tangofiction

Transfigure Art

Since I have been producing so much art I figure I should post more since I actually have relevant things to post. I have so much I don't even know what I should share really so here is a sample some of the better pieces I've made.

I’ve updated over a quarter of the demo’s assets to a higher quality level, mainly backgrounds and misc items. I’m going to redo the pink UI too because it looks ugly compared to what I can make now. It looks a lot better already in my opinion. I hated ...

New Game

Hey Everyone. Transfigure is cancelled. Sorry about that. The new game is called Clansfigure. It is about a clan of people trying to figure things out. 

I hope you like the new direction! Estimated release date of Q7 2066.

Talk to you soon!


Edit for those reading beyond April 1st: Yes, this is a joke :P

Style Preference Poll

Please vote for your favorite art styles:

Demo and Animation

Hi Tango Friends!

I’ve been rapidly upgrading the existing art while I try to narrow down the final style. I’ve done many thousands of tests and it has essentially already been chosen (more or less). It is an extension of what existed previously but it can be pushed in various directions if there is a major preference.

The existing style is semi realistic 3D renders with varying levels of detail so switching to a more detailed realism focused style makes the m...

Rocket Launch in T Minus -

A game launch is analogous to a rocket launch. Even if something is “finalized” it isn’t truly final until the rocket launches. Once it launches or releases there is no going back, no second guessing, and no fixing mistakes that should have been fixed earlier even if they are obvious with hindsight.

The rocket can explode on the pad. It can launch and then explode in flight. It can successfully make it to space.

Meeting a deadline to the minute is far less important than pre...

Art Phoenix

Through the fires of the animatrix I emerge! Hummingbird? Nay, Phoenix I am!

Um, yeah, anyway! I will skip the training montage and cut to the chase: I can’t waste time and I can’t fuck this up. I have barely slept the past month, working to level up my art skill. I am proud to show some results to make up for my other failures!

I’m not going crazy (as far as I know) and I’m not burning myself out either because I’ve never felt more creativity fulfilled in my life. Thing...

Eight Thousand Rabbit Holes Later…

I’ve hated delaying the demo release so long but it has undergone constant changes. The in-flux state makes it hard to nail down a cut off point and every time I try I find a bunch of stuff I want to replace or modify. The other thing in the back of my mind is that I feel like I am right on the brink of leveling up my art skill and I want to do that right now.

Sentimental Penguin is right as usual, building out the game is kind of pointless if the first part of it isn’t polished and...

Course Correction

Thank you very much to everyone that voted in the Early Access poll and double thanks for those that left more detailed feedback! It gave me a lot to think about the past few weeks.

Initially the polls had a negative slant against EA and I was surprised but after giving it some time, the vote is heavily in favor of EA. There were a few valid concerns brought up but the benefits appear to outweigh the limited negatives. 

EA makes sense to me as well with a few important caveat...

Final Tweaks

Hello

I’ve been putting lots of hours into development the past few days trying to get this dastardly demo released. My coffee maker is getting lots of use for sure!

I have Taylor’s audio pretty much nailed down (with the glaring exception of the male voice). It sounds significantly better than the old stuff. I’ve been trying really hard to finalize the cast graphic and voice actor list but I find it to be a difficult task. As I improve one, it creates the need to improve t...

Seven Years of Tango Fiction

Hi everyone.

I had some technical difficulties this month with my primary work station constantly crashing. I wasted a bunch of energy trying to fix it and then it magically started working again so I am glad I didn’t throw it out a window 😛

I always think the Tango Fiction anniversary is on the 28th but it is the 24th. Time flies! Seven years plus is a lot of time to devote to something even as a hobby. I have some patrons as well that have been around for most of the journe...

Art Projects

Howdy.

I have another big post coming but instead of that and ending another month without releasing much, I wanted to post some content for you all. 

As you are probably aware, I am experimenting with a bunch of different AI systems. Transfigure’s renders are starting to look pretty decent but other projects are being released that are pretty cool too. Boundaries are getting pushed. The amount of art and content possible is pretty much off the charts.

One of ...

Charting New Paths

As mentioned in a preceding post, I intend to release the full version of Transfigure in late 2025. This post is about how we are getting there and some of the potential paths going forward.

Basically, the core question is: what do I do with the demo once it is finished? There are several strategies even within Steam that can change the way I develop the game. For example, the current strategy...

More Demo Polish

The demo is looking a lot sharper. The patch notes are getting long. I will let you all play it as soon as it is ready. I am trying for a release around the end of the month but it might take a little bit longer. My productivity rates are quite high now. I am consuming a lot of caffeine. 

Part of me hates redoing art and voice work but now that I see how much better everything feels I am not conflicted about the choice. The main development obstacle is that everything is interconne...

Music Mondays?

It was either that or Soundy Saturdays. 

One new thing I am doing this year to tackle the beast that is Transfigure is to divide up the biggest jobs into manageable tasks. I’ve learned a lot over the years including how to manage myself and my style. What I’ve found is by volume I produce the most and what I consider to be the best content when I am creatively free to do whatever I want. This leads to a build up of raw unfinished or near finished content which is awesome long t...

Demo Polish 

Howdy!

I am in demo polish mode. I’ve tested multiple fonts and a few cosmetic UI upgrades. I’ve also begun reshooting a lot of the demo’s CG. (I hear the groans, lol)  I didn’t want to do this again but I have to and I am already glad that I did. The new art looks much better than the old art. I don’t want the first graphics people see to be the lowest quality in the game.

The p...

Promotional Materials Preview + Holiday Devlog

Hi Tango Fiction readers.

A new corporation has been set up and the admin work is mostly done so let’s preview some of the promo materials!

I have designed a pretty spiffy Steam page and rewrote the character synopsis area. I hope to show that off in the next update or two.

I’ve spent a lot of time this month rewriting everything to be as punchy as possible.

Before I can take final promotional screenshots I need to finalize a few ui elements and pick a font. I’ve...

Happy Holidays from Tango Fiction

Hi there. Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

As always, thanks for your patience and support! 

It has been a busy month and today is a busy day so I will keep this post short. A follow up status post will be out on the 27th.

I’ve made a decent amount of progress, mainly on getting the demo presentable, admin work, and the production of promotional assets for Steam. This part is difficult for me because these promotional bits influence sales significantly so ...

Introducing Louise

Howdy.

After a few days of fiddling I finally got Louise's model to an acceptable quality level. She has a lot of tattoos and this created a lot of weird issues clashing with other shells and textures. I was going a bit batty there trying to get everything I wanted to work. I left the Louise model as one of the last to create because I knew it would take a bit of extra effort to get it to look right and her story appears further into the tale so it was lower in priority.

I looked...

Dev Report - Celebrity Flair

So this week I fixed hundreds of minor bugs to get the game script running towards a demo cut off.

I still have a few pieces to add to the engine in order to complete the porting process but it is essentially done.

I was always aware that the game had a lot of dead choices but the past year has really allowed me to corral them all together and look at them en masse for the first time.

I flagged several areas that will probably be altered to remove a pointless dead choice.&nb...

Halloween Art

Hi.

Time for a Halloween art post!

This month was a mixed bag. I started off great and I tried to keep that momentum going but I ended up exactly where I never wanted to be again. I had a repeat of what happened to me in July and it sucked big time. I won’t dwell on it; I’m just glad to be functional again and that it resolved a bit faster than last time. The next six months for me are about production and personal health. 

On the good news fron...

Feature Complete Game!

Hi!

I worked my beak off the past couple weeks and I have some news to report. I have topped off my development funds for the next few months. I have a tight budget but this will keep me going until the next stage. I have some office work to complete before Steam lets me submit but the ducks are all lining up slowly.

Even though I didn’t have a lot of spare time recently, I used every moment I could to nearly complete what I call the Transfigure blueprint. I wrote down all the a...

Progress Report

Hello Tango Fictioneers!

So here is an update on recent progress plus some bimbo Taylor art. For starters, I added a lot of the final html content to the script including Ryan, The Clarks, Julie, and Tim’s stories. As a byproduct of development, I’ve corralled all the dead ends into easily identifiable areas and have begun writing a lot more to fill in a lot of the blanks that are holding up various other scenes and, by extension, releases.

As I port the last couple ro...

Art and status post time!

Howdy.

Art and status post time!

So far this month I finished the ZMP section of the script and the Bloomverse has been added as well. Over half of the existing ends are in the script and I just have a few sections left to edit and complete to reach text parity with the html version. The audio work is mostly finished as well, giving me a large archive of appropriate music and sound effects all organized for the next chapter of production. I have finalized several character...

Sam Poll

Looking for feedback on the new Sam model. Thank you in advance.

Long Development Log and Roadmap Post

Hello everyone! 

So the last month sucked really badly. It involved multiple hospitals, a lot of strong drugs, and me redefining my pain scale. It was pretty bad and I’ve been stressing about updates for the past few weeks. I have now healed enough where I don’t need the drugs with the worst side effects and I can physically use my primary workstation again. I am also finally clear headed and can think and move which is awesome. The summer is now a good chunk over and I have a ...

More Character Art - Mature Transfigure Cast

Development continues steadily. I have created many new assets for the game. I also redid some characters from earlier in development that needed work.

An example is Lucas. The new model is a lot closer to the original concept. Hopefully this gets my favorite penguin’s approval.

Also up for comment is Margaret Roux and Dr. Bloom. I like both of these models. That reminds me I should make a pinup with Sandra, Marg, and Bloom. Teddy’s model I am less sure a...

Art Up

The transfer from html to Ren’Py continues. At this rate I am hopefully finished or close by the end of June.

I have continued working on the sound system and have picked about 100 songs for the project I am trying to narrow down into some final themed playlists. I’ve also filled in nearly all the sound effects I need for the project with the exception of some “adult noises.” There are around 200 of these new sfx. I’ve also replaced some of the lower quality effects.

Wri...

Audio and Graphics Update

This month I’ve been trying to polish the demo and for that two of the areas that stood out were some graphical and audio upgrades.

I’ve already tried to establish some unique audio themes. For example, Mitch gets a lot of aggressive tracks. I’ve debated what kind of tone I want to set with the game’s audio direction. The two main camps are generally to go more humorist, with cartoon sound effects and the like. For example, a character touches breasts and they make like a...

Transfigure Demo H

Time for an overdue update! 

Progress has been fairly rapid although I still feel perpetually behind. I broke and fixed the 3D game several times which was a bit stressful but it worked out for the best. I also added a large amount of the html game’s written content to the Ren’Py engine. I want the demo to launch with nearly all of the UI features in the final game so I tried my best to get all of those features in this build. Since I taught myself how to do a lot of the...

Render Roundup and Status Update

Hi everyone.

I want to finish Transfigure as soon as possible.

The past three weeks I’ve begun work in earnest on the main Transfigure 3D release beyond the scope of the demo. This has essentially tripled the game’s size. I’ve also got a fair bit faster at coding in Python as I gradually learn more.

Craig’s content has been coded into Ren’Py and I’m nearly done with most of the existing Yellow Potion and cosplay stories. It’s not 100% complete and lacks graphic...