Oct 8, 2024

Suzerain - Torpor

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!

Update from The Conformist!

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!

Suzerain Mobile Update

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.

Tokyo Game Show 2024

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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Sep 20, 2024

Your legacy beyond Sordland: How your choices shape the Kingdom of Rizia

Suzerain - Torpor

Dear Citizens of the Suzerainverse,

Your decisions in Suzerain impact your journey in the Kingdom of Rizia. With the Save Game Transfer feature, your choices as Anton Rayne, from economic investments to geopolitical alliances shape the unique world you'll encounter in the DLC.

Please note, this is not a new feature and it has been in the game since the Kingdom of Rizia DLC launched, we wanted to take the time to talk about it in more detail.

When you first start playing Suzerain, you are given the option to start a "New Game" and name it accordingly. This is setting up a "Campaign" that encompasses both the Sordland and Rizia stories within the one world state. You can then select the country of Sordland or Rizia to start the game. Please note that each game can only be played in a Campaign once, and if you choose to play Rizia first, you will not be able to play Sordland second, as the Sordland story needs to be finished to play Rizia.

When you start a new game, Sordland and Rizia are both created in their default values and states. To transfer your decisions from Sordland to Rizia, you need to finish the Sordland story first within the same campaign. This will update the save file, affecting how Rizia unfolds. For example, certain decisions or dialogue in Rizia will change based on what you did in Sordland.

However, if you start Rizia without playing Sordland first, the save file will not reflect any of your prior choices, and the Rizia playthrough will be set to default.

In short, play Sordland first and then Rizia in the same campaign to see how your leadership affects the world beyond Sordland.

Be ready, your decisions will leave a lasting mark!

FAQ:

“What happens if I don’t finish Sordland? Will my choices transfer across?”
No. You must complete the game for your Sordland choices to be reflected in Rizia.

“How does the game communicate your choices in Sordland affect Rizia?”
You receive a pop-up if you try to start Rizia before playing Sordland, warning you that Rizia will create a default save file and world state for Sordland, and finish the main game. You can still choose to play Rizia with the default world state.

” Do I need to start a new game of Sordland to play Rizia for the first time?”
If you have not yet played Rizia, and already have a finished playthrough of Sordland, when you start Rizia within the same Campaign, it will automatically transfer the world state from Sordland.

"Do my choices in Rizia affect anything in Sordland?"
No. Sordland is the first story in the series, so choices made in Rizia are not reflected in Sordland.

Until the next update, take care!

Glovurius axa Rizia!

A’Morgna her Coren!

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

Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord and our newsletter to get the latest breaking news for Suzerain and The Conformist.

Sep 3, 2024

August 2024 Broadcast

Suzerain - Torpor

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/

Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord and our newsletter to get the latest breaking news for Suzerain and The Conformist.

Aug 6, 2024

June & July 2024 Broadcast

Suzerain - Torpor

Dear citizens of the Suzerainverse,

With the sun shining brightly and summer in full swing, we are delighted to greet each of you.

In this special June and July broadcast, we are eager to bring you the latest and most exciting updates that have taken place across our vibrant nation over the past month!

Rizia Updates

In June, we launched Rizia's largest update, version 3.0.9, which brought significant polish and new content thanks to our team's hard work and your invaluable feedback. We're committed to further enhancing Rizia with more content and improvements.

Our team focuses on update 3.1.0, which is set to introduce fresh dialogues, narrative expansions, and design improvements, including significant additions to the war feature with an aircraft expansion. We're also addressing existing issues and reported bugs - be sure to continue sending bug reports via Discord.

Mobile Updates

On the mobile front, adapting the war feature for touch controls proved challenging and took longer than expected, but are on track for full compatibility. Feedback and insights received from Google Indie Accelerator mentors also guide our in-game balancing and mobile interface improvements.

Additionally, we finalized our hybrid monetization strategy and are balancing the new freemium experience alongside the existing premium experience to offer affordable and fair ways to enjoy Suzerain on mobile regardless of where people are around the world. More details on this will be shared in our next broadcast.

Suzerain Mobile Testing Volunteer Sign-up

We're excited to announce the upcoming Suzerain mobile test, and we need your help! If you're interested in becoming a volunteer tester, please complete the sign-up form linked above.

Your participation and feedback are invaluable to us, and we're grateful for your interest in contributing to this exciting journey.

In July, Ata, Suzerain’s Managing Director and Co-founder, attended the Google Indie Games Accelerator program's graduation event and the Google I/O conference in Bangalore, India to support the development of Suzerain on mobile platforms.

The Torpor Games team is honored to be among the 60 participants selected from 7,000 applicants, and receiving the graduation plaque from Purnima Kochikar, VP of Google Play Games and Apps, was a highlight. We are excited to apply this newfound knowledge to bring more challenging and thought-provoking experiences to life!

And that's not all! We have a little surprise to celebrate this milestone and reconnect with our community!

It's been too long since we've had a conversation with you, so we are thrilled to announce a Town Hall Q&A session focused on mobile development and answering any general questions on Wednesday 14th of August at 7 pm CET in our Discord server.

Be sure to join our Discord server to participate and we look forward to chatting with you and answering your questions!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the collectible contest. We received great original proposals and truly appreciate your creativity and effort. Unfortunately, we can only select one...for now.

After collecting your votes, one collectible stood out. Although the competition was close between two entries, one winner emerged.
Drumroll, please... The winner of the collectible contest is... Lucita's dagger!

We've received an excellent idea for implementation, but it will take some time to incorporate it into the content. Let's keep it as a surprise for the moment.

Congratulations to Zak Hayden! The portrait will be integrated into the next 3.1 patch update. In addition, you will receive the "Artist of the Suzerainverse" role on Discord and an invitation to the next early testing round.

Once again, thank you all for your participation and creativity!

And before we wrap up, we’re excited to share the amazing caricature portraits of the characters from The Kingdom of Rizia, crafted by the talented Sieger Charlie. To see more of his work, be sure to visit his portfolio here.

Until the next update, take care!

Glovurius axa Rizia!

A’Morgna her Coren!

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

Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord and our newsletter to get the latest breaking news for Suzerain and The Conformist.