Progress 31.10.2025

Hello all!

Bleh, I’m getting my second cold this year, but it’s about time for it. Anyway. What’s up? Rendering is going, not much to say about it. I’m somewhere around 500 renders, minus fixes, so I’d say it is going alright. And obviously, there is still a lot to do. I wouldn’t be too surprised it is somewhere around 3000 renders when all is done. The Android build is going to be... interesting to make.

Writing, on the other hand, is in a good place. Although the usual thing that amuses me happened again. I know the beginning and the end; what is in between forms while writing. Things that I didn’t think intertwined end up being intertwined without conscious choice, and it makes sense. It’s going to be... interesting to see how it unfolds towards the end. Right, unfortunately, current renders aren’t suitable for public posts, thus... couple concepts and tests.

This... this is what I always say: the characters know what they know. And what they know they can believe to be the truth. This goes for all the VNs I’ve made so far, and it will be so in Sorcerer 2. Several characters have stated that you can’t trust vampires, or demons for that matter. Are they right or wrong? That one isn’t easy to answer. Generally speaking, they are correct; neither of them should be trusted as is. And yet there are those like Tamara. She is ruthless, and most people would say evil. She kills without remorse or regret and feeds on the souls of mortals. And yet, the other side of the coin is when she is with the MC. Certain tenderness can be seen. Or Naha the Incubus, he is a demon, and yet the scene in Sorcerer 2 with Jacob told a different story. So, in the end... the judgment whether you trust one or not is in your hands.

And then this. This I did for fun. It’s been somewhat stressful week. Nothing bad, just getting a cold makes me sluggish, and that makes me think that I’m not on schedule, which in turn makes me stress without a reason. Eh, anyway. I forgot the pink scooter on Monday’s render, so this came from that thought. Right. You all have a great weekend! I’ll go make some tea, take a break, and then continue to render and write.

Progress 27.10.2025

Hello all!

Ufff... interesting weekend. I’m not exactly where I want to be, simply because one scene took a bit too long to render. But it happens, and overall I’m happy with the progress despite the long render times... and some posing issues. Still, I’m around 300 renders... and a lot left. Although considering the render speed right now, I should catch up fairly easily overall.

Writing... I’ll start writing the third update tonight and see how that goes. My only issue is that I have too much to write, that’s a positive thing. I need to remind myself not to over do the writing but keep it sensible so I can ensure a day or two off between updates. Which I mostly write but it is still a day off for me since I would write most likely anyway.

And new face. Kind of literally. Need to see in what I can actually post going forward as "in game progress", after the next scene things... might not be that suitable for public posting. For various reasons. None of these are really spoiler heavy, That stuff was in the early parts of the epilogue... for most parts.

 

 

I don’t normally do "seasonal" renders as is, well except around Christmas the pinups of project I’m doing or something. This however? Well the environment was released today. It was from one of the artists that is on the "buy this stuff now"-list. Then one thing let to other and... yeah. Bruce heard that some house slighted his new best friends kids while trick or treating so he decided to play his own trick and brought a friends with him. Yes that’s the headless horseman, normally anyway. Yeah... one of those things. Poor Sebastian trying to figure out how to explain that mess. Anyway, short break and back to rendering I go!

Progress 24.10.2025

 

Hello all!

Friday, and you know what that means! Yes! A progress post!

... Well, that was cheerful. Anyway, so what’s up? Rendering of the epilogue is underway. Shocking news there. And I’m exactly where I want to be with it, for now. But have to see how it goes, not really complex scenes yet to render, but still some challenge ahead. And I do have relatively spoiler free image that I can show.

Then, writing. I’m finishing up the update 2. The first two updates are somewhat packed, as I will open a few plot lines, all of them sort of intertwined, but at the same time tehy are separate, so they are followed at different pace. You do A plotline with side of B while plot C is waiting... Sounds more complicated than it is, but it’s fairly standard in how I write. But yeah, I’m happy with things.

And this is the least spoilerish image I could muster for now. Yeah, new faces, don’t worry, you don’t need to know them. They are there just so I can provide some information about what your choices affected relatively easily. Of course, all of this assumes you got out of the ending in one piece... There is a scene for that as well, though.

Then, testing of sorts. This is a kitbashed environment, not as heavy as I thought it would be. It’s a workable environment overall, needs some tweaks and proper checking from multiple camera angles, but yeah it works. Anyway, short break then rendering something interesting... You all have a great weekend. 

Progress 20.10.2025 and Changelog for ToaM 0.51.0

Hello all!

Variations... variations... variations. Bleh. So what's up? I'm still uploading 0.51.0, net is being slow on upload, but it is coming along. I have about... 9 GB to upload, then it is in the "minimum" release condition for my liking. But that will still unfortunately be a few hours, I think snail mail might faster at the moment.

I started rendering the epilogue update, so there is that. It's 66 pages long, so it will take a while to make. So take that as you will. Am I happy with how the story is concluding? Yes, and no. It is in line with what I wanted. Are there things I would do differently? Yes. Like I said on Friday that I’m experimenting with how I tell a story. Terminus Reach, Sorcerer and now Tribulations of a Mage each have a certain style. Personally, I am fond of branching, even though it means more work. It allows opportunities to try different things within a single story, and it can be interesting for both players and storytellers alike. So what would I change? I would rearrange the order, well some of it anyway, things are told. And I would expand the Empire’s role. But ToaM wasn’t about the Empire; it was about Tomas. Hindsight is always 20/20.

As for writing, I’m happy with how the Sorcerer 2 is progressing at the moment, halfway through (about) the second update, which is where I should be. I could be further away, but I wasn’t happy with one section, so I rewrote a bit.

Shaping the characters and their progress is interesting. I have a lot of background material and stories that I’ve written over the years, so I have things I can pull. Not necessarily the stories anymore as is, but the characters from the stories. That gives me the basics of them; now, I just need to translate them to you. With older characters it’s easy; they are there already and you know them. It’s just writing them how they are. New characters? They need a reason to be around MC. This is where their occupation (or status) can come in handy. So the question is... why is the nun in this situation? Well, that is a good question. But the answer to that needs to wait... although, if I’m honest. I did this to test the room and the... item the man in the light gray suit is holding.

And with that being said, I won’t post the release schedule yet. I’ll post it once I’ve uploaded since I don’t want to say it is out on X time and then miss it. But you get to have the changelog in the meantime.

Changelog: Tribulations of a Mage 0.51.0

• 537 renders

• Implemented the next part of the story.

• Grammar, spelling, and other fixes (Thanks to Adry, Shaddy, BryonSmothers3DX, Bread, Horny Toad, Bernie64GER, OBE, Digitalzig, Gingko19, Oaiki)

No hidden images. Didn’t really have a place to hide them, I’m afraid. And the codex will be updated with the epilogue update. All the needed changes are done, just that the files just aren’t in the release build cause I keep forgetting to copy them over.

Release Schedule:

TBA

SHA256:

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Progress 17.10.2025

 Hello all!

Rendering is done, coding is done, doing fixes and some post work on the renders and all those little things that crashes the VN. Although going to take a short break before I do the builds to reset my brain in case something is wrong... as usual.

Writing of Sorcerer 2 is on update 2, or day 2 if you wish. I try to follow a similar pattern as Sorcerer with the updates, not that it is always feasible, but nothing new. I’m not entirely happy where I am at the moment, but it’s easy enough to write. Although there is an amusing similarity to TRS2... but that’s because the character isn’t "non-essential" on so it is more easy to explain. Right then...

Main and side characters and stories. Every main character has, by nature, some "side characters" attached to them. Co-workers, relatives, friends, and so on. They basically exist to flesh out the characters, or to be obstacles to a goal. This? Well, there are concepts of how things play out when meeting such side characters. Sometimes it is in a more or less normal setting, and sometimes it can be a more "interesting" one. Although this isn’t how this meeting is happening, I know exactly how it will happen. But fun to think of those alternatives even if they won’t see the light of day. Anyway, the short break and finishing the update so it can be tested.

Progress 13.10.2025

Hello all!

How is it going? I got the complex fight scene done, rest are easier, just need to build two sets. Luckily I think I know how to do them so shouldn't be too time consuming, famous last words and all. It's overall coming nicely, not entirely happy but I am where I should be, and somewhere around 450 renders. Complex posing takes time, sadly, but we are closing in of it being done. I'll probably start coding tomorrow while rendering, at least as much as I can do without the image names for the part that isn't rendered yet.

Writing? It's in okay state all things considered. Should be able to start the update 2 soon now that I found the rhythm for writing and doing renders (that and working timer) so I don't end up writing for 30 minutes while render takes 5 minutes.

And as I said no spoilers thus no previews, at least until epilogue. Part of me wishes I could show since some of the renders are awesome, in my opinion. Anyway. New area, came out recently, which is good as it allows me to actually do something that I had planned for Sorcerer 2. Got lucky I suppose with this. Although, don't really have suitable clothing for the region to my annoyance but I'll think of something. Anyway, things are looking decent at least, I'll take a short break and start building one of the remaining sets.

Public Release: Tribulations of a Mage 0.50.0

 

Tested and played through it a few times, and all the saves worked. But that doesn't mean things didn't slip by. So, as always, if there are any issues, please report them on Discord if possible. That way, I notice them quicker.

https://discord.gg/GJK5kfKypg

Tribulations of a Mage 0.50.0

ToaM 0.50.1 Patch: 

Android users turn sex scene dialogue off or use loops.

• https://mega.nz/file/TqxSUS4T#r6rRe0mU33C8p1GMNx3j9OTgwmOhlL8zWm-he23gxfw

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PC
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PC Compressed
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• https://gofile.io/d/J83z5h

MAC 
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MAC Compressed
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• https://mega.nz/file/qyw33BgT#hWBPAQ8Ir-1JCzcwWPmT6zm-qvOabrTOpNbnnRTdfTA
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Update only
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Update only compressed
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Android
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Android (WT)
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• https://gofile.io/d/4g36jL

Progress 10.10.2025

Hello all!

Friday... It is amusing, I told a month or two ago that this update would take longer than normal. During 0.50.0 I was panicking because it wasn't planned to take so long. Now? I'm calm. I knew from the start it would take longer than usual, simply because set building will take a lot of time. If I had to guess, about 1/3 of the time I've been doing set building. But overall, I'm happy with how it is going. I have four scenes left to render. "Problem" is that one of them is a long scene with fighting. I'm around 350 renders, which is roughly where I should be overall.

As for writing? If I can keep up with the "writing schedule" (have I mentioned building sets is annoying because it eats time?) I should be able to finish up the first update by Monday. Not sure if I have the buffer I want, but we'll see... I'll probably take a day or two writing break after 0.51.0 is done and then move to the epilogue.

And then, the final preview of the update 0.51.0 rest... rest would spoil a lot of things. But that being said, things aren't looking good at the temple of Yuina.

And then something else... This is again me seeing can I do something. Will it unfold like this? No. I wanted to see do I have an environment for it, then how... flexible the environment is. Then it just goes from there into something else partially. Although there are few props I need to find for the future, that is a good thing from this. And it also amuses me, when I create the characters there is a spreadsheet full of things. I think the current relating to Shattered Seals characters is somewhere in column BD. And rows? I stopped counting after 1000. It is a huge file, and it holds every character and lots of details from them, and most of it is randomly created. Except for the weapons for Alexander, although the sword was supposed to be a kukri, but didn't have a prop for that. The revolver... I don't know why that became his "signature" weapon. It was just was his I never really considered anything else when I originally created Mr. Ward. Although I would like a different model, .44 will do as the .357 model is... unwieldy, unfortunately. Eh, I'll live. Anyway, I'll take a short break and start rendering the fight scene. You all have a great weekend.

Progress 06.10.2025

Hello all!

Set building... feels like I've done nothing more than set building the past three days. Which is kind of accurate. But that being said, I'm about where I want to be. I still have about half the script, a bit more actually, to go through. Luckily, a lot of it is variants of the scenes, so I don't have to build that many sets as is anymore.

Writing is going, no complaints there, just lots of browsing through my environments (and props) recently just to ensure I can write the scenes I want and need to.

And then a preview. Tomas, Jhaena and Nisha somewhere dark... curious things. It was interesting to make this one, I admit, lighting it wasn't the easiest, but I'm happy with it. Frankly, the spell that Tomas is casting doesn't have a reason. It's just there to provide a light source. For most parts.

Exploring more of the world of magic... that has been a sort of wish for Sorcerer 2. And truthfully there will be more of that side than the normal, it’s still a mix since a lot of the members of the house needs to live in both worlds, but the focus should be more on the other side of things simply because that’s where the story leads. Anyway... short break and then more rendering and writing.

Progress 03.10.2025

Hello all!

Ehh... it has been one of those days when you just should have turned off the alarm clock and gone back to sleep. Ah well. So what's up?

Rendering? It is in an okay state, not too bad, but not great either. I suppose I'm roughly where I should be, at least after I finish the scene I'm doing. So, not really complaining at this stage.

Writing? Writing is going decently, about halfway through the first update. So, no complaints there.

Old familiar faces... A scene that can be missed, for obvious reasons. I've always tried to, yes really, to reuse existing characters for things. At times that isn't possible, and the cast becomes large. Anyone checking the codex can see that. Is it necessary? Yes, and no, it depends on the story. If it is contained let's say, in one city (or village, or house and so on) you can get by with a limited cast. It makes sense to run into the same people constantly. But when your story can be all over the world, it makes less sense to have a limited cast. But at times old friends can make a difference... assuming they are alive...

This... is mostly a "palette cleanser" for me. And again with the mystery lady... she is in so many renders by now. Truthfully, her role is set already. I know how the story goes for the most part; just the details between the beginning and the end are slightly murky. Eh, things to think about once I get there. Anyway, you all have a great weekend. I'll take a break and render a bit more.