A Long Awaited Update (Patreon)

Saturday post from the computer of the resident Griffon

Hello everyone! It has been 11 weeks since our last bi-weekly Saturday post! Wow! Quite a few things to go over in this post and to update everyone on what exactly has been going on during this slow time. First and foremost, as was posted in the discord server, our lead character artist, Yoditax has unfortunately stepped back from the project. As well as the departure of our main vector artist, Proceleon. Admittedly, progress was slow with the loss of our character artist, and while writing, coding, and background art goes smoothly, a lot of time has been spent trying get some replacements.

This leads into the next section into what most of our time during these past weeks has been put into...Hiring! Recruiting, scouting, searching away for a couple of artists, one being the new main character design artist, and the other being a vectorist! This is of course a lengthy process with applicants who have applied and for artists we have reached out to. Completing assignments and overall scoping them out to find an artist that produces at the pace and consistency that we are happy with, as well as a style we are happy with.

Our Hiring process goes as follows:

1. We make the post that describes the position like the one below!
   A post looking for any potential vector artists.
2. Getting our post out and about to people who are looking for work.
3. Build test assignments that meet the minimum standards we are looking for! Things like how many hours they can work, how long some assignments take, monetary price etc etc.
4. Make posts to resources
5. Give responses
6. Contact the top prospects and get them started on test assignments!

These past weeks have mostly been spent on step 6, but of course we still get new applications and go through the process with them to get the best potential artists for this project! Below are some examples that we are talking about and what can be expected if you wish to apply!

Other than that, we have still had other progress from our background artist, Jowy! Recently creating some assets for the desk room introduction at the beginning of the game!

Lastly, more progress being made on the Jumprope engine for the project! Things completed include creating the UI for Jumprope in Unity, implemented automated visual testing tools, Homestead specific functionality, a decrease in dependencies, and a whole lot more! Jumprope has been worked on almost nonstop and the list of additions and just how Jumprope works could be multiple posts all on their own! So of course, if you have any questions and are interested in Jumprope, then do not hesitate to ask!

All of us truly cant thank each and every one of you for sticking with us while we work this out! A lot of greatness is coming very soon, and posts are going to continue with progress! Of course, if you aren't part of the discord, be sure to link your patreon and discord accounts to be invited to the Heartsong Discord server where progress updates, dev talk, questions, and much more can be answered! Thank you all once again and I hope you all have a great rest of your Saturday. See you all shortly!

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