Astralojia
Steam Fest 2nd Broadcast of Astralojia: Season 1 Demo by Creator
Hope you enjoy!
Astralojia Season 1 Demo (Episode 1) Morning Run by Creator
I'm gonna be playing the game for 4 hours, hope you enjoy. Astralojia: Season 1 is set to release July 22nd and includes 7 episodes. This is a playthrough of only the demo, the first episode.
Game Delayed from July 4th to July 22nd
My true goal is to get started on Season 2, 3, 4 with all of my ducks in a row and ready to go.
Also, when Season 1 is released, it should have a proper story trailer that describes clearly what the game is about. I want to send the final product to curators, influencers and reviewers a full 30 days before the final release if possible as well.
Time To Finally Release This
On one hand, I've failed, and on the other there's great potential in future successes from that failure.
My primary goal is to not just create a video game, but a video game production cycle, that is to be cranking out these games like hot cakes. That still is my dream, to have series after series coming out...
In this goal, up until this point, I've failed. In finally finishing this current project's Season 1, I've succeeded. Regardless of what reviews it gets, how most people like it or not, I have created my own, in a way, cartoon series.
To say the cliche 'I've learned a lot from this experience' would be a vast understatement. Not just principles of game design itself, and all of the arts that come with that, but valuable life experiences.
I'll elaborate more on it when I've got the time, but all I can say is that we live in a jungle, a mess of a world, and we're trying to bring something that's organized and neat, a structure, bring a vision from the mental plane into physical reality so to speak.
My biggest tip right now would be, have your ducks in a row, but the world right now has more and more raging waters, so just getting those ducks set up....maybe it's a good time to pull them in for a while, I don't know the solution to be honest.
Demo Released, and First Two Steam Mini-Trailers
The demo as of today has been released and you can play it now for free. This includes the first episode.
New Trailers
I've created and released the first two mini-trailers for Steam. These are the battle trailer and the environment trailer. Next up would be the story trailer, but I'm going to get the voice acting in the rest of it before I do that. The story trailer may work as the primary trailer, while the battle trailer the secondary one.
Use of AI for Development
The singers for the opening song and the last boss song of the demo are sung by AI using Synthesizer V Studio Pro with a male and newly released female singer SOLARIA. The very ending credits song is sung by Rae Arista (none-AI singer).
Voice Acting
I've used Respeecher to change my voice and voice act all of the characters for the demo, and am mixing in the voices to the rest of the full game now. I've voiced over key scenes.
Full Game Release
The full game including all 7 episodes will be released on July 4th, 2022. I'd like to also release the soundtrack as well.
Season 1 Release Date Set For July 4th
While now it's the case that the project has some funding so I'm able to work on it, I'm still as of this moment living in a hotel until I can find an apartment after the disaster that was setting up and selling a house for me. it basically drained a ton of my savings, but I have enough for the next 2 years granted society as a whole doesn't fall apart, which it seems likely there's going to be a lot of turbulence ahead economically and geo-politically.
I'm trying to use Toggl Tracker to make sure I at least do 2-4 hours a day until me and my family have a home.
I hope I can find just a nice safe place to work on the laptop and establish this game studio.
Delayed Release Date Again
My basic idea is...
Until I've got 300+ hours of work into Season 2, and I've got maybe 200 or so pieces of promotional material (including trailers, screenshots, gifs, articles etc...) out there, and until I'm economically balanced and stable, I'm not going to release Season 1.
Astralojia is designed to be a series, and without a stable environment it won't be possible to release it, so this projects real time in the world is projected now to be 2023-2025 or so, as Season 1 is only the very start of the project as a whole.
Hard Times, Re-Funding
It's a very odd feeling when you have this finished polished product after so many years but don't now have the time to actually focus on marketing, so it's like a parked plane without jet fuel.... It'd be nice if I could find a publisher, but right now I think chances are I need to pre-establish the series a bit first, as it's hard to really show anyone in the industry what I'm trying to do with this, where I'm trying to go with this.... Will still send out e-mails.
My strategy with this work is still the long haul, that is to create a full multi-season series over many years...To bad that requires a stable economy with a stable supply chain. I find myself completely and utterly dependent now on the supply chain holding together in a time when it's starting to decouple and break apart due to the geo-political nature of the world...
Well, let me put it this way, in my life, in order for me to even keep doing this work in this chaotic world, I'm going to have to focus on backups for everything that is, energy, food, water, housing, transportation. The basic resources in our society seem to be in a rougher place for more and more people to attain than ever, especially housing.
If I was born alone and free in this world, right now, I'd just live out of my car and get this out there, or find some roommates, I am in the south after all so it wouldn't be as much cost as in the north, but that's not an option when you have to take care of family members.
Inflation over the next year or two pretty much threatens to turn my entire world and life's work upside down...I really don't know what else to say other than I'm honestly trying to go out there every day and re-balance my finances and fund a home for me and a disabled family member in a time when the housing market, in my eyes, has been completely and utterly on a track of being demolished by inflation.
Thankfully, right now, I invested in and do have a house for sale, but it lacks the curb appeal to get full price right now, so it requires more and more work I can't afford. It'd be nice if this was 2015, I'd be happy and celebrating my life, but the way things are going......Well, I'll try to make it through, but I'm not sure that I can.
I've done everything for this series, I really believe strongly that people will truly enjoy it, I'll just keep going as best I can.
The Time Is Now
Company Rename, New Genre
I'm more than likely going to be renaming the company to reflect exactly what you're getting, that is: Story and Boss Games. This will be a new genre, imagine a visual novel but with boss battles. You select and can skip episodes as you like. Most episodes should have a big boss battle at their end.
I need to form a new LLC for this or get a DBA, I dissolved my last LLC as the viruses supply chain delays have flung my life into a chaotic state.
In any case, with a Story and Boss game, you're getting an RPG with no level grinding, item collection, etc etc... The focus is entirely on character development followed by tricky, hard to beat boss battles at the end of episodes.
Every big game right now is trying to be an open-world RPG. I think that's great, but I'm going the exact opposite direction with this idea. I believe strongly that there's a market for story heavy games moving forward as everything turns to more social oriented games.
Language Problems
I wanted to release even primarily in Japan, but there are problems...
Everything is finished, though my japanese friend has proofread and found many errors in translation. All of my money is tied up in selling a house right now, so I don't have the money to invest in re-hiring a company to finish the japanese. All I can do is go out and work a full time job right now, I've given everything I can give towards this...
Promotion and Release
So the japanese is unfinished...but, the time is still now to get this work out there. The game is 100% finished otherwise, anywhere from 5-7 hours in length. I'll do my best to finish up the japanese as quick as possible, but the way things have been with life in the last 2 years I can almost guarantee there will be delays.
Screen Effects and HD for PC, Xbox, Playstation
