Before the year closes, a short update from Wispfire. In the past year our studio has been a bit in limbo. We were stuck in-between finding money to continue with Herald, and doing a lot of other stuff like work-for-hire projects, giving talks, doing guest lectures and pitching new projects that we want to do once Herald is finished. It sure has been a ride, but it has finally bore its fruits. In the most recent update we showed you a bit of Herald: Book III & IV in development, and we also went in depth about our situation regarding funding for the project. We were struggling to work on Herald without the neccesary funds to pay for the more expensive parts, like voice acting and 3D animation. Regarding this particular roadblock, we have some exciting news that we can share. In 2019, Wispfire will partner with researchers from the [url=https://www.hku.nl/Home/Research/Professorships/InteractiveNarrativeDesign.htm]Utrecht University of the Arts[/url] to do a reasearch project on Interactive Narrative Design, with Herald's final books as the subject of the research. To do this research we applied for a grant with the [url=https://stimuleringsfonds.nl/en/]Creative Industries Fund NL[/url], and we got the grant! This grant is a giant step towards finishing Herald, because it pays for our livelihoods, which in turn frees up a budget for voice-acting and animation. The research will also provide us ample opportunity to experiment with gameplay mechanics that we will be able to use in Herald: Book IV and future projects. There is even more that we can't share yet, but will be exciting once we get to it, so expect to hear back from us soon. For now, thank you for sticking with us, we've grown imensely from trying to keep ourselves standing in this competitive industry. But since 2018 marked our fifth aniversary, we're confident that we will be able to weather the troubles still hiding along our way. We would like to thank all of those who played Herald since its release, and we hope to see you again in 2019, the year in which we will resume full-time production on Herald Book III and IV again! :D - The Wispfire Team [img]https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26639967/9de07010b3b7a5ae2d8af2e1d4d11c9ba0431f98.jpg[/img]