It's been a while since I talked about general progress and the state of the game itself, and there have been a few big changes over the last few months, so I'd like to ramble for a bit.

When I first started this project, I was making it in Sugarcube, although most of the code was typescript. Other than Unity, it was all I really knew. This was a limitation born of my own hesitation to push my capabilities. I kept second guessing just how deep of a game I could make Trials of Faith. This gradually faded over time thanks to the work and urging of my co-developer. It went from being a text-based game to an isometric RPG. I started making music for it. And, most recently, we made the decision to leave Sugarcube behind entirely in favor of the Godot engine. This was a learning process at first, but we're already far past the point we were at in the Sugarcube version of the game. More importantly, I'm enjoying this engine far more. I believe I forgot what it felt like to have fun making a game. My motivation is at an all-time high, and progress is constant.

So, allow me to share a few things with you all! Keep in mind that things are still subject to change, and nothing being shown is final.

Firstly, I've shown off the portraits of two of the party members so far, but haven't yet shown off the generic base that will be used for the player and randomly generated NPCs, so allow me to correct that. My artists have done great work.

This is the editor view, the proper character creation menu will be easier on the eyes. Hopefully. My last project taught me a thing or two about layers and modularity, so I hope to make things easier to manage from the start.

On the subject of my last project, you may notice the names of a few of the Noble Houses, as well as the names of certain powers and organisations, change on my earlier posts that mention them. They were references to my last project, but I have decided to remove those. This is an entirely original work separate from that project and I don't wish for there to be any expectations of parity between it and Trials of Faith.

The House selection menu feels much more competent now, with smoother animations and the ability to select on-click as well as with the provided buttons and arrow keys, all in a third of the amount of time and effort that it took in Sugarcube.

The Isometric view has made good progress as well, with a working (but currently primitive) minimap. I'm quite happy with how much easier everything is in the new engine. Trying to make isometric systems from scratch was very tedious and challenging, while also requiring a third-party program to build the maps. That's no longer an issue here.

Work has started on the overworld map. It is in a very early state, and is still using programmer art (like much of the rest of the project). I'm quite happy with the fog of war shader that my co-dev has made, though.

Lastly, I'd like to share the game's title theme with you, along with a couple shorter tracks I've made in the meantime. Composing music again after so many years has been very therapeutic. I'm fortunate to have a talented vocalist lending me her voice.

I'll probably revise each of these a dozen more times each before I'm happy with them.

Next month will be another companion showcase. See you then!

"It's a simple thing to break a starving pup. Rebuke it for snapping at your hand. Let it cower, afraid beyond all else, and the cruel mind will do the hard work for you. Then, grant it the only thing it desires - meat - and it will heel, tame and compliant. It'll even hunt its own kith for you."

Poaching is among one of the most severe crimes a peasant can commit, and is punished accordingly. The means varies on the lord whose land was violated. Castration, mutilation, and the gallows are all possibilities.

Kennet knew not which fate awaited him as he lay in a dirty cell, starving, admonished for the crime of not wishing to starve to death. Whether his next meal was from a noble's lands had no place in his mind. He merely wished to live.

He was a large man, if somewhat gaunt from starvation, but the frame of strength remained. There was no denying that he was skilled, either. The traps he left hidden in that haughty lord's lands were found for months after his arrest. The sheriff who captured him spun a tale of a wild beast, a fire-haired man caked in mud, fresh blood drying about his mouth. A tale much taller than the man in them, yet this embellishment might have been what saved Kennet's life.

He was perfect for the House of Houndmasters, the noble House Romilly. Favour and coin paved a path to his dingy cage, where a dead-eyed hound waited to die, daring not to look up. They offered him the only thing a man in his position could desire. Food and shelter, for as long as he served them. He would be their Gamekeeper. His skills would ensure the prosperity of House Romilly's demesne, keeping stock of and preserving wildlife. Preventing anyone like him from ravishing the rightly-owned lands of the highborn. To call it a choice would be dishonest.

Kennet never learned what punishment would have befallen him, but he would soon come to learn the most important duty of his new position. Part of game preservation included the capture of beast-kin, who were destabilising the ecosystem, according to his new masters. He wasn't to cull these beings, however. He was to use his talents to capture them, and return them to the Romilly estate's kennels for their breeding programme.

His eyes always fixed forward, Kennet learned to ignore the squirms, the words, the pleading, the struggling, even as their claws dug into his back. These were merely animals in the shape of men. Livestock. Animals should not speak. Animals should heel, and obey, as he did. Animals should stop struggling, before he throws them to the ground, climbs atop them, and puts that insolent squirming to an end - but, no. He isn't permitted to violate them. Doing so would see him castrated. That much was made clear to him quite early.

This single-minded dissociative stupor made him unpopular with much of the Romilly estate's other workers. His gaze was shallow and haunting even before his imprisonment, but now carried something else behind them. A submission to a system that was actively hostile to those of his ilk. A terrible acceptance of his place in the world. The only time his eyes weren't fixed forward was when he was being spoken to by someone of noble blood. He simply couldn't keep eye contact. This trait was praised by his masters.

The sounds from the Romilly kennels often keep him awake at night. Sounds of the beast-kin he captured, consigned to life as breeding stock. He turns over and forces his eyes shut. They're merely animals. Yet their cries sound so very human, and so familiar to a sound he's heard before.

His belly was full. Now he was hungry for something else.

Kennet's loyalties aren't much larger than his stomach. If you can offer him more, you may just be able to poach him from House Romilly to serve you instead.

Of course, if you are born of House Romilly yourself, you'll have no need to do this, and he will be available as a companion much sooner.

Base Class: Ranger

Species: Human

Age: Mid 30s

Hair: Red, Chin-length, Bearded

Eyes: Dull Blue

Height: 6'5"

Penis Length: 8"

Sexual Preference: Any (esp. Beast-Kin)

Sub/Dom: Dominant

Attributes: High Strength, Low Identity

Skills: Presence, Fortitude

Afflictions: Dissociation

Weapons: Bows, Nets, Traps, Shortswords

It is an age of struggle. A century of war and plague has ravaged the people of the Sister Kingdoms. Political instability grows, and there seems no sign of better times.

Indeed, the Horseman of War hangs up its swords only for Famine and Pestilence to take them up once more.

It is an age of faith. The common man looks to God for salvation. In his search, he finds only remains; Relics of a Midnight war between occult forces, decades past, capable of producing corruption and miracles in equal parts.

Proof of the divine has reshaped society. The Cloister holds unprecedented power, yet faces foes just as powerful.

It is an age of progress. From these fragments of divinity, a new branch of science, Alchemy, is born. Humanity is transmuted into new forms. Industry is propelled a century ahead.

Yet, from this progress comes further division. Inequality between lord and land swells. Accusations of heresy and witch hunts are commonplace. A man or woman's value may be reduced to their ability to produce offspring, and repopulate.

You, however, are fortunate enough to be born of noble blood. Despite this, the same reduction still applies to you, in a way. You too are expected to produce heirs for your family.

The Crown seeks to consolidate power, the power of the noble is beginning to wane, and time will tell if blood remains thicker than water.

To complicate matters further, one of these divine fragments has turned its gaze upon you. You will face many trials in your duty to your house as the terrors of war, famine, and plague approach.

Producing an heir may not be so simple... It may just be your greatest work.

Trials of Faith is a NSFW RPG, where you take the role of a noble who will soon come to lead their House. The world is populated by both scripted and randomly generated NPCs, whom the player can recruit, mingle with, seduce... or capture.

Further gameplay details will come in a future post, as well as reveals for the companions and some of the other important NPCs.

Much of the game is still in the concepting stage, but the primary isometric map interface is well on its way, as shown in last month's post.

I hope you'll join me on this journey!

Hello again! I'll be aiming to post on the 1st or 2nd of each month going forward, or more often if I have more to show.

The game's first choice will be that of the PC's noble House. This will also be the first step in character creation, followed by the player's sex, gender, and appearance.

Choice of House will place the PC in a different intro, with a different family, and different initial goal (although it will converge somewhat before the end of the prologue). It will have effects throughout the entire game, and may have effects on the PC's initial stats. House Fayne, for example, will begin life in the Cloister, and have a goal of finding evidence against a suspected occult collaborator, in order to confront them with the charge of Heresy.

Speaking of stats...

Being much more of an RPG, the player will have core attributes as well as skills. These five core attributes are Strength, Grace, Vitality, Mind, and Identity. I may speak more on them all, as well as the skill system, next time.

Finally, here's another music track I've composed in the meantime.