Development Update - 3rd of May 25
Hey everyone,
We usually share these weekly updates with paid members, but going forward, we'll aim to share a public one at the start of each month so everyone can see where we're at and what we're doing to progress.
Overall, things are moving forward, albeit slower than we'd initially hoped and planned. That said, we're very excited about the enhancements we're making, and we believe the period here with fewer game releases will be worth it in the long run for the ongoing quality of The Seven Realms and our other planned projects.
[One of our custom-built environments for the Mermaid Realm]
While we've been fixing this, we could not get any of the scenes to their "final states", so we have a lot of things that are "half-ready." During May, we will work towards fixing and finalising more character side paths. Once the side paths are done, we'll move full steam ahead with Realm 4. We won't have a release during May, but we hope to release more side paths in June!
I mention things being "half-ready" - what I mean by this is we have over half of the Realm 4 "posed" and numerous animations animated, but we're yet to fully optimise all of the environments and add the final lighting. Therefore, we don't have loads to show off, but much of the groundwork has already been laid.
[Low quality previews - sadly, the characters will be clothed in the final scene, though]
We've worked on overhauling some of the characters' features to improve the visual fidelity of their models while also updating their looks in line with how we think the characters are evolving within the story. We're not physically altering how the characters look (such as re-creating their faces or bodies), we're upgrading things like their hairstyles and clothing.
You'll see Kali's new look atop this post. We could go into an unnecessarily detailed explanation of why we've updated her look and how it reflects her character development, but we won't for now. We hope you like the new look!
Below are the new hairstyles for Naya and Leyala!
Comments (8)
That's a good and interesting approach to Kali! I do wonder why her hair is longer since I got used to her with shorter hair, and though I usually like long hair on women, I see it as not practical for both combat and IMO posing in 3D scenes and risking clipping. I love the new looks on the characters so far, especially Naya's hair. Keep up the great work in Blender!
Ooooo, public. More SP 🙌🏻! Take however long you need with the game. This game is PERFECTION 😁!!! Our characters are going to be clothed for the final scene 😭. But then again, people can easily make clothes look sexy and great as well. Bring out their full potential 😛. And that's what our characters always do 🥰. Love Kali's new look & the hairstyle for Naya and Ley 😍! Like I said, "Can't wait to see the rest of the cast 😘!" Excitedly looking forward to ACTC! "I KNOW WHO'S MY FAVORITE 😋!" Thanks for the update, Jay! You and your team's hard work and dedication to your crafts and game ARE INSPIRING and a BEAUTIFUL SIGHT/THING to read 🔥😁. Have an amazing and beautiful week, everyone! Catch you all—ON the next one ✌🏻😉 (bang bang)!
Thank you so much for that detailed report. I'm a retired video game dev who "suffered" through the early iterations of what would become the Unreal Engine and some very forgettable console titles. Thus, your collisions where grand plans meet unexpected outcomes resonate with me...🥵 As for Kali...well...either by design or by happy accident, fictional, created characters can become surprisingly evocative. She brings to my mind an old James Taylor song: And when you give me that pretty little pout It turns me inside out There's something about you, baby I don't know Thus you will understand why ANY alteration to a key character will make folks feel, at first, very, very nervous 😉
Kali is beautiful, but why is her hair darker? In Terran, she was the same level as her father. In Pythonium, she was darker. In High Lathion, she is about the same. Will her hair color continue darken as time progresses? If so, is she dyeing it or is there another mechanism at work?
We’ve kept the colour as close as possible here. As for Realms 1-3, we’d made no alterations to her character model, so it was the same throughout. I think the main reason it looks different is simply the difference in lighting. Realm 1 was done with very bright lights, so it likely made her hair appear lighter. Here, the lighting is dark, so it looks darker :)
Good job 👍 Man, kali ❤️ I know that last time you, guys, said that you're hesitating. But the final result is gorgeous!
Thank you! The previous version we tried was completely different from this one and just didn’t work with her face at all. This hair we are super happy with! :)
Keep up the good work devs.