ChaosTheory
Virtual Reality Hero
Not sure if anyone else remembers Bloom, but I backed it due to the visuals I was seeing, which were gorgeous. Turns out they're still very much alive:
Kickstarter
19
The March Foward
Posted by Studio Fawn
Hey everyone, time for another update!! (Can you believe it has been over 2 years now?! It feels like yesterday this Kickstarter ended. Thanks for joining me on this journey for so long!!
.
Sorry this update was a bit delayed; with the holidays we lost a bit of time and I had been stalling the update till James had taken time off this month to work on Bloom, but that got delayed till likely mid March ((at least that delay was from a promotion he got at work! So, bitter sweet.
For those who weren't sure, that is the team right now, primarily James and I working to make this happen (with James working part time while balancing the other parts of his life, and Jose on the music now and then when we need some new sections...which leaves me with everything else).
With the delay, I also noticed a few more messages from concerned backers. So I thought this would be a good chance to talk to everyone about the project and the future and make sure we are all on the same page. This isn't just "some random Kickstarter project" (though, to you perhaps it is....just one of many you have backed maybe? But to me this is everything, it is what I have been devoting years of my life to every day).
Anyhow, basically the game is taking longer than we had hoped (likely longer than we even had anticipated in the other update). Largely this is from the expanded scope I chose to run with and the balancing act James needs to do to keep his job and family. (To give you an idea of how much time the art takes, a single new character takes about a week to get into the game, taken from concept to animating....each new map screen can take anywhere from half a day to 2 or 3 days **especially if there is heavier modeling / rendering needed for the map**.)
I guess I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I feel like I let you down in not matching the promises we set for schedule. On the other hand, I feel like I'm going to deliver more than I had ever hoped two years ago....and in that sense, it feels pretty good. As they say, a rushed game is bad forever, but a delayed game is eventually good (great?).
The thing is, since we are such a tiny team there isn't much risk of the project just failing (get that idea out of your head, we aren't going anywhere haha). We don't hire outside help (hah don't have the budget for it), we don't have a large unstable team (been at this for a few years now)...and we can do it all as long as we are breathing.
I like to keep an eye on other games similar to ours who have come through Kickstarter; and I've seen why they fail. We just don't have those vulnerabilities.
So, the only real issue is time, and time is pretty important....it is something I think about a lot. No matter how much you want to see this game ASAP, I guarantee we want it to be done more. Frankly, quality of life working like this (at least for me) isn't the best. I've put my life on pause for years to make this happen living as cheaply as I can (including putting transition on hold, which I'm sure you can imagine is an important thing). In fact the only reason I was able to go home to see my parents this holiday was because my brother covered the cost for me (last year I stayed home and worked to save money and push the project ahead, and would have done the same this year if my brother didn't offer the ticket).
Basically, this game is the number 1 priority in my life and I've shown that over the last few years.
I haven't really thought of why this project means so much to me. But perhaps one reason is because this is all I really have? The chance to make something I am proud of during a time where I seem to have a bottomless well of passion to draw from and devote to something like this? I still get excited every day as long as I'm working on the game (and the way it has evolved in story and design likely reflects that)....so I'm taking that as a good sign to just keep chugging along.
So, sorry this is all taking so long....but thanks to you I've gotten the chance to make something special; and I'm taking it.
I believe this song captures my feelings!! (Is this the first time in history this has been linked non-ironically?) <3 <3 <3
The Future
As we've been coming more towards the end of the assets (filling in gaps in the map and creating the last handful of characters), we've been thinking a lot about the launch of the game and the finishing touches.
Obviously we don't have much of a budget. But if we want to give this game the best chance at success we can....we will need to attend conventions (not just local ones) and strive to include some "extra" features (for example, having the game fully voiced has been a big extra goal if possible, but I've always felt bad voice overs are worse than no voice overs....so it would have to be done properly).
We haven't quite figured out how we are going to make this happen yet (since these aren't aspects we can just tackle with passion alone). A publisher? An investor? Begging family? Either way just giving you an idea of some other things we are thinking about and still trying to sort through as we keep working.
Making the game is only part of the battle. I think a lot of developers forget that.
Progress!
Anyhow! Onto what has happened the last few months!! Half of December was eaten by our families (and this month for James has largely been eaten by his other work). But we still have some interesting progress happening.
One big thing I did was COMPLETELY redo the Sanctuary! This was a pretty big job (took a few weeks), but I'm happy with how it turned out.
Along with that, I also filled in a bunch of world map gaps (missing maps between key areas)....here are a few examples.
And after all that....I began working on the prologue!! I think the less I say about this the better (story wise the prologue might be one of my favorite parts).....but I can at least show you some of the new maps and characters!
Since the prologue is a bit shorter and self contained experience, our goal is to use it as our demo to take to conventions. That way the main story won't be spoiled but there will still be something a little deeper for everyone to play (demoing narrative heavy games at conventions is always a tricky balancing act, but I think this will be a good middle ground).
Anyhow, next update should be after our BloomCore marathon! James is planning 11 days off of pure Bloom to finally get the AI behaving properly and get it all running better. I'll likely keep trying to finish up the world maps and the last characters / creatures, so by the time the engine is ready I'll be prepared to just focus on filling the world out.
It is a frustrating feeling being so close but not able to throw up videos yet Game development really tests a persons patience 
Kickstarter
19
The March Foward
Posted by Studio Fawn
Hey everyone, time for another update!! (Can you believe it has been over 2 years now?! It feels like yesterday this Kickstarter ended. Thanks for joining me on this journey for so long!!
.Sorry this update was a bit delayed; with the holidays we lost a bit of time and I had been stalling the update till James had taken time off this month to work on Bloom, but that got delayed till likely mid March ((at least that delay was from a promotion he got at work! So, bitter sweet
. For those who weren't sure, that is the team right now, primarily James and I working to make this happen (with James working part time while balancing the other parts of his life, and Jose on the music now and then when we need some new sections...which leaves me with everything else).
With the delay, I also noticed a few more messages from concerned backers. So I thought this would be a good chance to talk to everyone about the project and the future and make sure we are all on the same page. This isn't just "some random Kickstarter project" (though, to you perhaps it is....just one of many you have backed maybe? But to me this is everything, it is what I have been devoting years of my life to every day).
Anyhow, basically the game is taking longer than we had hoped (likely longer than we even had anticipated in the other update). Largely this is from the expanded scope I chose to run with and the balancing act James needs to do to keep his job and family. (To give you an idea of how much time the art takes, a single new character takes about a week to get into the game, taken from concept to animating....each new map screen can take anywhere from half a day to 2 or 3 days **especially if there is heavier modeling / rendering needed for the map**.)
I guess I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I feel like I let you down in not matching the promises we set for schedule. On the other hand, I feel like I'm going to deliver more than I had ever hoped two years ago....and in that sense, it feels pretty good. As they say, a rushed game is bad forever, but a delayed game is eventually good (great?
). The thing is, since we are such a tiny team there isn't much risk of the project just failing (get that idea out of your head, we aren't going anywhere haha). We don't hire outside help (hah don't have the budget for it), we don't have a large unstable team (been at this for a few years now)...and we can do it all as long as we are breathing.
I like to keep an eye on other games similar to ours who have come through Kickstarter; and I've seen why they fail. We just don't have those vulnerabilities.
So, the only real issue is time, and time is pretty important....it is something I think about a lot. No matter how much you want to see this game ASAP, I guarantee we want it to be done more. Frankly, quality of life working like this (at least for me) isn't the best. I've put my life on pause for years to make this happen living as cheaply as I can (including putting transition on hold, which I'm sure you can imagine is an important thing). In fact the only reason I was able to go home to see my parents this holiday was because my brother covered the cost for me (last year I stayed home and worked to save money and push the project ahead, and would have done the same this year if my brother didn't offer the ticket).
Basically, this game is the number 1 priority in my life and I've shown that over the last few years.
I haven't really thought of why this project means so much to me. But perhaps one reason is because this is all I really have? The chance to make something I am proud of during a time where I seem to have a bottomless well of passion to draw from and devote to something like this? I still get excited every day as long as I'm working on the game (and the way it has evolved in story and design likely reflects that)....so I'm taking that as a good sign to just keep chugging along.
So, sorry this is all taking so long....but thanks to you I've gotten the chance to make something special; and I'm taking it.
I believe this song captures my feelings!! (Is this the first time in history this has been linked non-ironically?) <3 <3 <3
The Future
As we've been coming more towards the end of the assets (filling in gaps in the map and creating the last handful of characters), we've been thinking a lot about the launch of the game and the finishing touches.
Obviously we don't have much of a budget. But if we want to give this game the best chance at success we can....we will need to attend conventions (not just local ones) and strive to include some "extra" features (for example, having the game fully voiced has been a big extra goal if possible, but I've always felt bad voice overs are worse than no voice overs....so it would have to be done properly).
We haven't quite figured out how we are going to make this happen yet (since these aren't aspects we can just tackle with passion alone). A publisher? An investor? Begging family? Either way just giving you an idea of some other things we are thinking about and still trying to sort through as we keep working.
Making the game is only part of the battle. I think a lot of developers forget that.
Progress!
Anyhow! Onto what has happened the last few months!! Half of December was eaten by our families (and this month for James has largely been eaten by his other work). But we still have some interesting progress happening.
One big thing I did was COMPLETELY redo the Sanctuary! This was a pretty big job (took a few weeks), but I'm happy with how it turned out.
Along with that, I also filled in a bunch of world map gaps (missing maps between key areas)....here are a few examples.
And after all that....I began working on the prologue!! I think the less I say about this the better (story wise the prologue might be one of my favorite parts).....but I can at least show you some of the new maps and characters!
Since the prologue is a bit shorter and self contained experience, our goal is to use it as our demo to take to conventions. That way the main story won't be spoiled but there will still be something a little deeper for everyone to play (demoing narrative heavy games at conventions is always a tricky balancing act, but I think this will be a good middle ground).
Anyhow, next update should be after our BloomCore marathon! James is planning 11 days off of pure Bloom to finally get the AI behaving properly and get it all running better. I'll likely keep trying to finish up the world maps and the last characters / creatures, so by the time the engine is ready I'll be prepared to just focus on filling the world out.
It is a frustrating feeling being so close but not able to throw up videos yet
Game development really tests a persons patience 
