a balance between wanting to share some of the incredible artwork, while also hoping to keep an air of mystery and not spoiler everything.

As for the current progress, all continues to go quite well. The script's first draft is entirely finished and I've spend the last few day editing. Rewrites, rephrasing, catching (a lot) of grammatical errors, but in all, I ...

Happy Valentine

What better day than the 'official' day of love to share a first look at this sketch of one of the upcoming CG's in the next update.

This rough initial sketch is for a scene that features Sarah and the new upcoming character, Samayra.

It's not all love

Here is a small piece of a very early sketch for one of the new CG's in the upcoming patch. Can't say too much more about this piece without resorting to spoilers, but the full work is already shaping up to be one of my favorites for this update.

Black screens

As many of you will likely have noticed, the original v.1 of TSSR contained several black screens. These black screens were put in place to represent scenes that are planned to have artwork, but don't have it yet.

Given how I approach production for TSSR, my attention is usually very forward-focused, mostly aimed at expanding the game's story. As a result, this means most of the new artwork and writing is more aimed towards future content than what is already currently in the game.

Development update for v.15

While a big part of this feed will be dedicated towards offering behind-the-scenes looks at the development of TSSR, by showing (for example) sketches of future content, or posts detailing my motivations for how I approach creating certain moments or scenes, I also thought it might be interesting/useful to maintain a somewhat constant update on the actual state of the development itself.

As I mentioned earlier in a post, the next update will be v.15 and be dedicated towards expanding th...

New Location

I've always loved epic fantasy. One of the ways that this comes to the forefront in TSSR is it's relatively large cast of characters and different locations.

While we've already visited a few of these in the first release, the complete story will end up featuring even more locations (no need to worry about scope-creep, the current narrative is reasonably well planned out).

One of the first of these new locations is the ancient desert city of Bagrad, which will feature prominently ...

Looking ahead to v0.15

Less than a week ago was the release of v0.1 for TSSR and I'm very happy to see that the initial response to the game has been very positive. Receiving both a lot of views, downloads and positive feedback, I'm very happy to see that it has managed to strike a real cord with people. Most of all of course, a thank you to those that have decided to subscribe! My long-term vision for the game is made possible by your support.

Looking forward towards the next release, I'm currently working o...

Growth of a scene

This series of images shows you the development of one of the many pieces of art that is featured in TSSR, going all the way from initial sketches to the final product.

This particular scene features the exam that Sarah has to complete, if the player decides to go down what I informally call the "soldier"-path.

The inspiration for the idea behind this particular artwork comes from my long love of spaghetti-westerns. In westerns, there is often an iconic duel-at-high-noon scene, wh...

The Survival of Sarah Rose v0.1

Today marks the release of TSSR v0.1.

This release covers the intro and most of what I informally call "Act 1" for the game. While there are already a variety of paths available in this version, it does not cover all the currently planned paths.

I believe that playing this version will give you, the player, a rough estimate of what the game is about, and what my ambitions and ideas for the game's future are.

In a future post, I'm going to go into more detail about my ideas, ...

The Road Ahead

In my initial post I spoke about how excited I am about the launch of TSSR, but in this message I was hoping to also give patrons a somewhat more concrete idea on what the road ahead is going to look like for both the project and the Patreon.

As for the Patreon:

It is my goal to make sure that there is at least one post every week. The content of these posts will vary from general messages like these, posts explaining my creative process and my motivations for cer...

The Start

Hello and welcome to all of you who have decided to support TSSR!
I can't begin to describe how excited I am to realize that there are actually people out there that connect with the story and the idea behind the project enough to choose to support me!

Starting out any project, you never really know if what you're working on is going to connect with other people. All you know is the passion that you have and that's driving you, but you always run the risk of waking up and realizing y...