Tales of Saunia Progress Check-in (Patreon)

Hi all! I'm making a post to talk a little bit about how Tales of Saunia progress is going. Since we're still very early in the project, we don't have many polished pieces to show off. Instead, we're experimenting with style, design, and layout, so I thought I'd share some pieces of that!

The first image is a mockup of the combat UI layout. Although the game is expected to be predominantly visual novel, the combat sections require a higher amount of coding and design, so that's where a lot of attention is going. Obviously this is still very rough, but it's helpful to figure out spacing and arrangement before drilling into detail. We intend to have a slightly modified UI for each character tailored to their unique kit and personality. The left will have a statue portrait of the character, and the right will have kit specific elements, like Crystal's petal charges.

The second image is a simplified "mage sight" mode, where the scenery is minimized so the map layout can be seen as clearly as possible. We intend this view to be accessible with a button hold anytime, which should allow us to make more visually interesting maps without impacting gameplay.

The last image is a screenshot from my Twine layout, where I'm planning out the different story scenes. This is the first section of the game, so the titles should have little to no spoilers. The story is intended to be largely linear, but since there are stories happening across the world, the player can experience them in the order they choose. This hourglass (or perhaps anal bead) pattern will repeat through the game as different stories split and characters reunite for big events.

Keep an eye on the Patreon this month for additional designs of existing characters, and designs for characters fully original to this new setting! We'll finish up December's Flora and Sauna build, and then dedicate the rest of January to Tales of Saunia!

Thanks you for all your support, and for reading my super long essay!

-Oz