Well! It’s certainly been a bit of an unprompted hiatus, hasn’t it!
Like a lot of people, the journey through the pandemic has not been easy, but it’s also been some major life shifts as well! Both Muun and myself (Chira) have had to take restock of a lot of things. However, while it may not seem obvious, we’ve been making huge strides with Libertus Rubedo and we’re energized to continue.
Libertus Rubedo Relaunch WIP
Libertus Rubedo is getting a re-launch, of a sort. We’ve been developing the back-end of the story more in full and it’s really informed a lot of new possibilities, foreshadowing, and direction — as well as artwork.
Here are some previews:
Additionally, concept artwork has been added in the Gallery.
Why redraw the art?
When this project started, I completed the early chapters under a pretty strict time limit (i.e. rushing through everything) and visual concepts were underdeveloped. As the story grew in its narrative structure and detailing, so did the understanding of its art direction and characters/design. As a result, I hit a bit of a dead end, and so I finally felt that art for the early work became unrepresentative and obsolete, and it made continuing difficult due to the inconsistency.
Originally I only intended to retool Lesley and Daiki’s designs in older images, but then it was turned into an opportunity for a fresh start and a renovated story.
Will the old art still be available?
Once the story has been relaunched, the old art will no longer be available on this website officially.
As mentioned above, the older artwork became unrepresentative of the story. The images of the older art will naturally be floating in the wild, but the relaunched artwork will be replacing the older visuals and considered official.
Is the story being re-written?
The story as it’s currently written is not changing. The prose will remain the same as it currently is on the website. Rather, the prose will have minor edits and additional context/foreshadowing for later on, so it should be a fun re-read for fans when it gets officially posted.
What to expect next:
So far I have the goal of completing the relaunch for April 2024 and I am going to do my best to meet it. If you’re an existing reader and have been waiting patiently for development — thank you very much for your patience and support.
Libertus Rubedo will also start having supplemental short stories that are less labor-intensive and can offer story/worldbuilding between main story updates. We might have a couple of these go up before April, but no promises here.
If you want to keep up with story developments as they happen, please follow our Ko-Fi account (no paywall) as it’s our official visdev blog for all our stories.
–Chira