Glowing Stones : Heroes' Awakening News

[p]Hey everyone![/p][p]Time for a new dev update. The first one since Chapter 6 was released![/p][p]First off, about that new chapter: based on the feedback I’ve received, it’s been pretty well received! I’m not exactly sure what made the difference this time around. Maybe it was:[/p]

• [p]the pacing, slower at first with a big acceleration toward the end,[/p]
• [p]the 60FPS animations, which turned out quite nicely,[/p]
• [p]the sound design,[/p]
• [p]or the story itself, now ramping up in intensity as we near the end of this first book.[/p]

[p]Honestly, I think it’s probably a mix of all of that.[/p][p]Also, thanks to the summer sale bundles and the launch bundle with Mythos (huge congrats to them. And if you haven’t played it yet, I strongly recommend checking out the ongoing bundle to grab this little gem at a discount), sales have been holding up pretty well. That gives me a bit more breathing room for the next few months.[/p][p]Overall, I’m super happy! Though I won’t lie, the pressure is real for the next chapter![/p][p]Speaking of which (smooth transition, right?), the next chapter is already underway. The rough draft is almost finished. Of course, I’ll be tweaking things, polishing lines, adding stuff as I go through the rendering process, but the core is there and gives me a solid base to work from.[/p][p]Part of this chapter will focus on a few characters that, based on your feedback, might not be the most popular ones, but I hope this will be a chance for you to get to know them a bit better too.[/p][p]As for the story, it’s continuing to move toward its conclusion. I can even go ahead and share the working title for the next chapter (unless I change my mind, which I don’t think I will, because it fits too well): Chasing the Storm. Feel free to come up with your own theories about it (and share them here or on Discord)![/p][p]At this point, I can’t really give you any progress numbers just yet. But just so you know, there are currently 2,600 lines of raw dialogue already written, without counting the lewd scenes (well, the naughty parts of those scenes). I rarely write those in advance because they’re so tightly tied to the visual work. Just for comparison, at this same stage of development, Chapter 6 had about 2,400 lines. So, this one might be a bit longer... but we’ll see![/p][p]I'll leave you with a little visual here. Since there’s no background, it’s clearly not for the actual game, just a test I was doing. But hey, I love turtles. They’re just too cute! 😄[/p][p][/p]

Hello everyone!
As planned, here is the German version of the game! It’s fully proofread, all the screens and the interface are translated — everything should be working fine now!
If you run into any issues, feel free to let me know on the forum.
Thank you, and have fun!

A small patch to correct a mistake on a variable name, only in the French version of the game.

[carousel][/carousel][p][/p][p]The new chapter, Calm Before the Storm, has finally landed in Glowing Stones: Heroes’ Awakening![/p][p][/p][h2]What’s new in this update?[/h2]

• [p]📸 1,800 new renders[/p]
• [p]🎬 200 seconds of classic animation, now with even more professional-grade VFX![/p]
• [p]🔥 460 seconds of lewd animations – that’s nearly 8 full minutes![/p]
• [p]✍️ 20,000 words (in the English version) pushing the story closer to its thrilling climax[/p]

[p][/p][p]But that’s not all…[/p][p][/p][h2]Sound effects are here![/h2][p]The entire game—except for the NSFW scenes—now features sound design, including during animations. The atmosphere just got a major upgrade![/p][p][/p][h2]German translation arriving![/h2][p]I still have to make some small adjustements (GUI's buttons, Steam page, etc...) but the game is translated to German. Be aware that there are some small things to correct, I'm aware of it, one proofreader is already on this, so please, be just a little patient, it's coming![/p][p][/p][h2]And a little something extra![/h2][p]To celebrate this chapter, Glowing Stones is teaming up with a well-known game making its Steam debut!
Together, we’ve created a special bundle that we can only warmly recommend 👀🔥
The Romance, Powers and Mysteries Bundle ![/p][p][/p][p][/p]

Hey everyone!

First off, I'm proud to announce the launch of a brand-new "Complete the Set" bundle featuring three awesome games: Chasing Sunsets Race of Life and Glowing Stones! If you already own one or more of the games, don’t miss out—you'll get a nice discount!
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/53280/Passion__Power_Sexy_Story_Rich/

Now, for some updates on development—and on me…
My medical treatment is progressing well: my gout attacks are getting fewer and less intense, and my bloodwork confirms that everything’s moving in the right direction. So that's great news!
I've been able to get back to a fully normal development pace—maybe even a little faster than usual.

As for the game, I’m happy to share some good news: the new chapter is shaping up to be as long, if not slightly longer, than Chapter 5 (which was already the longest chapter so far). Plus, I’ve kept working on improving the quality of the animations, and I’m excited to show you a few little previews:



As you can see, it’s really starting to look like professional-level special effects! And since I'm creating them myself, I'll be able to reuse and improve them even more going forward.

I'm genuinely proud of these visual effects, because for me, that was part of the dream of telling a superhero story—bringing cinematic visuals to life.

I’ve also continued working on the sound design: all the (non-sexy) animations now have sound effects, and I’ve started coding in the sound design across all the chapters. It's a bit time-consuming, but it really adds another layer to the experience.
That said, sound will never replace text—I want the game to remain fully accessible even for players who choose (or need) to play without sound. Right now, I’m about halfway through Chapter 2. I'm handling this work during "downtime," like when my PC is busy calculating hair simulations or saving large scenes.

On top of that, I’m planning to host some live streaming sessions soon, where I’ll set up a few renders in real time. It’ll all happen on the game's Discord server, so feel free to join if you’d like to hang out! It’ll be a chance to answer your questions and show you a bit of the behind-the-scenes magic of how some of the game’s images come to life.

And what do the numbers look like?

• 1100 finished renders, with over 250 more waiting to be rendered
  
• 41 animations done, with over 8 more queued for rendering (that’s already more than 220 seconds of animation—not even counting the 90 seconds of Laina’s HUD animations)
  
• 4200 fully completed script lines (including pending renders and animations)
  
• 400 script lines waiting to be posed
  
• 400 dialogue lines waiting to be scripted

What’s left to do?

• 2 sexy scenes to pose
  
• 1 big action scene to pose
  
• 4 smaller scenes to pose

On top of that, there's still the sound design to finish, a few days of coding, and the French translation (but luckily, my wife helps me with that).

So as you can see, we’ve made a lot of progress since the last update, but there’s still a bit more to do.
What I can also tell you is that, honestly, this new chapter feels really good so far—it's got a slightly different style than the previous ones, and I’m excited for you to experience it.

Thanks again for all your patience and support, and see you soon!