Realized it has been quite a long time since I've posted here. I'm still alive, and the game work continues. Boy did this next chapter turn into quite the large project. With as large as it is looking to be, there is a good chance that the chapter comes to Steam after I get some additional bug testing on its release. I'm still working on Chapter 12, so the totals numbers are in flux, but it will likely be close to the size of one of the volumes right now. There is just a lot of content and things that need to happen right around each other that it keeps feeling very strange to split the story anywhere during this chapter. If you wanted drama, you'll be getting that in spades. Apart from that, animations are coming with this new chapter, and, if those go well, I'll go back and add them to the previous chapter, as well. Chapters before that were done in a different render engine, so it would be a lot more work to add it into those, and I'd rather get this game finished before I consider that work. I hate to keep you all waiting, but I'll need a bit more time here for the next release.

[ 2025-02-21 14:58:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

One big area I've heard many of you mention, correctly, is that animations are a significant missing part of To Be A King. I'm happy to report that the second part of Volume 2 will include animations with that new content. I hunkered down and spent some time working on the process to produce animations, and I'm pretty pleased with early results. I am not sure about adding them to previous chapters, as that would require reworking all the art in each chapter, given that I've changed quite a bit in my software and processes since those chapters were produced. On my Twitter account you can find some of the test animations I produced, if you are interested. I am still continuing to get comfortable with that whole process and improving my techniques, but it feels good to know those will be included going forward. Their production will add a bit to development time, but I'm hoping to bring down how long those take over the next few releases.
Other than that, there have been some nice workflow improvements that will help me add more content to each release without extending development time significantly. This next part needed a lot more prep work, mostly in terms of better mapping out the remainder of our story for several characters, but things are looking good for the future. That's all for now. I'll leave you with a couple of recent special renders I did to test out things like new environments and clothing. Have a great fall season!

[ 2024-09-05 17:00:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thought I'd drop a quick update here on development progress for the next Steam DLC release. It is going to be packed with new content, and it will probably be another case of this next DLC being as large as everything that came before it. We are getting into the thick of it with alliances, war preparations, and lots of political intrigue. I've been very hard at work on all sorts of things, including improving my animation skills so that I'm able to include those in the next DLC. It has been quite the chore to ensure that I'm keeping track of everything properly with all the various branches, but I feel like I have a very good handle on that now. Other than that work, I've been improving my workflow and fixing a lot of little issues remaining from the render engine switch. Speaking of that switch, boy is it paying dividends. Not only are animations easier, but render setup times and render times overall are greatly improved. There is no way I'd be able to include everything I plan to over the remainder of the game without those. As far as release dates for the next DLC and beyond, I am not even going to get into promising anything. Not only do I fail miserably every time I estimate, but there are some big things that need to get done that will be a test of my skills. My focus right now is on delivering an excellent story that you enjoy finishing until the end. There is a lot of content left to produce and refine, especially with all the various branches that are in the game now. I still have a few remaining love interests to finish introducing or wrapping up their initial story, and that doesn't get into all the things I have planned for the existing ladies. There will be four chapters in the Volume 2 - Part 2 DLC release, and I'm estimating several thousand static renders and many dozens of animations for it. I'll be posting periodically here (every few months or so) to keep you all updated so you know I didn't get hit by a bus or anything. You can follow me on Twitter for regular renders, previews, and other news. Thank you all so much for being fans, and I'll leave you with a few recent special renders.

[ 2024-07-17 12:19:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings! To say I'm humbled by the response to Volume 2 - Part 1's release on Steam is an understatement. Thank you to everyone who purchased this next installment of To Be A King, and I love all the enthusiasm for the continuation of the story. I am as eager to get it into your hands as you are to get it and play. Sadly development isn't as easy as waving your hand and having more content appear. Maybe one day? Since the Steam DLC launch I've been focused on the content for Part 2. It is going to be bigger than Part 1, as all these branches necessitate a lot of content. Much like Part 1 was nearly bigger than Volume 1, despite having fewer chapters, the second part of Volume 2 is going to be bigger still. You may not notice it in a playthrough with a small harem, but the variety in a single scene now is incredible. My storyboard looks like some overworked detective trying to piece together clues for a notorious serial killer. Thankfully my storyboard is filled with sexiness and intrigue, not dead bodies. With a full outline and all our main and secondary branches mapped out right up until the end of To Be A King's main story, my focus has been on doing some boring and tedious work to speed up my development process. Some of those improvements came with the render engine change I introduced in the latter half of Volume 2 - Part 1, but there are more things I've found since then. Nothing close to the scope of the render engine change (thank god), but I am taking a few extra weeks with this development cycle to get these other things done or close to it. It is not fun work, but it is necessary work. The good news is that I am already seeing the payoff in that scenes are quicker for me to setup and render out. What this means is that you'll see more variations in dialogue and renders going forward, as it is now much quicker for me to add that type of content.
Other than all that work, I have taken a short breather after the latest release to recharge a bit. In February, I had a close family member hospitalized, and we didn't think they would come home from ICU. The good news is that they did come home in April and are doing very well, all things considered. With that behind me, I've been taking a bit more time to do something I haven't had time for in months: play games other than my own. I've been enjoying Manor Lords quite a bit, and it seems about half the planet has also joined me in playing it. And I am slowly working my way through Alan Wake 2. In the past here, I've posted development updates that I've put on other platforms. Going forward, you all will get special development updates when I've got something important to share or when it has been a bit too long since I've updated you all on progress. As far as release dates for future content, I've learned I am abysmal at predicting those. Between life getting in the way, development issues, and releases growing with even more content, I am bound to miss any sort of target. What I will be doing is getting Steam store pages up for new DLCs at least a few months ahead of time, and putting a release date on those store pages once I have enough developed to be fully confident in meeting a target. Back to the grind for me. Have a great rest of your week, and be thinking about who you'll name as your queen in Part 2.

[ 2024-05-16 20:02:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Volume 2 - Part 1, the next installment in our story, is now available for purchase. Four new chapters, nearly the size of Volume 1, and some big decisions. After the big ending of Volume 1, our hero faces some difficult challenges, and he discovers much more about how this kingdom really operates. There is an accompanying official guide available also.

Highlights:

• Nearly 5000 new static renders
• 27 new achievements
• 23 new adult scenes
• 219 new special renders added to the image gallery
• 4 new chapters with several more hours of play time

Fixes:

• Adjust points system (automatically converts old saves when you load them)
• Points balancing adjustments
• SFX and music volume normalization
• Added button to open the Volume 2 Guide, if you have purchased it as DLC
• Corrected character romance display options in codex for Alessia, Tullia, and Juliana

Improvements:

• Optional recap between Volume 1 and Volume 2
• Added code to support future releases

[ 2024-03-29 13:42:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

A very large update for Volume 1 is here. You can read the details in the changelog below. Myself and my beta testing team have put a lot of hours into checking for problems, but no software is ever bug free. If you have any trouble or think you've found a bug or dreaded typo, please come over to my Discord and post a message. A few of the biggest changes are finally getting consistent unlock of achievements on Macs, a big UI overhaul to make things easier to find and read through, notification banners to let you know about key events or results from your choices, a complete reworking of the music and sound effects to be better balanced, consistent, and unique to each of our lovely ladies, and you can adjust the font size for dialogue now in settings.

Changelog:

Fixes

• Adjust points system (automatically converts old saves when you load them)
• Points balancing adjustments
• Various UI fixes and improvements
• SFX and music volume normalization
• Achievements now unlock properly on Mac and Steam Deck
• Corrected character romance display options in codex for Alessia, Tullia, and Juliana

Improvements

• Added optional introduction tutorial
• Added optional tutorials for areas of the codex
• Revamped codex with improved sections and consistency
• Notification system implemented for key events
• Alliance and diplomacy features added
• Adjustable dialogue font size added to settings
• Updated music
• New sound effects
• Sound effects customized for each character
• Adjusted Aelinia & Kaylan bedroom scene to be optional
• Adjusted Aelinia & Lydia pool scene to be optional
• Added loading screen
• Added code to support future releases
• Updated replay gallery

Old saves should still work fine, by the way, so no need to start over with a fresh playthrough. All these changes were made not only to fix issues and make some improvements, but also to get things ready for the next release of content. Four large chapters are coming on March 29. The store page for Volume 2 - Part 1 DLC is live, so go ahead and wishlist to be notified when it is available for purchase.

[ 2024-03-22 14:06:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

It will be a very busy March. As previously announced, I'm bringing the first four chapters of To Be A King Volume 2 to Steam as Volume 2 - Part 1. I'm pleased to announce a March 29 release date for this, as well as a walkthrough for the first part of Volume 2 launching at the same time. I need the extra time to add achievements, finish the walkthrough, and complete testing. In the first part of Volume 2 you're going to find quite a bit of new content. In fact, while your playtime will vary based on your harem size and other choices, Volume 2 - Part 1 is close to the size of all of Volume 1:

• Nearly 5000 new static renders
• 23 lewd scenes
• Improved music, sound effects, and new lewd sound effects
• Revamped UI
• Optional tutorial
• Adjustable font size for dialogue

The good news? No need to replay the game from the beginning when you get Volume 2 - Part 1. Pick right up where you left off at the end of Volume 1. There will be some updates coming to Volume 1 soon, and those include the revamped UI, adjustable font size for dialogue, and the optional tutorial. That will be a free update for Volume 1 owners, and it will not require a new playthrough either. You can start fresh, if you want, but I don't think the changes will be that significant that most would want to. The store page for Volume 2 - Part 1 DLC is live, so go ahead and wishlist to be notified when it is available for purchase. Apart from that work, I'm continuing to finish up the script for the next chapter, as well as revising the outline for the remainder of the game's story. As the choices expand, I wanted to spend a bit more time making sure that things were balanced and all choices accounted for. Better to spend some time now before I write myself into a corner. We've got a lot left in our story, and some exciting twists coming with Volume 2 - Part 1 and in future chapters. I'll close by saying that there are still a few improvements I am working on to make To Be A King a very smooth experience on Steam Deck. It is completely playable now, as long as you invoke the keyboard when you first start playing when you have to enter your name (you can close the keyboard after), and when you do a save. I played through it on my Steam Deck recently, and I've had some other players report their experience was a good one. I want to get the controller mapping fully implemented, and fix whatever is preventing the keyboard from automatically invoking, as it should. Don't have an ETA for those changes yet.

[ 2024-03-12 15:58:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'll start with an apology for the confusion I caused with my last announcement. I did not mean to mislead, but it is very clear that I should have adjusted that announcement quite a bit. I will make sure to be much more careful in the future. Second, I really appreciate some of your suggestions for how I can reduce the wait for Volume 2 here on Steam. Here is what I plan to do in that regard:

• Finish some big code and music/sound effects updates for Volume 1, and get that pushed out within the next two weeks. These updates are not DLC, so you'll get them even if you purchased Volume 1 long ago. No new content, but a lot of quality of life improvements that I think you all will appreciate.
• Get Chapters 8-11 prepared for a DLC release here on Steam as a Volume 2 - Part 1 release. I'll need a bit of time to add in achievements, bug test, etc., but I do not expect that to take too long. It is mostly just artwork for the store page, achievement artwork, and some playthrough testing that is needed. You'll certainly get an announcement when that is ready for purchase here on Steam.

Look for an announcement when I release the improvements for Volume 1 (again, no additional purchase required for that), and then another announcement when Volume 2 - Part 1 is released as DLC here on Steam. Again, thank you all for your feedback and suggestions. I'm getting to work on this stuff now. Have a great week! - IT Roy

[ 2024-02-29 13:04:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Chapter 11 is now available, and we are that much closer to a Volume 2 release on Steam. Only issue is that the story keeps growing a bit. I am back on a nice regular development schedule and already hard at work on Chapter 12's writing. In celebration of Chapter 11's release, I'm running a sale of 15% off on Volume 1 here on Steam. If you haven't yet dove in, now is a great time!

[ 2024-02-16 19:16:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks to regular steady progress in development (finally!), I've set release dates for the next three releases. Chapter 11 ended up growing quite a bit, so I've split what was originally planned for Chapter 11 into two parts. What was Chapter 11 - Part 1, is now just Chapter 11. Chapter 11 - Part 2 will be Chapter 12, and what I was calling Chapter 12 is now Chapter 13. I am thinking that Chapter 13 will wrap up Volume 2, but I'll know more about that mid-year. Might need a Chapter 14 to finish out Volume 2. I've put the planned released dates for the next three chapters at the end of this post. Progress is good on the next release. There is finally a good groove, and issues I run into are more easily dealt with now. It has been a very long road to get here, much longer than I expected or hoped for, but the render speed gains, as well as the ability to do things in renders that were never possible in Daz Studio (my old software) are making me very happy. It is going to be fun to grow more into the new software over the next few years. The remaining chapters in Volume 2 are doing a lot of work for our story. There are some characters, like Alessia, Tamura, and Flavia, that we have not gotten to know much about. That will be remedied over the next three chapters. Also, there are several big decisions, like choosing your queen, that you will be making. For a lot of you, there are going to be many more save files over the next three chapters. My final note is that we have a few more characters coming into our story over the next two chapters specifically. These new characters are going to present some interesting choices for you, and some may test current alliances. Just when you think we might be getting some normalcy. I'll be back around mid-February with what should be my final development update before Chapter 11's release. Have a fantastic 2024! 2024 Planned Release Dates:

• February 23: Chapter 11
• June 7: Chapter 12
• September 27: Chapter 13

[ 2024-01-13 19:00:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

To Be A King is back this holiday season with another exciting sale! We want to celebrate this winter, and what better way to celebrate than with an attractive discount on the game for everyone on Steam! Steam Winter Sale is on right now and that means you can get To Be A King for a sexy 30% off discount! This offer is fit for royalty like you, but it is for a limited time only so don't waste any time!
Don't let the onset of winter limit your thirst for power and lust. Play To Be A King, and be a part of the journey that takes you through tense drama, unexpected twists and of course an assortment of scenes featuring the hottest women in the sexiest of situations. As always, thanks for the support, and join our Discord server to discuss with other fellow kings ITRoy

[ 2023-12-21 18:01:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Would you believe I'm still not over this virus? It isn't near as terrible, but I am definitely approaching that 8-10 week mark. The good news is that it is causing me fewer issues day-by-day. I did check in again with the doctor, and they confirmed it just is going to take awhile to get over.
Now on to what you all came to read about: Chapter 11's development. The very good news is that render progress is now steady. Not that there isn't the occasional issue that grinds things to a halt for an hour or two while I figure out how to solve it, but I'm back to a life of cranking out renders (and then inevitably redoing some of those when I find things I missed the first time). That and rewriting rougher parts of the script.
I'm using a new clothing setup that allows me to grab clothing during simulation to position it. This allows for some "happy accidents," and lets me get creative with some of the clothing items I'm using. You'll get to see this in some of the previews. And speaking of clothing, it turned out to be much easier than I thought to get custom clothing into these scenes. So you'll get to see some more period appropriate outfits for some of our characters, though many have a few modifications to make them a bit better fit for an adult visual novel. In fact, a lot of the custom clothing is more problem free than the clothing items I was using before.
At this stage, progress is steady, but things are still fluid. While writing my scripts, I always estimate how many renders a scene will get. Render setup, while quicker, is still the largest chunk of my time. I already had an enormous release with Chapter 11, and a lot of scenes are growing the render count, as I go through and do them. This is one time where a progress bar or some other example of progress isn't very useful. Scenes vary in size, complexity of characters, posing difficulty, etc. There are some scenes that are on the chopping block, but I'll make the decision whether to nix those before I start renders on them after I have more of these essential scenes out of the way.
One big area that I've been working on to speed up my development times is doing only what I have to do for the render. In times past, I would look at a render from nearly every angle, and then make adjustments. Now? I get my camera setup before anything else and then look through that only. If there are problems visible from the camera, I'll only fix those. This has also helped with things like environment creation, as I just need to get those to a baseline of quality, and I can adjust any details during individual renders or scenes.
That's all from me for this month. I'll be heading on a holiday "vacation" (family visit) in about a week, and then return back here before the end of the year. During the break, I'll be doing some editing of the script and writing, but render work will cease during that time. I will have some special holiday themed renders coming before I leave. Have a great holiday season, and I'll be back with another development update in January.

[ 2023-12-15 18:00:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Prepare for a sale fit for a King!

The Steam Autumn Sale has kick-started, and to embrace the autumn spirit, Cronut and our gorgeous ladies are welcoming you to this amazing and intriguing visual novel filled with royal conflicts! To Be A King - Volume 1 is currently 20% OFF!
This royal offer is truly fit for a ruler like you! Seize this sexy opportunity now to enjoy hot girls, revel in the drama, and, of course, be the mighty king you always wanted to be. Forge your journey ahead and bring your medieval fantasies to life! As always, thanks for the support, and join our Discord server to discuss with other fellow kings ITRoy

[ 2023-11-21 18:02:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Apparently someone was plotting against me. The last three weeks have seen me recovering from a nasty virus (not covid, thankfully). At times I was a bit worried that parts of my lung might come out, as the coughing is intense. Nothing I've gotten from the doctors has done a whole lot, so far. Still getting work done, but at a slower pace. There is a lot to explore in Chapter 11, and I am working hard to do it all justice. There are very few characters who won't get some screen time, though some favorites (e.g., Kaylan, Flora, & Aelinia) will figure prominently. Thanks to some recent software updates, I think the ladies might be looking their best ever, and I've found a new way to easily manipulate the clothing for some "special reveals."
There are two big decisions in Chapter 11, and I continue to polish the script to get us naturally to those decisions. The real difficulty is making sure it is clear to you what the major implications are without just spelling it all out. This is especially important since even I realize new consequences to these choices as the story progresses. If you've been eager to get some big choices out of the way, Chapter 11 will be very satisfying. I am certainly no professional when it comes to story development, but I've enjoyed writing this chapter and it feeling like the characters are naturally interacting with you and the other characters. There are some big revelations in this next chapter, as well as some very difficult choices.
The holiday season is fast approaching here, and I've got some trips to make to visit family. I am trying my best to get Chapter 11 out the door before all that happens, and I'm cutting stuff like crazy to get there. We will see how things hold up. As the recent bout with this virus taught me, you cannot always know what is ahead. For those in America (like me), have an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I think Flora is going to cook a big meal.

[ 2023-11-17 20:00:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here is where we are with Chapter 11's development. Even more progress has been made in correcting issues and improving the look of the final renders and animations. In addition, there are a few story changes that I'm making to the script. This has been a slog to get everything into Unreal Engine, and every day I feel like a dummy as I learn something I didn't know before. Let's focus on the bright side of things. Renders are easier to churn out in Unreal Engine now than they were in Daz. That is just on the setup side. As I've mentioned before, render speed cannot even compare as Unreal Engine is so much faster (it being a real time render engine and all).
Chapter 11 static render work is ongoing, and the final big challenge is getting animations to a quality level I feel comfortable releasing. It is going to take months of practice for me to get to where I ultimately want them, but I am not going to wait for that moment to get Chapter 11 out to you all. I only need a bit more time to get them to a level where they don't suck. My thanks to the developers helping me train my eye and reviewing my animation work, as rough as it is right now. Every day I find new things in the animation toolset that helps me shorten my time to produce these. I wish I had an ETA to give for Chapter 11's release, but sadly, having missed two rough estimates already, I'm not ready to give one until I am a bit further along with a few of these fixes and animation work. I will be sure to shout it from the rooftops once I have one.
So here is the shortlist of what remains before I have a beta of Chapter 11:

• Final script rewriting (probably 8-10 scenes left here)
• Animations to an acceptable quality
• Static renders produced for all scenes with fixes implemented
• Fixes for about half a dozen known outstanding issues
• Liquid simulation and shader work for a certain bodily liquid
• Final assembly of code, renders, and animations into the Ren'py game engine

Now, if you aren't interested in why I've spent months making this switch, you can go ahead and move on to something else you want to do. Otherwise, read on to learn about the key things I hoped would happen when I made this massive change in my development process. Mercifully, they have all born out, even if they took longer than I hoped. This could be its own lengthy article, but I am going to summarize as best as I can.

Efficient Animation Pipeline

This is my #1 reason for making this transition. Animation work in Daz Studio is laborious, painful, and limited. Not only is the process of creating the animation rough, but converting other animations to work in Daz and rendering out the final animation is equally time-consuming. There are those who say I've gone this long without animations, so why add them? However, I know many of you want them, there are a significant chunk of players who won't even look at a game that doesn't have them, and animations do, when done well, add value to the gameplay. I'm excited to be able to deliver a few with Chapter 11, and then increase that quantity as my skill in these develops.

Large Scene Support

Coming in Volume 3, I plan for some new and diverse locales, including some nice outdoor scenes. Having attempted to do a city in Daz Studio, I knew that those would not be possible in Daz Studio. I could fake it with certain tricks, but even those were laborious and limited my creative vision. No such issues exist with Unreal Engine, which seems obvious given how many AAA open-world games are made with it.

Real Time Physics Support

This right here was another feather in Unreal Engine's cap. I wanted jiggle physics, both for some added "realism" and to save me from having to try and hand animate it. I also wanted the hair to move more naturally during animations and in static renders. It has been very freeing, even though I'm still fine-tuning this area, to not need to stress about hair clipping or weird distortions when I try to fake physics. The engine handles that for my renders and animations, even if it needs me to spend a bit of time setting it up for each character. It is even better that any changes I make to these physics settings apply to all characters or at least only need to be updated once per character. Then I can re-render anything I've setup before, and those changes will be automatically added.

Improved Render Speed & Variation

In order to output the volume of renders I do each release in a timely manner, I had half a dozen computers in my house to get these rendered from Daz. Not only was that a pain for updates & hardware costs, but it also meant my air conditioning usage was very high, as well as my electric bill (at least until I switched to solar). Unreal Engine provides near instant render output. This makes corrections and iterative testing extremely efficient. I'm down to just two systems (one to work on and one to output on). Unreal Engine also allows me to add variations easily and without any significant extra development cost. There are paths I wanted to open up in To Be A King, but it was too costly in terms of development time. I could write and code the script variations quickly, but then I would add days or weeks to development of the renders in Daz Studio.

Better Method For Fixes

One frustration of my old software was that every render was stored in its own individual scene file that had its own settings. This meant that, if I found an issue with a series of renders, I'd have to load up each file, implement the fix, and save it back out. That process alone would be 5-10 minutes per file. Multiply that by 80 files or so per release, and I'd have a couple of days in just fixing issues. That does not count the time to then re-render them. Unreal Engine works a lot better in this area. I still have individual files for each render or animation sequence, but things like characters, lighting, etc. are linked into that sequence. If I make a change with say a character's hair. That update applies immediately. All I have to do is set the sequence for the render or animation to re-render and it grabs those changes automatically. Couple that with the increased render time and improvements and fixes are easier than ever to get done.

Final Thoughts

I love this work, and I love the daily challenges it presents (usually). Strange as it sounds, game development is like its own game. Only in game development, you are constantly solving the puzzle of how to bring what's in your head to a project that others can experience on their computers. If I put off making this change until after I finished To Be A King in a few years, I'd be even further behind (not to mention frustrated). Now let me get back to getting Chapter 11 out the door to all you eager people, and then turning my attention to completing the final chapter in Volume 2. I'm in my own personal crunch mode to get this done, and I look forward to sharing a release date as soon as possible. Thanks for reading, and thank you for your interest in what I do.

[ 2023-10-13 15:26:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ugh, lighting. The bane of my development existence. That and environments got a lot of attention over the last few weeks. It's been a wild ride, and, at times, I was questioning why I decided to take the plunge into UE.

Lighting

This is always a struggle. Daz Studio, my old rendering software, has its own limitations with a lot of noise at low lighting conditions. For Unreal Engine, you've got multiple options for lighting your scene, apart from the "physical" lights themselves. Lumen, ray tracing, etc. are all options. I've gone the Lumen route, but it was this past month where I decided that I needed to get my lighting fixed up. Early previews were alright, but not looking as nice as things did before. These are the times I really love how quickly Unreal Engine can spit out renders, and this was never more needed then since I had to do a lot of testing to get the right balance. I've now got different lighting sets that I just need to align and position with my character(s) that I want to light. There are dark and dramatic Rembrandt, high key, low key, loop, and many more options. This allows me to quickly setup the lighting I need for a scene and just make small adjustments to get it correct. I also corrected some render settings in UE that were causing abnormally dark shadows. And this is another area where UE shines. Not only do I have these presets, but I've set it up with blueprints so that I can control most of the light settings from a single list of options. I can even key these settings in my animation timeline to change them. Cannot get better than that for easy setup and adjustments. Is my lighting perfect? Nope, but it meets my personal tastes and consistently makes the characters look good. That's all I need.

Environments

Taking my old environments into Unreal Engine proved to be very problematic, especially since I'm using Lumen lighting. Lumen hates flat planes, which is how most walls, floors, and ceilings are done in Daz Studio (and in a lot of other software too). If you use flat planes, Lumen exhibits color bleed. Let's say you have a red wall. Light in 3D and the natural world bounces around. So it will pick up some of that red and project it into your scene. That isn't a problem. But with color bleed, that effect is exaggerated significantly. You'll get characters glowing red in that scenario. Not good. What I ended up doing for Chapter 11, since I don't need all the environments I've used so far, is use native Unreal Engine environments for nearly everything. A lot of these look a lot closer to how I wanted the game to look anyway (but lacked the assets and, at the time, a lot of the knowledge to customize). The few that are not UE native, got a nice little trip over to Blender to extrude these flat planes and create depth. That fixed those color bleed issues, and didn't affect performance at all. More environment work is ahead after Chapter 11, but I've got a good system, and I'm very pleased with the new results. Other than that, it has been character fixes, creating a few new characters I need for Chapter 11, and getting comfortable with the animation system in Unreal Engine. There are a number of things that are now complete (or close enough that only minor adjustments will be needed). Renders and animation work for Chapter 11 are ongoing now, and the final big hurdle is one that is only going to be solved with experience: high quality, fluid animations. We've got an estimated release date of this fall for Chapter 11. Sorry I cannot get more specific than that, but I'm working in new territory every day, and I've already had more than enough challenges to solve. The upshot of all this is that individual renders, instead of taking around 10-20 minutes each to render out like they did before (that does not include setup time), now take around a second. Animations, which could easily take a day in Daz for something around 10 seconds, are just a few minutes now. This production improvement is one of the big reasons I've invested in this months long process to make this change. Future things like variation in clothing, hairstyle, etc. for characters, pregnancy options, as well as just additional scenes, will now be relatively easy to implement. We are just getting started on this, and I'm excited to continue to improve things for all of you as I get more comfortable in Unreal Engine. A final reminder that the game engine itself is not switching to Unreal Engine. If your PC (or Mac) could run To Be A King before, it can run it after. All of the rendering is still taking place on my machine and packaged as still images or video sequences (for the animations). Your saves will work just fine too. Now, if you'll excuse me, I better get back to work.

[ 2023-09-15 17:31:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Of all the good things on God's green earth, we bet you would never guess what we have in store for you in your wildest dreams! And yes, this is some majestic news you can spread far and wide and get your friends in town! I know you're thinking hard about this news, so I won't keep you waiting any longer. For the big reveal, we are delighted to announce that we are hosting a giveaway that allows five lucky winners to be awarded with a Steam key to enjoy the game's first volume! You heard that right: A copy of To Be A King - Volume 1 will be given to 5 Lucky winners in this giveaway!
All you have to do is click here and let us know of your entry. Also, you can maximize your chances of winning by following our pages and socials to ensure you have the highest probability of clutching your spot in the final list of winners! And as always, thanks for the support ITRoy

[ 2023-09-15 17:30:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

What a month it has been. The highest highs, and the lowest lows. The good news is that we are ending the last 30 days on a high note. Strap yourself in because a LOT has happened.

Clothing - What A Mess

Clothing nearly did me in. Days of testing and tweaking kept leading to dead ends and major issues. I was a bit worried we would need to convert TBaK to a nudist game. Thankfully improvements in the software I use to convert Daz models and clothing to UE, along with a few bold experiments paying off, led me to finding a way to make clothing functional. I even have some revealing options for some clothing, and that will open up some fun possibilities. I'll continue to refine the quality of the clothing, but I'm able to throw nearly any outfit through the process now and get a pleasant result.

Character Changes

Nothing is ever perfect with conversions, and as I did more close up shots, I noticed issues with several characters. The good news is that those were pretty easy fixes. I'll just be spending a little more time reconverting certain things on the characters to get improved results.

Massive Progress

Let's not talk about only the challenges. All that isn't behind us yet, as 3D rendering always provides strange obstacles, but there are some significant positive developments now. Let's start with the biggest: work on content for Chapter 11 (content that will actually show up when you play it) begins tomorrow. Getting back to some "normalcy" with new content you all can actually see previews of a relief after these last few months. Even better is that my theory that not only would Unreal Engine improve quality in some key areas, but that it would speed up my workflow is proving true. I can already setup static renders more quickly in UE than I could in Daz (and, if you remember, I was no slouch in speed there). Even better is that renders are coming out much more quickly with matching quality to Daz. As an example, I did five lovely 4K special renders for patrons in July. These took a bit over 35 minutes to render out from UE, and that was with a lot of "buffer" renders to allow the physics simulation to properly start. In Daz, those renders would have taken me at least 5+ hours to render out at 4K. Obviously that is a massive difference. Since then, I've gotten render times down even further, with no loss in quality. I continue to get more comfortable setting up animations and single frames in Unreal Engine, and that bodes well for the future. I've already got a small list of future improvements I want to experiment with, and those will get tested sometime after Chapter 11's release. [previewyoutube=6as7lkhYoUA;full][/previewyoutube]

The Next Big Things

Custom lewd animations will be the next big thing to nail down. Creating realistic animations to go along with my realistic everything else is not something I'm taking lightly. Thankfully I've been studying some of the better animations out there for some time, and with everything else that needs to be prepared for Chapter 11 starting to wind down, I'll be able to really focus on this work. Past that, I'll continue to squash the little problems I'm still encountering. There has been so much to learn during this process, and a lot of it are things I hoped I could put off. The upside is that I am pretty comfortable in UE now, and continue to get more comfortable daily.

The Home Stretch

While this conversion has taken some time, it is nice to have validation that it will be worth the wait. My three big goals will be achieved: increased quality, beautiful animations, and improved setup of renders. I know you all are eagerly awaiting the next chapter, and you won't have to wait much longer. At the near seven month mark since I started this transition, while I would love to have a finished release, the majority of the heavy work is now completed and tested. With rapid render times and quick setups in UE, things are looking very nice for Chapter 11 and beyond. This work was a lot more "trailblazing" than I imagined when I started, but seeing things come together is satisfying.
I'll be back in another month with what should be a significant progress update. There will definitely be previews coming steadily over the next few weeks. I know you all are anxiously awaiting Volume 2, and I'm working very hard to deliver it as soon as I can. Thank you for the support!

[ 2023-08-15 18:00:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Royal Sale for a King!

The Steam Visual Novel Festival is in full swing and you know what that brings us, right? The kingdom is ready to welcome you to this amazing and intriguing visual novel, filled with royal conflicts, glory, one weird cat, and a lot of sexy women!
To Be A King - Volume 1 is currently running a 25% OFF Sale! This royal offer is truly fit for a ruler like you! Seize this sexy opportunity now to enjoy hot girls, revel in the drama, and of course, be the mighty king you always wanted to be! Forge your journey ahead and bring your medieval fantasies to life.

Limited Time Only DEMO!

That's right! During the Steam Visual Novel Festival, players will have the opportunity to try out a DEMO of To Be A King, and not only that, players can carry their save file from the end of the demo into the full game! What are you waiting for? Share the news with the king, your friends, and EVERYONE! Complete the Demo and get the full game for a sweet price to continue your journey to be a king! And as always, thanks for the support ITRoy

[ 2023-08-07 17:00:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings fellow Kings! We know you love being the Kingmaker and ruling over your subjects, but you will be glad to know that you can now let all your friends take part in the same medieval affair that you have grown to be a part of. To Be A King now features a demo version which includes 4 drama-filled chapters for a limited time that delivers the beginning of the journey so they can be initiated into the ordeal of royal proportions.
The demo will be available until August 14th and you can carry your progress to the full game! Make haste and bring all your friends to the court, spread the word and show the world how you reign over your subjects... or would you indulge in the erotic aspect of your influence? And as always, thanks for all the support fellow Kings! ITRoy

[ 2023-08-02 18:01:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good day, afternoon and evening, Kings! To Be a King Volume 1 is now available with a massive 25% discount! As part of Steam Summer Sale we are happy to treat our fans to a discount. Now you too can feel what it is to be a Nobleman who wields his powers just as he sees fit! Will you rule with an iron fist and have your own group of concubines or will you indulge in the drama that ruling a kingdom brings? Be your own ruler and take the story where your desires lead you! And as always, Thank you for your support IT Roy

[ 2023-06-29 18:32:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Learning new Tools

With us halfway through June, there is very good progress to report at the five month mark since I began the Unreal Engine transition. I'm working on custom animations now, along with addressing other issues that I find. Animations and then sequencing those in Unreal Engine will be the final two big pieces. I've brought in another tool to help out with this process to hopefully yield more natural animations. That's going to be a process with training my eye (and learning the tool), but I'm looking forward to it. Along with that animation work is the control rig for the characters. I'm working on that each evening a bit, and I'm adding things to it like expression selections and fine control of facial muscles. It is going to be a process, but this control rig will help me with setting things up in Unreal Engine sequences, and will make small adjustments much easier. At this stage of development, I'm as ready as you are to get the next release out. It is now a time of pushing things that are not essential off into the future. The wonderful news is that all this preparation before all these wonderful new animations can be created and put together for Chapter 11's release is nearing an end. It's been an adventure, but there is a lot of the character and environment work completed.

Excited for the easier Workflow

A bit of good news is that I was able to get all several hundred of my custom Daz poses converted over to animation sequences in Unreal Engine. They are, of course, just a single frame animation, but this means setting up custom animations, or just transitions from something like sitting to standing, is going to be easier for me since I can use these as a base to start those. Very excited!
I'll end this five month anniversary post by quickly highlighting what's been accomplished thus far:

• Daz characters converted in Unreal Engine with all their morphs, expressions, poses, and clothing.
• Hair converted to the Unreal Engine groom system for high quality and realistic movement.
• Character eyebrows & skin textures converted for improved realism.
• Real time character physics implemented for the breasts, butt, and thighs (jiggle physics).
• Most environments converted into Unreal Engine and using Nanite meshes for higher quality when viewed close up.
• Basic lighting presets selected and configured for scenes.
• Custom animation testing started.
• Clothing conversion process refined, and real time clothing physics added to existing Daz converted clothing.
• Initial scene setup testing completed.
• Model optimization to improve performance in future use cases.
• Character model conversion time decreased from about half a day to under 30 minutes.
• New background characters created with LOD support for improved performance in heavy crowd scenes.
• Cronut's model converted to a custom posable skeleton.
• Facial motion capture support for converted characters.

Thanks for all the support, and see you in the next update!

[ 2023-06-19 16:08:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Clothing Conundrum

My 3D skill tool bag continues to get upgrades, whether I want it to or not. The challenge for the rest of this month is clothing. Daz clothing "works" in Unreal Engine. But much like Daz characters with a basic skin shader and existing Daz texture maps "work" in Unreal Engine, clothing really does not do well. There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest is that Daz's clothing is extremely high poly. There was one outfit with a toga, wrap, and shoes that were higher poly at its base mesh than the Daz character at SubD1 (4X base resolution). Without getting technical, that means that I'm needing to reduce the high poly count of clothing, especially for Unreal Engine simulations. There are several ways to do this, all with some drawbacks, and that has meant testing, trial, and error, and finally admitting defeat for some outfits. All that new clothing I thought I could wait to mess with later is now one of the easier paths. Wardrobe overhaul for everyone it is. The benefit is that clothing will simulate better in Unreal Engine, have less of a performance hit, and be more realistic to the time period. The downside is getting yet another workflow established, along with improving my skill at custom texturing. Thank god I'm a quick learner. Here is an updated render of Aelinia:

Matters concerning Eye-brows, Physics, and Pregnancies

Apart from clothing, where work will continue for at least a few more weeks, I'm also experimenting with lighting, getting more environments into Unreal Engine, and making some final character improvements. The character improvements have been the most interesting. After seeing how good some of the characters looked in UE with their painstakingly crafted eyebrows, I decided to bite the bullet and do it for ALL the characters. Trying to match up custom eyebrows with the existing painted-on eyebrows in their texture maps wasdifficult. But I think you all will like the results. It only took me a day to get those done, and I think they match well. The rest of the hair assets are optimized, so now it is just fine-tuning hair physics and going back to adjusting body physics for all the characters. I'm prioritizing the ones I know have to be in Chapter 11. Speaking of character improvements, I've got a couple of pregnancy morphs added to our ladies for future use (will be optional. Fear not). I keep hoping with each export from Daz and conversion (via Maya) into Unreal Engine that this will be the last time for each character. May Goddess Anna make it so! A gorgeous render of Flora:

Few Parting Words

All this work sounds like a lot (and it is), but I'm taking a lesson I should have learned before: take some time to do it right the first time. I did not anticipate weight painting clothing, doing custom textures in Substance Painter, or doing custom eyebrows and pubic hair. But better to do this now and get it working than put it off. Lest you fear that I'm taking on too much as a solo dev, just know that my big board of ideas still has a lot that will not be addressed in Chapter 11. I am aware of the balance I need to strike between getting things close to perfect and actually shipping the next release. I knew the characters would be the most difficult part of this process. Sadly I find it intolerable to leave you all with subpar conversions.

[ 2023-05-19 19:22:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Character work continues!

I got some breakthroughs on hair and eyebrows, so I'm hurriedly going through the characters to get all of them done. I also discovered some issues with my sub-surface scattering settings on the skin thanks to a new feature I found with lighting in Unreal Engine. Everyone is getting fixed there now so they don't weirdly glow under brighter lighting. I purchased new assets on the Unreal Engine marketplace to fill out a few areas, and the environment you see in the video is done, as far as its basic setup. I need to finish up the lighting and interior, but that should be a reasonably quick process. Cronut is the star of this video as he finally got fully converted. I learned a few new tricks to get him looking decent, but he is now ready for animations, once I finish up his control rig. [previewyoutube=2OL_KeqBh9U;full][/previewyoutube] Apart from all that, I'm continuing to refine things and optimize my assets. Since I'm rendering everything out myself on my own hardware, it isn't essential. But the optimization helps reduce potential issues later and helps me get more comfortable with Unreal Engine's vast reporting options. Clothing is a bit behind as I'm waiting for an update for the plugin I use to convert my characters. That should be out within the next couple of days, and, in the meantime, I'm watching some tutorials on clothing and cloth physics in Unreal Engine. I've got plenty to keep me busy, so while clothing is going to be a big piece, it allows me to shift my focus to other items on the to-do list. You'll be seeing more early animations, once clothing is figured out. Now I must get back to all the things in development that need my attention. I'll try to keep these videos and development updates coming around once a week for the foreseeable future. Have a great weekend and don't forget to join our Discord, we are hosting a small event featuring Cronut! Cheers!

[ 2023-05-12 18:00:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm hard at work on something new!

With the characters getting their last touches (so many last touches), I'm moving forward with setting up the first scene for Chapter 11 in Unreal Engine. That will be a bit before I can show it off since the first scene will certainly be the longest to setup with the most issues. Now let's talk about To Be A King's future, without getting spoilery.

New Lands to Survey

Due to Daz Studio's limitations, I planned to keep things centered in Caudium. That limitation, along with the animation issues in Daz, are what really pushed me to move to Unreal Engine. Imagine the General and his traveling companions looking out over a vast landscape. Impossible in Daz (without some SERIOUS faking of it). Easily possible in Unreal Engine. You'll be visiting Egypt, Gaul, Estrid's homeland, and likely a few other locales over the next few volumes. If all goes well, we will even join the General during his sailing across the Mediterranean on a custom war ship. Here is a video showing a little bit more about the Unreal 5 development! [previewyoutube=FE7duwYMbuQ;full][/previewyoutube]

More Characters To Meet

I don't want this to turn into 101 To Be A King characters, but we have many left to meet. Possibly some more late-game love interests. My original plan with the harem was for most players to do a "gotta catch 'em all" type playthrough. Well, based on how you all feel about the different personalities, I know that isn't likely for most players. That means I'm less concerned about adding in a few more options, as you'll probably only have a handful in a given playthrough. The General also needs a few more military commanders, and we are going to meet those men over the next two chapters. My goal with these new characters is to ensure they enhance the story and don't remove precious time from your favorites (Kaylan, Aelinia, Flora, etc.). The switch to Unreal Engine is going to make that easier to maintain. Within a few releases, I'm expecting even larger chapters, though your actual playthrough time probably won't increase a great deal. Just more options. Speaking of

Unique Story Choices

When you are doing 1000+ renders per release, and can only set up and render those out so quickly, it is important to keep the story a bit more concise. Put up some guardrails, and make sure you don't enable a dozen choices for one scenario. I haven't been the best at that, but I have cut out a ton that either wasn't possible or would add way too much development time. Trust me. That changes with this render engine transition. Once I get my bearings in Unreal Engine, I'll be able to let you, the player, direct more of the story. Things like alternate scenarios with a change in a character can be done in minutes, instead of many more hours of setup and rendering. Clothing and hairstyle choices will likely also be included, assuming I don't find significant issues when I test that. I still need to make sure I don't have a story with more branches than a 100-year-old oak, but I'd like to offer you all the opportunity to do things like visit the tavern, pay a visit to Goddess Anna, and maybe see if your favorite princess is available for a quickie. I have many ideas, but they will need to go through some testing with my beta team before I can say yay or nay. Nothing about this is going to make the game free to roam. Just some more choices are presented where you can choose where to go next. Maybe even get risky with your choices to see what happensLet me stop here before I spoil anything. Goddess Anna would be pissed!

[ 2023-04-27 18:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Work continues both on the rest of Volume 2 and the conversion to Unreal 5

I'm very pleased with the improvements that Unreal Engine is providing, especially the excellent physics that enables some very realistic details in animations. One quick reminder, as I know this is a bit confusing. I am moving to Unreal Engine to produce the artwork for the game, but my game engine is not changing. That means that saves, UI, etc. will be the same with Volume 2. It also means that you won't need to worry about GPU or CPU upgrades, as far as my game is concerned.

Characters on Unreal 5

It has been an adventure to get all the characters converted and looking their best, but the improvements in rendering speed and animation setups make all the extra trouble worth it. The ladies have updated skin textures with some subtle quality improvements, and most of them have their final hair settings with a physics setup. The next installment of To Be A King will provide that realistic jiggle in "key" areas.

Sounds and Music

Apart from the graphics change, the music and sound effects have been undergoing their own overhaul. I've been working with a composer to get new music and polish some of the existing themes. These music & sound effects updates will be in Volume 2, and they will also come to Volume 1 as a patch later this year.

More Cronut!

Cronut fans will be pleased to know that he got an extensive overhaul during his conversion, and he can now independently move his hands, arms, legs, feet, & head. Before he was limited to full-body movements and just his eyes. Expect to see him holding a few more things in future releases. (hopefully he doesn't acquire any weapons).

Final Considerations

I know you all are ready for a Volume 2 release, and it is truly a shame that Goddess Anna has not given me the ability to get more done in a day. Volume 2 is still on track for a release this year with many hours of content, and it will now be fully animated, as well, when it is finished. There may be some other surprises included with Volume 2, but too soon to announce those. I'll keep you all updated here every few weeks as I work towards finishing and overhauling Volume 2. New adventures await, and I'm looking forward to you all seeing the fruits of all this work I've been doing. Until next time, be well, Kings!

[ 2023-04-20 22:00:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Good day, afternoon and evening Kings!

Happy Spring Sale! The Steam celebration is here to welcome more Kings to be! I am giving you 15% off To Be a King, so you can get the damsels 100% undressed and impressed! There are enough ladies and wine for everyone.
Additionally, I also crafted badges, trading cards, backgrounds and emoticons for the game. From today you will be able to collect, as well as trade the cards you get from the game, to style your very own To Be a King badge! Here, have a look at the first three:
This will also translate into new Discord stickers, so if by any chance you haven't joined To Be a King's community server, through Steam's store page or the previous news post, feel free to do it here. And last but not least: here is another sneak peek on the Unreal engine visuals progress for To Be a King Volume 2:
Tweaked shaders, more detailed skin and other things I am working on as we speak. Just to be very clear you will not need to run the game on Unreal Engine 5, it will still run on RenPy as previously mentioned in last week's news. Thank you for your continuous support, ITRoy

[ 2023-03-17 17:43:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Kings,

Thank you for your continuous support for the To Be a Kings series! All of the development is possible because of my supporters, many hours working on the title as well as Cronut leaving me some hop and malt beverages. Our store page has recently been updated with baubles for gifs and flavour for text. If you have not checked it out yet, make sure to click here and have a glance at it. Perhaps you can even slide it to a friend who might enjoy the Roman time period, fine women and wine. In case you have not been following up with updates through my community Discord as well as Twitter, slowly but surely I have been porting all the To Be a Kings character in to Unreal Engine 5 for the next volume. Here is a little sneak peek:
Also no one has to worry about the system requirements for the game because it will still be running on Renpy, so all the hard labour will be done by my PC and not burden yours. Sincerely, ITRoy

[ 2023-03-07 22:35:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

To Be A King is now 20% off during Steam's Winter Sale. Over 5800 renders, hours of story, and many lovely ladies to romance. There might also be something about protecting a king and dealing with annoying princes. Grab this discount before it leaves on January 5.

[ 2022-12-22 18:02:50 CET ] [ Original post ]