Status Report - HERO: Week of 01.01

Mugen Museum of Arts and Sciences

Greetings travelers, and welcome to 2023! I apologize for no full status posts since finishing the script last March, but production on HERO has continued forward at a steady pace all this time. I have put the majority of development time into background art and am at the point where final assets are actually being produced.

Nagareboshi Natatorium

As you have seen from past posts, backgrounds start out with base models in SketchUp. I then import those models into Twinmotion to add additional details such as vegetation and decor, materials, and lighting. From there I set the cameras and export the base renders. The vast majority of the necessary ~400 backgrounds are at this point.

Nagareboshi Auditorium

The final step is to bring the renders into Photoshop to add final details and stylize to make them look more like illustrations and less like photorealistic renders. That is how I plan to spend 2023. If I can average about one background a day, then it'll take about a year to complete this step.

Oka Park Trail

I will make an effort to make more status posts here, but it is easier to share progress on social media, which I have been doing regularly. In addition to twitter (@sasuganick and @sasugastudios), I am also sharing on tumblr (sasuganick and sasugastudios), mastodon and cohost.

Sasuga Studios is now twelve years old, which is also how long HERO has been in production. As a solo developer who can only work on evenings and weekends, it's been as slow and long for me as for you. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I will see this project of mine through to completion. I hope you stick around to see how it turns out. You have my eternal thanks.

Nick