#fallen snow studios

[rehncohro]

We’ve got some more information about the future of Lucid9!: http://lucid9.weebly.com/blog/arc-1-progress

[notakeysmash]

Lucid9 has an official Steam release date!  Get it for free April 14th.

The voiced version is coming later, but you can get a taste of what the main characters will sound like by watching this compilation of all the teasers.

[notakeysmash]

I’m very excited to say I’ve been cast as Shigure Enomoto in the upcoming visual novel Lucid9 by Fallen Snow Studios!  It’s a mystery thriller that will be available for free, so you really will have no excuse to not check it out.

[lucid9-vn-blog]

Complimentary Kitten With Every Update

How’s it going, my peeps?

You’ve probably noticed it’s been a long ass time since we’ve wrote anything here. In our defence, riting blogz iz hard, man. I wonder how the hell people do it for a living. 

Anyway, as an apology for keeping you guys in the dark I’m going to write one long update today.

A few days ago, one of our PR guys, Sean, attended the Gaming Convention GenCon and handed out 100 fliers advertising Lucid9. So if you’re one of those 100 people, thanks for checking out our website! 

Here’s Sean handing out the fliers along with the complimentary kittens. (I’m just kitten around. We can’t afford 100 cats, the colored ink was expensive enough.) 

Praise my amazing photoshop skillz. A kitten the size of a small dog.

In other news, we’ve been making a reasonable amount of progress with development. Here’s a general rundown of what’s going on in each department. 

Music:

I’m excited to say we have a few new tracks made by our composer 13lueH0ur. (Seems like I can’t directly embed audio into this post, so I’ll have to settle for a link to our Soundcloud.) So please click here to feel like a badass. 

Art:

A lot of things have been happening in the art department, so I’m not sure where to start first... Let’s see...

Yuuko’s holding his own with the BGs, as you can see in the test scene above featuring Misaki in downtown Isamu. I still wonder how he manages to get the BGS to look so damn pretty. Sorry, Yu. I meant “handsome”. 

If you’ve played the demo, some of you probably noticed we have a few easter eggs scattered around in the backgrounds. Do they mean something important? You’ll have to wait until Lucid9 is released to find out. For now, we’ll let you all speculate. And then we’ll laugh at how far off your guesses are. (Evil, I know.)

Recently, Dizzy began sketching drafts of the CGs for Common Route. Sadly I can’t share them right now because that will ruin the experience for you guys seeing them in-game. So I’ll leave you with, “they look fantabulous.”

Elphaze is working on matching the male characters art style to the females, and she’s doing a pretty damn good job, if you ask me. Here’s a draft of Yahiko she sketched up the other day. (Sexy, I know.)

Also, after a brief discussion a few weeks ago we’ve decided not to have chibi art in Lucid9, so we currently only have an opening for another background artist. If you’re interested, be sure to drop by our Apply page at our website. 

Writing:

- Common Route

Writing has been going well. Luna Chai is handling some of the revisions and foreshadowing in Common Route. Immediately after that business is settled, the editors should be doin’ they thang and sprucing up the drafts. The release date for the Common Route demo is still undetermined right now, but I’ll let you all know as soon as that changes.

- Heroine Routes

Clestae and Player have started drafting the first few days of their routes, and I should be writing soon as well once I sort out a few more things. At some point, we’ll need to schedule a Writer’s Meeting to discuss ironing out the links between all of the routes. That should be fun. 

Aaaaand looks like that’s all. To sum it up, we be doin’ da workz. If you have any questions about anything feel free to write us here or at our forums or through carrier pigeon. As always, thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next post. 

~ David

[lucid9-vn-blog]

It’s Time for Another Update

Writing:

So you’re probably wondering what’s been goin’ on behind the scenes. In the writing department, quite a lot. Common Route is pretty much fully drafted with the exception of some revisions and editing. The word count is estimated at around 150,000 words, but might grow considerably after everything’s finalized. The demo of the entire Common Route won’t be released any time soon though, but I’ll make sure to keep you all updated in the meanwhile.  

We’ve also made some headway with the Heroine Routes, and we plan on writing a good portion of them over the summer if all goes well. How much exactly? I can’t say for sure. The writers work at different paces, so it’s hard to tell, but I’m sure we’ll find our rhythm after a while of writing.

Art:

The art has been progressing slowly, but surely. As evidence, I present you a draft from DizzyWorld2 of Elizabeth in her work uniform. <3

The other character sprites and CGs are currently being worked on. There’ll be more news about that in the next update.

Also, most of the backgrounds for Common Route are finished. We’ll be reusing some of them for the Heroine Routes, but we’re still planning on having more for specific scenes. We still have a position open for another BG artist, but I’ll touch on that later.

Music:

Concerning Lucid9′s OST, it’s been at a stalemate. In all honesty, we haven’t had much luck with composers. We’ve had around... four, I think, which explains the music’s inconsistency in the demo. The composers either left due to disinterest, lack of time, or because they were unable to compose for free anymore. In any case, I’m confident we’ll be able to solve this dilemma soon, so no worries there.

Engine:

When it comes to the engine, Cloud Novel is making huge strides. The creators are adding a ton of new features, making VN creation a breeze. They’re now open for public beta testing, so why not sign up today and check it out for yourselves? I promise you, you won’t regret it. http://cloudnovel.net/

In other news, the trailer for Lucid9 has been finished and should appear in Sekai Project’s monthly wrap-up in a few days. I’ll be posting the trailer on our social media sites—Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.—once it’s debuted, so stay tuned for that!

And lastly, Fallen Snow Studios are currently accepting new members. You can find all the information on our site under the Apply section. There are two positions listed right now, but we’ll be adding more in the coming week.

I think this wraps up today’s post. It was longer than I expected. I still feel like I’m forgetting something... meh, probably nothing. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you all in the next post! 

~ David

[lucid9-vn-blog]

All In Due Time

Creating a visual novel takes time, especially if you don’t want it to suck more than a bat in a blood bank. 

But here’s the thing most developers have trouble with: we have a hard time knowing exactly when the project will be finished. 

Sure, we can make estimations, but even a skilled mathematician would shrug their shoulders in uncertainty. If we disregard members having to leave or going on hiatus because of personal issues, the other reason development takes a while is because of the complexity of the story.  

Everything revolves around the plot. The writers not only plan the story, but it’s also their job to determine how many character sprites are needed, the mood of the music during a scene, what settings require background art, and the animations shown in the engine. When the plot becomes more complex, there’s a higher chance of plot holes, which in turn requires rewriting, which in turn affects the art, music, programming, and the UNIVERSE ITSELF. It’s like unraveling a long string of thread from a woven fabric. (This is why you should always plan the entire story before anything else.) 

And this becomes a pain for everyone to patch up.

This, I feel, is the most difficult aspect of development. It can take a while to sort out—years, maybe—and you’d need to keep everyone from ripping their hairs out the entire time. It’s not easy, but I guess the nice thing about it is that you’re not alone in your insanity. 

~ David

[lucid9-vn-blog]

Partnership with Sekai Project

Greetings, everyone!

There are a few updates I’d like to share with you all today, but the most important one would be our partnership with Sekai Project to help promote Lucid9! A huge thanks to the folks over in SP for all their support.

(Photo idea courtesy of Hooves)

With summer break right around the corner, development for Lucid9 will quicken considerably. If things go well, that is.

So what have we been up to in the meantime? Our writer Luna Chai is currently creating a trailer video for Lucid9—which may be showcased in one of Sekai Project’s monthly wrap-ups. It’ll take some time to finish, but it should be viewable sometime in the middle of June. 

We’re also still working on adding Day 5 in the engine. Some of you might be: 

But do not fret. It will be finished. 

Eventually.

In terms of story development, art, and music, everything is progressing smoothly, albeit slowly. I’ll go into more detail in the upcoming posts, so stay tuned.

That’s about it for today’s update. And as always, thanks for supporting us!

~ David

[visualnovelgirl-blog]

Lucid9

Link/s:

http://vnchan.wordpress.com/tag/lucid9/

http://lucid9.weebly.com/

Plot:

Yama Ishimoto is enjoying his last year of high school with his longtime friend, Rui Haward, an energetic and somewhat serious young girl who sometimes finds it difficult to express her true feelings. Recently joined by the burly Masato Kurogane and the moronic Yahiko Ikari, this dynamic group of friends breeze through school, their life filled with hilarious antics and hijinks. Contrasting their joyous lifestyle, an inexplicable series of murders in the city begins acquiring greater attention as the body count steadily rises. At first, Yama chooses to simply ignore these morbid incidents, but the unpredictability of fate, or rather an eccentric freelance detective, forces him at the forefront of the murder investigation. What will Yama uncover . . . ?