(NOTE: These devlogs usually lag behind our official updates. The latest up-to-date information about the game can be found on our team's Patreon page!)

Hi everyone, hope you're doing great! :)

Today we have a lengthy development log, and some new lewd art for you! We'll also cover animations (or lack thereof), because the topic keeps popping up frequently on different forums, in messages, and via e-mails we receive from many of you.

But first, the lewds! :D

The collage below is a teaser from a large set that Vixi finished... These feature none other than Meredith, and are part of an optional encounter with her that starts with a steamy intro, and segues into even hotter sex! You'll be able to choose how to progress through it (Maledom, Femdom, Romance), and the text will change accordingly. Though linear, the sequence is focused heavily on visuals; there's accompanying descriptions for those of you who like to read, and our revamped UI should make it easy to follow the action. Captain Hale will also get points in his personal Maledom / Femdom / Romance stats depending on your choices!

In other news, while Vixi's painting the lewds, Shuky's keeping busy with portrait work for the game's NPCs. They're coming along nicely, and are all done in the style of the portraits seen in the initial release. Each is 1000x1000 pixels, and once ready the asset is downscaled for in-game implementation, allowing us to preserve much of the full detail despite the size reduction. Every one of them is an original piece, and will be paired with a unique NPC you'll encounter in and around the Fort. We'll be showcasing these -- as well as Shuky's art process -- once they're finished. You can see some of her preliminary sketches in the concept pic below...

On the topic of animations, we've already outlined our stance towards animated scenes, but it was a while ago, and we don't expect y'all to read through our entire backlog, so we'll do a bit of an update now... The question seems to come up a lot, as many people who've played the initial release have requested animated scenes without being familiar with just how much time and effort is required to produce them. Especially since we'd have to create them the old-fashioned way (hand-drawn, frame by frame) to make them mesh with the rest of the game's art and its overall style.

Just to clarify something first - we want to add animations to ToLLA. In fact, we'd LOVE to have them in the game! Not only does animated content elevate the game's atmosphere to a whole new level, it also breathes life into the characters you're interacting with. However, the main issue is manpower... or in our case, women power (since both our artists are female). Namely, well-done animations take a very long time to go from conceptual sketch to finished sequence. Developing any new content is always a balancing act - assigning the artists to animation work means less time to do other things. Nevertheless, Vixi whipped up a test anim you can check out below...

The .gif above is made from old leftover sketches that Shuky did for Meredith's set. Vixi took a few of them, and spliced them together into a test animation to demonstrate how it would look in-game. An important fact to point out is that this anim test consists only of keyframes - these are the main 'anchor' frames which direct the flow of the animation. In between each such keyframe come multiple 'filler' frames that smooth out the action. The finished sequence would have easily 5x the number of frames present in the test above, meaning anywhere from 30-60 individual frames per second of hand-drawn animation! And that's just for a single sex scene.

Another issue is coloring. Most animated ero-games have simple coloring schemes that usually consists of no more than 2-3 layers (usually 2 base ones + 1 for shadows and shading). A lot of anime is also done in this style because it allows animators to quickly churn out content, giving their art that distinctly 'flat' look. ToLLA, on the other hand, has pronounced color gradients in its art, because we wanted to give it more of a Western styled aesthetic. Even if we ignored how long it'd take to set up and ink dozens of frames for each sex scene, coloring them would take even longer if we wanted the animations to be in the same style as the static CGs. So simplifying the individual frames isn't possible, because they'd clash with the static lewds. Just compare the Sailor Moon pic below to anything from ToLLA - the coloring styles are vastly different.

From everything above you can see why we're not able to include animations into the game at this time. Hopefully as we continue to expand ToLLA it'll bring in enough funding to allow us to hire a dedicated animator and an additional color artist - both of whom would be the absolute bare minimum needed for quality animation work that wouldn't disrupt Vixi's and Shuky's workflow by delaying their output. Otherwise we'd have to skimp on core content to somehow make room in our production schedule (which is already fully booked from everything else the game needs).

So will we ever animate sex-scenes? Perhaps. We're certainly open to revisiting the topic in the future. We'd also like to make a short but badass intro anim for ToLLA (something like this or this or this or this). But for the time being we're sticking to our guns with static art while we focus our energy on developing the game's story, characters, locations, and mechanics... with lots of hot lewds thrown into the mix! ;)

Many thanks to Vixi and Shuky for providing the technical info for today's post!

And a huge thanks to all of you for reading, and supporting our work! We hope you've enjoyed today's devlog - comment down below, or shoot us a message if you'd like to discuss the topic further. And don't forget to check back often; we'll have more cool stuff to share soon! 

Until then, take care and stay safe! <3

~ Crimson Delight Games

P.S.

The game is currently on a -40% sale, so consider picking up a copy if you'd like to support our work.

And if you love 2D hand-painted erotic art, then consider purchasing our Lewds Library & Bonus Art Pack during checkout. This is an additional purchase you can pick up when getting the game, and holds much of the concept art for ToLLA, with holiday wallpapers in their full resolution, a bunch of pre-production sketches, and over 150 gorgeous hand-painted 2D lewds!

We're also selling an NPC portraits pack that you can grab for your own game-making needs if you're a developer!