Team Q&A Session: 16/02/2020 Transcript (Patreon)

Panel 

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

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Question by Mattarayer

“What games inspired you when creating the gameplay aspect of the Sunrider series?”

Samu: I think I might have mentioned it, but I remember really having liked Valkryia Chronicles when I made First Arrival, so some aspects of the active turn based system might have been inspired by it

Question by Adamasin

“Mr. Samu, what character is used for Aki's name? Is she named as 秋 (autumn)? Also, is Mariya possibly named after Takeuchi Mariya?”

Samu: I'm not fully confident on the kanji so I would consult with an expert first. However, Mariya has no association with Takeuchi Mariya

Question by Mattarayer

“What other nicknames have you considered using in the community besides Magpie and Nemjen?”

Nemjen: The third name is the holy trinity is still avian in being BurdPie. This is based on a running gag during my Brony years that people would rather go Buuuuuuuurd rather than Magpie.

Question by Fishy

“Was Shining Song Starnova a big enough success to consider more "Pure VN" type titles in the future?”

Samu: I'm sure that's up to visual novel creators. However, it sounds like most of our current fans wanted the next Sunrider so we focused on it.

Nemjen: Success is only part of the equation, the story has to also suit the method. If in a future project we decide it is best delivered purely as narrative then sure we could see more pure VNs so to speak.

Question by Dinnerdin

“Is Kryska a lesbian/bisexual?”

Samu: I don't know whether straight/bisexual/gay is that big of a distinction in the Sunrider universe, and look forward to potentially expanding the lore in the future

Question by Fishy

“Has LiS ever considered doing a medieval fantasy style setting for any of their works? Considering we have Sci-Fi, and modern settings already portrayed.”

Samu: I'd love to make a fantasy genre in the future. However, since we are committed to delivering Sunrider 4, it seems we will be in the sci-fi genre for now

Nemjen: Space is our surname but it is not an impossibility - just not something we would be looking at right now as our hands are quite full with polishing Idol Empire for the full release and then following that our next project Sunrider 4. 

That and I don't think the world is just ready yet for for us to bring space, crusades and waifu together right now.

Question by Astral

“How did the concept of Miss Mariko come to be?“

Samu: We wanted to add a new girl, as Haruka was not recruitable and we still wanted to have 5 girls for 5 Battles of the Idols, and there was no soft spoken girl on the team, so we decided to go with a mysterious shrine maiden like Sola in Sunrider Academy. However, later, we decided to add the Sunrider girls, so maybe she got a little bit redundant. Oh well!

Question by Joyce OwO

“Why is sunrider academy SOOO DAMN GOOD as a stand-alone!?!”

Nemjen: Because we got an Ava route, what more is needed?

Question by Powerless

“Sam, do either you or nem have a favorite idol in the starnova universe.”

Samu: I think I sent Nemjen my thoughts on the best girls in Idol Empire. Maybe he'll divulge later 😉

Nemjen: Team Nattan here, I'm from the countryside myself so I have a particular soft spot for this type of character. Also for Sam its Aki although we don't 

Revised: For Sam his favourite is Aki although the life drains from his eyes whenever the merchandise numbers comes up.

Question by Bite Me Universe

"If you had an unlimited budget, what's one thing you'd do to the Sunrider series, either as a game (chaning it's genre to a JRPG, or something like Valkyrie Chronicles), it's merch, or it's marketing? If you want to give one for each thing then go for it."

Samu: Oh hohoho, you'd think we'd make anime Breath of the Wild in space with an unlimited budget. But you know, that's just a dream. =w=

Nemjen: For me I'd love to touch on some of the niche parts of the lore that are lightly referenced however just haven't had enough time within the current Sunrider titles to be explored. The benefit there is it doesn't just have to be a game - you could also have illustrations, comics, short stories and perhaps even animations.

Question by Mad Lad Karl

“Sam: are there plans to revisit Starnova in the future, however distant?”

Samu: I'd love to make more Starnova, but since we've been working on it for a while, working on Sunrider will be a good change of pace

Question by Engelbert

“Where are my sunrider nendos?”

Nemjen: Don't worry I've got your back, one day Good Smile will return my calls.

Question by Kramz

”Do you plan to release gameplay add-ons to the game? At the moment, the game has very little content, after a few hours it becomes very monotonous.”

Nemjen: Not at this time, try working your way through the story mode. It serves both as an overarching plot and slowly introduces you to the mechanics of the game.

“There are too many scandals in the game, almost every half minute. I'm tired of this. Lawyers eat a lot of money, but what's the point of suing if we don't get any compensation from paparazzi? They have to compensate for the damage if we win.”

Nemjen: You get three choices with deciding how you want to resolve a scandal, the first two involve your idol taking some sort of stat hit while the third involves using KN with no stat damage. The compensation is the problem is resolved without an impact on your idol.

Question by Bigfoot

“Given there are a number of variables like affection and prince/captain morality in SR but there is little actual use of them, was this something that was planned and then cut, or is it something that will be useful in the future?”

Samu: Are you keeping the Prince vs Moralist system for the next Sunrider game…

Oh now this is an interesting question because I thought about this system. The more I think about it, the more it seems like there could be an argument as to whether something is "prince" or "moralist." Like, in the past games, it feels like I arbitrary said some calls were "prince" or "moralist," but couldn't it all be a subjective matter of opinion? I've played a bit of the Witcher, and there's neither good or evil, just decisions. It's something you should keep in mind when playing Sunrider 4.

Question by Seth Vermilion

“Is idol empire a management similar to sunrider academy or is it more management than that”

Nemjen: Its closer to a traditional management game than Sunrider Academy, I think simulator is the right term(?) although I must admit I'm not a veteran of the genre. We plan to share some gameplay footage via our YouTube channel in the somewhat immediate future so you will be able to give that a look and gauge for yourself. Remember to subscribe and hit the bell if you want an alert for when that happens.

Question by Taihou

“Samu, tech question here. Why choose Game Maker 2 over any other possible engine in the market? Will Sunrider IV be developed in this engine?”

Samu: I was already familiar with GM from using it for a few years, so picking GM let us be up and running on a game immediately instead of having to spend extra time gaining knowhow with a new tool. Sunrider 4 is expected to be made in GM Studio

Question by Astral

“What are the Novas’ hobbies/interests outside of work? Particularly Aki and and Sasami”

Samu: Sasami seems to collect teddy bears from the appearance of her room. Aki might be too busy working on the time, so you could say being an idol is her hobby

Question by Nobu

“Iirc, the first sunrider games used royalty free music. Will the music for sunrider 4 be commissioned?”

Samu: We expect the music to mostly be the same ones as in the past since it's what fans are used to. But there will most likely be some new additions.

Question by Taihou

“Will "Colours of an Orchestra" be the "Main theme" of Sunrider?”

Samu: I have had this song constantly stuck in my head for the past 5 years so it pretty much is, hahaha. Also, Camino from LD is an excellent piece as well.

Question by Sinpai

“Will there be any planned crossovers in SR4 with the SSSN?”

Nemjen originally quoted the wrong question against his answer, this has been relocated to the right one.

Revised: Specifically for the term 'crossover' likely not, it wouldn't suit the tone or environment of the Sunrider story.

Question by Luca

"Question of my own. If Love in Space were to do a fantasy style game what kind of gameplay would it have?"

Samu: Good question. I think I'd want a traditional classical RPG experience, with some of my own ideas. Maybe one day, we can all play it!

Nemjen: Pokemon style RPG with space whales, you help raise one and then have them compete against others.

(No space whales were harmed in the creation of this thought process)

Question by Vince

“How much worldbuilding was done before Sunrider as a project was first released?“

Samu: We've been trying to make Sunrider for years before First Arrival was released, so we had quite a lot of lore. I hope with Sunrider 4, more of that lore gets introduced so the fans can enjoy it.

Question by Firehaben182

“Are there any plans or considerations to expanding your merchandise outside of the digital art, BTS, and others alike that are available via Patreon? In other words could we see Sunrider/Shining Starnova posters, figures, t-shirts, ect. that are available year round to us in the possible future?”

Samu: With physical goods, we as a game development studio, are not well equipped to handle the logistics. However, we hope that one day we will gain the capability to make physical goods as well as games.

Question by Fishy

“After reading through some of the development posts for Starnova on Kickstarter and Patreon I noticed almost a tonal shift in the way Aki was written when speaking. Did her character evolve much over the development of Starnova or was her character pretty constant throughout?”

Samu: There's an intentional large tonal shift between the common route and the character routes. Partially, this is traditional for VNs, since the common route's supposed to be the easy comedic segment, whereas the character routes are supposed to be serious business. I was trying to emulate it as much as possible, as well as add my own contributions to the format. With Aki's route, I really wanted to make something serious, which I think we got pretty close to achieving.

Question by Kramz

“Samu-kun, what prompted You to create Homeward? Are you satisfied with how it came out?”

Samu: I created Homeward after staying in Japan for the first time and wanted to get serious about releasing a VN. It definitely is the lowest budget affair of all our games though, so maybe it hasn't help up so well, haha.

Question by Astral

“How are the potential love lives of the other Novas that P-kun doesn’t end up with?”

Samu: Well, you know from Sasami's route that Shiro does eventually reconnect with Kana. As for everyone else, presumably they focus on their careers while they're idols! Whether they find their special someone afterwards is left open

Nemjen: We'll save that for Shining Song Starnova: Alternative. 

Chomp.

Question by Fishy

“Which Nova had your favorite route to explore? For me, I personally found Mariyas and Aki’s routes the most fulfilling.”

Samu: Haha, well I don't want to start Waifu War III in here and I make it a point not to disclose favorite girls out of the girls I've created.

Nemjen: Hands down this goes to Mariya, seeing how the final result turned out in the beta was very satisfying.

Question by Kramz

“Claude is not in the DLC of Sunrider by the fact that it is Nemu?”

Nemjen: Perhaps if we trace their family tree back far enough we can find the missing link between the two - I'm yet to find it, sadly I don't think we have enough time in this Q&A to have a session of drawing up their ancestry.

Question by QuetzalCaCaotl

“Have you guys, while developing these games, got in a very heated argument over something about the game that, looking back on it, seems silly?”

Samu: Oh, well I'm sure we've had heated arguments over stupid things many times. I can't even remember them all in our team's long history. But I'm sure they all must not have been that important since we're still alive and well despite them!

Nemjen: Its not directly game related but date/time formats seems to be something we regular clash on, then again I feel like this is just an accepted British/American conflict stereotype at this stage.

Question by QuetzalCaCaotl

“As a programmer, I was wondering, while making the games, was there some kind of a massive hair pulling bug you guys found early on?”

Samu: Oh, well, for Idol Empire, I really screwed up with the text wrapping for languages with no spaces between the words like Japanese. Man, it would have been so much easier if I had considered this from the very beginning. Thankfully it's something we can address in Sunrider 4 from day 1

Question by Mad Lad Karl

“Do you guys get a chance to play other video games now and then? have you played Disco Elysium?”

Nemjen: I haven't played Disco Elysium yet although I'm very aware of it, there just isn't enough time in the day to do all the games I'd love to check out. For now when I have a spare moment I'm giving it to a Nintendo Switch game called Astral Chain . Big fan of Platinum's work.

Question by Fishy

“Is there any possibility of exploring any of the girls from Quasar in more depth in a sequel/spin-off series?”

Samu: Maybe one day, in that Starnova game we'll make in the far off future! But first, we are working on Sunrider 4

Question by Taihou

“Samu, now that you've created the story of several games. How comfortable are you writing about very adult themes such as relatively gruesome descriptions or even sexual themed?”

Samu: I'm fine with that level of writing. However, I don't consider myself a shock artist or anything like that. It's just a minor part of what I want to make and not the main focus

Question by Bob

“Is the Alliance Space Force a combined army? As in Air Force/Infantry/Marines? Or is it strictly Navy?”

Samu: It's primarily Space Force, but they receive most of the budget compared to the other divisions, so they have their own terrestrial forces as well. It's something that hasn't been in the lore yet at all

Question by Nowabi

“Will we ever hunt a space whale?”

Samu: No way, space whale poaching is illegal! O_O 

Nemjen: The question you should be asking is, are the space whales planning to hunt you? uwu

Question by Sorzo

“How long are warp travel durations in Sunrider, generally speaking? Is going from system to system near-instantaneous, or is there a substantial travel period of hours, days, etc.?”

Samu: It is not instantaneous, but in the story, we won't see the long time the crew spends since that doesn't make for a great story. Also, it's interesting, because the time they spend inside the ship while in warp is different from the time which passes outside the ship, so warp travel takes shorter for the people in warp while the people outside have to wait longer for a ship to arrive.

Question by Engelbert

“Are there plans for a Sunrider fighting game? I want it to be the next big thing at EVO.”

Nemjen: Because I'd love to see Marvel vs Capcom Infinite make a return (and hopefully the interest to lead to a new entry) I'm going to say no to maximise the chances.

Question by Ardanis

“Can we expect the return of English VO option for combat barks in SR4?”

Samu: Unfortunately, the combat system has changed so much that we can't use the old ENG ones. We hope to one day have the budget to add additional voice overs and ENG would be the first one we add, but it's a matter of having enough funding for such an undertaking.

Question by QuetzalCaCaotl

“Like did they evolve independently or is there one huge space whale god?”

Samu: Space whales are biologically evolved life forms, so there isn't anything inherently divine about them, although some cultures have attached religious connotations due to their rarity!

Nemjen: Legends say the original space whale started off as a doodle that Sam left in the an asset folder and over the course of FA/MoA's development it evolved into something new, when he came to remove it to prepare for release he found that it had grown into a species and also had an influence over the Love in Space universe that rivalled his own. To this date when we say that no space whales were harmed in the production of our games what we really mean is Sam ended up in a stalemate with them once again.

Question by MrNickUniverse

“Who are your favourite Love Live girls? I know Sam seems to have a soft spot for Ruby.”

Nemjen: To be honest I can't say I was too into Love Live series itself besides that unrelated puppet show April fools they did. It would be Rin from the original series though in terms of a favourite, I actually picked up her nendoroid while I was in Osaka and she joined me for a large portion of my holiday last year around Japan.

Question by Nowabi

“Why aren't there more splintered rebel factions in the Sunrider universe, despite the general state of the galaxy (and Neutral Rim in particular) lending well to a fractured, large faction count civil war with PACT and Alliance acting only as superpower benefactors and influence/arms dealer actions to hog the space later?”

Samu: I can't answer in much detail due to spoilers, but we will continue to expand the lore of Sunrider with our projects to fill in more details”

Question by Yama

“Mister Sam, what are your thoughts on the modding community for your games? Would you wish for mods to be made for your games, or is that out of the question/would you prefer people not to make mods for your game?

Mister Sam, how open are you to the idea/possibility of fan games? As long as they don't make any profit on your original IP of course. I'm talking like to the extent of "Super Danganronpa Another" a highly ambitious fangame that mimics the original source material incredibly well that could honsetly be sold for money if it wasn't a fan game.”

Samu: These two have been answered in the past QAs. It's great that there are fan games and mods, so as long as it's not done commercially, I don't see an issue

Question by Yama

“Mister Sam, if this will not spoil the next game, what is the extent of the Wishall's power? For example, could it have been used to alter the outcome of the ending of Liberation Day, or to prevent PACT from invading/existing, but we just don't use it in that way because then we'd be out of a story to tell? Or as Taihou stated earlier "Can we get the wishall to transport Kayto to a world where all the girls are lolis and enjoy getting headpatted? Like the initial idea for Sunrider was?" (Asking because it's slightly vague as to the actuality of how it works and we ended up debating about it in #sunrider-spoilers and have to ask you.)”

Samu: I can't respond due to spoilers in much details, but I think we've clarified that the Wishall has some pretty big limits. It lets Shields make something on the level of his past command decisions without having the requisite command points, so it's somewhat of a buff to his guts. To explain it in a very rough manner, which will undoubtedly just lead to more questions. Hahaha

Question by Astral

“How much idol anime had you watched prior to SSS?”

Nemjen: Not a lot I must admit, Sam is a lot more versed than me. The last one I watched was Zombieland Saga which I hope counts.

Question by Yama

“Mister Sam, how do you feel knowing that having made Idol Empire in gamemaker, and the possibility of making Sunrider 4 in gamemaker as well, that it pretty much makes them unmoddable?”

Samu: It's too bad it's hard to mod, but I don't know if it's impossible!

Question by Astral - Contains potential spoilers to Starnova

“How tall is older Aki compared to the rest of the Novas in Nemu’s epilogue? Any exact measurements on her three sizes?”

Samu: Oh man, she really had a huge growth sprout in that route. I don't think I've ever measured her sprite though, but it really was an unbelievable change!

Question by QuetzalCaCaotl - Has a Wooloo avatar

“Any questions you the creators want to ask us, the consumers?”

Samu: If any questions come up, I'm sure we can get Nemjen to poll the community.

Nemjen: Can you stop using Tackle on my gate?

Question by Astral

“Why does Aki get bigger faster in some routes compared to her own route?”

Samu: It was the miracle milk that did the trick. What is that stuff?

Nemjen: Green screens are expensive to hire you know?

Question by Yama

“Mister Sam, have you ever considered after the inevitable post conclusion of the Kayto Sunrider story arc, that you would do other games relating to the Sunrider universe? Perhaps a game relating to Sola in the past slash a game taking place during the Ancient Ryuvian Wars? Or maybe a game about Icari's past as a mercenary, maybe with FPS/Melee combat? Cause that would be cool as hell.”

Samu: Oh, well, we've still got a long ways to go yet until Shields can retire! But of course we've all got ideas for spin off games and side stories like that

Question by QuetzalCaCaotl

“Can you use the wishall to make more wishalls?”

Nemjen: That doesn't sound very environmentally friendly, you should care and look after your wishall rather than wishing for it to replace itself.

Question by Yama

“Mister Sam, how open are you to or comfortable are you with the possibility of creating future games outside of the VN genre, management genre, or turn based strategy genre? Because different genres might fit better to what projects you would wish to make in the future.”

Samu: Oh yes, we'd love to work in new genres. Even Sunrider 4 will see massive changes in the gameplay mechanics thanks to the more flexible engine which lets us achieve content closer to our vision.

Question by Adamasin  - Contains potential spoilers to Sunrider

“Mr. Samu, How did Claude achieve her immortality? Is it part of her inherent time-manipulating powers and she's just manipulating herself, or did she use her powers to go somewhere that could give her immortality?”

Samu: We can't answer this one due to spoilers. One day, we'll hear Claude's story in-game!

Question by Snickett

“How do you feel about crowdsourcing? Has it been good for the industry?”

Samu: Kickstarter's the main engine through which we can sell physical merchandise. I feel like physicals give our projects a sense of history, like milestones for things we have accomplished. So I would like to do a KS sometime in the future to sell more merchandise. Also, yeah, those dakis....

Nemjen: I think crowd sourcing has been great and opens a lot of new potential both in terms of enabling ideas to be brought to life but also testing sentiment, the problem remains though that generally more bad news is shared over good so the reputation remains a bit negative as a whole. That said I think it still has a bright future.

Question by Goku Time

“What does everyone in Sunrider verse eat specifically the crew of the ship”

Samu: Oh, I've thought of this a lot as well. You can synthetically generate edibles, but they do not taste that great so many people still prefer traditional livestock and plants. You can grow a lot of different animals and plants in various words, so I'd say the food preferences would be enormous with the amount of cultures once humans become a galactic power

Question by Taihou

“Samu, if Sunrider was a gacha game, who would be the rarest person in the gacha roll?”

Samu: It would be a space whale. Yes.

Nemjen [Joining in anyway]: 5* Ruler Shojo Captain Kayto

Question by Chapter Serf

“Mister Sam, how open are you to the idea of licensed cross game tie ins as promotional material? Y'know, to get more people into Sunrider or Starnova or future things, and so that people have their favorite characters to play with in other games people really enjoy?”

Samu: Oh, we'd love cross over games, but we'd have to find another company willing to work with us. Maybe one day we can work with another developer!

Question by Zephrame

“When you were making the Sunrider setting, what kinds of inspiration did you draw from? Were there specific tropes for setting-building that you wanted to avoid?”

Samu: I'd say I was such a huge fan of sci-fi things like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar, and everything else, so I really had to make my own contribution.

Question by Blackhead

“Hi Sam, you have mentioned changes in gameplay for SR4. Will the game stay turn based, or can we expect something completely different?”

Samu: Oh, it'll definitely be a huge change to the game play mechanics, but we hope that the additional improvements we can make with the new engine give additional tactical depth to the gameplay

Question by Chapter Serf

“Techie question here: What language was Idol Empires written with? And what language is or will be used for Sunrider IV?”

Samu: Made in Game Maker Studio 2

Question by Vince

“If I can get one last question. What language do they speak @Samu_LIS”

Samu: You mean the Sunrider characters? They have universal translators to communicate if they do not speak Solaris Standard