Team Q&A Session: 15/12/2019 Transcript (Patreon)

Panel 

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

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Question by Squeezable Blocky

“How does Samu feel about the community here in the discord server?”

Samu: It's always great that my games have brought together a community of fans. I hope everyone can have a good time. With that said, maybe Ben has a better answer because he's the actual community manager!

Nemjen: Slips a note under the desk saying ‘save me from them’.

Question by eb

“How do you see the future of the indie market, especially vns/ eroge and how have you had to adapt the design of your games around these trends?”

Samu: Right now, there's a lot of VNs and eroge being released, but you're probably going to see shorter and safer VNs being made by other production companies. Since we are not currently working on any pure VNs, I can't comment or speculate more on what other VN companies are doing though. I don't really pay attention to it much and just make games that I want to play. As to future trends, your guess is as good as mine! 

Question by PadoRin

“Any plan for a Sunrider spin-off game like Sunrider Academy where we will see more of the girls in a more daily life setup without all the war drama? Totally not an excuse for Icari in civvie clothes”

Samu: Idol Empire and Sunrider 4 are enough work for now, so something like that is not in the works right now, but who knows what the future might bring. With that said, maybe you might see Icari wearing something new in Sunrider 4!

Question by xhh2a

“What was something cut from Sunrider LD and Starnova that you most wish there was time to complete?”

Nemjen: For Sunrider LD I technically joined LiS slightly after the [RE]turn content and therefore was not part of this process but if I was still to answer this would be the skirmish mode, while it is still possible to get into this mode it is not completed (mainly just being the same code as MoA) and is missing the improvements that were conceptually planned such as level exporting.

For Starnova nothing particularly comes to mind that was specifically cut and that I wish we had more time for, but if I could add something else I wouldn’t have minded some additional slice of life for specific characters such as outings or side stories. I did try to do this a few times during development but nothing really came out that I was happy enough with to submit as a possible content additions. 

Samu: Hmmm, so nothing that big which was originally planned was cut from Sunrider LD and Starnova. However, a lot of features which we knew from the start were not possible to do in LD is now possible to do in Sunrider 4, so we're very looking forward to seeing it done.

Question by xhh2a

“Who is your favorite lesser known side character in a VN by LiS?”

Nemjen: After JamesDonaldson ‘s web comic titled ‘Random Loli’ about the girl who on board the Agamemnon I would have to give that honour to her. I now struggle not to see her as Recette (Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale) when that CG comes up.

Question by 2for4bitz

"How long has Sunrider 4 been in the works?"

Samu: About 3 months maybe. Not that long.

*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 Goku Time

"You got an ETA for when its out?"

Samu: No ETA yet, since we just started.

Question by Bob

"What's the fascinations with Alpacas and Emus?"

Samu: I think they're pretty funny creatures, don't you? Especially Emus, they won a war in Australia, I hear.

Question by StalkerTheMortal

"Do you have a finished storyline and canon ending for the Sunrider franchise in your head?"

Samu: The franchise is pretty big stuff, so I just have Sunrider 4's details down, and only just loose ideas which are still being developed beyond that. When you're making a story, so, you always have the big moments down, but the most important things are actually the small details which can really trip you up. So it's more important to know the small details, so the rest beyond Sunrider 4 is still up in the air, so to speak.

Question by Nadramon

"why does kryska get no love?"

Samu: She might get some more role in future Sunrider games! Who knows what the future will bring....

Question by Prince995

"Considering what Kersey asked... if you do plan on ending the Sunrider series at some point, you won't pull a Mass Effect on us and just put like a few differently colored endings... will you Sam?"

Samu: Red Alpaca, Blue Emu ending confirmed.

Question by Prince995

"Hm... have you ever expected the games of LiS to even become... kinda popular as they are now?"

Samu: Haha, to be honest, so we do make the games hoping they get popular. However, the one game which always surprised me by how popular it got is Sunrider Academy. I meet random people who have played it somehow.

Question by DragonBox

"Was there a game or experince that inspired you to start thinking about entering the field of game development?"

Samu: I never really ever seriously considered entering game development as a professional, but messed around with it on my spare time. I think it started with the campaign editor in the original Starcraft, but I wanted more customization options, so I moved onto making my own games. I guess I spent so much time on it that it just turned into my real job!

Question by Mattarayer

“What is it like working for a small VN company, and did you ever expect that you would be when you were just a community member?”

Nemjen: Its different but a good different, you start looking at things from a different perspective and appreciating the work that goes on behind the scenes, I can't say it ever crossed my mind when I was primarily just a forum user but as I got to know Sam, Ashton and at the time Vaen more I knew it would be an interesting experience to embark on and that I was up for the challenge.

Question by Goku Time

"We gonna get more rpg elements in our decision makings? Like ending choices so on? Im curious. Is multiple endings possible?"

Samu: So with Sunrider 4 not being the final game in the story, there's always going to be the canon line which Sunrider 5 will start from. Sunrider 4's being planned out a lot more like what you would see in a JRPG, so it's not going to be like Starnova where the routes branch out yet. However, I might not be allowed to reveal more.

Question by Dinnerdin

"Hey Sam! Do you write on your own, or do you have cowriters/people that you consult?

By this I don't mean LiS staff, but outside friends/family?"

Samu: Haha, none of my family knows anything about the story, and you don't really have time to out much when you're an indie game dev, so I don't have many friends!

Question by superdoc

“most important question of all is; are Asaga and Chigara based off rei and asuka from NGE? because it seems chigara and rei are basically the same character”

Samu: The only similarity between Asaga and Asuka is that they have red hair, so I'm gonna have to shoot this one down. However, Sola on the other hand... Well...

Question by Astral

"Might we see more of the Starnova-verse beyond Idol Empire?"

Samu: I'd love to return to the Starnova universe after Idol Empire, however that'll have to wait until we get some Sunrider games out.

Nemjen: Personally I'd like to revisit the Starnova-verse at some point in the future, there is plenty yet the girls could get up to. That said I think a change of scenery will allow us to look at other ideas and concepts and when such a time comes were we to do a revisit we'd have even more LiS wacky goodness to share with you all.

Question by Powerless

"sam, what was the inspiration (if any) behind the sunrider characters, did you use any irl references, animes etc"

Samu: Haha, well, I think a long time ago, I was looking at my waifus and wanting to put them all in a game, but this was over a decade ago, so the girls have developed into their own characters by now. Asaga I think has red hair because red is my favorite color and due to the law of twin tails banzai.

Question by Astral

"Do SR-verse counterparts of the Starnova casts exist in Sunrider? And could the characters in SR Academy exist in SSS-verse?"

Samu: Maybe you might find the Starnova girls working hard to become idols in the Sunrider verse. However, they will probably not get involved with the affairs of Kayto Shields.

Question by Bob

"The mechanical designs in sunrider are pretty cool. Which ryder is your favorite?"

Samu: Of the ones publically disclosed, I like the Nightmare Ascendant the most. I'm really looking forward to unveiling the new ryders of Sunrider 4, since it's been nearly a decade since I made the girls ryders, and there's so much more we can do now which was unthinkable back then.

Nemjen: Oddly enough its the Bianca, I like the idea of strength through utility and there is something really satisfying about using the gravity gun either to complement limited EN or to trigger counterattacks.

Its a rather sub par ryder on the surface that shines in unusual ways.

Question by patzen86

"First of all I'm new here, second LOVE the games, third I'm happy to support your creations. The last thing I'd like to say is... Is the charecters from the sunrider universe going to stay the same or is there going to be more additions to the cast?"

Samu: You might see some new cast members in Sunrider 4, but I don't think the "squad" of girls that you control will change.

Question by acidRain burns

“Is there a chance we could see figs/models of the ryders, sorta like the frame arms gils/gundam/magami devices?

Also, are you interested in making any more spinoffs of Sunrider, like academy?”

Nemjen: We're not really focusing of merchandise like this currently, our primary focus and where our energy is going is the game development.

I think there are certainly ways and ideas around what more spin offs could take the form of, but for now for our first Sunrider project in a while we'd like to revisit the main series when Sunrider 4 enters active development.

Question by Sorzo

"Sunrider as an IP went through several different iterations before you settled on what became First Arrival. Were there any particularly memorable narrative elements from those early drafts that you liked but chose to cut because they clashed with your changing vision for the series?"

Samu: So due to budget restrictions when developing MoA, quite a bit of the vision we planned out in First Arrival was changed. However, we did get most of the big plot points in, such as the Prototypes, Cosette's back story, the Legion, and the Paradox Core. I figured we'd be able to make something much better later on, so I just continued the story on in Liberation Day, anticipating the day we make a better game will come.

Question by Goku Time

"In sunrider verse how are ground battles done?"

Samu: That's a good question. Since Kayto Shields is a man of the space force, we'll rarely see ground operations. This is something I'd like to show off, but we might rarely see it due to the player character being a space ship commander instead of a tank commander. (Most ships in Sunrider are not able to land on planet)

Question by Chapter Serf

"Spinning off of Sorzo's, I've long suspected that Sunrider originally was going to take place in our own galaxy (mostly because of a throwaway line by Kryska back in FA/MoA). Can you confirm/deny this theory?"

Samu: This one I will deny. From FA's vision, Sunrider has taken place in an alternate universe to our own, which bares similarities to our time, but which has technology millions of years more advanced.

Question by Luca

“Hey Nemjen who is your favourite character personally out of Sunrider and Starnova?”

Nemjen: If I said anything other than Ava I'd bring dishonour to the Conglomerate.

(Also I'd likely end up doing Paperwork Ishidaki).

Question by Bob

"<Legit how are ground battles waged in universe? Any idea how advanced tech is in ground battles?>"

Samu: So ground battles might be somewhat rare, space superiority can easily wipe out ground forces with orbital strikes, so 90% of a planet's control is determined by whose fleet orbits the planet. A lot of the ground fighting involves urban warfare and putting down smaller forces without also blowing an entire city into a crator. However, since there are so many humans in the universe, entire cities being turned to glass in war happened recently in the PACT Civil War, so there's not so much focus on ground warfare, and a lot more focus on attaining orbital control.

Question by Dinnerdin

“I'm not sure if this question is allowed, but as for the combat in SR4, have their been plans and or talks about having an infantry battle? As in, just Kayto running around a hexagonal grid with an AR basically?”

Nemjen: For future projects we're not revealing specific details in this Q&A, these would be done through separate announcements / Patreon content. Sunrider 4 is still a very new project and doesn't have a definitive shape yet, it needs more time in the oven before we start talking about it.

Question by Vince

"Sam, I'm curious. When it comes to the lore of Sunrider. Are there any things you wish you could go back and change with retrospect you have on the franchise as of 2013."

Samu: Lore-wise, I think there needs to be more of an explanation as to the existence of Alpha, since with so many Prototype characters on the stage, it can become confusing to more casual players. However, what's in the text is canon, so it will not be changed. We will just have to explain it all in games after LD.

Question by Dinnerdin

“If SR4 sports a new combat system (which it undoubtedly will), will you upgrade previous games, like you upgraded FA from a square grid to a hexagonal grid?”

Nemjen:  This was touched upon in the previous Q&A, a transcript is available via a Patreon public post if you're interested. (Any plans for a "complete package" for all the games currently released?)

Samu: There aren't any changes planned to the currently released games. Maybe one day there will be a remake as an entire new, separate product, but right now we have other projects that we're working on, so this will have to wait.

Question by Bob - Contains potential spoilers to Sunrider 

"Does everyone's favorite space pirate make an appearance on SR4? As in, her being KIA in LD is non-canon"

Samu: Yes, Cosette will return in Sunrider 4, where would we be without our loli space pirate?

Question by Chapter Serf

"Are you looking to have Sunrider IV bring in previous game data the way LD did with FA/MoA, thus allowing us to keep our decisions constant?"

Samu: Due to an overhaul of how the affection rating works to make it more consist and clear in Sunrider 4, I don't think the affection rating of the past games will carry over or else it will unbalance the game. As for our hero's past actions, he might be in for a surprise, but I can't reveal more.

Question by fearfire22

"The real question is will Cosette be a romantic interest in SR4 after you liberate ongess"

Samu: This is dangerous. Pursuing Cosette might lead to some things, but I don't think "romance" is what you will get from her, haha...

Question by Sorzo

"As both a game developer and writer, how do you deal with the issue of feature/idea creep? Do you find yourself frequently adding new concepts mid-development, or do you try to lock everything down in pre-production and stick with that as much as possible? In crowd-funded projects, how do stretch goals that may or may not be fulfilled affect this process?"

Samu: So when you work as a game dev and it's not a hobby, it's real easy, because who likes doing extra work? I haven't had issues with feature creep in a while, since I just write down the features that I want at the very beginning, and stick with the plan. Of course, what ends up more difficult than anticipated is implementing those planned features in a quality way, so we end up with polish creep where I always want to improve what we already had planned instead

Question by Adamasin

"Sam, someone asked this and I'd really like an answer: Will SR4 Have a locked romance like LD?"

Samu: There will be a major overhaul of the affection system, which each girl has their own affection meter which you can see this time around. I can't really reveal all the details, but it will be a new feature which hasn't been in our past games.

Question by fearfire22

"Kind of a presumptuous question, but do you plan to have players choose their faction (PACT, Alliance, Pirate, Prototype, Neutral, etc) to better convey a choose-your-own-adventure feel?"

Samu: Ah this one seems like it won't happen, because it's practically impossible for Shields to join PACT, right? I can't imagine it. I think he'll always do whatever is in the best interests of his ship, so he might have alliances of convenience, but definitely not with PACT.

Question by Chapter Serf

"Spinning off that question, will the existing (albeit screwy) affection system have any impact if we played the previous games? I know the previous system was screwy with like Ava and Asaga having almost 20 affection points max, Sola 9 and Chigara and Claude like 2."

Samu: Due to balance issues, the new system in Sunrider 4 will control and not the past one.

Question by Vince

“How did the prototypes a rogue subspecies know to create a sleeper agent like Chigara to perfectly cater to Kayto's needs, but then chose to randomly send her to a neutral sector planet like Tydaria with no means to get off of there?”

Samu: I think in [re]Turn, it is confirmed that Chigara was actually spying on Asaga, the princess of the Ryuvia, and it was coincidence that she got on the Sunrider.

Question by Bob

“What sort of animations might we be able to expect from SR4 battles, more involved like MoA? Or minimal a la LD? Or still TBD?”

Samu: So with those animations, some people don't like how they bring down the pacing of the battles to a crawl, so if we do make them, they'll probably be limited to just really nice kill cam-style high lights so they don't play all the time. However, it's still very easy in production, so I can't confirm anything.

Question by fearfire22

“How have your community interactions with SR and SSS influenced how you operate as LiS? Mostly for Nemjen cuz you do the bulk of it”

Nemjen: For me the game creation process doesn't end at publishing the game, it continues in many forms be it through reviews or the discussions or the memes and if you go into these aspects open minded there is a wealth of things to be considered both between us on services like Discord and fueling internal discussion and/or decisions at LiS. 

Samu: Its hard to say how it has influenced us directly as most of it happens behind closed doors but I like to think it encourages us to not just discuss topics that we want to discuss and therefore we can make more informed decisions.

Question by Veniczar_PA

"Question. Will PACT remain our main enemy type "most" of the time or are there plans to phase them out for story reasons? Considering how large and diverse their unit roster is I imagine there would be a lot of modeling and balancing done for anyone to come close to fill their place"

Samu: PACT still remains undefeated as of LD, so Shields' fight is far from over.

Question by LtSpitfire

"Sam, what are your thoughts about a Maray route in Academy?"

Samu: Oh boy, we get a lot of requests for her, but thanks to pretty severe budget at the time restrictions, we decided to just focus on 4 of the main girls from the beginning. We also get a lot of requests to add Icari. However, we're pretty busy with the current projects we have now, so a new Sunrider Academy is currently not planned.

Question by Chapter Serf

"Was the choice to make Ava, Sola, Asaga and Chigara the only girls available in academy based on the characters' popularity at that time (the interbellum between FA/MoA and LD)?"

Samu: I think so, although I stay up at night constantly wondering if it should have been Icari instead of Chigara. Poor Chigara-chan.... (Or poor Icari, depending on how you see it.)

Question by Bob

"Is SR4 planned to be voiced? Only in Japanese?"

Samu: It will be voiced in Japanese. So with ENG voices, the ENG voices in First Arrival was handled by someone else, so I don't have much familiarity with how voicing works in ENG. If we have the budget, maybe one day we can get ENG voices too, but right now, only the J voices are paid for.

Question by Vince

"It's been a pleasure to see the questions you've answered so far. I guess as one last question though, do you think we'll see more worldbuilding in the future when it comes to the world of Sunrider, or do you think not much more will be expanded on past what we have now?"

Samu: Oh yes, we will definitely expand the world lore with future games. I don't think we've even revealed 10% of the lore, so there's a lot which needs to be done in future games.

Question by LtSpitfire

"I was the one to do the Spanish translation of LD as there were some requests for it.

Do you have any plans on breaking some language barriers by giving your games some extra languages?"

Samu: So I just finished adding localization support to Idol Empire, and Sunrider 4 will use the same system, but with improvements we've learned from Idol Empire. New languages should be pretty easy to mod into those games with the new system. We greatly appreciate your hard work.

Question by Tamamo No Mae

"Sam, will Kayto have the ability to assemble his own fleets with him; a sort of expansion to what was seen towards the end of LD with Cera Gunboats, and Alliance vessels?"

Samu: So this was definitely a thing you saw in LD, but in Sunrider 4, Shields' situation might be different. Of course though, the ability to hire escorts will return as before, but Shields might have to work quite a bit harder to find Alliance support, due to the various events of LD.

Question by Sorzo

"Could you please elaborate on this a bit? You'd mentioned last time that GameMaker likely wouldn't be mod-friendly."

Samu: Whew, it took quite a bit of work, but thanks to an already existing community of fan translators, getting translations able to be modded in was a high priority enough to get it done.

Question by Luca

"Can we expect Kayto to earn favour with the Alliance and be able to earn back their trust through side missions or main missions Sam?"

Samu: So after LD, the Alliance is probably not very happy with Shields, so we'll definitely see that come into play in the story. However, anything future would spoil Sunrider 4!

Question by LtSpitfire

"I would also like a confirmation for Sorzo's question regarding the modability of any future games, Sam."

Samu: It took quite a bit of work to get languages able to be modded, so it definitely looks like a huge challenge. But maybe someone will surprise me and find a way to mod the game.

Question by Tamamo No Mae

"Hey, Sam, since you said not to leave any regrets.... What is the likely hood of a romantic route with Lynn?"

Samu: Uhh, I don't know if we confirmed this or not, but Lynn will be one of the main "squad" girls in Sunrider 4, and will have the aforementioned affection bar. However, remember in the Sunrider-verse and not the Academy-verse, Lynn doesn't particularly like Shields, so it'll definitely be somewhat of a love-hate thing.

Question by Naofumi Iwatani

"Sam, are there any plans for any new LiS “franchises” for the future?"

Samu: We're always wanting to create new IPs, but right now, we're focused on just Idol Empire and Sunrider 4