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In my last blog post, dated November 30 2018, I confirmed that the retelling of Antistar was complete, and the game has been available in early access ever since (with several, significant updates).
re: Antistar is by all measures a much better game than Antistar. Even so, I still feel that this game is incomplete.
Before starting, I'll just quickly point out that, the media budget for this game has been... small. The indie definition of small. Clearly just extending the budget will help us make a prettier/bigger game. Bigger and better is what it is, but that is not what this post is all about.
Let's outline our future plans for this game.
Multigenre gameplay
Antistar is built like a classic action-adventure game. By design it is a by-product of an era where players challenged themselves to beat the game. With that, an action-adventure game primarily addresses eclectic players with a balanced skill set. And that's okay... to a point.
Unfortunately, while action-adventuring is a good approach for story-driven games, what I see with most players is that they fail at the one (surviving encounters, jumping over gaps...), the other (solving puzzles) or both. Which is immersion breaking, damages the pacing of, and eventually spoils, a good story.
With this in mind, in furthering this game, I think about players who are mainly wanting platforming and fast paced action. Then I think about players who'd like to use their wits, solving 'puzzles' and such. Finally I think about newer players - including players who maybe have never played much more than match-three games. And we need to build options into the design, for each type of player.
Narrative density
Another design question that I want to push is narrative density. There is a consensus in the (gaming) community, that games should not be expected to be as intense and expressive as animated features.
I disagree. In 2020 game characters can be a lot more expressive and 'well storied games' are possible without resorting to cut-scenes, environmental story-telling and other nonsense.
To be super clear this is not about making games prettier. Narrative density is just that: whether you read a book or comic, or watch an anime, there's a different action happening between every minute and every 10~15 seconds. Which means doing a different something (be it climbing a ladder, eating soup, crushing skulls and so forth...) with a distinct emotion.
Part of the answer is keeping a short running length. Take a 50 hours experience, make it three or four.
The day we start working on this, game designers will stop dreaming of defecting to the film industry.
Childhood, light, and darkness
Finally, very specific to Antistar itself - it's a game about childhood, light, and darkness.
With childhood as a theme, some of its inspiration can be found in Alice's Wonderland. There is much to be done yet, in how the main character dithers between her own reveries, and the fantasy of the down-below (the world of Antistar).
As to light and darkness, I want to refocus on the original intent behind this game - to contrast the straining, yet peaceful journey of a lost soul, with the dark, dissonant powers of a witch-child summoning elemental wrath.
In the current (and previous) version of the game, these aspects are barely hinted at. I had to push this aside in 2009 - and again in 2017. Essentially, however, the hope of developing this, and fulfilling that vision, is what keeps me going, and wanting more from what may seem like, just another fantasy story.
Thanks for reading.
[last updated November 30 2018]

The game is available right here

All chapters have been released.
Mobile ports are in progress. A VR version (Oculus Go + Gear VR) is considered.

2018

Chapter 7, Black Hole - November 30
Chapter 6, Yaya - November 14
Chapter 5, Mouse-Trap - July the 31st

2017

Chapter 4, Coral Fields - December 1st
Chapter 3, Blackwoods - September 21
Chapter 2, Klinnburg - April 28
Chapter 1, Incubator - February 12

Every chapter is on a 4~6 weeks pipeline going through pre-production, concept, 3D art, level design, testing and release.
We strive to complete two chapters every month.

========= RELEASED STUFF =============

Misc

+ The game now has comprehensive controller support.

Chapter 6/7  [Released November 30 2018]

+ New playable character (design was originally planned for YuizaYomiya, done by Weijia Kang)
+ Micemen costumes - some improvements by Rettosukero
+ Brief with eelstork (something done)
+ Much scouting by Miamelly
+ Some scouting by D.V.

5 - Mouse-trap [Released November 14 2018]

+ Level design and env. modeling by eelstork
+ Animation and modeling by Dhruba, Rettosukero and Weijia

5 - Mouse-trap [Released July the 31st 2018]

+ Mace-tail squirrel updated animations (Dhruba)
+ Platform kit and basic level design (Pharaoh-Hamenthotep)
+ Mace-tail squirrel updated models (eelstork)
+ Travel notes by N. M. and Oray Studios

4 - Marine fields [Released Dec. 1st]

+ Level design in progress (eelstork)
+ Some analysis done by BillNguyen1411
+ Sketchbook by V.B.
+ Shepherd design and modeling by Rettosukero

3 - Blackwoods (Released September 26)

+ Level map
+ Need 'sightings' for Aka's comments on first encounter with Stag  (eelstork)
+ Travel sketch by D.V.
+ Travel notes (for 'Blackwoods' and 'The Lair') by DashaSilkova
+ Platform kit by GoosePilot
+ Additional modelling (the lair)
+ Rats AI, Blue Cat AI with eelstork

2 - Klinnburg (Released April 28)

+ Virtually endless additionally chores (eelstork)
+ Additional animations (with Rettosukero )
+ Additional level design (with eelstork )
+ Additional programming (with eelstork, getting done)
+ Additional artwork (planned for Rettosukero )
+ Gingerbread men by D.S.M., modeled by :rettosukero:
+ Klinnburg additional modeling by BillNguyen1411
+ Klinnburg additional request by ioitami
+ Platform kit by BillNguyen1411
+ Travel notes by Nimphradora
+ Automaton concept by Nimphradora
+ Automaton model by ioitami
+ Platform kit by BillNguyen1411

1 - Incubator (Released February 12)

+ Level design, color and special effects (with eelstork)
+ "Elder" model improved by ioitami
+ Platform kit by Zer0Frost and ioitami
Chapter VI is on the way; for a change this should come fairly quickly on the heels of chapter V.

Overall Antistar chapters failed to release quickly, and (possibly because of the delays, not to mention non-existent marketing) the serial release model didn't attract much players just yet.

What the serial model did, and does, help with:
- Dev progresses in a stepped, reliable fashion. One problem with some projects is not every improvement gets a product closer to release. Incrementing chapters fixes that.
- The project never looks like a slimy morass of buggy half-done things. Thanks to regular releases compromises need to made, decisions taken, stuff that usually heaps into a dreadlog gets consumed.
- Even with very few players, genuine feedback's been provided and I get to fix a number of things before 'prime time'.

So I'm looking at ways that the game can be marketed better once it is complete or nearly complete, as I would be happy to keep working with our many contributors.

Why should we believe that Chapter VI is on track?

- Because animation and character modeling are mostly done.
- Because I get to work FT on the project for a while, hopefully until a successful release of Book I (Chapters I-VII)

Why did Chapter V get delayed by months?

Personal reasons. But for anybody reading this I'll be concrete about what these were:
- A wedding and a pregnancy.
- A badly broken arm (much better now, thank you!)
- A situation where it became tactical to gather resources (by clocking hours) in the first half of 2018. So the reason I can focus a little better on this project now, is because I wasn't doing it earlier.

Thanks for reading!
Blackwoods in Antistar is a forested area that stretches between Klinnburg (supposedly Aka's village) and marine fields (the sky-bound equivalent of a coral reef, which is also rich pasture for sheep).

Black-wood islands/platforms are surrounded by water (you can see that when Aka crosses the bridge in the old gameplay video ) As a result it's a forest but also a wetland.

Blackwoods Map by eelstork

(click to enlarge/download)

It takes its name from a kind of pollution/radiation (caused by the strange device that king stag ask Aka to remove from nearby the surrounding water) that caused the earth and trees to mostly blacken. Some distorted/strange creatures and plants may be growing as a result (this isn't very clear in the 1st version of the game).
Also, black-woods has ruins/remnants of an unknown civilization (there are kind of engraved/sculpted slabs here and there, along with the awkwardly designed bridge, which hint at that but there might also be tumuli, broken pillars, and the like) The signature, twisted, thin with a round top trees that are in the first version are here to stay; they will cluster a bit more rather than spread around evenly. There could be caves, mounds, or such.
There will be spiders (maybe not harmful)

Antistar has minor animal gods/spirits, especially in the wilder parts. Both King Stag and Brother Bear are such gods. King Stag leaves on the ruins of an old temple, which to me indicates said lost civilization worshipped him, once upon a time. Being on holy grounds the radiation/pollution/curse doesn't easily affect this area.

Finally, there is the polluting device/thing and that so called "Scrap heap" that connects to marine fields. My understanding is that a flying machine (likely) crashed in or near black-woods. Beyond marine fields there is an industrial/steam-punk area and these weird devices that Aka stumbles upon several times, can be used to repair such a flying machine.

Critique (of existing level): nice feel but way too repetitive. King Stag's "temple" looking lame. Brother bear's cave also not very well done.

Additional notes (from DashaSilkova)

Aka enters through the Blackwoods gate and into the forest. The aura is foreboding and uneasy, there is something lingering here even though the area is nearly barren. Aka is surrounded by fog and oddly shaped black trees and the area is littered with meteors shards(1).

Grassy, swampy patches alternate with uneven terrain. No more flowers here since wetlands do not provide enough nutrients for them to grow, however there are plenty of green-coloured plants that grow in abundance, cattails, lily pads, moss which can also be in a sickly black colour to match the forest’s ill state.
Aka crosses an ornate bridge and meets her blue cat companion. From here onwards will be many paths that cross each other in a puzzle-like fashion, almost like a maze for the player to navigate to reach the Stag’s forest temple(2). Before this temple, you can find traces of a civilization that once lived here. There are candles(3) and vases scattered around the area. Some of these signs of the civilization may allow the player to interact and have some dialogue from Aka to figure out the back story of the Blackwoods.

From here on, the trees that surround the Stag temples are the “healthy” variation of the Blackwoods trees (see drawing).

Blackwoods Concept - Environment Elements by DashaSilkova

The bear lives in a large fossile cave.

Backstory(4):

A long time ago before humans existed there was a large meteor shower in the Blackwoods. These meteors fell and broke into different shards that brought magical powers – both good and bad. A special type of shard landed on a deer and a bear in the forest and gave them consciousness and enlarged them to protect the forest, that being our Brother Bear and King Stag. They understood the true power of the meteors and took care of the forest preserving its secret power.
Once humans came along, they started praying to and praising the Stag and Bear for their powers and were allowed to make a home in the Blackwoods. They communicated through music to pray and talk with the Gods. Sure enough, the humans became greedy and stopped worshipping the Stag and Bear as they discovered the power of the meteor shards. Using these shards, they created machines and technology and draining all the resources in the environment until there was barely anything left.
Desperate to survive, the humans built a giant robot to harvest the resources in the Marine land and transport it to the Blackwoods. But the machine had a meteor shard that had evil magical powers and it instead starting killing the humans and destroying the forest. Brother Bear took action and killed the robot (which is now the scrap heap) and could never forgive the humans for their ignorance. The remaining few people fled and established Klinnberg (explaining their small population) and sealed off the entrance to the Blackwoods.

NOTES

(1) I don't believe the place is actually littered with meteor shards. In my opinion there may or may not be colored crystals to support Dasha's back-story and replace said shards, then I guess we'd be having Final Fantasy's crystal obsession doing a discreet cameo here (there isn't going to be crystals all over the world of Antistar as a whole.
Why not meteor shards? Because Aka "landed" near Klinnburg in what looks like a meteor so we can't reuse this idea here.

(2) I don't made if there is or isn't a maze like area here. I think it's okay that there are several paths as long as not much back-tracking is ever needed, and terrain is rising towards the stag shrine, and from there on lowering towards bear cave.

(3) In other discussions it was agreed that whoever occupied blackwoods are long dead so I don't think any candles would remain. Likely, any wooden stuff would be half rotten, and not created by the more ancient animist tribe who occupied blackwoods.

(4) You are free to believe this back story or not, and I'll be free to let Aka ponder/guess/imagine stuff about it.
[Last updated April 28]

Chapter 2 released, finally

Postponed to April 28th

Got a pretty good release candidate. One thing that's nagging me is that completing the chapter requires reading conversations, and remembering them.
Some games use a diary. Other games allow replaying dialogs over and over by talking to same character... I'll put something together quickly - something that works for Antistar which isn't heavily text based and wants to remain immersive.

I could shrug it off and I did in the original version, but I think it was a mistake.

Postponed to April the 21

Finally got to the point where I did a sweep of all minor issues remaining; counted ~50 and could not skip that many. Game code related issues fixed, 10~20 small design/art issues left.

I will tackle design issues this time, hopefully our main artist will be able to tackle related artwork afterwards.

Also, regressions (broken stuff, which is what happens when adding new code) on Chapter 1
which I'm pretty much done fixing.
We switched the animation system which somehow burdened our animator with the task of creating a complete animation set for Aka.

All said Chapter 2 is shaping up to be awesome. I wouldn't say it was worth the wait as the project really needs to move forward. But necessary, mainly because there is a lot more happening in Chapter 2 than there was in Chapter 1, the level design/art is more complex, and the whole thing a standard setter/model for what comes next.

Postponed to April the 14

More camera/navigation fixes; have a good working draft for the level, and photography.
More work needed to polish, fix and integrate new animations.

Postponed

Ongoing external commitments; today I got a chance to re-integrate (part of) updated artwork (said updated artwork easily need another day's work; or two).
Also fixed long standing camera glitches.
Feeling positive.

Postponed to March 24

External commitments; hopefully we won't need to move it further than that.

Postponed to March 12

- Klinnburg edits are late and I have (other) work until the 7th~8th so, no.
- Klinnburg fixes pending

As we need attainable objectives, considering the 2nd chapter is already a whooping 3 weeks late, I rescheduled for bi-weekly releases.
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