December 22 Update
Added 2024-12-22 18:00:06 +0000 UTCWe previously celebrated the tenth anniversary of the TLS prologue, but I didn't start a Patreon account right away. So we've now passed the tenth anniversary of that as well. As another little artifact of the past, here's my blog post for launching the Patreon:
https://thelastfucklord.blogspot.com/2014/12/patreon.html
It is not an exaggeration to say that Patreon gave me my career as a writer. I'd been creating things my entire life up to that point, but with no success in traditional writing establishments. Still haven't had any luck with those, actually: the powers that be in books and video games have consistently rejected me. I've never had a viral hit, either, the sort of explosive success that catapults people to the big time.
Instead, I've built a career one step at a time, person by person and update by update. I feel extremely fortunate to be in this position and I'm determined not to waste it, so I've taken steps to diversify. If Patreon had disappeared or banned me in the early years, I would have needed to go back to conventional work, but now I could take the loss and keep going. I hope that won't happen, because the community here on Patreon has meant a lot to me. ^-^
I find myself kind of contemplative in this moment, though. While I might have taken a different path in an alternate life, I definitely couldn't have taken this one without Patreon existing. I wonder if I could make it today, in an environment where Patreon is saturated and people have been burned by a lot of campaigns that don't deliver on their promises.
Some people believe that hard work or talent win out in the end, but I absolutely don't. Whatever skill or determination I have were components of my success, but timing and sheer luck are also critical. I wonder if a Sierra who was starting ten years later could ever get established and worry it might not be possible. In addition to Patreon being saturated, the forums I used to promote the game years ago are almost all dead, consumed by social media that favors lowest common denominator algorithms.
As another little time capsule, check out the earliest surviving thread on which I posted about TLS:
https://legendofkrystal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4691
I posted on many, but I think the others are all gone, or at least the forums were reset at some point. This is kind of a funny relic, actually. The main page of the site, the ostensible reason for the whole community, is I believe completely unchanged from the first time I saw it years ago. Whatever else you can say about me, at least my projects have progressed in the past ten years!
As is tradition, the last post of the year during the holidays will be a quiet one. I look forward to the new year and everything that's yet to come! I owe it to all of you. ^-^
Comments
Oh and it's a great blast from the past seeing the old title. It got so much easier to talk about the game when I could say the name out loud without cringing. I like the old title. It works on several levels, it just made word of mouth harder.
Ark Tolei
2025-01-22 06:31:47 +0000 UTCI suspect that the route you've taken is largely blocked today. Algorithms are, in theory, meant to replicate a similar effect to how highly active forum threads would consistently get pushed near the top back in the day, but in practice they're not particularly similar, and what forums still exist are simultaneously too huge and too insular to serve a similar social function. If you don't make accounts on a bunch of sites you simply can't browse the community the way you used to be able to. I have legitimately no idea how I would go to a website or service and identify a small project that's "surprisingly busy", but which isn't explosively large. The booms have gotten boomier, but at the cost of making the busts invisible in a way that simply wasn't true a decade ago. Given how aggressively you push yourself to identify how the systems of your industry work I think you would probably have a much better chance than most people of finding a hook that catapults you to a fairly stable place, possibly even a better position than you're in now, but the deck is definitely stacked against latecomers, and the building of a business brick by brick is simply not a strategy that is supported by the modern economy.
Ark Tolei
2025-01-22 06:27:59 +0000 UTCI love this first comment: > Given that the "twist" is sort of already in the prologue, does the game even > have one? Why, yes, Guy From 2014, it turns out the game _does_ have an additional twist or two.
Dubsington
2024-12-24 16:07:40 +0000 UTCI kind of feel old having started playing from a rather early state. My first Patreon pledge to Sierra Lee dates back to Nov of 2015, so it's only 9 years on Patreon, but I remember having that blogsplot site bookmarked for a while. So it could around 10 years for me as well. :-D The game outstands in a fair yet challenging gameplay (some bosses really need some trial and error, because of the possible attributes of the attacks, the affinities of the party members etc.) and the writing of the story and erotic scenes are on a different level. Less explicit pornographic, more wholesome and emphatic. Kind of "feel good scenes" (mostly, obviously not all scenes are my personal cup of tea). ;-)
Markus S.
2024-12-24 08:40:34 +0000 UTCWell I am personally glad you were not swallowed up by the AAA industry. All of your games would certainly never have passed the "standards" mainstream media keep. Which is a shame because wholesome-harem is a story type that has never been done this well.
Nathan Phoenix
2024-12-24 06:22:32 +0000 UTCThanks! I absolutely love this sort of thing, so I'm happy to have created something that has people caring about those payoffs. ^-^
Sierra Lee
2024-12-23 21:56:59 +0000 UTCI remember how much earlier in development the initial cutscene showcased all those unknown characters, and over these years gradually we came to know them one by one. All the theoson/treegoddess theories, his name is Estaven. Props to you, story set up years ahead and satisfying payoff for it is a feat by itself.
cathulion etharn
2024-12-23 21:09:22 +0000 UTCI'm definitely a planner by nature! It's actually unusual for me to have uncertainty at that stage, but as of the dwarven poll I was still making decisions about the shape of the game.
Sierra Lee
2024-12-23 14:04:03 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your support and all the kind words in this post. ^-^ It has indeed been an amazing decade and I hope to follow it with another one!
Sierra Lee
2024-12-23 14:02:38 +0000 UTCYou don't mention among the factors that explain your success your longer than usual long term planning capacities. If I remember correctly, the poll regarding sex with dwarves can be found very early in the thread so. In that sense, some of us knew about Galbia and Neranda scenes quite a bit before they appeared in game lol. BTW, although you no longer post there, the Futanari palace original thread still exits: https://www.futanaripalace.com/showthread.php?tid=37942 (Fun fact for the community: the very first try to make a similar playthourgh to the actual efforts created by Thostha and Grimp was done by an user (Raphael) that used to post there. The 3AW broke him though.) Links below: https://thelastsovereign.miraheze.org/wiki/Thosha%27s_playthrough https://thelastsovereign.miraheze.org/wiki/User:Grim8P/Grim8P%27s_playthrough
lostone2
2024-12-23 08:32:11 +0000 UTCBeing part of this journey for as many years as I have at this point has made me feel close to you in a way that I don't feel with other developers. For many years this project was the only one I supported financially at any level, and I'm so grateful to have been part of this journey. I will always be a fan of you and your work, regardless of platform or medium, regardless of NSFW or SFW. It's a testament to the quality and absolute love you have for everything you put out. I'm so grateful for you and the work and care you've put into your work -- as a fan, it brings me a lot of joy to support you and your endeavors wherever they lead. I hope you have a really lovely holiday, Sierra. It's well-earned and deserved. Thanks for the amazing decade!
Jax
2024-12-23 06:48:08 +0000 UTCLike others have said, a consistent output *and* quality counts for a lot in today's uber-saturated space. TLS' initial premise may have been the hook for me, but it was the promise of a consistent output that made me stay and check out all your other works.
AnythingAtAll
2024-12-23 05:36:46 +0000 UTCHappy Holidays!
Huevo Podrido
2024-12-23 01:28:41 +0000 UTCThanks, hope you have a lovely holiday season as well!
Sierra Lee
2024-12-23 00:00:01 +0000 UTCYou are correct, opportunity tends to come about via fortune: being in the right place, at the right time, and knowing the right people. But that doesn't diminish what you've accomplished with the opportunity you were given. I found your work during a difficult time in my life, and I'm so very grateful. I wish you a lovely holiday season.
Arramos
2024-12-22 23:48:44 +0000 UTCI'm still grateful to have found your work. Thank you.
Runcible Technician
2024-12-22 21:47:37 +0000 UTCI forgot legend of Krystal existed and you’re right it looks exactly the same as I remember it. Crazy to think I could have stumbled across tls all those years ago
Sundeigh
2024-12-22 19:37:57 +0000 UTCI've always felt that a lot of people underestimate the role of luck and timing in success (I've always said: I'm sure there were hundreds of people at minimum with the skills to have been Bill Gates, but most of them didn't have the right opportunity, etc.), so I definitely understand where you're coming from with those musings. Trying to get a foothold in the current saturated creation space is unquestionably an uphill battle. That being said, I would personally be inclined to think you probably could. succeed even in this environment, because consistency is still something you have and most others lack. As someone who tries to achieve something similar (albeit with longer intervals), I think it still offers a strong source of competitive advantage. Perhaps it would've taken longer to get traction, which is the battle I'm fighting myself at the moment, but I do see it as an upward arc. I do mourn the loss of those forums, though. gods. XD; I always planned to advertise there myself when I picked up Noblesse after the long hiatus that started in 2018, but by the time I got back to developing they were almost all gone. I miss the age of forums a lot. A more elegant place for online discourse from a more civilized age. But I suppose we must thrive amongst the barbarians. XD If nothing else, regardless of the role of timing, your success has still been an inspiration, and if the timing helped a lot, I don't think timing and luck can make up for a -lack- of talent, at least in a creative space. (Elsewhere... sadly more possible :X)
Lord Forte
2024-12-22 18:30:09 +0000 UTCOf course you'd come through, even in today's saturated and somewhat toxic Patreon. The problem with "Some people believe that hard work or talent win out in the end" statement is that it is missing key part of the equation - brains. Hard work and talent without sharp mind will be either wasted on nonsense or used by someone else. Add an inquisitive and sharp mind to those and viola! You got yourself a win in the end. So yeah, I am quite certain you'd make it again ;)
Dark Art
2024-12-22 18:20:09 +0000 UTCI raise a figurative toast to the new year and the completion of TLS to come. Cheers!
Hansworth
2024-12-22 18:07:16 +0000 UTC
