Venice 2089
Patch 1.3
Today is an important day for Venice 2089, because not only we have released our new price, along with our Digital Artbook and Original Soundtrack, but also because we are now available on Xbox One and series X|S.
In the coming days I'll write a proper devlog where I'll also talk about everything that happened until now, but first things first, WE HAVE A NEW UPDATE!
It's been teased for a long time, and now it's here! Our programmer has been hard at work smashing bugs and tweaking files, and we hope that will ensure a calm and bug-free experience of Venice 2089. If not, feel free to reach out to us.
CHANGELOG:
ADDED
- added a tutorial that explains the Hoverboard and Vibes Systems in the plaza near Nova's House, in Day 1.
FIXED
- fixed a bug that caused infinite loading screen during the transition between Day 4 and Night;
- fixed a bug that caused Nova to teleport under the map after talking to BabyBoy;
- fixed a bug that caused an incorrect transition between interior levels after saving;
- fixed a bug that teleported the player in the wrong level of the Museum after saving;
- fixed a bug where the player would be stuck in Nova's house after immediately exiting the game after Nova's first dialogue;
- fixed infinite loading bug occurring in Day 3.
- fixed a bug where both camera and control schemes would flip in the elevator in Night 3.
- fixed some animations of Nova's Drone
- fixed some dialogue popups
TWEAKED
- now saves clear correctly when starting a new game;
- now the statue and the graffiti made in Night 4 save correctly;
Nova's Diary #20 Still around
Here we are, a new Nova's Diary. It's been a long while.
You're probably wondering why we're here now.
You're also probably wondering where we've been these past few months, and what we plan to do.
But before we delve into that, I would like to give a huge thanks to user Sekoree on behalf of Safe Place, for developing a solution for the infinite loading bug in the meanwhile. It shouldn't have been your duty to try and fix our game, but we were glad to see this act of initiative and selflessness.
Now, allow me to give you a little bit of a rundown from where we left off...
[ RE: PAST ]
After the release of Venice 2089 back in October, we were admittedly pretty much done.
We had been working on the game for three years with little to no pause, so when it finally released, all we wanted to do was lie down, rest and find something to do next.
And so, while we were snooping around for opportunities, sidegigs et cetera, Venice 2089 won the Red Bull Indie Forge.
(In the back are some of us in Milan, after a post-win interview in December 2022)For context: The Red Bull Indie Forge is a contest organized by Red Bull, open to all italian indie developers with the intent of promoting the italian indie scene both nationally and abroad.
It was very much a surprise to us. Our competition was strong, and personally speaking, with much more experience and budget than us, so I didn't quite expect us to win.
And yet we did. We won.
The next few weeks have been all about interviews and livestreams, as well as enjoying one of our prizes: a team of modelers, concept artists and VFX artists who would work with whatever we wanted for a fixed period of time.
(We may or may not asked them to produce material for something we are working on π)
So yeah, Venice 2089 is now literally an award-winning title.
And while all that was happening, we also started working on a joint project with different schools in our region of Veneto, where after some introductory lessons, kids and teens created a point-and-click adventure type game with our guidance. Some of us are already working as teachers and educators
on the side, so this project was right up our corner...
The game turned out pretty nice too!
It's a visual novel featuring a young student traveling to the past through videogame, where after meeting the famous painter Giotto, they work together so that the protagonist can return home and finish his homework that is (ironically) about Giotto.
Maybe a little cliche, but considering the game's been created by young students too, it's rather inspiring!
[ RE: VENICE 2089 ]
Now, let's talk about Venice once again.
First of all, sorry for how we handled the communication these recent months, especially when it came to bug reporting, but also generally engaging with the community.
Regarding bug-reports and fixes per se, the reason as of why we's been very slow in our response is that as of now we are down to just one programmer, who works on bugs on his spare time, whenever he's not needed on other projects. Our previous strategy of fast fixing cycles did not work, as well as our intention of incrementing our presence in the Discussion tab, therefore we rolled back to "fix everything wrong and push one big update"
That being said, we are working on that big update: a bundle of fixes and whatnot for the multitude of bugs and errors you all reported in these recent months. I know it's late, but still, it should fix whatever plagued your game. If not, tell us and we'll get back to it.
The update will come out next month.
And now you may be thinking: "Why are you making another Nova's Diary then?" That is because there are things on the way for Venice.
Straight up, Venice 2089 is going to release on all major consoles.
This was possible thanks to the support of Fantastico Studio, an italian B2B team that primarily works on porting games; they really liked the idea of Venice 2089 and we sure liked the idea of not only being able to bring Venice to other platforms, but to have someone else do that for us too, since we lack the personnel and experience.
Of course, it'll still take some time to finish up a couple of things, but the bulk of it is done, so don't expect to wait too long before being able to play Venice 2089 on Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
Which opens up another argument: We're most likely going to change the price of Venice 2089.
This is mainly something that has to do with pricing in different stores, and agreements, conditions and whatnot, but it's also something that we pondered for some time after the release. Not that Venice is in a bad spot when it comes to its price, but it could help it being lower especially in console markets. Plus Steam has a thing for price parity.
We're still evaluating all possibilities, and I'm sure we'll talk about it extensively in the future. First thing we know, is that if a price change happens, whoever bought Venice at the current price will not be left in the dust...
Oh, and we'd also like to hear your feedback about it, so if you have anything to say about these news, do let us know.
[ RE: FUTURE ]
So, what exactly is our plan?
As you might have guessed, we do have something going on.
We're still early in the process, so it's quite soon to show something. Plus we are also trying to make sure that whatever comes next, it'll be enough for us to stick around (and then some!).
Regarding the future of Venice, with the advent of a console release we had the possibility of coming back and fix some stuff, but in our current situation it may be that some bugs still persists. As written above, let us know and I assure you we'll get back on it as soon as we can.
Now, because of everything we talked about, it's very plausible that another devlog is going to be on its way in the future, but for the time being that's all from us, friends!
...It feels good to get back to writing devlogs, I honestly missed it very much.
Have a great June, happy Pride Month and see you all next time! ππ³οΈβπ
Patch 1.2
We managed to find the source of the black screen / infinite loading screen bug, and should now be fixed.
Unfortunately, we did not find a way to prevent saves to be irremediably corrupted. Players will have to start on a new save.
For more information about our handling of bug reports, please read our latest devlog (that should be already up and running if all goes well)
Thanks for playing Venice 2089, and for reporting bugs and issues.
Nova's Diary #19 ...What now?
It's been a while, hasn't it? It feels like ages since I last wrote a devlog.
And man did I miss writing Nova's Diary.
For those out of the loop, I intented to release this devlog much sooner, but due to illness (that I'm still recovering from) I had to postpone it by a week, which I honestly am a little sad about, considering that we've been silent for a whole week, and the release week at that! But hey, it is what it is.
[ THE DRONE'S OUT OF THE BAG ]
Soo yeah, we did it. We actually released our first title ever.
Boy do I remember being all anxious on Discord (we couldn't organize a release party in-person, sadly), running all kinds of thoughts in my head to see if we did everything correctly and didn't miss anything.
And as much as I would have loved to be the guy that pressed the big green button that released the game, that honour went to one of our Programmers, Roberto, who is also the third person who got to adventure in this intricate and anxiety-inducing wonderful and inspiring journey that is Steamworks (Just kidding, Steam actually has a very nice system, we just needed to get used to it :P )
But even so, it felt great. It felt great to see the little pop-up image saying that our game, a game where we spent 3 years of our life, was finally out there. And WE felt great knowing that were people who were going to purchase our game and play it out.
I personally hope to feel this same feeling again and again, for the rest of my journey as a gamedev.
And I'm sure I'm not the only one here at Safe Place Studio who shares the same hope.
[ LOOKING BACK ]
Little bit of a history lesson for the new friends around here: Venice started off as a school project back in November 2019, back when we were still studying at a place named Event Horizon School. The first prototype didn't have much, it was just this young-looking character zooming around Venice with an hoverboard (and a yo-yo that could function as a grappling hook - rest in peace, gone but not forgotten o7), picking up the very very first iteration of vibes along the way.
It didn't lean that much into climate change either, it was something that we added after hearing about the news of a record high-tide in Venice that happened that same year.
Anyway, August 2020: we finish up our studies and the first demo releases on itch.io. And damn did it went viral! Not only we were featured on the homepage, but we were also featured on freaking GXCorner of OperaGX!
The hype was real, and only strenghtened our will to continue working on Venice 2089.
You can actually still visit the itch.io page, I just did and went down memory lane hard. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I should update it, y'know, considering we released the full title. π€
With spirits high, we decided soon after to develop an updated version of the demo to put up on Steam, that released on January 25 2021. And yes, it's the same that it's still available today.
Man, 2021 was a wild year. Despite not having much luck in terms of publishers we were going full sails on promoting the game. We took parts in A LOT of events, like LudoNarraCon (Still the best event we have attended hands down - my opinion ofc), and thanks to our friends at Wholesome Direct we managed to attend to the Guerrilla Collective, where we announced our Kickstarter campaign!
...Except we had to wait like, 5 months for it to actually start? And it failed too???
Yeah, our spin at Kickstarter didn't turn out so great as we've believed, but guess what? To this day I still believe it helped us. Sure, call me a die-hard optimist, but thanks to our tank we now know A WHOLE LOT more about the ins-and-outs of Kickstarter, and the crowdfunding industry as a whole.
Besides, it's not like we didn't find new fans along the way. For a team that was at their first ever title, without any prior direct experience in most fields, it was something!
So we started 2022 with a renewed willpower: to publish the game, no matter what, in that year.
AND JUST THAT WE DID. In the meantime we managed to score at new events, talks, podcasts and even an internationally known event in Pisa back in July (I wrote a whole devlog about that if you're interested π). We still weren't finding any publisher for Venice, but at least we were starting to get recognized around.
At last, we found a release date. October 14th, 2022.
And I kid you not saying that we RACED for that date.
Not everyone was working on Venice, because we already were in post-production, so our focus was 110% on fixing what was broken, and polishing what was already in; but let me tell you this:
THOSE WHO STILL WERE, DELIVERED NOT ONLY THEIR 110%, BUT WENT THE EXTRA MILE!
And that brings us back to the start of this devlog, at October 14th, on Discord, waiting to press that big green button.
What a journey it has been.
[ LOOKING FORWARD ]
Venice 2089 is finally out, that's great and all... But what's next? Do we plan on continuing to work on it?
Yeah... Kinda?
A better explanation: I saw someone using the term "roadmap" in the discussions a couple days ago, and I fear that I may have been rightfully misunderstood when I said "Post-launch support", so I'd like to clear things up a little:
WE CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE PLANS TO ADD NEW CONTENT INTO THE GAME.
I'm sorry if you feel disappointed, I probably should have chosen my words more carefully in the note.
However, while we may not have plans to further expand the world of Venice in 2089, what we do have plans for is to improve the experience that people will have with the game, which can be done through bugfixing and further optimization.
...AND HOW EXACTLY DO WE PLAN TO DO THAT?
Well, for starters... We are going to pull out the demo.
Reason is, and I'm suuure you can understand, that it's a little... Outdated.
As I've written above, it basically is the same demo from January 2021, without anything new and prior to all the changes that we applied to the game.
"But can't you just make a new demo based on the final game?" I hear you ask, and while it is indeed a great idea, we don't feel it being our best course of action. (translated: we don't have the resources to create a new demo right now, and honestly told, we kinda want to start working on something else, at least for a while)
Secondly, is increasing our presence in the discussion tab. As of now, I've been the only one running the place, replying to threads and conveying bug reports and stuff to the rest of the team. And considering that we've received a generous number of reports since our release, I think it's better for everyone to have more people out there giving assistance. So you might see a couple of more people with the [developer] tag around the discussions.
(spoiler: they are all better than me at helping people)
Last but not least, is managing patches and bugfixes. We plan to catalog all current and future bugs in order of priority, depending on the impact they have on the game and their complexity, and to fix them accordingly, while releasing patches in cycles (we're still working on that).
For example, since release we've been busy trying to fix a big that caused infinite loading screens after closing and opening the game again. Bugs like this take the highest priority due to them being game-breaking (and in this case, save-corrupting too). Due to the gravity of bugs like these, as soon as they're fixed they are immediately pushed in the live stage (duh, what's why they are called hotfixes).
Right now we are working on fixing a couple more bugs (like the drone not working on some occasions and quest items staying in the inventory after its related quest is done) that have a slightly lower priority, and will probably release in our very first big Patch.
So, as I said in the previous note, KEEP THOSE BUG REPORTS COMING!
Another (kinda secret) reason I like this system is that I can, if I want, tinker again with the dialogues. Thank the stars I haven't seen any typo so far (but I fear there might be some out there), but I feel like some dialogues could be improved over time, made easier to read.
Because I know that I'm not an English native speaker, and there have been occasions throughout the development of Venice where I said to myself "Hold on, this is slang/not standard English", mainly because I associated a character with a particular set of habits (like Nova referring to their Grandfather as 'Pa) or because the english that I found in media I consume (be it books, video or games or whatnot) influence the way I write. So yeah, not a huge thing to think about, but it'd be a nice plus for me.
Oh, and as I said I'm probably going to create a new pinned thread on the discussion tab where I'll write the currently Known Bugs that aren't yet fixed.
OH YEAH AND I'M PROBABLY GOING TO RELEASE THE FIRST HOTFIX AFTER THIS DEVLOG!
[ LOOKING FORWARD ...AGAIN]
We're nearing the end of this devlog.
To be honest, I doubt that I'll write anything else for a long while, so I'm stalling as long as I can just to write something else lol.
...
Soooooo, I may have already spoiled the surprise a couple of paragraphs ago but yeah, we want to make a new game.
If you wanna stay up-to-date, follow our socials. For now they are all branded as Venice 2089, but I believe that I'll soon change that to our studio's name.
Venice has been a great journey, I already said that, but it's just the first title, the tip of the iceberg.
We want to keep working together, doing things that we enjoy, and making impactful games.
And I'm sure Safe Place Studio is up to the task.
(too cheesy right? I can't help it)
I guess that's all then. Thanks for reading these devlogs. I look forward to write them again, in the future.
TrustAlpha, signing off.
(OK that was defo cheesy, borderline cringe. BUT IT SOUNDED SO COOL WHEN I READ THAT IN MY MIND)
A note for you, friends
Sorry for going off-radar the last few days. I got sick (What a way to celebrate huh?) and am slowly recovering.
I am currently writing a rather chonky devlog where I'll talk all about Venice's release and share our plans for a post-launch support. I'm doing all I can to have it out by tomorrow, but I believe it'll be coming somewhere next week, October 26th max.
In the meantime, I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to all those who bought Venice 2089, as well as those who didn't waste any second reporting use bugs and issues. We see you, and we are already working on fixing the most worrying ones (mainly the ones regarding corrupted saves/infinite loading screens)
Will most likely include a Known Bugs list up on the Troubleshooting discussion too. Keep those reports coming!
Venice 2089 x Steam NEXT FEST (again!)
As part of this edition of NEXT FEST, we are holding a livestream tonight!
Join us this evening in our chill stream, where we'll talk about games, Venice, and [REDACTED]
SEE YOU THERE!
Nova's Diary #18 (The Pisa Special)
Welcome back to Nova's Diary, issue number 18!
Hey, do you happen to remember issue 16, May's devlog? That little rant I did about how hot it was around here at the time?
Oh, how clueless I was...
Our sound designer in Milan says that the city regularly reaches 40Β° Celsius, there are literally milder temperatures in the southern regions of Italy!!
Oh well, I've already done my rant about temperatures, how about we take a look at what adventures July brought us.
[ FIRST PLAYABLE ]
Aaaah yes, indubitably the best part of July.
For anyone wondering, The First Playable was an event organized by IIDEA (The Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association) and the Toscana Film Commission, along with a long list of partners, sponsor and supporters from the game industry and the italian government.
It took place in Pisa, the day after the Italian Video Game Awards (maybe we'll be there one day π), and it was the prime opportunity for us to meet developers, publishers and other important figures in the game industry, both italian and worldwide...
Like man, I MET RAMI ISMAIL!! (if you don't know who this person is, go follow him on Twitter; you won't regret it)
Jokes aside, it really was a great event. Our main mission there was to basically do some networking, chat with some of the devs and listen to a number of talks and panels (which were very interesting btw, more about them in a minute), but we couldn't expect what was about to unravel in the coming days...
Great, now that I've got you all on suspence, here's a summary of what happened during the event:
DAY 1
Day 1 was also the same day we arrived at Pisa. Francesco decided to precede us to listen on a panel we would have otherwise missed. After Fabiola arrived and we left our luggage at the hotel, we joined him...
Too bad there was a metaverse panel... And now they even got a photo of me π
After a good 20 minutes of time that I'll never have back, came the cream of the crop, the panels that we were looking forward to listen the most: a panel about funding and the approach to publishers and funds (with extremely useful info for us and our next projects) and one about accessibility and inclusivity (which was something that I really wanted to hear, also considering our main character).
A quick lunch and a couple of chit chats and we're back on with more panels: first of all, a surprise talk from Rami about game biz, who has probably the most straightforward strategy for game business.
After that shotgun panel we were feeling a little tired, so we decided to chill out a bit while half-listening to an Unreal Engine 5 presentation.
In the evening there was an aperitif in this super luxurious hotel, where we had a really nice time (also the catering served something like fried bread and no joke it was delicious). During that we also talked with a couple of people from well-established publishers and development studios, just to say hello and show them our neat little game :)
DAY 2
Honestly, what a turn of events this day was.
The second and third day were a mix of pitching sessions and coaching with even more publishers and other studios, organized thru this software called MeetToMatch.
Considering that our objective was to listen to the panels and do some networking, we initially saw little reason to go and pitch again to publishers that already knew us (also we didn't prepare anything in advance). But, surprisingly enough (/s), people like it when you talk to them, and right now we were in a building full of people with interests similar to ours and vastly different experiences, it'd be a shame to miss it all just because our first game's release is just around the corner.
And so we started talking with this incredible person from a studio that we already contacted months and months ago, and what a wonderful conversation it was. Sadly, our game didn't meet their criteria for publishing (which was something we already knew), but they were so so kind that they personally went and scheduled for us a couple of meeting with other publishers, as well as a talk with Rami!!
So we went from a clueless bunch with too much free time to a full day of pitching and coaching.
Thank you Hollie, you were the best! π
That evening I will forever remember it as the first of (possbily) many business dinners.
We were in this beautiful villa, two steps away from the Tower of Pisa (it really is leaning!), And we spent the evening talking to lots of people, from their projects to a close-knit discussion about cats and anime. I don't think I've ever socialized this much since the first quarantine started.
DAY 3
Day 3 was kinda slow. We tried to schedule some meetings but the people we wanted to hear from were extremely busy, so we spent most of the time chatting with other devs and talking between the three of us about the future of our studio: from projects to make to people to meet, as a way to kickstart whatever will come after Venice 2089.
And that's it; after that we said our goodbyes, exchanged business cards, Discord tags and all the rest, and we went to the stations and took our trains home.
As I said before, it was a damn good event. I can confidently say that our networking mission was an astounding success. It was a shame that only me, our 3D artist Fabiola and our Game Director Francesco attended the event, as initially 2 other team members were to join us too. But due to the still-present coronavirus they couldn't participate with us. If there's going to be a new edition next year, I really hope we all get to attend it.
Speaking of coronavirus, guess who turned out positive after the event?
A ) None of us
B ) Just one of us
C ) Two of us
D ) All of us
And the right answer is.... C! Unfortunately me and Francesco were tested positive for the virus a couple of days later our return, and had to stay home for a good week. Honestly tho, I kinda expected it. The event itself was well organized in terms of sanitization, but when you have a couple hundred people all in the same place, these things tend to happen. π
[ THE REST ]
Oh yeah, and we're still in post-production.
A lot of optimisation, a lot of screaming at Unity for not complying, and a lot of deadlines and milestones to meet.
And we're ever drawing closer to October...
And that's it for July. I know this was a very different devlog from the rest, but as I said last month, with the game in polishing phase I don't think there'll be much to show you, at least for the time being.
I hope that you liked my review of our 3-days trip in Pisa just as much as I liked being there.
See you next month!
Nova's Diary #17 (The Not-Devlog Special)
Welcome back to Nova's Diary, issue number 17.
And man what a month it has been!
(ah-ha, it rhymed!)
Let's get right into the heart of the matter: our release plan.
For the few of you who escaped my incessant spam (for which I congratulate you), back in June 15th we released a new trailer, thanks to our participation in the Shacknews' E6 event.
The trailer itself was a lot more narrative focused than the previous ones, who leaned more into the gameplay and the game's strong points (the 2D/3D, the chill soundtrack and yadda yadda...); but that's not the most important piece: Venice 2089 will release in OCTOBER 2022 here on Steam and on Epic Games Store.
Here's the trailer if you missed it, I promise it's the last time I spam it
Now, as much as we all are hyped for this, I cannot help but feel like there might be some genuine questions that you might have, and one in particular that I'd like to respond right now:
- "DIDN'T YOU GUYS SAY THAT YOU'D RELEASE IN MID 2022?"
Yes, back when we announced our Kickstarter run, we did state our intention of releasing the game in this year's Q2 no matter what. Sadly, because of the Kickstarter failing and the inevitable rescope of our game that followed, we ultimately failed to meet our word and decided for a later release.
- "AND COULDN'T YOU TELL US SOONER?"
We initially started talking about a reschedule at the start of 2022, but at the time we still felt pretty confident on delivering Venice on time. Later analysis and much, much talking later, we realized we needed to hasten our feature freeze to mid June if we wanted to have a solid polishing phase.
- "WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH EPIC GAMES STORE?"
Very simply put, we are also releasing on the EGS.
Before jumping to conclusions, I'll assure you by saying that we do not have any exclusivity contract, and that there's not going to be a single difference between the two storefronts.
- "ANYTHING ELSE WE MIGHT WANNA KNOW?"
We (I) are fully aware that we've fallen short of our word, and that in hindsight could have done things in a different manner, but we assure you that we have only the best interests for our game.
If we have ANYTHING else to say regarding the game, I'll personally make sure to notify our community as soon as possible.
And that should cover all the questions, at least the one I thought of. Once again if you have any question or feedback you want to forward us, all our social channels are open.
[ DEVELOPMENT & STUFF ]
Have you noticed how there are no more sections based on department? I figured that they'd be useless now that we're in post.
Because yeah, we're officially in post-production now. June 20th marked the last day where we could confidently talk about new features; now all we are going to do are fix what needs to be fixed and polish what already is there, plus the very rare small addition to the game that we're 100% sure it's not going to cause any problems.
This polishing phase represent the last step in our development cycle, and it will continue 'til release in October.
...So what have we actually done this month?
Well, most of us were busy making the new trailer. This one has a lot more effort than the others and is low-key the best we have done, both technically and structurally.
The few others who did not participated in the filmmaking had a pretty extensive list of bugs and feedback that came from internal testing that needed to be sorted, or at least culled before the 20th. We started making builds like crazy, and you know what? Despite everything, we did some pretty cool stuff!
But as Mr. Bones' Wild Ride wisely teaches, the ride never ends...
[ SEND-OFF ]
And strangely enough, this is the end of June's Devlog.
Can I really call it a devlog tho? Like, there's literally no images and it's just a wall of plain, boring text.
There's also another thing troubling my mind: what am I gonna do next? Continue with another devlog? Try something new and fancy? Only time will tell...
Aight, I'm calling it now. Issue #17 is officially named "The Not-Devlog Special"!
Before we wrap things up though, there's one last thing that I'd like to include...
What follows come from our Game Director Francesco, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community who was kind enough to help me celebrate Pride Month with a couple of words. Francesco and other members of our team are invaluable colleagues aswell as dear friends, and he helped me IMMENSELY throughout the process of creating the character of Nova.
" Hi all! It's Francesco here, Game Director of Venice 2089.
Hope you guys are doing well. We are really excited to be close to the release of this little big game!
When we first started working on Venice 2089, everything started with our main character, Nova. In our minds the objective was to create a teenager during a relatable period of their life: growing in a world menaced by big insurmountable problems while also dealing with the anxiety of just passing the exams (THAT'S A huge one!).
I think everyone can relate to Nova's apathetic attitude when the outside demands you to make choices and advocate for something, while on the inside we are struggling to find our spot in this world. Moreover, in all of that we are still probably dealing with our sexual spectrum, at least it's what happened to me.
Growing up I felt like I did not feel part of the world at all and the feeling I had was not only a matter of interests⦠I was not able to experience love with others as I felt like it was something far away for me, a teenager still dealing with self-confidence in being socially accepted.
Different story when I started university courses at art university in Venice: there being a weirdo was ok, and step by step I also gained the confidence to fall in love and experience my sexuality. But it was just the start!
Now more than ever I really understand how the confusion about my sexual orientation have always influenced the confidence in other spectrums of my persona; that's why I felt like narratively Nova would work as a non-binary character, quite not feeling to be part of a defined gender and still searching for answers to define themselves.
As of now I define myself as homosexual⦠for the most part! I have to be honest: there's still some part of me that is still open to let other pieces of my personality and sexuality come out. Of course I would not identify my sexual orientation experience to Nova's sexual identity, but I would totally compare the feeling of being a bit lost and the necessity of finding your spot in the world.
Let this be my wish for pride month: be proud and be free. Don't be scared to share your feelings. Don't feel lost, we'll find our space together. "
VENICE 2089 IS RELEASING IN OCTOBER 2022!
We just premiered our latest trailer, and guess what? WE HAVE A RELEASE DATE!
Or rather, a release month...
OCTOBER 2022!
I'll be talking rather extensively about this in June's "Nova's Diary" in about a week, so if you have any question/feedback/praise/"constructive critisism", your best bet will be then!
On behalf of the team I'd like to thank Shacknews' E6 2022 for premiering our trailer among other wonderful titles on the indie industry
Now now I've talked too much, please enjoy our new trailer!
Nova's Diary #15
How has been April for you? I hope it's been good
We got a lot to show you this month, and I'll be doing this devlog in a slightly different way, (y'know, to spice things up a little bit). So any particular feedback about the format is hugely appreciated!
[ DESIGN & STUFF ]
Let's begin!
Now, I could tell you all about the things we designers did this month, like updating the level design or writing EVEN MORE dialogue lines and blah blah blah...
But why do that when sooo much of April's effort were put into developing our main man GIUSTINO!
So buckle your hoverboards, cause we have a lot to say!
So, a little recap for those who missed his story so far: Giustino started as a placeholder NPC back in 2019, where we used him while testing the first iteration of our camera rotation. After being ridiculed into oblivion due to his funny appearance for a period, he gained so much popularity among us (ΰΆ) that we HAD to include him in the demo, and so we did: he appears as a NPC during Rosetta's secondary quest in Day 2, as a shy gondoliere with a broken arm, waiting for his bread delivery.
Little did Nova (and so the player) know that was a 1000 IQ move by Rosetta to set up Nova and Giustino, because hey love stories are great.
Nonetheless, after the demo release we discussed on whether we should expand the secondary characters' narratives by intertwining them, something that culminated with the creation of a new quest for Rosetta in Day 2, "Food Delivery".
But that didn't have enough space for our boi Giustino, a character so well liked that we even started to meme on our socials.
And then, eureka! We decided to do a complete makeover of the character, from appearance to demeanor to even his quest!
Curious to know more about this new Giustino? Let's check it out then!
First of all, our idea is to have Giustino be present every Day in the game, either chilling around or being completely out of bounds for the player, in order to make him feel like a part of the picture. We're still working on that front, also because we are using this as an excuse to try a couple of new things regarding NPC placement, just like in this gif here.
I'll probably have more to show you next month, but I left some more info in the [ 2D ART & STUFF ] section if you are really curious!
first iteration using old dialogue lines. EXTREMELY WORK IN PROGRESS
Now, for the serious devlog.
What has been said at the start is true, there has been some update to the level design, with one honorable mention. Last month we've shown you our new holo signs, something that we thought could help traversing Venice while also seeming tech and traditional at the same time. Here's the new versions!
Apart from that, we have something else brewing in the pot. Too soon to talk about it tho, so I will ask you to have patience.
[ 2D ART & STUFF ]
Great, time for me to hijack this devlog again to talk about our legend Giustino!
Relax, I'm only joking... Sort of.
Remember when I told you Giustino had a new quest? Well, in a nutshell you'll be helping him finding a job!
And what a better way to do advertise yourself but by hacking away soulless corporate ads?
Seriously tho, huge props to our Art Director Federico for creating such funny ads. There are a couple more different versions around, can't wait to see what you guys think of them!
"POV: You are Gen Z trying to find work in today's society"
Funny and relatable memes on the side, our artistic effort have been also used in A W H O L E L O T of texture recoloring and fixes. As you've seen on previous issues of Nova's Diary, our artstyle is our forte and is present in many aspects of our game, including identifying the levels of the game. You've probably noticed how in-game Santa Marta has a lot of warm colors, completely different from the cold, gray-green combo of Dorsoduro and San Trovaso. Last month we added our last Area, Punta della Dogana, one of the most well-kept zones in the entiriety of Venice, and we showcased it using the same colors as of Santa Marta. Here's how some of the new (and old) places of Venice look now:
"Remember when this place used to be all brown? We do"
[3D ART & STUFF ]
Sadly we don't have much to show for 3D this month, but nonetheless we can showcase you something, like the brand new Leo's Den!
Leo's Den is basically what you would call Leo's Alley during the High Tide, so much as it is placed in the exact same position! It makes an appearance during Day 4.
And another thing that I'll keep mentioning from time to time in our "level design updates" is the introduction of "Tiranti", or guy-wires as you may know them.
These bad boys have been used all over Venice since ever, to bear the weight of crooked buildings and as a primitive anti-seismic tool
How do they work exactly? As far as I can tell, you basically put an iron bar inside a building (I dunno I'm not an architect).
[ PROGRAMMING & STUFF ]
As usual, our programmers have been hard at work smashing bugs left and right, but it does not stop there!
Due to our numerous recent additions to the game both in editor and in code, performance has been kinda fluctuating therefore we also worked on some more optimisations, making sure our game won't eat 100% of your CPU.
Oh and we made a save/load system.
...
"...W-What? PROGRAMMING HAS SOMETHING FOR ONCE?!?!?" - All of you right now
That's right! Now, you may be wondering why such an important feature in User Experience (UX) has been just recently added: Initially we thought of introducing a full-fledged saving/loading system waaay back in 2020. After the demo release, due to the feedback we were receiving about the lenght of the demo and the inability to save we considered the possibility of releasing a patch (something we haven't really felt like doing for just a demo).
But since at the same time we started on working on major parts of the game (namely the vibes rework) that needed the full attention of our programmers, the idea was put on hold.
Until now, at least.
tl,dr: Few programmers, lotta stuff. Prioritisation.
[ SEND-OFFS ]
And that's a wrap for our April Nova's Diary!
As usual, hope you all enjoyed the read about the bizarre things that happen behind the scenes of Venice 2089. Did you like getting to know the background of Giustino? Y'know, It kinda makes me wanna do it every month for every character... I'll look into that.
If you have ANYTHING you wanna say to us, feel free! We'll be seeing you next month!
Now go tell your friends to wishlist the game.
Tell 'em to play the demo too.
Do it for him.
