Hello everyone!
This month, we're talking about Orphan Age and Orphan Age: Diaries, sales and discounts, and, of course, we'll share our progress on Seers Isle!
Orphan Age
As you may have heard, our good friends and fellow game developers Adrien and Maxime from Studio Black Flag are doing a Kickstarter campaign to support their upcoming game Orphan Age.
Orphan Age is akin to The Sims series but transposed into a cyberpunk civil war where the children have been left behind to fend for themselves in a derelict part of a claustrophobic megalopolis. We think this game is really promising and we strongly suggest you take a look at it and, maybe, consider participating in the campaign.
In fact, we love the game so much that we made a companion storybook called Orphan Age: Diaries. It's a short interactive graphic novel that follows a group of orphans and tells you a bit more about the universe. Orphan Age: Diaries is available now for a limited time as one of the rewards for the Orphan Age Kickstarter.
Here's a couple of images from Orphan Age Diaries:
Before moving forward, I would like to give the pen over to Nico who has some personal things to say about Orphan Age, and why he decided to give some of his time and talent to this particular project:
I wish I could explain how I feel about Orphan Age.
At this time, people are suffering in wars, fleeing their very homes to survive. If they are lucky, they end up stuck in a boat or in a camp where they live in tents. While these tragedies happen, children are born and raised. What will their hopes and aspirations be? Between revenge, fear, and loss, can we guess what their world will be?
Orphan Age brings these questions to our western cities. It brings these questions to me. My kids are at the age of drawing. They draw animals and things... like snails, grass, sea, clouds, birds (lots of birds actually), bees and fish... Things that I can’t guarantee will still be around when they will be grown-ups. Mostly, they draw their home, the world as they see it. But I know there is a chance that their home will become an awful mess very soon. A mess with no birds, no bees, no Mom and Dad. The roof and walls replaced at best with a paper-thin tent cloth. This terrifying thought strikes me now and then when they bring me one of their colorful, innocent drawings.
At the same time, I can see how children are able to adapt. It’s fascinating. This is a very simple and profound joy in my everyday life. I watch them capture the world. I can almost feel it getting into their head, becoming thoughts, mental pictures. They take some time to acknowledge a situation and then, voilà: the whole thing is accepted and it’s now making sense! It’s like real mind-blowing magic every time.
Yep, children can be tough, maybe tougher than adults when it comes to adapting to a new situation, and at the same time, they are obviously very, very fragile. It’s a delicate, perilous edge. Orphan Age is a brave enough game to try a walk on this edge.
As I'm writing these lines, Orphan Age is still a couple of thousand dollars short of reaching their funding goal. There are a few days left for you to pledge, so please follow this link for more information:
Steam Summer Sales started last Thursday. It's this time of the year when PC players around the world lose their minds and their wallets, so, if you haven't played it yet, please note that Along the Edge is 30% off until July 5th on Steam.
Speaking of that, now seems like as good a time as any to talk a bit about our discount policy. As you may have noticed, we're quite conservative when it comes to discounting our games. Along the Edge was released about two years ago (June 14th on itch.io — happy birthday, Daphné!), but we never went lower than 40% off. We plan to keep it that way.
We know that we've entered an era where people only buy stuff when there's an attractive green tag on the corner saying -xx%! and it tends to create huge biases in the perceived value of things. We strongly believe that pricing reasonably and discounting reasonably is the right way to do it. Making a video-game is a labor of love and sweat (and gallons upon gallons of the darkest brew of coffee, at least for me), and we fiercely stand up for the intrinsic value of the work we're doing.
So, we're planning to stick to this policy for the foreseeable future. Seers Isle will be released at the same price tag as Along the Edge and will receive moderate discounts during sales periods.
Of course, we're always open to discussion!
What have we been up to?
It's been a busy month for everyone. Camille and Julien have finished recording the musicians this Sunday (I'm quite eager to listen to the result, as they seemed really enthusiastic about it already). Nico and Ambre have done a fantastic work on chapters 3 to 5, which are almost complete illustrations-wise. However, there's still a lot of work to do since we're trying to have a first version of all the images in the game by the end of July.
Yep, that's a selfie of the art team.
Nico managed to take a decent snapshot of me, so there you go: here's a rare picture of Geoffroy working.
As for me, at long last, I finished the first draft of the text all the way down to the eight main endings. So, for the next couple of months, I'm going to focus on polishing the game, making cuts and expanding on some of the scenes, placing text bubbles and fine-tuning dialogue, while making sure that everything remains bug-free under the hood. Still a long way to go, but it's very exciting to see things fall into place.
Here are some images Ambre has done for us. Needless to say, we're very pleased with her work:
You can follow Ambre on Instagram or Artstation (and we strongly suggest that you do).
If you want to subscribe to our mailing list, you can register on Seers Isle website:
http://www.seersisle.com/contact/
You'll get extra-fresh updates about our projects and our whereabouts once a month, nestled in the coziness of your own inbox (and you can unsubscribe anytime).
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone!
This month, we're talking about the GDPR, the events we attended, and, of course, the current state of the dev of Seers Isle!
Let's talk a bit about General Data Protection Regulation.
As you may certainly know from the gazillion emails you have probably received on this topic, a law has been passed in Europe, applicable since May, 25th, about privacy and internet data (commonly referred as "GDPR", a.k.a. "GRPD" for us French people).
Be aware that we don't collect any personal data from playing our games here at Nova-box. In other words, if you ever tampered with the black arts, or if you did some pretty questionable stuff with either Stan or Frank during your play-through of Along the Edge, we have no way of knowing (and we wouldn't judge if we knew).
Malagar, Bordeaux Geek Festival, and "Storycode"
This month was quite rich with public events, starting off with our presence at the literary festival "Des Livres et Moi" at the Domaine de Malagar, which was the home of the French writer François Mauriac and has been re-purposed as a public space for culture. It was the first (and probably only) time we had the chance to play-test our games in an authentic 19th-century stable.
There was also an exhibition of pictures from Along the Edge that we selected to compliment the atmosphere and the history of the place. The exhibition is still on display for a couple of months, so if by any chance you are around Langon, feel free to make a stop and check it out!
Here are some pictures from the event and from the talk we did there about our games, animated by our marketing expert extraordinaire, Yannick "Tavrox" Elahee, who lent us a helping hand, along with our musicians Camille and Julien, during the weekend.
Last weekend, we were on Bordeaux Games booth at the Bordeaux Geek Festival. We met and greeted regular patrons who we have the pleasure of seeing each and every year at this festival, as well as several new faces. Nico was also handed his first ever "fanart" from Calyss and Buddakhin (big shout out to both of you!)
Here's a couple of pics from the weekend:
To finish, last week, I (Geoffroy) made a talk at Cap Science about the narrative approach in our games. It was organized by "Le CATS" and Bordeaux Games for the third edition of the "StoryCode" seminar. I shared the stage with Sylvain from Big Bad Wolf ("The Council"), and Curtis, who's working on "Tau Station". It was very interesting to confront our vision with that of other fellow devs. If any of you attended the event, I hope you had as much of a good time as I did!
What have we been up to?
As always, let me conclude with a quick paragraph about what we've been doing this month. Seers Isle is still a couple of months away, and we're hard at work trying to chew down all the work that needs to get done to complete the game.
Nico has started doing some polish on the visuals on chapters 4 to 6, while I'm scripting everything, so we can get a feel of the flow of the story in its myriad of variants. Raph has spent some of his "spare time" (read: the time he has left when he's not working for our regular business clients) optimizing the sound engine and reworking the save feature. Camille and Julien have composed and integrated demos of all the themes of the characters in the game engine. They're hard at work writing everything down on music sheets and preparing for the final recordings (seems like I'm laying down the bouzouki tracks on June, 16th).
So, we'll be spending all of June with our heads down in order to churn out a hopefully decent beta version of the game for early July.
Last but not least, we're very glad to welcome Rachel Capie in the team. She's been working on the English localization of the game, and so far she's doing quite a stellar job!
Meanwhile, don’t forget to wishlist us on Steam. You'll be notified as soon as the game is released.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone!
We have a nice surprise to share for this month's newsletter before I give the pen over to Camille Marcos from the Illustrason collective. Along with Julien Ponsoda, they're responsible for the music and sound design of our next game, Seers Isle.
Showcasing Seers Isle at Malagar, 5-6 May 2018
We're very proud to announce that we will be participating to the literature festival "Des Livres et Moi" at the Domaine de Malagar / Centre François Mauriac near Lagon (50km south of Bordeaux). If you're interested in testing the game, we'll be there Saturday, May 5th and Sunday, May 6th to meet and chat with you while showcasing the first couple of chapters of the game.
There will be also an exposition of a selection of paintings from Along the Edge at the domain, especially chosen to compliment the theme of the place, and printed for the event.
If you want the full program of the festival, it's here, on their website: Des Livres et Moi 2018.
Sound Design, Music and Storytelling
Hello, I'm Camille from Illustrason, a collective of music composers and sound designers that we've created soon after finishing our degree in movie soundtrack composition. On Seers Isle, we are in charge of all the audio aspects of the game: music, sound design, audio programming and audio integration.
The soundtrack is a very important aspect of this interactive graphic novel, as it contributes to build the universe of the game, by filling the gap between the images and the words, and by giving more substance to the story and the background of the characters. In fact, the music has a real focus on character building, instead of only trying to enhance the emotion of each scene.
After you've played through the game for the first time, you might want to explore the other branches of the story by doing different choices. That's why we wanted to link the music to the player's choices and really tune it to the multiple story paths you can get. Thus, depending on your choices, the music will never really be the same each time you play.
The Characters and their Instrumentarium
Each of the protagonists of the story has their own musical theme and instrumentarium (i.e. their set of different musical instruments), which have been carefully chosen according to their geographical roots and culture.
Several variations of these themes are being played depending on the scene and the emotions it should carry. However, the soundtrack of the pivotal scenes are composed specifically, using the same methods as in a motion picture. All this adds up to build the tension for dramatic and soul-stirring moments.
The Process of Creation
The first step we take when we start working on a new track is doing a demo on the computer while we gradually refine the composition. This step allows us to explore different tunes, chord progressions and rhythm patterns before submitting our idea to the creative team at Nova-box. At this stage, we mainly use digital instruments, which gives us more flexibility.
(visualization of one of the variations of Arlyn theme in Ableton Live, before its integration in the music engine)
Once we're satisfied by our demo track, having pushed it as close as we could to a final version, we slice it into several audio sample that we feed into the sound engine of the game, which will be able to bridge the audio instructions in the game and and the musical elements that should be played.
(the interface of fmod editor, the sound library we use in Seers Isle)
This crucial step allows us to make the music interactive. Once the track is sliced, the game engine can then transition between the themes seamlessly, while staying synced to the reading speed of the player and, of course, adapt the music according to the choices in the story. It also allow us to inject a pinch of randomness in the musical patterns to make the music appear less repetitive.
What's next?
Right now, we're writing and recording demos of the last missing variations. Once we get that done, we'll record the final versions of the tracks with the musicians who will make the music of Seers Isle come alive.
Then you'll be able to feast your ears with a string quartet, a bass clarinet, a slide trombone, a transverse flute, an Irish bouzouki, a piano, and several other mystery instruments.
If you want more info on Illustrason, you can check their website, at this address: illustrason.fr
(some pictures taken during the recording of the string quartet for the reveal trailer soundtrack, in november 2017)
Thank you again for support, and see you next month!
Meanwhile, don’t forget to wishlist us on Steam. You'll be notified as soon as the game is released.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
As you can see with the numbering, this is the first issue of many. We’re planning on telling you what we’re up to and, of course, we'll update you on our progress on Seers Isle on a monthly basis.
Union St. Jean Playtest
First of all, we would like to thank everyone who took the the time to come and check out Seers Isle for our playtest at the Union St. Jean last Friday. It was the first time we were showing the game outside of our circle of friends and family, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the warm reception we got.
We gathered a whooping total of 23 completed surveys. Thanks to the testers’ feedback, we could confirm we were on the right track with the new implementation of the tutorial and the UI (namely the feedback icons that appear on top of the screen during the game). The previous version (from the december closed alpha) was quite confusing and we’re glad we managed to improve on this feature.
We also made some surprising discoveries about the characters. It seemed that Duncan, one of the main characters, didn’t win the heart of most of you.
"Which character did you like the least?"
As you can see in the chart results here above, he came in the second place in the answers to the question “Which character did you like the least?”, right behind Erik (but it’s quite understandable and we were anticipating that response, Erik being the main antagonist and a short-fused arrogant misogynistic jerk). Of course, we’ll try to make Duncan a tad more sympathetic and/or charismatic for the next iterations of the game.
Here are some pictures from the evening:
We spent a wonderful time and we’ll be looking forward to doing this again in the future.
Current Progress
Last week, we said goodbye to our art intern, Esther. Having her in the team was quite a breath of fresh air for us and for the project!
Here’s a couple of images she made for us:
For the next month or so, Nico will be working on a special part of chapter 4, where you get to discover the backstory of your favorite character of your playthrough. Expect to go down the rabbit hole, as we’ve prepared a rollercoaster of wonders and grief mixed with some more upbeat moments for each of them.
As for me, I’ve been working on the integration of chapter 3 as well as planning and drafting the last three chapters (i.e. chapters 7 to 9). This part of the writing process is always the hardest, as I have to juggle between every story thread that have been opened up so far and delivering closure on every variation of the plot in a satisfying way.
Once again, thank you for support, and see you next month!
Meanwhile, don’t forget to wishlist us on Steam. You'll be notified as soon as the game is released.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
However, being a music enthusiast is one thing, but understanding and creating an interactive soundtrack is quite another.
For Seers Isle, we decided to work with Camille Marcos and Julien Ponsoda from the Illustrason collective. Our goal was to get an original soundtrack that would really complement the interactivity of the narration. The music tracks for the game are no mere ambient pieces of composition, but complex samples that are weaved together and constantly morph to the rhythm of the choices made by the reader. Under the hood, our game engine is now capable of interfacing with Fmod, the music middleware that was recommended by our partners from Illustrason.
On the creative side, as you may have noticed with our first teaser video, we've been working hand in hand with the musicians to make the sonic universe of Seers Isle come to life.
In the early stages of the project inception, we asked Christelle Canot to lend us her voice. She was moved and inspired by the setting and the story, and she came back to us a couple of weeks later with an original composition. We were immediately thrilled by the atmosphere of the song, and we used it as the main theme for the teaser video.
Camille and Julien worked on arrangements and recorded the teaser soundtrack with Christelle, along with this longer version, that will be featured in the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_GPYhit4g
Of course, we'll share the highlights of this sonic adventure in picture and in video.
Stay tuned.
Nico.
We also created a Soundcloud account with some selected tracks from our game. Check it out here: soundcloud.com/novabox
Announcing Seers Isle
After working for the few last months in complete secrecy, we're very proud to announce our next narrative game: Seers Isle.
This new project is both a continuation and a departure from Along the Edge. We kept the same gameplay (or lack thereof) and, like its predecessor, Seers Isle is first and foremost an interactive story where all your choices shape the relationships and personalities of the main characters, but we tried to innovate on every other fronts.
The fact that I talk about the "main characters" (plural) is not innocent, of course. We did things a bit differently this time around, and you'll discover the storytelling evolves from chapter to chapter from an hidden narrator with a "choral" approach to a more classic "first person" point of view.
Also, As you'll notice in the screenshot here above, the presentation of the game is much more reminiscent of a European comic-book, with speech balloons freely moving above the gorgeous artworks of Nicolas Fouqué.
We also have some surprises on the soundtrack side, but I'll make a special blog post about it (yes, I do believe it deserves its own blog post indeed).
For the story in itself, we went for a fantasy setting, a dreamlike version of medieval Northern Europe, mixed with some South American influences, where shamans seek the guidance of strange horned spirits, the eponymous "Seers", on a mystic island.
So, without further ado, here's a short writeup of the scenario, hoping it would spark up your palate:
“The island… It was my prison.
For ages, I roamed the land, helpless, looking for a way out…
… And then, they arrived.”
A group of shaman apprentices set foot on the shores of a sacred island to be initiated to magic. As they progress through the wilderness, looking for the “Seers”, their spirit-guides, they realize they’re not alone.
Who is this strange horned woman they are seeing in their dreams?
If this new venture picked your interest, please take a look at the official website: seersisle.com, or follow us on social networks, either Seers Isle's Facebook Page or Nova-box's Twitter.
And, of course, you can add it to wishlist to be notified about the release.
