Hello, Friend!
How are you doing? Is the weather warm where you're at? Summer has brought the heat down upon my back yard, with the temperature getting close to 80°F (27°C), which to me is way too hot! I actually planted some kiwi vines in front of my window in hopes that they'll grow into a "green screen" of sorts to absorb the sun heat. It's a technique Nozomi taught me that they use in Japan to reduce the heat in the buildings during hot summers. Here's to hoping it can cut down on the air conditioning costs!
Cutscenes
Development is going well, and my focus at the moment is the final content of Soul Saga. I'm currently crunching away on the cutscenes. At first they were taking much longer than I was hoping, but as I continued to work with them I created more tools and developed work flows and programming patterns to speed it along. So at the moment they're moving at a more reasonable pace. Because I'm the only person working on the cutscene scripting, dialogue writing, and engine programming it bottlenecks the development process and takes longer than a big studio can do. But with all that aside, seeing the final result of the story in action is just surreal. I often find myself saying "Did I really make this game?!" Here's a little peek of what I've been working on.
Testing
One of the biggest challenges of making a JRPG like Soul Saga is testing. Coming from a video game quality assurance background I have high respect for good testing procedures, and often find myself testing regularly rather than putting it off until later. But testing something like a JRPG isn't normally a one man job, so to assist with testing I've created some tools and "hacks" in Soul Saga just for me to speed up the testing process. Some of the tools include a speed hack, scene jumping, and an overpowered Ring of Debugging used to smite my enemies in a single blow! No Torne or Squabble shall slow a test session ever again!
Music
Ryan Camus has been hard at work on the Soul Saga soundtrack. Seriously... he's cranking out more songs than I know what to do with at this point, but they're just so amazing I'm making spots for all of it! I really appreciate the hard work he's put into Soul Saga. Music is one of the most important elements of a JRPG, and I'm ecstatic Soul Saga's music will be great! Here's just a few that he's made:
My Best Friend
"My Best Friend" is the catchy and adorable theme song played when Mithos interacts with his best friend in the Soul Saga story, a character to be revealed soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYGe3iYnyo0
Likurk Living
"Likurk Living" is the relaxing theme song played when you visit the different Likurk inhabited areas of Medonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POHgIL5jOo
Life Is Good
"Life Is Good" is the smooth and relaxing theme song played when in various parts of the game for happier moments. Relax a little, you've earned it! =D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYeQy97nf1Q
Moonlighter Cross Over!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tlLMx7uMaU
Moonlighter is a gorgeous and incredibly fun looking 2D action adventure RPG where you play as the owner of an item shop! Your goal as the item shop owner, Will, is to delve into the nearby dungeons to earn treasure and loot to then sell to the traveling adventurers for a profit, one of which will be Mithos from Soul Saga! The mysterious dungeons are constantly changing, so there's a new challenge every time you go spelunking. It was obvious to me as soon as I laid eyes on this project that it was a labor of love by several talented people, including the amazing composer Alec Holowka, who has done great work on the Aquaria and Night in the Woods games. I'm a backer myself and can't wait to see Mithos in Moonlighter!
Will and the Moonlighter shop will also be making an appearance in Soul Saga! Search for the shop hidden away in Medonia's capital and you'll have access to some nice items! Just make sure to bring your Jul.
Moonlighter's Kickstarter ends in just a few days, so please take a look and show them some love! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/digitalsun/moonlighter
So What Do You Think?
Each day Soul Saga's last 10% gets whittled away, and I get ever closer to sharing my 3 year labor of love with you. Yeah that's right, this month marks the 3 year anniversary of the Kickstarter! Holy Torne cakes! This has been a long and incredible journey, but every ounce of sacrifice was worth the effort. Thank you for everything you've done for me... I couldn't have made Soul Saga without you!
If you have any comments, please join us in today's forum topic here: http://forums.disastercake.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=931