Important Announcement - On Lustiest Lair

Hey there, Halftilt here with a very important announcement in regards to Lustiest Lair. If you're only subscribed here for Light-Space Love, you can DISREGARD this post.

Lustiest Lair

So, as many of you probably already know, there hasn't been much in terms of updates in regards to the Darkest Dungeon overhaul mod, Lustiest Lair.

The situation on that is pretty straight forward, the artist I've been working with is currently unable to create art for the mod. It's not anyone's fault either -- well, geopolitically, maybe it's Russia's fault.

As some of you may know, Hestrir/StalinTheStallion was the primary artist for Lustiest Lair -- my initial plan was to work with Hestrir until we've got an entire overhaul of Darkest Dungeon through Lustiest Lair. Including replacing some of the placeholder art I had for LL, replacing the vanilla art, creating new monsters, new bosses, new areas, etc.

But, as some of you may know, due to where they're located, they've been impacted by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine -- mainly, they're unable to receive payments due to sanctions and haven't been able to work on Lustiest Lair, let alone much of their own projects.

IMPORTANT: I'd ask that you DON'T message them and DON'T bother them to ask them to work on Lustiest Lair. Or even message them about the situation between Russia & Ukraine, unless you know them personally.

I've already talked with them recently; they're still alive, thankfully, but as you can imagine, making a living on your art is impossible when you can't get paid for it.

So, until I'm able to get a new artist that works in a similar style to Hestrir -- or I'm able to work with them again somehow -- work on Lustiest Lair is on a long hiatus. 

Again, it's an understandable situation for Hestrir. There wasn't a falling out between us or a disagreement on the project; it's just a logistical issue that we're no longer able to work together.

As you may have seen, I've tried working with a few artists in the past few months, but none of them have been able to capture the style I'm looking for. Though, there was one artist that I had worked with on a few items in Lustiest Lair that I was considering -- but now they're pursuing a career in photography and he doesn't have much time to dedicate on illustration.

Other than that, very few artists are exclusively Darkest Dungeon artists, and even fewer animators work in the version of Spine that Darkest Dungeon requires. If I were to find such an artist and animator combo like Hestrir, especially one that was as interested in contributing to the design and lore of Lustiest Lair as Hestrir was, I'd gladly continue work on Lustiest Lair again with them.

Unfortunately, so far the process of trying to hire an artist, having them follow the art direction, then getting their work cut up in Spine, then animated, has been... a laborious and very expensive process, to say the least.

So, instead of putting a mish-mash of artists together and trying to hobble something together. I've paused work on Lustiest Lair for the time being.

I can offer support on the project, and if anyone wants to make modifications, duplicate the project, or make their own overhaul based on Lustiest Lair -- everyone has the permission to use all of the assets in Lustiest Lair for anything. If you want any of the unused assets too, feel free to message me and I can send them to you.

You don't need to ask my permission or even give credit if you wish to use assets from Lustiest Lair, just use them -- though credit would be appreciated. 

For now, until something changes, or the conflict ends between Russia & Ukraine and things returns back to normal, work on Lustiest Lair is going on a long hiatus.

On Light-Space Love

Which brings me to my latest project, Light-Space Love. A big reason why I'm pouring a lot of my time and resources into this project is because I'm able to work with a lot more artists, it's much more adaptable and I'm having a lot more fun and freedom with it as well.

Of course, I'm hoping to continue working with the amazing artists that we currently have. And, fingers crossed that nothing happens to them, but I would be able to continue work on the project if an artist had to leave for any reason. The technology behind the project is much more widely used and the artwork is easier to adapt.

It's an unfortunate situation in Ukraine and one that's much worse for all the people in Ukraine that were dragged into a conflict that no one wanted. I don't have much else to say about the conflict other than I hope it ends soon.

TL;DR

Due to the war between Russia & Ukraine, I can't send payments to Hestrir, the primary artist on Lustiest Lair. I'll be putting Lustiest Lair on hiatus until I get a new dedicated artist or the conflict stops and things return to normal. For now, I'll be working primarily on Light-Space Love until the situation improves.