September 2024 Broadcast

Dear citizens of the Suzerainverse,

Welcome to the September Broadcast. This update shows a preview of The Conformist's refined visual style and environments. We also have updates on exciting mobile-exclusive features such as Political Influence Levels, Story Points, and ad-free premium options, along with introducing the new Necropolis backend system. Lastly, we enjoyed meeting some amazing community members at the Tokyo Game Show!

[h3]Update from The Conformist![/h3]

Our art team has been hard at work over the past few months, refining and evolving the visual style of The Conformist. Today, we’re excited to share some insights into our progress and the direction we’re taking.

The primary focus of this iteration has been to create a visual style with a distinct, bold identity, drawing inspiration from mid-20th-century propaganda and travel posters. After much exploration, we’ve landed on a more detailed and polished look compared to earlier versions. This added depth lends a more serious tone to the narrative, while also allowing us to transform the city of Holsord into a vibrant, bustling 1930s metropolis, full of life and character.

Two key scenes that we’ve been focusing on are the cabaret and a street corner, which were redesigned from the ground up. Though we kept a similar layout, everything else was reimagined to better suit the new art direction. The cabaret scene, in particular, was a fresh start, where we wanted to capture the liveliness and glamour of the era.

These scenes also helped us refine our processes. We’ve established a 3D model guide with specific rules for consistency across all assets and developed a solid project structure to efficiently handle a large volume of models and materials. We’ve also begun working on architectural sketches and guidelines, marking the first steps in bringing the full game world to life.

We’d also like to take a moment to highlight Ioannis and Stijn, who have been instrumental in pushing these developments forward. Their dedication and creativity have played a huge role in shaping the new visual identity of The Conformist.

We updated The Conformist Website, you can visit it here!

[h3]Suzerain Mobile Update[/h3]

We’re thrilled to share more details about the exciting new features coming to Suzerain mobile. As mentioned in our previous update, we’ve been hard at work refining the mobile experience, and today we’re here to clarify some points and offer a sneak peek into what’s coming.

The changes we talk about in this update ONLY relate to the Suzerain experience on mobile, they will not be brought over to PC. Our goal is to offer mobile players more freedom to enjoy Suzerain flexibly.

New Mobile Features & Progression

Here are some new mobile screenshots of the features we’ve been working on. In two weeks, we’ll release a video showing the new changes in action. One major update is how progression will work on mobile, with the introduction of Political Influence Levels—a system where you can earn experience (XP) and climb the ranks to earn more XP. For example, you will start your journey as a Volunteer, and work your way up to more influential positions like Media Coordinator or eventually reach Legislative Assistant, the highest tier in the current system. These are not leaderboards or community ranks, instead, they are a way for players to earn more XP by playing the game on mobile.

Players will earn XP by leveling up, completing daily rewards, and unlocking achievements. The rarer an achievement, the more XP you’ll earn, and players who enjoy achievement hunting will be able to level up faster. Each level grants higher Story Point rewards, which freemium (non-story pack owners) players can use to unlock more content without needing to watch ads. This progression system will only be introduced on mobile, to offer more ways to experience Suzerain.

Earning Story Points & Watching Ads on Mobile

We’re introducing a new resource on mobile called Story Points, which can be earned through gameplay, watching ads, or unlocking achievements. There are two types of ads:

Normal Ads: Available anytime for non-story owners, awarding 2 Story Points.
Special Ads: Appear occasionally and grant 6 Story Points.

Story Points will be required to unlock new turns in the freemium version, starting at the end of turn 2. As the game’s content deepens, the Story Point cost will gradually increase. We’re aiming for a balanced system, and mobile testers will help us refine this to ensure fairness.

All ads are opt-in, meaning you’ll never be interrupted mid-turn unless you choose to watch an ad. There are no banner ads, and ads only appear at natural breaks in the game, like the end of turns. Story points are not needed for premium players, as you won’t experience ads and will enjoy a smooth progression experience.

Clarifying the Mobile Premium Purchases & Subscriptions

We’ve received some questions about how this affects existing premium players. To be clear:

Existing mobile premium purchases remain unchanged. If you’ve already purchased the Sordland experience, you won’t need to repurchase it. It will automatically convert to the Sordland Story Pack by default.
Mobile Subscriptions are designed for players who don’t own all the content. They allow you to try other stories ad-free for a limited time, offering a premium experience at a lower cost.
If you’ve purchased everything, subscriptions won’t be useful since there will be no ads to disable.
Rest assured, none of our monetization models impact game design or story progression. If you own the story packs or have a live subscription, nothing will change except for the addition of ads in the freemium experience.
Please note that the screenshots shared are still a work in progress, and the final product may look quite different. We can’t wait to show you more soon!

Interesting Scenarios with the New Mobile Design

You can own the Sordland Story Pack on Mobile but not own Rizia, and still try Rizia’s intro for free, with no ads.
You can use the story points earned from your premium Sordland purchase to unlock more turns in Rizia beyond Turn 2 without ads.
You can own the Rizia Story Pack without owning Sordland.
If you’re playing in freemium mode and run out of story packs, you can purchase affordable subscription tickets like the 1-day or 3-day pass to finish the experience with no ads.
The new mobile subscription system lets you try all story packs within the subscription period—so for a much cheaper price, you could play both Rizia and Sordland in 3 days.
Premium mobile purchases of story packs also allow offline mode, meaning you won’t need an internet connection to play, giving you more flexibility.

Necropolis: Our New Mobile Backend System

Necropolis is our new back-end that introduces Torpor Accounts to store currency, achievements, and other platform-related player progression data. At the moment, Torpor Accounts will only be available on mobile and completely optional to register.

The idea comes from the need to give the players a way to preserve their data cross-device. There are already products out there that can achieve this for mobile however, opting for an in-house solution will provide us with the flexibility to add more features to Torpor accounts as well as the potential for complete cross-platform play and many more possibilities to expand on in the future.
We're excited about these updates and can't wait to share more in the next broadcast.

Mobile Customization & Personalization

To add a bit more flair, we’re introducing custom character profile pictures and political organization customization to your mobile profiles. While this is purely for personal use at the moment (other players can’t see your profile), we hope to expand on this feature in the future.

We’re excited to roll out these features with the mobile release, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback! Stay tuned for more details and the upcoming video in two weeks showing these features in action.

[h3]Tokyo Game Show 2024[/h3]

Tokyo Game Show 2024 was an incredible experience for us as part of the Selected Indie 80. We showcased the Suzerain: Kingdom of Rizia DLC over four exciting days, and the fan support was truly humbling. A standout moment was meeting ゆえぴこ (@yuepicos), a superfan who created 7.5 hours of anime content for Suzerain, incredible! We also connected with viral Twitter user 富田勢源 (@ANNO1189), whose posts about Suzerain have reached millions.

We had the honor of meeting many fans, including one who traveled from Kobe, and several passionate gamers from China and Taiwan, all excited about the game and its DLC. Business-wise, we reunited with industry friends at the Tokyo Indies Meetup and had a great dinner with the Google Indie Games Accelerator 2024 Alumni.

We also made new connections with indie developers like Black Tangerine from Korea, working on Killa, and Tebasaki Games from Japan, sparking insightful discussions on politics and gaming. On the media front, we had visits from CNN en Español's Sergio Gómez Martín, Gamespot journalist Jason Rodriguez, and a professor from Tokyo Arts University, all excited about Rizia.

It was an unforgettable event filled with amazing fans, industry connections, and media attention, and we’re grateful to everyone who made it possible!

Until the next update, take care!

Glovurius axa Rizia!

A’Morgna her Coren!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352340/Suzerain_Kingdom_of_Rizia/

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