The Longing is officially the title of our next project. If you read our previous devlogs you might know our next major game was planned to be Chronicles of Tal'dun: The Hunger, which would feature Lura, the savior mentioned in Vyn;'s journal. They would be accompanied by a team of magi who conduct research in a deep sea temple into odd disturbances in the Waters of Tal'Dun. 

We began prototyping a side-scrolling, pixel-art RPG akin to Disco Elysium but with an element of horror and occult fantasy. Then we began to write back-stories for the characters so that they would become as close to flesh-and-blood people as possible, and provide us with a gripping story. Well, long story short, we got so involved with writing these back stories that we now have 75 thousand or so words for just two of the characters, Evin and Near. 

Evin was a child who through their insatiable curiosity stumbled upon a power that changed their live in unfathomable ways. They travelled across the land searching for answers.

Near was born a shaper, a class of powerful magi whose abilities to create artifacts of magick technology called cores were the foundation upon which the world was built on. But with their innate power came a burden that might've been too much for anyone to bear.

The paths of Evin and Near intertwine in this story and would ultimately lead them to the deep sea temple. 

Sketches for the stories of Lura and four other important characters who would be part of the story are also in progress. 

The world of Tal'Dun is also expanding with these stories. What was once mostly confined within Vyn's tower has now grown into a massive nation called the Domain spanning half a planet and ruled by the magi Order. It's full of bizarre creatures, climate, cultures, and peoples, and full of ancient myths and occult secrets regarding the Primordials and the Old Ones. We're so excited to see it come to life.

Once we began writing Lura and their cohort, we naturally got curious—what did they look like? what did the world and its animals, landscape, and architecture look like? So we began making art for it. 

That is how The Longing came to be. It's a kinetic VN that feature the story of the main characters for our next game The Hunger. We felt like these characters' stories are fascinating enough that they deserve their own independent thing.

We're releasing a portion of these stories to everyone as both an in-browser and downloable VN, but the entirety of the stories would only be available to our backers. It's not easy supporting one's self on indie development alone, so we rely on our backers on Ko-Fi and Patreon to fund us. If you enjoyed The Remainder, we hope you'll consider becoming our backer for our next projects. We're giving some bonuses like post-card prints, exclusive discord access, and for the highest-tier, even the ability to join in on our private story discussions and get exclusive early-looks at our stories. We also take the feedback of our backers very seriously so you will end up influencing the stories and characters in one way or another. Now that's power befitting of the title "Old Ones".

Here are the links: 

Ko-Fi 

Patreon

Our Discord

Thanks for reading, we hope to see you in our discord! 

Ze and Nim