Under the Table at Handlewood

Between working on ExcA epilogues, housekeeping and bonus content, I've also been working on getting the demo set up for my next project, and I wanted to show off the title and then some!

Welcome to Handlewood Lodge, a tavern located on the edge of the city of Dorter. It's run by an orc who goes by the name of Rude, and you find yourself in his care after the carriage transporting you to Galanor crashes. To most, it's a normal tavern, a place to drink, eat and lodge for the night, but to others, those Rude can trust, there's a bit more going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, that's a general idea for the start. There's a lot more to it, but I won't get giving out too many details about the store for now. But, if you've played any of my other projects in the world of Talestrios, you'll definitely see how this story ties in with those! You don't -have- to have played them, but if you have, you'll know some lore stuff (you might even see some past characters eventually)! (Endless Bounty, Engaging Destiny, Exploring Friscott and Tales of Lorithel: Bonds of Royalty are all projects in the same world!)

Now, for some other details! As I'm sure I've mentioned, CaptainGerBear is on board to be my character artist again, and his husband, Casey (some of you know him for doing the flash comic Buying Time!), will be my background artist for this project. Them working together really brings some extra stuff to the table.

One feature I'm excited to show off is lighting changes. We've moved from the painted style of ExcA to use cel shading instead. Because of this, I can implement a lighting system for character sprites!

You can see in this example (keep in mind, it's not final colors!), but the character sprites' shading will change to better suit the background now, unlike how in ExcA, the sprites always have the same lighting. I wanted this to be a bit more dynamic, and it is! And a huge thanks to Medwyn for setting up better code for me, cause what I was doing was easy, but there was A LOT, and he helped streamline it.

That's probably one of the biggest changes I can show off right now. The other things will have to come once I have a demo ready to go. I'm just trying to get it to the real meat of the project before I share that. Since ExcA is still my primary focus, it's taking time to get there, but it's coming along nicely! I can't wait to show off more.

Well, outside of this. Here are a few of the characters you'll meet early on (with some UI elements designed by Hiroshi!). Vel, Rude and Orty (along with the human MC, Gallagher).

And of course, you guys can expect to hear some music from Civ again for this project! He's already started, and I'm pleased with what he's done!

That's all I have to share for now! I hope you all look forward to this new story, as I'm getting more and more excited about it.

Thanks to everyone for the support! These projects wouldn't be possible without you, so thank you for all that you guys do~ Thank you!