Astra - Monthly Update (April 2024) (Patreon)

Hello Patrons,

Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend! We got some PHAT updates for this month so thank you for your patience the last couple days.

Let's get started!

WRITING

>> CAUTION: SUPER ULTRA OMEGA INSANE SPOILERS IN SCENE TITLES<<

Episode 7 writing has finally finished!!!!!!! It ended up just being a bit above 50k word count so it is by no means a "mini-episode" at this point, lol. In fact, KAS was 46k so the epilogue episode alone is bigger than the entirety of KAS! And with Episode 7 writing wrapping up, that means...

ASTRAL ASCENSION WRITING IS OFFICIALLY COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!

It took 3.5 years but we are finally done and the totality word count of this game is 408k. Let's compare that out:
ACE - 220k
Crystalline - 180k
KAS - 46k
Ethereal Enigma - 150k

As you can see, Astral Ascension is by far the most ambiguous game to date and we are very excited for you guys to jump in. ;^)

There are just a couple of continuity things that will get ironed out over the next couple weeks and any bug reports / voice over to dialogue mismatches as we get into the polishing stage. That's a wrap on writing, exciting things are ahead!

CHARACTER ART

The third and fourth batch of CG upgrades are done! You can check them out here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/astra-cg-batch-3-102071261
https://www.patreon.com/posts/astra-cg-batch-4-103128430

BACKGROUND ART

With background, we are just going through some of the epilogue locations that are in episode 7! We'll share more as they complete.

ANIMATION

The opening video was updated with the upgraded CGs! You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qNt0qh_0wo&ab_channel=PixelFade

PROGRAMMING

Firgof has been busy with getting episode 7 up and running for you all! I would expect the read only version sometime this upcoming week and the art version shortly thereafter.

AUDIO

Audio be quiet for now as well. In terms of outstanding work, we still have the Ending track planned. The reason we are waiting on that is because depending on the voice cast we get for the game, it might be fun if they are the ones who sing the Ending. Nothing confirmed, just some ideas! (same as last update)

VOICE

We sent out a casting call last week with the following details:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EW-DiDL2xmajS6NrDsKH2hDEzv03m6H4UvUYCWrigYc/edit

During this time, we have received over 700+ auditions! There is an incredible amount of interest behind this project as our previous casting calls had closer to 150-200 auditions (which is still quite a lot!).

Auditions will be closing April 29th at which point we will narrow down to a shortlist of voices for each character.

The shortlists will be shared on Patreon and then you will be voting for your favourite! We are looking forward to finally having a voice to the characters!!

Astral Ascension just completed its major milestone of being fully written! Next big milestone is to get the game fully voiced and then we will begin release preparations. It's going to be a very busy couple next weeks / month but also extremely exciting!

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts below. Thanks again for your support! :^)

- Dishu