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Progress Report #75: July 2023

Hail Spacefarers!

It occurred to us that we routinely start these weekly posts getting right to the point. That's all fine and dandy for the sake of efficiency, but this time let us start on a more appreciative note.

Thank you for your continued love and patronage for VoidBound. The journey hasn't been easy till now, but having you all with us made it worth the challenge.

Now, with the short mushy stuff out of the way, let's begin this week's highlights.

Sprites were the hot stuff this week with our artist nose deep in minting all sorts of them. Dr. Cava is no longer a dude with a VN character sheet only. He is now gonna be running around for his life and thanks to CalyxVas's team combo, might just even make it out in one piece. Of-course unique sprites of the mercenaries, the Urtu crew and mayhaps, even Vas in a special armor scheme is going to be part of the package!

A firefight ensuing out of the blue, is kind of given thing in VoidBound, and so are causalities/fatalities resulting from it. But up until now we have depicted a downed state in the game by either making the sprite vanish or simply using default RPGM sprites as stand-ins. That is all about to change with work now in full swing creating unique downed sprites. Unconscious/deceased characters will now reflect their status and not just vanish into the aether.

Arena World expansion work continues into this week as well. With our writers still enjoying a few days of reprieve, the work slowed down a bit, but we managed to flesh out two new zones! We already mentioned Scrapyard in passing in the last article, but today we have a bit more details. Apparently, the zone will challenge Caly’s engineering skills to build something… ahem "secret" in multiple phases, and will be centrally important to her survival in the new gladiatorial world. "What secret is that?", you might wonder? Trust us when we say this- We wonder as well :S

Work is also being sunk in adding interactables and datapads into the Voidworld. After-all, more RPG means more roving opportunities! Players in their explorations will come across various terminals/handhelds containing pieces of lore. They can be important to Caly's quest or simply something to flesh out the universe. Either way, story lovers are bound to have an intriguing time.

Finally, codeworks! Unfortunately, our lead coder is still in the process of moving to his new place. With his machine still in transit, all he could touch were light tasks like working on solutions for reported bugs, QuestLog page notes and concepting balancing changes for the next release. Rest assured, we expect him to be back at his 100% peak by next month!

And that ties it all off for this one. We're headed towards the next patch release and we're excited to share more progress with you in a special article that will be going live in the next day or two. So, stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions or feedback. As always stay safe and stay awesome!

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

Progress Report #28: July, 2022

Cliffhanger POV: A) "Is Caly in trouble?" or B) "Is she simply a cunning lass looking for an easy ride up the mountain?"

Folks o/

It's time, to make a confession. In short, we've been holding out on you. We kept July's progress updates a bit on the "hazy" side, on purpose. Though we made it no mystery that Henosis Overhaul patch is heading towards a public release in August,- what we kept under tight wraps was the fact that we had been stealthily working hard on adding extension content to it, and we're glad to report that said work on is now complete. In short:

Henosis Overhaul public patch dropping soon!

Henosis Overhaul's Content Update 1 "patron-only" patch dropping soonish!

For now however, lets quickly get you settled in this week's PR!

From the artist's desk comes the happy news that a major scenario has been fully rendered and ready to be shipped out. Caly and Haar taking a much needed R&R is something that mirrored the team's status this month, so we felt extra happy for the two taking some time off. Additionally, playable content in the casino got a bump as well with a new roulette mini-scene making its way into the upcoming patch. What awaits as a prize? You'll have to play to find out yourself!

The story writers also made significant strides with an influx of new quest related subjects. For example, Caly can now involve herself in a variety of side jobs, some leading to unique situations that might end up making Caly do things that aren't "professionally" part of her job description. If money making doesn't intrigue you and adventure is what you crave, fret not for there is a heist quest that has already been deployed and another one code-named "Parasite" in the works, but the team is keeping tight lid on the details about this one for now.

Finally, quite a few events are going into this patch, so programming the routes, interactions and deployment of multiple NPCs/assets and optimization have all taken priority once more. We're told that mini events like the ones in casino and arcade are going to be a bit of a challenge, but our coder is confident he will get it done right in time. We wish him and his patience, the best of luck.

And that is all to it. Next time, if everything holds, we will make good on our plans and release the patch(es) as intended. Till then, we wish you well and thank you for your time.

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team