Hey everyone!
The Pure Onyx mid-month release will be next week for $10 backers as usual, and will feature the first progress on the much-awaited combat overhaul :D!
Since Pure Onyx updates normally come out between the 15th and 30th of each month, we have a gap in content at the beginning of each month. I'm therefore planning on making updates on XXXIV around this time each month, so our monthly schedule will look something like this, give or take a few days:
- 4th - XXXIV Character Select Poll
- 8th - XXXIV Content Release / Progress Update
- 15th - Pure Onyx $10 Tier Release
- 23rd - Pure Onyx Progress Update
- 30th - Pure Onyx Release
Changes for Future Polls
- The top 3 runner-up characters will appear again in the next poll.
- Runner-up characters that fail to win twice in a row won't appear again until recycled.
- Polls will be 3 days long instead of 7. This is so we can get to work more quickly.
- We're reducing the number of characters from 12 to 10. May change again later on.
- We're aiming to increase diversity among outfit types / hair color / hair length / skin tone / source material for future polls. No more 5 bodysuits >_> if we can help it.
Poll #1 Results!
The votes have pretty much stopped coming in, so we're calling this one early. 7 days was much too long to let it run for ^-^;
The winner is... Malise *and* Tifa @_@!?
So, in an attempt to get ahead and with it looking like Tifa was the clear winner early on, we actually started on her early :D.
As was mentioned in the comments, Tifa is such a popular character that there's not much point putting her into the poll again, so we just decided to finish her ^-^, and thus we will begin work on Malise in a few days once Tifa's sculpt is wrapped up!
This means the runner-up characters that will appear again in the next poll are
- Olga
- Asagi
- Blaze
If you voted on one of the others, no worries, they will make an appearance again.
Tifa Progress!
I hope this will quell some of the skepticism as to whether we can juggle both XXXIV and Pure Onyx, as Kame and Demonu really killed it here! It goes to show that without the need to design the character from scratch it becomes a much simpler task to get solid results.
Our workflow involves Kame starting on the body + a basic head / hair shape, then passing that off to Demonu who does multiple versions of the face and hair. Once they are settled on, we pass that back to Kame who integrates it into his body and outfit sculpt that he's worked on while Demonu does the face/hair. Throughout this process they send me models that I test with our stylized shaders and then give feedback on.
TK, our rigger, is currently working on a rig transfer system that will help transfer rigging between female characters, as it's a time consuming process currently and the number of female characters we've been doing has vastly grown. He will rig TIfa next, and then probably Malise before moving onto the muscle lady boss. We have nearly 6 characters yet to implement for PO that already have completed rigs, so he's well ahead there.
Kame and Demonu have probably one more day each on Tifa, so we will definitely be able to have her rigged and ready by next month! With some luck we can have a WIP Malise to show off for the PO progress update at the end of this month (she will, after all, appear in PO ^-^).