Unsung Story - April Update

Myrthos

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The update of April for Unsung Story brings, amongst others, a general update of the status:

At this point there are a bunch of long term tasks that wont really be complete until the game is Alpha, but I'll try to break them up to give a sense of progress.


  • Design is still finalizing the white boxes for all 50 missions. 15 are done and out for conceptual art. 9 are playable. You'll notice that we keep adjusting the play field size on Mission 5 based on play testing. Those changes have been filtered back through other level designs to keep everything consistent.
  • Art is managing the process of working through conceptual art based on the white boxes and then the 3D modeling build out of each level.
  • Development continues to build out class skills and combat mechanics. But they are also building tools for the artists and designers. I'll be showing off the first pass of our Environment Control and Tile Editor below. Right now they are also adding support so that design can script Spawns, Hazards, and environmental events. These elements are necessary to complete the remaining 35 mission white boxes.
  • Development is also building out the Fracture system which our extended game play feature for Unsung Story that allows players to replay levels they have already beaten. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get a good enough write-up for that part of the game, so we'll be walking through it next month.
  • Art has completed work on the Female Human across all class outfits and 3 different body forms. Those assets are still being glued up in the engine, and it was quite a bit more work than we anticipated. Conceptual work is being done on the gender / racial variations to each class outfit alongside various story character designs. They also have lots of continuing work on animation, vfx, and UI.
There is also information about the vertical slice process, environmental control, gameplay and the level editor.

More information.
 
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Hmmm... Doesn't really sound like the stage you'd expect a project to be after 5 years of development.
 
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Hmmm… Doesn't really sound like the stage you'd expect a project to be after 5 years of development.
Original developer burned through the cash and closed. The new developer took over reworked and changed the entire game till it was nothing like it was pitched.
Another game I regret backing. Here's the list why.

1. They promised Yasumi Matsuno would help develop the game- Lie
2. Promised a game like Final Fantasy Tactics- Lie
3. Original developer Playdeck burned through the funds - Truth
4. New developer changed the game to something different -Truth
5. Constant delays with no possible release date -Truth

I could go on but I wont.
My older post from another thread.
 
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Ah, right - that makes more sense. What they're describing sounds like a game in fairly early development.
 
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Ah, right - that makes more sense. What they're describing sounds like a game in fairly early development.

It is indeed. The original developer Playdek ran through the Kickstarter funds after 3 years with absolutely nothing to show for it. This was a classic example of a phone game company proving completely unable to make a pc JSRPG.

They gave the rights, but no money to Little Orbit, who decided based on Yasumi Matsuno's orginal design document that they wanted to try to make the game using their own funds, and BTW this is another phone game company. To their credit they actually have been developing a game, and though they changed the art style (originally for legal reasons, but the new style isn't particularly good imo) and abandoned Yasumi Matsuno's grid system, because they couldn't get it to work, it looks like they will actually finish the game, since they have workable levels and a workable systems and now need to fill in the remaining content of the game.

I'm willing to keep an open mind since I paid into this game. I also paid into Kenshi about 6 years before it finished, expected nothing from it and got a game I really enjoyed.
 
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Well, I hope something worthwhile materialises for the backers. It does sound like pretty early days, with the levels at the whitebox stage, and basic features like spawns and environmental triggers still being worked on.
 
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