Indie Game Maker Contest 2014

Hey guys! It's been a while since I last made a blog post -- almost two months to be exact. The reason for this is that shortly after my previous post the Indie Game Maker Contest 2014 started. Me and fellow developer Chancler Harrison devoted an entire month purely to that end. The game we finished is called Unraveled and features the battle system and platforming elements we will use for Lunafall:

You can play the game for free here or click on its awesome logo below.

It's about a little girl whose parent works at a ship breaking yard. It deals with an actual social issue that doesn't receive enough media coverage. These people at ship breaking yards work under terrible circumstances and the families who live in the villages around it are poor and broken. The game is seen through the little girl's eyes and fantasy so it's not all depressive stuff, don't worry! We're going to release a full version at the end of next month, which is what we're working on now.

This is our last project using the RPG Maker XP engine, so we'd love to get Unraveled ported to iOS, Android, etc. We're going to be doing a Kickstarter for that soon so we can get enough funding to re-make the game in Unity! It will also give us a great basis for Lunafall.

Clicky below and read on to see a new monster for Lunafall! :)

Elemental Balance & Monsters

Allow me to begin this post with the announcement that Sweet Lily Dreams is now on Steam! Reception has been incredible, although the first two days the game was wrongfully tagged as "Furry" and one reviewer declined the game for having "Adult Furry content" which is completely false, of course. Faith and Curly never have intercourse. That's just... Gross.

The game's new trailer has been produced by Ethron Productions. That man's incredible! He finished the trailer in just two days by doing an all-nighter. See the result for yourself:

Now on to Lunafall! I'll be showing you four new monsters and the Elemental Balance system of the game, so click below to read on!

Midnight Monsters!

We've been quite busy with our upcoming Steam release of Sweet Lily Dreams, but I want to give you guys a quick update on Lunafall! I'm writing this at the end of a long day of work -- 11 PM -- so bare with me as I might ramble a bit.

I'm currently working on the monster sprites. In Lunafall battles are longer, more intense/strategic and less frequent than the usual jRPG. To fully utilize the game's innovative Focus/Rage battle system, we're handling each monster with great care and making them unique like little bosses. The four main monsters are based on the negative elements of Radiance, Vacuum, Acid and Rust.

The first one I finished is Radiance:

I gave the creature elongated limbs like 'energy rays'. It creepily slides across the floor using its hands and feet while remaining upright.

Click below to see more monsters! ^0^

Lily Coming to Steam!

Great news, guys! Sweet Lily Dreams is coming to Steam! We're taking this opportunity to update the game. The new version will be free for whoever purchased the game already.

Some of the updates include faster movement speed, an Escape Crystal and maps!

Read on to see the full list of exciting changes:

A Mystery Box

Today a package arrived that I'll be unboxing! It should've come yesterday, but I ordered it with "next day shipping if you order before 10 PM" at 9:45 which didn't give them enough time I suppose. Lesson learned: if you want something the next day, don't order it 15 minutes before the deadline!

And what's it for?

For work! Read on to find out what's inside:

Announcing Lunafall's Main Cast

Welcome to the production blog for Lunafall! We'll be using this space to keep you updated on the progress of the game. I'm the main artist and producer, Aaron, and will be writing the blog, though there will be occasional posts from the rest of the team as well. :)

"Lunafall... That sounds familiar?"

Lunafall has been worked on for a few years now -- mostly with writing and conceptual design -- and has every so often been placed on the back burner during other productions (Sweet Lily Dreams, etc.). Lunafall features an entirely new fantasy world that we wanted to properly flesh out during that time without any rush. Along the way we've learned many things about game production that will make Lunafall by far our best game yet. With the other projects finished, heavy production started a few months ago, and I feel we're at a point that we can start this blog.

Okay, enough introduction!

Recently we've been finalizing the sprites for the main cast:

Lucia Silvermoon. Her face has been displayed on-and-off in various places of the website for a few years now. Regardless of her little crown she's not a princess or Mary Sue. Speaking of, I always draw sprites from scratch but her little crown had to be re-sized and edited from the concept art to keep all the details.

Her dress is a combination of crimson translucent silk and grey leather and will be tweaked a few times in the future to add more detail.

Credence's sprite was a lot of fun to work with, which I did not expect! Her platform boots along with the spiky hair elevate her (yes, look, she has breasts!) above the rest of the cast. I decided not to add her "gloves" as it will make the sprite a grey mess of what's-what. They will pop up in battle, though.

Gwendola is the other main character that has been displayed on the website a few times over the past years. I personally love her personality and background story. Her hair and semblance are inspired by young actress Saoirse Ronan. 

She approves.

The bra of this scantily clad lady took a day to draw. A whole day. Every pixel had to be right. I think the result is pretty perfect. The shiny hair should be seen in action as it beautifully flows left and right while walking. Her outfit's not fan service: her people live in the desert (Asharan). She could use a large hat for blocking the sun, though. Hmm...

And lastly: Quinn. Yes, there's a guy in the main cast! He doesn't live in the desert so I'm going to assume Rita Ora stopped by. The sprites being the size that they are, they look slightly genderless. Quinn is the only guy in the preliminary main cast so we had to make sure he actually looked manly. Here's a before and after:

Okay, these images are zoomed in to 200%, but at 100% the left one looked like a tomboy with boot-cut jeans and a curling iron. As with Credence, we left out the arm/wrist gear to keep the sprite clear.

So, these are the 5 main characters! If you have Facebook (I ask that slightly rhetorically), you can like our Facebook Page to stay updated until the next blog post. Thank you for reading! :)