Hey, folks. Chief here with another weekly update. It is going to be a short update since there isn’t a lot of things happening. It’s pretty rare when I have a week that is almost solely aimed towards writing. Normally there is a lot of setting up art commissions, listening to audio from SFX and music, coding games (some mini-games that probably won’t be included in this game), and other odd activities that keep me darting around. Not this week. It’s pretty weird not running circles as the studio head.

Wordcount: 6,441 (So, there I was, happy that I had completed the Act 2 core. I was getting ready to finalize the script and send it off to the voice actors when I realized that I had completely forgotten to include vocal sections when you run into characters during your investigative scenes. These small scenes add to the story and help with character development. I was upset that I had forgotten to include them for Act 2 and spent a pretty healthy amount of time adding them in for each character. Just as I was finishing those up and getting ready to finalize again, I remembered that I had forgotten write a very special scene.

Sol Hackett is a character that I’ve always had some difficulty writing. Sol’s a jerk. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. He’s very strict, has no problem with pointing things out… and he is that horrible racist. As a writer, I have to find ways to show that he isn’t as terrible as he tries to make himself out to be. In Fates, there are a bunch of smaller stories that run alongside the main event. By far the most important one to me is the Sol’s past and his relationship with both Zuri and Kika. If you bungle this subplot earlier, you’ll end up missing this scene. Though you didn’t see too much of it in Reborn, Kika and Sol have a long history together, almost as long of a history as Natalie and Sol. They’ve served together for years and they know each other really well. How they’ve managed to stay friends over that time period, if they are even friends at all… this scene is the first one that shows Sol’s feelings and attitudes and how they’ve evolved from the hateful cadet we’ve seen in the original Rising Angels game. I’m hoping this arc plays out well and people will enjoy the stories that aren’t focused on Natalie.)

Voice acting auditions are ending in a couple hours. That’s right, you don’t have to hear me promote them any more! We’ll be reviewing all auditions and should hopefully have a list ready for the weekly update!

All physical merchandise is out the door. Some of it didn’t make it out originally due to a box getting lost when I moved apartments. This is the first time the studio has ever done physical items and it was a pretty painful learning experience over all. If anyone wants some of the details and stories, I’m willing to do a hotwash about the lessons learned.

Rising Angels: Hope is currently delayed. I’m very, very, very unhappy to have to say that, but it is an unpleasant truth. While all of the chibi CG are done, the CG art for the game is delayed. It’s unfortunate as these CG have been in development for… a year now, but that is the pain of development. Thankfully, Fates’s CG artist is quite speedy and I doubt we will be seeing the same problem twice. The good news is that delays are letting me play around more with the GUI and adding some more minor scenes to the game.

Anyway, short night. Just wanted to get those quick updates out so people didn’t wonder too hard why Hope wasn’t out yet. After Hope is finished, I’m going to be moving on to finish up the coding of Spark. Got a good lineup of things coming soon. As a reminder, if you have any lore questions or whatnot, I’m always up for some story telling. Until then, Chief out.

For the video o’ the post, let’s go with a bit of a classic. It’s hard to think that the once overwhelming cult of this has evaporated. Makes me feel old.