Imperial Grace
2022 wrap up
We also begin the programming, not the sprite part, but all the “logical part”, it involves a tooooons of variable since the game rely heavily on his choices and a lot of them requires to keep track on the long run. It’s a very important step, because we need to have a good global vision to make sure the game isn’t too hard or too easy. So yeah, a lot of sexy spreadsheet this month!
Considering the progress, I am fairly confident the french version of the game will be done before the end of 2023, however, translation take a lot of time, especially since we have to wait for the french version to be perfect before starting the translation of a scene. Anyway, those considerations might delay the release at 2024 (especially since I worked too hard on the game to release Imperial Grace in November-December where there is a shit ton of AAA games to take all the visibility).
I have a big announcement to make in January so stay tuned!
As always, thank you for your patience and support, I hope you will have lovely winter celebrations with your friends or family and I wish everyone a happy new year!
May 2023 be kinder than 2022.
Ayael
Demo patch note
Changes and additions:
- Added CG (coronation scene)
- Simplification and rewording of warning messages in the introduction and tutorial (many people didn't know what Renpy was so it was very confusing for them)
[Bug fixes:
- Fixed several typos and spelling mistakes. I hope I didn't forget any of them (this time I learned my lesson and when someone points one out I'll write it down in a file instead of trying to remember where it was pointed out to me >.< )
- Fixed a sprite where the MC wasn't biting her lip although the text says she is biting her lip.
- Fixed a bug on the textbox (a line that explored infinity)
Known bugs not yet fixed:
- A special letter is not always well displayed in the messages type "letter" (rare). I think it depends on the PC configuration, but I'm still identifying the cause and I can't reproduce it on my machine yet.
- The game over, especially "Weight of Secrets", has the title eaten away in full screen mode (but not in windowed mode), I'm still working on how to solve this bug.
That's it, that's all for now! Thank you for your support, don't forget to join our mailing list if you are not already in <3
Q&A live stream
The live will start at 8pm (UTC+1).
The live will be recorded and post on youtube so if you can't be there, don't hesitate to join our discord and ask your questions beforehand, I will make sure to answer them too.
Meanwhile I thank again Reaper, for allowing me to use her let's play of the demo during this event, and give you rendez-vous tognight same hour for the last part of my own let's play with my husband Benjamin!
Ayael
Women's day demo stream
During this stream you can expect:
- Lot's of dev anecdote about the game dev process
- Updated version of the demo with the CG!
- My french accent and how the names are orignally meant to be pronounced.😁
Steam page update and international women's week
In honor of this event, the Steam page is getting a makeover! Since its creation, we've had some new assets made, such as CGs, and it seemed important to update the content to reflect these changes.
We've also added a link to our newsletter directly on the Steam page, since it's *the* place to get exclusive content about the game.
(The third CG, which doesn't appear on the main page but deserves to be featured, too!)
Also, we completely rewrote the "adult content" part. We’ve always wanted to be as accurate as possible so as to protect players, but we also realized that it gave the wrong idea to many players, because people tend to always imagine the worst. That's why we chose to put a more general message on the Steam page, and to add a separate document that is more detailed but contains spoilers. Everyone can choose to read through them or ignore them, depending on how sensitive they are to the topics discussed.
Finally, we created an FAQ to answer reccurent player questions. It will be expanded as we go along.
Thanks again to everyone for your support!
Ayael
2021 wrap-up
So first, I am sorry but, we are behind schedule. Believe me, it’s even more painful for me, because I really want to get things done, but life happened for various members of the team including me, and it can’t be helped. I don’t want to set up a new tentative release date, because then I will just have to watch it crumble in front of my eyes again, I can just say it won’t be in 2022.
Our accomplishments this year:
- Releasing a demo !!!
- Creating our steam page ; It was… something. Hopefully we had some help from our publisher Abiding Bridge, I can’t imagine how people deal with it alone.
- Opening our discord
- Writting 60 308 words for the main story
- Finishing all sprites needed for the game ; 11 characters with 10+ expression, and a couple of sprites for nameless NPC !
- Finishing the first 3 CG of the game ; the graphist really outdone herself there, they are all so gorgeous.
- Improvement of the outline ; I really had to scope knife this, I am really satisfied now, I feel like I have cut out all the boring stuff.
- Creating 624 tweets ; I don’t have the numbers for tumblr, but I still wanted to include this here, because marketing is actually very time consuming, and unfortunately it matters too in the production of the game....
What is planned for 2022:
- Reveal of the two last side characters of the game.
- Finishing the main writing of the story, I expect ~100 000 more words
- A couple more CG
- Completing proofreading and translation of chapter 2 to 5.
- A little update on the demo ~
Also, I decided, I wanted the newsletter to be a cozy place for people who like Imperial Grace. I realized recently, it’s the only place nobody can take away from me so I want to cherish it more. Starting January, people in the newsletter will receive one mail per month, with little gifts, articles about the game (about the lore, the characters, behind the scenes…) or devlogs (I am thinking to do a devlog every 3 month, since I actually don’t like to write them because they take a lot of time...). Some stuff will be exclusive, other just a couple of month early access, I don’t know yet. All of this is kinda experimental, so don’t hesitate to give me feedback on things you liked or didn’t liked. If you haven’t join it yet, you can subscribe here.
Finally, I have a lot of marketing plans, like revamping a bit the itchio/steam page, doing something cool for #WomensHistoryMonth and keeping posting nice screenshot on twitter/tumblr !
I wish everyone a very happy holiday season, may 2022 be favorable to you!
Demo release
If you want to follow more closely the development, feel free to join our mailing list, or our tumblr. <3
Known bug :
- Music will still restart every time you reach the hub, I am working on this issue, I will patch it in the next release.
- If you switch between french/english during your playthrough, your registered choice at the end, will be displayed in both languages. Unfortunately, it’s not something we can fix as it’s an engine problem.
Compatibility with demo 1.0 on itchio
For those who played the 1.0 version in itchio, you previous save should be compatible, this updated demo does not bring extra story, but there is still a few extra features for you to enjoy!
New features:
- Custom your MC, customisation will appear in the textbox and in your new save files !
- Achievements, you can now earn 5 achievements, will you catch them all ? ~
- Add the resource chest into the policies screen so you can display/hide your current resources.
- Add a « skip » button in the hub, it skips directly to the next scene even if you have actions remaining. [Note : I do not recommend using it even in story mode as petitions are really important for the story.]
- Add a « cancel » button in the policies screen so you can take a look without consuming actions.
- Add a new register choice (minor spoiler: dealing with the bastard brother). It’s for science. I want to know how many players are evil XD
Bugfix
- Fix typos and remaining oversight
- Fix the « music restart at every line » problem at the end of some scenes bug.
- Now, notifications appear in the English version too (everyone deserves to know when they lose money)