July dev update — Pirates?!
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 05:23:45 PM
It’s time to hit the Lower! Welcome to the lively slums of the city; despite lacking in wealth and boasting a high crime rate, it has its own unique and beautiful culture. Enjoy your stay and try not to die. (Halt’s Story contains the largest number of bad ends in the game, or at least that’s how it’s turning out so far.)
Alison will meet some vibrant new characters along the way. Some will help her in her survival, some will hinder her, and some will manage to do both at the exact same time.
She’s a pirate
“You’ll kill me, hm? That’s a bit unkind. I’ve been nothing but hospitable to you.”
Armed with a blunderbuss and the most over-the-top hat known to mankind, this woman appears unusually polite and elegant for someone in the Lower. Maybe there’s something hiding behind that smile. Or maybe she’s just nice. Haha who am I kidding no one is nice in this visual novel.
Halt’s update
I managed to draw 5 sprites this month, and it’s been fun to see the improvement for Halt. I think he’s one of the characters who’s benefited from the style change the most—the more defined and semi-realism look really suits him.
CG work
Currently I’m working on the backgrounds for Halt’s Story CGs, so those aren’t quite ready to show. But in the meantime, here’s a peek at some of Valee’s awesome work! In addition to rendering new CGs for Halt’s Story, she’s also redrawing the character renders of our old CGs from previous artists for the Redraw Project.
The Cat’s intro CG is now a proper unique CG… as if he needed a reason to be any more popular. Oh well.
This CG is actually live in the current build, but Leaf’s intro is also successfully redone!
Aaaaaand here’s Beckett in a masterfully redone CG.
It’s been so great to see everything synthesizing—sprites, CGs, and backgrounds, all feeling cohesive and part of the same world. I can’t wait to show you more!
Reward Update
We also fulfilled the PSD files reward for the relevant Kickstarter backers. Feels great to finally cross something off the list, especially when they’ve had to wait for so long. I’ll be aiming to get the other rewards done in a more timely manner. Most of the rewards are waiting for the game to finish (like the artbook and sheet music), but the digital stickers and stationery are in progress.
Report Card
That’s all for this month. I’m starting to input the script and cues into the engine, so look forward to some more screenshots next month!
PSDs reward GET!
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, Jul 13, 2019 at 12:06:38 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
June dev update — Back from vacation!
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 03:45:03 PM
Hello all! I’m back from my (theoretical) vacation and am (metaphorically) gloriously tanned from (thematically) sunbathing on a (digital) beach, ready to fling myself back into the life of gamedev!
Basically, when I finished Beckett’s Story back in the day, I immediately threw myself into working on Leaf’s Story… which was, as it happened, a terrible decision. I was entering Leaf’s Story already creatively burned out. This time, I took one month as a creative break, working on art, creative works, and games that were fun and energizing. (I also fully intended to clean my desk, but somehow, that didn’t happen.)
I can already feel a huge difference. I’m entering Halt’s Story feeling creatively refreshed, and I’m super excited to show you all his story! But we all know that you’re here for the pictures, not the unnecessarily personal anecdotes, so here’s some WIP visuals for you all.
Concept Work
The story of Halt’s route is completely planned out, with around 50% of the script written, so most of the current work is developing the visuals of the Lower.
I haven’t shown concept work before because I’m kind of self-conscious on how sucky my sketches are, but… well, then I realized that’s the whole point of these updates. What’s the fun of a dev update if you don’t get to see the crap before the polish?
As with all the other routes, Alison gets a new outfit in Halt’s Story to fit her circumstances more. Earthy colors blend her into the slums, while loose clothes make it easy for her to move in. Also edgy, completely unnecessary asymmetry, because that’s an anime staple.
Halt also gets a new outfit. Less meme, more practical. No more “Bye Felicia” shirt. Wonder what he’ll be doing?
And a new character is arriving! She’s my favorite character for completely silly reasons, and I’ve been extremely excited to show her for years!
As always, wrothsloth is delivering with jaw-droppingly gorgeous BGs. She’s so ahead of schedule that she’s moving on to Zax’s Story BGs.
And Valee is hard at work with beautiful new CGs.
Progress Brief
Thanks for joining me this month! Standard progress will resume and I hope to start filling out those progress bars over the next month.
Leaf's Story released for beta access
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, May 22, 2019 at 11:42:51 PM
Leaf’s Story is now available for beta testers and beta-level backers! Huzzah!
An email has been sent to all users with the beta access tier with instructions for downloading.
1. Loading Screen
Thanks to Ian’s programming wizardry, we now have a loading panel! You no longer have to sit around, wondering if the game is taking so long to boot up. Now you can sit around, knowing that the game is taking so long to boot up… but with cute animals! This is a new feature, so let us know if you run into any issues.
2. Redraw Project
You might notice that the characters in Leaf’s Story now have a facelift. Plastic surgery. Anatomically operational hands. All that jazz! All assets for Leaf’s Story, whether it’s sprites or CGs, are now completely synthesized. It’s time consuming, but man if it isn’t satisfying.
Note that only Leaf’s Story’s assets are completely synthesized. You’ll notice artstyle discrepancies if you play through Common Route or Beckett’s Story. If you want a consistent experience in those parts, we’re keeping the previous release (Beckett’s Story release) available for beta testers as well, which has all the old art.
3. New CGs
Alison now has an introduction CG in Common Route, so the player almost immediately has a face to put to the name! (And the sass.)
There’s also a number of CGs replaced for the redraw project. We’re knocking these out slowly but surely!
4. Post-credits Changes
In our continued effort to make the structure and narrative direction of the game more clear, we’ve implemented the following changes in the post-credits part of the routes:
- After the credits, “fin.” is now changed to “refold.”
- There’s a tidbit new content following the credits, and it shifts with every unique route you finish. To avoid spoilers, I’ll keep quiet and let you experience it for yourself.
- After the credits, a selection screen allows the player to jump directly to another route. You will no longer have to play through Common Route 5 times and make the same deductions 5 times.
There’s a few important notes on this selection screen:
- In the final release, routes will become un-selectable once they have been played through once. However, we’re not implementing this during beta access period so that testers can play through the routes as many times as necessary.
- The post-credits sections and transitions are not finalized and subject to change.
- A CG is in development for the post-credits scene and will go live with the next update (Halt’s Story).
5. Issues Under Development
Performance updates
While we’ve slipped in a few performance improvements, there is still occasional lag when loading new images or opening menus. We’re investigating these issues.
Typos
Beckett’s Story now has a number of typos corrected. Big thanks to our beta testers for catching these and faithfully reporting them!
Missing journal entries
I still haven’t designed a few journal entries, so they will show up as placeholders in your journal. These will be slowly knocked out throughout the development of Halt’s Story, Zax’s Story, and True Route.
3 year anniversary livestream on May 11!
almost 5 years ago
– Thu, May 09, 2019 at 06:19:50 PM
Hey all! On May 11, it will have been 3 years since I started working on Zodiac Axis, so I wanted to celebrate! Join me for a livestream: Q&A and a Let's Play of Hollow Knight. It'll be on my personal Youtube channel.
This Saturday at 3PM. Hope to see you there!
(P.S. you may have noticed this month hasn't had an update. We're currently crunching for Leaf's Story. All the assets and artwork are done, but there's a fair amount of scripting that we're getting through.)
