#0003: Well well well, time for an update!
Hello there, time for a new blog.
Yep, after the successful launch of the Tales From The Other Side DEMO, things got rough and bad, but one point at a time. Today I guess I'm here to talk about many things happening in my life and update whoever is interested in how the game's going behind the scenes.
(In other words, this is the lesser newsletter of the quirky rpgs.)
THE BORING LIFE STUFF
So, here's the big thing I have to say before everything else.
My external hard drive died.
This hard drive that could perfectly be a decade old got damaged or something, and we've sent it to fix or at least recover what is on it. What does that mean? Well, my entire history as a music composer on and off the web is practically at risk of being lost forever. This includes all HD wav files of the game's audio.
While I'm sad because of the loss of game progress (there being almost 100 finished songs), I'm also sad because of the loss of history, my own personal ideas and plans for the future maybe lost forever. It is a harsh hit to the guts, and I'm with motivation on the ground. But we have to keep going, that's how life works sometimes.
Hopefully, we'll get the hard drive or whatever is on it back, but for now, I'll look around the team's discord and other devices for the finished ost songs I've shared around. All mp3s so it might be kind of a worse quality than it should, but that's better than nothing.
ANYWAYS, BORING SAD STUFF ASIDE, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT HOMESTUCK
My little game appeared at SAHcon! A little online convention themed around the webcomic HOMESTUCK (it being an official convention of the comic).
It was featured in this year's Friday showcase! My game has many inspirations and homestuck is a big one, product of me discovering the comic as a teen and loving its unique style and narrative. Proof of that is my failed spanish webcomic named UNFORTUNATE, a project birthed from my desire to practice drawing, music production and writing.
I was a bit unsure about the prospect of being accepted, not only because I was rejected or late to other online indie showcases, but also because I myself marketed the game around "UNDERTALE" and "Mario & Luigi", the two big influences gameplay-wise. But two friends who already got into one of these showcases, Dizzims and Tsuyo, gave me the push to do so.
While they did get to me and asked "hey does this thing have anything to do with homestuck?", I only had to explain my story with the comic and how it influenced my work to get an ok! (BTW in theory the people at SAHcon have minor spoilers about the game, so, uh, yeah)
The work done on this trailer for the convention was a handful.
With animation by Basth, the idea was to make an extended trailer that showed my work in the Homestuck community (to give a point of reference to those who like my work) and give a "Premium" game trailer that we could use in the future at events if possible.
The animation (Which I assume is the most interesting part of this thing) was done between me and Basth (Tho Basth did most of the work). I did this really sick and amateur storyboards for him to follow and fit everything in under 30 seconds. My biggest contribution to this whole thing was the audio design and the part where the style changes for a bit that was animated by me on premiere, but then recreated by Basth to export in HD with the rest of the animation.
The animation is one of the coolest things we've done with the game so far, and it gives me ideas for future trailers to make more animations without the pressure of a time limit
Anyways, the point is Basth rocks and Homestuck lives on!
TALES FROM THE OTHER SIDE DEV UPDATE
Oh yeah, I should actually put you up to date with all the game stuff.
Act 2 has been a bit slow, not only because I've been doing more general game stuff, BUT also because I was finishing my studies, so I didn't have much time to work on the game. But the progress of act 2 isn't in the programing itself, but the design!
The writing of act 2 has been finished for a while and the music!... well it was finished but the hard drive decided to die, so that might be debatable. The important themes are done so that's good! Basically, all of what act 2 should have is already decided and on paper. Now I just have to make it into the game. That includes actually making the battle system useful!
It is no secret that you'll be able to have more than one party member on your team, so most of the work on the game has been spent on the battle system to make sure it works and doesn't break with past and future enemies! It is almost done, but once it is done the actual development of act 2 will start. Exciting.
Anyway, this is where I leave you. Hopefully by the end of the year act 2 will be finished in its entirety! I want to finish the game soon, so I'll have to get into marketing to promote the demo and get actual fundings... Speaking of fundings.
I made a patreon! Since the game didn't get that much attention, something like a kickstarter seemed like it wouldn't work. But I figured that a patreon where whoever wants can donate small amounts of money could work well for those that want to help going forward!
This game is a work of passion. Most of the team are helping out because of the goodness in their hearts and the promise of getting something out when the game is actually out for sale. But if we get donations, I can actually compensate the team for their work now in the present! That's the idea.
Whoever donates at least 30$ over the course of development, will get a copy of the game, its soundtrack and producer credit on it! There are other perks for whoever subscribes, but you can read more in the description of the tiers.
So, take a look at the patreon!
THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!
Anyways, that's all folks. Thanks for reading this really long entry, it means a lot.
I'll be working on the game and more music. That's a promise. Even if I'm having a hard time right now, you can't keep me down.
So be ready! Because I have plans, many plans, so many it hurts!
It really hurts.
It actually hurts who the hell put their cold sand here!?!?!