July 2023 Monthly Update (Patreon)

Hello lovely patrons!

I hope you all had a great June! It was a busy one for us on all fronts, but we made a lot of great progress.

Anyway, on to the update:

The Sun and the Moon

First of all, The Divine Speaker: The Sun and the Moon launched last month on Steam and Itch.io!

If you haven't had the chance to pick it up yet, now is a great chance!

Grab it on Steam!

If you've played the game and enjoyed it, we'd also love if you could leave us a review!

From here on, you may be wondering what The Divine Speaker updates we'll have to share - but not to worry, because we've begun preliminary work on two new projects!

TBA Nox and Soren Project

We have begun planning on the game that comes almost directly after the ending to The Divine Speaker, which will focus on Nox and Soren.

Real work on this project won't begin until Dreambound writing is complete, but we're enjoying brainstorming and planning out the story for now.

However, art creation has begun! During the Dreambound Kickstarter, some of our wonderful backers designed characters that will appear in this game. You've seen a couple of them already, too!

We're still working out exactly where each character will be placed within the narrative, but we're really excited to start crafting the story with them in mind soon.

TBA Morwen and Sylvir Project

Yes, we've also begun some work on a project that features Morwen in a leading role. This will be created a little slower, but we hope to be able to write more on it soon.

You'll meet a host of new characters, as well as some returning ones. Some backer characters may also show up in this game!

Timeline wise, this game takes place at the same time as Soren and Nox's game. 

While away on holiday, I also used the chance to draft some beginning scenes of this game. 

How about a couple of previews?

Firstly, featuring a new main character.

And a lot of returning ones! Yes, this group of people is going to be hilariously bad.

Dreambound

Writing

As a team, we've made a LOT of progress in the remaining two routes. Ebihime, the writer for Kaine's route, has finished the first draft of his first two (out of three) chapters. Once the last chapter is complete, we'll work together to tighten up the script, and then after that I will go over it again for consistency and to add additional scenes.

For Ivan's route, I'm currently going over his third chapter and based on changes to Ivan's story, making some small tweaks to Crow's route.

With the progress we're making, both chapter should be complete in the next couple of months. This gives us time to write the first drafts, clean those up, then go through a period of editing.

This puts us ahead of schedule. Though we have some art and a lot of programming left, which both take time, we're hoping the game will be fully playable earlier than initially expected.

Art

We're currently working on another sprite for Ivan's route... a teenage sprite for him! Those on the correct tier will see a post for that going up shortly.

Once the teenage Ivan sprite is complete, we'll move on to the last of the CGs.

A Date with Death

You can wishlist A Date with Death on Steam NOW! This is one of the best ways to support our upcoming releases!

For A Date with Death, we're also considering running a small fundraising campaign on itch.io to get a few game related goodies and to help support the release. If we decide to go forward with that, we'll let you know!

Opening Animation

The opening animation for A Date with Death is now complete, and we posted it yesterday for you to watch!

You can also check it out on Youtube, if you'd prefer. 

We used this chance to fully announce the game, as well. If you'd like to spread the word, please feel free to retweet our post! 

Writing

We're up to working on day 6/7! We're on the home run now! We're really excited to finish up with the script and begin the editing phase. We have a lot more choices we still want to add to the script, but a lot of the time you can't tell which places need more choices until you start implementing it in engine.

These are still a WIP, but we'll have the player characters image in the top left box, on top of the background you create.

We'll also have some choices of player icons, with more you can unlock over the course of the game.

Steam Summer Sale

Almost all of our games are on sale for the Steam Summer Sale! If you've been waiting to pick up a bargain, now is the time! 

Focus for the next month

Here's our focus for the next month:

• Dreambound - Writing, editing, sprite complete
• A Date with Death - Editing, writing and programming

Thanks once again for reading, and I'll see you next month!