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Progress Report #40: October, 2022

Hi everyone o/

Before we unfold this week's progress, a quick word from our lead writer who wished to pass on some season's greetings to all our fans!

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!"

"We here at CA absolutely love this time of year. Candy, costumes, festivities, and more. We’re pretty sure we saw Haar wrapped up as a mummy a bit ago, and Jens was wearing a delightfully tasteful HAL costume. Vas told us she was dressed as ‘someone who would kick your ass’ and we just think that’s lovely. Spooky month may be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop being spooky deep down in your heart!"

Now with that little happy greeting squared away, lets turn our gaze back to the progression at hand.

Though not a immediate priority but, space travel is envisioned to be an integral part of the VoidBound experience. According to the team, the vast expanse of the Voidverse should not only be traversable, but also possible in any direction, and at any given time, per player choice. Needless to say, Galaxy Mapping is a key future centerpiece and Doppel decided to waste no time starting baseline work on it. Unfortunately, with a lot of core story elements still in the early draft, what he envisioned on paper is still not entirely ready for showcasing. Bear with us for a bit longer before we can present you a working model.

Meanwhile, refusing to be outdone, writers decided to pull a rabbit(s) of their own and restarted work on Jaee! For those who might not be aware or may have forgotten, Jaee is the Caly's next frontier planet where her next big adventures after Henosis await. Though writers seem pretty tight lipped on what to expect in this new zone but when goaded further they only dropped cryptic references to fairies and ancient abandoned tech. At this point your guess is as good as ours but the fact that a new zone is in the works has our coder giddy with the prospect of designing new styles of maps!

Before that however, pressing matters ensued when we realized that with new enemies making their way into the game, our troop count limit was nearing saturation point and immediate preparations were essential to not only make room for more, but make enough to make it future proof as well. And so it was done, by bumping the limit ceiling to 150! Not sure if we will ever breach that high a count but better safe than panicky. Past that, the usual combat revamps continued as more zones were re-tested and enemies re-balanced as we found out some of them were performing hilariously outside the norms, thanks to their older scripting.

And that was our spooky windup of the month. Next month- well, we haven't heard yet about what's on the cards next month so... guess no heads-up this time?

In any case, we wish you a happy Halloween and leave you with a special art piece that Doppel drew for the occasion.

Enjoy and Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

Patrons, Please See: Due to some unforeseen circumstances, both the bugfix as well as the re-balancing initiatives, are running a bit behind schedule. We've yet to find the cause of the remaining bugs, which can be tracked right here, but we assure you, we'll get to the bottom of it, as well as the Xiade enemy re-scripting, as soon as things get back on track!

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Progress Report #39: October, 2022

"Never let tall buildings stand in the way of your dreams... or your target!"

Folks o/

With the scheduled releases for the month effectively behind us, the team looks towards the future and the content that is to come. We've a fair few updates for you so, lets dive right into it.

Planned ideas, that were previously confined between words and lines, have started to take shape with Doppel opening his week by creating another batch of new battler sprites. Specifically, enemies that players can expect to encounter on the battlefield whilst hunting for bounties. We originally teased the first batch here, and there are plans to make one more variation, so keep an eye out for that one in the near future. It is however, unclear at this moment if all, or any of these for that matter, will make the final cut as internal discussions are still ongoing. Rest assured though, as always, we'll keep you updated as more unfolds.

Meanwhile, the writers decided to shake things a bit and diverse their workload. While they're still penning away at various Bounty Guild related features but, to keep things interesting, they have started work on building chains that lead into the next segment of current quests. To explain in brief, the retentive among you might remember coming across these lines during the Pharmacy Heist: These terms: Mayor, DA, Syndicate are not meant to be a one off thing. There are distinct plans in the works around them, that may have far more reaching effects on our heroine's journey than she might have anticipated. Corruption, back alley dealings, political red tape, two faced officials etc., are just some of the few things that will make Caly's days on Henosis a tad bit too interesting..- or irritating. Of-course, no run of the mill government official's existence is complete without a decadent building to match their tilted desire for power but, for now, we'll keep the wraps intact on that one.

Finally, immersion oriented developments are happening on both audio as well as visual fronts! Long shelved ambient sound feature has finally transitioned from "being planned" to "making its way into VoidBound", with its pilot deployment scheduled on Henosis. We already mentioned SFX sounds like crowd chatter, machine buzz, drop sounds etc. will be part of the preliminary package but more are expected to join the lineup as development continues. Additionally, new skill animations on the combat field are being sequenced as well with some current ones undergoing readjustments. After-all, can't have a skill hitting like a truck but looking like a tiny flare now, can we?

And that is our 3rd week in a nutshell. Next week, the team broadens their scope with galaxy mapping while simultaneously laying down the foundation for the next planet to come. Till then however, we wish you well and will see you in the next one o/

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

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Progress Report #38: October, 2022

"Male! Female! ... Discount Caly?"

Hail Voidsurfers o/

With the majority of the team's focus industriously trained on fine tuning the release of VoidBound's 0.5.2 patch due out tomorrow for our patrons, this week turned into a light work/unofficial time-off, of sorts. That being said, light work is still work so lets take a glance on what transpired behind the virtual walls of the Atelier!

Just like the week before the last, beta feedback dominated work done this week as well, prominent among them was Doppel taking the brush to Pixie's sprite avatar a second time. Not really sure what he found out of place, but he plans to review all present sprite characters, and mint some new ones in the near future with improvements fused into them. Additionally, some CGs have been brought under the scanner as well with the intent to appraise, not so much the graphical nature of the piece, but more so the character's position, posture and the objects the subject is interacting with. In short, a revision pass in order to improve and enhance player's visual immersion.

On the other hand, writers moved on from the patch entirely and were decidedly devoted working on the development of the Bounty System. From expanding the guild's geography and related objects, to concepting new NPC and their backstories to populate said extensions- the team dug in deep for the long haul. The goal? Prepare the system reasonably functional and content rich by the next release. Needless to say, they've laid down quite a challenge for themselves. Developing new targets/bounty objects, new explorable zones, new reputation faction- whoops! Please disregard that last mention. Nothing interesting about that... yet ;3

Finally, our Code Overlord continued his calibrations, hammering at the final Tripteen boss further to make him more challenge worthy. Though as it stands, post combat revamp the whole encounter has changed drastically, but there is always room for improvement and from what the latest we've heard from the rebalancers, there will be more changes yet to come. We at CA love everything about VoidBound but, we're a tiny bit bias towards gameplay elements, so these upcoming changes are something we're secretly looking forward to, the most.

Uneventful as this past week was, we're glad it has passed, for now we can focus on all things exciting that are yet to come. Till the next report however, we'll make our retreat and fare thee all well!

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

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Progress Report #37: October, 2022

"That's a lot of Neon.."

Hi folks o/

We kick off our Progress Reports, a bit later than usual largely due to our scheduled lineup for the month. To quickly put it in specifics, the following is our planned calendar for October.

04th October: VoidBound 0.5.2 Release [Beta Patron Release]

10th October: First Progress Report followed by others on the 17th, 24th and 31st respectively.

11th October: VoidBound 0.5.1 Henosis Overhaul Content Update 1 [Public Release]

18th October: VoidBound 0.5.2 Release [Observer tier and above Patron Release]

Now that the clarifications are out of the way, lets talk about this past week.

With the release of the recent patch, came a bit of respite as development slowed down to normal pacing once again. Steady focus was imparted on the content in development, while simultaneously performing tuning work on 0.5.2 based on initial feedback.

Primarily, under the scanner came Doc Pixie's workplace, with a few sections of the two floored Hospital map receiving noteworthy touch ups, including a few asset enhancements to match the overall quality. Outside of map maintenance, a new breed of enemies are set to make their way into Henosis and based on how the writers tailored their origins stories, new matching concept art was generated and discussed.

Though finalization still remains but, allow us to show you a sample draft: Meanwhile, the writer's guild remained busy for the consecutive second week with Jem and her new questline. When they said they'll be expansive with her lore, they really took the task seriously. Additionally, work is now underway to develop unique objective missions for the Bounty Guild once the player clears the enlisting criteria. From finding items, to apprehending wanted elements, to outright neutralizing-, anything and everything is on the table for consideration. We'll keep you posted on this as more develops.

Finally, and this one came a bit late to the party, but we initially had plans for PixieXCaly event to be voiced in this patch. Unfortunately, stars didn't exactly align and we missed implementing it as the audio works came to us a few days after the release. Still, better late than never and work has begun on filtering down the dialogues and cutting/inserting them into relevant places. Apart from that, Combat revamp was, and still is, being re-tweaked further after accounting the feedback. The values for various weapons like Rifle, Sniper, Coilgun, and Blaster have been adjusted while the skills associated with them are brought in sync with the new balancing parameters. The road to finding that sweet spot of firepower vs defense would be arduous it seems.

And that is the opener for October. Next week the team expects more patch maintenance, as well as tackling of lighter tasks, in anticipation of the Observer+ release of the patch.

Till then however, we once again bid you farewell and will see you in the next one o/

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team