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Henry_Oswald
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« on: January 13, 2014, 09:27:43 PM »


*** Milestones and Accomplishments ***
Got our bearings: 1-13-14

Coming to you from the loving palms of the Psychospectacle team is Quill, an action/platformer/mishmosh about birds, culture and being a stranger.

***

The island of Fay, a peaceful little landmass housing a peaceful little community. For centuries Fay has been completely isolated from the outside world, the people content with their calm yet unchanging lives. Living off radishes and dry books, it was everyone's paradise. That is, everyone except Herreth Jzal.
Herreth is a daydreamer, one who wishes to see much more than his small and unimportant island full of paper and root vegetables. To Herreth, it seemed as if he would never be free from the endless isolation that he had been born into. However, through a fateful and tragic chain of events his dream of excitement was finally realized.
While the island of Fay was busy doing its thing and jamming hardcore, the rest of the outside world had begun to industrialize, explore and in general, advance. With this came trade, diplomacy, and warfare. Fay just happened to experience the latter.
When attacked by the power-hungry claws of the Tiren Nation, Fay finds itself defenseless and is quickly conquered. With this, however, came the adventure that Herreth was looking for, and he and his friends soon find themselves fleeing from their aggressors into a strange and imposing world.
Throughout Quill, Herreth and his companions will find themselves searching for a way to survive in the world that they never were in touch, all while seeking a way to end the conquest that destroyed their home.

***

Quill's gameplay will consist of a balance between both fast paced parkour and open exploration. The game world has advanced far beyond the main characters of Fay, so the player will have to rely on strategy and quick maneuvering in order to surpass the enemies. This will not be a game where you can simply tank through shots. As for exploration, I envision each area in this game to be unique both visually and culturally. I hope to have a different look, sound, and overall feel for each city the player visits. I even hope to have unique language barriers, though that is very very ambitious.  Roll Eyes



At the moment it seems that when it comes to cities, I really like big towers with dome tops. They're kind of majestic. I think it's the whole towering aspect of things. I've seen so many huge buildings that simply blew me away with their massiveness. Though, I think I'm going to have to make a few flat towns in the future. Gotta keep things unique.  Shrug




I spent my New Year's eve on this monster of a map. Thought the picture looks small here, it is ABSOLUTELY GIGANTIC. If you want a more detailed look at things, I have the full sized image available here: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill/images/map-of-the-quill-world1


This actually isn't concept art, but is instead our main character. I'm going to need to do some tweaking, but at the moment I'm pretty satisfied. I'm trying to go for a nice, smooth, toony look. I think my favorite aspect of him are the zebra stripes.


***

Quill is being made with both Unity and Blender. I, Griffin, am making the game assets and putting them all together, whereas my partner Michael is working on dialogue, story line, research and lots of text based thingamabobs. At the moment we have nobody working on sound, and unless we find someone in the future, I will probably be composing a few things myself (If you feel so inclined, feel free to contact to me and we can converse about things).

Anyway, If you find things interesting feel free to ask questions, comment, criticize and more. I plan to update whenever I can, so stay tuned. Thanks a bundle for your time, and have a swell day!
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:18:31 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
oahda
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« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2014, 09:45:51 PM »

Welcome!

This looks cool. It sounds ambitious, too. How much time do you expect to be spending on it?
The chosen art style is nice, as is the world design. The mechanics seem fun too.
Great to hear that you've got a story that reaches beyond two paragraphs as well.

It's hard to say too much at this point, but the initial premise is good. Great first expression.

Get some more work done, and I'll keep checking in! Any Twitter account or the like?
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« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2014, 04:05:36 PM »

Thanks Skomakar'n! Given the ambitiousness of the project, this will probably take a us a while to do. However we are moving along nice, and I predict that we will have at least a chunk of it ready to play by next October.
Oh, and yes we do have a twitter, but we don't really use it much. I advice that you visit our indieDB inside. That and our website.

Here, have some links.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill

http://psychospectacle.weebly.com/

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the support! I hope to see you again in the future.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:18:46 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2014, 08:24:52 PM »

Oh, right, IndieDB. Another place we need to register at. How does it work over there? If we set up an account, can we somehow "follow" you?

I'll keep checking in every so often, anyhow. Good luck!
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« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2014, 09:35:10 PM »

It's pretty easy. Once you register you can follow projects by going to their page and clicking the "track this game" option that can be found in the right-hand profile box. You'll then get update notices for when the game's developers post news, new images, updates and the like. It's pretty darn handy.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:18:58 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
Henry_Oswald
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« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2014, 09:41:10 PM »

This week I spent some time making small assets for the island of fay. I mean for the architecture to be based off of that seen in the Greek isles. Everything is relatively simplistic, yet the buildings are stacked and packed together in complex layers, which would make for some really interesting exploration.

I believe that the window glass definitely needs to be improved. I'm thinking about either making it darker or closing the windows altogether.
I also plan to work on more variety this upcoming week. Different kinds of doors, windows, chimneys, etc. Color additions as well. Bright colored doors and windows should really stand out against these white washed buildings, which I think will look pretty sweet.
Finally, some time I really REALLY need to make some plants. That, in my opinion, is what makes the Greek islands especially beautiful. I love those wall climbers.

« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:19:05 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2014, 07:58:35 PM »

Hello again! This week's update is going to be a short one, as its more of an update on what's to come. To be honest, this week was about half a failure and half a success. I spent countless hours working on the very first area of the game shifting blocks around and stacking buildings in different ways, yet nothing really seemed to take shape. Now that I look back on these seemingly wasted hours, it has occurred to me that I really needed to sit down and sketch out some real. I had already had some thumbnail sketches to work off of but nothing truly solid, so today I drew up this image of what I would like for the first city of Quill to look like. I then meshed together a base island, played around with scale, and that's where I've gone with that. Not really anything mind blowing honestly, which makes me a little sad.

A little grayed out, but hey, it's something.


I then sat down and had a good think, wondering what I needed to know and how soon I should know it. This was my favorite part of the week, as I spend a ton of time researching the concepts behind level design, character psychology, and direction. From what I've seen, I feel that my mind's really been opened up to a lot of things, and that this upcoming week's work will be all the better for it.

Next week I'll be tackling putting this island together, or at least getting somewhere satisfying with it.  Roll Eyes I'll also be attempting to throw a little water shader together. I'm sure that'll be a rough task, but it's nothing I can't face. Nice and toony I think, that would look pretty sweet. Oh, and once things pick up I hope to start making dev log videos. Those might be a little more interesting as opposed to reading all of this ongoing text.  Wink

Anyway, thanks again for reading, and I'll see you next week. Until then, stay fresh!
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 08:19:12 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
Henry_Oswald
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« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2014, 12:59:00 PM »

This week we've got a new character coming to Quill, Helani Falprin. I was trying to go secretary bird with this one.



She's going toward my aspiration of having three playable characters. In comparison to the others, Helani is very tall with really huge arms, so I'll probably have her be the strongest character melee wise. Also, because of her long legs, Helani is much faster than the other two protagonists and can considerably jump higher and further. I plan for a lot of maneuverability with this this character.

I've also continued work on Fay. It's not exactly living up to the concept art, but I think I like it this way. What I drew was looking a bit cramped anyhow.






Everything is pretty black and white at the moment, but I want to be sure to get everything fleshed out before I start working on detail stuff like colour and texture.

Oh, and red ocean is red because... red...
« Last Edit: April 12, 2014, 01:14:56 PM by Henry_Oswald » Logged

"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2014, 08:16:36 PM »



This week's work in progress.
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
Henry_Oswald
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« Reply #9 on: April 18, 2014, 03:44:27 PM »

I was in the shower, having a good solid think, and I began to reflect upon something my father once mentioned about how many games today lack the beauty of simplistic action. It would be quite the change of pace if we could do very minor things on the side of saving the world or fighting off baddies. At first I thought the idea was a bit silly, but now that I've looked at it for a bit, I actually think it would make for a very unique experience. What if you could just sit down, surrounded by let's say the bustle of a city or the beauty of a countryside and just watch everything. This would probably be more relaxing or immersive than fun, so I've been thinking about how I could apply game mechanics to such a situation to make them interesting for the player.

Me and partner Michael have been talking about the addition of collectibles into Quill. Seeing a bunch of items lying around on the ground doesn't really create immersion, so we began to brainstorm ways in which we could subtlety include this construct. We then recalled back to the vistas of Brütal Legend. I a sense, these really cool sights were collectibles, however, instead of cluttering the ground like a ton of pennies they instead added to the feeling of hugeness that the rock world possessed. My friend and I think that something like this would be great for Quill knowing that we desire for each area of the game to be entirely unique and full of personality. At the same time, however, we don't want to reuse an concept from Brütal Legend.

This brings me back to my first discussion. What if you had the option to sit down and look at something groovy, but at the same time were allowed to do something such as sketch? Some of my early concepts for Herreth include him carrying a small map and notebook bag, so I think it would be kinda cool if the player could sit down, whip out a sketchbook, and then be given a first person view in which they could sketch or paint, watercolor in particular (I know that's a bit specific, but I'm kind of looking back upon my own travels overseas in which I did that very same thing). By doing so, along with having made a piece of art the player could receive information, story background, and maybe even hints regarding secret locations and side-doohickeys on whatever spectacle they chose to paint.

I don't know if what I'm saying sounds groovy or totally out of question, but I just wanted to know what some other people thought about it. I think it could really add to the personality of the game and set it apart from others, which is something that I really hope Quill will do.

Oh, and by the way, more updates tomorrow. I promise I'll have pictures as opposed to the gigantic walls of text that I tend to spit out.  Shrug
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2014, 06:58:31 PM »

Hello again! This week I finished fleshing out a ton of Fay, making Herreth maneuverable and making the area easy to walk around. I also experimented a bit with colors which I think is turning out pretty nice. I now, however, need to start working on details and clutter if I am to really make things pop.










I'd also like to show off a bit of progress I made on one of Quill's languages, Ardomanian. It's a little dorky of me, I know, but its got complex structures, conjugation rules and all of that tasty word goodness that strange languages possess. I'll probably devote some later post to explaining it. Maybe even a little video or something.




Next week I plan to work on animating our main character. It'll be nice not having him with his arms jutting out of his sides.

Oh, and I left a little message for you guys on that last picture. The alphabet is fairly simple, with each letter only possessing one sound, so it shouldn't be too hard to read. It also lacks Ardomanian structure, but I think I should take time to explain the language first before I start writing in crazy mumbo-jumbo backwards sentences.  Wink
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2014, 06:19:58 AM »

We're back again. This past month has been about learning and experimentation. We produced much less than we would have preferred to, however, we now have a greater understanding of our tools and have further developed both our story and visual style. Additionally, we have tossed around some possibly bold ideas regarding gameplay, some of which we are unsure as to if they will actually work well within the world of Quill. I've always had a taste for the avant-garde.

 **Working with Blender**

The majority of my time was spent developing my understanding of Blender. For instance, (And some of these things may sound a bit trivial so please humor me) I've been playing around with the bisect tool, using it to make some interesting, better optimized, low poly rocks. I really like how they are hit by light around them. In my opinion, these new ones are way better looking than my old rock assets.

The new ones are the rightmost two. Notice how crisp they are in comparison to the old rock.



I've also spent some time learning the art of retopologizing. This helps create a lower resolution yet better optimized mesh. I often find myself using this trick when I have a more complex mesh with poor topology (hence the name retopologizing) or have some weird polys left over.
Here I've retopologized this dome structure I made. Not only has it fixed the freaky polygons that it had, but it also has given it a really interesting texture, almost like roof tiling.



I spent a ton of time re-rigging Herreth. His new bone structure allows for better manipulation of his model and therefore easier animation.



Finally, I have completed a walk cycle for our protagonist. He does, however, move like he has a limp. It's almost as if he needs some more bounce in him. To be honest, I believe animation is our biggest hurdle to leap over at the moment. On the bright side, we do have a playable character now.

Though the arms are detestable, that leg animation is luscious.



**Art Direction and Other Nonsense**
 
I've recently been working on a set of portraits centered around the many antagonists of the game. This one here is of Dv'i K'lain, the Priest. I owe our writer, Michael for this character. He comes up with all of the juice that makes Quill's personalities who they are. As for what the Priest does in particular, you'll have to wait. I want to finish the whole set of paintings first.



Working on these portraits has really allowed me to think about Quill's visual style as a whole. As you may be able to tell from the painting, I've been trying to work in extremely limited color palettes. I hope to reflect this into Quill's visuals. Observe this next set of images. These are what of last update used to be apartments.







Fay is going to be separated into various districts, each characterized by a palette centered around one color in particular. Not only do I think this style looks really groovy, but it also helps me bring out little details in the environment such as the white stones on the stairs and the bright pink bougainvillea. I'm also trying to move Fay's environment into a more organic style. As it should, it makes the town feel much more natural.
 
**Gameplay Ideas That May or May Not Be Absolutely Ridiculous**
 
Last update I discussed immersion quite a lot and brought up this idea of a sketchbook that the player would carry around and be able to draw in, mostly for fun. I've decided to further expand upon this idea.
What if, instead of having some interface such as a quest log or a collection of pre-entered notes, you could write your own? For instance, let's say that an NPC is giving you a task to complete. Instead of having this pop up in detail in some UI, you will instead need to pull out your sketchbook and take note of what your task is and what you have to do. Now, this may sound like a whole lot of bologna, however I feel that if used properly, this concept will further immerse the player in the world and influence them to pay closer attention to both their surroundings and the story. By listening carefully, the player can take note of ways to make their task easier and can learn of possible bonuses for completing the quest in a unique or more challenging way. The player might even just be more in touch with what is going on. This may provide an awesome experience in which I believe the player should feel more connected with the game universe around them. However, If done poorly I fear this could end up ruining the player's experience and possibly breaking the game if you forgot to take note of one of the more major tasks at hand. To avoid this, maybe a reminder system should be implemented. The quest giving NPC would contact the player after a while if their quest was unattended to, or the character being played would state that they felt like they were forgetting something, urging the player to look back at what they have currently done. Again, this is all conceptual stuff. Things we are currently experimenting with. Like before, let us know what you think in the comments. It's fun to stew over this kind of talk with you guys.
 
 **Conclusion**
 
Though we did not make as much as we would have wanted to this month, I feel that we did a job well done. Quill's really moved visually, and I'm pretty sure we've finally found where we want our art style to lie. As for the next update, expect better animation (if we're lucky) and more environment development. I may even have a few more paintings to share by then.
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2014, 06:02:37 PM »

Tasty new walk animation! This time I think I'm finally satisfied.



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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2014, 06:19:52 PM »

Man, I wish I had the chops to make a 3D game. Looks really hard! I like all the art you have so far and look forward to more.
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Henry_Oswald
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« Reply #14 on: September 18, 2014, 01:05:24 PM »



New running animation. Also dynamic headlook stuffs. Woo!

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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #15 on: September 19, 2014, 02:43:07 AM »

gettin' a real wind wakery vibe offa this. keep at it, thank you
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« Reply #16 on: September 19, 2014, 03:20:05 AM »

Info on Ardomanian, if it hasn't been posted yet, plssss.

Also dat WW cel-shading with WW head movement.
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Henry_Oswald
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« Reply #17 on: September 30, 2014, 06:24:43 AM »

Info on Ardomanian, if it hasn't been posted yet, plssss.

Also dat WW cel-shading with WW head movement.

Thanks for reminding me I said I would do these. This week, the alphabet.





Also, monthly update thing tomorrow. Excite yourselves.
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #18 on: October 03, 2014, 07:34:27 AM »

Hello everyone! Welcome to another (sometimes) monthly update. This time around we focused our attention on getting Quill up and running, literally. We now have some tasty new animations for Herreth that really bring his character to life. We also did some coding and managed to cook up some sweet dynamic headlook as well began teaching Ardomanian, one of the many languages unique to Quill.

**Animation and Headlook**

After hours of sitting in coffee shops poking away at Blender models, Griffin our artist has come up with some really nice walking and running animations for Herreth. The results are a whole lot nicer looking than what we had before, as there is a lot less sliding around. We also have a couple idle animations in stock, one for standing and one for crouching.

Additionally, we have finished a pretty nice headlook script. As you can see from the image above, Herreth's head and upper body now move to focus in on important objects. This should really help point out pickups, collectibles and various other interesting things to the player. This script also really helps when it comes to getting characters to look each other in the eyes during conversations. Not only is dynamic headlook convenient, but it also breathes a whole new level of life into our characters. Herreth just looks so much more alive looking around and checking things out.

**Ardomanian**





Throughout Quill we plan to incorporate a variety of strange and unique languages, each native to its respective area in the game. In hopes of educating anyone who may be interested, we have begun making short, weekly video lessons on Ardomanian. The one above covers the simplest aspect of the language, the alphabet. We plan to use these languages to hide quite a few goodies throughout the game, so we highly encourage that you check the lessons out. Besides, learning languages is fun! Let's try to make this the next Esperanto, okay?

**Conclusion**

We are very pleased with the progress we have made this month and we hope to really build off of it in the months to come. Our next set of goals is to implement free movement and develop way more animations, code more delicious effects into the game and to revamp some of the architecture on the island of Fay. Expect more information on Ardomanian as well. Our artist is getting way too into it.
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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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« Reply #19 on: October 16, 2014, 10:06:55 AM »

Another lesson in Ardomanian. This time around we talk about numbers and how to say how old you are.



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"Do you think love can bloom even on the battlefield?"
- Otacon
Quill Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38129.0
Home Website: http://psychospectacle.weebly.com
Watch us on IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/quill
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychoSpecs
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