Zodiac Axis Original Soundtrack, Pt. 1 now available!
almost 6 years ago – Sat, May 19, 2018 at 11:17:31 PM

Exciting news! The first part of the Zodiac Axis Original Soundtrack is now available on iTunes, Google Play Store, and Amazon Music! (Ooooh, so shiny.)

Also, there's new gorgeous cover art courtesy of the wonderful Elphaze. 

If you pledged for a tier that has the soundtrack, you should have received either an email or a Kickstarter DM with links to download the soundtrack.

We're also looking to soon push out Part 2, which is a two-song EP featuring the two jazz songs composed by insaneintherain.

Thank you for your support! <3

— Luna Chai

April Update: Writing Mode Activated
almost 6 years ago – Mon, Apr 30, 2018 at 04:15:41 PM

It’s April! We released Common Route earlier this month and have been gathering feedback and bug reports. In May, I’ll be focusing on writing.

Writing Update

Green is the proportion of the word count that is considered stable and doesn’t need to be revised. Yellow is the proportion of the word count that, while written, needs to be rewritten or heavily revised.

The routes are estimated to be anywhere from 50k - 80k words each.

I work best when I’m creating the story fluidly and holistically, so currently, I’m writing all the routes simultaneously. Whichever route is finished first will be the one that is released. Right now, that’s looking like Beckett or Leaf’s route.

(I’m super psyched for True Route. Some really cool plans happening.)

Debrief: Common Route Release

We got some amazing feedback and encouragement for the common route release! You can check out some really thoughtful posts on the forums here: http://forums.studiotheophilus.com/topic/spoilers-common-route-thoughts/

Here’s some features and fixes that we plan to implement in the next route:

• Bug Fix: There’s a strange interaction with the affection bar where it doesn’t register below a certain minimum amount. This results in choices raising affection, but that affection doesn’t register in the bar until a certain point. 
• Bug Fix: “Skip to next choice” is a buggy feature, and unfortunately, after some checking, is very difficult to fix. In light of this, we’ll be switching “skip to next choice” button to a standard “toggle skip” button.
• Unconfirmed! Feature: We will be investigating the option to assign a short name to save files. This is not confirmed.
• Adjustment: Several more terms will be added to the text input segments in light of feedback. 
• Adjustment: Several minor continuity errors will be fixed. 
• Adjustment: The Journal feature is difficult to find and was missed by the majority of the playerbase. It will instead be added to the quick menu or the ADV screen as its own button. (Currently it’s in the circular Extras panel in the lower-right corner of the Stat Menu screen.)

Please leave a comment if we missed anything!

Announcement: Social Media Break

In order to hone in on writing, I’ll be staying off of social media. This means that Studio Theophilus will not be updating on Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr/Facebook until next month, nor will there be responses to tweets or DMs. If you have any questions or issues, the live chat on the website will still be operational, and I’ll do my best to respond as fast as possible!

Thank you for your support! Hope to bring you more content soon!

— Luna Chai

Common Route - Download link!
about 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 04, 2018 at 02:16:40 AM

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

Common Route released to backers! + Important Announcement
about 6 years ago – Wed, Apr 04, 2018 at 02:16:23 AM

The time has finally come! Common Route is available to our Kickstarter backers and those who have pledged for beta access via Backerkit/Paypal. Those who pledged externally should have received an email with the download link, while backers should have access to an exclusive post.

WARNING. Common Route contains some disturbing content regarding violence and mental health.

While everything theoretically ought to run smoothly, this is a beta version. I highly recommend you save frequently. Also, please don’t use your old save files. They have old data that will crash the game, so delete or overwrite them. You can use the “skip to next choice” function in the quick menu to quickly get back to your previous spot in the demo :]

I would absolutely love to hear from you! Please inform me of any bugs, issues, or feedback. We’re fastest at responding to Twitter and the new live chat on our website, but also have Tumblr and a good ol’ contact form.

If you enjoyed it, connect with us and post your thoughts, or discuss with fellow readers on the Studio Theophilus forums or our sparkling new Gamejolt page! <3

Please also note that the credits sequence is not updated and will not be updated until the game is released.

Feedback 

If you’re able, I would really appreciate comments on the mystery segments. Were they logical? Did you get stuck on any of the text input sections? Would you like to suggest any terms added to the list?

I would also love to hear anything you particularly enjoyed.

Announcement

I also have an important announcement.

Due to recent personal circumstances, I have to ease back from developing Zodiac•Axis full time, and balance the development cycle with freelance design and music composition to gain some income.

I’m very sorry for this inconvenience. However, Zodiac•Axis is by no means cancelled. It’s not out of money and I’m still working on it for the majority of every day. But unfortunately, I do have expenses to pay, and working on Zodiac full time does not currently provide a source of income (as every penny of funding naturally ought to go to the project).

What this means:

Delays.

Nothing more, nothing less. The quality of the game will retain, but it will have to develop at a slower rate. The game itself doesn’t need extra funding or specific resources. I just won’t be able to create assets as fast as I have been doing.

As to how extensive the delays are, I’m currently projecting an additional year until full release, but I’ll get a better idea as I start taking on contract work and learn to balance my time.

Thank you so much for your continued support, and again, I apologize for all the delays and inconvenience. I only hope that the final product will be worth waiting for!

Quick Thanks

The amazing programmer Ian has worked extremely hard to smooth out the game, implement the new and entertaining features, and overall keep everything actually running!

A huge hat off to Elphaze, my darling honey nugget artist friend who’s helped in massive ways. She created sketches for all extra character sprites, speeding up the workflow 2x! And she also drew AMAZING flashback sequences.

And a big thanks to John Wesley Go and Katie Dagnen, who playtested the buggy alpha of Common and tromped through errors in your stead.

— Luna <3

February Update: Common Route is coming!
about 6 years ago – Thu, Mar 01, 2018 at 04:17:39 PM

It's now March, which is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. For those who are experiencing storms, bundle up and stay safe!

With that, some exciting news: Common Route is for certain to be released in April to backers! While we're sprinting to try to get it released in March, the result has been a lot of stress and running around like headless chickens, and I can't say for certain whether we can push a polished product at month's end. However, it'll certainly be released in April, clocking Zodiac in at around 120,000 words or 10+ hours of playtime.

Sprites

We pushed for a huge amount of art assets this month. Thanks to Elphaze (the flashback CG artist), who cooked up designs and sketches for the additional sprites, I was able to draw 8 sprites in one month!

We just did a recent count, and thus far, there are 1170 sprite expressions in ZA, which kind of makes me want to cry. That's a lot of faces. I'm tired of characters showing expression. Let's just put paper bags over their heads.

Backgrounds

Common Route will feature new places in Lunar City! Wrothsloth has been working hard to bring these scenes to gorgeous, gorgeous life. They've been a total godsend with the number and quality of BGs that they can complete.

For backgrounds, I'm also working on drawing a traditional house. Who might it belong to?

CGs

Bringing on Freinoir as an additional CG artist was one of the best decisions, because they've been knocking out those CGs like bowling pins! There's only one left.

Coding

Ian is now hard at work to implement the new screens, smooth out engine functionality, and do all those other coding things that make the game actually work.

Common Route will be fully featured, so there will be all the fun things like CG gallery, Achievements, and a pretty interesting new feature...

Next Update

The next update will be when Common is released, so it may be any time from late March to mid April.

Before we go, just a quick note: in case you missed it, the Kickstartversary livestream is up here! There's timecodes to the useful parts in the description, including tips for background lighting, composing, etc.

That's all! Thank you so much for your support!

— Luna Chai Li