March update — Oo, shiny
about 5 years ago – Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 10:53:30 PM

Hi all, and happy march! While we didn't make the NaNoRenO sprint, we did make huge leaps and bounds in the assets department. Overall, it was a very satisfying and productive month, and we're really looking forward to releasing Leaf's story to the beta testers soon!

Previews

We're zooming towards Leaf's Story release! There's still a good chunk of content to finish, but it's already starting to shape up.

Redraw Project

The redraw project is proceeding nicely—we've got both redrawn CGs and new CGs courtesy of Valee, making everything look super consistent! (And beautiful. Just saying.)

Character renders by Valee, backgrounds by wrothsloth and Luna Chai.

Just a note, though—while the results are super rewarding, they are time-consuming. Even at a steady pace, only 40% of the CGs are redrawn, and only 29% of the sprites are redrawn.

Our previous goal was to not delay new releases too much, so consequently, the release for Leaf's story will only have the sprites from his route fully redrawn. We'll still have the previous build available for the beta testers, in case they'd like to play through Common Route or Beckett's Story with the previous art (since it's at least consistent).

Ok, so when's the ETA?

There are currently 6 sprites and 2 CGs left to draw, 2 songs left to compose, 2 tasks for voice acting, and 8 days of scripts left to code. This is usually a month's work, since the majority of these tasks fall on my plate. I'd like to get Leaf's story out by mid-April, but it's looking more likely that there will be an end-of-April release.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and patience, and I hope that you'll soon be able to discover Leaf's story!

— Luna Chai

February dev update — NaNoRenO sprint!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 05, 2019 at 08:25:41 PM

Whoops. Ever wake up, look at your calendar, and go, "huh, I think I'm overdue on the monthly dev update."

Sorry for the delay, but here's the update for February!

Art Previews

Since Valee is ahead on CGs, she's been redrawing some of the old ones from Common! I have to say that while this is a lot of work, the result is absolutely beautiful—and most importantly, the experience now feels consistent between in-CG universe and out-of-CG universe. The CG work is a tag team with Valee doing the beautiful character renderings, and me doing the BGs/lighting effects.

And some previews of wrothsloth's gorgeous backgrounds! Hopefully you'll get to see these in action soon!

We also have Elphaze doing amazing work with the flashback CGs! 

Leaf's Story?

The goal is to get Leaf's story finished (at least in alpha state) in March for our NaNoRenO challenge! There's a lot of work left to do since I've been behind for so long, but I'd really like to finish this game sooner than later, so... on we go!

The redraw project left a pretty sizable delay on Leaf's story, but I'm aiming to make significant progress for NaNoRenO season. Hope to see you all on the other side!

January dev update
about 5 years ago – Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 11:56:42 PM

January dev update for Zodiac Axis! Here, I state the current progress on Leaf's Story and the reason behind the recent redraw project.

We've had this nice and shiny blog for a while, and for some reason, I never thought of... posting the monthly updates on there. Since we now have a stable platform for dev updates, would you as the backers prefer for me to keep posting monthly update notifications here as usual, or should I decrease the email spam / update rate and only post Kickstarter updates for releases and important news? Feel free to leave a comment or @ us on Twitter with your thoughts.

Read: https://dev.studiotheophilus.com/2019/01/january-dev-update/

Have a great month!

— Luna Chai

Important poll — Sprite + CG artstyle
over 5 years ago – Sat, Dec 01, 2018 at 12:34:16 AM

Hi all! November is chugging along steadily, but I had an important question that supersedes our normal update.

I've recently been debating whether I should redraw the sprites' faces / heads, since there's some discrepancy between the sprites and the beautiful CGs by Valee.

For example, here's Leaf's sprite:

And here's a CG character render by Valee:

There's a fairly notable discrepancy in the facial structure + rendering, which may be jarring to readers.

One of the reasons why I'm considering this option is because Valee's style is actually closer to what I originally wanted Zodiac to be. At the time, I didn't have the skill to draw that style, but I've gained a lot of experience this year.

Why won't this be a problem in the future? There's two main reasons why this decision should be made now and won't be a problem in the future:

• I've gotten better and faster at drawing. Before Zodiac, I barely drew. I've grown a lot this year and gathered a lot of experience. Drawing used to feel like pulling teeth, and now I do it in my free time for fun.
• Valee is Zodiac's long-term CG artist. Barring life emergencies or unforeseen complications, we won't have further problems with style synchronization because Valee's joined for long-term as the primary CG artist.

So we won't get caught in an endless cycle of let's-redraw-everything-to-make-it-better; it's best to make the decision now.

The Pros

The primary pro is that redrawing the sprites will match with the CGs, creating least discrepancy. I would also only be redrawing the heads, since the body proportions/clothes rendering is close enough to not be distracting.

And also my personal satisfaction at seeing the VN look much prettier / consistent.

It would be a bummer to release the product and then immediately start working towards a visual update because the sprites + CGs don't match

The Cons

The primary con: time and delays.

Counting expressions, there are a whopping 1400+ sprites in the current build. While not all of them would need to be redrawn, this task would add a few months to the work.

Vote here - Straw Poll

It's important to make this decision now before I start drawing the sprites for Halt's Story + Zax's Story + True Route, as it may end up saving time in the long run.

I've made a quick Straw Poll, so if you can head over and vote, I'd really appreciate it! 

If you have further feedback, also feel free to leave a comment or ping me on Twitter.

Thanks for your support and your time!
— Luna Chai

October Update: Revving up for Leaf's route!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 11:51:53 PM

Hi all!

There's not a lot to say, except that after taking a rest this month, Leaf's route is now heading into production! In the meantime, there's a few sneak peaks of art that the team has been producing.

In general, I will be sharing less teasers and previews for this upcoming route because there's some key spoilers, as opposed to Beckett's route, which was fairly straightforward. Regardless, I hope that you'll all enjoy the route once it's released!

Kickstarter has been finicky with notifying me about messages and comments recently, so if you have any questions, feel free to ping us on Twitter or live chat on our site.

Thank you for your support, and I hope to share exciting news soon!

— Luna Chai