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[Osteel]

The devWorld Team

Matthew Ostil - Project Coordinator

David Labbe - Lead Developer
Antony Woods - Developer

David Lee - Writer

Tim Jonsson - Pixel Artist
Matt Walkden - Pixel Artist
Geneva Benton- Concept Artist

Trevor Hewer - Music Producer
Michael Ostil - Concept Composer

Developer Diary

1. An Indie Project - An Ambitious Idea

2. Online Collaborations: It's An Odd Process

Hi forums!

This is the official devLog thread about our indie game Novus Dawn. It is an isometric tactical RPG that has been in development for nearly a year and we are really excited about its progress and plans. I'll be using this thread to post updates on the different aspects of the game as well as write different logs about the game, our process, and plans for it.

Please leave your feedback! Things with have recently been updated to this thread, so keep an eye out for new content!

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Prologue Synopsis

Silina Valley is a land full of wildlife, vegetation and valuable fresh water. Located between the vast plains of Lucendra and the lush Svari forests, it divides the two opposing nations as they continue to share its resources. Many times their citizens would meet eyes with each other with very little to say before immediately parting ways. It was an uncomfortable, yet quiet agreement that had lasted for centuries.

Until one day, a trio of Lucendra soldiers arrived home tattered and bloodied from a hunt in the valley. Feverishly, they explained that they were attack by Svari hunters: a forbidden act. Many questioned why the Svari, a reserved people, would attack the hunters without reason. Some were suspicious, as the trio had an ill reputation of racism and recklessness, but many were ready tobelieve the Svari were capable of such savagery. It was not long before a Svari messenger came to inform Aldwic, the king of Lucendra, that five of their own people had been killed in the incident. Although the trio claimed it was self-defence,in the eyes of the Svari law, what was done is done. They demanded retribution.

Lucendra, the proud nation that it is, does not kneel to such demands.

The Battle of Silina Valley begins.

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The Game Engine
Current Game Engine

The core engine for Prologue (that is, the proof of concept) was originally being developed in AS3 and launched as a Flash game but is now being ported as a Unity. Our tools, such as the map editor, are currently being developed in Unity3D as well.

You will notice that the game engine does not have any of the artwork in it at the moment as the map editor is still being created. However, most of the mechanics for the game are there, although there are no tutorials or documents on how to use it. Just play around with it and you should get the hang of it.

Disclaimer: The character sprites were borrowed from Disgea - we do not own them!

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Screenshots

These screenshots are still WIPS
Some thumbnails are distorted, please click them to view them in proper dimensions

Lucendra	Fort Interior	More Screenshots! Svari Town - Farmland Svari Town - Outskirts Tent Interior Tent Exterior Text Exterior (Mess Hall) Fort Entrance Forest Camp
Forest Map	Cave Interior	Cave Entrance Character Sprites Test Armoured Caravan Sprite Melee Attack Sequence Walk Sequence

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Concept Art
Some thumbnails are distorted, please click them to view them in proper dimensions

Gabriel Web Sketch	Carla Web Sketch	More Concepts! Gabriel1 Gabriel2 - Rendered Gabriel3 - Head Sketch Carla1 Carla2 - Head Sketch Ethan1 Ethan2 - Rendered Ethan3 - Head Sketch Roy1 - Original Concept Roy2 - Head Sketch
Ethan Web Sketch	Roy Web Sketch	King Aldwic1 King Aldwic2 King Aldwic3 - Head Sketch King Aldwic4 - Web Sketch General Lordet1 General Lordet2 General Lordet3 - Head Sketch General Lordet4 - Web Sketch Rotciv - Original Concept Svari Mage Svari Units Rendered Units

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Music
Songs will be appropriately titled upon completion of the OST

Concept Versions Opening Screen - FanFare Loading Screen World Map Game Over - Death of Hope Victory Gabriel's Theme Carla's Theme - A Rose Among Thorns Ethan's Theme Svari Forest Ending Credits Battle Planning Boss Battle - Desperate Times Final Battle Final Boss Mourning Shop Theme - Open for Business!

In Game Versions Opening Screen - FanFare Loading Screen World Map Victory Gabriel's Theme Gabriel's Theme - Quiet Carla's Theme - A Rose Among Thorns Ethan's Theme Roy's Theme Lucendra Lucendra - Quiet Svari Grassland Forest Mountain Battle Planning General Battle Boss Battle - Desperate Times Final Battle (metronome) Final Boss NRT Mourning Shop Theme - Open for Business!

[Osteel]

Log 1: An Indie Project - An Ambitious Idea

Failure is a Good Teacher

Creating an independent game is a risky idea almost always doomed for failure. I knew this all too well when I had started my own tactical RPG (before Novus Dawn) with a few of my friends. It was going well for a few months; we had a good story, a working map editor, some artwork and most important of all, the motivation to see it through. But if you have ever worked on a hobby based game project before, you most likely know that motivation is your biggest enemy. So it was in July, 2010 that we finally scrapped the project because of the lack of motivation to work on it.

It was then where I decided to give up game development entirely. How depressing!

Despite all of this, I had learned some very important lessons about game development that can be summed up in these three points:

• 1. A serious project needs serious members
  This applies to any type of independent project that involves a team of specialized members. Although it seemed like a great idea at the time, having a team of really close friends work on the game was in itself, the motivation killer.
  
  It started off great, work was getting done and the engine was being developed (by yours truly). However, when visual progress slowed and work became more focused on planning the game, it soon became apparent that our own focus went elsewhere. Including playing online games, which at the time was Aion. All it took was for someone to say “Let’s do that later.”, for everyone else to say “Great idea!”.
  
  So in conclusion, friends are great team members to have on a project, but you might want to consider not making a team fully compiled of close friends. Finding someone new or a friend of a friend is always nice because it keeps the project in perspective and you responsible for your commitment.
  
  
  
• 2. Big projects require some leadership
  RPG’s are really big games that take a lot of planning. The problem we had at the time was that we never planned, or had anyone responsible for leading the direction of the game through discussion and documentation. It was just always a “what if?” design process.
  
  As an amateur programmer and a management student at the time (graduated since, yay!), I had decided that if I were to ever look at game development again, it would be a more creative and leadership role. But that’s always a hard one to explain to people you’re trying to recruit; I was in no way qualified to lead a development team. If I was, I would be working for some major company (Ubisoft, please look at the application I just sent!). Nonetheless, it’s what I told myself I would want to try if that opportunity ever came.
  
  
  
• 3. Game development is hard
  Obvious right? Well apparently not … just browse the different game development forums and see all the projects trying to start up. How many of those ever make it onto the market for all to see? Not many and it’s very unfortunate.
  
  The biggest lesson of all I learned through this first attempt at a team based game development project was to keep things realistic; the goal, the possibilities and the functionality of it. It’s hard, but it’s a very rewarding feeling to see the amount of work members can put into it.
  

So that was that. The game had died and it was pretty upsetting. But in the end I learned some very important lessons about game development that might seem obvious in hindsight but took the experience of it to fully understand.

And then a few months later …



Novus Dawn … RPG Take Two!

It was only a few months later, in November of 2010, that I found myself ranting about the previous failed project. Yes I know, that’s a little sad that I was still upset over it, but alas here I was. It happened to be to my childhood friend, David Lee (hint: look at the credits!), that my anger was being thrown at. But then he had an idea, and so in a sense Novus Dawn can be accredited to him; he said “Well, start a new RPG and I’ll write for you.” As a recent graduate of the film program at Sheridan College, he had quite a bit of experience in scriptwriting.

It took a bit of debating, but I eventually caved in to attempting another project.

So it was later that week when we met up at a local library to outline the game idea. We did this three times in total and ended with a very basic, very crude game design document. In short, the fifteen or so pages basically said:

“We want to make an isometric RPG. It will be pixel art. We have no name.”

And now here we were, a two man team with an extremely generic idea. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing; unlike David, I had no real experience in leading a project let alone the entire process of developing a game. But I was willing to give it a shot. PEW PEW.



Forming a Development Team

Originally our plan was to compile a local team of people we knew or people we could be referred to. Our first step was to find a developer to program the game and we went with our best person who we were convinced (big assumption eh?) would take the project on. Of course, he didn’t, so that was discouraging. The game was already facing hurdles!

In a last ditch attempt, I opted to go online and look at some game development forums and see if anyone would be interested in joining us. It was almost futile considering the amount of threads existing to start projects, and without anything to show, you’re basically begging for a miracle. But onward I went begging.

I stumbled across a thread of a developer looking for a project. That was a first and so I took the opportunity to try to impress him with our lacking idea. The three of us spent the entire evening discussing online the plan and direction for the game. Although he seemed interested, he was still reluctant to start such a huge project. I quietly gave him to the end of the night to say yes, or I would assume he wasn’t the right person for the role. Of course, three hours later we all signed off and he said he would let me know by tomorrow. Discouraged, I went to sleep feeling like I just wasted a huge amount of effort.

But I didn’t!

The next morning I woke up to an email notification on my phone, it was from a developer named David Labbé (Hint again, look at the credits!) asking if the previous developer took the project or if I was still in need of one. Having dropped his own personal project recently, he was considering starting another one. And so after a few emails, he became the lead developer for the project now known as Novus Dawn.

That other guy never did get back to me about his decision, but I thank him for that. Hehe.


In the many months to follow, we began designing the game on paper as David Labbé began developing the core engine that is now near completion with our secondary developer Antony helping develop the tools. My next hurdle was to find concept artists to help put a visual direction onto the game, I didn’t even dare think about attempting to find a pixel artist yet. I began spamming the Internet’s various art forums for concept artists with our idea which had no substance to it other than this proof of concept:

So as you can imagine, trying to convince someone to join the project was a little hard. But we eventually took on some artists who wanted to expand their portfolios. Unfortunately, none of the five original artists lasted more than a month; it soon became clear that keeping an artist would be harder. But without going into too much detail Geneva Benton was the first concept artist to truly stay with the project as the concept artist for the characters. She is also the only female on the team and continues to remind us of that … (sorry Geneva, I tried). Tim Jonsson was soon to follow as a contracted pixel artist and recently we took on Ben Swearingen as our UI Designer and Matt Walkden as our second contracted pixel artist.

Music came in an odd way. If you ever tried forming a team of game designers, you might know that there is more musicians available than any other role. Trevor Hewer was a friend of Dave’s (writer) and was eager to join the project. However, although his ability to create very strong orchestral pieces was clear, his, well zero background in playing RPG’s , made it quite difficult for him to put together an RPG song. It was about a month later that my brother Mike stepped in and offered to concept music for Trevor to orchestrate. It was like two ends of the spectrum mashed into one super composer … and it is awesome.



A Year From Now?
This is a question I often pondered in the early stages of the game. Well here I am, writing to you about an overly ambitious idea that is miraculously still alive. In fact, more alive now that it has ever been. As of last week we officially formed our final ten person team. Yes, it took almost an entire year to fill all the positions we felt necessary to complete this game!

We are also a truly global team of developers; we consist of members from Canada, USA, UK and Sweden. Pretty interesting take on game development, eh? (Guess where I’m from!)

The core engine is done and just waits polishing. In the meantime, our map editor is well on its way to completion along with most of the tile and objects. Soon we’ll be able to create some amazing maps to start putting the engine to the test! As for the other areas of development, the story is completed and is just going through some final editing stages; the concepts are also going through the last few characters. Music is done and is being prepped to be sold as the OST on iTunes.

The project as a whole has been receiving major compliments from around the Internet and our own social groups. As I mentioned before, motivation is our biggest enemy, and just having someone compliment the game in any way is something that always inspires us to push through to the end. Also, thanks to the project, I landed myself a role in the game industry at Ganz Studio working on the upcoming Tail Towns social MMO, and Novus Dawn played a role as well in Mike getting a job at EA Games. So, portfolio projects are beneficial – remember that the next time you’re convinced money is the only way reason complete a project!

As for the team, we’ve become good friends after having to work on the project for most of the last year. This is everyone’s project, and I know each one is putting the effort they need to see it succeed.

So now I ask myself again, I wonder where we’ll be in a year from now?

Well, maybe I’ll be posting up the Post Mortem, wouldn’t that be something!? :D



Next Time: Online Collaborations: It’s An Odd Process

[Halcyon]

Cool project and writeup, is an interesting read. I will be watching this thread. 

[SundownKid]

Doing an isometric RPG, that's pretty brave, especially as an online collab. I went through about 10 people before I caved and just started making my own game myself. It's cool how you used it as an effective resume builder.

One thing that miffs me, though, is the name - back in the day, I was planning to call my label "Novus" until I realized that it was the name of a bunch of companies as well as a sport played in Eastern Europe. It might use a trip to the Game Name Clinic. 

[Eendhoorn]

Very interesting read indeed! How do you guys (and girl :p) work together over the internet?
Will be following this, your enthousiasm makes me curious about the game

[Osteel]

Thanks for the comments!

SundownKid - The name is still work in progress, though we've come to be very attached to it over the course of development. We will probably end up keeping it at least for the Prologue and then work on whether or not it's still a usable name for the final main game version.


Omgnoseat - As an international collaboration, we are forced to work together over the Internet. As you can imagine, that's a pretty different process than you would go through if you were in a studio together face to face. My next log will be about how we do it though, the hurdles/barriers that comes as a result of being purely online, but also the benefits of doing so.


So keep an eye out! :D

[davidp]

Wow everything here looks so nice 
Waiting for more info, so far so good.

[Osteel]

Log 2: Online Collaborations: It’s An Odd Process

The Sudden Realization

When we first started the project and were only three people working online, it was easy. Using MSN and Email was convenient to share ideas and progress the game. But as I started branching off to recruit more members, it became clear that directing the game into a smooth direction wasn’t going to be as simple as sitting everyone down in a conference room.

It was going to take a little creativity!  Well, not really. I’ll be the first to admit that the process we go through as an online collaboration is probably not the most efficient, but it has worked for us thus far. That said, when we finish the Prologue (proof of concept), I plan on integrating new methods to allow for a smoother ride.



Recruitment Responses

The first thing I learned about leading an online collaboration is that there is nothing more difficult then trying to recruit someone onto your team, especially if it’s a portfolio driven project. Although it does get easier as more content is developed, the first few months were by far the hardest in getting the game off the ground. Many times the thought of failure popped into my mind while I constantly posted on forums looking for artists. That was my main method of recruitment - the Internet. Although a few members were referrals and personal friends, the majority of the team was found this way.

Soon, I was constantly bombarded with emails from those wanting to inquire more about the project and spent many hours just writing up ‘pitch’ emails in response. Sure, I could have had a general one that I could send off and had been done with it, but I wanted to be as personal as possible. One major thing I learned was that the more personal and detailed you are with a potential member, as opposed giving a quick robotic response, the more likely they are to continue the discussion; the first email is always stranger to stranger - it is important to turn it quickly into friend to friend. There are some main issues I’ve faced in the daunting world of the Internet in recruiting new members:

• 1. Rejection and Drop Outs
  As these ‘potentials’ (as I called them) became more and more interested through discussion, I then had to get them caught up on the games progress, team and plans for the future. As the game passed through the months, these emails soon became longer and longer. Sometimes, after spending a few days and sending many emails to a single person, they would reject the project; other times they would join and a month later would drop out for whatever reason. It was discouraging, but I’ve learned that in spending the time in explaining, in detail, the project to these potentials, I became so familiar with the game that it actually helps me in keeping track of the development.
  
  
  
• 2. Lower Quality Work
  The goal was to create (in our eyes) a high quality game. Of the many responses I received for members in all areas, about 80% of them were people who did not have the expertise to do what we hoped. This was especially evident in the artists, as some of the styles and quality were, to be honest, not that good. But how do you handle that? How do you say “sorry, we don’t think your work is good enough.”? Well, you don’t say that for starters, haha.
  
  What I’ve come to realized, especially a year after we started, is to really appreciate those people who are wanting and willing to join the team. Despite the quality of work (low or high) and whether or not I was going to reject them, they wanted to join because they saw the potential in what we have accomplished.  Here is the end of a ‘rejection’ email that I sent recently:
  
  "That said, I really appreciate you wanting to join our project, it's been a tough time to get to where we are and we hope to see it through to completion. Knowing people see the potential in it really means a lot to me, and the team of aspiring (and perhaps overly ambitious) game developers. So once again, I apologize and I hope your succeed with whatever future endeavours you find yourself in."
  
  Random Note: I hate the word ‘rejection’ but I can’t think of a better word; since we’re not a professional development company or handing out pay cheques, I feel like I don’t have the authority to use that word. But alas … the thesaurus is too far away.
  
  
  
• 3. Picking a Potential
  There has been a few rare cases where I actually had to pick between two people to take onto the team. Both options were great but we only had the room and capabilities to take one. I have no HR experience, so how does someone like me pick the right person? I flip a coin (hi Antony!).
  
  No, I’m kidding.
  
  I ask the team. After all they are going to end up working together, right? Usually when it’s in their own area of expertise (creative/development) they have a strong opinion on whether or not they think X person is better than Y. So that’s what I do, get opinions and run with that person.
  
  But that usually follows with the worst part of my role. Saying no to the other great potential member. It’s especially hard when they’ve shown you proof of concept work they made specifically for the role and have waited over a week with excited anticipation. There’s no easy way to politely say “Sorry for wasting your time.”, so I usually start with that and see what happens.
  

Sharing and Communication

So as an international team of collaborators, how do we keep things on the same page between each member and how do we share progress and ideas? Well, we definitely do not have any special software; we do everything on our forums. It’s probably not the best method of sharing information and collaborating on ideas, but it has served us well up until now. To ensure that everyone knows what everyone has is working on or has finished that month, I create a monthly Update Report. In this informal report, I discuss what each member accomplished by embedded links and images, and discuss what they are currently working on. I also include future plans if things have changed or need refreshing.

What about tasks and schedules? Well, unfortunately we don’t have a schedule which is probably the worst idea right now. We only recently created a Creative Asset list of things we still needed to create but up until then it was more on the go. In the future, I would definitely love to incorporate a sort of task bucket system - I was looking into TrackJumper and LinoIt; if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

As for the game engine, we use SVN considering the amount of files and updates that take place.

So has this game been entirely developed asynchronously? Well, yes … for the most part. We actually had our very first Skype conference a few weeks ago. We accomplished more in planning there then we ever have on the forums so we definitely plan on having more of those.



Pros and Cons

Because we work in a different environment than a traditional development team, there are some obvious benefits and hurdles that we face. So, here’s a quick list:

Pros

• Asynchronous communication means discussions can last days and can be archived and referenced.
• Planning and discussion can be done anywhere - I’m at work right now!
• The Internet allows you to connect with extremely creative and talented people; I wouldn’t know where to look for developers/artists in my local area.
• It’s just cool to say that you’re working with people from around the world.

Cons

• Asynchronous communication is a lot slower in planning than conference calling.
• Text based explanations, especially in regards to visual effects, is interpreted differently and sometimes results in confusion.
• Centralizing information is difficult though we’ve decided to start our own Wiki to house all documentation.
• Time Zones!

The Creation of Carla - A Pipeline Example

So that’s nice and all, but how do we actually go through the process of creating content for the game? Well, let me take you through the process of creating the character Carla for our game. This will be fun as I’ve asked some team members to participate.



The Birth of Carla’s Personality
So the first step in designing a character is to recognize the need for one. Carla was planned because of the need to have a sort of female presence in this mainly male military environment. David Lee then went through the process of naming and creating a biography for her. Here is the current biography of Carla, which is subject to change:


Carla (female)

Class: Fencer
Age: 31

A stoic, stern woman, Carla is one of Lucendra’s Elite. Her one-to-one combat skills and speed with a rapier are second to none, revered and feared by many men who serve under her command. Her cold exterior is a result of suffering abuse from her father as a child, and is very distrustful of men in general. The only men she trusts are Gabriel and Ethan, who helped her through her difficult childhood. Although she is in charge of educating Amala in weaponry, she acts more like a tough, but loving nanny than a disciplining schoolmaster. Although she is fiercely independent, she is particularly annoyed when she is left out of the loop.


So David, what were you thinking!?

I wanted to create strong women who can stand on their own and won't be so damsel-in-distress, because in reality, women are not so weak. With Carla, it was a challenge to integrate these strong qualities without making her a generic tomboy, and create flaws within her that are more human than stereotypical.

For the Prologue, it was important that I create three different personalities between Gabriel, Ethan, and Carla, who's union would compliment each other as a whole, but still generate conflict when occasion arises. Of the three, Carla is the most serious and strong-headed, but her desire to be equal with her two best friends causes her to be reckless, painfully displaying her lack of experience. So my intention here is to show the steep learning curve she endures, which shapes her into the person she is for the next story.

It's a balancing act I'm still struggling with, but I hope create a compelling character people can understand and find interesting.

The Face of Carla
After Dave was happy with the concept of Carla, it was sent to Geneva to create the concept art for her. Carla didn’t go through many revisions (compared to say, Gabriel) before it was decided her look was the perfect match for her personality. Once a sketch is completed, Geneva goes through and does a quick colour of the sketch; the clothes and colour are based on another World document that defines the culture. Once that’s agreed upon she makes the final render and continually sketches different versions and styles depending on what’s needed, for example a sketch concept version for the website.

Fortunately Geneva is open to suggestions and working with her and making changes is not an awkward process. So here was her design thoughts on designing the look of Carla:

Basically, when I read the biography and script for Carla, the current design now is all that came to mind. Carla is serious and no-nonsense, so I made sure she looked the part. Despite the clear vision I saw at first, after I tried earlier concepts, they looked rather generic like a female supporting protagonist found in other RPG’s. After a few failed attempts, I decided to go back to my gut feeling and design how she looks today, with minor alterations to her hair and armor.

Luckily the color scheme for Lucendra soldiers was already laid out, so I had no real trouble with that. Making her hair brown, blonde, or black looked ... odd on her, so I went with a strong red, hoping to make her truly stand out.

The Final Carla
The most beneficial thing about concept art is that it’s relatively easy and quick to make changes. That is why we opted to going through a concept phase before having Tim create the pixel version since making changes to final assets takes more time. So once the concept was completed, it was up to Tim to create the in game sprite of Carla. And so he did!

Carla Sprite with some others

Carla's Inner Voice
Because our game has no voice overs, like most traditional RPG’s the music becomes the voice of the characters. The theme songs are instant descriptions and reminders of who the character is and their stories. Therefore, it was extremely important for Mike to create a song that portrayed both Carla’s personality and physical features. And so he came up with Carla’s theme song entitled A Rose Among Thorns:

Concept Song

Here’s what Mike had to say about composing her theme:

Carla is an interesting character. On the outside, she is a battle hardened, unemotional individual who has a strong grudge towards other males. This is mainly due to her hard upbringing Dave outlined in his character biography and it really shows in her character throughout the game. Since she is very militaristic, it would be easy to simply compose a song that reflected that. However, I wanted to create something that would truly show the real Carla. She is, after all, still a young lady deep beneath her social barriers and suppressed emotions!

With that in mind, I created A Rose Among Thorns, a name I believe describes Carla. The song is simple and delicate but still has a strong drive of determination. A straight chord base keeps the slow tempo in a militaristic fashion, while the soft melody plays out above it. It takes both her military and feminine aspects and mashes it into an awesome theme song.

And it still remains one of my favourites from the soundtrack!

Carla's Outer Voice
With the final concept in hand, it was up to Trevor to create the actual in game OST for Carla. Because the concept is done purely on the piano, Trevor had to continuing the work by deciding which instruments and compilation would best suit this character. And so, here is the final in game rendition of Carla:

Final Song

Being responsible for one of the most important features of the characters, the music, this is what Trevor had to say about Carla’s piece:

After some brainstorming with a friend, it seemed that the character of Carla was something delicate, yet dangerous; something fragile, but at the same time, something threatening.

Perhaps Carla can be compared to something like a wasp, or a swordfish — agile, poised to strike, and dangerous. When considering sounds to be used in the OST, it was important to keep these qualities in mind, and to find instruments that reflected them. That's why the track begins with a 'sssshing' sound effect, as if you've just been stung. Later on, her theme is picked up by a fiddle, a very 'nimble' instrument.

Overall, things needed to be light, as I imagine Carla is light and quick on her feet. Some of the bells and chimes might suggest a kind of innocence Carla carries, too.

Final Thoughts

So that’s how we operate in a nutshell. Although I’m sure there are things we are doing right (or at least, okay), there are probably just as many things we are doing wrong. But it’s a learning process and an online collaboration is a new environment for all of us.

If you, as the reader, have an suggestions or any comments on how to improve our processes, please post them. We want to learn and grow and if you can offer anything from your own experience, it can only help us get better!

Thanks for reading!

Ps, If there’s anything you would want me to write about, please let me know so I can keep these devLog’s flowing.

[lvl99]

I saw you project on gamedev and had to come say that this project is awesome!

  Cool story!

  Great art!

  Amazing music!


 

[Osteel]

Hello everyone!

So I haven't updated this thread in a few weeks. We've been still pushing the game along, so here's a few points of updates of what's new:

• 1. The game is still being ported from AS3 to Unity
• 2. A digital fully realized OST is being created and will be sold on iTunes!
  
  • 2.1 Along with the full OST, we are also created a Piano Collections soundtrack
• 4. The Map Editor is near completion; the tile sheets will be implemented into it soon
• 5. A script XML format has been created in order to create encounter conditions/objectives and cinematic dialogue
• 6. Huge changes to the story framework to make it more solid
• 7. New tiles!

We also have plans of launching an Indiegogo (or Kickstarter) page sometime in the near future. We thought of some pretty cool incentives, so be sure to check it out once that's all up; the video is just being edited!

Finally, we have a Facebook Page; if you could please check it out and 'like' it to show your support, that would be great. We just feed random information of what's being developed.

Thanks for the support!

[Osteel]

We finally got around to trimming some of our old tiles. They were a different size, so to ensure they were all uniform, had to chop them up a bit. Now that it's done, the Map Editor can continue it's developed.

In the meantime, I lazed around in Photoshop, and created this little map using some of our tiles. I can see map creation being very addictive ... can't wait to do it with a map editor, haha.  





Also, Mike started getting a rough layout of some of the songs for a Piano Collection album. This is Roy's theme on a quick first play through: Roy's Theme

[Osteel]

Hi guys,

Just a quick update on what's been happening with the project:

• We have a map editor done in Unity and will now begin laying out the outlines for each of the mission maps. As the tilesheets are completed, we'll go through and update the tile textures to match the environment.
  
  
• Our concept composer, Mike, has a YouTube channel where he uploads piano versions of songs from the game. Once he gets his new gear, he'll be able to produce higher quality songs. But in the meantime, you can check out the channel here.
  
  
• We are once again looking for a UI Designer to help us layout and concept what the game's overlays are going to look like. If you're interested, please let me know!
  
  
• A website is still under development. We're trying to get that up and running as soon as possible.

Any question, feel free to ask! 

[burning]

Nice to see an indie project with such a professional approach. The results speak for themselves, can't wait to see and hear more from your project.

[Orymus]

I must confess that the art is pretty mainstream and could've been more original, but given the level of polish, I think you've got a shot at something nice there.
Very good work indeed.