Progress Report #92: November 2023

Hail SpaceRangers o/

How's it going? Ready for the end of the year celebrations? Hopefully, you'll be able to make some room to enjoy VoidBound's latest update as well, which is due out soon! In-fact we're so close, we'll quickly walk you through the latest Progress Report before we dive back right back into it.

Lets start, with the art~

CG work on the second Bounty Hunt was concluded this week, bringing an end to all the art related tasks revolving around this patch. With this, both Bounty Hunt scenarios are finalized, and yes both of them include some incredibly done animated scenes!

Additionally, miscellaneous game assets like weaponry, accessories, and clothes were finished off as well. That includes some pretty new gadgets and snazzy threads for both our heroine and the bad guys!

Woah... that hook style! Geneva Convention would like to have a word with the owner.

Either everyone is under-dressed, or this guy is over-dressed.

Now that the text work is complete, both Bounty Hunts have been turned over for insertion and in-game deployment. Dependent on Caly's choice, this can play out multiple ways, so a need for being extra judicious with testing the branching system is important. But that is mostly the task of the internal tester.

The writers though, are not standing idle and have already changed gears working on improving and tweaking the introduction of Tripteen. We mentioned this a while back but, there is a rework coming for the first planet and a creative push to add additional short quests and memorable story moments to Henosis via mini quests, is in the works.

More on that in the future though. For now, the code!

Final patch programming work has begun and should be near conclusion by the time this post goes up. This update should contain an estimated 14000 words of text, an array of visuals, multiple soundtracks, and more. Everything central to the patch is being converted into code while new minor features like dialogue character fade, Quest Log triggers etc. are being inserted as well.

More details on these will be provided in the Change-log post that will be available to read at the time of release. But, before we commit the new features on paper however, internal testing is in full swing to check everything is in working order. Even though we're at the end of the line, we still hope to take down any bugs and areas to fix before final Alpha release.

And that is our short presentation for you today. Off we go back into the grinder and will see you soon with the new one.

Thank you for your time and for reading thus far. See you soon~

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

Wishlist Us @ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2500710/VoidBound/

Progress Report #89: November 2023

Hi everyone \o /

How's it going? Been a week and a few days since we apprised you with the latest progress we've been making towards the upcoming update, so without adieu, lets remedy that, shall we?

As always, we started from the basics- NPCs. No new map is truly complete without denizens to populate it and since Bounty Hunts are the highlights this time, we brought the baddies to life first. They now roam the new maps doing their best to avoid capture, something Caly will have to remedy. One such guy being- Tuko Sins.

Tuko Sins has full character art, and part of his battle art for if Caly fails to bring in her bounty. One should always be careful when messing with a desperate criminal on the run. You never know what he might have hidden in his flesh pockets while skulking the unfriendly hall maps.

Speaking of maps, we designed them in tandem with NPC development so we could create the right aesthetic look. Check this concept blueprint out:

Too small? Right Click and open in a new tab for a full screen glimpse.

And we planned them with longevity in mind. Locations will function not only for the first Bounty Hunting mission(s) but could play a role in future main or side quest content. So we're ensuring it is a detailed map with interactable elements for clues and objectives, as well as other hidden details that will increase game-play potential.

Additionally, outline of the third quest in the set has also been created. It's still just a first draft but we're speeding through the planning phase to tighten things up and make sure that even if other people are hunting for the targets in the bounty hunting quests, Caly will always be the focal point.

Finally..- oh boy, seems like mapping was hot stuff all around this week. Even our coder dove deep into it installing technical uplifts, chief among them- parallax mapping system overhauls for smoother loading and zone transitions. Apparently, with each new update map additions, it is essentially becoming a requirement to deploy optimizations to manage load timings. Our prayers to the Game Engine Gods (╯˘ -˘ )╯

And that is all for this one. Next up the "To Do" list, Battlers, Cut-Ins, New skills and more! But until the next one, thank you for reading and your time.

Stay safe and stay awesome!

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

Wishlist Us @ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2500710/VoidBound/