#ithaqualabs

[sitaart]

Perceptions of the Dead 2 

Calling all Visual Novel reviewers and Lets Players!

Interested in a press key? 

We're giving out some Steam press keys for the early release of the game! (June 1st)

Reblogs greatly appreciated!

Email IthaquaLabs@gmail[dot]com

[ithaqualabs]

There are seven magics, five more than have ever been explored, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. The kobolds, once a beast of myth, have forged an alliance with Celeste. A mad demigod rages across the land, aiming to end the tyranny of monarchies with Celeste in his sights. Meanwhile, a magical talking sword is busy preparing the misfit mages of the Ryuusian Royal Cabal for a clash against an arcane foe from distant lands of fable. 

You know, normal things.

One thing is certain, no threat the cabal faces compares to their greatest challenge: relationships, love, and family troubles.

Pale Spectrum is the sequel to Brilliant Shadows, and both are adventures from the Book of Gray Magic. Follow along with Necromancers, Paladins, Witches, and Changelings in this story of intrigue, mystery and magic.

Pale Spectrum

Pale Spectrum is around 6-13 hours of play time depending on read speed and route choice. The game has a number of large branches and a plethora of smaller ones, enhancing its replay potential. It sits at just over 200k words.

Voice Acting

All spoken lines in the game are voiced, bringing an extra level of life to our cast of 30+ characters.

Choices

There are over 50 choices that you can make in the game, all of which influence the 10+ unique endings.

Music

Pale Spectrum features an extensive, combined sound track from the Book of Gray Magic series. Pale Spectrum boasts 27 original tracks, and, combined with Brilliant Shadows 21 original tracks, has an hour of beautiful orchestral music composed by Johnathan Johnson.

The Main Cast

The story follows along with Belinda, Ash, Terra, Hektor, Prude, Aelfnod and Aku as main characters.

[ithaqualabs]

Perceptions of the Dead

A free voice acted visual novel containing three short, playful and spooky stories.

You can download it here! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Steam and Itch.io <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The first thing you need to know is that ghosts are real.

The rest, you can only learn on your own. Follow three stories set in a world where the dead linger and things far worse wait beyond the veil. ----------------- The Phantom Ice Cream Truck 

Follow a denizen of the border between life and death as he answers the call to rescue a missing child. ----------------- Perceptions of the Dead 

Tyrone has made it his business to help solve the troubles of those afflicted by the undead, but what seems like a case of a benign haunting may find him risking more than his life, but his very soul. ----------------- Jill Count 

 Jill has had moderate success as a streamer, and to mix things up, this Halloween she is going to life-stream a visit to a haunted hospital. The twist? It's actually haunted.

Each story is about 20 - 30 minutes long.

[ithaqualabs]

In preparation for Pale Spectrum’s release, Brilliant Shadows’ OST is now available for free on Steam.

Twenty one songs from the Brilliant Shadow's original sound track by Johnathan Johnson. 1- Brilliant Shadows Suite Prelude 2- Brilliant Shadows Suite 3- Mysterious Melody 4- Drama 5- A Moment for All 6- Adventure Awaits 7- Brilliant Respite 8- Winter 9- Art Inspires Art 10- Passing Joys 11- Underwater 12- Brittle Endings 13- Sad Moments 14- A Reach For Hope 15- Horror 16- The Little Moments 17- Shade of Sorrow 18- Tension in the Midst 19- Urgent Shadows 20- The Conflict That Claims us All 21- Brilliant Shadows Suite - Epilogue

http://store.steampowered.com/app/435370/Brilliant_Shadows__Soundtrack/

[ithaqualabs]

The Pale Spectrum Poster Time-Lapse is available to Patreon members~

https://www.patreon.com/posts/15023888

[ithaqualabs]

Hello folks!

This month's update about progress is looking good. We've been getting in a swath of lines from our lovely voice actors, and have completely finished receiving lines for two more main characters.

I got hit with a new wave of inspiration after experimenting with an art style to do some mini-cg type work for the game. This let me add a lot of movement and personality to some scenes that had previously been missing them.

On top of liking how the little strips turned out, I found the inspiration to get rid of the place holder images on the main menu.

We're focusing heavily on narrative coding and voice editing, and making good headway with Pale Spectrum.

Keep up and at 'em!

Patreon | Twitter |

[garrettauthor]

This Week’s Email Blast

Here’s the email that was just sent out. If you’d rather get these extremely long messages IN your email inbox, sign up here.

If you want to read about how monsters are created, read on under the cut!

Hey Rebel,

Today, I want to take you behind the scenes on something.

If you're getting this email, you're already at least familiar with the Underrealm covers. Those covers might be WHY you checked out Underrealm in the first place.

We put a lot of time into them, and we're very proud of them.

Here's the thing, though: artwork is hard. I might be able to "paint" with words, but I don't have any developed talent when it comes to visual media.

So today, I want to bring you along on a recent design project I undertook.

If you've read the short story The Beast Within, you met a pair of creatures that have often been mentioned in Underrealm, but never before seen. I'm talking about the imps, Jutur and Drugoth.

Well, I've always "known" what imps look like. At least in my own head. But that's not exactly helpful when it comes to working with other authors.

Or, frankly, with writing for you!

So, for the first time since I created Underrealm, I tried to design an entirely new creature that wasn't quite like anything else out there.

Friend and fellow indie author Riley S. Keene recommended a concept artist named Geckos who they've worked with before. I saw the work they'd done together and was absolutely stoked.

(By the way, the first book in Riley's series is currently only $0.99! They're celebrating the release of the THIRD book in the series by offering the FIRST book for a huge discount. It's a whole dang book and it's good! You should go read it RIGHT NOW!!!)

Back to the artwork—I reached out to Geckos, and they were available for hire. So I sent them my brief on what I wanted.

This is where things start to get a little funny.  

ART BRIEFS

Have you ever had to create an art brief before? It's hard. A lot harder than I thought it was going to be, when I started.

It makes sense when you consider that you're trying to use WORDS to communicate a PICTURE. It can be extremely difficult, and I do this for a living.

One thing that helps is to use a lot of references. These are images drawn from other sources that are sort of "close" to what you're trying to communicate. And I try to use a LOT of them.

So here's what I sent Geckos when I was trying to get a good design on the imps:

Okay so the creatures I need designed are called imps. They’re slightly larger than a housecat. Face-wise, they’re supposed to be very much like gremlins from the Gremlins movies.

Their bodies are leaner and sleeker however, and they have flaps of skins between their arms and legs, which they can use to glide like flying squirrels. 

They have long-ish tails, about proportional to a housecat. And then finally their bodies are covered with spiny scales like the armadillo girdled lizard.

I’ve also attached a sketch I’ve tried to do envisioning how they all come together. Where I started running into real trouble was integrating the spines with the design, and that’s when I realized I needed someone who … you know, can actually draw. One quick note: I didn’t draw pupils, but they should have narrow black ones, like gremlins.

(Yeah, that's the sketch I did. Trust me, I worked at an art school JUST long enough to know when I need to hire a professional!)

So this is what I sent to Geckos. And this is somewhat similar to the briefs I send my artists when I'm asking them for a new cover.

And then Geckos had the thankless job of translating my brief into an actual piece of concept art.

And you know what? It came out great.

ISN'T THAT AWESOME? I don't know how you pull something so great out of the mass of words and only tangentially understandable reference images I sent!!!

This is why artists are amazing, in case you've ever wondered.

I had some minor, inconsequential notes. And then Geckos turned that into a final reference and several "action" images of imps in action. Here they are in all their full glory:

And now, you and any future Underrealm artists have an easy-to-use reference for imps and exactly how they look. This opens the door to future covers and, really, ANY kind of art we want.

So what I'm telling you is that Geckos is amazing and I'm eternally grateful AND I've already hired them for something else...but you'll have to wait to find out what it is.

(If you have any concept art needs, here's a link to hire Geckos at Ithaqua Labs.)

AND THAT'S IT.

I hope you enjoyed the peek behind the curtain.

The imps—and specifically their art!—are going to come up again VERY soon. Maybe even next week.

So stay tuned.

See you next week, Rebel.

Best Wishes,

Garrett Robinson

[bestgamesintheplanet]

Perceptions of the Dead - Remastered (ithaqualabs)

halloween

Free to play (Windows, Mac, Linux)