First milestone incoming!

I’ll start off with some exciting news! Our first major milestone, Alpha 1, is slated for June 9th.  Alpha 1 is going to be an internal release since many of the features still aren’t in place. Here’s a look at what we hope to have done for Alpha 1:

• All main character portraits done
• All main plot enemy battlers done
• All environment art done
• Two dungeons playable (sans battles)

To put it in perspective, EP1 contains a total of four dungeons (and a fifth optional one), so most of the dungeon gameplay should be done for Alpha 1. Once all the dungeons are in place, the town areas will be added.

Five dungeons might not sound like a lot on paper, but it’s actually more than any other Vacant Sky game has had in the past. On top of that, our philosophy with Awakening is quality over quantity; the dungeons have a lot of optional content, plenty of choices, and hooks for replayability in the form of quests that are linked to other areas.

What’s taking so long?

There have been quite a number of hang ups I’ve talked about in the past that have caused us to miss the originally estimated release date, not the least of which being the sheer size of the cast (every character, major or minor, needs a portrait). This time, I’m going to talk about a more subtle and interesting timesink, as it’s something that has occupied the majority of my time lately.

Writing the content for Awakening is time-consuming. For the most part, every space on every map needs an event to be written for it and every one of those events is unique. There’s no copying and pasting. You get something new each time you step on a space.

But it’s not even the sheer volume of content that’s time consuming, it’s also that we’re not shying away from true nonlinearity.

Most areas of the game have optional spaces, and almost every area in the game can be revisited (if not immediately then eventually). This means that it’s possible to rush straight through every area in the game and save all of the optional content for the end. This means that every optional space needs to be written with the fact held firmly in mind that it could be visited at any point in the game.

Not only could a player save all the optional EP1 content for the end of EP1, the player might return to it in EP2! Or EP5! Keeping this in mind and making sure that the chronological context for every event makes sense from any point in the game is a daunting task.

On top of that, characters enter and leave the party throughout the game. And since Awakening has no superfluous characters (stop laughing, Kate, I know what you’re thinking), every one of those characters has something insightful to say or do that could totally change the way events play out.

You might be led to assume, then, that the optimal way to play if you want to experience all of the content is to save it all for the end such that you have everyone in your party for it. As it turns out, that’s not necessarily true: having someone new in your party doesn’t necessarily add to the event you would have otherwise experienced; it could change it completely. So Awakening has a lot of replayability based on how and when you tackle the optional content.

***

That’s all I’ve got for this week’s update. We’re working hard to make Awakening as awesome as we can and hope to have something great to share with you all soon.

Thanks for sticking with us.

The A-Side soundtrack contains music from episodes 1 and 2 and can be found here on Bandcamp: http://vacantsky.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-sky-awakening-ost-a-side

The B-Side soundtrack has just been released! It contains music from episodes 3, 4, and 5 and can be found here: http://vacantsky.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-sky-awakening-ost-b-side Kickstarter backers who pledged for the complete soundtrack should have received their copies already.

Enjoy!

The Vestibule is now available as one of the OUYA’s launch titles! Pick it up for free on the OUYA store! On top of being one of the console’s launch titles, it is the first visual novel to be released on the OUYA.

This release is very exciting as the rerelease of The Vestibule is the first game to be released on our new Metis engine and it marks a significant milestone on our path forward with Vacant Sky: Awakening.

But 2013 is going to be our best year yet. Let’s take a look at what’s in store. 

Metis2D 
To facilitate the development of Vacant Sky: Awakening, we’ve been hard at work on developing our own game engine, (tentatively) called Metis2D. As we near completion of the engine’s core features and continue our testing of it, we’re happy to announce the first game to be released with the new engine. 

One of our earlier microgames, The Vestibule, has been successfully ported to Metis and runs like a charm. We expect to rerelease The Vestibule on new platforms, namely the Ouya. The Vestibule will be available for free as one of the Ouya’s launch titles. 

Vacant Sky: Awakening 
Unsurprisingly, the majority of our efforts right now are concentrated on VSA. Work has been coming along at a steady pace. It’s still a little early to show anything new from the game yet, but we’re still hoping to manage a release before the summer. But although there’s nothing to see, there is plenty to listen to: 

 
http://vacantsky.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-sky-awakening 

The soundtrack for episodes 1 and 2 of Vacant Sky: Awakening is now available for purchase! Kickstarter backers who pledged at least $25 will shortly be receiving download codes via email. 

Thanks for being patient with us as we go through the roughest part of the development cycle. Please look forward to a release of Episode 1: Journey of the Black Knight in the coming months. 

Ars Harmonia 
Those of you who were following the Vacant Sky companion story, Ars Harmonia, have probably been wondering about the status and future of the series. For the foreseeable future, our efforts remain primarily concerned with the development of Awakening, which resulted in it being pushed to the backburner. 

However, a chance encounter with some old friends has brought about a change in fortune for Ars Harmonia. Ardent Blue Productions expressed interest in doing a game adaptation of the story and I’m excited to say that we’ve entrusted it into their capable hands. Although we’re not directly involved in the game’s production, I’m confident in their ability to bring the story to life. 

It’s still too early to estimate a release, but look forward to more news in the latter half of the year. You can check out the RMN profile for the game here:http://rpgmaker.net/games/4926/ 

*** 

Thanks for sticking with us for another year! We’re hoping to make this the best yet and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are!

Speaking of Kickstarter, VSA was selected to appear on the curated Kickstarter page for International Game Developers Association. Thanks so much for your support!

Recently, there have been a few requests for us to start up a forum as a format more conducive to discussion than this blog and its comments. As of today, we now have an official subreddit set up at http://projectbc.reddit.com . Come join the community, hang out, and chat with fellow fans!

For today’s update to Vacant Sky: Awakening, we have a behind the scenes look at the production of the music from composer Tarranon.

In addition, I’ve got another exciting announcement to make!

As you may or may not have heard, the Kickstarter for our new game, Vacant Sky: Awakening was just fully funded. To celebrate and to help spread the word about the Vacant Sky series, we’re going to be hosting a contest to run until the end of the Kickstarter campaign.

How do I enter?
To enter the contest, create something – anything – based on the Vacant Sky universe and/or the characters in it. This isn’t strictly limited to fanart or fanfiction, either (although they’re certainly allowed!). Go wild! You might choose to do a music remix, a costume, a prop, a radioplay, a game (if you’re really crazy), whatever – be creative! Don’t be afraid to be unique. The goal is to have fun!

To submit, attach your entry or a link to it and send an email to create@projectbc.net along with your name or alias you want to be referred to by.

What do I win?
The top three entries will receive prizes.

Third place
-A digital copy of “Sounds of Contention,” the Vacant Sky soundtrack

Second place
-A pre-release digital copy of the new Vacant Sky: Awakening Episode 1 soundtrack
-A digital copy of “Sounds of Contention,” the Vacant Sky soundtrack

First place
-A digital copy of Vacant Sky: Awakening Episode 1 (once released)
-Chance to design a character to appear as an NPC in Vacant Sky: Awakening
-A pre-release digital copy of the new Vacant Sky: Awakening Episode 1 soundtrack
-A digital copy of “Sounds of Contention,” the Vacant Sky soundtrack

What’s the deadline?
The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern time on February 6th, 2013.

With a full three weeks left in the Kickstarter campaign, Vacant Sky: Awakening has been fully funded! We’re already well on our way to our first stretch goal of $9,000, which will add platform support to Mac and iOS, as well as a free DLC for Kickstarter backers. This DLC, Tidebreaker, will star Sarian and cover the some of the gap between episodes 1 & 2.

Thanks so much to everyone’s support. Let’s see how far we can go with the 21 days we have left!

Project BC character designer and illustrator gives an in-depth look at the artwork and character design process for our new game, Vacant Sky: Awakening.

Check us out on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/projectbc/vacant-sky-awakening-a-pre-apocalyptic-rpg !

The Kickstarter for Vacant Sky: Awakening has just gone live! Please help us by sharing and supporting!