News From the Six Realms #96 - Summer Days

Hey all,

Once again, it's time for a round-up of what is happening here at Venus Noire. After what feels like an eternity, we are finally approaching the end of Act I. This means that we are currently very busy working on plans for Act II, some of which we have discussed the vagueries of in past news posts, and we'll be sharing more about it in the future (including teasers and concept art) as we get closer to the end of this act. Here is a quick list of what is left to do before we can move on, though:

• Helayna NPC arc (nearly finished)

• X'zaratl NPC arc (one event left)

• Jezera favour arc (one event left)

• Che-Lin Blackholt arc (two events, one short debrief event)

• Tue-San Blackholt arc (one event, one short debrief event)

• Fae (still a few events, but not relevant in this situation as it will be continued after we move onto Act II, hopefully by a returning Hooky)

• Astarte (remaining parts of overlord and sabotage paths)

• Epilogue

As you can see, it's not a million miles from being done. Hopefully, there will be only a few more releases before we get there.

I mainly bring this up because the next release, due at the end of this month, will include the first part of the epilogue. I was planning on working on the Tue-San wedding for this release, but due to some planning issues, I have instead pivoted to work on the final narrative part of the act instead. You'll see a mixture of friendly faces, some who haven't had any content for a while (No, NOT Koh :P), and even some new ones in the later parts, coming in future releases. I'm hoping to include a sex scene for our hero with Alexia, as well as a gay one as we haven't had one of those for a while. Meanwhile, Rein is continuing to hammer away at Astarte on the non-servant route, including a Zii-Zii scene that has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, most of the other writers continue to either be unavailable or have to deal with real-life issues, but I'm hoping DM will make some progress on the next Che-Lin event (hopefully to be ready for the next release) and Winter will turn in a supplementary scene for the Jezera NTR path.

On the art side, I received the sketches from Momdadno earlier today, and I will share the first one later with the backers after I have finished and posted this. The good news is that we are finally almost caught up on the missing sex CGs, which means I can have Sommy do less of those and instead focus on preparation work for Act II. He'll be doing that this month by providing me with two new BGs I need for the epilogue.

That's all for today. I know it has been a long road to get here, but the end is finally in sight, and we are just as excited to move on to Act II as the rest of you are - believe me. As usual, the release will be on the last Sunday of the month, which this time falls on the 27th.