Developer's Log - August 2024
Last month, Steam announced a new feature where demos could get their own individual pages on Steam, and thus have a separate description, assets, as well as reviews. This is pretty cool... albeit a tad frustrating given it would have been much nicer to have this feature before Next Fest! As such, I've created an official, separate demo page for Legends of Astravia. I think it's important to highlight what the demo has to offer vs the full game, and I can continue to build up the full game's page without worrying about clashing with the demo's current state.
(Click the image to visit the spiffy new Steam page!) Demo reviews--now's your chance to support the game! I am fairly confident based on the feedback the game received during Next Fest that it would be beneficial instead of detrimental to enable reviews. As such, if you played the demo, enjoyed it, and really want to support it, this is a real thing you can do that doesn't cost any money. Please leave a review, as it'll help get the game bumped up in Steam's lists and help upon its eventual release. Every review from a supporter of the game will really help. Of course, if you genuinely disliked it enough to want to announce it to the world, that's entirely fair too, I suppose!
Now for the actual, real, super exciting news: Legends of Astravia was selected for the in person showcase, Seattle Indies Expo 2024!
This is a big first for me. I've shown the game at a couple of "digital" conventions, but never in real life. I'll have my game on display, in the flesh, for real?! Also, I've never been to Seattle, so there's that! Seattle Indies Expo is a 1-day showcase that celebrates indie games in the heart of Seattle every year during PAX West. Supposedly, they only pick a few games outside of the Pacific Northwest, so that's pretty cool. You can learn more about it on their website here: https://six.seattleindies.org This year it runs on Sunday, September 1st. Needless to say, that was pretty short notice, so I've been completely tied up preparing for it. The showcase is completely free to attend, so if you happen to be in the area, or are visiting for PAX West, feel free by and say hello! I'll post more info closer to the event, so keep an eye out for those announcements.
Since this is an in-person event, and a rather expensive trip, I'm going to try selling some merch to help with recouping costs a bit. The first few folks to stop by the table will get a free Oliver sticker:
I've prepared some other free goodies, including bookmarks and little hand-out cards. And, if all goes well and everything arrives on-time, I'll also be selling Oliver and Azel stickers, and sticker sheets (pictures will be posted closer to the event--I gotta build some hype somehow!):
If selling stuff at the booth goes well, and folks really like the stickers and stuff, I may consider selling them online. I admit selling stuff for a game that isn't even out yet feels a bit weird. But seeing as I don't have many (i.e. any) ways of funding development, I suppose it's not much different than a Kickstarter perk or something. Except you get to have it right away. If you're genuinely quite interested in this kind of thing, definitely be sure to leave a comment on the Steam announcement, itch.io announcement, or in the Discord server!
Next up is dev progress report, which is unfortunately a bit small. As most of June and July was spent recovering from Next Fest, and then the remainder of my productivity was taken up by preparing for Seattle Indies Expo, I was not able to make a ton of progress on the game itself. But it wasn't a total loss! First, Valica fields has started to come along, and I've prepared tilesets and started to fill in the placeholder maps:
Additionally, one of the most important and requested features from the demo was the ability to remap inputs for your keyboard / controller / etc, and I'm pleased to report that feature is about 90% done! All that's left is the front-facing menu stuff.
With this showcase sort of taking me by surprise, and everything surrounding Next Fest being much more work than I anticipated, the "Q1" portion of the release date is a little too scary for me. As such, I've changed it to just "2025". Legends of Astravia is going to release in some way in 2025. The current plan was to release part 1 of 2. However, I'm getting a little wary about how to navigate this marketing-wise, and I haven't quite cracked it yet. There are few other factors complicating things as well. I have a strategy in mind based on the past few months, but I'd also like to wait and see what comes of the upcoming showcase as well. Regardless, I know a lot of folks are excited for this game and have very high expectations for it, so I'm hoping to meet those in 2025! I look forward to reporting my results from the Seattle Indies Expo, as well as more development progress, in the next developer's log. Given the circumstances, I'll have to skip another month, but it'll be worth the updates, I think. See you in September! - Jaiden
[ 2024-08-23 13:01:35 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, Sorry this devlog ended up arriving so late. Between some exciting news that I needed to prepare for, as well as battling a few demons (metaphorical, not literal. I wish I was that cool), it was tough to get words on paper.about:blank#blocked I have a lot of really big announcements and excitement to share, though. Also, I'm going to try something a little different and put a little summary / table of contents at the start of each devlog.
So here's what to expect for this one:
- Official demo page added to Steam (+ leave your reviews!)
- Extremely exciting super special announcement
- Development progress report
- Minor release plans adjustment
Official Demo Page
Last month, Steam announced a new feature where demos could get their own individual pages on Steam, and thus have a separate description, assets, as well as reviews. This is pretty cool... albeit a tad frustrating given it would have been much nicer to have this feature before Next Fest! As such, I've created an official, separate demo page for Legends of Astravia. I think it's important to highlight what the demo has to offer vs the full game, and I can continue to build up the full game's page without worrying about clashing with the demo's current state.
(Click the image to visit the spiffy new Steam page!) Demo reviews--now's your chance to support the game! I am fairly confident based on the feedback the game received during Next Fest that it would be beneficial instead of detrimental to enable reviews. As such, if you played the demo, enjoyed it, and really want to support it, this is a real thing you can do that doesn't cost any money. Please leave a review, as it'll help get the game bumped up in Steam's lists and help upon its eventual release. Every review from a supporter of the game will really help. Of course, if you genuinely disliked it enough to want to announce it to the world, that's entirely fair too, I suppose!
Seattle Indies Expo
Now for the actual, real, super exciting news: Legends of Astravia was selected for the in person showcase, Seattle Indies Expo 2024!
This is a big first for me. I've shown the game at a couple of "digital" conventions, but never in real life. I'll have my game on display, in the flesh, for real?! Also, I've never been to Seattle, so there's that! Seattle Indies Expo is a 1-day showcase that celebrates indie games in the heart of Seattle every year during PAX West. Supposedly, they only pick a few games outside of the Pacific Northwest, so that's pretty cool. You can learn more about it on their website here: https://six.seattleindies.org This year it runs on Sunday, September 1st. Needless to say, that was pretty short notice, so I've been completely tied up preparing for it. The showcase is completely free to attend, so if you happen to be in the area, or are visiting for PAX West, feel free by and say hello! I'll post more info closer to the event, so keep an eye out for those announcements.
Stickers and other goodies!
Since this is an in-person event, and a rather expensive trip, I'm going to try selling some merch to help with recouping costs a bit. The first few folks to stop by the table will get a free Oliver sticker:
I've prepared some other free goodies, including bookmarks and little hand-out cards. And, if all goes well and everything arrives on-time, I'll also be selling Oliver and Azel stickers, and sticker sheets (pictures will be posted closer to the event--I gotta build some hype somehow!):
If selling stuff at the booth goes well, and folks really like the stickers and stuff, I may consider selling them online. I admit selling stuff for a game that isn't even out yet feels a bit weird. But seeing as I don't have many (i.e. any) ways of funding development, I suppose it's not much different than a Kickstarter perk or something. Except you get to have it right away. If you're genuinely quite interested in this kind of thing, definitely be sure to leave a comment on the Steam announcement, itch.io announcement, or in the Discord server!
Development Progress for July
Next up is dev progress report, which is unfortunately a bit small. As most of June and July was spent recovering from Next Fest, and then the remainder of my productivity was taken up by preparing for Seattle Indies Expo, I was not able to make a ton of progress on the game itself. But it wasn't a total loss! First, Valica fields has started to come along, and I've prepared tilesets and started to fill in the placeholder maps:
Additionally, one of the most important and requested features from the demo was the ability to remap inputs for your keyboard / controller / etc, and I'm pleased to report that feature is about 90% done! All that's left is the front-facing menu stuff.
2025 Release Plans
With this showcase sort of taking me by surprise, and everything surrounding Next Fest being much more work than I anticipated, the "Q1" portion of the release date is a little too scary for me. As such, I've changed it to just "2025". Legends of Astravia is going to release in some way in 2025. The current plan was to release part 1 of 2. However, I'm getting a little wary about how to navigate this marketing-wise, and I haven't quite cracked it yet. There are few other factors complicating things as well. I have a strategy in mind based on the past few months, but I'd also like to wait and see what comes of the upcoming showcase as well. Regardless, I know a lot of folks are excited for this game and have very high expectations for it, so I'm hoping to meet those in 2025! I look forward to reporting my results from the Seattle Indies Expo, as well as more development progress, in the next developer's log. Given the circumstances, I'll have to skip another month, but it'll be worth the updates, I think. See you in September! - Jaiden
Demo 0.7.0 Update
[ 2024-06-22 02:04:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone! So far, response to the demo has been good. A few folks pointed out some issues during Next Fest, and I was finally able to address some of them. The 0.7.0 demo update is now live, and fixes the following:
- The game engine was updated on Windows. Note that aggressive antivirus software may flag this as false positive since it will appear as a "new" program. Please feel free to report any issues.
- Addressed performance issues on Windows, and defaulted to DirectX 11 instead of OpenGL. We'll keep an eye out for any issues that may arise for folks on older hardware, but it should overall be a huge improvement. Special thanks to Eblo for this one.
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't fast-forward and defend at the same time in battle if you were using an Xbox controller. This one was pretty egregious and lead to battles feeling a bit clunky.
- Miscellaneous fixes for certain exotic controller types (as a result of the Engine update).
Post-Next Fest Summary
In case you missed it: the demo was not removed, and will remain available until closer to the game's release. There were so many games in Next Fest, I see no reason to penalize folks who had interest in the game but haven't been able to check it out yet. So please feel free to take as much time as you need to check out Legends of Astravia's demo! And be sure to try it on the Steam Deck if you have one. In my opinion, that's the best way to experience the game. Also, if you plan on streaming the game on Twitch or creating a video on Youtube, feel free to let me know! I'm always happy to see how folks experience the game.
Many of you filled out the demo feedback form and provided a lot of great feedback. There have been many kind comments and positive feedback, which means a lot, as well as some critical feedback which helped bring my attention to areas I otherwise may have missed. For those who weren't afraid to be honest--I do really appreciate it! Next Fest as a whole has been a learning experience, and it's given me a better idea of what aspects of the game work and which ones do not. I wanted to acknowledge some of the most common feedback that came in, and my plans to address it in the full version (or future patch to the demo, if possible).
The battle system is by far the most contentious feature in the game. Some folks really loved it and had a lot of fun with it, while others wished it was just plain ol' turn-based combat. It will be both fun and challenging to expand on the system and ensure it is enjoyable for everyone who has an interest in the game. For what it's worth, difficulty options are planned for the full game as I think it is the only way I can ensure both casual enjoyers of the story and more dedicated JRPG fans can enjoy the game to the fullest extent. Many expressed that while the battle system was interesting, it was also awkward, overwhelming, or felt lacking in depth at times. Being a relatively unique system, it's been challenging to balance. I especially felt that the demo didn't do a great job of showing its full potential, and the balancing was poor resulting in later battles getting a bit boring. I plan to make usability improvements as well as improve the excitement and reward. Also, there was a pretty egregious bug I didn't discover until mid-fest: Being unable to defend and fast forward at the same time with most controllers. The problem has been identified and the fix will eventually make its way into the demo.
Exploration and puzzles are a huge part of Astravia, and once again I think the demo just did an "OK" job of showcasing it. Some folks expressed that picking up items felt a little awkward and cumbersome, and jumping over gaps felt slow and stiff. These are things I'll definitely be addressing in the final game, if not the demo. And of course, with my advertising the game's similarities to Golden Sun, there will absolutely be more puzzles in the final game than just a few push blocks. I'm sorry for not being able to include more in the demo!
A lot of folks really liked the pixel art, and most folks enjoyed the artwork. Quite a few people noted that there was a bit of a cohesion issue with the pixel art, character artwork, UI and sound, and I think this also may have had an impact on the game not doing so well during the fest overall. Some of this is a resource limitation (which ultimately is still on me since I am creating a commercial game)! Despite some commissions and occasional help from colleagues, I am still just one person. If I could, I absolutely would use gorgeous 100% custom pixel art and assets in every part of the game. But regardless, I think a lot of it genuinely can be improved. For example, I completely underestimated just how much those damn RPG Maker sound effects would affect the game's overall impression, and would have replaced them ahead of the Fest if I knew better. As development continues, I hope to make the game feel more cohesive and improve the art and sound where I can.
I am admittedly quite burnt out from the demo launch and Next Fest as a whole. I will discuss this more in the detailed postmortem, but I will need to take a little bit of a break and re-center myself before getting back to my regular development schedule. I'd also like to allow more time for feedback, reviews and thoughts to come through. When I get back into it, my plan is to make a few QoL adjustments to the demo, and then start working on mechanics adjustments and game content. As mentioned above, monthly developer logs will return in July, so keep an eye on those if you're interested on hearing more about the game's progress. And that's all for now! I'm looking forward to continuing development on the game. Everyone's support has been wonderful, and has served as a reminder as to why I do this :) Thank you so much! -Jaiden
[ 2024-06-17 22:30:41 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, After a week of excitement, Next Fest June 2024 Edition finally comes to an end. To each and every one of you who tried out the demo, provided feedback, and wishlisted the game--thank you so much!! I'd like to make a few announcements and let you know my plans as they relate to the demo release and Next Fest. Later this week, I will have a detailed postmortem on Next Fest from the developer perspective, which I will post on www.studioalemni.com. Then, regular monthly Developer's Logs will resume, updating everyone on the game's progress.
Demo Staying Available
In case you missed it: the demo was not removed, and will remain available until closer to the game's release. There were so many games in Next Fest, I see no reason to penalize folks who had interest in the game but haven't been able to check it out yet. So please feel free to take as much time as you need to check out Legends of Astravia's demo! And be sure to try it on the Steam Deck if you have one. In my opinion, that's the best way to experience the game. Also, if you plan on streaming the game on Twitch or creating a video on Youtube, feel free to let me know! I'm always happy to see how folks experience the game.
Summary & Response to Common Feedback
Many of you filled out the demo feedback form and provided a lot of great feedback. There have been many kind comments and positive feedback, which means a lot, as well as some critical feedback which helped bring my attention to areas I otherwise may have missed. For those who weren't afraid to be honest--I do really appreciate it! Next Fest as a whole has been a learning experience, and it's given me a better idea of what aspects of the game work and which ones do not. I wanted to acknowledge some of the most common feedback that came in, and my plans to address it in the full version (or future patch to the demo, if possible).
Battle System
The battle system is by far the most contentious feature in the game. Some folks really loved it and had a lot of fun with it, while others wished it was just plain ol' turn-based combat. It will be both fun and challenging to expand on the system and ensure it is enjoyable for everyone who has an interest in the game. For what it's worth, difficulty options are planned for the full game as I think it is the only way I can ensure both casual enjoyers of the story and more dedicated JRPG fans can enjoy the game to the fullest extent. Many expressed that while the battle system was interesting, it was also awkward, overwhelming, or felt lacking in depth at times. Being a relatively unique system, it's been challenging to balance. I especially felt that the demo didn't do a great job of showing its full potential, and the balancing was poor resulting in later battles getting a bit boring. I plan to make usability improvements as well as improve the excitement and reward. Also, there was a pretty egregious bug I didn't discover until mid-fest: Being unable to defend and fast forward at the same time with most controllers. The problem has been identified and the fix will eventually make its way into the demo.
Overworld Exploration
Exploration and puzzles are a huge part of Astravia, and once again I think the demo just did an "OK" job of showcasing it. Some folks expressed that picking up items felt a little awkward and cumbersome, and jumping over gaps felt slow and stiff. These are things I'll definitely be addressing in the final game, if not the demo. And of course, with my advertising the game's similarities to Golden Sun, there will absolutely be more puzzles in the final game than just a few push blocks. I'm sorry for not being able to include more in the demo!
Art and Design
A lot of folks really liked the pixel art, and most folks enjoyed the artwork. Quite a few people noted that there was a bit of a cohesion issue with the pixel art, character artwork, UI and sound, and I think this also may have had an impact on the game not doing so well during the fest overall. Some of this is a resource limitation (which ultimately is still on me since I am creating a commercial game)! Despite some commissions and occasional help from colleagues, I am still just one person. If I could, I absolutely would use gorgeous 100% custom pixel art and assets in every part of the game. But regardless, I think a lot of it genuinely can be improved. For example, I completely underestimated just how much those damn RPG Maker sound effects would affect the game's overall impression, and would have replaced them ahead of the Fest if I knew better. As development continues, I hope to make the game feel more cohesive and improve the art and sound where I can.
Future Plans
I am admittedly quite burnt out from the demo launch and Next Fest as a whole. I will discuss this more in the detailed postmortem, but I will need to take a little bit of a break and re-center myself before getting back to my regular development schedule. I'd also like to allow more time for feedback, reviews and thoughts to come through. When I get back into it, my plan is to make a few QoL adjustments to the demo, and then start working on mechanics adjustments and game content. As mentioned above, monthly developer logs will return in July, so keep an eye on those if you're interested on hearing more about the game's progress. And that's all for now! I'm looking forward to continuing development on the game. Everyone's support has been wonderful, and has served as a reminder as to why I do this :) Thank you so much! -Jaiden
Legends of Astravia Demo Stream Re-runs
[ 2024-06-12 02:49:08 CET ] [ Original post ]
Missed the developer's stream or just want to check the game out? That's what this event is for!
Next Fest Begins! Check out the demo and developer livestreams!
[ 2024-06-10 16:59:35 CET ] [ Original post ]
Check out Legends of Astravia's new demo, livestreams and more--Steam's June 2024 Next Fest starts now!
Catch the developer Jaiden (me!) as I stream LIVE on the following dates and times:
Legends of Astravia's demo is now available!
It is available in both English and Japanese, on Windows, macOS and Linux (Steam Deck). Please be sure to check the system requirements for more information. We've confirmed the game runs great on the Steam Deck! Any bugs or issues can be reported via this form on the Studio Alemni website. Well also be keeping an eye on the community page and in the official Discord server for reports. Additionally, any and all feedback is more than welcome, and will help make the game the best it can be when the full version releases.
Thank you again for your endless support. And an extra special thanks to... Ryuuen Tanaka, for drawing the incredible new art of Oliver and Azel (and all of the other various, wonderful art pieces for the game) obatatsu(S.N.), for the Japanese translation and QA Fangsoft, for helping with development in 2023 and the early testing and revisions of the demo KK20 and tort, for supporting me during development since 2018 codapill, DeDeSans, Emule, Fangsoft, june, Koroknroll, tort, Shweep and toiosh, for providing early and in-depth feedback when the demo was not yet fit for the world to see And of course, the other many beta testers and supporters who reported bugs and provided feedback: Burt, Eblo, Firefly130984, iri, M&J, orochii, Zefir, zorua, magic user, Ronove Im very excited to be able to share the game with more people, and I hope everyone enjoys this preview of what me and all of the wonderful collaborators on the project have been working on all these years! -Jaiden (P.S. If you are a member of the press and interested in covering the game, please check out the press kit on our website. And if youre a content creator planning on streaming it, well be sure to check it out!)
[ 2024-05-30 13:00:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Cast spells, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets alongside a mystic companion in this introduction to the magical world of Astravia!
Download the demo for free right here on Steam!
It is available in both English and Japanese, on Windows, macOS and Linux (Steam Deck). Please be sure to check the system requirements for more information. We've confirmed the game runs great on the Steam Deck! Any bugs or issues can be reported via this form on the Studio Alemni website. Well also be keeping an eye on the community page and in the official Discord server for reports. Additionally, any and all feedback is more than welcome, and will help make the game the best it can be when the full version releases.
Thank you again for your endless support. And an extra special thanks to... Ryuuen Tanaka, for drawing the incredible new art of Oliver and Azel (and all of the other various, wonderful art pieces for the game) obatatsu(S.N.), for the Japanese translation and QA Fangsoft, for helping with development in 2023 and the early testing and revisions of the demo KK20 and tort, for supporting me during development since 2018 codapill, DeDeSans, Emule, Fangsoft, june, Koroknroll, tort, Shweep and toiosh, for providing early and in-depth feedback when the demo was not yet fit for the world to see And of course, the other many beta testers and supporters who reported bugs and provided feedback: Burt, Eblo, Firefly130984, iri, M&J, orochii, Zefir, zorua, magic user, Ronove Im very excited to be able to share the game with more people, and I hope everyone enjoys this preview of what me and all of the wonderful collaborators on the project have been working on all these years! -Jaiden (P.S. If you are a member of the press and interested in covering the game, please check out the press kit on our website. And if youre a content creator planning on streaming it, well be sure to check it out!)
Demo Launching May 30th!
[ 2024-05-23 13:35:04 CET ] [ Original post ]
Im incredibly happy to announce that the new demo for Legends of Astravia launches right here on Steam next Thursday, May 30th!
Cast spells, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets alongside a mystic companion in this 1-hour introduction to the magical world of Astravia.
[previewyoutube=mhA3HRTut1Q;full][/previewyoutube]
The demo will be available in both English and Japanese and be playable on Windows, macOS and SteamOS weve confirmed it runs great on the Steam Deck!
It's wonderful that so many people are excited to play the demo, so this will be everyones' chance to catch an early glimpse a whole 10 days before the June 2024 Next Fest starts.
Thank you, as always for all of your support. I hope everyone is excited to see what Legends of Astravia has to offer!
Developer Demo Playthrough and Q&A
[ 2024-05-14 16:57:25 CET ] [ Original post ]
Get a hands-on look at Legends of Astravia's new demo as the developer Jaiden plays through it and talks about their design process and more. Tentative Date: Saturday, June 15th at 8AM EST Please keep an eye on our upcoming updates in case this time changes. Finalized dates and times will be announced a week before Next Fest.
Developer Demo Playthrough and Q&A
[ 2024-05-14 16:56:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Get a hands-on look at Legends of Astravia's new demo as the developer Jaiden plays through it and talks about their design process and more. Tentative Date: Tuesday, June 11th at 9PM EST Please keep an eye on our upcoming updates in case this time changes. Finalized dates and times will be announced a week before Next Fest.
Legends of Astravia is Coming to Steam Next Fest!
[ 2024-05-02 12:00:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Im pleased to announce that Legends of Astravia will be in the upcoming Steam Next Fest from June 10th to June 17th! Be sure to follow the game right here on Steam to be first to know when the demo launches, as well as catch livestreams, chat with the developer (me!) and learn more about the game.
Note that developer streams and Q&A will only be available in English, but Ill do my best to answer questions from all languages with the help of machine translation!
Visit the Steam News hub and make sure youre following Legends of Astravia:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1233680
Stay tuned for more information!
-Jaiden
Developer's Log - February 2024
[hr][/hr]
For those of you who missed it--there's a brand new trailer that showcases the new art, gameplay and snippets of story since 2022. It's very short, but I think it's a great little teaser. Check it out here: [previewyoutube=mhA3HRTut1Q;full][/previewyoutube] There's also a new vertical box art, which illustrates the main cast you'll be traveling with the first half of the main story:
A very special thank you to Ryuuen Tanaka for putting the lineart and shading for this piece together! And to go along with all of this, marketing got a big refresh across all channels. You can check it out on the Steam Page.
The 2024 demo is done! Of course, this doesn't mean it's ready to play just yet. It is currently in a QA and testing state in order to iron out any bugs and gameplay issues.
There will be a private, opt-in beta in the Discord Server soon, likely in April. There was a plan to run it sooner, however I decided that I wanted to really take care of some user experience issues and features first and share a more "polished" version with everyone. So if you're interested, be sure to join and keep an eye out.
I'm pleased to announce that the Legends of Astravia demo will be re-launching for the summer Steam NextFest! I will make a more formal announcement, such as the release date, when we get closer to that time.
With the push to get the demo launched in time for the Steam NextFest, it will become increasingly difficult for me to keep up with these long-form developer's logs. As such, I am temporarily suspending monthly developer's logs until July 2024. Never fear! There will still be plenty of news and announcements especially leading up to the big demo launch this summer.
[hr][/hr]
Astravia's unique battle system has always been the most challenging to get right. When I launched the demo in 2022, a lot of players were interested in the system, but really struggled to adapt to it. I've since then had plans to modify it for the new demo using all of the feedback I received. The result ended up being something that looks surprisingly "modern JRPG", and feels pretty fun to control:
While the colored "ABXY" face buttons looked nice, it created a lot of issues across varying control schemes, such as different controller brands and keyboards. I also really wanted the system to be more friendly one-handed for accessibility reasons. So, the system now uses a universal sign: directional arrows, and a standard "confirm / cancel". No more button confusion!
Some other improvements include the target window appearing closer to the target, control help, and clearer target highlighting. But I really can't understate how iterative this process is. I had dozens of tries, especially with regards to the UI and camera elements. Here's an early attempt:
And of course, to those who get motion sickness (me!), do not fret: there will be an option to disable camera movement entirely. I actually tend to get quite motion sick myself, and while I think the camera movement makes it clearer where your attention belongs, I understand the importance of being able to turn those wiggles off!
I spent a lot of time reworking on the battle tutorial as well. This time around, Oliver will walk you through it as he tries to remember what Mordin's local swordsman taught him:
The system is pretty unique in that it ramps up and gets increasingly more complex the more characters there are on the field. So a second tutorial was necessary, and will feature Azel's...encouragement, just like the last demo:
I was able to test and confirm support for two platforms other than Windows: macOS and the Steam Deck! The Steam Deck is especially exciting, as I think this will be a big benefit during the Steam NextFest.
Here are a couple more screenshots to share:
[hr][/hr] That's all for now. Thank you as always for your patience and support, it's exciting to finally see all of this work starting to pay off. -Jaiden
[ 2024-03-11 12:30:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi everyone, Things are going well, especially with regards to the game's new demo. This developers log will be jam-packed with announcements and exciting news, so let's jump right into it!
Announcements
[hr][/hr]
Marketing Refresh, New Art and New Trailer
For those of you who missed it--there's a brand new trailer that showcases the new art, gameplay and snippets of story since 2022. It's very short, but I think it's a great little teaser. Check it out here: [previewyoutube=mhA3HRTut1Q;full][/previewyoutube] There's also a new vertical box art, which illustrates the main cast you'll be traveling with the first half of the main story:
A very special thank you to Ryuuen Tanaka for putting the lineart and shading for this piece together! And to go along with all of this, marketing got a big refresh across all channels. You can check it out on the Steam Page.
Demo 100% Complete!
The 2024 demo is done! Of course, this doesn't mean it's ready to play just yet. It is currently in a QA and testing state in order to iron out any bugs and gameplay issues.
Beta Testing
There will be a private, opt-in beta in the Discord Server soon, likely in April. There was a plan to run it sooner, however I decided that I wanted to really take care of some user experience issues and features first and share a more "polished" version with everyone. So if you're interested, be sure to join and keep an eye out.
Enrolled in Steam NextFest
I'm pleased to announce that the Legends of Astravia demo will be re-launching for the summer Steam NextFest! I will make a more formal announcement, such as the release date, when we get closer to that time.
Temporary Devlog Hiatus
With the push to get the demo launched in time for the Steam NextFest, it will become increasingly difficult for me to keep up with these long-form developer's logs. As such, I am temporarily suspending monthly developer's logs until July 2024. Never fear! There will still be plenty of news and announcements especially leading up to the big demo launch this summer.
Game Progress
[hr][/hr]
Battle Overhaul & Preview
Astravia's unique battle system has always been the most challenging to get right. When I launched the demo in 2022, a lot of players were interested in the system, but really struggled to adapt to it. I've since then had plans to modify it for the new demo using all of the feedback I received. The result ended up being something that looks surprisingly "modern JRPG", and feels pretty fun to control:
While the colored "ABXY" face buttons looked nice, it created a lot of issues across varying control schemes, such as different controller brands and keyboards. I also really wanted the system to be more friendly one-handed for accessibility reasons. So, the system now uses a universal sign: directional arrows, and a standard "confirm / cancel". No more button confusion!
Some other improvements include the target window appearing closer to the target, control help, and clearer target highlighting. But I really can't understate how iterative this process is. I had dozens of tries, especially with regards to the UI and camera elements. Here's an early attempt:
And of course, to those who get motion sickness (me!), do not fret: there will be an option to disable camera movement entirely. I actually tend to get quite motion sick myself, and while I think the camera movement makes it clearer where your attention belongs, I understand the importance of being able to turn those wiggles off!
Battle Tutorial(s)
I spent a lot of time reworking on the battle tutorial as well. This time around, Oliver will walk you through it as he tries to remember what Mordin's local swordsman taught him:
The system is pretty unique in that it ramps up and gets increasingly more complex the more characters there are on the field. So a second tutorial was necessary, and will feature Azel's...encouragement, just like the last demo:
macOS and Steam Deck Support
I was able to test and confirm support for two platforms other than Windows: macOS and the Steam Deck! The Steam Deck is especially exciting, as I think this will be a big benefit during the Steam NextFest.
More Screenshots
Here are a couple more screenshots to share:
[hr][/hr] That's all for now. Thank you as always for your patience and support, it's exciting to finally see all of this work starting to pay off. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - January 2024
It's almost a bit surreal working on the revised demo. A lot really has changed, and it's fun to see how my process has become more optimized. The process for making cutscenes is more streamlined, with a clear process from writing the draft, integrating, and testing. And by applying the "layered cake" method that Fang taught me earlier in the year, things went even faster.
Beta testing will be very soon, there are just a few more mechanical issues I want to iron out. Be sure to keep an eye on the Discord server if this is something that interests you!
As many of you are aware, we're currently in the middle of a Steam NextFest (very exciting!). Legends of Astravia's spiffy new demo will be in the next one, and there has been an endless amount of work to do in preparation. In the world of indie games, making the actual game is only half the work. I've been very focused on the game's marketing, trying to come up with a proper push leading up to the launch. Expect a ton of screenshots, snippets, and other exciting new visuals leading into the Demo's release. The current "Trailer" on Youtube is due for a serious update, and the Steam page will get a little gameplay montage as a holdover soon. Also, the game's description, marketing text and FAQs will get some updates over the next couple of weeks as well.
Part of this marketing strategy is ensuring all of the game's visuals are up to date across the world wide web. With the release of the new demo in June, and the big visual change to the game last year, it's important that all of the screenshots and artwork reflect the final game as much as possible. As such, I removed most of this artwork from every single social media channel and itch.io. However--it is not gone forever. In fact, I think these old screenshots, gifs and other snippets give a very important peek into Legends of Astravia's complicated development process.
So, check out the Dev Archive on the website to take a little visual stroll through the game's development from 2017-2022, 5 long (...long...) years!: Link
Since the demo is nearly completed, I think progress in January was pretty darn good! One of the more exciting things about the demo is just how much things have changed--for the better. The game honestly feels like, well, a video game?? (Crazy, right? I don't know!)
The premise of the demo is largely the same as 2022, Oliver will have an encounter with the mysterious Azel and the two will traverse the Earth Leyline together. However, we have a new recontextualization with Mordin Village, very similar to the game's demo in 2019.
Oliver and Azel have already had a prior meeting at this time, and so their encounter in the temple is a reunion of sorts (I hope the FF7 fans reading are extra excited by that word. I sure am!).
In addition to some restructuring of the "paths" you'll traverse (need to keep veteren players on their toes!), the demo will feature two new areas that were not seen in the 2022 demo. First, Oliver's Dream...
And secondly, Mordin Village!
Unfortunately, the town will be asleep, so there won't be many NPC interactions, but I feel it will still invoke some nostalgia, especially in those of you who played the demo all the way back in 2019.
The most exciting aspect of the demo is that it will feature several new characters who bring a very fresh and distinct tone to the game. I have to give Fang a lot of credit here, this was one of her writing suggestions that really made things come together.
I also had a lot of fun drawing their faces. The switch to my own art style really renewed my confidence in my abilities overall. I honestly can't wait to draw more. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. I look forward to sharing more progress next month--there are some even more exciting changes coming up! Thank you, -Jaiden
[ 2024-02-09 13:00:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Note: In order to maintain pretty pixel ratio, images will open in the current tab/window when clicked. Hello everyone, So far we're kicking the year off nice and strong, as progress on the new demo is going extremely well. This month I have the opposite problem that I usually have when putting together a devlog--there was too much done to share! I'm also going to structure devlogs a little differently now; I will start with any exciting news, announcements, etc. before moving on to the actual progress. Wall of text first, then pretty pictures :)
New Demo 80% Done
It's almost a bit surreal working on the revised demo. A lot really has changed, and it's fun to see how my process has become more optimized. The process for making cutscenes is more streamlined, with a clear process from writing the draft, integrating, and testing. And by applying the "layered cake" method that Fang taught me earlier in the year, things went even faster.
Beta testing will be very soon, there are just a few more mechanical issues I want to iron out. Be sure to keep an eye on the Discord server if this is something that interests you!
Getting Ready for (Next) NextFest
As many of you are aware, we're currently in the middle of a Steam NextFest (very exciting!). Legends of Astravia's spiffy new demo will be in the next one, and there has been an endless amount of work to do in preparation. In the world of indie games, making the actual game is only half the work. I've been very focused on the game's marketing, trying to come up with a proper push leading up to the launch. Expect a ton of screenshots, snippets, and other exciting new visuals leading into the Demo's release. The current "Trailer" on Youtube is due for a serious update, and the Steam page will get a little gameplay montage as a holdover soon. Also, the game's description, marketing text and FAQs will get some updates over the next couple of weeks as well.
Development Archive
Part of this marketing strategy is ensuring all of the game's visuals are up to date across the world wide web. With the release of the new demo in June, and the big visual change to the game last year, it's important that all of the screenshots and artwork reflect the final game as much as possible. As such, I removed most of this artwork from every single social media channel and itch.io. However--it is not gone forever. In fact, I think these old screenshots, gifs and other snippets give a very important peek into Legends of Astravia's complicated development process.
So, check out the Dev Archive on the website to take a little visual stroll through the game's development from 2017-2022, 5 long (...long...) years!: Link
Development Progress
Since the demo is nearly completed, I think progress in January was pretty darn good! One of the more exciting things about the demo is just how much things have changed--for the better. The game honestly feels like, well, a video game?? (Crazy, right? I don't know!)
The premise of the demo is largely the same as 2022, Oliver will have an encounter with the mysterious Azel and the two will traverse the Earth Leyline together. However, we have a new recontextualization with Mordin Village, very similar to the game's demo in 2019.
Oliver and Azel have already had a prior meeting at this time, and so their encounter in the temple is a reunion of sorts (I hope the FF7 fans reading are extra excited by that word. I sure am!).
New Areas
In addition to some restructuring of the "paths" you'll traverse (need to keep veteren players on their toes!), the demo will feature two new areas that were not seen in the 2022 demo. First, Oliver's Dream...
And secondly, Mordin Village!
Unfortunately, the town will be asleep, so there won't be many NPC interactions, but I feel it will still invoke some nostalgia, especially in those of you who played the demo all the way back in 2019.
New Characters
The most exciting aspect of the demo is that it will feature several new characters who bring a very fresh and distinct tone to the game. I have to give Fang a lot of credit here, this was one of her writing suggestions that really made things come together.
I also had a lot of fun drawing their faces. The switch to my own art style really renewed my confidence in my abilities overall. I honestly can't wait to draw more. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. I look forward to sharing more progress next month--there are some even more exciting changes coming up! Thank you, -Jaiden
2023 Year-End Summary
December went well, likely due to the holidays and the significant amount of time off that came with them (a bit of a backwards concept, I admit). Here are some of the quantifiable accomplishments for the month:
After readjusting the story, some of the core elements of the demo from 2022 will still be in place in the new demo. The order of events has changed a bit though, and as such, so did some of the maps. I actually worked out this initial layout on a piece of scrap paper ahead of reconnecting all of the maps:
The demo is thus playable from start to finish, with just some of the important bits missing. Some new maps were also added, and one was brought back from the dead, which some of you elder fans that have been here since the beginning of time may recognize:
Since the first draft of dialogue for the first act was done and the map layout in place, I was able to get all of the dialogue actually integrated into the game for the new demo. This is relatively close to final and will only need a few more passes of editing.
A fun side-note; I do all of my initial dialogue writing in Google Sheets, using a pretty fancy setup that fills in the face graphics and text for me. That way I have a good idea of what everything looks like before I have to muck around in the editor. Pretty cool, (I think?!):
The shop menu hasn't been touched since 2020 (woah!), so it needed some attention. I reworked the layout and flow so it was a lot prettier and a lot less clunky to use. I also gave the essence menu a few updates, improving several UX issues reported in 2022's demo:
At the same time, I also made some much-needed backend improvements to windows and menus in general that should make adding, updating, and revising new menus in the future easier.
Bug-hunting is a never-ending battle, but there were quite a few issues that were present in the game's 2022 demo that I was able to finally address. [hr][/hr] I should point out that these efforts in December were all related to my attempt to bring the demo back for Steam's February NextFest as previously discussed. However, after some thought, I decided that doing so would be cutting it too close, and wouldn't give me enough time to ensure the game is as polished as it can be. The new demo will absolutely launch in 2024, as discussed more below. But unfortunately it will not be during the Steam NextFest in a few weeks.
It's easy to get overwhelmed by the idea that "nothing was accomplished" when you spend an entire year on a game and don't have a releasable product to show for it. However, looking back, this was probably one of the best years for Legends of Astravia, as it felt like it lead to some much needed improvements to the game's development operations, brand, and roadmap.
Fangsoft has been an incredible help this year, and without her, I probably wouldn't have been able to get the game's development back on track. She helped me get the project reorganized and set more concrete goals that inevitably lead to all of the great progress we made this year.
Even though there haven't been a lot of visual updates, Legends of Astravia's first part is in a sense, playable from start to finish. We completed several passes through the game to integrate map layouts, item placement, environmental effects and sound.
This was the year where I really honed my scripting abilities, employing what I've learned over the years to ensure I am working "smarter, not harder". I made a lot of cool stuff, honestly to the point of forgetting just how much I did: - Made a generator that takes a list of filenames and generates placeholder image files for each of them - Made a global transition system for all of the maps in the game, for both a smoother development and gameplay - Made a system to initialize and assign special data--including color and lighting information--to maps, eliminating the need for manually eventing each one - Created various in-game debugging tools, including a dedicated scene for testing and constructing battle sequences - Changed how data is loaded into the game to permit custom attributes and lightning-fast game content editing - Documented all of the game's custom functions and attributes - Made a spreadsheet tool for fast templating and editing of dialogue exactly as it shows up in-game - Made a "grid-system" for window layouts to make constructing new game menus easier - Reorganized and cleaned up a good chunk of the game's code base These things will continue to relieve some of the burden of being a solo dev, and will help get the entire game to the finish line.
The Studio Alemni website got a makeover, which I designed and implemented myself. I think it's easy to miss how big of an improvement this was, as the old website was slow and hard to navigate. This also cut the time it took for me to write my monthly devlogs in half, which freed up some more time for development.
Legends of Astravia's story has been the biggest crux with regards to development. It has been changed, modified, rewritten and reworked so much, which has ultimately resulted in so many revisions to the final playable game. With Fang's help, we finally locked it in this year, and for the first time in the several years of working on the project, I'm finally satisfied with the story is and where it is going. A lot of it required returning to my roots and remembering the "why". I try to remain humble, but I think the story is one of Legends of Astravia's stronger points. I really hope everyone will enjoy what we've come up with.
While the initial venture into this was done in November 2022, a lot of the work was done this year. When the demo in 2022 launched, a big point of contention was it's "RPG Maker Default Graphics". I found myself often demotivated and unwilling to work on the project knowing that many people would be immediately turned off by the game's visuals. So switching to something that aligned the game with it's classic feel was a huge confidence boost, and really helped move things forward. Additionally, I was able to secure more confidence in my art skills by replacing the character graphics with my own artwork. Legends of Astravia feels like it's own thing now, and I just think that's pretty cool.
While the work in 2023 ultimately didn't result in the release of the first part of the game, I'm very pleased to announce that Legends of Astravia will be delivered in two parts instead of the originally announced three. This means less waiting for the "complete" saga (complete in quotes here, because the first part will absolutely be a complete game!). How this will work mechanically is yet to be decided (DLC vs two full game releases), but plans will become more concrete with the re-release of the demo in the summer.
Speaking of which, the demo will indeed make its comeback this year during the next NextFest. An official announcement will be made sometime in March, and beta testing will begin soon. If you're interested in helping test the game and iron out issues, you can join the Discord server to get involved!
Legends of Astravia was doing reasonably well from a marketing and interest standpoint at two points during its development: the first demo in 2018, and the second demo in 2022. It seems when people get to play the game, news about it travels. Go figure! In the year and a half that I've been working on the game since it's demo in 2022, interest in the game has naturally waned a bit. I've also had significant difficulty maintaining a consistent marketing campaign on social media sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Besides just the demo launch, I'd like to revive some of that interest through more consistent visual updates on social media, trailers, and content creator outreach. I hope that more people will become aware of the game, especially those who it is really catered towards.
This one is tentative. Delaying the game's release over the years has been discouraging, but I also need to remain realistic with my schedule. I'd like to have a holiday launch, but otherwise, the plan for Legends of Astravia is to launch in Q1 of 2025. [hr][/hr] I hope this developer's log renews confidence for those of you who have been patiently waiting for release news. It means so much to have so many people interested in the project and checking in, especially as a small developer who can only work on the project part-time. It's been a long time, but I do see the finish line on the horizon. Here's to a productive and successful 2024! Thank you, -Jaiden
[ 2024-01-08 13:30:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, 2023 has finally come to an end. I'll admit, I began writing this developer's log thinking I'd only have a couple of bullet points for the game's development and progress. However, it turns out this year has been a very productive one, and just because the game isn't done yet doesn't mean amazing progress wasn't made. My resolution is to be more kind to myself as an independent developer, and understand that the project is not funded and that I am working on it entirely in my spare time. With that in mind, and looking just how much we got done this year, I think the project is doing pretty darn good! This devlog is a lengthy summary broken into three parts: December's development progress, a summary of the entire year, and plans / announcements for 2024. Buckle up, because this is a long one!
December Developer's Log
December went well, likely due to the holidays and the significant amount of time off that came with them (a bit of a backwards concept, I admit). Here are some of the quantifiable accomplishments for the month:
Finished all of the map layout changes for the new demo
After readjusting the story, some of the core elements of the demo from 2022 will still be in place in the new demo. The order of events has changed a bit though, and as such, so did some of the maps. I actually worked out this initial layout on a piece of scrap paper ahead of reconnecting all of the maps:
The demo is thus playable from start to finish, with just some of the important bits missing. Some new maps were also added, and one was brought back from the dead, which some of you elder fans that have been here since the beginning of time may recognize:
Integrated all dialogue for the new demo
Since the first draft of dialogue for the first act was done and the map layout in place, I was able to get all of the dialogue actually integrated into the game for the new demo. This is relatively close to final and will only need a few more passes of editing.
A fun side-note; I do all of my initial dialogue writing in Google Sheets, using a pretty fancy setup that fills in the face graphics and text for me. That way I have a good idea of what everything looks like before I have to muck around in the editor. Pretty cool, (I think?!):
Updated essence and shop menus
The shop menu hasn't been touched since 2020 (woah!), so it needed some attention. I reworked the layout and flow so it was a lot prettier and a lot less clunky to use. I also gave the essence menu a few updates, improving several UX issues reported in 2022's demo:
At the same time, I also made some much-needed backend improvements to windows and menus in general that should make adding, updating, and revising new menus in the future easier.
Squashed even more bugs
Bug-hunting is a never-ending battle, but there were quite a few issues that were present in the game's 2022 demo that I was able to finally address. [hr][/hr] I should point out that these efforts in December were all related to my attempt to bring the demo back for Steam's February NextFest as previously discussed. However, after some thought, I decided that doing so would be cutting it too close, and wouldn't give me enough time to ensure the game is as polished as it can be. The new demo will absolutely launch in 2024, as discussed more below. But unfortunately it will not be during the Steam NextFest in a few weeks.
2023 in Summary
It's easy to get overwhelmed by the idea that "nothing was accomplished" when you spend an entire year on a game and don't have a releasable product to show for it. However, looking back, this was probably one of the best years for Legends of Astravia, as it felt like it lead to some much needed improvements to the game's development operations, brand, and roadmap.
Fangsoft joined Studio Alemni and helped massively with development
Fangsoft has been an incredible help this year, and without her, I probably wouldn't have been able to get the game's development back on track. She helped me get the project reorganized and set more concrete goals that inevitably lead to all of the great progress we made this year.
Completed several passes through the entire game, start to finish
Even though there haven't been a lot of visual updates, Legends of Astravia's first part is in a sense, playable from start to finish. We completed several passes through the game to integrate map layouts, item placement, environmental effects and sound.
Made numerous development tools to speed up the game's production
This was the year where I really honed my scripting abilities, employing what I've learned over the years to ensure I am working "smarter, not harder". I made a lot of cool stuff, honestly to the point of forgetting just how much I did: - Made a generator that takes a list of filenames and generates placeholder image files for each of them - Made a global transition system for all of the maps in the game, for both a smoother development and gameplay - Made a system to initialize and assign special data--including color and lighting information--to maps, eliminating the need for manually eventing each one - Created various in-game debugging tools, including a dedicated scene for testing and constructing battle sequences - Changed how data is loaded into the game to permit custom attributes and lightning-fast game content editing - Documented all of the game's custom functions and attributes - Made a spreadsheet tool for fast templating and editing of dialogue exactly as it shows up in-game - Made a "grid-system" for window layouts to make constructing new game menus easier - Reorganized and cleaned up a good chunk of the game's code base These things will continue to relieve some of the burden of being a solo dev, and will help get the entire game to the finish line.
Updated the Studio Alemni website
The Studio Alemni website got a makeover, which I designed and implemented myself. I think it's easy to miss how big of an improvement this was, as the old website was slow and hard to navigate. This also cut the time it took for me to write my monthly devlogs in half, which freed up some more time for development.
Finalized the game's story
Legends of Astravia's story has been the biggest crux with regards to development. It has been changed, modified, rewritten and reworked so much, which has ultimately resulted in so many revisions to the final playable game. With Fang's help, we finally locked it in this year, and for the first time in the several years of working on the project, I'm finally satisfied with the story is and where it is going. A lot of it required returning to my roots and remembering the "why". I try to remain humble, but I think the story is one of Legends of Astravia's stronger points. I really hope everyone will enjoy what we've come up with.
Made the game visuals feel less like "RPG Maker" and more like "Astravia"
While the initial venture into this was done in November 2022, a lot of the work was done this year. When the demo in 2022 launched, a big point of contention was it's "RPG Maker Default Graphics". I found myself often demotivated and unwilling to work on the project knowing that many people would be immediately turned off by the game's visuals. So switching to something that aligned the game with it's classic feel was a huge confidence boost, and really helped move things forward. Additionally, I was able to secure more confidence in my art skills by replacing the character graphics with my own artwork. Legends of Astravia feels like it's own thing now, and I just think that's pretty cool.
Plans for 2024
Part 1 (of 2!)
While the work in 2023 ultimately didn't result in the release of the first part of the game, I'm very pleased to announce that Legends of Astravia will be delivered in two parts instead of the originally announced three. This means less waiting for the "complete" saga (complete in quotes here, because the first part will absolutely be a complete game!). How this will work mechanically is yet to be decided (DLC vs two full game releases), but plans will become more concrete with the re-release of the demo in the summer.
Demo return (Steam NextFest)
Speaking of which, the demo will indeed make its comeback this year during the next NextFest. An official announcement will be made sometime in March, and beta testing will begin soon. If you're interested in helping test the game and iron out issues, you can join the Discord server to get involved!
Get the game back on the map
Legends of Astravia was doing reasonably well from a marketing and interest standpoint at two points during its development: the first demo in 2018, and the second demo in 2022. It seems when people get to play the game, news about it travels. Go figure! In the year and a half that I've been working on the game since it's demo in 2022, interest in the game has naturally waned a bit. I've also had significant difficulty maintaining a consistent marketing campaign on social media sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Besides just the demo launch, I'd like to revive some of that interest through more consistent visual updates on social media, trailers, and content creator outreach. I hope that more people will become aware of the game, especially those who it is really catered towards.
Part 1's release (Attempt #2!)
This one is tentative. Delaying the game's release over the years has been discouraging, but I also need to remain realistic with my schedule. I'd like to have a holiday launch, but otherwise, the plan for Legends of Astravia is to launch in Q1 of 2025. [hr][/hr] I hope this developer's log renews confidence for those of you who have been patiently waiting for release news. It means so much to have so many people interested in the project and checking in, especially as a small developer who can only work on the project part-time. It's been a long time, but I do see the finish line on the horizon. Here's to a productive and successful 2024! Thank you, -Jaiden
Developer's Log - November 2023
One of the biggest bottlenecks in development at this point is data editing and testing. Legends of Astravia uses a lot of custom scripts and data, and as such, this requires closing the game, making edits to code, reopening the game, in an endless cycle during content development. I finally bit the bullet and decided to change how the game handles and loads custom data, and it's likely quadrupled my efficiency. Now instead of needing to constantly close and reopen the game when making edits, I have a couple files I can edit right at runtime.
Additionally, testing battle sequences was a horrifying process. It admittedly lead to me delaying on making cool new battle animations numerous times. Finally, after months of thinking about how I would execute it, I was able to create a proper tool for testing animations. Now I can quickly create and test animations and get through developing new content even faster.
Along with this, I made some much needed improvements to the battle animation code that squashed a lot of the weird glitches and bugs that existed in the last demo.
Fang and I have continued with the game's writing, and are now at the dialogue drafting phase. This is really exciting as the story is starting to unfold into something tangible and game-like. Here's a very serious, 100% accurate preview of what the live story document looks like:
Jokes aside, meaningful exchanges between characters is an important part of Legends of Astravia, and we hope you'll enjoy what we have planned!
I think an unintended benefit of getting away from certain parts of the game for too long is you lose that "developer's bias". Jumping back into the battle system, I quickly noticed a lot of the issues folks experienced during the last demo. I'm making some small adjustments that I hope will make the system more approachable. For example, I noticed that it's not particularly clear when your teammates have already chosen an action--it feels like the game is glitching. Adding the action indicator bubbles just like the monsters have was a trivial change that actually helped a lot:
[hr][/hr] That's all for this devlog. I will be working very hard the next month so that I can hopefully come back with an exciting announcement at the start of next year. Thanks you for your support, and see you in 2024! -Jaiden
[ 2023-12-11 13:30:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, This is a shorter developers log, but I am happy to report this has been a productive month. A lot of work is still being done "under the hood", and as such there's not quite as much to show.
Backend, Backend, Backend
One of the biggest bottlenecks in development at this point is data editing and testing. Legends of Astravia uses a lot of custom scripts and data, and as such, this requires closing the game, making edits to code, reopening the game, in an endless cycle during content development. I finally bit the bullet and decided to change how the game handles and loads custom data, and it's likely quadrupled my efficiency. Now instead of needing to constantly close and reopen the game when making edits, I have a couple files I can edit right at runtime.
Additionally, testing battle sequences was a horrifying process. It admittedly lead to me delaying on making cool new battle animations numerous times. Finally, after months of thinking about how I would execute it, I was able to create a proper tool for testing animations. Now I can quickly create and test animations and get through developing new content even faster.
Along with this, I made some much needed improvements to the battle animation code that squashed a lot of the weird glitches and bugs that existed in the last demo.
Writing
Fang and I have continued with the game's writing, and are now at the dialogue drafting phase. This is really exciting as the story is starting to unfold into something tangible and game-like. Here's a very serious, 100% accurate preview of what the live story document looks like:
Jokes aside, meaningful exchanges between characters is an important part of Legends of Astravia, and we hope you'll enjoy what we have planned!
Revisiting Battle UI/UX
I think an unintended benefit of getting away from certain parts of the game for too long is you lose that "developer's bias". Jumping back into the battle system, I quickly noticed a lot of the issues folks experienced during the last demo. I'm making some small adjustments that I hope will make the system more approachable. For example, I noticed that it's not particularly clear when your teammates have already chosen an action--it feels like the game is glitching. Adding the action indicator bubbles just like the monsters have was a trivial change that actually helped a lot:
[hr][/hr] That's all for this devlog. I will be working very hard the next month so that I can hopefully come back with an exciting announcement at the start of next year. Thanks you for your support, and see you in 2024! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - September & October 2023
Fang sorted through and put together dozens of battle animations. I look forward to bringing these fancy effects into the game soon so you can see them in action:
Fang and I have spent a lot of our time in the past few months working on the game's writing. We thought we had it down a few times, but there were still some things that didn't quite feel right. While this is part of the reason development has been drawn out so long, I think writing is one of the most important aspects of an RPG often overlooked. We're feeling really good about where it is now, and solved a lot of the game's major issues. Nailing the nostalgia factor while avoiding falling into tired RPG tropes and dull characters is an incredibly challenging thing to do, but thanks to Fang's expertise in story structure, we've got something really great now--all the way through the later parts of the game. We've almost put the bow on the full game outline, and when we do that, we're good to continue strong with the game's content.
I started implementing some battler sprites this month, and completed the main character's basic movesets:
New enemies are finally beginning to take form as well (which means no more damn mushrooms in every single promo shot of the game):
When the demo is made available again, we'll have some new promotional art. This has actually been in the works since the beginning of the year. Ryuuen put together the piece's linework, and I've been coloring it. It's too soon to reveal it, but here's a silly teaser in the meantime:
Earlier this year we took the Demo from February 2022 down in favor of the changes we've been making--mainly, the new lovely 16bit pixel art and story adjustments. It is long overdue for its re-release. Unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't quite meet the goal to make it live for the fall NextFest. While this is not an announcement by any means, we are shooting for the spring NextFest for the demo's glorious return instead. Again, this is not a guarantee, but we are really hoping to get it launched then. An announcement will come closer towards the end of the year if we stay on target. That's all for now! Thank you as always for your patience and support. -Jaiden
[ 2023-11-06 13:27:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, This is indeed another combined two-month devlog, sorry to keep you all waiting. Things have been immensely chaotic, making it difficult to round up progress. But no matter how quiet it gets on social media and update channels, the game is always being worked on! Fang and I did some really cool stuff the past two months, and we made some interesting discoveries about the best way to deliver this massive game. I do hope it will make the wait worthwhile. Let's take a look at some progress, and some info regarding the demo that was due for the fall.
Development Progress
Animation Graphics
Fang sorted through and put together dozens of battle animations. I look forward to bringing these fancy effects into the game soon so you can see them in action:
Writing
Fang and I have spent a lot of our time in the past few months working on the game's writing. We thought we had it down a few times, but there were still some things that didn't quite feel right. While this is part of the reason development has been drawn out so long, I think writing is one of the most important aspects of an RPG often overlooked. We're feeling really good about where it is now, and solved a lot of the game's major issues. Nailing the nostalgia factor while avoiding falling into tired RPG tropes and dull characters is an incredibly challenging thing to do, but thanks to Fang's expertise in story structure, we've got something really great now--all the way through the later parts of the game. We've almost put the bow on the full game outline, and when we do that, we're good to continue strong with the game's content.
Battler Sprites
I started implementing some battler sprites this month, and completed the main character's basic movesets:
New enemies are finally beginning to take form as well (which means no more damn mushrooms in every single promo shot of the game):
New Promo Art
When the demo is made available again, we'll have some new promotional art. This has actually been in the works since the beginning of the year. Ryuuen put together the piece's linework, and I've been coloring it. It's too soon to reveal it, but here's a silly teaser in the meantime:
Tentative NextFest Plans & Demo Relaunch
Earlier this year we took the Demo from February 2022 down in favor of the changes we've been making--mainly, the new lovely 16bit pixel art and story adjustments. It is long overdue for its re-release. Unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't quite meet the goal to make it live for the fall NextFest. While this is not an announcement by any means, we are shooting for the spring NextFest for the demo's glorious return instead. Again, this is not a guarantee, but we are really hoping to get it launched then. An announcement will come closer towards the end of the year if we stay on target. That's all for now! Thank you as always for your patience and support. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - August 2023
This month Fang finished creating all of the battlebacks. Each major area in the game now has a matching battle background:
(No, the desert won't actually contain more mushrooms!)
We tried a 3D background with the overworld tileset in order to link the two styles together, and I think Fang really nailed it.
This month we finally finished adding all of the placeholders for the game's "atmosphere". Every map from start to finish has an appopriate color tone, as well as any placeholders for fogs and special effects.
The game can be played in this state, making it already feel kind of complete. The game's music, colors and tones already set a distinct mood for different parts of the game, and that's without having added any fancy tileset graphics yet!
With this, the entire placeholder pass is done, and we're ready to move on to the next big chunk of the game's development.
While this devlog may seem a bit light, it's easy to underestimate just how much we accomplished by finishing the placeholder pass. There were also quite a few "under the hood" fixes and adjustments with the game's code that don't really deserve their own section. As we get into the asset and content development stage, more tangible updates should be available in future develogs. Thank you for your continued patience and support. -Jaiden
[ 2023-09-11 12:27:00 CET ] [ Original post ]
It seems the months are flying by--I feel like I just posted the July devlog, but it's already time for the August one (and I'm behind again!) Speaking of which, I absolutely used the wrong date in the thumbnail for last month's devlog. Whoops! August was a good month, as we finally wrapped up the placeholder pass. Fang continued creating awesome assets, while I added tones, fogs, and color to the game in order to set the mood and tone throughout the game. While this looks to be a short devlog, there's a lot of stuff that was done behind the scenes. Also, excuse the glaringly ugly watermarks on screenshots from now on. As the game gets closer to completion, I'd like to have these in-development screenshots marked appropriately so they're not mixed up with the real deal when Chapter 1 releases.
Finished Battlebacks
This month Fang finished creating all of the battlebacks. Each major area in the game now has a matching battle background:
(No, the desert won't actually contain more mushrooms!)
We tried a 3D background with the overworld tileset in order to link the two styles together, and I think Fang really nailed it.
Finished "Atmosphere" Placeholder Pass
This month we finally finished adding all of the placeholders for the game's "atmosphere". Every map from start to finish has an appopriate color tone, as well as any placeholders for fogs and special effects.
The game can be played in this state, making it already feel kind of complete. The game's music, colors and tones already set a distinct mood for different parts of the game, and that's without having added any fancy tileset graphics yet!
With this, the entire placeholder pass is done, and we're ready to move on to the next big chunk of the game's development.
Other Progress
While this devlog may seem a bit light, it's easy to underestimate just how much we accomplished by finishing the placeholder pass. There were also quite a few "under the hood" fixes and adjustments with the game's code that don't really deserve their own section. As we get into the asset and content development stage, more tangible updates should be available in future develogs. Thank you for your continued patience and support. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - July 2023
The last part of the placeholder pass through the entire game is to set the overall tone with sound effects, lighting, and color. We made good progress on this through July.
Lights and colors play a big part, and even with a map that only has placeholder tiles, you can see a big difference between no lighting effects and lighting effects and fogs added:
The goal is to do this for the entire game in one go. This has been my task for July, and while I'm not quite done yet, the game will start to have a sense of completeness once the lighting pass is complete.
In some cases, the graphics still need to be made, which leads to some hilariously literal displays when testing:
Thanks to Fang, all of the sound effects and ambient noise has proper placeholders. Those pleasant sound effects are an important factor in the excitement when finding a new treasure, and background sounds really set the tone for an area and scene.
Perhaps the most exciting yet time-consuming pass was started in July. We're finally making assets for the game! This means there will be a lot more to share visually over the coming months as the game really takes form.
I previously experimented with using a 3D background in the battle scene to try to create a perspective shift that wasn't too jarring of a separation from the main map scene. However, I wasn't really satisfied with my own attempts. Fang decided to experiment with making them in a 3D editor, and the results were phenomenal. It really helps lock everything together, and is reminiscent of old PlayStation JRPGs:
The process itself was very cool, and I think worth sharing:
There are still some small adjustments to be made, but Fang managed to create a battleback for each area in the game. We can't wait to share more soon!
I continued to work on some backend features and the game system as well, slowly making QoL improvements that are important to the final game.
Ensuring the map transition system worked correctly took a few tries, but I finally managed to get something that works well. Adjusting a map's effects between different areas will be seamless and easy to implement.
A big request even during the demo was the ability to have more than 4 save files. I finally got to making this adjustment last month, and the final game will have 50 slots available (possibly more with the release of Chapters 2 and 3 as well):
[hr][/hr] That's all for this month, I look forward to sharing what we've been working on in August next month. Thank you for your support and patience as we continue to work on the game. -Jaiden
[ 2023-08-15 12:30:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
Sorry for the delay -- the devlog for July is finally here! We managed to accomplish quite a lot in the past month.
Atmosphere - Sounds & Color
The last part of the placeholder pass through the entire game is to set the overall tone with sound effects, lighting, and color. We made good progress on this through July.
Lighting & Fogs
Lights and colors play a big part, and even with a map that only has placeholder tiles, you can see a big difference between no lighting effects and lighting effects and fogs added:
The goal is to do this for the entire game in one go. This has been my task for July, and while I'm not quite done yet, the game will start to have a sense of completeness once the lighting pass is complete.
In some cases, the graphics still need to be made, which leads to some hilariously literal displays when testing:
Sound Effects & Ambience
Thanks to Fang, all of the sound effects and ambient noise has proper placeholders. Those pleasant sound effects are an important factor in the excitement when finding a new treasure, and background sounds really set the tone for an area and scene.
Asset Production Begins
Perhaps the most exciting yet time-consuming pass was started in July. We're finally making assets for the game! This means there will be a lot more to share visually over the coming months as the game really takes form.
Battle Backgrounds
I previously experimented with using a 3D background in the battle scene to try to create a perspective shift that wasn't too jarring of a separation from the main map scene. However, I wasn't really satisfied with my own attempts. Fang decided to experiment with making them in a 3D editor, and the results were phenomenal. It really helps lock everything together, and is reminiscent of old PlayStation JRPGs:
The process itself was very cool, and I think worth sharing:
There are still some small adjustments to be made, but Fang managed to create a battleback for each area in the game. We can't wait to share more soon!
Features & System
I continued to work on some backend features and the game system as well, slowly making QoL improvements that are important to the final game.
Transition Adjustments
Ensuring the map transition system worked correctly took a few tries, but I finally managed to get something that works well. Adjusting a map's effects between different areas will be seamless and easy to implement.
Save System Update
A big request even during the demo was the ability to have more than 4 save files. I finally got to making this adjustment last month, and the final game will have 50 slots available (possibly more with the release of Chapters 2 and 3 as well):
[hr][/hr] That's all for this month, I look forward to sharing what we've been working on in August next month. Thank you for your support and patience as we continue to work on the game. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - May & June 2023
Progress on the first "draft" of the entire game continued, and we were able to finish up several more passes. All that's left is putting in placeholders for audio and special effects, which we plan to finish up during July.
All of the chests, collectibles and enemies have had placeholders implemented into the game. This means the basic level design for fields and villages is about 75% done. The only thing left here is integrating the side quests. Dungeons are 100% completed in this regard, which is a pretty big milestone!
While the maps themselves are not visually completed, and the items in chest are just placeholders, you can run through and interact with every possible chest, collectible, and enemy in the game. In a way, it makes the whole game playable start to finish! Fang as always was a massive help with this. She took care of integrating all of the monsters and setting up their movement patterns to really give us the push we needed to wrapping this portion up.
All of the extra backstory and side quests have been drafted up, ready to be integrated. Fang made some lovely sketches of the NPCs and created a unique story to tie in to the several cities and towns Oliver visits throughout the game. We plan to begin integrating these side quests into the game in the coming months.
I continued to make progress on the core components of the game, both by programming features that streamline the development process, as well as add important gameplay elements. This may or may not include adding some bugs, too, but hopefully those will all be crushed before release
It's exciting to finally share a few more characters besides Oliver and Azel! Indeed, you'll be able to choose from a handful of playable characters to construct your battle team with, and I finally got around to adding the core mechanics needed to make that happen.
This is a very rough first draft of the party switcher, which will be available from the menu at all times. As such, you'll be able to mix & match your team however you'd like. I've always found this kind of flexibility in RPGs to be a core aspect of what makes them fun.
And with this, we're finally able to start implementing the main characters' gorgeous battler sprites, created by the artist Burt. Of course, the character art is still placeholder as it's being worked on, but I'm looking forward to sharing more regarding these new characters in the coming months.
One of the last steps for finishing the first "pass" of the game is lighting, animation effects and music. Something that's always bothered me was the default RPG Maker transition effect, which was rather reminiscent of Windows Movie Maker and looked a bit amateurish:
To make matters worse, if I wanted to change the map's zoom or color tone, I had to manually set each step of the fade out and in for each map that I wanted to do such a transition for. This was an unwieldy and repetitive process, and left room for potential errors and bugs. So I killed two birds with one stone, and programmed a proper transition that applies globally to all maps, as well as a special method that allows me to very simply set a few parameters for a map's color tone, zoom, and other screen effects while the map is transitioning:
This allows us a lot more flexibility, and I believe will really shine as we work on effects in the next few months. That's all for now! I hope this extra-long developer's log felt worth the two month wait. Thank you for your support and understanding as we continue to work hard on the game. -Jaiden
[ 2023-07-05 12:20:39 CET ] [ Original post ]
As you might have noticed, this developer's log seems to have skipped a month. Ultimately, May ended up being a much needed month of rest and recharging after we worked very hard on the game's story and integration during the spring. But I'm pleased to report that there is a lot of exciting progress to share as a result.
Content & Integration
Progress on the first "draft" of the entire game continued, and we were able to finish up several more passes. All that's left is putting in placeholders for audio and special effects, which we plan to finish up during July.
Chests, Collectibles and Enemies
All of the chests, collectibles and enemies have had placeholders implemented into the game. This means the basic level design for fields and villages is about 75% done. The only thing left here is integrating the side quests. Dungeons are 100% completed in this regard, which is a pretty big milestone!
While the maps themselves are not visually completed, and the items in chest are just placeholders, you can run through and interact with every possible chest, collectible, and enemy in the game. In a way, it makes the whole game playable start to finish! Fang as always was a massive help with this. She took care of integrating all of the monsters and setting up their movement patterns to really give us the push we needed to wrapping this portion up.
Side quests & NPCs
All of the extra backstory and side quests have been drafted up, ready to be integrated. Fang made some lovely sketches of the NPCs and created a unique story to tie in to the several cities and towns Oliver visits throughout the game. We plan to begin integrating these side quests into the game in the coming months.
Features & System
I continued to make progress on the core components of the game, both by programming features that streamline the development process, as well as add important gameplay elements. This may or may not include adding some bugs, too, but hopefully those will all be crushed before release
Party Switcher
It's exciting to finally share a few more characters besides Oliver and Azel! Indeed, you'll be able to choose from a handful of playable characters to construct your battle team with, and I finally got around to adding the core mechanics needed to make that happen.
This is a very rough first draft of the party switcher, which will be available from the menu at all times. As such, you'll be able to mix & match your team however you'd like. I've always found this kind of flexibility in RPGs to be a core aspect of what makes them fun.
And with this, we're finally able to start implementing the main characters' gorgeous battler sprites, created by the artist Burt. Of course, the character art is still placeholder as it's being worked on, but I'm looking forward to sharing more regarding these new characters in the coming months.
Map Transitions
One of the last steps for finishing the first "pass" of the game is lighting, animation effects and music. Something that's always bothered me was the default RPG Maker transition effect, which was rather reminiscent of Windows Movie Maker and looked a bit amateurish:
To make matters worse, if I wanted to change the map's zoom or color tone, I had to manually set each step of the fade out and in for each map that I wanted to do such a transition for. This was an unwieldy and repetitive process, and left room for potential errors and bugs. So I killed two birds with one stone, and programmed a proper transition that applies globally to all maps, as well as a special method that allows me to very simply set a few parameters for a map's color tone, zoom, and other screen effects while the map is transitioning:
This allows us a lot more flexibility, and I believe will really shine as we work on effects in the next few months. That's all for now! I hope this extra-long developer's log felt worth the two month wait. Thank you for your support and understanding as we continue to work hard on the game. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - April 2023
As mentioned in the previous developer's log, the demo download has been removed from Steam and Itch.IO temporarily. As a result, I was able to update the screenshots on the store pages to match the graphics overhaul announced in November. Here are a few of those screenshots!
Regarding the demo discontinuation, it is unfortunate my development predictions haven't been great, and I admit it's a little embarrassing to take down the demo in favor of yet another "improved, revised release" in the future. But I think this is all a part of being a learning indie developer, and I recognize that this journey is not dissimilar to a dev making their first couple of games before establishing a proper process. So far this year though, the game's development process and workflow has been greatly improved, which is something to look forward to. And we hope to relaunch the demo for Steam's NextFest in the fall, ahead of Chapter 1's release.
Progress continues to be made through the various "passes" through the game. As mentioned in a previous devlog, the new process for creating the game involves going through the entire game and adding a certain type of content. We're not quite at the visual stage yet, so development these months is a lot of tell, not show. The past month, the placeholders for story were completed, so I've moved on to adding all of the "collectibles" and placeholders for NPCs. These are just empty shells of the objects that you'll be able to interact with, that will eventually have pretty graphics, flavor text, and progression (such as quests) added to them.
Really, these areas look kind of ugly right now. This is why visual updates have been so scarce. Sorry! I've been plenty "side-tracked" by bugs in the meantime as well. Interacting with objects is a lot smoother though, and overall I remain pretty proud of gamefeel--walking around the overworld and collecting stuff should just feel *good*. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. Thank you for your patience as always, and see you next month! -Jaiden
[ 2023-05-06 16:27:46 CET ] [ Original post ]
This devlog is unfortunately an extra short one. We're hard at work, but a lot of the progress made is still stuff that isn't really visually appealing or worth chronicling, unfortunately. Still happy to report what I can!
New Screenshots
As mentioned in the previous developer's log, the demo download has been removed from Steam and Itch.IO temporarily. As a result, I was able to update the screenshots on the store pages to match the graphics overhaul announced in November. Here are a few of those screenshots!
Regarding the demo discontinuation, it is unfortunate my development predictions haven't been great, and I admit it's a little embarrassing to take down the demo in favor of yet another "improved, revised release" in the future. But I think this is all a part of being a learning indie developer, and I recognize that this journey is not dissimilar to a dev making their first couple of games before establishing a proper process. So far this year though, the game's development process and workflow has been greatly improved, which is something to look forward to. And we hope to relaunch the demo for Steam's NextFest in the fall, ahead of Chapter 1's release.
Development Progress
Progress continues to be made through the various "passes" through the game. As mentioned in a previous devlog, the new process for creating the game involves going through the entire game and adding a certain type of content. We're not quite at the visual stage yet, so development these months is a lot of tell, not show. The past month, the placeholders for story were completed, so I've moved on to adding all of the "collectibles" and placeholders for NPCs. These are just empty shells of the objects that you'll be able to interact with, that will eventually have pretty graphics, flavor text, and progression (such as quests) added to them.
Really, these areas look kind of ugly right now. This is why visual updates have been so scarce. Sorry! I've been plenty "side-tracked" by bugs in the meantime as well. Interacting with objects is a lot smoother though, and overall I remain pretty proud of gamefeel--walking around the overworld and collecting stuff should just feel *good*. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. Thank you for your patience as always, and see you next month! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - March 2023
Can you believe it's been over one year since the demo for Legends of Astravia released? At that time, it was a great soft launch experience for the game, and it helped me garner a lot of valuable feedback. However, because it's been such a long time, and because the graphics were changed back in November, I think it's time to discontinue the demo until the game is ready to release.
The current demo is far too dated, and I think it's simply not an accurate reflection of the final product. I also need to update the screenshots on Steam and other platforms to reflect the new graphics, which I cannot do if the demo with the old graphics is available on them. As such, the demo will be temporarily discontinued on April 30th, 2023 until the game's release. We hope to relaunch the demo for Steam's NextFest in the fall, ahead of Chapter 1's release. This finalized demo will feature the opening area with the new 16-bit graphics, as well as gameplay improvements based on player feedback. Of course, the old version of the demo won't go away forever. I will probably put it back up on Itch.io for archival purposes some time after the game has been released.
Development on the game is moving steadily along, with achievements in character and quest pre-production, as well as general production. The game continues to take form as, well, a game!
Thanks to Fangsoft, almost all of the designs for NPCs in the major areas of the game are complete, as well as some drafts for side-quests. She's been doing an excellent job creating characters with personal lives that really flesh out the world and its culture. While we don't have anything visual to show for it just yet, I think it will be very exciting to share once it's ready!
We've taken another broad "pass" through the game, adding more and more important elements. I completely designed and set up the lock-and-key mechanisms for the remaining major dungeons, as well as added placeholders for the various story events in the game.
Poor Oliver has landed himself in prison. Did he evade his taxes again?! I thought it also might be fun to share some screenshots of what things look like in the development environment:
It's not terribly complicated or interesting... but maybe I'm just saying that because I look at it all the time! This map in particular is pretty cool: it contains a bunch of "Events" (that is, the objects in the game that do stuff) that can be cloned across other maps:
So instead of editing every single individual mushroom in Mordin Swamp, this map allows us to edit just one, and affect all the others in the game. Pretty neat! And lastly, some of the earier, more complete areas of the game are continuing to get updates to fit the 16-bit graphics. The mysterious lady from the intro now has a pretty new sprite:
Development is not without mistakes and mishaps. The process has lead to a lot of new bugs to crop up...
Arlyn's moonwalking, unfortunately, did need to be addressed. I also fixed a couple of other things that have a pretty heavy impact on how the game "feels", such as smoother interaction with objects.
I'm pleased to report this item will not crash the game in the final product.
While this technically isn't game progress, I did want to report that the Studio Alemni website got a spiffy re-work. Since I built it myself, naturally it took a little time out of development progress for the month. I think it was a very worthwhile improvement, though. It is much faster, and feels a lot more professional. If you find any broken links as a result, feel free to report them via the website's contact form. [hr][/hr] That's all for now, see you next month! -Jaiden
[ 2023-04-12 12:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]
This month's developer's log comes a bit late, so I apologize for the delay. It includes an important announcement regarding the demo, and a progress report on the game. This month continued to be productive thanks to Fangsoft's help, though a lot of the work we did was "behind-the-scenes". Let's take a look!
Temporarily Discontinuing the Demo
Can you believe it's been over one year since the demo for Legends of Astravia released? At that time, it was a great soft launch experience for the game, and it helped me garner a lot of valuable feedback. However, because it's been such a long time, and because the graphics were changed back in November, I think it's time to discontinue the demo until the game is ready to release.
The current demo is far too dated, and I think it's simply not an accurate reflection of the final product. I also need to update the screenshots on Steam and other platforms to reflect the new graphics, which I cannot do if the demo with the old graphics is available on them. As such, the demo will be temporarily discontinued on April 30th, 2023 until the game's release. We hope to relaunch the demo for Steam's NextFest in the fall, ahead of Chapter 1's release. This finalized demo will feature the opening area with the new 16-bit graphics, as well as gameplay improvements based on player feedback. Of course, the old version of the demo won't go away forever. I will probably put it back up on Itch.io for archival purposes some time after the game has been released.
Development Progress
Development on the game is moving steadily along, with achievements in character and quest pre-production, as well as general production. The game continues to take form as, well, a game!
NPCs & Side-Quests
Thanks to Fangsoft, almost all of the designs for NPCs in the major areas of the game are complete, as well as some drafts for side-quests. She's been doing an excellent job creating characters with personal lives that really flesh out the world and its culture. While we don't have anything visual to show for it just yet, I think it will be very exciting to share once it's ready!
Second Pass
We've taken another broad "pass" through the game, adding more and more important elements. I completely designed and set up the lock-and-key mechanisms for the remaining major dungeons, as well as added placeholders for the various story events in the game.
Poor Oliver has landed himself in prison. Did he evade his taxes again?! I thought it also might be fun to share some screenshots of what things look like in the development environment:
It's not terribly complicated or interesting... but maybe I'm just saying that because I look at it all the time! This map in particular is pretty cool: it contains a bunch of "Events" (that is, the objects in the game that do stuff) that can be cloned across other maps:
So instead of editing every single individual mushroom in Mordin Swamp, this map allows us to edit just one, and affect all the others in the game. Pretty neat! And lastly, some of the earier, more complete areas of the game are continuing to get updates to fit the 16-bit graphics. The mysterious lady from the intro now has a pretty new sprite:
Bugfixes
Development is not without mistakes and mishaps. The process has lead to a lot of new bugs to crop up...
Arlyn's moonwalking, unfortunately, did need to be addressed. I also fixed a couple of other things that have a pretty heavy impact on how the game "feels", such as smoother interaction with objects.
I'm pleased to report this item will not crash the game in the final product.
Website Updated
While this technically isn't game progress, I did want to report that the Studio Alemni website got a spiffy re-work. Since I built it myself, naturally it took a little time out of development progress for the month. I think it was a very worthwhile improvement, though. It is much faster, and feels a lot more professional. If you find any broken links as a result, feel free to report them via the website's contact form. [hr][/hr] That's all for now, see you next month! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - February 2023
The first key detail I'd like to mention is that the project is officially no longer a "solo" project. Granted I've always had help from various collaborators and freelancers, I have not had anyone actually assisting me with development. But that's no longer the case, because Fangsoft has joined the team to help me get Legends of Astravia's first chapter to the finish line!
She first helped with the project by composing the soundtrack for Ch1 in early 2022. And now, a year later, she's officially a member of the team. I cannot understate how big of a help Fangsoft has been so far, and it's only been a few weeks. She's helping tackle the overwhelming number of tasks, including production, writing, and planning. I was very wary going into the year, thinking that it just wouldn't be possible to finish the game in a timely manner by myself, but thanks to her, I have renewed confidence in the project and its release. She's also Astravia's resident Screenshot Expert, and responsible for all of the great pictures of the game you'll see in this and upcoming devlogs, as well as social media promotions.
With Fangsoft's help, we've taken a different approach to the game's development. Previously, I would go one area at a time, creating full and complete maps with all of the little details. While this made for great promotional material, it also lead to "tunnel vision". But thanks to this new method, all of the groundwork and infrastructure has been laid down, and Oliver is already able to reach the credits! A rough version of every map from start to finish is created.
In this ant-sized preview, nearly the whole game is mapped out. Many of these are still empty shells without any interesting details, but it's the perfect starting place for creating a real game. It's also really motivating! The immediate areas after the demo also received some touching up. Mordin Village is structurally finished, and just needs some NPCs to be brought to life:
With this new approach, I needed to create a lot more placeholders, and ended up making some special tools to speed up the process. Automation tools are incredibly important in game development. If there is a task you find yourself manually repeating over and over, there is a good chance you can write a script or macro to make it go a lot faster.
In this case, we needed placeholder graphics for every object in the game. Characters, enemies, items, doors, etc. But I wasn't about to create hundreds and hundreds of graphics by opening an image editor, saving the file and naming it, or even copying each file repeatedly and renaming it. This would have taken days. Thus, I created "Astravia Tools"-- a separate RPG Maker project written in the same old Ruby, that can handle this particular task, and any future ones.
For now, there is only one function in the tool. But it packs a punch: I feed it a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) sheet with every single filename I want generated, its dimensions and a color, and it spits out an image file for each one. This allowed me to take my spreadsheet asset list and turn it into workable files--within minutes instead of days.
I'm honestly a little excited to see what other development tasks I can streamline by making tools like this!
Overall, this month felt super productive. Here are a few more things that didn't really warrant their own section: - Created lots of additional documentation, including a spreadsheet that shows how every map in the game connects. - Completely planned the structure of the game's other major dungeons. The final dungeon is more than 3x the size of the one in the demo! - Cleaned up some code and fixed a few really sneaky bugs I'm looking forward to sharing more updates at the end of March as the game continues to take form. Thank you for your continued support! -Jaiden
[ 2023-03-03 13:50:36 CET ] [ Original post ]
February was a very productive month, and development on the game is going well. Similar to January, the focus is laying down the foundation and organizing, while simultaneously working on the game's content.
No Longer "Solo"
The first key detail I'd like to mention is that the project is officially no longer a "solo" project. Granted I've always had help from various collaborators and freelancers, I have not had anyone actually assisting me with development. But that's no longer the case, because Fangsoft has joined the team to help me get Legends of Astravia's first chapter to the finish line!
She first helped with the project by composing the soundtrack for Ch1 in early 2022. And now, a year later, she's officially a member of the team. I cannot understate how big of a help Fangsoft has been so far, and it's only been a few weeks. She's helping tackle the overwhelming number of tasks, including production, writing, and planning. I was very wary going into the year, thinking that it just wouldn't be possible to finish the game in a timely manner by myself, but thanks to her, I have renewed confidence in the project and its release. She's also Astravia's resident Screenshot Expert, and responsible for all of the great pictures of the game you'll see in this and upcoming devlogs, as well as social media promotions.
New Tactics
With Fangsoft's help, we've taken a different approach to the game's development. Previously, I would go one area at a time, creating full and complete maps with all of the little details. While this made for great promotional material, it also lead to "tunnel vision". But thanks to this new method, all of the groundwork and infrastructure has been laid down, and Oliver is already able to reach the credits! A rough version of every map from start to finish is created.
In this ant-sized preview, nearly the whole game is mapped out. Many of these are still empty shells without any interesting details, but it's the perfect starting place for creating a real game. It's also really motivating! The immediate areas after the demo also received some touching up. Mordin Village is structurally finished, and just needs some NPCs to be brought to life:
New Tools
With this new approach, I needed to create a lot more placeholders, and ended up making some special tools to speed up the process. Automation tools are incredibly important in game development. If there is a task you find yourself manually repeating over and over, there is a good chance you can write a script or macro to make it go a lot faster.
In this case, we needed placeholder graphics for every object in the game. Characters, enemies, items, doors, etc. But I wasn't about to create hundreds and hundreds of graphics by opening an image editor, saving the file and naming it, or even copying each file repeatedly and renaming it. This would have taken days. Thus, I created "Astravia Tools"-- a separate RPG Maker project written in the same old Ruby, that can handle this particular task, and any future ones.
For now, there is only one function in the tool. But it packs a punch: I feed it a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) sheet with every single filename I want generated, its dimensions and a color, and it spits out an image file for each one. This allowed me to take my spreadsheet asset list and turn it into workable files--within minutes instead of days.
I'm honestly a little excited to see what other development tasks I can streamline by making tools like this!
Other Notable Progress
Overall, this month felt super productive. Here are a few more things that didn't really warrant their own section: - Created lots of additional documentation, including a spreadsheet that shows how every map in the game connects. - Completely planned the structure of the game's other major dungeons. The final dungeon is more than 3x the size of the one in the demo! - Cleaned up some code and fixed a few really sneaky bugs I'm looking forward to sharing more updates at the end of March as the game continues to take form. Thank you for your continued support! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - January 2023
January's primary focus was organizing and preparing documentation. This is actually a pretty common aspect of development that takes a lot of time, but it's hard to discuss in a developer's log since it's not entirely visual. There were two really big milestones in this category.
The story outline for Chapter 1 has been completely finalized! In a document nearly 10 pages long, every aspect of the major story that will occur in the game has been summarized. There were a lot of sections I was worried about last year that are now completely cleared up. I think the story will feel very fulfilling to experience, even as a "Part 1".
Generally, before starting work on a game, it's good practice to create a "Game Development Document" that serves as a blueprint for the entire game. While Legends of Astravia has always had plenty of digital documentation that describe the game's mechanics, story, and key elements, I never created a formal "document". There are some differing perspectives on this. Some believe in having an organic, digital, and always changing document, since the game very much can change throughout development. However, in my case, having a physical, printed document that I can hold in my hands is a valuable asset and motivator for the project.
So, at over 50 pages, the game has it's first official physical game development document! It's easy to understate just how incredible it feels to hold something like this in your hands and flip through it. For aspiring game developers who are feeling a bit "directionless", I really recommend this method.
The employees at the print shop that I had this done were also incredibly kind. They expressed that they were amazed to be able to work on something for a video game, and can't wait to check it out. After feeling a bit discouraged about my progress the past few months, this was a huge confidence boost. To those folks from the shop: if you're reading this, thank you for your kind words, and I hope the game meets your expectations!
The official Twitter reached 1,100 followers. This was a huge milestone! As a special celebration, I commissioned some art of Oliver:
Many of you have been following this game's development for a really long time, and it means a lot to have so many people wait for something and continue to have faith in it. I really hope to meet everyone's expectations with this project.
The 16-bit overhaul, while initially started in November, is somewhat of an ongoing process. Some of the areas that were already completed have been mostly reworked, and later areas whose assets were already created need to be recreated. It is going exceptionally well, and here are a few more screenshots and gifs of the demo areas in the new style:
As well as a preview of the new face graphics in action!:
Overall, development is going well, and I'm feeling very good about February's progress as well (which is in part why this devlog fell so far behind schedule!) Thank you for your continued support! -Jaiden
[ 2023-02-11 14:30:45 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, Apologies that this log showed up a little late! I have a lot of fun milestones to share in this slightly more long-form developer's log.
Organization & Documentation
January's primary focus was organizing and preparing documentation. This is actually a pretty common aspect of development that takes a lot of time, but it's hard to discuss in a developer's log since it's not entirely visual. There were two really big milestones in this category.
Ch1 Story Outline Finalized
The story outline for Chapter 1 has been completely finalized! In a document nearly 10 pages long, every aspect of the major story that will occur in the game has been summarized. There were a lot of sections I was worried about last year that are now completely cleared up. I think the story will feel very fulfilling to experience, even as a "Part 1".
Game Development Document
Generally, before starting work on a game, it's good practice to create a "Game Development Document" that serves as a blueprint for the entire game. While Legends of Astravia has always had plenty of digital documentation that describe the game's mechanics, story, and key elements, I never created a formal "document". There are some differing perspectives on this. Some believe in having an organic, digital, and always changing document, since the game very much can change throughout development. However, in my case, having a physical, printed document that I can hold in my hands is a valuable asset and motivator for the project.
So, at over 50 pages, the game has it's first official physical game development document! It's easy to understate just how incredible it feels to hold something like this in your hands and flip through it. For aspiring game developers who are feeling a bit "directionless", I really recommend this method.
The employees at the print shop that I had this done were also incredibly kind. They expressed that they were amazed to be able to work on something for a video game, and can't wait to check it out. After feeling a bit discouraged about my progress the past few months, this was a huge confidence boost. To those folks from the shop: if you're reading this, thank you for your kind words, and I hope the game meets your expectations!
1K+ Twitter Followers
The official Twitter reached 1,100 followers. This was a huge milestone! As a special celebration, I commissioned some art of Oliver:
Many of you have been following this game's development for a really long time, and it means a lot to have so many people wait for something and continue to have faith in it. I really hope to meet everyone's expectations with this project.
Continued 16-bit Progress
The 16-bit overhaul, while initially started in November, is somewhat of an ongoing process. Some of the areas that were already completed have been mostly reworked, and later areas whose assets were already created need to be recreated. It is going exceptionally well, and here are a few more screenshots and gifs of the demo areas in the new style:
As well as a preview of the new face graphics in action!:
Overall, development is going well, and I'm feeling very good about February's progress as well (which is in part why this devlog fell so far behind schedule!) Thank you for your continued support! -Jaiden
2022 Year End Summary
The month of December itself didn't have a ton of progress to report--between the holidays and some personal illness, it wasn't as productive as I'd like. That said, I was able to get quite a few things sorted out in regards to planning, writing, and preparation for 2023. The game's main story outline is looking very good, and I've created a clear roadmap for the various tasks that need to be done to advance progress on the game. Of course, I can't have a devlog without any visuals, so here are a few more screenshots of areas using the new 16-bit graphics:
And some more character artwork in the new style:
After years of development, the game received a new demo, marking the first time the game was playable since 2019. The demo served as a "soft launch" to both gauge interest in the game's core concept and see how much people enjoyed it. Overall, the response was very positive. I received a lot of incredible feedback, as well as viewed dozens of Let's Play videos--all of which I am super grateful for.
A unique opportunity, the game's demo received a Japanese translation. This was an important personal goal and also a test to gauge interest. Though it unfortunately did not spark a lot of interest from Japanese audiences, it was a great experience that proved the game can eventually support other languages in the future.
While the demo launch did not immediately lead into the game launching as I hoped, it lead me to making a lot of important changes and improvements later in the year. I was able to use all of the feedback provided through the form, discord, and in the let's play videos to make the necessary adjustments to the base mechanics to ensure the final product will be as enjoyable as it can be.
The biggest, and perhaps most divisive change, the game's graphics were completely overhauled to support a more unique 16-bit look. While this was ultimately a "downgrade", it was met with some positive response, and made me feel a little less worried about doing it. The change serves to greatly reduce the workload for creating visual assets, and ensures the likelihood and quality of the final release.
Given all of the setbacks, the most critical goal for 2023 is the release of Chapter 1. I hope that all of the "setup" I've completed in 2022 will ensure that people get to play and enjoy that which I've worked on for so long without waiting much longer. Any extra goals such as porting, localization, etc. will come after. While the start of the year has already been a bit rocky, I hope to be able to share more development successes with you, and appreciate the patience and support from everyone who reads these logs and follows the game's process. Happy new year! -Jaiden
[ 2023-01-10 13:30:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, While the game had a lot of great milestones this year, the later half was met with some challenges. This devlog will serve as a short summary of the achievements for the year, as well as the goals for 2023 and on.
December Progress
The month of December itself didn't have a ton of progress to report--between the holidays and some personal illness, it wasn't as productive as I'd like. That said, I was able to get quite a few things sorted out in regards to planning, writing, and preparation for 2023. The game's main story outline is looking very good, and I've created a clear roadmap for the various tasks that need to be done to advance progress on the game. Of course, I can't have a devlog without any visuals, so here are a few more screenshots of areas using the new 16-bit graphics:
And some more character artwork in the new style:
2022 in Summary
Demo Release
After years of development, the game received a new demo, marking the first time the game was playable since 2019. The demo served as a "soft launch" to both gauge interest in the game's core concept and see how much people enjoyed it. Overall, the response was very positive. I received a lot of incredible feedback, as well as viewed dozens of Let's Play videos--all of which I am super grateful for.
Japanese Demo Translation
A unique opportunity, the game's demo received a Japanese translation. This was an important personal goal and also a test to gauge interest. Though it unfortunately did not spark a lot of interest from Japanese audiences, it was a great experience that proved the game can eventually support other languages in the future.
Engine Upgrade & Demo Fixes
While the demo launch did not immediately lead into the game launching as I hoped, it lead me to making a lot of important changes and improvements later in the year. I was able to use all of the feedback provided through the form, discord, and in the let's play videos to make the necessary adjustments to the base mechanics to ensure the final product will be as enjoyable as it can be.
Graphics Overhaul
The biggest, and perhaps most divisive change, the game's graphics were completely overhauled to support a more unique 16-bit look. While this was ultimately a "downgrade", it was met with some positive response, and made me feel a little less worried about doing it. The change serves to greatly reduce the workload for creating visual assets, and ensures the likelihood and quality of the final release.
Plans for 2023
Given all of the setbacks, the most critical goal for 2023 is the release of Chapter 1. I hope that all of the "setup" I've completed in 2022 will ensure that people get to play and enjoy that which I've worked on for so long without waiting much longer. Any extra goals such as porting, localization, etc. will come after. While the start of the year has already been a bit rocky, I hope to be able to share more development successes with you, and appreciate the patience and support from everyone who reads these logs and follows the game's process. Happy new year! -Jaiden
New Graphics! (Developer's Log November 2022)
This is definitely a big change, and I was worried whether or not folks who are excited for the game would be disappointed. While the graphics are a lower detail than what was in the demo, I think this is a visual upgrade and a much more appropriate direction. First, I think it's important to go over what did and didn't change, to address any concerns.
The overworld (map) tiles, character graphics, and character art (as discussed in the last devlog) have changed.
Future updates will all showcase the new design.
The engine, battle system, and underlying mechanics are completely the same. The game still plays and feels exactly as it does in the demo--so think of it as a "reskin" of sorts. The user interface will also remain "HD". While this doesn't give the game a fully retro feel, I think it's worth taking advantage of the higher quality text for accessibility reasons.
First and foremost: development scope. The game is currently already too big, and a lot of work for a solo developer such as myself. The new tiles and character sprites are exactly half as big as the other ones--and the time saved creating new tiles and characters and sprites for later areas is effectively halved as well. In fact, I was able to already replace all of the graphics for the areas featured in the demo. Additionally, because the original tiles were so challenging to work with, creating later areas was beginning to become disheartening. It felt like no matter what I did, any "unique" graphics just didn't fit right. I found myself spending a very long time on something that, visually, was not acceptable to me.
Lastly, one of the aspects of the game that's been challenging to deal with is the "RPG Maker" look. The original tilesets that the game utilized were from RPG Maker XP, and they were just a bit too similar in pallet and design to the newer RPG Maker default assets. As a result, even the prettiest areas still invoked this "cookie cutter" look that I wasn't satisfied with. These new tilesets are still technically RPG Maker. But because they're (mostly) 16-bit, and much closer to the SNES/GBA era, I think they invoke a greater sense of nostalgia than the other tiles did. It will also make changing to unique custom tiles a more viable possibility in the future.
As for the battle system, there was some concerns about it clashing with the changes to the overworld. After all, the battler sprites were even higher resolution than the original overworld sprites. However, a special change was made to accommodate this issue...
The battle scene now looks 2.5D, with battle backgrounds that match the overworld! This change would have been beneficial regardless of whether or not the overworld graphics changed, since the original backgrounds always looked a bit flat. This is achieved using Crocotile3D. It's been an incredibly helpful tool for recreating the world in 3D and feigning the 2.5D effect:
Alas, it isn't truly 3D, so there won't be any fancy camera effects in battle. But this is something that I'd really like to do for a future game... or later Chapter if feasible.
Here are some more screenshots showcasing the change, from the existing demo and including some finally-not-forest areas:
Mordin village in particular feels a lot more homey in the new style:
Creating new tiles for later areas is much less stressful, and as a result I was able to create some maps to preview:
From a development standpoint, I am actually "caught up" to where I was before I started changing the graphics. And because it is going much faster, I feel confident about Chapter 1's progress. I plan to continue creating the new areas of the game, and now with these new graphics, developer's logs will be much more robust with many more updates to share.
The demo will remain up on Steam as-is with the "old" graphics, until Chapter 1 is closer to its release. At that time, the old demo will be replaced with a special revised demo using the new graphics and more content--including the entire Mordin Village arc for a limited time! No formal release date has been decided for Chapter 1 yet though, so keep an eye on future developer's logs for news on that. --- Please be sure to let me know your thoughts about this change! You can share them on Steam or in the official Discord server. I really hope that folks see it as a positive as I have. Because of the new graphics, I feel both more confident in the project and about development as a whole. I am looking forward to sharing more progress soon! -Jaiden
[ 2022-12-05 13:15:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, I am very excited to announce that Legends of Astravia will be taking on a new 16-bit pixel art look, reminiscent of the Super Nintendo / Game Boy Advance games that inspired it! As some of you might have noticed, the past couple of months of developer's logs have been thin on progress--and that was for good reason. I've been quietly working on this change to the game's graphics. With it comes a lot of progress, too, and I will explain the reasoning for such a drastic change after having released the demo within this developer's log.
Examples & Reasoning
This is definitely a big change, and I was worried whether or not folks who are excited for the game would be disappointed. While the graphics are a lower detail than what was in the demo, I think this is a visual upgrade and a much more appropriate direction. First, I think it's important to go over what did and didn't change, to address any concerns.
What Changed
The overworld (map) tiles, character graphics, and character art (as discussed in the last devlog) have changed.
Future updates will all showcase the new design.
What Didn't Change
The engine, battle system, and underlying mechanics are completely the same. The game still plays and feels exactly as it does in the demo--so think of it as a "reskin" of sorts. The user interface will also remain "HD". While this doesn't give the game a fully retro feel, I think it's worth taking advantage of the higher quality text for accessibility reasons.
Why the Change?
First and foremost: development scope. The game is currently already too big, and a lot of work for a solo developer such as myself. The new tiles and character sprites are exactly half as big as the other ones--and the time saved creating new tiles and characters and sprites for later areas is effectively halved as well. In fact, I was able to already replace all of the graphics for the areas featured in the demo. Additionally, because the original tiles were so challenging to work with, creating later areas was beginning to become disheartening. It felt like no matter what I did, any "unique" graphics just didn't fit right. I found myself spending a very long time on something that, visually, was not acceptable to me.
Lastly, one of the aspects of the game that's been challenging to deal with is the "RPG Maker" look. The original tilesets that the game utilized were from RPG Maker XP, and they were just a bit too similar in pallet and design to the newer RPG Maker default assets. As a result, even the prettiest areas still invoked this "cookie cutter" look that I wasn't satisfied with. These new tilesets are still technically RPG Maker. But because they're (mostly) 16-bit, and much closer to the SNES/GBA era, I think they invoke a greater sense of nostalgia than the other tiles did. It will also make changing to unique custom tiles a more viable possibility in the future.
New Matching 2.5D Battlebacks
As for the battle system, there was some concerns about it clashing with the changes to the overworld. After all, the battler sprites were even higher resolution than the original overworld sprites. However, a special change was made to accommodate this issue...
The battle scene now looks 2.5D, with battle backgrounds that match the overworld! This change would have been beneficial regardless of whether or not the overworld graphics changed, since the original backgrounds always looked a bit flat. This is achieved using Crocotile3D. It's been an incredibly helpful tool for recreating the world in 3D and feigning the 2.5D effect:
Alas, it isn't truly 3D, so there won't be any fancy camera effects in battle. But this is something that I'd really like to do for a future game... or later Chapter if feasible.
Comparison Screenshots & Ch 1 Teasers
Here are some more screenshots showcasing the change, from the existing demo and including some finally-not-forest areas:
Mordin village in particular feels a lot more homey in the new style:
Creating new tiles for later areas is much less stressful, and as a result I was able to create some maps to preview:
Updated Schedule & Plans
From a development standpoint, I am actually "caught up" to where I was before I started changing the graphics. And because it is going much faster, I feel confident about Chapter 1's progress. I plan to continue creating the new areas of the game, and now with these new graphics, developer's logs will be much more robust with many more updates to share.
What about the demo?
The demo will remain up on Steam as-is with the "old" graphics, until Chapter 1 is closer to its release. At that time, the old demo will be replaced with a special revised demo using the new graphics and more content--including the entire Mordin Village arc for a limited time! No formal release date has been decided for Chapter 1 yet though, so keep an eye on future developer's logs for news on that. --- Please be sure to let me know your thoughts about this change! You can share them on Steam or in the official Discord server. I really hope that folks see it as a positive as I have. Because of the new graphics, I feel both more confident in the project and about development as a whole. I am looking forward to sharing more progress soon! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - October 2022
The engine received an update to the core code that makes a ton of really great improvements, thanks to Struma's hard work on mkxp-z. Outside of some small performance boosts, it also gave access to additional options and controller functionality that will really improve the gameplay experience for a lot of players.
Controller detection has been greatly improved--which was one of the biggest issues noted by players of the demo. Currently, if you have a non-Xbox controller, button mapping would at best be in the wrong order, and at worst, not work at all. With this, visual support for Nintendo and Sony style controllers was also added to the User Interface:
The hope is that with the final game and a potentially updated demo later on, players will have a much better experience, regardless of the controller they use.
Thanks to the engine, I was able to add a bunch of new options regarding the game's graphics (namely, pixel perfect vs smooth rendering).
Additionally, I took the time to add some accessibility options as well, which include disabling screen flash and shake effects. Difficulty options and other ways to tweak your gameplay experience will also be added in the future.
Last week, I had a poll on Twitter to see what the priority should be regarding the game's direction. And I admit, it had a secondary purpose of also gauging how some players may feel if I made some adjustments to the art style. Thankfully, it seems a lot of folks are really happy with the game's mechanics, and aren't particularly married to Legends of Astravia's art style--understandably so, as a lot of RPG Maker assets are still in use. Even Azel's lovely portrait is just a modification of a popular character from RPG Maker VX.
Thus, I decided it was time to go with something that had a little more of its own identity. Realizing I could accomplish this myself, I drew some new faces:
I believe these new faces still capture the character's personalities, without losing too much of what player's enjoy about the game. As an added benefit, they are significantly faster to create, and will allow a much wider range of emotions for less work--which means more time to continue working on other areas of the game. The profiles have also been updated to match, hopefully maintaining the character's personalities with the new style:
Feel free to give your thoughts on this change, either in the comments (Steam/Itch.io) or in the official Discord!
The battle system got two major updates this month. One in visuals, and another in functionality and gameplay.
The battle system has some lovely artwork, but the layout has always felt a bit "flat", and improving it is an important milestone for the final game. Inspired by Breath of Fire II, here is a very early preview of the change to the layout to accommodate this (please note that the background is a placeholder):
The isometric view still works with the existing battle sprites, but overall makes the battlefield feel a bit more dynamic. Also, the new character artwork seems to work quite well!
This has been a to-do list item even before the demo was released, but I was finally able to improve Enemy AI and behavior. Currently, actions from enemies are purely random and unaffected by battles state at all. This makes for some boring battles, even with the exciting time-based system. Now, enemies will react as battle changes, or when the player does certain things. Some enemies will behave a bit differently than others, adding a layer of strategy for handling new mobs. This should hopefully keep things engaging as you progress through the game. --- That's all for now. Thank you for reading! -Jaiden
[ 2022-11-01 12:10:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, October has been a good month in terms of development progress. With some life issues out of the way, I'm finally back to a normal development pace. I have a few exciting updates to share, as well as some news regarding a small art style change.
Engine & Feature Progress
The engine received an update to the core code that makes a ton of really great improvements, thanks to Struma's hard work on mkxp-z. Outside of some small performance boosts, it also gave access to additional options and controller functionality that will really improve the gameplay experience for a lot of players.
Controller improvements + Support
Controller detection has been greatly improved--which was one of the biggest issues noted by players of the demo. Currently, if you have a non-Xbox controller, button mapping would at best be in the wrong order, and at worst, not work at all. With this, visual support for Nintendo and Sony style controllers was also added to the User Interface:
The hope is that with the final game and a potentially updated demo later on, players will have a much better experience, regardless of the controller they use.
New Options
Thanks to the engine, I was able to add a bunch of new options regarding the game's graphics (namely, pixel perfect vs smooth rendering).
Additionally, I took the time to add some accessibility options as well, which include disabling screen flash and shake effects. Difficulty options and other ways to tweak your gameplay experience will also be added in the future.
Art Style Change - Faces & Portraits
Last week, I had a poll on Twitter to see what the priority should be regarding the game's direction. And I admit, it had a secondary purpose of also gauging how some players may feel if I made some adjustments to the art style. Thankfully, it seems a lot of folks are really happy with the game's mechanics, and aren't particularly married to Legends of Astravia's art style--understandably so, as a lot of RPG Maker assets are still in use. Even Azel's lovely portrait is just a modification of a popular character from RPG Maker VX.
Before & After - Faces
Thus, I decided it was time to go with something that had a little more of its own identity. Realizing I could accomplish this myself, I drew some new faces:
I believe these new faces still capture the character's personalities, without losing too much of what player's enjoy about the game. As an added benefit, they are significantly faster to create, and will allow a much wider range of emotions for less work--which means more time to continue working on other areas of the game. The profiles have also been updated to match, hopefully maintaining the character's personalities with the new style:
Feel free to give your thoughts on this change, either in the comments (Steam/Itch.io) or in the official Discord!
Battle System
The battle system got two major updates this month. One in visuals, and another in functionality and gameplay.
Layout Adjustments
The battle system has some lovely artwork, but the layout has always felt a bit "flat", and improving it is an important milestone for the final game. Inspired by Breath of Fire II, here is a very early preview of the change to the layout to accommodate this (please note that the background is a placeholder):
The isometric view still works with the existing battle sprites, but overall makes the battlefield feel a bit more dynamic. Also, the new character artwork seems to work quite well!
Revised Enemy AI
This has been a to-do list item even before the demo was released, but I was finally able to improve Enemy AI and behavior. Currently, actions from enemies are purely random and unaffected by battles state at all. This makes for some boring battles, even with the exciting time-based system. Now, enemies will react as battle changes, or when the player does certain things. Some enemies will behave a bit differently than others, adding a layer of strategy for handling new mobs. This should hopefully keep things engaging as you progress through the game. --- That's all for now. Thank you for reading! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - August & September 2022
Overworld traversal and exploration is a pillar of Legends of Astravia, and so time spent improving the player's experience in this area is always worthwhile. I received a lot of positive feedback regarding how smooth controlling Oliver on the overworld felt--a result of the game's "gridless" movement that feels closer to Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun than the tile-based movement of the classic Final Fantasy games. However, the system had some severe performance issues, made some unusual use of disk read/writes for the collision tables, and also caused great difficulty with handling dynamic objects--the final issue very much required fixing for puzzles later in the game. The new system now performs much better, has less bugs, and permits doing all sorts of creative things with interactable objects:
Most importantly, dynamic layering of "multiple levels" that is much easier to accomplish with this new system:
All of the lovely Golden Sun-inspired puzzles I had in mind can now be a reality. I can't wait to share more map progress soon!
The battle system got a lot of much-needed love these past two months. After compiling player feedback from the demo, I finally was able to achieve some quality of life improvements, features, and enhancements that brings the battle system closer to where I want it to be for the final game.
Those of you who played the demo know this too well--the battle system is exciting and interesting, but the "turnless" gimmick quickly became frustrating whenever you were interrupted while selecting an action A lot of the solutions I thought up for this problem removed the fluidity that the "turnless" system offers. However, I was able to devise a solution that feels good and stays true to the system's original design:
If a battler is "ready for action" while the player is actively choosing an input for a character, the time bar will slow down and the battlers will wait until the player is done inputting before proceeding with displaying animations. It is much less jarring and a lot more tactically interesting than the way it currently is in the demo.
The "Hold" mechanic was created with the following consideration: "What if the RPG 'defend' command wasn't useless?" But I noticed a lot of players still had trouble understanding how to use it, and the benefits for healing were unclear.
Now, the character in a "Hold" state will gently and consistently heal after a short time period. This eliminates the awkwardness of needing to wait for actions to occur to get the benefit of defending.
Many players were rightfully confused by status ailments and buffs. It was very unclear as to when a buff was added or removed to a character in battle. That has now been improved:
Additionally, states are time-based now, and all of them wear off after a certain period of time instead of after "turns" (which was rather arbitrary). This will eventually be indicated on the UI as well.
Another gameplay issue noted from watching people play the game. If you attempted to use a revival item, or healing item, it would default to whoever was using it--making this pretty problematic for quickly trying to heal another character.
The targeting system was completely revised, and now special state-based targeting is available. Using a revival item, for example, will auto-target the dead character instead of the very much alive one. This may apply to other things like special buffs, healing items, and certain skills as well.
- The Time Bar's underlying code was refactored and improved, both in performance and stability - The display for battle state on the time bar was improved - Various animation timings were improved - Animations no longer randomly lose SFX, and damage numbers display with better timing - Any button cancels "Hold" now--which makes it a lot easier to navigate - Escaping battles actually displays an animation for a couple of seconds now - Fixed a bug (feature?) where there could be a "critical evade" or "critical miss" - Caught a couple of nasty bugs that could result in the game crashing to desktop - I'm sure there's more but I'd be listing a commit history at this point
Disclaimer: I try to avoid being serious and talking about these challenges that are common and my own business to sort out. However, I do know quite a few indie developers--or perhaps people who are just interested in the process of game development--read these logs. And so this section will hopefully make those who feel a similar way feel some solace. When I released the demo in February, I had anticipated at this point--the end of September--that the final beta for Chapter 1 of the game would be ready, and the game would release in November. Of course, while I've made a lot of cool changes and progress... I am not anywhere near that point yet. A hard lesson I still haven't quite learned in the past several years that I've been working on this game is that it is incredibly challenging to have a consistent production schedule as a developer who: - Works alone - Juggles a full-time day job alongside game development - Has no budget / pays for all assets out of pocket - Is a human being (I think) who gets sick and experiences burnout sometimes Being a "solo indie dev" is a superhuman task. While I did not get to achieve the goal I set, I have to constantly remind myself that the game will become what I envisioned it to be in time, and that I must be patient with myself so long as I continue to do it the "hard mode" way. And so, at this point, the game will continue to have an unannounced date, "releasing when it is ready to release", as I develop it at the pace I am capable of. Perhaps I can locate an opportunity that will permit me to get the development support that I need to achieve these goals in a timely manner. However, as long as we are currently living in a difficult time (i.e. pandemic, record-breaking inflation) that demands prioritizing stability, this may be a hard thing to find. Those of you who follow the game's progress and read these developer's logs every month--I really appreciate you, and will persevere for you as you continue to be so understanding and willing to wait for the game we both wish to see released. Thank you, as always, for your continued patience and support. - Jaiden
[ 2022-09-26 14:15:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, First off, I apologize for delaying August's report until now. August and September have been challenging months for me, as I've had some big projects to take care of at my day job and other things in my life that have interfered with development. The good news is these things are starting to slow down, and I'm getting back into the groove of things. I have a lot of cool and exciting things to share about Legends of Astravia's battle system in this log that I hope you find interesting. In the end of the log, I will have a little bit of real talk regarding the game's roadmap, the challenges with completing it, and more.
Overworld - Fixes & Features
Overworld traversal and exploration is a pillar of Legends of Astravia, and so time spent improving the player's experience in this area is always worthwhile. I received a lot of positive feedback regarding how smooth controlling Oliver on the overworld felt--a result of the game's "gridless" movement that feels closer to Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun than the tile-based movement of the classic Final Fantasy games. However, the system had some severe performance issues, made some unusual use of disk read/writes for the collision tables, and also caused great difficulty with handling dynamic objects--the final issue very much required fixing for puzzles later in the game. The new system now performs much better, has less bugs, and permits doing all sorts of creative things with interactable objects:
Most importantly, dynamic layering of "multiple levels" that is much easier to accomplish with this new system:
All of the lovely Golden Sun-inspired puzzles I had in mind can now be a reality. I can't wait to share more map progress soon!
Battle System - Bugfixes, UX Enhancements & More
The battle system got a lot of much-needed love these past two months. After compiling player feedback from the demo, I finally was able to achieve some quality of life improvements, features, and enhancements that brings the battle system closer to where I want it to be for the final game.
Input Interrupts No More
Those of you who played the demo know this too well--the battle system is exciting and interesting, but the "turnless" gimmick quickly became frustrating whenever you were interrupted while selecting an action A lot of the solutions I thought up for this problem removed the fluidity that the "turnless" system offers. However, I was able to devise a solution that feels good and stays true to the system's original design:
If a battler is "ready for action" while the player is actively choosing an input for a character, the time bar will slow down and the battlers will wait until the player is done inputting before proceeding with displaying animations. It is much less jarring and a lot more tactically interesting than the way it currently is in the demo.
Hold Improvements
The "Hold" mechanic was created with the following consideration: "What if the RPG 'defend' command wasn't useless?" But I noticed a lot of players still had trouble understanding how to use it, and the benefits for healing were unclear.
Now, the character in a "Hold" state will gently and consistently heal after a short time period. This eliminates the awkwardness of needing to wait for actions to occur to get the benefit of defending.
State Display Improvements
Many players were rightfully confused by status ailments and buffs. It was very unclear as to when a buff was added or removed to a character in battle. That has now been improved:
Additionally, states are time-based now, and all of them wear off after a certain period of time instead of after "turns" (which was rather arbitrary). This will eventually be indicated on the UI as well.
Targeting Improvements
Another gameplay issue noted from watching people play the game. If you attempted to use a revival item, or healing item, it would default to whoever was using it--making this pretty problematic for quickly trying to heal another character.
The targeting system was completely revised, and now special state-based targeting is available. Using a revival item, for example, will auto-target the dead character instead of the very much alive one. This may apply to other things like special buffs, healing items, and certain skills as well.
Other Little Things
- The Time Bar's underlying code was refactored and improved, both in performance and stability - The display for battle state on the time bar was improved - Various animation timings were improved - Animations no longer randomly lose SFX, and damage numbers display with better timing - Any button cancels "Hold" now--which makes it a lot easier to navigate - Escaping battles actually displays an animation for a couple of seconds now - Fixed a bug (feature?) where there could be a "critical evade" or "critical miss" - Caught a couple of nasty bugs that could result in the game crashing to desktop - I'm sure there's more but I'd be listing a commit history at this point
The Reality of the "Solo Indie Dev"
Disclaimer: I try to avoid being serious and talking about these challenges that are common and my own business to sort out. However, I do know quite a few indie developers--or perhaps people who are just interested in the process of game development--read these logs. And so this section will hopefully make those who feel a similar way feel some solace. When I released the demo in February, I had anticipated at this point--the end of September--that the final beta for Chapter 1 of the game would be ready, and the game would release in November. Of course, while I've made a lot of cool changes and progress... I am not anywhere near that point yet. A hard lesson I still haven't quite learned in the past several years that I've been working on this game is that it is incredibly challenging to have a consistent production schedule as a developer who: - Works alone - Juggles a full-time day job alongside game development - Has no budget / pays for all assets out of pocket - Is a human being (I think) who gets sick and experiences burnout sometimes Being a "solo indie dev" is a superhuman task. While I did not get to achieve the goal I set, I have to constantly remind myself that the game will become what I envisioned it to be in time, and that I must be patient with myself so long as I continue to do it the "hard mode" way. And so, at this point, the game will continue to have an unannounced date, "releasing when it is ready to release", as I develop it at the pace I am capable of. Perhaps I can locate an opportunity that will permit me to get the development support that I need to achieve these goals in a timely manner. However, as long as we are currently living in a difficult time (i.e. pandemic, record-breaking inflation) that demands prioritizing stability, this may be a hard thing to find. Those of you who follow the game's progress and read these developer's logs every month--I really appreciate you, and will persevere for you as you continue to be so understanding and willing to wait for the game we both wish to see released. Thank you, as always, for your continued patience and support. - Jaiden
Developer's Log - July 2022
Some further improvements to the battle system core were made, part of the large list of changes garnered from the demo's early feedback. A big issue I noted when watching folks play the demo was that when a selected item or skill was interrupted, it was actually easy to forget or lose track of what action you were performing. Given the limited UI space, and not wanting to clutter the screen too much, I devised two solutions: [olist]The selected item or skill displays on the "command wheel", so you know with certainty which character is active and what the are using
The selected target shows a few more details in the "help" window, so you know who / what you are targeting.
[/olist]
Here's a little preview of it in progress:
It was actually a little more arduous than I was anticipating to get these windows to behave so dynamically, but I think it's a big improvement.
This was an issue that was going to be put off for a later build of the game closer to release, but after an epiphany on how I would accomplish the implementation, and a fresh eye on code, I was able to completely optimize the game's collision. This took a fair amount of time, but the improvements are well worth it. One of the big flaws of the old system was that it had some pretty severe performance issues, and it also caused great difficulty with handling dynamic objects--the latter issue very much required fixing for puzzles later in the game. The new system now performs much better, has less bugs, and permits doing all sorts of creative things with interactable objects. Here's a little snippet of the test area, showing the dynamic layering of "multiple levels" that is much easier to accomplish with the new system:
As for Mordin Village, there isn't too much to report just yet. But here are some screenshots that were shared on the official Twitter last week:
More to come soon, thank you for your continued patience and support! - Jaiden
[ 2022-08-06 20:11:25 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, For the month of July, progress was made on some mechanics, as well as maps and assets for the next areas. Unfortunately, the pace of development is still slower than usual. Also, a small note: In June's devlog, I mentioned a "Spring of 2024" release for Chapter 1 would be feasible--this was very much a typo! I intended to say Spring of 2023. (Thank you Mana for pointing that out!) This is a shorter log. When there isn't much to show off in a devlog, then it is likely that progress was likely made in areas that can't be shared--storywriting, dialogue, system balancing, etc.
Battle System Changes
Some further improvements to the battle system core were made, part of the large list of changes garnered from the demo's early feedback. A big issue I noted when watching folks play the demo was that when a selected item or skill was interrupted, it was actually easy to forget or lose track of what action you were performing. Given the limited UI space, and not wanting to clutter the screen too much, I devised two solutions: [olist]
It was actually a little more arduous than I was anticipating to get these windows to behave so dynamically, but I think it's a big improvement.
Collision Improvements
This was an issue that was going to be put off for a later build of the game closer to release, but after an epiphany on how I would accomplish the implementation, and a fresh eye on code, I was able to completely optimize the game's collision. This took a fair amount of time, but the improvements are well worth it. One of the big flaws of the old system was that it had some pretty severe performance issues, and it also caused great difficulty with handling dynamic objects--the latter issue very much required fixing for puzzles later in the game. The new system now performs much better, has less bugs, and permits doing all sorts of creative things with interactable objects. Here's a little snippet of the test area, showing the dynamic layering of "multiple levels" that is much easier to accomplish with the new system:
Mordin Village - Area Progress
As for Mordin Village, there isn't too much to report just yet. But here are some screenshots that were shared on the official Twitter last week:
More to come soon, thank you for your continued patience and support! - Jaiden
Developer's Log - June 2022
I'll start by ripping off the band-aid: I have set Chapter 1 of the game's release date across all sites back to "TBD". The anticipated release for the end of this year was already a pretty soft deadline, but I'd like to call it early to ensure anyone following the project and expecting to play a full game by the end of this year is not mislead. It has been very challenging to uphold the same momentum I had a couple months ago, and I'm just not certain that I can pull through for the rest of Chapter 1 at the same pace. Game development is kind of like running a marathon--and I've used up a lot of energy sprinting with both the demo release, maintenance, and other things discussed in the prior log. I think the new date won't be terribly far off--Spring of 2024 is feasible. But I'm not going to set any formal dates until I am certain. With that out of the way, let's see a little progress.
The next area of the game, Mordin Village, continues to be worked on. Being the first real "town" area, it will have a lot of additional characters, some side quests, and a big portion of the main story.
The base maps are finished now, and just need to be polished and have the actual events added to them. I think the new structure of the town is much more fitting, and makes it feel like home. Also, by splitting the map up into a couple of separate areas, it will help prevent any lag present in the original.
And here's an in-game shot:
NPC faces have been put together as well. My goal for the various towns of Astravia is to give even minor characters a bit of agency, and not have them be just scarecrows that sell you items. Nearly every member of Mordin Village will have their own personality and distinct relationships with other members of the town.
I was able to address some pretty big problems with object collision (i.e., walking into an enemy or door). In the demo, it was pretty apparent that certain enemies would seemingly cause a battle to start even though they were several tiles away from Oliver, or the doorways would trigger in an unusual way. This will no longer be an issue. I have some improvements in mind for wall collision as well, that will hopefully both help with performance and also some various issues reported with clipping. These are pretty intensive, and will take me a bit more time. The battle system changes discussed in the previous log are still being worked on, and just a few more features need to be added / tweaked. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. As always, thank you for your patience and continued support. I know many of you are eager to play more of the game, and I am so eager to share more of the world with you. I hope to have more fulfilling progress updates in the future. - Jaiden
[ 2022-07-08 12:30:11 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, I'm going to keep this update fairly short, as it's primarily meant to serve as a check-in for June's progress. Unfortunately, further bug fixes and gameplay mechanic improvements means less visual changes to share. Additionally, I am disappointed to admit that life has gotten in the way, and the time I've been able to put towards development has be heavily reduced from what it was at the beginning of the year. However, I am currently investigating some options that may permit me to get a little help with the project in order to mitigate the loss of progress I've had in the past couple of months. If all goes well, the pace of development should improve.
Release Date Change
I'll start by ripping off the band-aid: I have set Chapter 1 of the game's release date across all sites back to "TBD". The anticipated release for the end of this year was already a pretty soft deadline, but I'd like to call it early to ensure anyone following the project and expecting to play a full game by the end of this year is not mislead. It has been very challenging to uphold the same momentum I had a couple months ago, and I'm just not certain that I can pull through for the rest of Chapter 1 at the same pace. Game development is kind of like running a marathon--and I've used up a lot of energy sprinting with both the demo release, maintenance, and other things discussed in the prior log. I think the new date won't be terribly far off--Spring of 2024 is feasible. But I'm not going to set any formal dates until I am certain. With that out of the way, let's see a little progress.
Mordin Village Progress
The next area of the game, Mordin Village, continues to be worked on. Being the first real "town" area, it will have a lot of additional characters, some side quests, and a big portion of the main story.
The base maps are finished now, and just need to be polished and have the actual events added to them. I think the new structure of the town is much more fitting, and makes it feel like home. Also, by splitting the map up into a couple of separate areas, it will help prevent any lag present in the original.
And here's an in-game shot:
NPC faces have been put together as well. My goal for the various towns of Astravia is to give even minor characters a bit of agency, and not have them be just scarecrows that sell you items. Nearly every member of Mordin Village will have their own personality and distinct relationships with other members of the town.
Engine & Feature Progress
I was able to address some pretty big problems with object collision (i.e., walking into an enemy or door). In the demo, it was pretty apparent that certain enemies would seemingly cause a battle to start even though they were several tiles away from Oliver, or the doorways would trigger in an unusual way. This will no longer be an issue. I have some improvements in mind for wall collision as well, that will hopefully both help with performance and also some various issues reported with clipping. These are pretty intensive, and will take me a bit more time. The battle system changes discussed in the previous log are still being worked on, and just a few more features need to be added / tweaked. [hr][/hr] That's all for now. As always, thank you for your patience and continued support. I know many of you are eager to play more of the game, and I am so eager to share more of the world with you. I hope to have more fulfilling progress updates in the future. - Jaiden
Developer's Log - May 2022
I'd like to take a moment to speak a little more in-depth regarding the Japanese translation of the demo, which occurred through most of March and April. Back in March, I had an opportunity for the demo to be translated to Japanese. Translation was something I was not considering until the game was done, so the decision was a bit sudden. But as cliche as it is, I have always wanted to see the game in Japanese some day. Given Legends of Astravia's inspiration from other Japanese RPGs and media, I decided to go forward with it. From a development and production standpoint, this was objectively a bad decision. It resulted in me losing over a month of development time better suited for the final product in English, and may even result in the game being delayed. And I feel that some English players who have been following the project for a long time may be frustrated by this. For that, I apologize. But at the same time, I do not regret it. I think it was a very good experience for me as a developer, as I learned so much about the localization and language integration process. It allowed me to better understand the scope of such things, so I can properly estimate the financial and time cost of them in the future. I'll talk about the process a bit, mainly a few of the things I completely underestimated and why it took me so long. I think this will help understand why proper updates on future content have been sparse, and may also help my fellow developers who are considering Japanese translation realize the scope of such an undertaking. Below is a rather long technical discussion about the translation process. Click here to skip to the remaining updates about the game.
Game translation is not simply handing a document full of game text to someone and getting the translation in return (if you have a translator who promises this is all it takes--be wary!). It is a multi-step process with a lot of communication, and generally requires a lot of proper notes and information for the translator(s) handling the project. And, once the translation is done, it all needs to be added to the game, then tested and modified along the way. I had the pleasure of working with a very talented translator, Obatatsu(S.N.), who took a lot of care with the translation. They also managed the Localization Quality Assurance process while providing me guidance. I think the resulting Japanese demo came out wonderfully as a result. First, because I work in RPG Maker, I had to ensure the game text was in a manageable format (in this case, a spreadsheet). Thankfully, the game already utilizes a "Localization" plugin that had most of the game's text in an external file. The work involved with breaking that text out of the editor can stack up very quickly, and I probably wouldn't have considered it if it already wasn't done. Next, I had a document full of notes regarding context for the story, the characters personalities, and various "in world" language that was used. It is important to consider that certain aspects of your native language may not exist in the language you are translating to, or they may require more context and complexity. Thankfully I already had some basic understanding of Japanese, but even with that, there was a lot of extra information needed about the world and certain story elements. In the case of an RPG, careful consideration was needed regarding the database and interface too. It is not just the character dialogue that needs to be translated. Character names, item names, item descriptions, menu elements, overworld exploration... these are all things that need to be translated. I quickly found during the process that even in my prior preparation, I had tons of hard-coded strings in the battle system, etc. that needed to be pulled out of the engine and made available to translate. Once I received all of the game text from the translator, I began the integration process. It is worth pointing out there are often entire dedicated teams that handle such things, and after over a month of work integrating a translation for only 1 hour of game, I quickly understood that fact.
Text length is something that trips up most developers doing an English -> [Insert Language Here] translation. I told myself I was prepared, but a lot of it still really caught me off guard. My understanding of Japanese was that you could portray a lot more in a sentence with less characters. And while that may be true, Japanese (and Chinese and Korean, by the way) characters render approximately 1.5 times the width of Roman/Latin ones. Such fullwidth characters can quickly cause a text overflow problem.
I found that I became very close to requiring an extra textbox for certain scenes of the game, but thankfully did not get to that point. Most of the textboxes in the demo were only 2-3 lines in length, which quickly became 3-4 in the Japanese version. Another observation to make here is that Japanese text does not have spaces. If you have a script that automatically generates line breaks based on spaces, it will quickly fall apart when translating to a language that does not have them. For dialogue, I manually added every linebreak in Japanese. This required a reasonable understanding of how Japanese sentences are structured, and took me a lot of time. In the future, I think I would work a little closer with the translator on this, and have a special set of guidelines for maximum line length.
When rendering in different languages, not all fonts support CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) characters. I had to choose several different fonts for various aspects of the game, since Astravia uses different fonts for headers, text, UI and even cutscenes.
While it was a lot of fun to pick out interesting fonts in Japanese, this was yet another layer of scope added to the process.
Lastly, the User Interface elements. Similarly to dialogue text length, the user interface can suffer from having too little space. And unfortunately, an extra text box can't just be added.
I had to create many special exceptions for how text was managed, especially in the battle system. Because the word order is so different in Japanese, the way I substituted certain action text had to be changed, too. [hr][/hr] While I could continue to discuss so many aspects of the process, I think that is enough detail for this log. It was really a joy to learn about, and I have so much respect for translators and people involved in game localization. But perhaps this helps paint a picture of just how involved the process was, and why it took such a large chunk out of development progress. My hope for the future is that I can garner the budget and resources to have the rest of the game in Japanese. As arduous as the process was, it is really rewarding to see how the characters and story became reflected in that language, and for that, I'd go through it again. However, priority will remain on completion of the rest of the game (in English!) in the meantime. [h2=jplocskip]Core System Adjustments Based on Demo Feedback
This past month, I was able to get some work done on the battle system's core based on feedback I received regarding the demo. I will continue to make such adjustments to the final game as both demo and beta testing feedback comes in, but the goal is to really solidify things so I have to change very little for the later half of the game.
The battle's timer system, while dynamic and interesting, had a lot of flaws. They start to show a little bit in the demo, which some of you may have noticed. Character speed varied by nearly 2-3x, leading to some characters "lapping" others on the time bar. Depending on how much of the demo you beat, either Oliver and Azel moved so quickly that there was really no challenge at all, or you would get thrashed by lighting-fast bees. It was not a smooth progression. This would prove problematic to balance in later parts of the game. The new system is a little closer to a conventional ATB, with each character and enemy having a predictable speed stat, that only varies with enhancements from equipment and essence. Here's a little comparison, with the current demo at the top, and the revision on the bottom:
Damage got a small rework in the process too, which is something that will likely require more adjustment as time goes on. I want to ensure that battles have a little more depth to them than just casting a spell to win. I've spent many hours in a spreadsheet, tweaking formulas and testing outcomes.
It is very close to where I want it to be, and the changes will be in the next beta version to test out.
While working in the battle system, I also fixed a problem with enemy drop rates. Apparently, the drop table is rolling twice during the demo, which is why the demo ends with an inventory of about 30000 mushroom caps. Whoops! I took the time to also extend the range of rarity. So now, items have the capacity to drop as rarely as 1/1000 battles instead of just 1/100.
Something that I was eager to showcase this month was visual progress for upcoming content. But disappointingly, there is not as much as I hoped to share. Baldric, and some other NPCs, had their facesets completed. Main characters have many more faces, plus the blink animation, so it takes me some time to draw and prepare them. With this, I can start story and quest development.
Mordin Village itself has received a makeover. I was not satisfied with the original structure, which was very chaotic (given it was one of my first maps, this is not a surprise). Here is a very rough work in progress on that:
The new jumping / cliff system is in place, and the map was split into two separate ones, separated by the bridge. There is also an extra map, not shown here, that plays into the story. Lastly, a battle teaser with some new enemies:
I wonder what will come of this situation...?
It is becoming increasingly concerning that I may not be able to meet the Q4 deadline for Chapter 1, and I really used a lot of my development energy maintaining and updating the demo version of the game the past two months. I'd like to be a little more consistent with progress, so from now on, I will return to monthly developers logs. As it stands, the next beta wave, due for this month, is now due to be ready in July. But I want to be honest and say that the end-of-year deadline for Chapter 1's release is looking less and less probable. I don't want to throw in the towel just yet, so the "Q4 2022" will remain on the Steam page. However, within the next couple of months, if I cannot pick up the pace on development or get funding, I will need to delay the release further. I will be sure to keep you all up to date on this process, and I'm sincerely sorry for those of you who have been waiting so long and are eager to play the game. Your patience, understanding, and support even as I struggle to maintain a balance of managing my daily life and health while developing this game means a lot. I hope to have more to share with you soon. That's all for now. If you've read this far, thank you so much! I look forward to next month's report. -Jaiden
[ 2022-06-06 22:00:14 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, First off, I'd like to apologize for the delay on this developer's log and reporting on the game's progress. It has been two months since the last formal report, and a couple of weeks since I've shared any visual progress on the game's twitter account (which is far too long). While a lot certainly happened since then (Japanese translation of the demo comes to mind), many of you have been excited for the game and are likely expecting to hear more about how it is coming along. I've had some personal setbacks, which are unfortunately a natural occurrence as a solo developer. I will get into more detail in the "Roadmap Update" section of the log. For now, let's see how things are coming along with the game:
Development Progress
Japanese Translation of the Demo
I'd like to take a moment to speak a little more in-depth regarding the Japanese translation of the demo, which occurred through most of March and April. Back in March, I had an opportunity for the demo to be translated to Japanese. Translation was something I was not considering until the game was done, so the decision was a bit sudden. But as cliche as it is, I have always wanted to see the game in Japanese some day. Given Legends of Astravia's inspiration from other Japanese RPGs and media, I decided to go forward with it. From a development and production standpoint, this was objectively a bad decision. It resulted in me losing over a month of development time better suited for the final product in English, and may even result in the game being delayed. And I feel that some English players who have been following the project for a long time may be frustrated by this. For that, I apologize. But at the same time, I do not regret it. I think it was a very good experience for me as a developer, as I learned so much about the localization and language integration process. It allowed me to better understand the scope of such things, so I can properly estimate the financial and time cost of them in the future. I'll talk about the process a bit, mainly a few of the things I completely underestimated and why it took me so long. I think this will help understand why proper updates on future content have been sparse, and may also help my fellow developers who are considering Japanese translation realize the scope of such an undertaking. Below is a rather long technical discussion about the translation process. Click here to skip to the remaining updates about the game.
Preparation
Game translation is not simply handing a document full of game text to someone and getting the translation in return (if you have a translator who promises this is all it takes--be wary!). It is a multi-step process with a lot of communication, and generally requires a lot of proper notes and information for the translator(s) handling the project. And, once the translation is done, it all needs to be added to the game, then tested and modified along the way. I had the pleasure of working with a very talented translator, Obatatsu(S.N.), who took a lot of care with the translation. They also managed the Localization Quality Assurance process while providing me guidance. I think the resulting Japanese demo came out wonderfully as a result. First, because I work in RPG Maker, I had to ensure the game text was in a manageable format (in this case, a spreadsheet). Thankfully, the game already utilizes a "Localization" plugin that had most of the game's text in an external file. The work involved with breaking that text out of the editor can stack up very quickly, and I probably wouldn't have considered it if it already wasn't done. Next, I had a document full of notes regarding context for the story, the characters personalities, and various "in world" language that was used. It is important to consider that certain aspects of your native language may not exist in the language you are translating to, or they may require more context and complexity. Thankfully I already had some basic understanding of Japanese, but even with that, there was a lot of extra information needed about the world and certain story elements. In the case of an RPG, careful consideration was needed regarding the database and interface too. It is not just the character dialogue that needs to be translated. Character names, item names, item descriptions, menu elements, overworld exploration... these are all things that need to be translated. I quickly found during the process that even in my prior preparation, I had tons of hard-coded strings in the battle system, etc. that needed to be pulled out of the engine and made available to translate. Once I received all of the game text from the translator, I began the integration process. It is worth pointing out there are often entire dedicated teams that handle such things, and after over a month of work integrating a translation for only 1 hour of game, I quickly understood that fact.
Text Length
Text length is something that trips up most developers doing an English -> [Insert Language Here] translation. I told myself I was prepared, but a lot of it still really caught me off guard. My understanding of Japanese was that you could portray a lot more in a sentence with less characters. And while that may be true, Japanese (and Chinese and Korean, by the way) characters render approximately 1.5 times the width of Roman/Latin ones. Such fullwidth characters can quickly cause a text overflow problem.
I found that I became very close to requiring an extra textbox for certain scenes of the game, but thankfully did not get to that point. Most of the textboxes in the demo were only 2-3 lines in length, which quickly became 3-4 in the Japanese version. Another observation to make here is that Japanese text does not have spaces. If you have a script that automatically generates line breaks based on spaces, it will quickly fall apart when translating to a language that does not have them. For dialogue, I manually added every linebreak in Japanese. This required a reasonable understanding of how Japanese sentences are structured, and took me a lot of time. In the future, I think I would work a little closer with the translator on this, and have a special set of guidelines for maximum line length.
Fonts and Typesetting
When rendering in different languages, not all fonts support CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) characters. I had to choose several different fonts for various aspects of the game, since Astravia uses different fonts for headers, text, UI and even cutscenes.
While it was a lot of fun to pick out interesting fonts in Japanese, this was yet another layer of scope added to the process.
User Interface
Lastly, the User Interface elements. Similarly to dialogue text length, the user interface can suffer from having too little space. And unfortunately, an extra text box can't just be added.
I had to create many special exceptions for how text was managed, especially in the battle system. Because the word order is so different in Japanese, the way I substituted certain action text had to be changed, too. [hr][/hr] While I could continue to discuss so many aspects of the process, I think that is enough detail for this log. It was really a joy to learn about, and I have so much respect for translators and people involved in game localization. But perhaps this helps paint a picture of just how involved the process was, and why it took such a large chunk out of development progress. My hope for the future is that I can garner the budget and resources to have the rest of the game in Japanese. As arduous as the process was, it is really rewarding to see how the characters and story became reflected in that language, and for that, I'd go through it again. However, priority will remain on completion of the rest of the game (in English!) in the meantime. [h2=jplocskip]Core System Adjustments Based on Demo Feedback
This past month, I was able to get some work done on the battle system's core based on feedback I received regarding the demo. I will continue to make such adjustments to the final game as both demo and beta testing feedback comes in, but the goal is to really solidify things so I have to change very little for the later half of the game.
Battle Speed & Damage Adjustments
The battle's timer system, while dynamic and interesting, had a lot of flaws. They start to show a little bit in the demo, which some of you may have noticed. Character speed varied by nearly 2-3x, leading to some characters "lapping" others on the time bar. Depending on how much of the demo you beat, either Oliver and Azel moved so quickly that there was really no challenge at all, or you would get thrashed by lighting-fast bees. It was not a smooth progression. This would prove problematic to balance in later parts of the game. The new system is a little closer to a conventional ATB, with each character and enemy having a predictable speed stat, that only varies with enhancements from equipment and essence. Here's a little comparison, with the current demo at the top, and the revision on the bottom:
Damage got a small rework in the process too, which is something that will likely require more adjustment as time goes on. I want to ensure that battles have a little more depth to them than just casting a spell to win. I've spent many hours in a spreadsheet, tweaking formulas and testing outcomes.
It is very close to where I want it to be, and the changes will be in the next beta version to test out.
Enemy Drop Rates
While working in the battle system, I also fixed a problem with enemy drop rates. Apparently, the drop table is rolling twice during the demo, which is why the demo ends with an inventory of about 30000 mushroom caps. Whoops! I took the time to also extend the range of rarity. So now, items have the capacity to drop as rarely as 1/1000 battles instead of just 1/100.
Content Progress - Mordin Village
Something that I was eager to showcase this month was visual progress for upcoming content. But disappointingly, there is not as much as I hoped to share. Baldric, and some other NPCs, had their facesets completed. Main characters have many more faces, plus the blink animation, so it takes me some time to draw and prepare them. With this, I can start story and quest development.
Mordin Village itself has received a makeover. I was not satisfied with the original structure, which was very chaotic (given it was one of my first maps, this is not a surprise). Here is a very rough work in progress on that:
The new jumping / cliff system is in place, and the map was split into two separate ones, separated by the bridge. There is also an extra map, not shown here, that plays into the story. Lastly, a battle teaser with some new enemies:
I wonder what will come of this situation...?
Roadmap Update
It is becoming increasingly concerning that I may not be able to meet the Q4 deadline for Chapter 1, and I really used a lot of my development energy maintaining and updating the demo version of the game the past two months. I'd like to be a little more consistent with progress, so from now on, I will return to monthly developers logs. As it stands, the next beta wave, due for this month, is now due to be ready in July. But I want to be honest and say that the end-of-year deadline for Chapter 1's release is looking less and less probable. I don't want to throw in the towel just yet, so the "Q4 2022" will remain on the Steam page. However, within the next couple of months, if I cannot pick up the pace on development or get funding, I will need to delay the release further. I will be sure to keep you all up to date on this process, and I'm sincerely sorry for those of you who have been waiting so long and are eager to play the game. Your patience, understanding, and support even as I struggle to maintain a balance of managing my daily life and health while developing this game means a lot. I hope to have more to share with you soon. That's all for now. If you've read this far, thank you so much! I look forward to next month's report. -Jaiden
The demo now fully supports Japanese! (+0.3.0 Update Patch)
Priority was provided to the Japanese translation due to the game's heavy inspiration from JRPGs. We want to provide Legends of Astravia in as many languages as possible, and this was a good test for how difficult the integration is. Unfortunately, since it costs a lot of development time on top of a financial burden to translate, other languages will likely not be considered for translation until after the release of the full game. An announcement will be made in the future if these circumstances change for whatever reason.
This update also includes a small patch that provides a few more QoL fixes to the demo. Changelog:
Linux and Steam Deck support is now confirmed! (Special thanks to HawkZombie for physically checking the Steam Deck). However please note that Linux support is made available via Steam's "Proton" feature. While a dedicated Linux build was possible, due to development constraints, we're not able to test the various distributions of Linux to ensure the game is stable on most machines. Thus, Proton was the ideal, more widely compatible solution. Please report any issues in the support forum. [hr][/hr] Thank you for your support. I have received lots of helpful and uplifting feedback about the demo since its English release in February, and I hope it is an enjoyable experience for Japanese players as well. I am looking forward to sharing more updates soon! -Jaiden
[ 2022-04-29 00:50:57 CET ] [ Original post ]
Legends of Astravia's demo has been fully translated to Japanese. A huge thank you to obatatsu for making this possible! It is very exciting to be able to offer this, since Legends of Astravia was originally inspired by Japanese RPGs. We really hope you enjoy it. The game should automatically detect the system language. If it does not, you can switch the language between English and Japanese in the game options at any time. At this time, there is no dedicated technical support or community support available in Japanese. If you are interested in volunteering to help Studio Alemni with this, please contact Jaiden via Discord here.
A note about translation to other languages
Priority was provided to the Japanese translation due to the game's heavy inspiration from JRPGs. We want to provide Legends of Astravia in as many languages as possible, and this was a good test for how difficult the integration is. Unfortunately, since it costs a lot of development time on top of a financial burden to translate, other languages will likely not be considered for translation until after the release of the full game. An announcement will be made in the future if these circumstances change for whatever reason.
Version 0.3.0 Update
This update also includes a small patch that provides a few more QoL fixes to the demo. Changelog:
- Added Japanese language support
- Verified Linux and Steam Deck support via Proton
- Improved handling of incompatible controllers
- Adjusted battle speed for a more consistent experience
- Rebalanced the game audio
- Added some missing sound effects to the boss sequence
- Fixed a bug where the Essence tutorial window would close completely when attempting to skip text
- Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash when fighting the boss
- Fixed a bug where some animation sound effects might not play
- [strike]Added new bugs?[/strike]
Linux & Steam Deck Support
Linux and Steam Deck support is now confirmed! (Special thanks to HawkZombie for physically checking the Steam Deck). However please note that Linux support is made available via Steam's "Proton" feature. While a dedicated Linux build was possible, due to development constraints, we're not able to test the various distributions of Linux to ensure the game is stable on most machines. Thus, Proton was the ideal, more widely compatible solution. Please report any issues in the support forum. [hr][/hr] Thank you for your support. I have received lots of helpful and uplifting feedback about the demo since its English release in February, and I hope it is an enjoyable experience for Japanese players as well. I am looking forward to sharing more updates soon! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - March 2022
On February 14th, I released the demo for Legends of Astravia on Steam for Windows and MacOS. Since then, the game has been downloaded over 2,500 times! Many of you have provided me with useful feedback, reported bugs, and even showcased the game via Let's Play streams and videos. Having consistently worked on the game for the past 4 years, I could not be happier with such a reception. I am so grateful for everyone's support and enthusiasm about the game so far, and I can't wait to share more of it with you. Thank you so much!
A lot of progress was primarily made on the "backend", that is, programming, planning, and preparing the game for developing all of the content within Chapter 1.
I began roughing out some of the next areas of the game, including a large cave (treasures to be added!):
Mordin Village was one of the first maps I made for Astravia, so it's funny to look back at it now. It'll probably have a few small changes made before release, but here's what it looks like:
Speaking of Mordin Village, its main story and quests have all been planned out, and character dialogue is being worked on. Here's a teaser of some of the characters you'll see. Some of you who remember Astravia in 2019 might remember them:
There are still several more residents who fill the town, each with their own personalities and stories to share.
With almost 900 followers on twitter, I am going to skip ahead of the milestone to reveal the next playable cast member early:
Minerva offers a wide range of abilities--and knowledge--to Oliver and his team later in Chapter 1. She's fascinated with mysticians, and offers to help Oliver search for answers regarding his memory in exchange for knowledge about his magic prowess. Minerva is a member of the elves, who reign from a town hidden away in the deserts of Bymere. The elves have been around for many years longer than Astravian humans, and it's said that some who witnessed the Great Cataclysm may still be alive in the present day. However, among the elves, there exist no mysticians... With Minerva revealed, there is only 1 more playable character to show off. They'll be revealed when the official twitter reaches 1000 followers!
The reason why progress appears to be a little thin is because I have spent the better part of March working on something extra special, that I cannot yet share. I can't wait to announce it, so keep an eye out!
There will be one last patch to the demo before the pre-game release one later this year. It'll serve to address a few more issues with the demo to hopefully make players' first experience with the game best it can be. Here are the things planned for that patch:
As I mentioned upon the demo's release, native Linux support would take some additional time to publish. With the release of the Steam Deck, I will be prioritizing this, so that folks can enjoy the demo on the go, too. At the moment, the game does not support the Steam Deck even through Proton conversion. I am looking into this and am aiming to have it working and supported with the release of the next patch.
As promised, I will be detailing the game's roadmap and whether or not things are on schedule for Chapter 1's release. Currently, I am a little behind. The demo release and all of the things I did afterwards took some time that would have otherwise been used for creating game content. That said, the roadmap is still as follows:
If you are interested in participating in beta testing, please keep an eye on these developer's logs, and join the Official Discord server to be notified. Beta testing is a core aspect of the game's success, and I'm incredibly grateful for the time folks have volunteered to provide feedback on the game when it's in an incomplete state. --- That's all for now. Thank you as always, everyone, for your support as I continue development. -Jaiden
[ 2022-04-02 18:22:54 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, It's been a couple of months since I published a proper developer's log. Sorry to keep you waiting! Going forward, with each new log, I will:
- Provide information regarding development progress,
- Make any necessary announcements,
- And follow up on the roadmap and the likelihood that Chapter 1 will meet its release deadline.
Demo Release Recap
On February 14th, I released the demo for Legends of Astravia on Steam for Windows and MacOS. Since then, the game has been downloaded over 2,500 times! Many of you have provided me with useful feedback, reported bugs, and even showcased the game via Let's Play streams and videos. Having consistently worked on the game for the past 4 years, I could not be happier with such a reception. I am so grateful for everyone's support and enthusiasm about the game so far, and I can't wait to share more of it with you. Thank you so much!
Progress Report
A lot of progress was primarily made on the "backend", that is, programming, planning, and preparing the game for developing all of the content within Chapter 1.
Under the Hood
- Rework the character speed algorithm
- Character stat balancing adjustments
- Battle code optimization
- Improved controller checking on startup
- Other misc optimizations and fixes
Map Progress
I began roughing out some of the next areas of the game, including a large cave (treasures to be added!):
Mordin Village was one of the first maps I made for Astravia, so it's funny to look back at it now. It'll probably have a few small changes made before release, but here's what it looks like:
Mordin Village
Speaking of Mordin Village, its main story and quests have all been planned out, and character dialogue is being worked on. Here's a teaser of some of the characters you'll see. Some of you who remember Astravia in 2019 might remember them:
There are still several more residents who fill the town, each with their own personalities and stories to share.
Character Reveal - Minerva
With almost 900 followers on twitter, I am going to skip ahead of the milestone to reveal the next playable cast member early:
Minerva offers a wide range of abilities--and knowledge--to Oliver and his team later in Chapter 1. She's fascinated with mysticians, and offers to help Oliver search for answers regarding his memory in exchange for knowledge about his magic prowess. Minerva is a member of the elves, who reign from a town hidden away in the deserts of Bymere. The elves have been around for many years longer than Astravian humans, and it's said that some who witnessed the Great Cataclysm may still be alive in the present day. However, among the elves, there exist no mysticians... With Minerva revealed, there is only 1 more playable character to show off. They'll be revealed when the official twitter reaches 1000 followers!
Secret Announcement?
The reason why progress appears to be a little thin is because I have spent the better part of March working on something extra special, that I cannot yet share. I can't wait to announce it, so keep an eye out!
Final Demo Patch Plans
There will be one last patch to the demo before the pre-game release one later this year. It'll serve to address a few more issues with the demo to hopefully make players' first experience with the game best it can be. Here are the things planned for that patch:
- Better user experience when an incompatible controller is detected
- Audio balancing adjustments
- Addressing several bugs:
- Fix missing SFX on some attacks
- Fix dungeon jump gap softlock
- Fix essence tutorial window auto-closing on input
- Additional polish on the dungeon end sequence
- Improved battle target handling and UI
- Linux support
- (Secret!)
Linux & Steam Deck Support
As I mentioned upon the demo's release, native Linux support would take some additional time to publish. With the release of the Steam Deck, I will be prioritizing this, so that folks can enjoy the demo on the go, too. At the moment, the game does not support the Steam Deck even through Proton conversion. I am looking into this and am aiming to have it working and supported with the release of the next patch.
Roadmap Update
As promised, I will be detailing the game's roadmap and whether or not things are on schedule for Chapter 1's release. Currently, I am a little behind. The demo release and all of the things I did afterwards took some time that would have otherwise been used for creating game content. That said, the roadmap is still as follows:
If you are interested in participating in beta testing, please keep an eye on these developer's logs, and join the Official Discord server to be notified. Beta testing is a core aspect of the game's success, and I'm incredibly grateful for the time folks have volunteered to provide feedback on the game when it's in an incomplete state. --- That's all for now. Thank you as always, everyone, for your support as I continue development. -Jaiden
Small Demo Patch - v0.1.9
[ 2022-03-01 00:55:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi folks, The demo gets another small patch today, ahead of the standalone release due to hit a few other platforms this week. This further addresses some issues reported via the feedback form. If you've already played the game, there is nothing really new to share, but it should improve the experience for those who are trying the game out for the first time.
Changes
- Opening a Skill or Item list in battle now drastically slows down the time bar, making it easier to read and make a choice without being punished. This can still be toggled in the options menu.
- The save menu now delays for a bit and gives proper confirmation of the save action. Additionally, saving manually from the menu is permitted until you step off of the save point.
- "Quit Game" in the main menu now permits returning to the title screen.
- Improved the clarity of "Unleash" skills' availability in battle.
- Improved the clarity of Escape Crystal's unlimited uses.
- Fixed an issue where pressing F11 would crash the game (whoops...).
- Fixed an issue where evading could happen with actions that should not miss, like self-buffs and healing.
- Fixed an issue where Soulich's vine attack was missing SFX.
- Fixed an issue with, and improved, Azel's "Arcane Arts" animation.
- Fixed an issue where having 0 ME would also highlight LE in red.
- Fixed some animation transparency issues.
Demo Release Follow-up & First Patch
I've gone ahead and pushed a small patch today in order to address some known issues and new issues reported by players this week. Mainly, regarding the battle controls and the dungeon boss, which ended up being significantly more difficult and frustrating than I intended.
I'm aiming to apply minimal patches to the demo, as my focus is going to be 100% geared on getting Chapter 1 out by the end of this year. That said, some more fixes should make their way into the demo hopefully soon. I'm constantly keeping an eye on the reports that are coming in. An up to date list of issues can be found on Steam here. Some other issues that I intend to fix in a future patch are:
[ 2022-02-20 14:34:27 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hey everyone! First off, a massive thank you to all of you who downloaded the demo. Hundreds of you have given it a spin, and I can't express how exciting that is. I'm incredibly grateful that folks have enjoyed a piece of the experience I've been crafting for the past several years. Many of you also gave some feedback through streams and videos or filling out the feedback form. This has been a huge help! Being able to see at a glance the different weak or strong points the demo has gives me a good idea of where to prioritize when developing the game. If you didn't get a chance to fill out the feedback survey, but want to, you can do so below. If you played the demo, but quit out of boredom or frustration, please be sure to let me know in the form below, too! All feedback, critical or positive, is always welcome: https://www.studioalemni.com/demo-feedback
Demo Patch 1 - v0.1.8
I've gone ahead and pushed a small patch today in order to address some known issues and new issues reported by players this week. Mainly, regarding the battle controls and the dungeon boss, which ended up being significantly more difficult and frustrating than I intended.
Changes
- When starting a new game, there is now a prompt to select your preferred battle control style. This option actually always existed, but I never called attention to it. With folks expressing frustration with learning the battle controls, I've decided to provide the option right away.
- The menu can no longer be opened during one of the cutscenes (most of you didn't notice, though)!
- Additionally, fixed a bug where the cutscene before the dungeon would replay when loading a save.
- Fixed a bug where the player would softlock if approaching the 2nd floor dungeon shortcut from the side.
- Rebalanced the EXP distribution across the demo to make the boss battle difficulty more consistent.
- Additionally, modified how the "Bound" state is applied during the boss battle and reduced the boss's HP to make it feel a little more fair.
- Fixed an incorrect button prompt display on the Cataclysm cutscene.
- Oliver layers with the trees in Mordin Forest a little better now.
- Fixed some typos.
- Shuffled around some Essence, and added an extra piece of equipment to experiment with.
What's Next?
I'm aiming to apply minimal patches to the demo, as my focus is going to be 100% geared on getting Chapter 1 out by the end of this year. That said, some more fixes should make their way into the demo hopefully soon. I'm constantly keeping an eye on the reports that are coming in. An up to date list of issues can be found on Steam here. Some other issues that I intend to fix in a future patch are:
- Preventing the message window from closing when skipping text in the Essence tutorial
- Addressing SFX, audio balance and animation issues
- Offering a way to view skill descriptions outside of battle
- Making skill and target selection in battle a little more intuitive
- Fixing MacOS controller support
The Legends of Astravia Demo is Now Available!
[ 2022-02-14 13:44:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Fight monsters, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets alongside a mystic companion as you explore the twisting pathways of Mordin Swamp in this one hour introduction to the world of Astravia!
The demo can be downloaded for free right here on Steam! It is currently available for both Windows and MacOS. A Linux release will arrive at a later date.
Any bugs or issues can be reported via the Community page or in the Official Discord Server. Please be sure to read the guidelines for both places before making a report. Otherwise, any feedback is more than welcome, and will help make the game the best it can be when Chapter 1 releases, hopefully, later this year!
Thank you for your endless support, I really hope you enjoy the game. After several years of development, I'm beyond excited to finally be able to share something playable with the world.
-Jaiden
Free Demo Launching February 14th!
[ 2022-02-07 14:35:13 CET ] [ Original post ]
I'm very excited to announce that the free demo for Legends of Astravia is going to be launching right here on Steam next Monday, February 14th. Fight monsters, solve puzzles, and uncover secrets alongside a mystic companion as you explore the twisting pathways of Mordin Swamp in this 1 hour introduction to the world of Astravia! [previewyoutube=YzQdbJs0L1g;full][/previewyoutube] The demo will be exclusive to Steam for the first couple of weeks. However it will release as a standalone version on other platforms such as itch.io and GameJolt on March 1st. It will be playable on Windows and MacOS, and a Linux version may also be made available in the near feature. This launch comes a lot earlier than originally anticipated, and it would not have been possible without the help of all of the beta testers who volunteered their time to testing the game: Burt Cyke DjSlimey Harmie Hyblitz IHateTypingInBoxes Jkweath KK20 Koroknroll Kraaler MarkusJV OzzyTheOne Ryan V Tort Triplemoon Zefir And especially those who took the time to provide live feedback via a video playthrough: CodaPill DedeSans HawkZombie Iri LavaSlug Nikorasu SergeSkunk Thank you, as always for all of your support. I hope everyone is excited to see what Legends of Astravia has to offer!
2021 Year End Summary
Here are some detailed breakdowns on the features added and progress for the month of December.
While I wasn't able to release the demo publicly as I originally hoped, I was able to complete the release candidate for the demo. That's right--the demo's content is 100% complete! There are still some things I need to sort out before releasing it to the public, however, which I'll talk about more in the "Roadmap" section below.
The has been tested and successful launches from Steam! Being able to launch it like other games feels really satisfying. I was also able to successfully build the game's engine for Linux, which is very exciting. I cannot promise incredible support for many distributions, but it will allow some folks on this platform to give the game a try!
Knowing which button to press is important in RPGs, so a little extra TLC went into the UI to have animated buttons whenever prompted to press something.
Eventually these will be used in the menus as well, which should be helpful when navigating.
A little more UI polish: a speech icon appears over characters that have something to say:
Additionally, if you've exhausted all of their dialogue options, the icon changes as a quick reminder. This way, you only have to listen to Azel's lectures once ;)
Explorables also utilize the same system:
In June of 2020, I announced that the game would be put on a pretty large "hold" while I took a step back and worked on the engine. It has been a long journey since then, but the way the game has evolved is truly special, and this is all thanks to the early feedback from testers and design advice from colleagues. Here are some screenshots of how the game has changed in the year, visually, from December 2020 to December 2021:
And, as a fun little bonus, here's an example of just how far the battle system has come along over the years:
I have a few announcements for some opportunities regarding the demo and the game's community. [h4]Demo Closed Beta Test Signups[/h4] Currently, the demo release candidate has been issued to a very small pool of individuals. I'd like to expand this a little bit to get some proper information about how the game behaves on a variety of machines. If you'd like to try out the demo in its beta state before its available to the public, please fill out this form. I will be issuing demo keys to those who qualify in a couple of weeks. (In all honesty, if you fill out the form, that's pretty much a qualifier since you've gotten this far through my rambling to see it!)
The game's public Discord server has been very quiet as the game has been developed. I anticipate a lot more activity once the demo becomes public, and thus will need a little help to manage the community. This will ensure that the scarce free time I have is spent with the game's development. Please note that this role is unpaid. There will be no financial compensation for moderating the server, and it is entirely voluntary. Moderators will, however, be provided with a free copy of the game and early access to beta versions. Moderators have kick/pan permissions and are responsible for ensuring a safe & pleasant community. This means redirecting off-topic discussions, removing spam/bots/rulebreaking content, and diffusing any issues that may arise. Legends of Astravia currently does not have "general" or "offtopic" chat channelsall discussions remain relevant to the game. As a result, moderation should be fairly laid back. If you are interested in being a moderator, please fill out this form.
I anticipate this year to be a very busy one, as I'd like to release the demo and Chapter 1 of the game. Timing of both is rather important, given a lot of big games are coming out this year. Here are some rough plans for both the public demo and the first part of the game.
While the demo is truly complete outside of a little more polish, I admit timing the release is very important. I don't want to release the demo too soon before Chapter 1 is ready, as I want folks to be excited for, and be able to enjoy, a full game experience shortly after. As it stands, I will be releasing the demo publicly, and for free, approximately 1-2 months prior to Chapter 1's release. There may be some special key giveaways and opportunities to try the game prior to this, so keep an eye on Twitter and Discord.
Content development has moved very quickly, and while Chapter 1 is entirely planned, I need to give myself proper time to ensure the game can be released on time and any big bugs can be worked out. The tentative release for Chapter 1 is thus Fall of 2022. A formal date and pricing will be announced along with the public demo's release. --- I am feeling very optimistic about this year, and I can't wait to share more progress with you. Thank you to everyone who has given me invaluable support by lending their time to the game for advice, playtesting and feedback, and to all of you who take the time to read through these logs every month. It means the world that so many people believe in the work I do, and it helps me carry on regardless of the setbacks that I face. Happy new year! -Jaiden
[ 2022-01-09 14:44:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
(A small aside: I either did not notice, or Steam recently added, a "News" category for announcements. I will ensure all future developer's logs fall under "News"). I realize this developer's log comes a week into January, but this one has taken me quite a bit of time to write up. 2021 has been a great, but challenging year for Legends of Astravia's development. I figured it would thus be appropriate for December's devlog to be a summary of how the game is shaping up, plus a few fun announcements about the plan ahead for 2022.
December Progress
Here are some detailed breakdowns on the features added and progress for the month of December.
Demo - Done!
While I wasn't able to release the demo publicly as I originally hoped, I was able to complete the release candidate for the demo. That's right--the demo's content is 100% complete! There are still some things I need to sort out before releasing it to the public, however, which I'll talk about more in the "Roadmap" section below.
Steam Support & Linux Build
The has been tested and successful launches from Steam! Being able to launch it like other games feels really satisfying. I was also able to successfully build the game's engine for Linux, which is very exciting. I cannot promise incredible support for many distributions, but it will allow some folks on this platform to give the game a try!
Tutorial Button Prompts
Knowing which button to press is important in RPGs, so a little extra TLC went into the UI to have animated buttons whenever prompted to press something.
Eventually these will be used in the menus as well, which should be helpful when navigating.
Speech / Explore Icons
A little more UI polish: a speech icon appears over characters that have something to say:
Additionally, if you've exhausted all of their dialogue options, the icon changes as a quick reminder. This way, you only have to listen to Azel's lectures once ;)
Explorables also utilize the same system:
2021 in Summary
In June of 2020, I announced that the game would be put on a pretty large "hold" while I took a step back and worked on the engine. It has been a long journey since then, but the way the game has evolved is truly special, and this is all thanks to the early feedback from testers and design advice from colleagues. Here are some screenshots of how the game has changed in the year, visually, from December 2020 to December 2021:
And, as a fun little bonus, here's an example of just how far the battle system has come along over the years:
Announcements
I have a few announcements for some opportunities regarding the demo and the game's community. [h4]Demo Closed Beta Test Signups[/h4] Currently, the demo release candidate has been issued to a very small pool of individuals. I'd like to expand this a little bit to get some proper information about how the game behaves on a variety of machines. If you'd like to try out the demo in its beta state before its available to the public, please fill out this form. I will be issuing demo keys to those who qualify in a couple of weeks. (In all honesty, if you fill out the form, that's pretty much a qualifier since you've gotten this far through my rambling to see it!)
Discord Moderator Applications
The game's public Discord server has been very quiet as the game has been developed. I anticipate a lot more activity once the demo becomes public, and thus will need a little help to manage the community. This will ensure that the scarce free time I have is spent with the game's development. Please note that this role is unpaid. There will be no financial compensation for moderating the server, and it is entirely voluntary. Moderators will, however, be provided with a free copy of the game and early access to beta versions. Moderators have kick/pan permissions and are responsible for ensuring a safe & pleasant community. This means redirecting off-topic discussions, removing spam/bots/rulebreaking content, and diffusing any issues that may arise. Legends of Astravia currently does not have "general" or "offtopic" chat channelsall discussions remain relevant to the game. As a result, moderation should be fairly laid back. If you are interested in being a moderator, please fill out this form.
Roadmap for 2022
I anticipate this year to be a very busy one, as I'd like to release the demo and Chapter 1 of the game. Timing of both is rather important, given a lot of big games are coming out this year. Here are some rough plans for both the public demo and the first part of the game.
Public Demo Release
While the demo is truly complete outside of a little more polish, I admit timing the release is very important. I don't want to release the demo too soon before Chapter 1 is ready, as I want folks to be excited for, and be able to enjoy, a full game experience shortly after. As it stands, I will be releasing the demo publicly, and for free, approximately 1-2 months prior to Chapter 1's release. There may be some special key giveaways and opportunities to try the game prior to this, so keep an eye on Twitter and Discord.
Chapter 1
Content development has moved very quickly, and while Chapter 1 is entirely planned, I need to give myself proper time to ensure the game can be released on time and any big bugs can be worked out. The tentative release for Chapter 1 is thus Fall of 2022. A formal date and pricing will be announced along with the public demo's release. --- I am feeling very optimistic about this year, and I can't wait to share more progress with you. Thank you to everyone who has given me invaluable support by lending their time to the game for advice, playtesting and feedback, and to all of you who take the time to read through these logs every month. It means the world that so many people believe in the work I do, and it helps me carry on regardless of the setbacks that I face. Happy new year! -Jaiden
Developer's Log - November 2021
The past several months, Ive been working incredibly hard to create a free demo of the game that showcases what Astravia is about. I was aiming to release the demo this month, to generate some interest and excitement for the game ahead of its first chapter release next year. To be blunt: The demo is no longer expected to release this month, December 2021. There are a couple of key reasons for this. While I believe I have the capability to launch it in time, I think it is better for myself and the game if I delay a bit longer. I like to remain transparent, so I will go into these reasons below: [olist] Health: I have been considerably ill the past few weeks, and I need to prioritize my mental and physical wellbeing. Its too early in the games development to further subject myself to long hours and sleepless nights. A pile of dust on the ground isnt particularly good at shipping video games, after all.
Quality: I believe it is better for me to ensure the game is the best it can be, instead of rushing to launch something that still has issues. Ive run into a few more bugs and problems, and Id rather take the time to make this first impression a long-lasting one.
Finances: I have spent the better part of 3 years working on this game and commissioning very talented individuals for assets and help, all entirely out of my own pocket. Its becoming more and more difficult, and I would like to start looking for funding opportunities for the game. This requires holding out a little longer before a public release. The hope is that I can gain the resources to assemble a proper team to ensure the game can be released in a timely manner, and in the way I envisioned it.
[/olist]
All of this said, I do still need to get some eyes on the game for testing. Those who have been faithfully supporting the game up to this point will still have an opportunity to try it out. Feel free to drop into the Discord Server if you are interested in testing the demo out when the release candidate becomes available.
I appreciate everyones support up to this point, especially those who have stuck around for the past several years as the game has found its identity and flourished into something special. Here are a few more screenshots of the demo, hopefully to help ensure the delay will be worth it:
Soundtrack composition has been going very well. Harmless has been doing a phenomenal job capturing the essence of Astravia in their work. Here is a preview of the track that will play in the first dungeon: [previewyoutube=CSVtwP5Gom4;full][/previewyoutube] Harmless Games is posting updates on their Twitter regularly, so be sure to follow them! Here are a few more from their account: Title Theme Mordin Swamp The Great Cataclysm After a little while, they will also be posted to the official Youtube Account.
The key artwork for the remaining main cast members has been worked out. Their names, profiles and sprites will be shown as a follower milestone on Twitter, but in the meantime, here is a little preview:
Lastly, thanks to the work of Struma on MKXP-Z, and their help with building the app, Legends of Astravia will have a Universal MacOS build that will support both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. This is really exciting and an amazing opportunity for both the game and the demo! Linux support is currently still pending. While the functionality exists for me to create Linux builds, I may not have the time or resources to ensure it's possible in time for the demo right away. So for those few Linux users reading this and interested in the game--I haven't forgotten you, and Im actually hoping to make this game available on as many platforms as possible. Thank you to everyone who has been following me on this journey. I hope that the wait will be worthwhile for all of you who are eager to try the game out. -Jaiden
[ 2021-12-10 13:34:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hi everyone, here is the developer's log for November. I apologize for the delay in publishing it. This one is admittedly going to be a little shorter, as I've had a few things come up in my personal life that have affected progress a bit. There are also some important announcements to share regarding the roadmap.
Demo Announcement
The past several months, Ive been working incredibly hard to create a free demo of the game that showcases what Astravia is about. I was aiming to release the demo this month, to generate some interest and excitement for the game ahead of its first chapter release next year. To be blunt: The demo is no longer expected to release this month, December 2021. There are a couple of key reasons for this. While I believe I have the capability to launch it in time, I think it is better for myself and the game if I delay a bit longer. I like to remain transparent, so I will go into these reasons below: [olist]
Soundtrack Progress
Soundtrack composition has been going very well. Harmless has been doing a phenomenal job capturing the essence of Astravia in their work. Here is a preview of the track that will play in the first dungeon: [previewyoutube=CSVtwP5Gom4;full][/previewyoutube] Harmless Games is posting updates on their Twitter regularly, so be sure to follow them! Here are a few more from their account: Title Theme Mordin Swamp The Great Cataclysm After a little while, they will also be posted to the official Youtube Account.
Remaining Cast
The key artwork for the remaining main cast members has been worked out. Their names, profiles and sprites will be shown as a follower milestone on Twitter, but in the meantime, here is a little preview:
MacOS Universal Build
Lastly, thanks to the work of Struma on MKXP-Z, and their help with building the app, Legends of Astravia will have a Universal MacOS build that will support both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. This is really exciting and an amazing opportunity for both the game and the demo! Linux support is currently still pending. While the functionality exists for me to create Linux builds, I may not have the time or resources to ensure it's possible in time for the demo right away. So for those few Linux users reading this and interested in the game--I haven't forgotten you, and Im actually hoping to make this game available on as many platforms as possible. Thank you to everyone who has been following me on this journey. I hope that the wait will be worthwhile for all of you who are eager to try the game out. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - October 2021
The first bit of news and perhaps the most exciting, I'm very pleased to announce that Harmless Games will be composing music for the game! For those who aren't familiar, they're a very talented developer and composer who created the game Lockheart Indigo (which is free to play right here on Steam - check it out!), as well as composed music for dino999z's Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger and Vincent: The Secret of Myers (Ch4). I'm very glad to have the opportunity to work with them, and am looking forward to sharing some of the game's music in the coming months.
There have been some minor revisions to the game's roadmap proposed in earlier developer's logs.
Some "bad" news: After a lot of thought, I have opted out of releasing Chapter 1 as Early Access first. Some of you may have already noticed the Steam page has been changed to reflect this. The biggest reason for this decision is that early access doesn't really fit the episodic structure of the game. The game is already being split into 3 parts, so splitting the first chapter further would create more challenges. That said, the timing of the free demo and the first chapter remain largely unchanged, and player feedback will always be considered. The Demo and Chapter 1's reception will be reflected in Chapter 2 and 3's release.
The free demo is still planned to release in December, but we are falling behind schedule just a little bit. There may be beta testing available for the demo in November, so look out for any announcements for this on the Official Twitter or in the Discord Server.
I have updated the Steam page to reflect the game's episodic nature and can say with certainty that Chapter 1 will release in 2022. As it stands, I am currently shooting for Q1, sometime between March and May 2022. As always, these things are subject to change (making a video game by yourself is hard!), and I won't be formally announcing a release date until that aspect is certain.
Minus a few setbacks, progress on the demo has gone exceedingly well this month. We're finally in the content creation stage! I usually go into detail in these sections, but I think just sharing some visuals will really illustrate the idea.
The introduction cutscene and tutorials are just about done.
At the start of the game, you're free to explore and learn the game's systems with optional tutorials. And, occasionally, you might get some assistance...
Mordin Swamp turned out to be a pretty large area, with several maps and plenty of explorable areas. It's coming along well!
The first dungeon is also complete, now with ambience, puzzles, and enemies.
Like the other areas, Azel will offer some gentle assistance, only if the player prompts him to.
And thats all until next month. Thank you for your continued support and patience as the game continues to be developed. -Jaiden
[ 2021-10-31 18:00:22 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, and happy Halloween! Here is the developer's log for October. There are a few important announcements regarding the state of the project, but things are otherwise moving along at a good pace. On to some news!
Composer Announcement
The first bit of news and perhaps the most exciting, I'm very pleased to announce that Harmless Games will be composing music for the game! For those who aren't familiar, they're a very talented developer and composer who created the game Lockheart Indigo (which is free to play right here on Steam - check it out!), as well as composed music for dino999z's Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger and Vincent: The Secret of Myers (Ch4). I'm very glad to have the opportunity to work with them, and am looking forward to sharing some of the game's music in the coming months.
Release Structure Revision
There have been some minor revisions to the game's roadmap proposed in earlier developer's logs.
Early Access
Some "bad" news: After a lot of thought, I have opted out of releasing Chapter 1 as Early Access first. Some of you may have already noticed the Steam page has been changed to reflect this. The biggest reason for this decision is that early access doesn't really fit the episodic structure of the game. The game is already being split into 3 parts, so splitting the first chapter further would create more challenges. That said, the timing of the free demo and the first chapter remain largely unchanged, and player feedback will always be considered. The Demo and Chapter 1's reception will be reflected in Chapter 2 and 3's release.
Free Demo Timing
The free demo is still planned to release in December, but we are falling behind schedule just a little bit. There may be beta testing available for the demo in November, so look out for any announcements for this on the Official Twitter or in the Discord Server.
Chapter 1's Release
I have updated the Steam page to reflect the game's episodic nature and can say with certainty that Chapter 1 will release in 2022. As it stands, I am currently shooting for Q1, sometime between March and May 2022. As always, these things are subject to change (making a video game by yourself is hard!), and I won't be formally announcing a release date until that aspect is certain.
Demo Progress
Minus a few setbacks, progress on the demo has gone exceedingly well this month. We're finally in the content creation stage! I usually go into detail in these sections, but I think just sharing some visuals will really illustrate the idea.
Introduction and Tutorial
The introduction cutscene and tutorials are just about done.
At the start of the game, you're free to explore and learn the game's systems with optional tutorials. And, occasionally, you might get some assistance...
Mordin Swamp
Mordin Swamp turned out to be a pretty large area, with several maps and plenty of explorable areas. It's coming along well!
First Dungeon
The first dungeon is also complete, now with ambience, puzzles, and enemies.
Like the other areas, Azel will offer some gentle assistance, only if the player prompts him to.
And thats all until next month. Thank you for your continued support and patience as the game continues to be developed. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - September 2021
I am curious about what kind of content gamers looks for in Early Access, so I made a small poll. (Hosted on Strawpoll) This will help me make a determination on pricing, timing, and release for Early Access. Please vote (and vote honestly!) if you have a chance. Now on to the progress!
This month consisted mainly of reworking some menus. The Essence menu was one of the first to get some attention. Legends of Astravia uses a unique skill system similar to Final Fantasy 7's "Materia", where abilities can be given to any character without any need for specific builds or skill trees. This is to allow the player to pick their favorite characters and mix up combat through variation in character's stats and types without any real disadvantage in switching them around at any point in the game.
While the system itself had its programming finalized, the menu was also reworked, and is significantly more pleasant to interact with than in the alpha build last year.
In the first iteration of this system, it was almost identical to materia in that you had to "level up" an Essence by using it in battle. After some feedback from testers, it was decided that something akin to Paper Mario's badge system would be better. So, instead, skills are enhanced by equipping multiple Essence instead.
This offers a couple advantages. The first is that it rewards players who explore and engage in the overworld; unlocking essence in other ways than just winning battles. The second is that it reduces grind. If you find a new essence, it's an immediate reward and advancement, instead of requiring additional, repetitive combat to make it useful.
Something that has been on the list for a while, but not possible without putting the final revisions on Essence, was passive abilities. Some essence will provide more than just abilities you can use. Instead, they'll provide special effects that offer some enhancement in battle. Some of these effects will work better on some characters than others, and may lead to some interesting and powerful combinations.
An example of the Channel passive ability, which converts damage into Mystic Energy.
Equipment, like Essence, has had its systems finalized and its menu completed. Characters are only limited in their weapon choices, but any character can equip any type of armor. Certain armors and accessories offer advantages in particular stats, which allows building any of your party members in the way you want, without being gated by classes:
And like the Essence menu, this one received some pretty big enhancements over the previous one:
Battle effect animations were optimized in ways that will make development easier in the future. Their zoom factor has also been made modular, allowing for cleaner looking effects over the hyper-zoomed battle sprites:
While in these parts of the code, I also changed how status effects behave. Now there's a clear indication when a state has been applied to a character:
The victory screen was both ugly and slow. Two separate screens for experience and spoils made exiting battle cumbersome. An extra button press has been eliminated by showing all of this information on one screen. Plus, your entire party--active and inactive characters alike--will gain some experience after every battle.
And that's all for now! I look forward to sharing more with you all next month. Thank you for your continued support and patience. -Jaiden
[ 2021-10-01 12:42:28 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone. Here is this month's development progress update. Development has continued at a good pace, and the goal is still to have the public demo and Early Access ready by December. But delays are always possible given my development situation, so I will not be formally announcing this until it is certain. Keep an eye out for any announcements here or on the official Twitter page.
Early Access Expectations Poll
I am curious about what kind of content gamers looks for in Early Access, so I made a small poll. (Hosted on Strawpoll) This will help me make a determination on pricing, timing, and release for Early Access. Please vote (and vote honestly!) if you have a chance. Now on to the progress!
Essence System and Menu
This month consisted mainly of reworking some menus. The Essence menu was one of the first to get some attention. Legends of Astravia uses a unique skill system similar to Final Fantasy 7's "Materia", where abilities can be given to any character without any need for specific builds or skill trees. This is to allow the player to pick their favorite characters and mix up combat through variation in character's stats and types without any real disadvantage in switching them around at any point in the game.
While the system itself had its programming finalized, the menu was also reworked, and is significantly more pleasant to interact with than in the alpha build last year.
Less Materia, More Badges
In the first iteration of this system, it was almost identical to materia in that you had to "level up" an Essence by using it in battle. After some feedback from testers, it was decided that something akin to Paper Mario's badge system would be better. So, instead, skills are enhanced by equipping multiple Essence instead.
This offers a couple advantages. The first is that it rewards players who explore and engage in the overworld; unlocking essence in other ways than just winning battles. The second is that it reduces grind. If you find a new essence, it's an immediate reward and advancement, instead of requiring additional, repetitive combat to make it useful.
Passive Abilities
Something that has been on the list for a while, but not possible without putting the final revisions on Essence, was passive abilities. Some essence will provide more than just abilities you can use. Instead, they'll provide special effects that offer some enhancement in battle. Some of these effects will work better on some characters than others, and may lead to some interesting and powerful combinations.
An example of the Channel passive ability, which converts damage into Mystic Energy.
Equipment and Menu
Equipment, like Essence, has had its systems finalized and its menu completed. Characters are only limited in their weapon choices, but any character can equip any type of armor. Certain armors and accessories offer advantages in particular stats, which allows building any of your party members in the way you want, without being gated by classes:
And like the Essence menu, this one received some pretty big enhancements over the previous one:
Effects Improvements
Battle effect animations were optimized in ways that will make development easier in the future. Their zoom factor has also been made modular, allowing for cleaner looking effects over the hyper-zoomed battle sprites:
Status Effect Text
While in these parts of the code, I also changed how status effects behave. Now there's a clear indication when a state has been applied to a character:
Victory Screen
The victory screen was both ugly and slow. Two separate screens for experience and spoils made exiting battle cumbersome. An extra button press has been eliminated by showing all of this information on one screen. Plus, your entire party--active and inactive characters alike--will gain some experience after every battle.
And that's all for now! I look forward to sharing more with you all next month. Thank you for your continued support and patience. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - August 2021
The overhaul of the battle system and it's user interface was completed! This made a ton of improvements to the system, and it feels a lot more fun to play than before the changes. Here are some of the things that were done, not including various optimizations and improvements:
As cool as the sliding character busts looked, it was very hard to read their stats. The status windows were cleaned up to look more concise, and leave more room for the battlefield to be displayed.
Additionally, characters now display an icon next to their name after an action was selected, so you can quickly see how a character is currently being occupied.
Switching across multiple characters felt a little clunky and buggy. This has been fixed, and now characters can be managed very quickly and effectively without glitches.
One of the troubles behind the time-based system was that enemies would decide their actions right as they got to the wait bar, and the player would not have enough time to react. While a more intense overhaul of enemy AI still needs to be done, the actions were improved by having enemies decide their actions a little sooner.
Furthermore, they now display a little action bubble that clearly outlines what they're going to do, letting you select an action that counters their abilities.
For the folks who tested the game back in 2020, the damage algorithms were rough. Enemies would critical hit more than 50% of the time, misses occurred left and right, and overall the balance of stats was very chaotic. I went ahead and rewrote every damage algorithm so that stats are utilized in a meaningful manner, with very little randomization. Critical hits are now governed by a Luck stat, and dodges are handled by a Swiftness stat. The system is also weighed in favor of the player, to ensure everything feels fair.
Damage numbers are also much crisper and easier to read!
Various aspects of battle can now be tweaked in the options, which will help mold the experience to a player's skill level. The goal is to have a fun, exciting battle system that is still accessible to everyone.
The overall battle speed can be modified for those who feel like they need more or less time to select their actions. Whether or not battle slows down when selecting skills and items can also be toggled, for those who want a little more challenge. Perhaps the biggest change however is two distinct control modes. Some community members expressed that the Super Mario RPG style command selections didn't feel intuitive to them, and that they'd rather utilize a conventional "A/B" selection. So now, you can choose which system you prefer!
An optional "hard mode" for battle was also added. With it enabled party members will do nothing if you don't select an action for them!
This will add a real challenge to battle, making quick but effective action selection required instead of optional. And it can be disabled or enabled at any time.
The 1st run of the closed beta has been completed! This beta was only a rough test of the battle system, and an announcement for a public beta will be made as we get closer to the demo release. The beta testers in this run did an excellent job with getting some of the initial nasty crashes and weirdness worked out, and its thanks to them that I was able to get the steps I needed to solve some hard to reproduce bugs. Overall, it was a huge success and a major reason why this month had so many updates to report.
The first dungeon is nearly completed! It will be fully playable in the free demo, and will hopefully give folks an idea of what to expect for the game's other planned dungeons.
Very heavily inspired by Golden Sun in a lot of ways, the dungeon will feature pushable blocks, switches, keys and jump gaps! There are also plenty of secrets and treasures for players who take their time exploring it.
The push blocks took a lot of work, but they feel great to interact with, with no clipping or glitching. The dungeon will have a nice gentle increase in difficulty of these puzzles, and a special way to bypass the hardest puzzle for those who find them to be challenging to the point of frustration.
Progress is moving along well, but there's still quite a bit to do before signups for the next beta are available. Next on the list is enemy AI improvements, finalizing Essence, finishing up the main menu, and a few more engine improvements to things like animations. Thank you for your continued support and patience as the game continues development. -Jaiden
[ 2021-09-03 20:34:12 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, I'm pleased to report that this month has been highly productive, and am excited to share updates with you. Development has been moving at a good pace, and it seems we're on track with the roadmap I proposed last month.
Battle System Overhaul: Done!
The overhaul of the battle system and it's user interface was completed! This made a ton of improvements to the system, and it feels a lot more fun to play than before the changes. Here are some of the things that were done, not including various optimizations and improvements:
Status window & other UI improvements
As cool as the sliding character busts looked, it was very hard to read their stats. The status windows were cleaned up to look more concise, and leave more room for the battlefield to be displayed.
Additionally, characters now display an icon next to their name after an action was selected, so you can quickly see how a character is currently being occupied.
Smoother character switching and turn handling
Switching across multiple characters felt a little clunky and buggy. This has been fixed, and now characters can be managed very quickly and effectively without glitches.
Clearer enemy actions
One of the troubles behind the time-based system was that enemies would decide their actions right as they got to the wait bar, and the player would not have enough time to react. While a more intense overhaul of enemy AI still needs to be done, the actions were improved by having enemies decide their actions a little sooner.
Furthermore, they now display a little action bubble that clearly outlines what they're going to do, letting you select an action that counters their abilities.
Better damage algorithms
For the folks who tested the game back in 2020, the damage algorithms were rough. Enemies would critical hit more than 50% of the time, misses occurred left and right, and overall the balance of stats was very chaotic. I went ahead and rewrote every damage algorithm so that stats are utilized in a meaningful manner, with very little randomization. Critical hits are now governed by a Luck stat, and dodges are handled by a Swiftness stat. The system is also weighed in favor of the player, to ensure everything feels fair.
Damage numbers are also much crisper and easier to read!
Configurable options
Various aspects of battle can now be tweaked in the options, which will help mold the experience to a player's skill level. The goal is to have a fun, exciting battle system that is still accessible to everyone.
The overall battle speed can be modified for those who feel like they need more or less time to select their actions. Whether or not battle slows down when selecting skills and items can also be toggled, for those who want a little more challenge. Perhaps the biggest change however is two distinct control modes. Some community members expressed that the Super Mario RPG style command selections didn't feel intuitive to them, and that they'd rather utilize a conventional "A/B" selection. So now, you can choose which system you prefer!
Hard mode
An optional "hard mode" for battle was also added. With it enabled party members will do nothing if you don't select an action for them!
This will add a real challenge to battle, making quick but effective action selection required instead of optional. And it can be disabled or enabled at any time.
1st Closed Beta Results
The 1st run of the closed beta has been completed! This beta was only a rough test of the battle system, and an announcement for a public beta will be made as we get closer to the demo release. The beta testers in this run did an excellent job with getting some of the initial nasty crashes and weirdness worked out, and its thanks to them that I was able to get the steps I needed to solve some hard to reproduce bugs. Overall, it was a huge success and a major reason why this month had so many updates to report.
Dungeon 1 Progress
The first dungeon is nearly completed! It will be fully playable in the free demo, and will hopefully give folks an idea of what to expect for the game's other planned dungeons.
Very heavily inspired by Golden Sun in a lot of ways, the dungeon will feature pushable blocks, switches, keys and jump gaps! There are also plenty of secrets and treasures for players who take their time exploring it.
The push blocks took a lot of work, but they feel great to interact with, with no clipping or glitching. The dungeon will have a nice gentle increase in difficulty of these puzzles, and a special way to bypass the hardest puzzle for those who find them to be challenging to the point of frustration.
What's next?
Progress is moving along well, but there's still quite a bit to do before signups for the next beta are available. Next on the list is enemy AI improvements, finalizing Essence, finishing up the main menu, and a few more engine improvements to things like animations. Thank you for your continued support and patience as the game continues development. -Jaiden
Developer's Log - July 2021
(Click here to view video in another tab) The battle ring menu has been replaced with a face-button menu that is much quicker and more intuitive to use. The classic and iconic Super Mario RPG was a key inspiration in its design and implementation. One of the major complaints from last year's demo was how cumbersome navigating through a list of commands was. By replacing the list with the face buttons instead, it eliminates several button presses to get to the desired action. So far in early testing, it feels very good to use.
(Click here to view video in another tab) One of the unique features of the game's "Active Time Battle" is that you can fast-forward the battle speed at any time. This allows a slower default speed to allow easy adaptation to the system, while giving advanced players extra control without getting bored. Thus, it felt natural to add the reverse: an option to slow-down battle. This way, if it feels like things have become too overwhelming, a button press can give you a little more time to think without any disadvantage.
(Click here to view video in another tab) Perhaps trivial, this feature has been much-needed since the beginning. Now you can take a breather and walk away to grab a much needed drink of water if battle becomes a bit too overwhelming!
(Click here to view video in another tab) This one is a bit of a secret. I'll let a short gif do the explaining ;) But you'll have to wait for the demo to find out how it works! With these changes, battle is just about completed and ready for testing. There's just a few more UI and system adjustments left to be made. The delays and interruptions have been frustrating, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Next developers log should come with some visual updates! Thank you everyone, as always, for your patience and support as I continue development. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
[ 2021-07-31 15:46:09 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone.
Another month passed and I'm excited to share some more updates with you.
First off, it does seem like things are running a little behind schedule, and I was not able to have the private beta ready for testers just yet. But I am feeling optimistic, as I've made some optimizations to my development process. Thus, I am still aiming to keep the free demo release and early access goal December 2021.
Though subject to change, here's my current roadmap for the game's release:
It's been challenging and frustrating to have development affected by outside factors (such as my life), but I really hope that this schedule will persist.
That aside, here are the things I've managed to complete this month, which are all related to the battle system overhaul:
New Command Handling
(Click here to view video in another tab) The battle ring menu has been replaced with a face-button menu that is much quicker and more intuitive to use. The classic and iconic Super Mario RPG was a key inspiration in its design and implementation. One of the major complaints from last year's demo was how cumbersome navigating through a list of commands was. By replacing the list with the face buttons instead, it eliminates several button presses to get to the desired action. So far in early testing, it feels very good to use.
Additional Speed Modulation
(Click here to view video in another tab) One of the unique features of the game's "Active Time Battle" is that you can fast-forward the battle speed at any time. This allows a slower default speed to allow easy adaptation to the system, while giving advanced players extra control without getting bored. Thus, it felt natural to add the reverse: an option to slow-down battle. This way, if it feels like things have become too overwhelming, a button press can give you a little more time to think without any disadvantage.
Pause Screen
(Click here to view video in another tab) Perhaps trivial, this feature has been much-needed since the beginning. Now you can take a breather and walk away to grab a much needed drink of water if battle becomes a bit too overwhelming!
Hold Mechanic
(Click here to view video in another tab) This one is a bit of a secret. I'll let a short gif do the explaining ;) But you'll have to wait for the demo to find out how it works! With these changes, battle is just about completed and ready for testing. There's just a few more UI and system adjustments left to be made. The delays and interruptions have been frustrating, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Next developers log should come with some visual updates! Thank you everyone, as always, for your patience and support as I continue development. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
Developer's Log - June 2021
It is admittedly frustrating when a month worth of work does not always translate into pretty visuals or things to show off. But this work is core to the game & will lead to a better experience both for the player and expedite later development progress.
In order to make the pixel-based collision & puzzles easier to construct and manage, I added some useful debugging tools. Honestly I just thought it looked neat and would be fun to share.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab)
Id like to ensure everything is in place for localization to go smoothly. The system has been optimized so that management of the game's text can all be done externally and with any text editor. This should make it very easy to translate when the time comes.
There were some snippets of code that would make it impossible to port to other operating systems. I'm pleased to report those last snippets have been removed! If all goes well, there is a small chance that the game will be available on these platforms sooner than the final release as a result.
Earlier in the month created some art and revised the opening cutscene. The art showcased last year had a rushed look to it, and I recently had the idea to make it more like painted art on the pages of a book.
Here is a short preview of the scene in action (warning: flashing images):
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) With this change I've also programmed a complete system for quickly constructing these cutscenes (versus the clunky evented system that was used originally). This will make it easier to include these kinds of sequences in later parts of the game, and will really enhance the story and lore. --- That's all for now. Thank you as always for your continued patience and support. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
[ 2021-07-01 16:44:55 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, Last month resulted in some moderate progress on the game's engine as I get closer to having a small test build prepared for beta testers. I apologize, as this is a significantly shorter developers log.
Engine Updates
It is admittedly frustrating when a month worth of work does not always translate into pretty visuals or things to show off. But this work is core to the game & will lead to a better experience both for the player and expedite later development progress.
Collision Debugging
In order to make the pixel-based collision & puzzles easier to construct and manage, I added some useful debugging tools. Honestly I just thought it looked neat and would be fun to share.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab)
Localization System Improvements
Id like to ensure everything is in place for localization to go smoothly. The system has been optimized so that management of the game's text can all be done externally and with any text editor. This should make it very easy to translate when the time comes.
Preparation for Other Platforms (MacOS / Linux)
There were some snippets of code that would make it impossible to port to other operating systems. I'm pleased to report those last snippets have been removed! If all goes well, there is a small chance that the game will be available on these platforms sooner than the final release as a result.
New Story Sequence
Earlier in the month created some art and revised the opening cutscene. The art showcased last year had a rushed look to it, and I recently had the idea to make it more like painted art on the pages of a book.
Old Version
New Intro
Short Snippet
Here is a short preview of the scene in action (warning: flashing images):
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) With this change I've also programmed a complete system for quickly constructing these cutscenes (versus the clunky evented system that was used originally). This will make it easier to include these kinds of sequences in later parts of the game, and will really enhance the story and lore. --- That's all for now. Thank you as always for your continued patience and support. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
Developer's Log - May 2021
The game runs on the open-source MKXP engine, which solves all of the performance limitations that exist in RPG Maker XP's vanilla RGSS engine, and is also what will allow the game to be ported to MacOS and Linux upon its release. Thanks to Roza's incredible work and updates to MKXP, there are continued improvements that Legends of Astravia can utilize. The biggest one was the addition of GIFs in-engine and delta time. GIFs in-engine will significantly cut back on development time, as the need to arrange animation sheets, configure them in code, and repeatedly tweak them has been entirely eliminated. This, in conjunction with delta time, will make battles run at a smooth and consistent speed regardless of if you have a high-end gaming PC or normal workstation.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) Thus, I spent a couple of weeks this month revising the battle system to utilize these engine changes. It will be hard to see an immediate difference here, but the improvement while actually playing the game cannot be understated.
After a little more time than anticipated, the conversation system has been completed. This is another core aspect of the game that needed to be finalized before in-game content could be implemented.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) Ultimately, I decided to forgo the character portrait (busts) system that were showed off a couple of months ago. The busts were too intrusive and took up a lot of space on the screen. Faces are cleaner, and allow more flexibility for emotions too. And the full character art has been repurposed in the main menu, instead. Under the hood, I made some major optimizations to this system. It had some issues that were largely the reason for the game running so poorly on some tester's machines during the first round of testing last year. With these issues now fixed, the game should maintain a silky smooth 60 FPS even on lower-end computers.
Character motions and animations are a small detail with great importance when it comes to cutscenes and NPC interactions. Thus, I've been working on tweaking the character sprites, as well as implemented a system that lets me quickly create and reuse animations on the map screen.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) This is yet another improvement that will streamline the content development process that will begin after these engine changes are all completed. There is still a lot to do before content is added to the game and a demo becomes available, but everything is still inline with the roadmap established last month. I look forward to sharing more updates with you soon. Thank you again for your continued support. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
[ 2021-05-30 16:58:31 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, I'm pleased to report that this month has been significantly more productive than the last, and there are a lot of exciting features and improvements awaiting the game and its upcoming demo. The game also continues to accumulate wishlists here on Steam. Thank you so much for your continued support. As a reminder, shorter, more frequent updates are typically posted on Twitter page between these monthly devlogs. Additionally, Legends of Astravia will be participating in the "Pitch Ya Game" Awards via Twitter this Tuesday, June 1st. Below are some of the key development tasks that were completed in the past month, alongside various other planning and under-the-hood improvements.
Engine Updates
The game runs on the open-source MKXP engine, which solves all of the performance limitations that exist in RPG Maker XP's vanilla RGSS engine, and is also what will allow the game to be ported to MacOS and Linux upon its release. Thanks to Roza's incredible work and updates to MKXP, there are continued improvements that Legends of Astravia can utilize. The biggest one was the addition of GIFs in-engine and delta time. GIFs in-engine will significantly cut back on development time, as the need to arrange animation sheets, configure them in code, and repeatedly tweak them has been entirely eliminated. This, in conjunction with delta time, will make battles run at a smooth and consistent speed regardless of if you have a high-end gaming PC or normal workstation.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) Thus, I spent a couple of weeks this month revising the battle system to utilize these engine changes. It will be hard to see an immediate difference here, but the improvement while actually playing the game cannot be understated.
Finished Conversation System
After a little more time than anticipated, the conversation system has been completed. This is another core aspect of the game that needed to be finalized before in-game content could be implemented.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) Ultimately, I decided to forgo the character portrait (busts) system that were showed off a couple of months ago. The busts were too intrusive and took up a lot of space on the screen. Faces are cleaner, and allow more flexibility for emotions too. And the full character art has been repurposed in the main menu, instead. Under the hood, I made some major optimizations to this system. It had some issues that were largely the reason for the game running so poorly on some tester's machines during the first round of testing last year. With these issues now fixed, the game should maintain a silky smooth 60 FPS even on lower-end computers.
Character Map Animations
Character motions and animations are a small detail with great importance when it comes to cutscenes and NPC interactions. Thus, I've been working on tweaking the character sprites, as well as implemented a system that lets me quickly create and reuse animations on the map screen.
(MP4 video - Click to view in new tab) This is yet another improvement that will streamline the content development process that will begin after these engine changes are all completed. There is still a lot to do before content is added to the game and a demo becomes available, but everything is still inline with the roadmap established last month. I look forward to sharing more updates with you soon. Thank you again for your continued support. -Jaiden (Originally posted on studioalemni.com)
Developer's Log - April 2021
My original plans were to have the game's public demo available alongside the early access release this June. I don't think this deadline is feasible unless I make the early access a significantly shorter portion of the game. It isn't entirely off the table, but I have concerns with releasing a potentially buggy or too incomplete early access build. Below is the updated roadmap for 2021, which I think is more feasible. Depending on how the month of May goes, these dates could change for the better, but I'd like to set a schedule that avoids any more delay announcements like this.
I had originally aimed for the closed beta to be, well, now. But that unfortunately did not end up being the case. The closed beta will run as soon as all of the core system changes are completed and ready for testing. I anticipate this to be completed in July.
I think it makes a lot of sense to release the public demo and release the game in Early Access close to the same time. These two items go hand-in-hand as the demo will help followers of the game decide if they really want to support it financially by getting the game in an early development state. I'm aiming to release the Public Demo & Early Access before December 2021. Thus, this would mean Chapter 1 is more likely to be complete and done by 2022 at the current pace.
Some of you have already expressed interest in Legends of Astravia being translated into other languages, such as Japanese, Spanish, and French. This makes me very happy, as I really want to make the game as accessible to as many other languages as possible. Translation is generally challenging and expensive for a small indie developer such as myself. Depending on community involvement, support, and how successful the game is will determine how quickly other languages become available. That is, it is my intent to have as many languages available as my resources will allow, but I cannot promise that they will be available right away or at the game's release. Please look forward to future announcements about this.
The RPG Maker Cola podcast ran a short advertisement for Legends of Astravia in their most recent episode, which featured several other incredible RPGs made with RPG Maker: Beloved Rapture by Blind, Lakria Legends by KoopaKush, and Nihilo by Giznada. Please check out these games and the developers, as well as the amazing podcast: Listen to the episode on Podomatic RPG Maker Cola Podcast (Linktree) Lakria Legends Beloved Rapture Nihilo RPG Maker Cola will also be streaming all of these games on Twitch today (4/30/21) at 5PM EST and tomorrow at 4PM EST. Be sure to check it out! That is all for now. Thank you again to everyone who continues to maintain excitement for the game, even with my slow pace. Your understanding and continued support is what drives me to continue even at these lower points in the process. -Jaiden
[ 2021-04-30 14:20:59 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, First off, good news: Legends of Astravia has accumulated over 250 wishlists since the Steam announcement only a month ago, and 400 followers on Twitter. These are excellent milestones given the limited updates on the game so far, so thank you so much for your support. I look forward to having more announcements and updates that will garner further excitement for the game. Legends of Astravia is still very much an active project and in-development, but I'm disheartened to say that the game's demo will likely not meet my original intended deadline of this summer. Unfortunately, the past several weeks have been challenging for development. As many of you know, I'm primarily a one-man crew, doing all of Astravia's coding, mapping, and development by myself. At the beginning of March, right after the Steam announcement and roadmap, I sustained a moderate injury that left me largely incapacitated and unable to work at a computer. As a result, I was unable to write any code or develop the game for several weeks. While I was able to get some additional writing and planning done, there is nothing visual to share. So for the month of April, I apologize for the lack of progress to report. All of that said, I have been recovering. I'd like to give an updated roadmap, as I plan to continue development with renewed energy in May.
2021 Roadmap
My original plans were to have the game's public demo available alongside the early access release this June. I don't think this deadline is feasible unless I make the early access a significantly shorter portion of the game. It isn't entirely off the table, but I have concerns with releasing a potentially buggy or too incomplete early access build. Below is the updated roadmap for 2021, which I think is more feasible. Depending on how the month of May goes, these dates could change for the better, but I'd like to set a schedule that avoids any more delay announcements like this.
Closed Beta
I had originally aimed for the closed beta to be, well, now. But that unfortunately did not end up being the case. The closed beta will run as soon as all of the core system changes are completed and ready for testing. I anticipate this to be completed in July.
Public Demo & Early Access
I think it makes a lot of sense to release the public demo and release the game in Early Access close to the same time. These two items go hand-in-hand as the demo will help followers of the game decide if they really want to support it financially by getting the game in an early development state. I'm aiming to release the Public Demo & Early Access before December 2021. Thus, this would mean Chapter 1 is more likely to be complete and done by 2022 at the current pace.
Language Support
Some of you have already expressed interest in Legends of Astravia being translated into other languages, such as Japanese, Spanish, and French. This makes me very happy, as I really want to make the game as accessible to as many other languages as possible. Translation is generally challenging and expensive for a small indie developer such as myself. Depending on community involvement, support, and how successful the game is will determine how quickly other languages become available. That is, it is my intent to have as many languages available as my resources will allow, but I cannot promise that they will be available right away or at the game's release. Please look forward to future announcements about this.
RPG Maker Cola Feature
The RPG Maker Cola podcast ran a short advertisement for Legends of Astravia in their most recent episode, which featured several other incredible RPGs made with RPG Maker: Beloved Rapture by Blind, Lakria Legends by KoopaKush, and Nihilo by Giznada. Please check out these games and the developers, as well as the amazing podcast: Listen to the episode on Podomatic RPG Maker Cola Podcast (Linktree) Lakria Legends Beloved Rapture Nihilo RPG Maker Cola will also be streaming all of these games on Twitch today (4/30/21) at 5PM EST and tomorrow at 4PM EST. Be sure to check it out! That is all for now. Thank you again to everyone who continues to maintain excitement for the game, even with my slow pace. Your understanding and continued support is what drives me to continue even at these lower points in the process. -Jaiden
Steam Page Launch & Game Release Structure
Additionally, Studio Alemni is finally launching it's official website. On it you will find all of the details about Legends of Astravia, developers logs, a press kit, and more. Of course, all developers logs will also be shared here on the Steam community. I hope to remain engaged with you all here, and look forward to your feedback. Visit the Official Website
After a lot of careful thought, we've come to the decision to switch Legends of Astravia to an episodic format with three chapters. There will not be more than three, and each one will be a complete experience that covers a major part of the game's story. And we're prepared to answer any questions you may have in mind regarding this.
Episodic means Legends of Astravia will be released as three smaller, separate installments instead of one full game. "Legends of Astravia" (Chapter 1) will be purchased as a full game. Then Chapters 2 and 3 will be released as paid Downloadable Content (DLC) at a later date.
Not at all! Legends of Astravia is a huge game, and would have been priced as such. Each chapter will be priced a lot lower than the full game would have cost. In a way, this ensures you'll be able to get a complete game experience as soon as you pay for it. We felt this is a stronger alternative to paying for the entire game and waiting years for it to be complete, like in conventional crowdfunding or early access scenarios.
While it might make more sense to release the game as a single package, this episodic structure aims to ensure a full, complete game experience will be available to all players much sooner than originally planned. This also helps to potentially negate the need for a crowdfunding campaign, ensuring the later parts of the story will be delivered completely as intended, without forcing people to pay early and wait for content. Plus, if you decide that you're not that interested in the game by the end of the first episode, you don't get stuck paying for the rest of it.
No. This decision would not have been made if save data could not be preserved. Each chapter will feel like a full game experience, and when the next chapter releases, you can pick up and continue the game as if it were one complete installment.
This is very difficult to estimate. However, the first chapter will release a lot sooner than originally intended because of this new structure. The tentitive goal for the first chapter is the end of this year (2021), but please understand this is not guaranteed and is subject to change due to many factors. An official release date should be announced this summer. Once Chapter 1 is completed, Chapters 2 and 3 will go much quicker, as they will only require content and assets. All the engine code and core features are expected to be finished for Chapter 1.
Feel free to submit a question via our contact form, ask a question in the community, or ask Jaiden in the Discord server. You'll also find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the game here. With these new changes, please expect more frequent updates, as progress on the engine is going well and expected to be finished by this summer. Beta testing, the free demo, and early access should follow shortly after. I plan to announce an official release date for Chapter 1 once the game becomes available via early access. As always, thank you so much for your support! -Jaiden
[ 2021-03-15 21:42:50 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello everyone, thank you so much for the successful Steam page launch. I am very excited to be able to share Legends of Astravia and its updates with you here.
Official Website Launch
Additionally, Studio Alemni is finally launching it's official website. On it you will find all of the details about Legends of Astravia, developers logs, a press kit, and more. Of course, all developers logs will also be shared here on the Steam community. I hope to remain engaged with you all here, and look forward to your feedback. Visit the Official Website
Episodic Announcement
After a lot of careful thought, we've come to the decision to switch Legends of Astravia to an episodic format with three chapters. There will not be more than three, and each one will be a complete experience that covers a major part of the game's story. And we're prepared to answer any questions you may have in mind regarding this.
What does this mean?
Episodic means Legends of Astravia will be released as three smaller, separate installments instead of one full game. "Legends of Astravia" (Chapter 1) will be purchased as a full game. Then Chapters 2 and 3 will be released as paid Downloadable Content (DLC) at a later date.
Won't the whole game cost me more money now?
Not at all! Legends of Astravia is a huge game, and would have been priced as such. Each chapter will be priced a lot lower than the full game would have cost. In a way, this ensures you'll be able to get a complete game experience as soon as you pay for it. We felt this is a stronger alternative to paying for the entire game and waiting years for it to be complete, like in conventional crowdfunding or early access scenarios.
Why not a single game release?
While it might make more sense to release the game as a single package, this episodic structure aims to ensure a full, complete game experience will be available to all players much sooner than originally planned. This also helps to potentially negate the need for a crowdfunding campaign, ensuring the later parts of the story will be delivered completely as intended, without forcing people to pay early and wait for content. Plus, if you decide that you're not that interested in the game by the end of the first episode, you don't get stuck paying for the rest of it.
Do I have to start over each chapter?
No. This decision would not have been made if save data could not be preserved. Each chapter will feel like a full game experience, and when the next chapter releases, you can pick up and continue the game as if it were one complete installment.
How long will each chapter take?
This is very difficult to estimate. However, the first chapter will release a lot sooner than originally intended because of this new structure. The tentitive goal for the first chapter is the end of this year (2021), but please understand this is not guaranteed and is subject to change due to many factors. An official release date should be announced this summer. Once Chapter 1 is completed, Chapters 2 and 3 will go much quicker, as they will only require content and assets. All the engine code and core features are expected to be finished for Chapter 1.
I have more questions!
Feel free to submit a question via our contact form, ask a question in the community, or ask Jaiden in the Discord server. You'll also find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the game here. With these new changes, please expect more frequent updates, as progress on the engine is going well and expected to be finished by this summer. Beta testing, the free demo, and early access should follow shortly after. I plan to announce an official release date for Chapter 1 once the game becomes available via early access. As always, thank you so much for your support! -Jaiden
Legends of Astravia
Studio Alemni
Studio Alemni
2022
Indie RPG Adventure Singleplayer
Game News Posts 45
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🎮 Full Controller Support
No user reviews
(0 reviews)
https://www.studioalemni.com/astravia
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1233680
Features
- Exciting, timer-based battle system that relies on quick decision making. The twist: you control the timer; no more waiting for a bar to fill up or for turns to pass.
- A varied cast of playable characters, each with unique combat styles and unique abilities to help you craft the perfect team.
- Vast, explorable world filled with dungeons, caves, and towns. There are challenging puzzles to solve and treasures to find in every corner of Astravia.
- Avoidable enemy encounters. Choose your own playstyle instead of being at the mercy of randomized, repetitive gameplay.
- Modular skill system that allows you to swap abilities between characters, so you never feel locked in to a particular “build”.
- An engaging story supported by varied side-quests. Alongside a fulfilling main quest, meet characters all over the world with their own side-quests and special rewards.
Story
The world of Astravia is in conflict; severed by unrest between mysticians and humans who fear their magic. Once seen as heroes, the flow of time eroded mysticians’ feats into myth, and so anyone who shares their likeness in the present day must instead hide from the ruling country of Valica and its brutal knights.Thus, the wandering mystician Oliver must tread with caution as he escapes the woods of a Valican territory. Spared by a mysterious assassin and at a loss as to how he got there, the stakes are raised even higher when Oliver realizes he must pass through Valica's capitol in order to find answers about his own origins.
Chapter 2 & 3’s synopses will be revealed prior to their release.
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
- Processor: 1.5 GHz Dual CoreMemory: 2 GB RAM
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: 720p Screen Resolution
- Storage: 600 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: Not all Linux versions have been tested. Listed versions are confirmed working. Other distros may work. but are not officially supported yet.
- OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
- Processor: 2.0 GHz Quad CoreMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Dedicated Card. 1080p Screen Resolution
- Storage: 1 GB available spaceAdditional Notes: Not all Linux versions have been tested. Listed versions are confirmed working. Other distros may work. but are not officially supported yet.
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