As you may have seen, things have not been great here in Australia. Our bushfires have slaughtered millions of wildlife. Countless families have lost their homes, and some unfortunately did not make it at all.
The air here has also been awful on many days, including in the cities where most of us work at our day jobs. We have been advised to put on masks when we are out and about. The smoke is at times so thick it feels like we are in Silent Hill.
Well, time to take action. This week, all profits made from my portfolio (from Unhack to Clea) will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery:
To mark the occasion, please hop onto Clea's main menu screen to download this "Wish for Rain" costume:
From early December to this day, we have seen only small amounts of rain. Instead, we have regular strong winds, which as you can imagine, is no help to say the least when it comes to fires. Fortunately, we have some heavy rains forecasted for next week. Everyone now wishes this will indeed come true.
Of course, it is probably more direct to just donate, so please feel free to do that. To those who are interested in my portfolio, you can find it here:
Hi everyone :sasa:. Clea has just been released on Steam! No pre-scripted scares—your skills alone determine Clea's fate as she escapes from the Whitlock Mansion.
With multiple endings, secret chapters, as well as unlockable costumes and gallery images, I hope you will enjoy your time with Clea. Perhaps you might challenge and conquer Chaos Mode, which unlocks after your first run :neonya:?
Please remember to pick up that launch week costume via the in-game menu, by the way! Feel free to check out the demo version, which contains 1 of the 2 bonus dresses :vintydelusional:.
Also, in case you missed it, you can rep The Last Birdling in-game with this Tayo mod!
Clea will be released on July 10th! Sometime next week, I will drop a Tayo color alt costume mod for the game, too. I very much hope you can consider wishlisting Clea, then show your boy some support on release day.
Thank you so much :bibi:!
Without Within 3 pre-release sale!
Hi everyone :vintypretty:! Without Within 3 comes out in three days, and to prep for that, we have a sale going on:
Also, we have a quick Q&A to address some WOWI 3 related items:
And, of course, here is Without Within 3's store page:
Thank you for your support through the past five years! Hope to see you in Vinty's third (mis)adventure this Friday :excelia:.
Surprise gift
I received a message today saying there is a parcel in my PO box, so I dropped by the post office and found this. Massive thank you to Xolf and Marcianek11IX for the surprise gift :bibi:!
Recently, I have also been receiving messages from players who have shared their personal struggles with me. They say thank you for the motivation, though really, their stories have inspired me in return. I am glad Bimonia and Tayo's stories have connected with you :yoyo:.
By the way, one full year has passed since my dad left this world. To those who were here at the time, thank you for your well wishes from back then. We are all in this together.
Without Within 3 is in production, and I already know Vinty's third adventure will be the best one in the series yet. Then after that? Hey, something is coming in 2018 my friends :lulululu:.
Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight.
One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two species to erupt.
The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayo’s fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart.
Follow Bimonia and Tayo’s journeys from alternating perspectives. With 21 decisions and 5 different endings, The Last Birdling is a culmination of all the lessons I have learned since 2012. There is a progress tracker available, which means players can unlock all the conclusions without any guides. I have also added a glossary feature, so those who wish to dive deeper can immerse themselves in the lore :lulululu:.
I hope you can give The Last Birdling a look and spread the word. As always, a review afterward would be much appreciated, since it will help other gamers out :airin:.
Thank you for the last five years of support :yoyo:!
The Last Birdling: Ten days left! (sales week)
Hi everyone :bibi:. Just one week to go until The Last Birdling launches on Steam. I hope to have your support there and then!
The Last Birdling marks my fifth year not in game development, but at least under the name InvertMouse. I have released a good 5 to 6 titles on Steam now, and they have all taught me valuable lessons.
First, there was Unhack 1, which has many immature traits in retrospect. I must continue to accept critique even when it is for older titles that no longer reflect my skill level.
Then there is Bermuda, which I admit is a failure. I made plenty of management mistakes, and the results are out there for the world to see. Failure is not as scary once you have suffered through it. Please let me stress all the errors are on me, not anyone else on the team.
Next, we have Without Within 1 and 2. Initially, the first game received negative reviews from people who hated anime and/or visual novels. As the days went by, players who fell in love with Vinty have defended these titles. Vinty is kind, but she can also be a jerk. She is simply real.
There was Cursed Sight, featuring a protagonist who had caused some divided opinions. If I were to rewrite this story, I know I can do a much better job.
Then most recently came Unhack 2. This project was once a disaster due to my lack of research on AI. After months of study and rewrites, this project had evolved into my personal favorite. I hope more people may try out this title, because its themes have left me with plenty to think about.
As we count down toward The Last Birdling’s release, my portfolio of games on Steam will be on discount for a week. If there are any titles you have missed, I hope you will give them a chance.
Hey everyone :lulululu:! I have uploaded The Last Birdling’s soundtrack onto Steam. This soundtrack will be released on September 1st alongside the core game. There are 19 tracks in total, but since some of their names may contain spoilers, let’s leave it at that for now.
The Last Birdling’s composer is Efe Tozan. Efe and I have worked together since Cursed Sight, and he is also the composer for Without Within 1 and Without Within 2. Every time we catch up for a new project, I can tell Efe has improved. This guy is passionate about music, and The Last Birdling is easily his best performance yet. Today, I would like to talk about how these tracks were put together.
We often begin with the character themes. First, I will send my character profile documents over to Efe, and along with that, I also suggest what type of feeling we should convey with each track. A picture tells a thousand words, and you know, a track also tells a thousand words, so the best way to communicate mood is via an example. Once I find a list of suitable tracks that fit our criteria, I will pass those YouTube links over to Efe.
At this stage, we have our tracks list, mood references along with relevant documents such as character profiles and early drafts. With these materials in place, we let the expert do his thing. Once Efe submits his samples, we improvise from there. Sometimes, it turns out a track is a poor fit for situation A, but it matches situation B perfectly. In that case, we simply swap the filenames around.
We must also take context into account. Some tracks sound great as standalones, but they have beats that distract players in a game context. In those instances, we would balance the volume, change instruments, whatever it takes. Also, no track exists alone in a game. With stories, we have the “emotional rollercoaster” cliché. The same concept applies to our music, so we must ensure these tracks cover a broad range of emotions.
Once the soundtrack is complete, I do my best to serve as a “second ear”. When you are close to a piece of work, even obvious mistakes will become hidden. I promise you, I have read through The Last Birdling many, many times. Despite this, the first test reader still managed to spot three spelling errors. The closer you are, the more blind you become.
And music is the same way. We can have a stunning five-minute track, but if we catch a single glitch in the audio, our experience is ruined. Whenever the track plays in-game, your ears will anticipate that dreaded pop. When you listen to the same track over and over, these flaws can become even harder to spot. It is my responsibility to listen for those unwanted spikes.
The last point is volume balance. When one track sounds louder or softer than the rest, that too can lead to a poor experience. As someone with no musical talent, I used to just compare the waveforms, but I soon learned that would not suffice. You must listen to each track with your ears to truly know. Whenever Efe completes a soundtrack, I would put it on my phone and listen to it on loop for several days. On top of this, we also listen to the tracks on different devices, since that too can have an effect.
To finish up, with kind permission from Efe, here is The Last Birdling’s main theme:
https://youtu.be/XgdjGFUt4mM You will find some of these beats being repeated throughout other tracks in the game. This is one of the techniques we use to tie the soundtrack into a coherent package. Humans have a natural love for patterns, and when you catch a certain beat being replayed with a different instrument? We all know a thing or two about those goose bumps.
As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community:
Just two weeks to go my friends. Thank you :bibi:!
The Last Birdling: Art development process
Tooaya and I had worked together on Cursed Sight, and here we are this time on The Last Birdling. From day one, Tooaya promised to provide weekly updates, and she had remained consistent from start to finish. While production skills are no doubt important, reliability is a trait that is often overlooked.
The Last Birdling had been in production since around 2015. The first thing I sent Tooaya were character profiles along with an early draft of the script. Most important, of course, is the art assets list. I provided as many references and roughs as possible, then once everything was settled, the journey began.
No illustration exists alone in a visual novel, and Tooaya often helps me out in this regard. Let’s say we have two consecutive CGs with similar compositions. In that case, Tooaya would deviate from my rough and adjust the camera angle to create variety.
On my end, all I can provide is a second set of eyes. Since I am no art expert, I can only try my hardest to keep up. For practice, I often sketch roughs that never see the light of day. I want to develop a sense for eye angles, neck lengths, body proportions, that sort of thing. Then again, with Tooaya, I just let the expert do her thing.
Characters often change hairstyles and clothes throughout a story. To avoid inconsistencies, everyone team member must be on the same page, which is why we communicate on a weekly basis. It is yet another vital skill that cannot be taken for granted.
As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community:
Many years ago, I picked up Mass Effect 1 when it was on sale for about ten bucks. I played through the game and thought yeah, it was okay, then a week later, I found myself on a second playthrough. During this new run, I fell in love with the franchise, and it took me a while to figure out why.
It is that damn codex. There are so many entries to read, and honestly, I am not even smart enough to know if the lore is any good, or whether the science is accurate. All I know is, when I have so much data to soak in, eventually, I start to believe that world is real. Once you begin to think fiction is reality, the love will naturally follow.
Unhack 2 took around three years to complete, and right until the final five to six months, the script was an absolute disaster. With Unhack 1, I got away with my lack of AI research. In Unhack 2, now that the story is our focus, I am forced to confront my fatal flaw. Once there is an element of realism involved, I start to fall apart.
Before I can even rewrite the script, I must first set up the Unhack universe properly. After spending several months with AI related books, documentaries and movies, I locked myself in a library and pumped out 10,000 words of lore in a day. Unhack 2 unfortunately still sold below expectations due to my poor marketing skills, but thanks to that research, I truly believe that is my best project yet.
The thing is, that lore is for my eyes only, so those articles will never see the light of day. With The Last Birdling, I did not want to repeat that mistake. I love reading lore even though they are info dumps by traditional standards, and I wish to offer players that same experience. This is why I have added a glossary feature into The Last Birdling.
Sure, The Last Birdling is mostly fantasy. That said, I learned something from Unhack 2. When you obsess over every detail, the world feels more and more alive. Writers know about the over-research syndrome, but I have the opposite issue. In this case, I had been blinded by my knowledge of these common pitfalls. Now that I have learned my lesson, I will carry it with me into my grave.
In The Last Birdling, there will be 20 lore entries for players to enjoy. Throughout the story, you will see these glossary buttons appear from time to time. Hit that switch and you will be taken to a relevant article that sheds more light on the topic in question.
Though this is my attempt to promote The Last Birdling, I admit this is only the start. From next year onward, I am going to become even more obsessed with my projects. I must thirst for more details. In Doom 4, I obsessed over every word in those codex entries. I will die a nerd, and I want to share that love with all of you.
As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community:
