Fates Weekly Update #19

Hello, folks. It’s that time of the week. It has been a pretty rough week and I’m looking forward to some sleep. On that note, going to be a short update week.

-Wordcount (3501; this week was mostly focused on trying to work out the details on how the Anton team route is going to work. Right now, we have two viable strategies. The first one is to give you the option of joining Anton as Natalie via a specific ending of Reborn. The second idea is to let Natalie’s younger sister, Name, take the second protagonist role. I’m rather fond of letting Name take a whack at being the second protagonist. This would allow you get to play parallel, seeing both routes and influencing the story overall. Natalie playing with the rebels, Name playing with Katajions. Both gather hints and clues that can create the overall picture. Or have you commit familicide. I doubt that will solve the problem, but failing has such fun consequences…

So that is question one for the audience: Do you think it would be more fun to have split routes with Natalie on one side and Name on the other or just have two completely different stories of Natalie and her allegiance?

Second thing I’ve been working on in my head is the flow of all the routes. I hate to say it, but all but one worked out well. That last route is one that isn’t working out well. Sylvania Logivechk is a very cold person to those she hasn’t grown to trust and enjoys their company. That’s not the kind of friendship Natalie can gain in a couple weeks of traveling and for those of you who remember Anton’s Vacation will remember that Name and Syl strongly dislike the other and barely maintain a professional work environment. While I can figure it out with the power of deus ex, I can offer a potential solution.

Lenna, Yoi, and Syl
Lenna, Yoi, and Syl

Right now, I have three possible characters who could have routes.

-Lenna Edeck, a young former pilot who run away from her job to become a singer with the man she loved. Unfortunately, this did not turn out well for them. Unable to find work, Lenna and Sol fought and bickered to the point where they split up. Forced to return to her roots on the streets, Lenna dreams of finally finding that world where she can live happily. (Lenna and Natalie are not friends over Lenna’s paranoia over Sol and Natalie’s friendship. However, it also gives them a touchstone to rebuild their friendship. -Natalie and Name have some very slightly friendship over the conspiracy in the past.)

-Yoi Mono, an elven ranger who is often hired by the Katajion Directorship to support Anton Rogers. Playful and energetic, Yoi tries to think on the bright side of life and enjoys life. Under all the smiles though is a woman who is under immense amounts of pressure by her organization and worries that she is alone in the universe. (Yoi and Natalie haven’t met, though Yoi would attempt to make friends with any new party members. -Yoi loves flirting with Name and considers them to be good friends no matter how much they fight.)

Syl, the cold assassin that left the life of murder behind her to become a bodyguard. Despite the rough life of killing from the age of 13, Syl doesn’t let the life of death overwhelm her. In fact, she doesn’t really think much about it. Being a woman of education, she leads her life in peace and calm. (Syl has no relationship with Natalie. -Syl and Name hate each other.)

So I am going to give you all the chance to vote. Which character route would you like to see included? Please either send an e-mail to the overwatch@idhasstudios.com or post a comment.

That’s going to be it for this week. Until next time, Chief out!

Fates Weekly Update #18

Hey, folks. Chief here with the weekly update. No dramatic or interesting intro this week, I’m not doing so well. Health, the weakness of man. Just like a crazy dancing red dot is the weakness of Fuzz now that I bought a cheap little laser pointer. I don’t know what red dots did to him as a wee kitten, but he will try to maul it with unseen ferocity. Anyway, on to the update.

Wordcount: 5,220 (Most of the writing this week was focused on the core story, aka the non-investigation/non-romance sections. The reason for this is to get the script properly set for the voice acting, which auditions have just started. Read below!)

Backers at the physical item level update: Everything is in! …except for the wall scroll shipping tubes. Curse you winter storms! Shipping will be started next week by my lovely assistant Figerit. Zuri’s has to be my favorite of the group.

Voice acting update: Voice acting auditions have been started! Sakura Hughes has joined us as VA director, so no crazy attempts of Komi tring to figure out which end of the microphone is which. There are going to be two different casting calls. The first one (this one) is for the characters with the most lines in the core path. That means it will be Natalie, Nàme, Zuri, Kika, Sol, and Anton. The rest of the cast will be done in a later casting call. If you are interested in auditioning for these roles or know someone who is, more information can be found at…

Lemmasoft Forums

Voice Acting Alliance

Music update: Music is coming along nicely. As a part of today’s update, a small snip-it of one of our mystery tunes by Terranivium is available for you to enjoy!

Since it seems like I’m always up on the stage singing and dancing for everyone, let’s take a moment for an update from the other writer on the team, rellimkram!

I shall share a bit about Eve Auroch, one of the characters I’m responsible for writing and developing for Fates. While I’ve worked on her, especially at the beginning, I got to write a bit of the lore for the RA universe as well, as Eve’s race, the minotaurs, haven’t really been expanded on much (even in Chief’s hidden stash of writings, it seems). As such, I’ll talk a bit about them as well.

If you haven’t seen her yet, her sprite was shown in Weekly Update #14. Minotaurs are a nomadic people, wanderers that only settle down when forced to by something. For Eve’s band (groups of minotaurs are called bands. Racists call them herds, though), the cause was the inability to continue supporting themselves, as the war between the Directorship and the Empire made trade more difficult, especially for those with no clear allegiance. With their ability to obtain the necessities for constant travel crippled, they settled down and tried to make a livelihood for themselves. Unfortunately, minotaurs aren’t always well liked by other races, especially humans, which is rather ironic, seeing as the all female race of minotaurs require other species to continue to reproduce. The distrust and general disapproval, even hatred, shown to Eve’s band made life for them quite difficult, especially for the young Eve, who was only four at the time. Other children avoided her, and the adults did so as well for the most part, with most of their interactions with her being to tell her to stay away from their children. Skipping over details (don’t want to spoil too much), the loneliness of her childhood drove Eve to seek acceptance, which she chose to find in trying to make herself indispensable to society, namely a doctor (her profession was also revealed in the update). After a rather emotional series of events (which I plan to reveal during Fates somehow), she found herself caring for everyone’s favorite lupide, Faye.

Eve’s interactions with the cast of Fates is largely still undetermined at this point, but I can say for sure that she will be tied to Faye’s fate in some way or another. Basically, if Faye gets killed for some reason, Eve may chose to leave the group, as she will no longer have an obligation to stay, and if Faye’s condition worsens, Eve will likely recede to the sidelines, her efforts being focused on keeping her patient alive rather than interacting with the others. Now, don’t let those things discourage you, as Eve may still prove at least moderately significant, as Chief has told me that some romancing with Eve is something I’m allowed to write (though I still haven’t really worked out how I’m going to do that yet). I might take suggestions (or at least indirect influence) from you all as I write her part of the story, and maybe I’ll reveal something about an old acquaintance of hers that will more likely than not also make an appearance in Fates, an elf by the name of Sovran.

Okay, Chief back. I’m gonna take a moment to do an inclusion to this since the question was asked before. There are other relationships that can happen in Fates. Natalie is not the only person who has a chance of finding love while the universe explodes around them. However, Natalie (and you as the player) do have the chance to either help it along or completely ruin it. It’s not a full matchmaking game, but there are some characters who can get close.

As many of you were curious to why we were really late with today’s update, the reason was to let the voting end on the Raltin Ship name contest. It was a really, really, really close contest, but the winner has been decided… it is… me discovering I set the time wrong. You have until 7AM EST tomorrow to get your votes in. It’s currently a dead even tie between Ardent Flare and Darklight.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned. Chief out!

Fates Weekly Update #17

Hey, folks! Chief here with… you know what… IT’S A FATE WEEKLY UPDATE! Did you know that a week hasn’t gone by since August where I didn’t post something? I’m just as surprised as you are! Well, probably not. I mean, I’m going to keep doing consistent updates until October 31st at the minimum, so I think I will save my awe until the end.

Writing update: 1400. Yes, I have to admit that the number of words written this week is pretty low. Remarkably low. Before we raise the calls demanding for my head, I want to take a moment and talk about the small story that took up this week and a little bit of next. Nuge (the CG artist for Reborn) and I are working on Rising Angels: Spark (title pending), a fun little quiz dress-up game which will follow the story of Kika and Blade during their time at the academy. It’s a little jaunt down memory lane and a might be a refresher for the remake of Red Rose that is coming out in the upcoming months. Besides, the greatest character of all time will be making a canon return in Spark. It’s been fun having him rampage around again.

She's just too darn cute sometimes...
She’s just too darn cute sometimes…

Speaking of Hope, the Red Rose remake, the CG should be done by the end of the month. After some more writing and a few other things, it will be ready to go. As a benefit for everyone who has backed the Rising Angels: Fates kickstarter and those who have donated to the studio, these folks will have early access to Hope.

Daki update: The daki have been finished being printed and are now on their way to the studio. I know most of you aren’t really caring about that, but this has a bit of significance to the studio. This is the first time that the studio has ever produced physical goods. If wallscrolls and body pillows do well, we may be able to fund future projects without having to charge people for them and expand what we can offer. Honestly, it is a bit of a dream for me. If there is a way where I can write stories and release them to the world for free while not having to live under the bridge in a cardboard box, I’m going to pursue it.

Voice Acting update: I’ve been quiet for a while on the voice acting front. For those of you who may have forgotten, we did get to the voice acting stretch goal. Hopefully starting next week, we will be opening auditions for the roles in Rising Angels: Fates. Because of the staggering length of all routes in the game and the fairly limited budget, voice acting will be limited to scenes for the core route. I’d love to voice the entire game, but unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to even afford my spot under the bridge. There will be roles open for a whopping 18 characters; 5 males, 13 females; 6 major roles, 4 medium roles, and 8 minor roles. If you are interested in auditioning, details will be posted up sometime during the week on the IDHAS website. For those of you not interested, it will give you a sneak peak at some of the characters who haven’t been talked about yet.

It’s voting time for the Raltin ship! We had a lot of strong entries. The poll is currently up at http://innomenpro.com/forums/index.php?topic=1013 . I’ve got my own personal favorite, but I’m not going to risk tainting the vote by saying it! The poll closes after 7 days, so get out there and vote now before it is too late!

That’s all for the week. For those of you who want an updated schedule of Rising Angels games coming out this year, the confirmed ones are…

Rising Angels: Spark – 1 Feb15

Rising Angels: Hope – ?? Apr15

Rising Angels: Fates – 31 Oct15

Depending on how fast I can go, another game or two might be able to slip in there. Maybe a short little jaunt into some of the space battles. Until next time, Chief out!

Fates Weekly Update #16

Hello, folks. Did you know that it was cold this week? For those of you who did not know, it was very cold this week. There’s nothing quite like standing on a sheet of ice in -20C weather for hours at a time while trying to call flight controls for a preflight. Every little step I took ended up with me on the cement. It wasn’t so bad until I thawed out and could suddenly feel my body again. Don’t worry though, there was only a 30% chance of me dying! But it doesn’t matter since I survived and got this weekly update for you all!

Wordcount: 4533 (Okay, so this week has been more Zuri. Probably going to be a lot of Zuri for a while. There are 28 scenes for Zuri’s route alone in the game. That’s not including anything involved in the main route or the investigation scene interactions. Not all of these scenes are super long, but the amount of content each route is going to get is pretty staggering. I’m going to be increasing my writing output to make sure things continue moving at the needed pace.)

Dakimakura: I put the orders in today. Interesting enough, almost all of the backers went with Faye. Faye is pretty adorable, isn’t she? On the flip, almost nobody wanted poor Zuri. As such, there will only be a very small amount of Zuri daki made.

Backgrounds: Development on the backgrounds is advancing. In Fates, there will be six major locations with each faction only getting to see five of the six. They are…

Celestia: Celestia is a neutral planet that serves as one of the biggest trading hubs in the galaxy. The thing about Celestia is that it when you get outside of the spaceports, people discover that the flashing lights and clean streets of the spaceports leads to a world that is struggling to survive. It’s people, outside the elite merchants, are barely able to keep food on the table. The food that does make it to its citizens are not the luxurious foodstuffs that are being funneled to the various worlds around the galaxy, but are what they can grow. With a 18% unemployment rate and restrictions on technology imposed by its ruling class, Celestia hides an underbelly of unrest and contempt for the galaxy. That hatred has lent itself well to a growing movement who wants to clean the crooked traders from the galaxy. Will that unrest help Natalie or motivate those who want to see her fail?

Tropolain: Tropolain is home to the mercenary political body of the Trilani Rangers. A private military force who takes commissions from both government and individuals alike, the Trilani are known for being able to find their targets and dispatch them to whatever afterlife they believe in. The Trilani are very rigid in their ways, being proud of their history and proud of their people. But there was a time before the Trilani arrived on Tropolain, a time when the planet’s native people once walked the world. Though they have disappeared from the planet, many of their secrets still lie hidden behind the protection of the rangers and jungles unexplored for ages. What secrets await the investigators under the traps of the rangers and the dangers of the jungle?

Jupiari VI- A world of beautiful waters and tropic beaches. With almost all of the landmass underwater, the few spots of dry land are heavily monopolized by floating cities and tourist resorts. Utilizing the water for the breeding of fish and hydroponic farms, Jupaiari VI is one of the most critical worlds in the Katajion Directorship. Legends say that temples of gold and treasure lay beneath the farms and the tourists, but the tough laws on any sort of activity that could damage the planet have barred all from trying to discover the truth behind the stories. Will Natalie be the first to find these sunken temples or will she (yet again) find herself on the wrong side of the law?

Ona’thon- A barren world of sand and storm laying on the border of the Katajion Directorship and the Ryu’llian Republic. Ona’thon is the homeworld of the winged Draemon warrior race. Except for the holy city of Emerald Winds, there is nothing but suffering and sorrow on the sands of Ona’thon. They say it is these hardships and beliefs in their caste system that has kept the draemons strong and wise. Many seek the City of Emerald Winds to find harmony, to find their place in the madness of the universe. It is here that the story of Natalie and perhaps the universe itself will come to an end…

Nimross/Unnamed Raltin Ship- The last two are how you are gonna be getting around the universe! For our Katajions who remain loyal to the force, the Nimross is being repurposed by Sector Three Intelligence (by which I mean Director Doichu is totally stealing it from the Sector Eight Space). Though her crew may change, the bargain bin cruiser lives on. The Raltin ship is the royal ship bestowed upon Alexi by the emperor himself. Though it is small, no expense has been spared to make it anything less than a ship worthy of an agent of the emperor. Sadly, one thing was forgotten… It came with no name. Which is where you all come in!

Right now, we are taking suggestions for the name of the new investigation ship piloted on the rebel side! Go to the forum site where you can talk about anything Rising Angels related and some other awesome sci-fi games and give your suggestions now! Next week we’ll take the best suggestions and hold a vote on what the new ship should be named! Suggestions do need to be within the realms of socially acceptable and reasonable. Any suggestion like the “Mike Hawk” will be dropped.

-There is also an ask.fm site I run. If you ever have any questions, story or otherwise, feel free to ask them here.

That’s all for this week. Remember, go out there and cast your suggestion today! Until next time, Chief out!

We need a new video of the post! Here’s one I remember from my youth!

Fates Weekly Update #15

Hello, folks. Chief here again. It’s a super late update this time. I’ve finally found enough time to start writing at the usual time I post. It has been a busy day.

-Wordcount: 3,665 (Still mostly focusing on writing Zuri events. The more I write Zuri, the more interesting she is to me. Her route might end up being my favorite, though it is too early in development for me to be picking favorites. This week’s events involved a lot of options in her early scenes. One of the complaints about Reborn was the lack of interactivity. While there is a ton of interactivity in presenting clues, asking questions, and some creative investigation in the investigation part, expanding some of the interpersonal relationship options in the story sections was high on my priority charts. Like Reborn, it is possible to turn Zuri away with consistent cold decision, I wouldn’t consider it to be her bad endings. No, to get the worst endings in Zuri’s route, you can’t attack Zuri’s beliefs. Instead, you have to attack her trust. There’s nothing worse to the a warrior who questions herself than to not have the faith of her close friend. While I know nobody here would intentionally seek the bad ends, they are there. Looking at the outline, the worst possible ending for Zuri would require you to break her heart, find the clues to the mystery, and make a painful decision at the end that is borderline genocide.

In short, I’m being a terrible person and writing a lot of unhappy scenes for Zuri’s route. Don’t worry, Zuri bad endings are the easiest to dodge. Kika however…

-Dakimakura update: Natalie’s daki is finally done! Tomorrow, I will start sending out surveys to the backers at the daki levels to determine which one you would like. It will take a bit to get them produced and then shipped, but we are finally moving forward with the physical merch stuff. I apologize for how long it has taken. Wallscrolls and everything else will also be sent out at that time. For those of you who are interested, a few extra daki of each type will be printed and available. However, I’ve made the decision to not do reprints of anything. Once they are gone, they are gone. Once they are in and I have the numbers remaining, they will be available for purchase on the IDHAS site.

As a reminder, this link is NSFW and should be treated as such.

http://www.idhasstudios.com/Images/NSFW/NSFW_Natalie_daki.png

-As a part of NaNoWinter, Nuge and I are working on a short little quiz/dress-up game for the Rising Angels series. The game will follow Kika and Blade during their cadet years as they try to raise money for a fundraiser by working at Chief’s Cosplay Cafe. For those of you who are curious, yes, this is a real cafe that is ran by Chief. Okay, that’s a fib, but the game will be out at the end of January and will be completely free.

-Got the first rough from the soundtrack in this week. Hopefully we will be able to show a track from the soundtrack soon!

Next week we will be introducing a new character. Until then, I’m grabbing some much needed sleep. Chief out!