To Be A King's Two Year Retrospective (Patreon)

I missed the exact two year anniversary of To Be A King's first release, so here's a two year retrospective a couple of weeks late.

First, let's do the numbers (through Chapter 7):

• Total game renders: 5831
• Total chapters: 7
• Average time between release: 4 months
• Current Love Interests: 12 (and still more to formally announce)
• Avg. Hours To Develop A Chapter: 400
• Times I Have Been Offered Money To Remove Valentina From the Game: 7
• My Favorite Character: Hey, this isn't a number!

The Good

For my first game on my own (though a massive shoutout to Inkwell and Xor at Thunderline for seeing the first few chapters through with script feedback and coding work), I am pleased. It isn't a total trainwreck, and really, that's about all you can ask for. I like to think it has gotten better, as well. Future players who can play through most of the game (whenever that dream becomes a reality) won't have to spend much time slogging through poor dialogue, worse renders, and weird game mechanics choices.

I have a few very popular game characters, and very few of them are hated (sorry, Isabella). Aelinia and Kaylan continue to dominate like two heavyweight prize fighters, but it will be interesting to see how others might challenge them as the game goes on. I don't see Kaylan fans dropping off anytime soon though. Cronut clearly is trying to rig things as Goddess Anna (aka, Annie from Last Call in an alternate universe) grows in popularity.

For the MILF fans, all I can say is that I'm sorry. I've failed you. My sweet spot is clearly characters in their 20s to early 30s. As a consolation prize, please accept either Diana or Helena. I may be throwing you some bones in later chapters with ladies who you can at least enjoy some lewd content with.

My ultimate goal of close to realistic breasts in a visual novel is nearly complete. The dforce breasts and some new morphs I picked up over the last few months have helped massively there. After all, there was no breast augmentation back then. Even in an alternate history of the Roman Empire.

Oh, and I probably have way too much story left in To Be A King, if I don't rapidly fast forward to the end before then. There are numerous adventures, exotic environments I'll have to try to construct, and definitely some twists that you hopefully do not see coming. It certainly is all great practice and a good base to draw from for other renders.

The best part of it all is that I've learned a lot. Each release gets a little bit better, and, sometimes, it even gets easier. Whether it is lighting, textures, posing, expressions, or my creation process, there is always something to improve on or test out. Now as long as Daz can hold off releasing Genesis 9 models for a couple more years, I should be golden.

The Bad

Oof. Let's see. We will start with the enormous amount of work that a release takes and the pressure you feel from missing artificial and unrealistic deadlines. Yes, that part really blows. Creative work is especially tough in this way as if I have a crappy week in some other area of my life, my game development is going to be mediocre to non-existent. Not fun when you're juggling everything else. There has been burnout, many times I look at my work and weep (not in a good way), and just think I'll never get anything productive done. I've learned those are the times to just walk away and come back the next day. Nothing good will come from trying to fight through that.

Any semblance of a regular release schedule has been completely missing. I continue to try to make adjustments, but sometimes real life gets in the way. All I can promise here is to keep trying to improve on this. Volume 1 being done is at least an accomplishment.

If I could kill off half the love interests, I would. No offense to any of them, but it is getting to be quite a feat to track all the different relationships, timing for events, etc. Take note, aspiring developers: avoid the urge to just keep adding love interests. As Nancy Reagan used to say: "Just Say No." It doesn't help that creating new characters is one thing I thoroughly enjoy. Maybe a wave of plague sweeps through Caudium to thin the herd. Just kidding. I could never do that to you all.

The story is sprawling, even with me trimming it with a machete to keep it from getting even more overwhelming. The advice I often here is that your first game should be short and over in a handful of releases (5-7 max). Do as I say and not as I do: this is excellent advice. Right now, I envy the folks who do comics or very short VNs. To Be A King will get done, but when is the big question mark.

The Facts Of Life

Those of you into 80s TV shows will find humor in the headings I've chosen. After 2 years, where are we with To Be A King? I thought we would be done by now, but the story grew, love interests were added, and I decided to take a slower approach to letting the narrative unfold. Maybe you like that and maybe you don't. But now I've fully embraced the TV show method of production: focus on some key stories and character development. Maybe my next one is more like an action thriller or a comedy. Though Valentina does give us quite a bit to laugh at.

My goals for the rest of this year are pretty simple:

• Launch on Steam
• Get another 2 releases out before Christmas
• Quit fiddling with updates textures and environment changes
• Finish my presets for this and future game development
• Spend a bit of time learning Unreal Engine basics

Thank you for reading this far, and for enjoying the game as much as you do. It definitely boosts the spirits when I'm grinding in development to see your theories, hear which characters you like most, and know that you are enjoying the content. Maybe we should do a retrospective again next year.