Blogs - Arkenova

Hey guys, Arkenova here and well, unfortunately I have some not necessarily bad news but something to say about the release date for a demo: it's been pushed back into the next year. I don't know when it will be released for a demo but we are lagging behind on progress, however I promise to you, we will get this game demo out into the public somehow, someway.

However, there are alot of progress going on in the background. Characters and otherwise, despite of the holdback, so keep your heads up!

Hey guys, this is Arkenova again with another blog. Now I know that there hasn't been much activity on here, most likely that it's to the fact that April was a hectic month for many, especially myself. However, with that out of the way, May is among us and hopefully we will be picking up speed on progress. There's been alot of business (especially on my end with the making of the tilesets and the whatnot, so as you can literally tell my hands are tied up.)

The Revamped Concept
Now as I mentioned back on the image that we have a new artist on board, their name goes by OHKO, who if any of you Cally's Caverns 2 or 3 fans out there, they are the lead pixel artist. Yes folks, we are dealing with top quality stuff here and that's what we're aiming for: to make the best so it can leave an impressive outlook to you wonderful folks, awaiting for a demo. Yeah..about that, our demo is looking to be coming around a window of Summer- Fall 2015. Sometime around there..and even though we missed out on the SAGE for this year, because obvious reasons, don't worry. We're taking our time just to make this a wait worth it! (Probably add another playable character or something for you folks to make it up to you SAGEgoers.)

Music
As for music, our composer/rearranger is a bit tied down with school but once he's out, we're turning it up a notch. Yeah, we're going to be letting it loose for you wonderful folks to be rewarded with blissful songs to listen to (and once the demo comes around, we're going to have alot of fun.)
Oh and speaking of a song demo, I have one up for you guys to listen to. Enjoy yourselves!

Hello again everyone, well here we are. We're here into the new year! That's right. It is 2015, a fresh new start and a fresh new opportunity for ones to stick to those New Year resolutions.

Of course, one of those items on that list is to bring to you more DragonBlossom, so let's dive to it. Oh and one more thing before we start.

LOGO REVAMP

Our logo for the project has a crisp new update and it's a rather lovely to behold. Yes folks, it's official and much props goes to Plom, our friendly neighborhood tileset artist. Boy, does he know how to do an awesome job!

MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER
Other than that, you guys may be questioning about the concept art of a mysterious simian-like character right? Well, up until now, he's been kept secret on the details and today, I shall unveil to you that his name is Xavier. His role in the DB universe is still quite unknown but that's because I would like to surprise you guys on what's his ordeal in relation to this project.

CURRENT PROGRESS
As of far, our programmers are a working along with a new tileset to insert a demo-like level for test play. Our spriter is working diligently as ever and we even manage to pick up a composer into the team, so that's good.

Given that it's slow and steady progress, we're making way to provide the best quality of the game as much as possible without being rushed out because if you know game making, it's a very delicate progress and it must be handled with tender care.

As for our engine, we've switched over to GMS as a means of action so farewell Unity, it was fun with you. However, it's for best noting on how this game is; of course it's an ambitious project but sometimes you have to do things for the betterment.

Well, that's all for now, expect more from us in the future and until then, this is Arkenova signing off.

To the audience that is keeping track of the development cycle of the game, you may have noticed the slowdown of graphics, updates and other means, well that's because the majority of the team are away with friends and family in the time of celebration and togetherness. However, don't worry, we will be picking up speed in development to focus a release to a public demo sometime within the beginning of the New Year and possibly, if we play our cards right, will have it hosted in a SAGE 2015 booth which is runned by Sonic United, but don't expect of it too highly because we have to look at the window of time we're dealing with. If we have a large window of time, then yes, more than likely it'll show up, but if not, then it's not going to be possible without it being rushed, and we hope it will be set in a reasonable time to showcase it to you wonderful folks.

As stated in the last blog, the first gameplay focus will be with Ayasuka and in later builds we will add in the other stages and characters for playability as part of our demo, however, as our current state, Ayasuka's first level will most likely be the only stage playable while the others are going to be worked on. This is due to the fact that in terms of environments, we don't have much to mess with, however, we do have additional help coming in from two new members of the team.

In spite of that, we wish you Happy Holidays and a safe New Year!

This video was made by a fellow member of the team who has permission for use. Anyways, since the first time I've stepped onto Indie DB back in June, we finally have an early gameplay, however it is far beyond complete and that's why I'm making this entry.

We are in need of several people, this being:

Enemy Design, for the enemies and bosses involved with this game.
Musician, for the sound track of this game. (Must be familiar up to Sega Genesis - PS1 standards)
Tileset Artist, for the backgrounds and surroundings with this game. (This includes HUB worlds and levels)

The reason why is to the fact that I cannot accomplish this alone; the game is already a lot of work on me as I had to do writing, character concepts and pixel art for many of it's numerous demands. With it taking it's first steps into realization, it is not stable enough to stand on it's own unless something is done. In fact, it won't be that way until some real creativity steps up and I know there's much more work to do but we can do it as long as we keep our heads up.

There's a job topic but it's in need of updates. It is available in TIGSource forums.