Arena Circus @arenacircusvn - Tumblr Blog

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Hi guys! Miss me? Now that Celestial Crowns is down (barring a few Kickstarter rewards, which I am working on, promise!!) I am looking back at continuing Arena Circus.

The problem is, the code has gotten so old now that it doesn't run well in new versions of Ren'py, and I'm using code so old I barely recall how it works anymore. So I think I'll need to do an update to get it up to speed before I start writing the next chapter.

That being said, I still want to give you guys more content since you've waited SO LONG and I think what I'll do is begin Chapter 1 from Aldrich's perspective. That way I can still test out the new code with existing scenarios but still give a fresh experience. From there, I'll continue writing chapter 5 rather than breaking to do another game in between like usual.

Also, here's the scoop on the new assets I've been talking about:

Music: New soundtrack will beb implemented in next update.

Sprites: I got a lot of backlash for the sprite redesigns, and I'm tired of redrawing these guys over and over again anyway, so I'm just going to keep to the old style.

CGs: I was collabing with someone to help these go faster, but I just don't have the money to spend on it anymore, so I'll be doing them myself again. So it'l lbe a slower process. Even... slower ^^;

BGs: same as above.

I hope you're as excited as I am!

#arenacircus #visual novel #arena circus #renpy

Missing this game so badly!! I just wanted to see if this was still being worked on by any chance? :-)

For sure! My current project is celestial crowns, and once that releases at the end of this year I’ll be back on the Arena Circus grind. I will definitely release one more chapter before starting a new project, but I might push to get out 2 (since chapter 6 is the last one and all). I’m so glad you enjoy the game!

New Aldrich x Lilie content on Patreon

Hey guys! I know it's been forever, but I just posted a short Aldrich/Lilie AU fic on Patreon! It's free for everyone to read. Check it out here:

Get more from Harlevin Studios on Patreon

#arenacircus #visual novel #renpy #update

celestialcrownsvn

Kickstarter at 77%! Help us get to 100%!

The Celestial Crowns Kickstarter is live! We are less than 20 backers away from a voiced love letter from Sahi.

Decide the fate of the kingdom in three branching romantic routes.

If you like

✅Childhood friends to lovers

✅Fantastical action

✅Pining LI x Oblivious MC

His route is for you!

Hi! Is this game still being worked on?

Yes! Arena Circus is still in development. I'm taking a little hiatus while I work on Celestial Crowns, but work will start up again likely once the script of Celestial Crowns is done, early next year.

#ArenaCircus #vndev #visualnovel Tomorrow’s goal: finish “socialize “ section of week 4

Today‘s WC: 500 #ArenaCircus #vndev # visualnovel

#visual novel #arenacircus #arena circus #renpy #update

#vndev #visualnovel Step one to getting my mojo back, getting back to my daily update schedule! Today I will finish half of #ArenaCircus ch5 week 3!

Hi! I want to know if the game is still being worked on. It would be really sad if the dev has stopped :ccc Thank you for the amazing game anyway s2

Hello! Thanks for playing Arena Circus. I’m still actively working on it, just a bit slower with some recent life changes. I’m so happy to hear that you’re looking forward to the next update. Have a great day!

hi!!! its the clinic anon again ahah, thank u for uploading the fix!! but now i manage to go to the clinic once (for context, its on the evening of day 41, if thats useful), then i have breakfast, then on the morning of day 42 when i try to go back to the clinic i get an error "Sayer 'rib' is not defined." :3

You are a lifesaver! Thank you for finding all these bugs so early. I will fix this after work today. Thanks for playing and I hope you’re enjoying the game despite the bugs!

hi!!! i had a lil question regarding chapter 4, ive been playing it and enjoying it a lot but i was wondering if it was normal that i cant go to the clinic ??? every time i click on the icon it sends me back to the main menu, at first i thought id just reached the end of chapter 4 but then i rested and chose 'skip to the next main scene' and saw there was more so im a bit confused :< (well, more like worried that im missing important things by not being able to go to the clinic) thank u!!!

Hi there! That is not normal, it’s definitely a bug. I am uploading a fix now (version 4.96). Thank you for pointing it out!

hello! first of all congrats on chapter 4 being out! I love how A&L relationship keeps developing ❤️ I hope it's ok if I asked you something? Aldrich mentions that he could smell Lilie's tears when she was crying so now I'm wondering if he really had to concentrate to pick that up or if Reavers just kind of smell everything all the time even if it's in another room? I hope this makes sense ^^"

It’s more than okay! Reavers in general have a heightened sense of smell, so they’re used to picking apart individual ones, like dogs! He noticed the tear smell because it stood out to him. Hope this answers your question, and thanks so much for playing!

AC devlog 12/25

Merry Christmas (:

I've been so bad about these devlogs, but I promise you guys I'm doing my best. It's been tough finding my inspiration lately, but I really want to share more of Arena Circus with everyone as soon as possible. I just want you all to know how much your patience and support means to me.

The proceeds from my patreon go straight back into Arena Circus, helping me commission assets so I can focus more on the writing. As my patreon proceeds are still relatively low, and my current financial status, ch 5 assets will take a touch longer than I'd like, but I will try to keep consistent with writing at least. That being said, on to the update:

Ch 4 is pretty much done, I'm just adding in a few scenes to give a fuller experience for the final release. But, I would definitely say it's still in beta state. If I were to hold back until I wrote all the scenes and added all the CGs I wanted, it'd never get done. So I'm going to release it, and then add in some more scenes/art when I start releasing the updated version sometime next year.

Lilie's new sprite is complete! Patrons got a full preview in the discord, but here are a few expressions:

The total word count with ch 4 is now 178,977 words. With two chapters left, I'm starting to get an idea of the final word count. Ch 4 will probably be the longest chapter, so I estimate it'll clock in by the end of chapter 6 at 250,000 words. Don't be daunted though! A significant amount of that is free roam and optional viewing.

I think that's about it for now, guys. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and see you on the ch 4 release around New Years!

#visual novel #arenacircus #arenacircusvn

AC devlog 12/4

Missed a few devlogs but that's okay! Progress has continued, unseen. So let's jump in!

PROGRESS

I've written 7 scenes since my last devlog! I've been programming them as well (they're all finished) and I've moved on to programming main scene 3 of 4. Playing through there are a lot of gaps/areas where you don't find scenes, so I think I'll be writing a few more to keep the immersion feeling alive. There are 7 jobs now though and I think I'm going to keep the number there. Maybe I'll add some in later, but I think it's a good balance!

UPDATES

I hired a BG artist to save me time and make the backgrounds better fit the images I have in my head. The first one is finished! Patrons got a preview earlier this week but the rest of you will have to wait until the new AC golden comes out!

MUSIC

Still working on getting samples!

CONCLUSION

Just to reiterate, chapter 4 WILL launch before the year is over! I might add in some things after the fact--like extra free roam scenes and CGs-- but the main scenes have been written for so long and I'm ready to get this baby live. I don't want art to slow me down so I'm not going to worry too much about the CGs, as I can always add them in afterwards. I've already seen places in earlier chapters I'd like to add them. Hopefully my patreon will continue to grow so I can get more help with assets and focus on the story!

That's all for now folks, and thanks as always for your support!

#arenacircus #visualnovel #english visual novel

💐

#ArenaCircus Devlog 11/16 #vndev #visualnovel

SCENES

1 new job, featuring variations for Natalia, Fenris, and Santana

1 Lucy/Santana scene

1 Natalia scene

1 Fenris/Leslie scene

MUSIC

And! And! The composer just finished Aldrich’s song! It is beautiful and wonderful and I can’t wait to share it with you guys. I’m going to see about getting some samples of the songs that have bee n completed so I can post them in a future devlog.

THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE

Programming and testing the current scenes. Some of them have already been programmed and tested, so I don’t think it’ll take long. The biggest thing will be testing the main scenes after the free roam, since I’ve been focusing on getting the free roam done. I’m thinking I’ll do what I did last week again and try to write one more scene a day to tie it all together. So essentially:

4 free roam scenes (you can follow me on twitter @capminyan to vote for which characters you’d like to see scenes of!)

2 more job scenes

2 CGs (The lineart is compelete, they just need to be colored)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m anxious to continue redrawing the sprites, but I probably won’t have time this week, unfortunately. But, I’m hoping to get at least aldrich and lilie done, along with all their outfits, by the end of the year! And that way I can start offering fun new outfit packs to patrons, since that’s been a promise long time coming.

On that note, question for you guys!

So I will be keeping most of the assets in the free version of Arena Circus the way they are. But since I’m updating the sprites, the clothing needs to be updated to. I want to just get rid of the old sprites and have them in the art book for posterity, and put the new sprites in the free version. But there have been complaints about the new sprites. I’m not sure I’ll have the capacity to draw outfits for both sets of sprites. So there are two options here.

1. Keep the old sprites in the free version but stop supporting outfit updates for them

2. Put the new sprites in the free version and include outfits as normal (patrons would get additional outfits)

So what would you guys prefer? Comment below with your choice! I’ll probably do a poll on twitter as well.

I don’t want to make three versions of the games because that would just be a lot of hassle. I can’t please everybody, and hopefully those who don’t like the new sprites will warm up to them eventually. I’ve explained a few times why I’m redoing the sprites, so if you’re curious check out former devlogs. 😊

#arenacircusvn #vn development #english visual novel #update #gamedev

AC Devlog 11/9

Hello all! 😊

I'm going to try and start doing weekly develops to keep everyone appraised of my progress and hold myself accountable for my goals. Mondays seem to be a good day because I get the most done over the weekend.

So here's my report!

🎪🎪🎪

Scenes

2 Natalia x LIlie scenes

1 Lilie x Aldrich scene

CGs

None /2

BGs

None / 0

I've hired a BG artist to help me with future AC backgrounds—meaning backgrounds for chapters 5 and 6. Afterwards, I'll have them redo the original backgrounds .I know that some people like the backgrounds and they do have their own charm, but they were my first attempts at background art and they don't fit my dream for the finished game.

The original backgrounds will still be in the free version of Arena Circus, so don't worry!

This week's plan

I'll be adding one scene every day this week, which will finish up the freedom scenes for chapter 4. I usually do polls on twitter to decide what scenes to add, so follow me on @capminyan if you'd like to vote!

By the way! Lilith Hall is out! This prequel follows Natalia and reveals more of her backstory. Get it here: https://harlevin.itch.io/lilith-hall

By the way! Did you know that patrons of Harlevin have been able to play the chapter 4 beta for months now? Become a patron for as low as $1 a month and instantly get access to the most recent build of Arena Circus, which includes:

40 days of chapter 4

101,000 words

9 CGs

5 new quests

https://www.patreon.com/harlevin

All the money I receive from Patreon goes straight back into my VN development. Currently it's being used to pay a composer to create a brand new OST for Arena Circus.

Also, as the new sprites are completed, higher tier patrons will get access to exclusive bonus outfit packs!

That's all for this week, folks! Thanks for your continued support.

#arenacircus #english visual novel #visual novel #vn development

Tumblr updates are back!

Hi guys! I’m going to try and be more diligent about updating here and on itch.io. Normally I just tweet what I’m doing but to up my accountability I’ll try to bring back my once a week update thingies. I’m going to be mostly working on Arena Circus but splicing in some of a mostly finished project in between to keep the motivation up. Still aiming to finish ch 4 of AC before the year is up. So, just a heads up, updates will start again from friday!

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