Hey everyone,
We here at Alienworks wish you all a safe and happy holiday season! Our end of the year update is a little bit shorter than usual, but not without content!
The main question I assume people are wondering about is the new demo. We’re still working on it (I know, we’ve been saying that for several updates now), we just underestimated how long it would take us to finish. As we’ve mentioned before, full-time jobs and other obligations take up a hefty chunk of everyone’s time. The good news, though, is that the assets being used in the demo are mainly assets that will be reused in the rest of the game – primarily sprites and backgrounds – which means that once this initial hurdle is over with, there will be fewer unique assets that need to be completed for the rest of the game. Writing for the routes is still going on well, and the soundtrack rework is in-progress. In fact, you can check out a new draft of one of the character themes, which was actually completed while I was writing this update! Can you guess which character it’s for?
We’re not really gonna give another specific estimate for when we think the demo will be done, since that’s backfired on us more than once now, but we mean it when we say it shouldn’t be too much longer. Nearly all of the assets for the demo are done, and it’s mostly a matter of some final editing, and then implementing everything into the engine. We appreciate your patience!
To go along with today’s update, we have a cute new art piece from Myuto. It’s another one of Kaede, Yukino’s sister, this time in a fashionable Winter outfit.
Next, we have one more version of our opening theme, “REIGNITE,” which will be sent out to backers later today. It’s a version of the track with English vocals, performed by the immensely talented Jubyphonic. Be sure to check out her Twitter and Youtube channel! You can download the track via Backerkit, same as the other versions. Additionally, both the original song and the James Landino remix are playable in the mobile rhythm game NeonFM, so give it a play on there if you’re into the game!
That about wraps things up for this year. Just below, we’ve included some special messages from a few of the team members again, so please give that a look. Otherwise, thanks for all your support and patience this year, and we look forward to seeing you guys in 2018.
PS: If you were wondering about Highway Blossoms: Remastered, we’ve got some relatively good news. While that won’t be out by the end of this year, it WILL be out early next year. Voice acting is almost finished being recorded, with only one or two sessions left. Syon’s been working really hard with our voice director John, as well as the actors themselves, and have done a stellar job. The voicing adds a lot of life to the game, and we think you’re gonna love it. Plus, we’re also improving the rest of the game, with touch-ups to the music, art, and even some of the sprite directing. If you haven’t picked up Highway Blossoms yet, now is a great time to do so, since it’s 75% off on Steam for the sale.
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“It’s impressive how quickly the year passes when you’re busy caught up in the little ups and downs of things: did we get word from X artist,
when’s the next meeting, that sort of thing. But every year, I like to take a moment while things are winding down for the holidays to really appreciate
the bigger picture. When I think back to however many years ago now when I first decided to take up video game development, there’s this odd feeling
of nostalgia, like that was something in my life that just felt so right. Now, with each scene completed or track composed, I find myself thinking how
I would have done things differently back then, and really just appreciating the growth and development that I’ve undergone myself in the process of developing
other things. While there’s always a handful of old shame involved in things done long ago, I tend to get this warm, fuzzy feeling, and I know that I wouldn’t
trade those fledgling moments for anything. Though we’ve had to tough out some less than ideal developments over the years of work, I’m confident that every
day we spend working as a team brings us closer and closer to fantastic results that we all can be proud of in the future. As with every year, I won’t rest
until I bring my very best work, across both music and writing, to each and everyone who has supported us over the years. Thank you all!” – Mondonater
“If you asked me what I thought I would get done for AlienWorks this year, I don’t think I would have guessed most of what happened. Between adding voice acting to Highway Blossoms and all the crossover opportunities we have had with the Human Reignition Project, I think it’s safe to say there are plenty of surprises in store. Even with all the twists and turns, the thing that continues to surprise me most is the sheer quality of what the writing team gives me to work with every day. While our work may take a while, I think you’ll end up agreeing with me when I say the surprises aren’t even close to over.” – Kevin
“It’s that time of the year again and I hope that everyone had a great Christmas celebration! A few years ago we posted an updates similar to this with comments from most of our members and reading through mine I saw how exciting it felt to me to see the game come together. This year my feelings are quite similar, just that instead of seeing placeholders being replaced, it’s seeing how everything is being upgraded and getting polished more and more, resulting in the game looking more and more amazing, that is making this exciting for me. Mondo and me have constantly been sorting through pieces, updating older tracks and of course composing new pieces to ensure that, to quote myself from the Christmas post two years ago, “the sound track of this game is the best it can be!” – Tim
“2017 has been quite a year, both personally and professionally. With every piece of work that I slap on the designated pile of completion, uncompleted projects seem to grow taller. This is almost certainly due to my own shortcomings and the crippling anxiety that comes from idle hands. But in retrospect, it should have been obvious that starting Coattails Studio, and several new projects along with it, would spread my time thinner. So with that update/explanation/apology, I’d like to declare my New Year’s Resolution to be achieving some sort of finality with Setsuna’s route. Fortunately, with the new demo coming out soon, and writing not being as horrifying as it used to be, that seems to be less of a daunting task than the years before. And with any luck– and the continued support of my colleagues and friends — I won’t be writing another one of these next years. Merry Christmas.” – Syon
“The end of this year also marks the anniversary of my involvement with Alienworks, if you play fast and loose with several months at a time. It’s been a wild ride so far and I’m only expecting it to get wilder. Working on a team isn’t exactly new to me but it’s not old, either, so I still have a lot to learn! I’m extremely thankful for everyone who’s gotten me up to speed, as well as those who reached out to me initially and those who’ve kept my feet to the fire ever since. Writing Hitomi has been a dream so far and I’m looking forward to what the next year brings. Let’s see if I can convince all of you that little miss panda is the cutest one around.” – Jaspirian