More Details, More Depth

Beginning with this entry, I want to go into more detail about individual features and decisions. The updates from here on will be smaller, more focused, and therefore deserve more precise explanations.

It has only been a few days since I more or less shadow-released the website and the Steam page. Even without any real announcement, things became noticeably more dynamic almost immediately. More people found the platform than expected at this stage, and the pace of communication increased accordingly. This makes it necessary to be more structured and transparent with development updates from now on.

Version: App v0.5.0 - API v0.7.0-9aaf877

The documentation is now integrated directly into the editor interface.

• A small doctor hat icon (I still don’t know the correct English term...graduation cap?) has been added to the upper right corner of the app.
• Clicking on it opens the documentation or tutorial article relevant to the current page.
• Several UI sections that require deeper explanation (for example the Actions interface) now include contextual documentation links.

A full searchable documentation browser is also included, allowing users to read any article without leaving the editor. This is the first step toward making the editor self-explanatory and reducing friction for new Bards once testing starts.

2FA is now implemented end-to-end.

• Can be enabled in the user settings.
• It becomes mandatory for Bards who want to sell stories and set up a payout profile.
• Works with Google Authenticator and similar TOTP-compatible apps.

The goal is to increase account security before real payments become part of the platform.

Users can now link multiple OAuth providers to the same account.

• This is useful if someone loses access to one of their login methods.
• Any connected provider can be used to sign in.
• Configuration happens in the user settings.

This should reduce support problems later and gives users more control over their account access.

I started implementing reusable character poses this week. That led me to notice something structural: right now, each dialogue line only supports a single active character. This comes from my RPG background, where dialogue is typically one speaker at a time.

But in visual novels and other narrative games, multiple characters often appear on screen simultaneously, each with their own expression or pose. Even if it's not required for every story, it’s the correct foundation to build on.

Because of this, I’m going to rework the dialogue system partially:

• Introduce support for multiple characters per dialogue line.
• Update the renderer to place and update each character individually.
• Integrate character poses into this new structure instead of bolting them onto the old one.

This will take a bit longer, but it prevents painting myself into a corner later.

I quietly started searching for illustrator-writers, mostly on Reddit for now. The first two posts gained a lot of traction but resulted in a manageable number of DMs.

The post in r/gamedevclassifieds, however, caused my inbox to blow up almost immediately. Sorting through everything will take time. If I take a while to respond, that’s the reason. I didn’t expect that level of activity this early.

The first Talescape Originals will likely be difficult to coordinate, and I’m trying not to get pulled too deeply into this phase while the platform still needs finishing. But the process has started, and I will review all submissions carefully.