Dear citizens of the Suzerainverse,
Welcome to the August edition of our monthly broadcast. We’re excited to share a fresh lineup of updates, insights, and stories that matter to you.
Buckle up and join us as we dive into the latest happenings and important announcements shaping our community this month!
Rizia Update
We have added the first few scene drafts to the build and begun identifying further storyline improvements. The storylines for Rusty Montoro and Adarfo Sotelato are expanded with cascading story impacts to different branches. We've also integrated new design systems to deepen the reformist dynamics and improve the existing content.
Our team has begun solidifying our new hero scene, which will be the most ambitious scene we have ever attempted in terms of scale and complexity in Suzerain. We are also excited to include some content specifically for absolutist and theocratic players here and beyond.
We've added many decisions and new royal decrees for the war tied to our new airforce content, with more royal decrees and decisions being designed to improve other aspects of Rizian politics, economy, welfare, and order, and to deepen systems. The team has also decided to make a more involved step-by-step war tutorial which is in design right now.
We are implementing our new character portraits, including one surprise portrait that we hope you will enjoy. Additionally, we've added some new codex entries and made dozens of bug fixes reported by the community about different parts of the story and design. We've also improved optimization for war initialization and added status updates on units, among other things.
Mobile Update and New Mobile Monetization Design Preview
We're working on a new mobile re-port for Suzerain, and we'd like to share why we're doing this and what wasn't working with our previous version.
Our initial mobile port, similar to the Switch port, was designed as a one-time solution when we didn't anticipate Suzerain becoming an evolving game with free updates and DLCs. We created a custom solution to port it efficiently, making the game pure 2D to save rendering costs and keeping our database from the patch conversion point.
Nine months after the mobile release, we adopted a new evolving game strategy. We had to focus on our core game experience and build a new database and features that weren't initially designed for in the original Suzerain. This meant the ports became out of sync, and updates couldn't be pushed to all platforms due to database versioning and technical differences.
With our upcoming mobile re-port, we're synchronizing our content and database from the ground up. This will make it much easier to update all platforms and ensure all our players have similar content experiences regardless of where they play. We're calling this the "mobile 3.0 report," which essentially allows us to be more future-proof and give the latest and greatest to our mobile audience which has exceeded a total of half a million lifetime installs.
We're bringing all the new content from 2023 and 2024 to mobile players, plus some additional changes. We've identified that the demo plus full game in-app purchase system was excluding a huge part of the player base worldwide on mobile. Our research also showed that many people worldwide can't purchase IAPs with credit cards, making our system exclusionary. In response, we've built a hybrid monetization model with help from Google and other experts in the industry.
Our new mobile Suzerain version will have a few distinct elements. First off, just like the PC version, Suzerain will be one application with all story packs included in it. You won't need to download different applications for each DLC. All current and future content will be accessible within this single, unified app. However, our new mobile Suzerain version will have a few distinct elements.
All Story Packs are individually purchasable without requiring the base game. For instance, you'll be able to purchase Rizia as a standalone story pack if you wish without purchasing the Sordland story pack. This new structure allows us to offer a more streamlined experience while giving you more control over which parts of the Suzerain Universe you want to explore.
Then comes our new mobile hybrid monetization model:
Please note: This monetization model is ONLY for mobile and WILL NOT be coming to PC ever.
- Freemium Model: It will be possible to play the entire game for free by watching ads. All ads are opt-in, and the player experience is only halted at turn transitions for freemium players. Ads will be watchable at any point.
- Premium Ownership: Premium experience players have full access to the owned story packs (Not the entire app) with extra perks such as free story points on purchase, no ads, and offline play.
- Subscription System: We're introducing 1-day, 3 days, 1 week, and one-month passes that allow you to experience all Suzerain content (both Sordland and Rizia) and future DLCs without ads for the duration of your subscription for a reduced price.
- Lifetime Pass: This is only for our superfans and people who want to support Torpor Games. This gives you complete access to all Suzerain content including any potential future DLC with no ads.
Now we have two key things that drive this. We have a new resource called story points which you can earn and use to unlock turns in the freemium experience even if you still own a story pack or have an active subscription. This allows a few cool things. You can earn story points (more on this below) and unlock turns of the stories you don't own and play for free even though you own another story fully as a premium story owner. So ownership is per story, not the entire game; you can try other stories. There will be special discounts and custom offers that allow you to purchase story packs and passes at reduced prices.
Earn story points by purely playing the game, watching ads (if you need to), leveling up in your profile through unlocking achievements, and gaining experience. We want to reward players who spend effort and time engaging deeply with the game and give them experiences for free or with fewer ads if they don't want to or can't pay. Additionally, if you have paid, you will still receive story points to try a significant part of the next story pack for free.
We're excited to share more details about some new features we've been cooking up and mentioned here. In early October, we'll show some footage of new features we've been working on. We're changing how you'll progress in Suzerain mobile - things like influence levels, experience, and titles you can now earn. We’re also adding ways to select your political affiliation in your profile. We will also talk about Necropolis, our new backend system for mobile, spearheaded by our technical director and team.
There's more in the pipeline, but we'll save those details for next time. As always, your input helps shape Suzerain's future, and thanks for supporting us. Our first community testers for mobile will be picked from the filled-out surveys previously shared here.
Gamescom
In August, our team members, Ata, Ilke, and Ozgun, attended Gamescom in Cologne. They immersed themselves in the gaming world, connected with industry professionals, met with potential investors, and proudly showcased Torpor Games and Suzerain.
We were honored to have Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s State Senator for Economy, Energy, and Enterprise, and former Governing Mayor of Berlin, visit our booth at the indie showcase. With her extensive background, including her role as Minister for Family Affairs in Chancellor Merkel's government, she was particularly interested in how we design in-game laws and choices to reflect complex political realities. Our discussion touched on the fictional countries we create and the state of women's rights—a topic she was especially passionate about.
A big thank you to MediaNet Berlinbrandenburg e.V. and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for hosting and financially supporting our Gamescom showcase. With Berlin’s strong state-level games fund and exciting initiatives like House of Games and Amaze, the future of the Berlin games scene looks brighter than ever!
RIZIA MERCH IS HERE!
This month, we are excited to unveil the highly anticipated Kingdom of Rizia merchandise!
Explore our meticulously crafted map of the kingdom, proudly display the regal flag, and enjoy your favorite beverages from a beautifully designed cup featuring the esteemed likeness of King Romus.
These exclusive items are now available for purchase, allowing you to celebrate and honor our beloved realm in style. Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm.
We're excited about these updates and can't wait to share more in the next broadcast.
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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