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Zodiac•Axis: A Fantasy-Fusion Visual Novel

Created by Studio Theophilus

Determine your fate and experience a tale that fuses suspense, romance, and Asian-inspired supernatural elements.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Beckett's route is out!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Oct 02, 2018 at 08:00:54 PM

We've sent out an email with links and info for Beckett's route! If you're a beta access backer or store pledger and haven't received an email, please contact us immediately.

Thank you for all the support, and we hope you enjoy!

August Update: Beckett's route incoming!
over 5 years ago – Sun, Sep 02, 2018 at 12:46:43 AM

August was a busy month, but also really fun! Buckle in, because we’ve got a few news snippets for ya!

Alison Hart(e)? 

As it turns out, having a character with the name of “Alison Hart” next to a character named “Halt” is not such a stellar idea.

To improve legibility, we’re officially changing Alison’s surname to Harte, which should help distinguish it from Halt.

Voice acting! 

A few fun updates on the voice acting front! John van Doren is joining the Zodiac Axis team as the VO audio engineer. I’m so thankful to have him onboard! We also got the voice actors in for a smattering of special scenes to have full voices, and had some fun, too.

Itch.io demo release 

We released the demo on itch.io and got 100 downloads in one day! Thank you for the support!

Sticky notes 

To help motivate me through my part time job, I printed custom sticky notes. I decided to throw them up on the Studio Theophilus store if anyone happened to be interested! A mini Alison cheers you on through the day.

So, when will Beckett’s Route be released?! 

I want to be honest. I’m aiming for the latter days of September (September 27-30), but I can’t make a hard promise that Beckett’s route will hit those days.

Due to very recent circumstances, my family is likely to go through very heavy transition. I have no idea what the next month will hold in store for personal circumstances. While I’ll do my best to get Beckett’s Route out on time (because I really want you all to see it!), it heavily depends on the decisions my family makes. I’m sorry that it’s vague, but right now, it’s a confidential matter.

If I had to make a guess, it’s maybe 40% likely that the route will come out on time. The deadlines are all planned to hit that September 27 date, but worse comes to worse, I may have to push back a few weeks.

Thankfully, we have some fun previews for you! The artists have been working extremely hard, and the route is turning out gorgeous!

Thank you for all your patience and support! The next update will come when Beckett’s route is released :]

— Luna Chai

June Update — We Hakuoki now?
over 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 30, 2018 at 06:20:14 PM

 It's nearly July! Nearly AX! And we are working on Beckett's route at moment.

The hero routes take a slower pace than Common, focusing more on character conflict and internal development. Oh, yeah. I guess there's corny romance in there, too. Brace yourselves for the cringe, or the squeals, or some hybrid of both. Cringy squealing?

Did we just change eras?
Did we just change eras?
hahaha CLICHE.
hahaha CLICHE.
wip. WROTHSLOTH iS A LEGEND?? THIS IS GORGEOUS? and really hakuoki but shhh
wip. WROTHSLOTH iS A LEGEND?? THIS IS GORGEOUS? and really hakuoki but shhh

Charm update

Last update, I announced the official charms! For the backers who've redeemed their charms, I have an update: I've gotten news that the charms will be arriving this Monday from the production company. Once they arrive, I'll package and ship them out.

For domestic (United States) backers, your charms should arrive within 2 weeks. International backers, your charms should arrive within 1 month, though depending on where you live, they could also arrive sooner.

Please contact me if your charms do not arrive by the July update next month.

Backerkit update

I've gotten some messages from Backerkit backers ($1 pledgers) asking when the surveys will come. I'm super sorry for not mentioning the process!

The way Backerkit works, when you send out the surveys, you have to send them all at once. Then once the user fills them out, they are completely locked down. That's why surveys are usually sent right before all the rewards are ready to be shipped—if they're locked down too far ahead of time, then the backer can't change their information.

Because of this system, I won't be sending out Backerkit surveys until the game is ready to release. Which means surveys won't be sent for at least one year, if not two.

So, if you're a backer who wants to upgrade your pledge, please contact me and I will invite you to your individual survey.

That's all for this month! Thank you so much for your support!
— Luna Chai

Action Required: Charm fulfillment!
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 01:28:16 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

May Update: Beckett's route to be developed first!
almost 6 years ago – Thu, May 31, 2018 at 06:15:05 PM

(Note that the progress bars are estimates of the total route length, and subject to change.)

I spent a lot of this month concentrating on writing. In this case, rewriting the two most unstable routes, which were Beckett and Leaf.

Beckett’s Route will be first!

Beckett’s Route is currently in the most solid position, so we’re doing a little change and developing his route first instead of Leaf’s. (Sorry Leaf, my boy, 50% of your route needs rewriting.)

Here’s a little something to look forward to: Alison gets a new outfit in most of the routes. Beckett gon get starstruck, ya’ll.

Soundtracks Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 released!

Another awesome thing that happened this month was releasing our soundtracks on music stores! A big thanks to Elphaze for drawing such beautiful cover art!

Part 1 contains 33 tracks from the game, composed by me.

Part 2 contains 2 tracks from the game, composed by insaneintherain. You wonder where those snazzy jazz themes come from? This brilliant man.

If you’re able, we’d really appreciate a review on the store pages for the soundtracks!

That’s all for this month—hoping to have more news on Beckett’s route next month! As always, thank you for your wonderful support.

— Luna Chai

P.S. zodiacaxis.com now redirects to our game page, in case you wanted an easy URL to remember.