Welcome to June, everyone. I have a decent amount of news to report concerning development and otherwise. I’ve been alluding to this for a while, and I’m happy to report that our Pre-Kickstarter page is live. 

You can opt-in to follow our campaign here. I won’t spam your email I promise. By opting in, you will be notified immediately at launch, and for several other milestones. More importantly, you will be able to gain a slight (20%) discount on the digital game tier (applied after pledge). This pre-launch page gives you a better overview of what we have planned for our campaign and the scope, but several elements are not yet ready (promo video, finalized marketing assets, and so on). Still, I would be elated if you guys could consider following. It would help me tremendously to gauge how hard I have to push my marketing. 

Here’s a small sample of some of our official Kickstarter assets. 

As mentioned previously, the scheduled launch of our Kickstarter is slated for Q1 2023. The back-end of that timeframe seems likely, so sometime in March is a safe bet and something I would feel comfortable with without being rushed. 

Rika’s Expanded Role

Does anyone remember one of our earlier characters known as Rika? For the longest time, I didn’t have any clue how to implement her in the story. Here’s a screenshot showing an altered opening scene with Rika added in.

As you might expect, this is a new choice-based trigger similar to insights and reflections that activate simultaneously. As such, you can only view the thoughts of one character per activation. Turns out that this system meshes well with Rika’s role as we hardly ever actually confront her, with her often being a bystander in scenes that Rayen is in. 

VNDB Entry

I never thought our game would be listed in the Visual Novel Database, as I figured that was an honor reserved for fully released titles (not demos). A small milestone, but I wanted to list this achievement nonetheless. 

Notifications of Unlocked Content

With the additions of the CG Gallery and Glossary, I figured it would be nifty to add notifications of these unlocks. 

In-game Menu Edit

I realized that the menu accessible from the textbox doesn’t actually have an option to bring you back to the main menu. This will be updated in the next build. 

Some Notes on “Dynamic Flow” 

This is a phrase I coined haphazardly to specifically refer to the motion of on-screen characters and animations during a visual novel. I realize that there’s a lot more I can do to make the experience more “dynamic” for readers, and I am trying to implement these changes in the next build. There’s still a lot of experimenting I have to do to achieve the best results. Hopefully, if I tinker with things for a while, I can achieve a desirable result.  

Casting Call Soon

There will be an upcoming casting call for several roles prior to our Kickstarter launch and they will star in our promotional media and 3.0 content. We’re currently seeking talent for the roles of Maikah, Ravia, Crescia, Alphi and Rika. Interested in auditioning? The casting call will be posted up on our Twitter and on Casting Call Club. 

Progress on programming and our Kickstarter page continues! If you decided to follow our Pre-Kickstarter, thank you so much in advance! If you have plans to even pledge $1 (the lowest tier), it would help my morale immensely if you followed there. Until next month everyone.