Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #23

Hey all, back with the 23rd development log! It's been a few months since last I wrote about the games we've been working on. I took a small break in writing development logs for December while we focused on working on Selatria and working on finishing touches to ANTics.

Selatria:

A lot has changed since last I talked about Selatria. Among one of the biggest changes we've had is the addition of a new team member regular. 

Meet Ryan Homme! He's a creative writer who joined the team in December to help us finalize lines for the characters, improve weak points in the plot, and assist with helping us write the last section of the game and bring an epic wrap up to the Selatria storyline.

Jennifer Gilliland, who is also developing face expressions for the characters, is coming up with the finalized monster designs, in which we're aiming for a consistent artistic style. Take a look at some of the new art in the works!

The new faces of Hat

A new boss from Chapter 1: "Toutai"

So here's a rough timeline of the immediate future of Selatria!

Late-January/Early-February:

• Finalize current scripts and send re-takes to voice actors.
• Plan/write scenario for the final chapter. 
• Audition missing roles for Chapter 1 voices.

Mid-February:

• Revoice and implement updated game opening.
• Redesign monsters to match new artistic style.
• Distribute finished Indiegogo Rewards (Scripts, OST themes, Mage's Journal) to backers.
• Bring testers to the studio to test Chapter 1 demo.
• Prepare Kickstarter pitch.
• Film Selatria promotional scenes for Kickstarter.

Late-February:

• Crop out and finalize game data for demo.

March:

• Launch re-designed Chapter 1 Demo.
• Launch Kickstarter.

Take a look at some new upcoming screenshots from the upcoming Kickstarter build! We took time to go back to Chapter 1 areas that we thought needed improvement and added more scenes or rebuilt them entirely.

We're hoping to get the new demo of Selatria out at the same time as our Kickstarter pitch. I encourage you to play through it before backing to get a good idea of how far we've developed the game with the limited budget we were given from the Indiegogo campaign. There is a lot we'd like to do if we can get a successful Kickstarter, like revamp the terrain assets and put more effort into revamping more of the visuals to create the best indie RPG that we can!

We're working on making it possible to transfer saved data from the demo version into the final edition of the game when it is completed. I hope you look forward to our Kickstarter campaign!

ANTics:

Progress is coming along on ANTics as well! We're currently in the polish stage, and we'll be working on releasing the mobile version for Android first and then the PC version to come soon after. Due to assets taking longer to load on the phone, the opening cinematic had to be cut from the mobile version of the game, but it will remain intact on the PC version! 

Some new screenshots of the game in progress:

New models of the scouts! By Paul Diggs

Lead programmer Gerren implemented most of the UI assets Jennifer has done for the game!

Upcoming Project:

After development of ANTics comes to a close and the game is up for sale, the team and I will be in the works of developing a new game that's really been simmering in our minds for a little while. 

We have lots of ideas floating around, but we're doing some research on what engine would be best to prototype the game and get a functional version running to showcase the idea and get more potential team members on board. Hopefully with the conclusion of ANTics development, we can finally set aside time to work on this new game idea in parallel with Selatria.

I came up with this particular idea and I talked about it a few game development logs back, but I really want to hammer out the details and get the ball rolling on this project before I talk more about it again, so you'll see more info about this upcoming project likely at the end of the Kickstarter campaign for Selatria.


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That's about it for now. Until next post! I'll try and be more frequent with these posts and go back to my once-a-month schedule. Keeps me on track :)