Dear Citizens of the Suzerainverse,

Welcome to our February 2026 Broadcast! Since our last check-in, we’ve been working on some exciting things we can’t wait to share with you.

In this edition, we’re catching up with Ata for development updates, previewing audio from upcoming projects, and exploring some of the community’s most interesting conspiracies around The Source.

Development Update from Ata

Hello everyone,

February passed quickly, and we made solid progress across several fronts. Along the way we encountered new challenges that we are now working through. The difference between the early days of Torpor and Torpor today is that we now have the resources and the cushion to address issues more steadily, thanks to the support of you, our community, and the backing of our investors.

Project Aperture writing has continued to move forward, though we still have some iteration to do on the narrative design. The later parts of the experience need more work to really land player expression and the different outcomes that can come from it. Our new writers have now onboarded and are already helping with that push. We are excited about giving players the chance to experience a few places they have not seen before. Meanwhile the community unraveling the ARG is getting closer to its next stage, and we are curious to see what people think once the next revelations start appearing.

Project Fulcrum has received several more iterations since the last update. We are getting close to completing most of the core work around the game design. There are always new things that come up, but it now feels like we have worked through most of the big questions around which elements belong in the experience. UX and UI iterations are continuing and remain a high priority, helping communicate details more clearly to the player. Some recent balancing changes and design adjustments made the game feel much better, and we are continuing to detail how different outcomes shape the overall experience. We are also approaching our closed testing phase, which will move the project beyond purely internal testing.

The Conformist has also made progress. On the narrative design side we are tackling some fundamental questions around how the final version of the RPG systems should look. The core game design feature has advanced, and the next step is turning it into a proof-of-concept version that we can actually test. Seeing it in action will help us identify issues early, especially around AI behaviour and system calculations. It is difficult to fully understand how something works until it can be played, and how opposing groups behave will be central to the experience. Alongside this we are also setting clearer targets and improving our meeting and production processes so we can make better use of our time as the team grows.

The images above and below are some early work-in-progress concept explorations for levels in The Conformist. These depict the Old Town, the oldest district and historic centre of the original city of Hol, from which the city later expanded. The images explore potential buildings, structures, and environmental components.

On the team side, a new Lead Producer has joined to help with the organizational and coordination challenges that come with the next phase of our evolution as a games company. At the same time we are speaking with trailer and branding artists to support some upcoming marketing pushes. Our hiring pipeline has also been improving, and we are reviewing candidates who could join the team and help strengthen both development and delivery. Balancing quality and time is always one of the harder parts of game development, but we are working through it step by step.

Another event coming up soon is the Shadows of Eastern Merkopa campaign. The LARP organized within the Suzerain Universe is an impressive effort, and we are looking forward to seeing the media and stories that come out of it. Around the same time, the founders of Torpor will be traveling to Albania to conduct political research, meeting with politicians, parliamentarians, regulators, and professors. After earlier research trips that involved meeting political figures in the UK and the US, it will be valuable to spend time in the Balkans and understand the region more directly.

Overall we are pushing forward on many fronts with steady progress. Building games while building a team at the same time is never simple. Suzerain itself came together through a lot of challenges and persistence. That same mindset still drives the studio today. We are here because we care deeply about the work, and we intend to keep building the worlds we believe in.

The Sounds of Aperture and Fulcrum

While we’re still deep in development on our upcoming projects and not quite ready to start revealing them just yet, we can at least share a small taste of what’s been happening behind the scenes. Here’s some more snippets of the fantastic audio work from Torpor’s audio and sound designer, James Spence.

We’d love to hear what kind of vibes these tracks give you, and whether you can guess what they might hint at. Take a listen:

Conspiracies Of The Source

As players on Discord banded together to unravel the mystery of our ARG, The Source, theories quickly began to multiply. What began as a few scattered clues quickly turned into a full-blown investigation, with players trading ideas, testing wild hypotheses, and carefully connecting threads in search of hidden meaning.

Naturally, we at Torpor couldn’t resist stirring the pot a little. Watching the speculation unfold has been half the fun. Here are some of our favorite conspiracies about what The Source might mean and how it could be hinting at our upcoming projects:

👉 Join The Suzerain Universe Discord

A Small Contribution to Global Relief Efforts

At Torpor Games, we try to give back each year by supporting humanitarian efforts where help is most urgently needed. To start 2026, we donated €250 to the Yemen Humanitarian Fund, €250 to the Myanmar Fund, and €500 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Fund through the UN’s country-based pooled fund system, which supports organizations providing life-saving assistance on the ground.

In Yemen, *23.1 million people are projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026 amid ongoing conflict, economic collapse, and recurrent disease outbreaks. In Myanmar, *16.2 million people are expected to require assistance, while more than *4 million remain displaced as conflict and instability persist. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, *14.9 million people are estimated to need humanitarian assistance in 2026. Meanwhile, *26.6 million people are projected to face crisis-level food insecurity or worse between January and June 2026, and *5.28 million are internally displaced.

The needs in these regions remain immense, and these pooled funds help ensure resources reach trusted local partners delivering food, health care, shelter, protection, and other essential support to people who need it most.

*approximate numbers

The Findings: Part I Clue

As the old Kyrutean proverb goes: Those who know letters, see numbers.

After all, talk isn’t cheap. In fact, you could say it’s Scandaleux.

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Until next time, dear Citizens. Take care!

Dear Citizens of the Suzerainverse,

Welcome to our December & January 2026 Broadcast! We’ve got plenty of exciting updates to share since we last checked in, and we’ve been eager to bring you up to speed on what we’ve been working on.

In this edition, you’ll hear the latest development updates from Ata, get a fresh look at how localization is progressing, and dive into our brand-new ARG.

Development Update from Ata

Hello everyone, 2026 has started with plenty of action for Torpor.

First off, we hit some important soft goals. Project Aperture has crossed the 50 percent mark in content development. This progress makes us very excited, and as we continue refining and improving it, we’re seeing a lot of potential opening up that we can still develop further. Two additional writers are joining the project to help refine and expand the story. As we move forward, strong narrative design becomes increasingly important, covering plot holes, strengthening structure, and exploring high-potential paths more thoroughly. There has also been ongoing development and discussion around the game systems and inner workings of the experience. This is still at a fairly early stage, but it’s advancing step by step alongside the content.

Project Fulcrum has also seen strong progress. We have been fixing bugs and working toward a stable state. We are completing a first prototype balancing pass and have added new content and features to deepen the experience. On the technical side, revisions were made to help ideas fit into cleaner structures that will better support future changes. We’ve started clearing open questions around edge cases and angles we hadn’t fully considered before, supported by more precise design processes and improved implementation pipelines. A new UI/UX designer and a senior game designer have joined the project to help push things forward, and we’re gearing up for our first closed playtest soon. Art has also made progress on two Fulcrum characters, which has been very exciting to see.

Audio has been making solid experimental progress on both Fulcrum and Aperture. On Fulcrum in particular, experimental music design has begun as we explore new avenues and opportunities, whereas on Aperture, we made a small audio pivot to better reflect the mental state of the player character. Here’s an early glimpse into the world James has been building for Project Fulcrum:

On the tech side, we’ve finally implemented a unified CSV file system that imports languages into Suzerain when provided in the correct data format. A language selection interface has been added, and language swapping has been tested successfully. This new infrastructure allows us to hot-swap languages live in the game using a shortcut key.

The Conformist has restarted its pre-production phase. Three new staff members have joined to help define core principles and narrow things down toward a basic prototype. We’re excited to refine the concept and revisit older ideas, sorting through what worked and what didn’t so we can clear the path forward. It still feels like early days, but in a good way. There have been proposals around the core game flow and features and how they interact with the wider experience, and there’s still a lot to figure out before we can fully start building. Tackling this with new expertise and fresh eyes has been energizing, especially as it helps validate our direction. One of the new team members is an industry legend, which humbles us. It will be a long journey, but it’s good to see the project properly underway again.

All in all, it’s been a wild and fun rollercoaster so far. Being able to chase our ideas with real support from the community and backers, with momentum, means a lot to us. This year is shaping up to be an exciting one, and we’re looking forward to showing you more as things take shape.

The Source

You may have noticed a wave of new lore posts appearing across our community channels. These are all part of The Source, our new ARG that first appeared as a hidden Easter Egg in our 2025 recap. What began as a tease has now opened the door to a deeper mystery to unravel.

The community is already hard at work connecting clues, sharing findings, and forming theories about where it all leads. ACT I is ready to play now! Dive in, investigate, and see what you uncover. The next ACT is coming soon.

👉 Play The Source

Localization Progress Update

After a period of radio silence on the topic, we’re thrilled to finally share some exciting news: localization is making strong, steady progress behind the scenes. Getting the tools fully operational was no small feat, but that challenge is now behind us, and it’s opened the door to the next big step.

We’re officially gearing up to bring in our community leads for the QA phase, working together to make sure the new CSV format integration plays nicely with existing volunteer work and coordinating with leads on how to integrate languages into the game. While we’re not ready to lock in timelines just yet, momentum is building fast. Keep your eyes peeled for what’s coming next.

Want to be part of helping to shape the future of localization? Be a part the Suzerain Universe Discord and join the community-led localization channels.

👉 Join Here

Starting 2026 in the Spotlight

We’ve kicked off 2026 on a high note, with some excellent online coverage for Suzerain. We were thrilled to discover that British economist Gary Stevenson, better known as Gary’s Economics, is not just a fan of political games, but a Suzerain enthusiast. On an episode of the Serious Danger podcast, he discusses how Suzerain simulates taxation and the real economic and political consequences that flow from those choices.

A big thank-you to askythatsmoreblue for sharing the clip on the Suzerain Universe subreddit.

👉 Watch here (timestamp: 52:06)

Secondly, Ata sat down with Theo Dezalay, a journalist at the independent, nonprofit French outlet Mediapart, for an in-depth conversation about how Suzerain captures the corrosive nature of power, and the immense difficulty of governing responsibly within a deeply divided political landscape.

The article is in French, but it’s well worth reading with the help of a translation app. Here’s a translated snippet:

”Depending on the chosen method and the electoral promises made at the start of the game, each session will be very different and will not offer the same challenges: players will face different obstacles to rebuild the army, accelerate economic recovery, or quell the crisis of the Bludist secessionists. Nevertheless, Suzerain defends a point of view, a conclusion that is always reached naturally: that politics is a world of compromise, an enemy of radicalism and change.”

👉 Read here

The Road to Political Research

As part of our political research, Ata will be meeting with key figures across Europe, from Human Rights Watch directors in Berlin to former 10 Downing Street communications leaders in London, as well as representatives of the Albanian government.

He’ll also be in conversation with a well-known pollster who successfully predicted the 2024 U.S. elections. These are exciting research opportunities for the team.

Celebrating, Torpor-Style

It’s not all fun and games. Sometimes, it’s just fun. To mark the end of the year, and welcome a new one, we got together for a couple of team outings. You may notice a recurring theme: good food and good drinks.

One highlight was a visit to Berlin’s Le Petit Chef, where we tried a truly unique dining concept. Over the course of three hours, the team enjoyed four courses, each introduced by an interactive tabletop projection that brought the meal to life before it arrived. It was a one-of-a-kind evening, where the laughs easily outshone the food.

For our 2026 gathering, we decided to switch things up and lean into something a little more refined. Naturally, it still began with dinner and drinks. With full bellies, we headed out for a dose of culture at the Berliner Philharmoniker, taking in a live performance of Dvořák’s From the New World. Hearing it played in person was a fitting way to spark inspiration for the year ahead.