News From the Six Realms #98 - Winter Came

Hello all,

Going to be a quick one this time around as I have a lot to do, but I just wanted to keep you all abreast with what is going on at the moment.

Before we get into the development news, if you haven't already seen on Discord or the socials, we are currently up for best visual novel (I didn't pick the category, don't @ me) over at https://adultgamesweek.com/. There's a day left, and we have a very slim lead of around 40 votes as I type this. If you'd like to give us a vote, it would be very much appreciated. While it would be nice to win, as Rein said earlier, seeing that so many people enjoy the game is rewarding in and of itself.

Okay, down to brass tacks as they say. Work is well underway for the next backer release on my end. I am, as for the past few releases, continuing to work on the epilogue, first finishing the last of the Rowan/Alexia-related events that didn't get added due to time constraints in the previous release, before moving to once again work on the main body of the ever-growing event. Beyond that, I have nothing else writing-wise at the moment. Unfortunately, ongoing personal problems have made Gern once again unavailable for the short term at least, and while Rein continues to work on Astarte, he has committed to getting it in, and DM hasn't had a chance to work on Che-Lin any more as far as I know. This is a little disappointing, as I would like to finish Act I as soon as possible. Until then, I will push on with the epilogue, and hopefully, things will improve in the new year.

On the art side, all of the sketches have now been shared with the backer, and I have all the lines back from MDN, which Sommy is about halfway through colouring. Once he is done with that, he'll go back to pre-production for Act II for the rest of the month. He's already cooked up concept designs for new outfits for most of the cast and finalised the first of the new backgrounds (in much higher resolution) that'll appear in the next game. I'm looking forward to sharing a few sneak peeks at his planned visual improvements in 2026.

As for the release date for the next version and upcoming version, I've made the decision to no longer use the previous two-month hard deadlines, both to make it easier on myself and since backers didn't seem to mind having to wait a little bit longer. The deadlines were fine when we were working as a larger team, but now I have to write nearly all the release myself and code it, on top of my other duties as a team leader; it is incredibly stressful. I was planning to jettison them for Act 2 anyway due to the way the workflow has to change.

So the release won't be out this month. I'm currently aiming for around the 7th of December, but that may change depending on how things go. I will keep you updated if things change.