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Astra - Monthly Update (October 2021)
🕑 Added 2021-10-22 19:19:51 +0000 UTCHello Patrons,
Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend! This is the monthly update for October 2021 for Astral Ascension; please note there are small to medium spoilers (artwork and locations that are main path specific but may reveal certain game content).
So without further delay, let's get started!!:
WRITING
Writing has been progressing at a steady rate! I was hoping to have a read only version out for mid October however we ran into a lot of extra planning when it came to the jealousy scenes. There was a lot of continuity to consider as well as mixed variables (given 3 romance, so there is a bunch of combinations that could possibly occur).
Another bit was that there were parts that felt like you got shoehorned into a route (or jealousy scene) which didn't seem normal so we retroactively added earlier scenes to have decisions points AND opportunities for more point gain / loss. The combination should make things feel much more natural when it comes to the jealousy scenes and there is a lot of permutations to explore!
If I had to take a guess, I would say read-only should be dropping in by early to mid November!
CHARACTER ART
Sunimu has officially finished all the Live2D models and outfits!! That is a big portion of the artwork requirements completed and now we can focus on CG artwork again. Coming in hot (pun intended) is two scenes from the upcoming visit to Xenok's party. You could probably take a good guess on what they are up to and/or get some context from the writing preview. Apart from that, we hope you are looking forward to episode 3 as well as upcoming future CG's!
BACKGROUND ART
We had a good amount of BG progression as you can see from above! One special note is the artist that made the Kaori igloo/hotel BG came back to make two cameo BG's which are the bottom two. He has a very cool and distinct styling with neon lighting and it really gave an awesome vibe for what we wanted to capture for Polaris' main city!
ANIMATION
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13hVbShxq1UTGLn-ll-jRjCO30Oo6tEYa/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13thgCyujf-LnIclXPQcxXLlw6F3O6C56/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13tkw62015FIV9Bev7KAgd2Q6S0vBPk9O/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13vFiqyOu70qy1TE4c04en4D7gwiPKpky/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13yjq3gdE8UfDcPDk_EU3jCgrxnZNldW8/view?usp=sharing
Our animator was an ABSOLUTE BEAST this month and not only finished all of Iris' poses, but rigged ALL her outfits and she is fully completed! Above you can see each of the outfits along with their specific physics. We are going onward to Celeste's Live2D model for the upcoming month. After that, all that will be left is Kai and then Live2D work will be fully completed!!
PROGRAMMING
Same thing as last month, nothing to report on this front. Once the script is completed, this section will get busy with getting the read-only version underway!
That pretty much covers the update for this month! I was hoping to get your feedback regarding extra characters and how they are shown. So far in our games we have done the black silhouette and the portrait characters, of the two, which do you guys like more?
I'm not exactly sure how black silhouettes will look when we have Live2D models on screen since they won't be moving, but just curious to get opinions. Maybe if the black silhouette idea is popular, we could have some generic animations to them but that may look "same-y". Please feel free to vote in the poll below!
Thank you guys for your continued support. Please feel free to share your thoughts below!! :^)
- Dishu
Comments
PixelFade Studio
We were bouncing the idea of animated silhouettes however it seems like the rigging process would still be quite the investment especially cause it is usually 2/3 body. It looks like we are sticking to portrait for now however I am wondering if we can slap Live2D portrait for some more important characters. That might look a bit strange though if only some portraits move and others don't and trying to animated EVERY portrait is an insane cost lol.
Daniel Numbra
Edit: 11/3/21: I did have an idea for both. A black silhouette that may or may not move would be good to see where the Live2D character is focused however I would also like to see what the black silhouette would be as a color character so a portrait would help. Examples where black silhouettes would be useful are in Kaori After Story where Kaori is speaking to family members and such but it looks a little like she looks off to a distance. It would also help to show that the Live2D character does want to look at the MC but not the Portraited Character or looks at another Portraited character. It seems similar to Ace Academy except there were no portraits there. The Live2D charater could also use the black silhouette to look at boby parts such as hair and stuff!
Eclipse Productions
These are my thoughts too ^^. Oh, and because I've been updating my Patreon page, this is Haruka Erizawa, haha.
Daniel Numbra
I prefer the portraits but I agree with Mirnon: using black silhouettes if there will be a reveal later does make sense. Adds to the mystic if your story could use it.
The Gentleman
I don’t mind the black silhouettes; in fact, I they can add something, but I do prefer portraits if possible. I think it would be best for portraits, but black silhouettes could also work if you’re trying to build up the reveal of certain characters too; of course.
Butlee
Portraits definitely add more personality. I guess it's a bit more work for characters that won't be seen a lot, but I think it makes so much difference in telling us who they are.
