Team Q&A Session: 08/12/2019 Transcript (Patreon)

Panel 

• Sam (Samu-kun) - Founder
• Ben (Nemjen) - Community Manager

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Question by Nowabi

“Where did you hide Sam's body”

Nemjen: He does the job for me, almost like he is trying to avoid me.

Question by NOBU

"Hey Sam, is it true you've always been watching us from the shadows?"

Samu: Ben does his job as PR manager well and gives me the high lights. Like how this was created. 

Question by tovarish

"Which one of the completed projects did you enjoy the most and why?"

Samu: I have the best impression of whichever project I've worked on the most recently, so I would say Idol Empire. It was much more different from anything I've worked on before with the most code work out of the projects. It was also interesting getting the gameplay systems worked out. But I look forward to working on Sunrider 4 next as well.

Nemjen: Technically Shining Song Starnova was my first completed project so that helps keep things nice and simple. My background is actually in SaaS project management so this has been something new for me but Sam and Ashton have been very welcoming and helpful with teaching me the ropes. As it was a different type of VN for LiS too it was something we were able to work out together and therefore very exciting.

Question by tovarish

"Will your games include more animation in the future?"

Samu: This one, I don't know the answer to quite yet. So the mecha animations for Liberation Day were pretty cool, but we might want to focus more on creating the game play aspects for Sunrider 4. I'm personally not sure how many fans thought the animated H scene in Starnova were necessary. I liked animating them and they were easier to make than the Sunrider mecha ones, but the big issue right now is that the Game Maker Studio engine does not support video play back, so I'm going to have to think of some clever ways to get a video in if the support isn't added.

Question by Sinpai 

“What was your favorite part of Sunrider: Liberation Day, whether making it or playing it?”

Nemjen: The Vanguard firing sequence, very satisfying to watch.

Question by Thewingedpixie

"Will your games include more animation in the future?"

Samu: This one, I don't know the answer to quite yet. So the mecha animations for Liberation Day were pretty cool, but we might want to focus more on creating the game play aspects for Sunrider 4. I'm personally not sure how many fans thought the animated H scene in Starnova were necessary. I liked animating them and they were easier to make than the Sunrider mecha ones, but the big issue right now is that the Game Maker Studio engine does not support video play back, so I'm going to have to think of some clever ways to get a video in if the support isn't added.

Question by Yama

"Real question, will Sunrider 4 have an in universe space whale sighting CG? Where you're only allowed to pick ONE GIRL to watch the whales with?"

Samu: That's a good suggestion. Maybe it'll happen! (I can't make any guarantees though, lol)

Nemjen: Make sure you're scanning every pixel in every CG - you may just get your wish.

Question by Prince995

"Hm... Sam... how did you even come up with idea for Sunrider in the first place actually, or did somebody else give you the idea?"

Samu: It's something I've always wanted to make for years. I think my first experience with science fiction was when I saw Star Wars on VHS when I was 7 years old. It was one of the first films I watched in the United States and it inspired a big appreciation for science fiction. Sunrider took many forms since then. I think I made the first attempts when I was in middle school in Game Maker. They weren't anime based though, more so a 360-degree 2D shooter game. The first Sunrider to become popular was Sunrider First Arrival, thanks to the rise of Kickstarter and Steam. That version was the result of over a decade of refinement of the original idea. Sunrider 4 will have many more years of refining, and might get pretty close to the vision. However, you should know that even Starnova and any other IP we make in the future will have years of thought behind it, so this kind of process isn't just unique to Sunrider.

Question by Kramz

“How do you feel about fan translation of your games?”

Samu: You are encouraged to work on unofficial translations as long as they do not involve pirating the game or are commercially sold. However, please understand that due to limited resources, we might not be able to assist, so you'll have to pretty much handle it yourself.

Nemjen: As long as it doesn't involve re uploading and distributing complete copies of our game (eg. the translation is just a patch of the tweaks) then I will do what I can to assist individuals who are taking up up such projects. I don't have the language skills to assist (I'm barely functional with English which is my mother tongue) but it is heart warming to see people want to help share our games with people who may be affected by the language barrier.

Question by Peaceful Blocky

"[ o-o]/ How big is the LiS team? Blocc doesnt know that much"

Samu: It's Ashton and I, with Nemjem running our PR operations. We also can take on many contractors. Of course, the full members of everyone who worked on our games is in the ending credits of each of our games.

Question by Snickett

"Which game or section of game was the most difficult to write, story wise?"

Samu: That's a pretty interesting question. I think so far, Starnova contained the biggest writing challenges. It's hardly surprising, because Starnova's story is bigger than all our other games combined! I don't know which part was the hardest. I think the biggest issue was that I didn't have experience writing anything that huge, so Natsuki and Sasami routes were the hardest, just because those 2 were made last, where fatigue begins to wear down on quality. That's a big lesson from Starnova, so I'm more careful to ensure quality, instead of just pushing out more content.

Nemjen: I don't currently write story content as outside of the PR I mostly assist with the QA rather than the creative process but I'd say bug reports can be a hair pulling experience when it comes to replication, sometimes you'll get it in one but other times it can take quite a while to work out what was done in the lead up so that it can be documented.

Question by Neppi 国際ネッピー

"With the new game engine in Idol Empires, modding is now near impossible for us right? What are the plans for Sunrider 4, will it be on the same engine? If yes, are you planning to make some stuff editable? Or is modding out of question for SR4."

Samu: It might be. I don't know the extent to which Game Maker games can be modded, but from what I can tell, it looks very, very challenging. However, I have never modded a game ever, so someone might come along who proves me wrong.

Nemjen: Its something we do discuss but it is very much going to be on a case to case basis depending on project.

For Idol Empire we've introduced the custom map mode and have structured saves in such a way that they can then be accessed in appdata and shared with friends. This should allow people to share their maps and scenarios if they wish to do so.

Question by eb

"How do you finish making a VN?"

Samu: Haha, well, I have to finish because this is my paid job. So, the most recent project I finished which wasn't a paid job was Homeward, and I suppose that was mostly a matter of just feeling like working on it, and just a matter of having the time, and then just cutting out content to just call it done. Nowadays, with Starnova and Idol Empire, it's an important part of your credibility as a game developer to get games finished and released, so you could say my job basically depends on it. That's been enough to get the job done so far.

Question by Sinpai

“What's the company's stance on Save Editors and Cheat Engines? Personal stances?”

Nemjen: On a personal level I don't mind them unless they violate IP rights (such tools are leading to redistribution) or they're having a negative effect on the experience for others (primary online games). Then again I haven't really used any form of cheat tool since the Action Replay in which I used one in Robot Wars - Arenas of Destruction for extra credits.

Question by Yama

“Who is each LiS member's favorite LiS girl? From both Sunrider or Starnova. (Or the mascots.)”

Nemjen: Ava from Sunrider, Natsuki from Starnova. Oh, and can't forget static noises from ProM.

Question by Kramz

"What are your favorite novels, what inspired you to create sunrider / starnova?"

Samu: Hmm, I haven't had the chance to read that often outside of VNs lately. So I've played a lot of VNs published by SP and Mangagamer, although unfortunately I don't play them that much thanks to Idol Empire and Sunrider 4 not being very similar to VNs.

Nemjen: My favourite visual novel is the original Utawarerumono, while back then I was sampling quite a few things (usually not to completion) this was the first one I did fully complete and left me wanting to find more sci fi esk experiences. One thing led to another and I discovered Sunrider MoA as a result.

Question by Naofumi Iwatani

"Will there ever be a multi work VN series other than Sunrider? Like Starnova for example (potentially without the same Characters)."

Samu: Hmm, never say never, but it seems like Idol Empire and Sunrider 4 will not be pure VNs, so not in the immediate future. I imagine Sunrider 4 could take some time. The industry changes very quickly though, so nothing is ever set in stone. Who knows, maybe we'll make another eroge!

Question by Rellek - Contains potential spoilers to Sunrider

"I always assumed that the reason for the lack of player choices was just an unfortunately poorly received but still clever attempt to emphasize how the main character and by proxy the player was losing control over himself due to emotional manipulation over time. Did you actually have something like this in mind or was it just lack of time and resources or something?"

Samu: It might have been just because we're a lot more experienced now than what we were back then, so we'll be able to deliver a better experience in our products today. So, there was a lot of interesting back story in regards to Mask of Arcadius and Liberation Day, where Mask of Arcadius suffered from a huge budget crunch and the situation looked grim, especially since we hadn't fully fulfilled the Kickstarter. (It turns out releasing games for free can leads to situations like this.) This led to a plan to make an eroge spin off to try to generate money, and the general idea that the sequel to MoA (which will become Liberation Day) was going to have to be made with basically no money. However, Academy was a hit beyond anything we could have imagined, so when it actually came time to make LD, we suddenly had a huge budget. So basically, when we had no money, we decided that we might not be able to end Sunrider as expected, and when we had more money, this led to us thinking, we definitely can't end Sunrider right now when we can make more Sunriders now at a much higher quality than the past ones. So that led to LD being a To Be Continued. I mean, I think there's a lot of different ways we could have approached it, but that's basically the situation we had so there's no need to look back too much.

Question by someone

"just wondering, would there be any chance of having a new project come between idol empire and sunrider 4?"

Samu: We've already been working on Sunrider 4 for a while now, so it will come after Idol Empire.

*Post Q&A Comment: The work on Sunrider 4 so far has been purely concepts and draft designs, it is not yet in active development but will become so after Idol Empire.

Question by Jason C

"How long is "for a while now", in terms of amount of text/hours of play, if you don't mind answering that ofc?"

Samu: Coding has not begun so there's no software to run. Most of the work has been focused on art, story, and voicing.

Question by Snickett

"Why the switch from English VAs to Japanese VAs?"

Samu: Funny story, so I wasn't involved with the original English voicing for Sunrider, so I have no idea how to even get English VAs. However, if we happen to have a lot of money in the future, surely we can have dual voices! lol (but it will be difficult to pay for all that...)

Question by eb

“Do you have any suggestions for how to keep going on a multi year project, once the enthusiasm wears off?”

Nemjen: Look after yourself, you know who you are and what your needs are and so its important to step away and clear your head if you need it - personally for me I like to do either a park or water front walk for a bit when it is clear that I'm not making any progress or watching the clock. Sometimes motivation or inspiration can come from unusual places. There is one route in particular along the edge of Canary Wharf that I tend to regular.

Samu: It's definitely pretty challenging. Unfortunately, it's not very good for PR to say this, but making games is a job for me. It's not something I do to make myself happy or to relax. I wake up in the morning, and get to work, just like any of you guys, it just happens to be on the games that you guys play and hopefully enjoy. If you actually want to finish a huge project, you have to work on it even if working on it feels like a chore. Of course, I am able to work hard on the games because I've always enjoyed making them, but at the end of the day, I have to sit down and work, even if I'd rather be playing Planet Zoo. >_>

Question by Ryoukai 

“Are there any plans to port Sunrider games to mobile devices, perchance?”

Nemjen: Not currently I'm afraid.

Samu: Now that Game Maker Studio 2 runs on mobile, that is an option. However, all our resources are embedbed on getting Idol Empire and Sunrider 4 out on PC right now.

Question by Fykrell Naga

“can we ask about favourite foods?”

Nemjen: I struggle with questions like this personally as I'm one of the worst creatures of routine imaginable and don't tend to go outside my comfort zone often, I eat the same things and after a while it just becomes part of the day rather than something I'm enjoying. If I was to isolate one dish though that I at least vaguely still look forward to making/eating it is enchiladas.

Question by Powerless

“whats the LIS office like? whos the voice of reason? the life of the office? etc.”

Nemjen: Being from the UK I've never seen it myself but I've always imagined that both Sam and Ashton have a kotatsu with computer equipment built into them. For me as a remote worker I just work in my bedroom surrounded by figurines, the boiler and a big red armchair that I'm infamous with my flat mates for falling asleep in.

Question by Matt The Sten

"Lore question: how is FTL done in Sunrider? Is it just going really fast or is it dimension changing shenanigans?"

Samu: Oh man, I've thought about this forever. Mostly due to the question of whether FTL ramming is possible or not, and why nations don't just drop cruise missiles armed with quantum torpedoes into orbit using warp instead of wasting time on huge battles between space armadas. It's something that really keeps me up at nights, and I can't really declare something so important this fast, so you'll have to wait for an in-universe lore. lol sorry..

Question by Matt The Sten

"SR4 question: How easy is modding going to be and what language is it coded in?"

Samu: It doesn't look that easy. It will be made in Game Maker Studio 2.

Question by NOBU

“Oh yeah, how big is the Surinder actually? Sometimes it's 50 skeleton crew, sometimes it's 2000 people akin to a real CV, and the floorplan ingame (6ish beds for infirmary) indicates closer to 50-200 people than 2000.”

Samu: About 740 meters long. Crewed by 600 optimally, but can transport up to 2000. 50 crew members would be pretty hellish conditions and would require the use of many drones, which would not be possible for a long duration.

Question by Yama

“Which of the LiS staff is the cutest?”

Nemjen: A plushie I have on my desk called Micro Mags - he was made out of a sock, googly eyes and a cleaning cloth and I look to him for motivation.

Question by NOBU

"Would you enjoy spending more time in the server just discussing things with us, or would it be too stressful due to the constant questions and stuff we'd ask, do you feel?"

Samu: Whew, I'm pretty busy and I'm sure you want to play our future games sooner, so I try to focus on getting our games out in good order.

Question by CHT / Yama

“Any plans for a "complete package" for all the games currently released?”

“Dear Sam, would you ever consider remaking the first 3 entries of Sunrider with updated mechanics or retconned bits of story to make it more cohesive and fun for future newcomers after you make Sunrider 4?" 

Nemjen: I've raised the prospect before but we'll have to wait and see where the road goes when we have such spare capacity available.

Question by Yama

“Didn't he say ProM was going to be a 3D shooter of some sort?”

Nemjen: I don't believe we've gone into detail beyond concept art - if you're able to find what you're referencing maybe I can add context but for now such details would be revealed in a public announcement in the future.

Question by LtSpitfire

"You said one of the early ideas for Sunrider was a 360 2D shooter. After you released FA/MoA/LD and seeing how people enjoyed it, did you ever thought again of making a Sunrider game with any other type of game engine or mechanics which didn't involve playing/reading a VN so heavily and relied more on other type of game mechanics? (Such as 2D/3D shooting, Real Time Strategy)"

Samu: Idol Empire and Sunrider 4 will be a large departure from our last couple of games, as Idol Empire is a real time business simulation, while Sunrider 4 will play more like an adventure JRPG (although Sunrider 4 will definitely be very story heavy.) I hope we'll be able to make all sorts of games with different gameplay in the future, although they'll most likely still have anime girls in them, haha.

Question by LtSpitfire

"What is your opinion on mods not aimed at the internal IP games but other games not related to LiS where the modders introduce elements of Sunrider into these games? (Such as FTL, Starsector...)"

Samu: Oo, that sounds fun.

Question by LtSpitfire 

“Did it ever cross your mind the idea of making a Sunrider mobile phone game based on gacha, such as popular mobage games like Azur Lane / Girls Frontline / Fate Grand Order...”

Samu: Haha, maybe one day, but right now, all our resources are on Idol Empire and Sunrider 4.

Question by Snickett

“Any plans for mechsmerchandising, or was the physical distribution of Kickstarters not really worth the hassle?”

Nemjen: Currently it would only be tied to Kickstarters in limited runs, but again who knows where the road of the future will go...?

Samu: Merchandising is a little tricky, because we're a game development company and not equipped to handle shipping and handling. I'd like to create more merchandising, but the logistics of shipping goods into countries around the world can quickly become a full time job, which delays our games. We would need to partner with another company capable of handling the merchandise, so it's a matter of having the hands to operate manufacturing and fulfillment.

Question by Kramz

“I noticed that there are a lot of unused variables in the mask code, are you planning to implement them in future parts of sunrider?”

Nemjen: Likely not as they are but they may inspire certain decisions - its hard to tell as we do not have a Sunrider game in active development at this time.

*Post Q&A Comment:  Idol Empire is our current game in active development.

Question by Thewingedpixie

“In the future, would a sunrider or shining song anime be a possibility?”

Nemjen: We will go into active surveillance of the Nekopara team and try and learn their secret.

Samu: Haha, well, for something like that to happen, we'd need to work hard for many years! Maybe if we get lucky and keep getting games out, Love in Space will one day become big enough to produce an anime. However, right now, we're just an indie game company.

Question by WeissDraconis

"With the development for Sunrisers: Liberation Day, was it always planned to do the expansion pack for it with the time travel angle?"

Samu: No, the [Re]turn DLC was not planned. I wonder whether Bioware planned the Citadel DLC.  haha

Question by MrNickUniverse

“How did VNs come to be your story telling medium of choice?"

Samu: I got interested in making VNs with Homeward and it went from there. However, with Idol Empire and Sunrider 4, we might be heading towards a period where we focus more on game play, even though we're obviously still focusing on anime, and Sunrider 4 will have quite a bit of story to cover.