Progress Report

Greetings, everyone!

What a week, huh? Long Live the Princess was finally completed and released, and it even seems to be free of bugs (knock on wood). I hope you've all been enjoying the full game after all these years.

I took the opportunity to give myself a little time off to gather myself and get ready to focus 100% on Supermodel's development, so I have done very little actual work outside of community interaction and support this past week. I will rest for a few more days, and then I will get back to work. Considering the onslaught of game releases right now, this is the perfect time to cleanse my mind and take inspiration from other games.

But let's talk about Supermodel for a moment. From now on, these progress reports will be exclusively focused on that game unless something important pops up for LLtP. 

Supermodel

Despite resting, I have put a considerable number of hours into music production this week. I consider this resting since it overlaps with my hobbies anyway, so no worries there. It's a bit hard to quantify the work I'm doing on this front since it's of a technical nature. Basically, I've been spending hour after hour after hour doing nothing but tweaking knobs to mix and master a track I've been working on, and it's paying off. I'm delighted with how it is turning out, which is promising for the rest of this project. Ideally, I want to compose the entirety of Supermodel's soundtrack without licensing any parts of it from third-party composers.

I have also done a tiny bit of character design, but that's about it for the past week.

So, the million-dollar question: What will happen now? You're here because you enjoy Long Live the Princess. Why should you even care about Supermodel? And all this talk about card game mechanics is a real turn-off. You want more LLtP, dammit!

The problem I've had with Supermodel so far is that it is extremely difficult to communicate what it is. Since the card game is easier to describe and will be the first fully implemented feature, it has been what I have talked about most of the time. That changes now.

Let us talk about the other aspect of Supermodel and why you should care about it. Suppose you set aside the card game (which you can literally set aside by turning it off altogether). In that case, Supermodel will feature a lengthy and highly involved VN (visual novel). While I have put a lot of focus on the photography aspect of the story so far, that is far, far from the only thing going on here. I intend to tell a mature, dark story that dives into heavy topics. The superheroes and photo sessions are only part of this, with the greater focus on character drama, mystery, and a grand, global conspiracy. The writing will be much more detailed and novel-like than LLtP. 

My focus right now is to get the card game prototype out there for you to play with as soon as humanly possible, perhaps even this year (but don't hold your breath just yet). But I have come to realize that it is just as crucial to demonstrate clearly what the main gameplay loop in Supermodel will actually be, and the card game will not be sufficient to do that. I will get back to you later with my plans for this but suffice it to say, I will have to show off something tangible as soon as possible. Preferably before people leave the Patreon and SubscribeStar campaigns due to a lack of interest.

For now, I only ask that those of you who are fans of LLtP trust me for a bit longer. Supermodel is not what you may think it is. Some of you have told me that the game's theme doesn't interest you, which is indescribably frustrating since I know that the theme is not what it looks like on the surface. That is my problem to solve, and I will solve it. For now, just trust that I will deliver a game that might blow your expectations out of the water, especially if you think Supermodel isn't for you.

In any case, I can't wait to focus all my attention on Supermodel going forward. I have great confidence in this game, and once you see it for yourselves, I'm sure most of you will understand why. 

Until next time!