Perhaps once again, we may be challenged?

It's November 2nd, which means it's now time I begin again my dark work, as do several members of my collective, truthfully most of us have been doing work on the assets and ideas for this. but today and beyond I'll actually be opening up the games editor and getting a consistent story in place. Eventing stuff, all that good shit.

For those wondering about the battle gameplay, it will be a little lacking in the first half of the demo, but there will be much else to subsidize as gameplay, such as obstacle courses, avoidance tests, drive / combo courses, but your first actual battle will be nigh impossible to win, (you can but you'd have to be really good at the game)- but then you'll fight some bosses that aren't quite so tough.

Currently the group of people working on this are some of my most talented.

Xiie: Maps, Sprites, HUD and Logos.
Pjcr: Portraits
Max M Dominora: Music
Me: Everything Else.

Today I'm going to be organizing the games sound files, music rigmarole, correcting any mislabeled naming conventions and finalizing a story for Act 0.

Yesterday I left most of my distracting Discord chats in preparation for today, I've got a nice big breakfast in an hour from now, that my current residence is serving hot and fresh, which will be a great thing to have before I delve into deep-dev yet again.

Am I ready? Haha, I'd wanna hope so, I've been doing very little dev-wise the past two months, but, I have still done my fair share of work towards the game. Concepts and ideas are more or less all generated by me currently, and I'm behind virtually all of the initial character designing. I'm likely going to be changing the roster and removing or changing out a few of the current big characters, the main cast of Lilac, Lumi and Koko won't be changing, they've become popular and people have taken a shining to them, I also won't be swapping out characters which work has already been put into making assets for, ergo, Esperia, Fyori, Tiramisa and others of that nature will be staying. However, King Richard, Nikki Hirogashi and Mad are on the chopping block, it's likely I will keep mad, as she's very entertaining and fun to write, Nikki and Richard however, are firstly so obscure they barely exist, though at least Nikki has ties to Kyoshi, and Richard has ties to Mira, but unlike Mira, they don't feel like end game bosses, especially not Richard.

Zardari I'm also on the fence about, at least for where you encounter him, he's only just below Esperia in power level, so likely the original planned arc will be shifted around a fair bit. The Intermission with Richard, Dibella and Mira could easily be done solely to recruit Mira.

I'd like to add in Rolly and Nola, possibly Limbo, good news is Limbo is Richard's brother, so we could switch those two up.

Nola... she'd probably replace Zardari in the arc, and Zardari would be before Esperia and Fyori, it's likely the final arc, i.e. the toughest bosses prior to the finale- would be:
Zardari
Mira
Esperia
Fyori

I'm gonna contemplate a new roster, this won't really be spoilers.

Act 0:

Battle: Lilac (The Tower)
Battle: Koko (The Sun)
Battle: Lumi (Justice)
Battle: Kyoshi
Battle: Insidious Architect

Act 1:
Battle: Pep (The Fool)
Battle: Svoli (The Lovers)
Battle: Kara (The Moon)
Battle: Rolly (Strength)
Battle: Tristy (The Hermit)
Battle: Lyza (Temperance)

Act 2:
Battle: Nola (The World)
Battle: Wizard (The Hanged Man)
Battle: Limbo (The Star)
Battle: Tiramisa (The Devil)
Battle: Sacreblu (The High Priestess)

Act 3:
Battle: Mad (The Hierophant)
Battle: Zardari (The Emperor)
Battle: Mira (Death)
Battle: Esperia (The Empress)
Battle: Fyori (The Chariot)

Act Δ:
Battle: Yi Hellrider (Judgement)
Battle: Wi Hellrider (The Magician)
Battle: YHWH (Wheel of Fortune)

Whether you actually battle Kyoshi is still up in the air at this point, but if you do it'll likely be for the sake of either him trying to protect you, or gimmickry. Probably the latter, the family is a very interesting one.

So as you can see, quite a roster, and it looks like it's actually gotten bigger, now the three main girls and each boss have been assigned as a Major Arcana.

The Vahnus Prophecy will have to change a little, Times Eye will replace the amalgam of Yi and Wi.

I was uncertain about the previous roster, Especially due to the arc, but this I'm a lot more comfortable with, Nikki will still have minor involvement in the story I'd say, but she's not the final boss before Yi and Wi.

So, why is Fyori, that sissy little nymph from menagerie the final boss?

Well she's grown a lot in those 400-500 years since, in fact she's essentially the Universe's superpower now. Six Winged Angel of Wrath, you'll see!

I'm sure some of you have nagging questions, what are the stakes, what are these heroes fighting you for.

Well, the first question is simple, but it'd be better to let the demo say it for me (coming Late December probably), as for why they are fighting you, Possession.

But who could be powerful enough to possess such beings?

Oh, just you wait! You know me, I couldn't just tell you, that'd be too easy! But this is gonna be an amazing story, so amazing that I can barely contain myself. And with this new roster, it'll be much easier to make it feel less filler-esque. As it was the first pass I wrote of the story had me on the edge of my seat for the vast majority, but that was out of date, it's even better now! The struggle will be keeping it self contained, but also not wordy where it doesn't warrant it. I think I'm ready for the challenge.

The ideal thing about these new lead characters is they know as much as you do if this is your first time playing a game by me, so that will make it a lot easier, because I can simply put myself in their shoes and think "what would they ask next?".

The OST is coming along fantastically, too! Here's the newest piece by Max. M Dominora.

 Alright, breakfast time, and then, my dark work may begin!

Next up! This!~ Probably.

As you may have noticed, I've slightly changed the game's branding to be more legible.

As you've likely also noticed, I've actually posted a post on this blog that you are reading right now.

Here's the down-low, Fantasia will likely be the next project to come out of the Pipeline, and it's possible we'll even have a playable demo build ready before Christmas.

There's a fair bit to do, but now with the lessons I've learned in PFC, I know what I'm doing plugins wise, so I doubt messiness will get in the way- right now I've gotta work out the story arc and get it all lined and meshed up in a nice manner. My artist is also gonna have a buttload of work to do- the composer for the project, Max M. Dominora, should be able to get the music we need for the first demo done on time. He's done all but two characters duo of themes and one other theme.

This game is going to be very absurd but also very good, I think! It's definitely going to have one of the most impressive Music Scores.

Don't believe me? FOOL! But here, you don't have to take my word for it, feel free to browse what exists of the OST insofar for yourself!

Click me!

This is also easily the game I've gotten the most character fanart for prior to it's public debut, Lumi seems to be particularly popular. Lilac coming as a second, I've gotten a lot of requests to draw them in different ways, which typically I'm all too eager to oblige in, but also I've gotten quite a bit of Fanart for them.

Lumi Fuzz by Therrao

Lumi Fuzz with Bunny Ears by LorieSquare

Coolarooni, huh?

I've also made a bunch of videos in relation to the projects development. But you can go search on youtube if you wanna catch those, or if you have me on discord, just bug me for a quick link, i can guarantee I'll find them in a matter of seconds.

I FIXED THE BUG! PROGRESS RETURNS!!!

Here's a good showing of current epicness!

And here, have a few screenshots, too!

Lumi proposes some interesting assumptions...

Assumptions Lilac is not a fan of.

Through bed, unity!

Main Menu is pretty sweet.

Some goodies before christmas break.

First off, the windowskin is done, and now I've set things up in a very clean split-screen mode.

 Seen also is a few neat lighting effects and some adjustments.

There's also 8 busts per character with a range of expressions, more on those, later.

So now we have a little christmas freebie for ya, a wallpaper for 1920x1080, courtesy of yours truly!

Drawn by Bizarre Monkey

1920x1080

I've also been working on the plot, graphics and such. More on all that later. For now have a merry christmas and enjoy the new year!

Something to actually show, at last!

This is only a mock up, but it helps show the kind of Atmosphere I'm going for.

So here's a bit of non-combat gameplay.

I've also done work on the three girls rooms.

Behold!

So yes, as you can see I've been hard at work, I've also been mapping out the Island of Vahnus, most of that is done, the first pass of the story script is very rough, but it's on its way, and at last Max M. Dominora, the games composer, is back at work, and so he's recently done Svoli's battle theme.

I'm looking forward to doing more on this game. Consider most of what you see graphics-wise placeholders.

The Bedrooms

Just doing some concepts for environments, the bedrooms are littered with detail. These are just some rough sketches.

   

Feel free to obsess over those, there'll be more concepts coming, don't even worry.

At long last, the breakthrough we needed.

You may have noticed a few small changes, in particular the header of the blog has been changed to a new title image.

Well, that issue I was having concerning stakes, it's resolved, and it's amazing. I don't wanna spoil it, but man-- I'm looking forward to working on this more and more, and showing you guys what we have here, it's pretty incredible...

There was a chance I'd put this project on the backburner and work on Crowfeast instead, but that chance is gone, now I've found an ingenious solution and it's taking all of my restraint not to blurt it all out like an obsessed fan-girl, but it's something that I'm sure would best to be witnessed first hand.

Hoping to have Disk 1 ready by 3 / 14 of 2017, but we'll see. There is much to be done, for my artists, my composer, and for me, even in just the Prologue and first disk.

In case you're wondering, Disk 1 will be the demo. Then there's Disk 2, Disk 3 and Disk Δ for the full game.

For now, here's a 1280x720 desktop wallpaper if you have support for that resolution.

Click to enlarge, then right click and save image as.