Hey, folks. Chief here with his usual Saturday routine. If this post seems a bit distracted, you can blame Fuzzy. He’s been fighting me all day, being an incredibly ornery cat. He’s scaling the door frames and clawing up the wall! I thought I’d get my nerf gun out and spook him by shooting darts above him at the door. Nope, now he is attacking the darts and meowing at me to fire more for him to chase. Never going to get any work done now…

Wordcount: 3,011; This week, we returned to finish up Act 3 on Bri VII. For most of the character routes, there are a lot of events that climax on this watery planet. Well, half of Natalie’s options have major climaxes on Bri. Zuri and Akurel, as well as Alexi, don’t hit their biggest points until pretty close to the final act. Kika’s story, however, can easily go one of two polar directions based upon what you’ve done in both the plot and her route to that point. I’m fighting hard not to give out spoilers, so I’m going to skirt around and talk about something different. Sol also hits a climax, but this one isn’t as story driven as it is character route driven. There is one option though, one option I see a lot of people getting stopped, that can have a major influence on the story. With a very high cost. I’m very fond of tough choices. It’s much more fun to give the occasional tough choice than a bunch of easy ones where you just score points to “win” a character route.

I wonder how many people will be left alive in most player’s initial playthroughs… and how much of the galaxy will still be standing.

Rising Angels: Hope is back on track! There’s been a lot of wondering what was going on due to development issues, but everything appears to be back in order. I am announcing a tentative release planned for the beginning of August. We will bring Faye’s first story to a proper close!

So, as I mentioned last week, we are going to start our lead up to Fates’s release with a couple of contests. The first contest is going to be the big fanart contest! There will be two more, though they will be a writing contest and a raffle.

Theme: Heritage; The first contest is more of a look at the past, where we have come. In order to determine our future, we must know where we come from. Everyone has a past, just as the series has a pretty long and decorated one. So the challenge being posed is to draw your imaginings of the pasts of the cast. What events transpired to shape the characters you read about today. What sort of heritage does each of the cast hold dear to them?

Prizes, what you all are interested in! Both the writing contest and art contest have identical prizes. Now, I’d like to give out more than large cash prizes, so if there are any donations to our contest, I’ll welcome them. I’m chatting with a couple people to see if they would be willing to lend some aid, so prizes may increase. First place: $200 USD via Paypal Second place: $100 USD via Paypal Third place: $50 USD via Paypal

Contest officially starts on July 1st, 2015, though we are announcing it early to those who read the Fates Weeklies before spreading it to the other corners of the interwebs.

Deadline: August 2nd, 2015

Results announced: August 5th, 2015

Judging: All pieces will be judged on creativity, relation to the theme, and plain old awesomeness. All pieces will be reviewed by the dynamic IDHAS trio: Chief Editor Komi and his two bumbling assistants. Depending on the number of entries, we might include a fan vote in there as well.

Art contest rules: 1. You must have at least one character from either Rising Angels: The Red Rose, Rising Angels: Reborn, or Anton’s Vacation. You can include other characters, if you wish.

2. Proper credit must be given to all characters. (Mostly if you include characters that aren’t yours or the studios.)

3. You must include the theme in some way, shape, or form.

4. You can submit up to two pieces for contest.

5. Keep it under XXX rating. IDHAS has never been a family friendly studio, but let’s keep the smut out of this one. You can toe that line, just don’t cross it.

That’s all for this week! Until next time, Chief out!

 

And this video o’ the post is dedicated to a VN let’s player who has not quite learned how to ride this chocobo.

Hello, folks! It’s Saturday night and that means it is time to boogy on the dance floor! Wait… it isn’t? When did disco die?! There’s a very large music festival going on not too far from here and they aren’t playing any hip beats! Back in my day… I wonder if Terranivium could do a disco track for Fates… Get Natalie in some bell bottoms and… what I mean to say is let’s get back to the update.

Wordcount: 5555 (Jackpot! I mean… this week, I was writing some of Name’s romance scenes. Name’s possible romances are a bit more complicated to write because I’ve got to try to get pre-Rising Angels stories into Fates without being dry or hamfisting them in. Yoi is easier than Anton since she basically just forces herself into the lives of any character she meets. While there is some history between them, its easy when they’re co-workers and Yoi’s a complete flirt. Anton carries baggage with him. Name blames him for ruining her career, while Anton can’t figure out what is wrong with her. It is a story I’m weaving into the plot while trying to tell the current plot. I won’t lie to you, it has been challenging at some points.

That’s why I’ve been writing Faye. Faye might have history in the series longer than any other character, but Name and Faye are fresh. It’s the lazy, naïve lupide paired up with the active, grumpy detective and they can play off each other without the fear of old stories trying to interfere. Other than Lenna and Faye; that completely interferes with Name’s almost tsundere efforts to bond with the adorable Faye. Between Lenna and Yoi, Name has some competition for winning Faye’s heart.

But the scenes between them are adorable. The one I most recently wrote might end up being my favorite. Poor Faye pushes herself too hard on Tropolain and ends up falling ill after returning to the Nimross. Not terribly ill, not deathbed… yet, but down under the weather. You have two different choices with it. You can let Dr. Eve take care of her patient (which will score average points with Faye) or you can risk trying to take care of the lupide yourself. If you try too hard, it turns into a fairly wacky scene. If you’re a jerk and don’t try hard enough, you make Faye slightly worse and make her feel more alone in the world. If you try as best as you can, there’s a touching scene of bonding between the two girls. It can’t cure deadly toxin damage, but friendship can heal a lot of emotional damage…

Starting next week will be our first promotional contest for Fates. There was a lot of debate about what sorts of contests and themes we would do for possible events. Since some of the major themes of all Rising Angels games are time and growth, I was thinking we’d start with a fanart contest to celebrate where we have come. Prizes are going to be money, merchandise, and maybe a few other special goodies if I can get approval in time! More details and start of the contest will come out in the next Weekly Update!

Trailer video is finally starting to shape up right. Video editing was something I was brand new to when I first started. My first couple attempts at making a Rising Angels: Fates trailer video were bad. Really bad. I’ve been practicing for the last few weeks to learn the ins and outs and I think I’ve finally learned enough to make another solid go at it. It was taking me an hour at one point to make six seconds of terrible video. Not so bad now.

Short week, mostly prep stuff going on. Next week starts the fun though, so stay tuned! Until then, Chief out!

 

For our video of the post, let’s enjoy a pretty awesome video game music video.

Hello, folks! Old Chief here with some of the latest announcements from the front! The Steam Summer Sale is going on and I am happy to say that Rising Angels: Reborn is now 75% off. That’s right, you can save all of the money and make it a super free game! Best deal you’ll get, even better than that 75% off of Valkyria Chronicles that has preoccupied most of my evening. There are a lot of really good visual novels on sale at the moment, so I hope you all are getting out there and finding some solid games to occupy your time.

Wordcount: Very little writing was done this week. I was mostly working out things for the investigation and testing out how the code was working. Investigations are a pretty large portion of the game and I want to be able to give the player the most possible options when presenting clues and facts to characters. The most annoying thing in the world in Phoenix Wright was getting the same message again and again when you presented different pieces of evidence. I want to minimize that as best as I can. Even if they are only a line or two, I want to maximize the uniqueness of the events. That means figuring out how many items there are and how many different ways they can be presented. It’s a flow sheet nightmare…

Voice acting: Act 2 lines should be finished up in a couple weeks and almost all of Act 1 lines are done. Voice acting is progressing at a solid rate.

For today’s topic, let’s chat a little bit about our main protagonist, Natalie!

Name: Natalie Puccile

Age: 24/25 (Natalie has a birthday over the course of Fates. Some of the fun character events involve it.)

Gender: F

Rank: Major

Nationality: Katajion

Bio: A brilliant mind who always excelled at schooling, Natalie won numerous awards growing up for academic excellence. When she graduated, Natalie immediately joined the space force to work as a Special Investigations and Tactics officer. After being posted to the KSS Nimross to investigate a missing research team. After stumbling upon a threat to the future of space travel, Natalie takes it upon herself to independently pursue and neutralize the danger to the ones she loves.

Chief’s Notes: I realized I never talked much about Natalie and her story heritage. That’s a bit odd for me, considering she is the protagonist after all. Then again, Natalie is another one of those characters who comes from a lucky break during the creation process. The original main character for Rising Angels: Reborn was supposed to be her sister. Name is a much more… aggressive character than Natalie, much more driven to succeed. Overwhelmingly self-confident. This is part of the reason why Natalie is a lot more forceful and stuck-up in the introduction of Reborn. She was still channeling her sister.

Eventually, we decided to change it up a bit. Using Name as a base, a new character was fleshed out. I don’t really recall why we decided to name her Natalie. I keep feeling like there is a story there, but I feel it may have been lost to the ages. Knowing me, it probably has something to do with Natalie Portman, but I honestly couldn’t tell you. Either way, Natalie arose out of the ashes of the Beyond Fading Stars project and I quickly set to work fitting her into this new universe.

Still recovering from the Red Rose fiasco, I didn’t want to have a repeat where the cast was a bunch of very forceful people with a laidback protagonist. With Sol and Kika both planned to return, I needed someone who could balance their aggressiveness out, but not be pushed around. Name would have been too harsh, too demanding, so I started working. Natalie would be more interdependent, relying on her personal skills but willing to vest some of that trust into the rest of the crew. Sol was a beautiful match for her in that aspect. I wanted her to have a trusted friend, someone she could rely on from the start as she fostered relations with the other characters. They were foils, to a degree, but those differences only served to strengthen the bonds between them.

Zuri was an unexpected factor and really helped evolve Natalie in my mind. Unlike Sol, Zuri was a true foil to Natalie. The strong warrior and the academic scholar is a fairly time-tested duo. I expected them to fight and argue more, but they both shared a common thread. Natalie’s starting out with a focus on her own advancement had her very selfish at the start. Not a lot of honest caring for others. Zuri was the opposite, only caring about how she could better serve the group. Putting them together helped me evolve them both. Natalie started to see the crew as actual people, realizing her decisions had consequences. Zuri had her first streak of greed since losing Akurel all those years ago; she had a closer friend and didn’t want to lose her. Both girls fought against that inner reflection, not willing to accept that the reflection might show other aspects of their heart.

With there being a lot more hands-on investigations in Fates, I’m eager to see how Natalie grows. As the writer, I see a tipping point in her development and psyche. Will she return to being that career-driven officer who sees this investigation as a way of improving her standing by becoming a hero? Will she become more interdependent by opening her heart to her friends amidst these trials? Both are perfectly viable options with the story. Normally, I have my own canon for a character and that’s what they are. Not this time. Not for Natalie. Life is still very much transpiring for her and I don’t think I will see who she will become until the story comes to its conclusion.

Well, that’s all for this week. Go out there and remember to enjoy the summer with things other than video games as well! Books are totally awesome to read indoors in the summer as well. Until next time, Chief out!

 

Video of the post is some awesome music by an awesome guitarist.  Or was. Video didn’t load. Instead, here’s something else! Okay that didn’t load either. I’ll try again later.

Hello, folks! Chief here after another week of exhaustion and suffering. Too many early mornings! Whoever invented 5 AM needs to be taken to a psych ward for an evaluation. Why do most characters in stories work banker hours? I envy them so much… Anyway, if this update doesn’t seem to make much sense, blame the lack of sleep.

Wordcount: 5,544 (This week I decided to take a break from writing the events of Bri VII and Ona’thon. There are times when everything is overwhelming that I just don’t have it in me to write tense and dark scenes. During those moments, I like to write the character scenes. This week’s scenes were Sol’s. Sol’s scenes and possible romance are tricky, but I’m kind of fond of them. Sol’s scenes assume that you ended with being close to Zuri at the end of Reborn. While they’ve always been very close friends ever since they went to the junior academy together, recent years have strained their relations. Between Lenna driving a wedge between them and their arguments on Sol’s behaviors, there are a lot of small sticking points.

But that strong bond is still there. It may be hidden behind all of those disagreements, but it is still there. One of the first things that happens on Celestia is that Natalie needs to get it out on the table. Spending no time with her when they all thought they were going to die, his treatment of Zuri and Faye, and his abandonment. Those first few scenes are going to be tough on the player. You can fight it out with him or you can just smile and keep those concerns to yourself. What is the correct answer? I’m not going to say. False smiles might be better than tearing Sol’s heart apart or it could scar a man who considers himself to be a close confident of Natalie.

Sol is a pretty hard person. He doesn’t like to show a lot of emotion. He’s an officer and damn proud of it, even if he doesn’t wear the uniform anymore. During the core and investigation sections, Sol is a very reliable source of perception and calm. Like when he considered Zuri’s guilt in Reborn, he tends to think things through calmly. His character scenes are a bit different. There’s moments when the iron curtain cracks and you can see the other sides of him. The things that make him laugh, smile, and even a couple moments of sorrow and worry. Will you embrace him and rebuild your once trusted friend or will you let the gap widen…

Updates on last week’s question: As some of you may have noticed, I completely forgot to include the 4th option. Why? Because it was a terrible option that I’m kind of glad that I forgot about. Votes ended up leaning towards option #1, which was going through Natalie’s Act 1 and then going through Name’s Act 1 and then alternating.

Music: The soundtrack is almost complete thanks to the awesome Terranivium! Here’s a rough sample of what awaits!

That’s all for this week. After a week of early mornings, I’m heading to bed! Until next week, Chief out!