Progress 05.01.2026

 

Hello all!

I always forget how much work starting a new project is. All those little, seemingly insignificant things eat the time. And then your brain decides that "Nope! I don’t like the thing that was finalized eight months ago! Redo!" Ah well, anyway.

Rendering? It’s going, just need to get back in the rhythm, partially why I dislike taking more than a day off as it throws the rhythm I work off. Although that being said, I was supposed to start rendering today, so technically I’m a couple of days ahead of the original plan.

Writing? I’ll start update 6 on Wednesday, need to give the nogging a bit of a break since there are a lot of those little things to do. But it’s all good. I know what to write. I just need to write it down.

And the end of our little jungle excursion. It wasn’t in a jungle originally, but I couldn’t get the required environment to work for the original, so I had to change it. Slightly more work, but nothing too drastic. Part of the reason why I buy a lot of environments. Some that I might even need for a few years. Easier to have them than hunt them down when you need them. Anyway, short break, and more rendering.

Changelog: Tribulations of a Mage 1.0.0

• 2664 renders

• Implemented the epilogue

• Grammar, spelling, and other fixes (Thanks to Adry, Shaddy, BryonSmothers3DX, Bread, Horny Toad, Bernie64GER, OBE, DocWhoJ, Oaiki, Digitalzig, Jaike)

Note, there is a patch incoming with the public release to fix something that was reported. Or around there.

Public release is on 14th of January 2026

SHA256:

• 8C3E1FE3D37C80A08A7F929AEC46A564F802ADF1F7B7A3DC105DD0A17D55E0C
  ToaM-1.0.0-mac-C.zip

• 7F6C1E5823F7F2F9CF36E859F5815F9BE6405B215BDFFCA3712DE599B84B0593
  ToaM-1.0.0-mac.zip

• 890C61D1412C8C407268E542AAB6CA0D3B3393F3D690D44AAB21086EFC4C9FBB
  ToaM-1.0.0-pc-C.zip

• 063FF033A51B849001F2E67703475657A0735228AA19D1B96571E2B6F426E268
  ToaM-1.0.0-pc.zip

• 613BD8FF6087E7932DEC960AD7A20A58CD8E50C4AAD60424D68484EFB105C538
  ToaM-1.0.0-Update-C.zip

• 4EF31213752511C1F5C1CD5C668B5587BE55F8BA19EB686150CB292478DD02B6
  ToaM-1.0.0-Update.zip

• 7CD12BB4D83B9AE148EC1D41CB424C5D1F62B9FBF6468A07A87B35F1E300C317
  com.talothral.toam-release.apk

• 73B6EF6C5C0CCF380BF4F19584B3ED9E56948C089ADF11E8E8757121ACA21DDC
  com.talothral.toam-release.apk (WT)

Progress 02.01.2026

Hello all!

Happy New Year to all of you. So, Friday, just off the release, so what’s up? Well, Sorcerer 2, that’s what. The first production renders are being made. Well, some are done, and the first lines of code are underway. It will take me a day or two to settle back into the usual rhythm, but that’s a nonissue. The UI work will be a pain in the backside, but I’m not a UI (or graphics) designer. Have to see what I’ll do this time.

I’ll resume writing now that I’m rendering the actual VN, not that I had that many pages left of the update 5. So I’ll do the usual one hour before I go to bed, just to relax myself.

Hmm... a preview. Just Susan and a sniper rifle. Hmm... interesting. Some of the renders are more, let’s say, complex. There are a few images that I need to render twice and compose in post. Although just looking at that render, I might be better off building a custom grass set as the ground texture is... it works, but it isn’t the greatest for close up such as this. Ah well, a short break, then build a grass set. It is good that I noticed it now and not after 50 renders. You all have a great weekend!

P.S. Public release of 1.0.0 will be on the 14th. I’ll post the SHA’s on Monday’s progress post along with changelog. Although need to do a patch to fix a couple of irritations. As usual... ah well.

Progress 29.12.2025

Hello all!

It’s debugging time! That and the builds. Probably need to do fifty builds because I forgot something as usual. But that being said, uploading should start tomorrow as scheduled, assuming I can iron out all the kinks tonight. And as I said the last time, as soon as I have the first set of links up, I’ll make a release post, then update it when more links come "live". And that’s about it, really.

There aren’t that many extra things to show during the final bit. Why? I can’t reach too far into the future since there are plans for ToaM 2. So if I show something now, it might lock me into something that might not make sense. Of course, the ending bit isn’t necessarily canonical or happening "anytime soon", but still. Thus, some bit and pieces that were mentioned during the dialogue parts. However, before anyone gets too excited, I don’t know when a potential sequel might happen. Right. That’s it for today, short and sweet, sort of. Been focusing on finishing everything needed, so there are no extra renders today. Short break and fixing things that broke... yay...

Progress 26.12.2025

 

Hello all!

And back in the saddle. Shocked? Probably shouldn’t be all things considered. So what exactly am I doing? I’m finishing up the... let’s say, meet the newcomers section. There are some variants of them, choices and all that. And, as usual, it is sprinkled with various things that are mentioned during the epilogue. The usual really. The goal is to get all that done by Sunday, or on Sunday at the latest... and by saying that it will be Tuesday. Then, do the builds and upload. That’s the plan, anyway.

And a quick preview of things. Things like Uche’s parents coming and meeting his new bride. While it might be an interesting event to do, it isn’t really crucial as he is a side character. So it makes a bit more sense to show it after the dialogue parts are done.

And more of Mr. Morin, well, I suppose this tells what kind of person he is, answer is, not very liked. To him, the end justifies the means. Am I spoiling something here? No. And I can guarantee that once you see him, you’ll have the same reaction as the poor private investigator... Anyway, short break and more renders! You all have a great weekend!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all my fans.

 Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you all relaxing and peaceful time. I will take a couple days off and finish up the update as soon as possible. And thank you all for enjoying the work I do.

 

P.S. And compilation of the images: https://gofile.io/d/GPlHpf

Progress 22.12.2025

 

Hello all!

... I’m beat. But on the positive side, the update is being handed over to be tested, later than I wanted, but it was a lot of work. So what then? I have a hard deadline when I start to upload. No, I won’t mention when it is because every time I say something regarding time, it will fail. But I do have a plan of starting the release once I have one set of upload links available, for all patrons. Then, as soon as the mirrors are uploaded, I’ll update the post. Well, that’s the plan; now we just wait to see what fails.

Writing? Writing is where it was. I was focused on finishing up the update over the weekend, so, but yeah, it’s fine. Nothing to worry about regarding it.

And since I literally ran out of things to show from the update, well not really, but wouldn’t want to spoil things now would I? So, what’s this? There are a few deeper dives into how the world works in the Shattered Seals setting. I’ll try to incorporate certain glimpses of things that might not initially seem that important for the plot, but they give some background. The gentleman’s name is Orsino Morin. Who is he? Well, you find out really early on in Sorcerer.

And then double pinups, I had to remove the original Friday one since both caught it for... things. Go figure. So Maria again, and Xiu our second water spirit... maybe. Anyway. I’ll have the evening off mostly... still doing some things in the background and taking an earlyish night. And... I’m not sure I make a post on the 24th, so. Merry Christmas to all of you, or Happy Holidays if you prefer. I’ll see you all shortly, well, later this week. And yes, I’ll be taking the usual annual day off ;)

Hello all!

And then there was the final scene, and the usual "what might happen in the future or something" renders, not sure how many of those there are, but they don’t really hamper the things as they don’t necessarily need to be there for testing the main parts since it is just an image sequence. So, tomorrow is coding and at least partial post work. I’m sitting at 2850 renders, minus fixes and a couple random renders. So, I suspect the final count will be around 2700 renders, give or take. Hopefully, I’ll get to send it for testing by Monday.

Writing is going, I haven’t been rushing it, but I’ve been focusing on getting the epilogue done as soon as possible, so more focus has gone into that than into the writing. But that being said, update 5 is nearly finished. Just need to add a few details and a couple of choices that actually matter. One way or the other. I have my buffer anyway, so I’m not rushed.

Koko... This scene was annoying to do, not because of the tails, mind you. Because of the eye flames, actually. I had to re-render a large portion because of them. Not fun...

And again, an urban nighttime render with a police... There is an explanation to it coming. The first part is in update 5, and then a few updates later again. Once I get there. "Realistically" speaking, a lot of supernatural action would happen during night time. Partially because some of the most dangerous beings can only appear during the night, such as vampires. So, I need to find a decent solution of how to light things up enough. Eh, it will work somehow; it always does. If nothing else... magic!

And then our lovely Maria’s turn. Right, I’ll take a short break and then continue rendering. Fingers crossed on that one. You all have a great weekend!

P.S. A render I did earlier this week for something that was said on Discord (for those who aren’t on Discord). Needed to get it out of my head. Yeah, I’ll do a compilation of things by the end of the month... not that I actually have done that many extra renders you guys haven’t seen by now.