Astraverse coming to Steam Next Fest!

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

Feb. 21 – 28

First thing’s first…

If you don’t already know, lately I’ve been hard at work on crowdfunding to make an enhanced re-release of my previous title, Tales of the Elements. This new Tales of the Elements (we’re calling it T.O.T.E.) is supposed to stand on it’s own without the need of listening to the albums that its original game was based off of. I decided to do this enhanced re-release it to port the game to mobile and give the project a second chance at reaching a larger audience so that it could help boost the community following for Astraverse. As much as I would like to not think of T.O.T.E. as a “stepping stone” for Astraverse, the ultimate goal here is to give Astraverse a much-needed boost. It’ll need the funding and without a community behind it–I’m afraid it’ll struggle.

Now, the Kickstarter for T.O.T.E. is finally coming to an end–just a couple days left so I HIGHLY recommend that anyone who’s interested in supporting Astraverse support the T.O.T.E. Kickstarter as well! T.O.T.E. is a dope JRPG that’s heavily based on Hip Hop and it’s culture. It’s a bit different but it does have a banging soundtrack just like Astraverse does!

Supporting T.O.T.E. is also supporting Astraverse as there is even development software that I’m using for T.O.T.E. that I’m also using for Astraverse. You can click on the image above or the gameplay image below to check out the Kickstarter!

Short clip from the new T.O.T.E.

So, what’s going on with Astraverse???

Honestly, development is taking a short break. But, I’ll be resuming development again in about a month or so to finally finish off the playable quest demo and the official reveal trailer that I have planned. The ques demo will be for 1-4 players and it will include the character creator from the character creator demo as well as one playable quest including some narrative events with a boss at the end of it. I want people who play the demo to get a good feel for the vision of the game. So, I’m trying to include every important feature to the game’s main gameplay loop.

4-player inventory management!

Steam Fest February 21-28

Valve reached out to me and invited me to showcase Astraverse for the Steam Fest that will be held in February! During this event, players on Steam will be able to try out the quest demo for Astraverse so you can count on this being a solid timeline for development on the quest demo for Astraverse. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s characters and experiences with the demo!

– LB

Math SUCKS

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

Hey, guys!

As you (probably) all know, Astraverse is NOW on Kickstarter!

And now that it’s been up for awhile, there’s something I want to talk about. This is going to be a long one…

Personally, I’ve never been the best at marketing. Even when I’ve tried to put into practice good marketing techniques/strategies–it’s always fallen flat for some strange reason. I’ve been producing and releasing music for about a decade and still, to this day, I have no reason why my promotion sucks! As a matter of fact, I’ve had people who follow me take note of that and say stuff like “You’re really good at what you do! Why aren’t you more popular?” LOL I always find that so funny.

And that’s OKAY because honestly, I don’t make music or develop games to become popular or famous. I do those things because I really love doing them. Games and music (and the creation of them) are passions of mine. But, time is a very important thing and I’m finding that the older I get, the less time I have for the things I love to do.

So, for Astraverse, my goal is to start making a living doing creative stuff that I love like this. I don’t actually want to be the next Jay-Z with my music or the next Hideo Kojima with my game development. I just want to be able to use my creative projects to put food on the table for me and my wife. And I want to start with taking Astraverse into full-time development.

What you guys have put into this is amazing and I greatly appreciate every bit despite the cards being stacked against us.

Unfortunately, though, the numbers are telling me that the Kickstarter will probably fail. Unfortunate, yes. Disappointing, of course. But, that does not mean it’s over–Not at all! Accepting circumstances does not mean giving up.

Fat Jon himself once told me that being unique would prove to be a “difficult path” for my music and that was true. It’s probably true with anything else including game development, but…

I didn’t start this passion project of mine, putting out hard work on it by myself for 3 years just for the world to tell me that they rather have another farming life sim or another souls-like title. (Not knocking on any titles specifically but this stuff seems to be really trending, lol). And just like my previous title, Tales of the Elements, I WILL FINISH this project! And even furthermore, I will make sure that it’s so good that people will, like my music, wonder why it doesn’t have the following that it deserves!

So, maybe we won’t make the goal. Who cares? Lol WE STILL HAVE 17 DAYS LEFT. We can still go out with a bang! And whether or not the game is funded through Kickstarter, we’re still going to make it happen!

I want you guys to know that I sincerely appreciate how supportive you’ve been. It may not seem like much but I’ve been seeing everyone pushing the project on Twitter and even in other places and it’s been much more than awesome to see how much of my enthusiasm you’ve shared for Astraverse.

Let’s keep the momentum going! It’s not over yet!

– LB

Astraverse Kickstarter Pre-launch Announcement (& Update 7/5/2021)!!!

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

Follow Astraverse on Kickstarter!

Astraverse, my Phantasy Star-inspired beat’em up RPG, is coming to Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter Pre-launch page is here!

As a matter of fact, that’s the reason why I’m late with my update. Ha ha!

I meant to post a development update a week or so ago but I was extremely busy with working on the Kickstarter page and getting it ready for the pre-launch campaign.

As I was working on the Kickstarter page, my wife got started on illustrating the characters for the cover/key art for the game, too. She did the first 2 characters and I helped to provide a background and some polishing in order for us to put together an early cover/key art to represent the game until we have the full cover finished!

If you ask me, we could probably get away with this being the final cover art but we wanted the cover art to give representation for all of the races and classes in the game. So, you can expect to see more characters in the final artwork!

Also, as I was working on the Kickstarter, I decided to write out and schedule the full-time game development plan. Then, I used that to create a visual roadmap for the rest of the game’s development.

As I make development progress over time, that space ship there will move down the roadmap. (Not on this post but in later updates).

Over the last 3 years, I’ve made slow and steady progress which has led up to me being almost finished with the framework containing all of the game’s core systems. Learning from past mistakes, I’ve decided to build the game this way so that I could avoid feature-creeping and an excessive amount of bugs towards the last half of the development.

However, I wouldn’t say that I’m halfway there yet (or if I am, I would say that the second half is going to take the most work). Even though, I’m just going to be adding content into the game like enemies, areas, and loot as well as tweaking values like stats and AI here and there from here on out, there’s quite a bit to do in those areas. Still, I’m looking forward to it as this is more of the “designing and implementation” phase of the development that I’ve been working towards for the past few years.

Another thing I thought I’d share are some of the backer rewards that are planned for the Kickstarter!

You can’t tell me that none of this stuff is cool!

The Kickstarter will allow for Astraverse to come out in the best possible way! For example, some of the later backer tiers include rewards for backers to be added into the game, to be able to help write quests, to be able to design outfits and even weapons for characters!

So, the next challenge will be for me to finish the 4-player playable game demo before the launch date or at least DURING the beginning of the campaign. Please root for me as I’ve burnt up a considerable amount of time fixing and planning the Kickstarter.

Please check out the Kickstarter prelaunch page and support it if you can! Every little bit counts–even if it’s just $1 and that’s reflected in the Kickstarer as well as there is even $1 backer tier with a reward for it!

I look forward to working with you all on Kickstarter!

– LB

Astraverse Dev Log MAJOR Update 5/25/21!!!

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

A lot of stuff has been added since last month…

I don’t even know where to start! I feel like I’ve gotten more visibly done than in any other month—and the crazy part is that it’s just going to get turn out that way more and more as we move closer to completion!

Particles & Sounds!!!

Look at those sparks!

So, this one might not be the biggest change but it will definitely affect the way the game feels when it comes to combat and even some non-combat actions. I programmed a simple visual and sound effect feedback system for when attacks from players or enemies collide with….well, players and enemies. They’ll also be used for when objects are attacked for mining.

I cannot emphasize how much of a difference the game feels now! In the past couple years I’ve taken extra time to study how different games achieve a proper level of “crunchiness” in their game feel an combat and I’m finally seeing it pay off. So, hopefully you guys will be able to FEEL the combat once you get to play the demo!

Randomized Card Loot Shop

More than one player can shop at once!

This was supposed to be the hardest shop in the game to program and at the same time the most important one so I decided to tackle it first.

When formulating the design of Astraverse, I wanted to make the gameplay and lore harmonize with each other as much as possible. Another thing that I wanted was to make shops more relevant ESPECIALLY in the endgame grind. So, I decided that randomized loot would be found in shops rather than in drops from monsters. And for chests—they would be a lot harder to find in the game. I mean, why would monsters be carrying swords??? And why would there be random chests all over the place with valuable gear inside of them??? Besides, this would ensure that the endgame grind did not remove the need for shopping like a lot of other RPGs tend to do.

4-player co-op!!!!

Adventure for 4?

So, this one is a BIG one. Personally, I feel that one of the most important features for the game is the multiplayer. One of my favorite things about playing games like PSO while growing up was being able to play with my brother and other friends. And not many RPGs that offer an in-depth character creator allow for same-screen co-op. Later on, I’m planning to add lan and a direct host/join online system eventually.

We’re getting closer and closer to having a playable demo! I’ve run into some bugs that I’ll also need to work out of the game before than and of course I still have a few things to work out along the way.

Also, I wanted to add that for those who don’t know, I’m planning a Kickstarter for the game in July! I have a friend who’s helping me to spread the word and get the project promoted while I focus on the creative process. He’s been helping out with the Discord as well.

Moreover, K-Murdock, a fellow music producer known for his work with his Hip Hop group Panacea and for his work with Guinness World Record holder Mega Ran is also helping to contributing to the soundtrack. Trust me when I say this—he’s gonna kill it!

If you made it this far into this update, I want to thank you for reading! If you can, please tell a friend about the game, wishlist the game on Steam and feel free to leave a comment here to share your thoughts!

– LB

Progress Update 4/21/21

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

I know I keep saying this over and over again (in different ways) but I’m inching ever closer to a playable demo of Astraverse.

This time, though, I feel like I say that with good reason. After programming the logic for the in-game shields, I’m beginning to reach the point where all of the core-player functions/features are complete.

And that was a small achievement in comparison to the following:

The Narrative Adventure system!!!

Yep! The Choose your own adventure events are also done and are COMPLETELY ready for the storytelling needs of the demo!

So I figured it would be a good time to explain how these were going to actually be implemented into the game.

Now, I know that graph up there looks like a hot mess (lol) but I promise that it’s an “organized mess,” ha ha! I can assure that it explains the gameplay flow/loop very well.

See, whenever a party is formed, they will either choose a quest that will bring them to a series of short stages that represent a planet (or more) or they will be able to choose to just go to a planet to adventure on.

In-between each stage/area, there will be an event that plays out just like the one above and the way each event plays out will have an effect on the path that’s taken during each adventure–meaning the subsequent stages will be different depending on the party’s decisions/experiences.

For example, say you’re in this stage below:

Imagine running into a choice-driven narrative event at the end of this forest

Once you (and whoever you’re teamed up with) reaches the end of the area one of those events will pop up. Depending on the circumstances, the event can either be random or part of an overarching narrative that’s part of the current adventure.

Just like that chart up there shows, the CYOA events will chain together the gameplay loop, making it feel more like a choice driven adventure with a story rather than just a series of side scrolling beat em up stages. Rather than feel like a linear progression, there will be branching paths and even story points that will give each player their own unique experience.

So, now that I have the narrative event system in place, what’s next? How close are we to an actual demo?

Here’s what’s left to put in the game before we can see a playable demo:

  • more loot (at least 5 – 10 per weapon type/armor)
  • equipment shops with randomized loot
  • at least 2 more basic monster types
  • 2 or 3 more backgrounds
  • the first boss
  • party defeat system
  • the demo’s questline
  • the 2nd, 3rd and 4th player

That’s literally it! And while it seems like a long list of errands, it’s not as bad as it looks as some of those things such as the loot, backgrounds and other players are already partially implemented and just need to be finalized so that they are functioning properly and playable.

Also, because of the method of programming I’ve used up to this point, once the demo is playable, more content will be made much faster as the core systems of the game will already be functioning and it will just be a matter of taking player feedback and polishing stuff up!

I probably shouldn’t write this but…

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / 2 Comments

…I will anyway. Lol

It’s time to get personal.

As those who are following this dev log may know, I’ve been working a full-time job outside of development of Astraverse (which I mentioned has contributed to it’s progress slowing down). Today, some recent events has led me to feeling the urge to get something off my chest about that.

Before I start, I wanted to make the point of mentioning that I absolutely HATE talking about personal issues in any sort of public way but it’s definitely related to the progress of the game and at the same time I feel like I need to express this in the best way that I can. So, here goes!

From the very beginning of me working my current job back in 2019, I’ve had issues at work in which I felt I was being micromanaged, disrespected, treated unfairly and grossly unappreciated. Even my coworkers and supervisor have observed this.

Maybe it’s because of my personality? Maybe it’s my skin color? Maybe my religion? Heck if I know. Lol

All I can say is that this has been considerably hard to deal with as I had very little experience in the field to begin with and I have a habit of first looking at myself to examine if I’m the problem before anything else. It’s been a really tough couple of years and it feels like it’s finally coming to some sort of climax. You see, my boss seems to be trying to get rid of me and while I’ve only recently began to seriously suspect this it’s been pretty obvious to me and others from the beginning that she has had some sort of personal issue with me.

Now, you might be wondering, “If she’s never liked you, why’d she hire you in the first place?” That’s because she didn’t actually hire me. I have a good friend who is the boss of her boss (still following? Lol). It wasn’t up to her whether I’d have the job or not. And I don’t want to go to him for help because I feel like that would just be unfairly taking advantage of the fact that he’s my friend.

Anyway, without going into details, I could lose my job very soon.

In my current situation, I could just go look for another job which will be difficult in itself OR……well, this is where Astraverse comes in.

I’ve done so much work on Astraverse so far and not only that–I’ve also finalized my concepts and ideas as well as the GDD on it–so I’ve decided that I’m going to finally seek funding for it and get it finished! And from there, I have plans to launch my own indie game studio so that my wife and I can make a living from making games!

But, we can’t do that alone, though. We’re gonna need help. A LOT of help. So, I’m writing this not only to express myself and to shine some light on the situation but I’m also writing this in hopes that I can reach someone out there that might be able to help and of course reach out to those who are already helping by following the development of this passion project.

I want you to know that it’s okay to help–even if it’s to reach out and show support. It doesn’t have to be some kind of monetary thing. You can spread the word–tell a friend about this awesome game being made. You can reach out to me at lastbenevolence@outlook.com and let me know that I have your support. You can even just simply leave a comment at the end of this post. There are many ways that you can support us.

Maybe we’ll find a publisher to fund us, maybe we’ll obtain a grant for the project or maybe we’ll even run a Kickstarter.

Regardless of what happens, expect more updates, more info, more visuals and more gameplay of Astraverse from here on out!

That’s a promise.

  • LB

Dev Progress Update 3/24/21

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

As some are probably aware, I have full-time work that eats up enough time to choke out potential progress to Astraverse’s development.

However, thanks to some help that I’m getting from my supervisor, I’ve been able to work more on Astraverse-related stuff during downtime–that’s how I was able to rebuild the site and go back to providing updates as well as reestablish the Discord channel.

Anyway, today I continued to work on the narrative event system that will play a big role in the gameplay structure and flow as well as the story. I haven’t explained this yet but that’s because the last update was about 3 years ago and, well, things have changed a bit since then. Not TOO much. Astraverse is largely the same game but it’s overall concept and narrative approach has grown since then.

Behold! Astraverse’s Narrative System

Back in 2019, during E3, they announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 was coming to the US. Now, this made me think about the future of Astraverse. Astraverse was originally supposed to “fill” the void that Phantasy Star behind in the past decade but in it’s own way. So I thought to myself–“If PSO2 is coming out, should I continue working on Astraverse? And if I do, is it just going to forever be in the shadow of PSO2?”

Well, the answer is that it doesn’t have to be. Astraverse can be it’s own game even if it’s heavily inspired by Phantasy Star. So, I brainstormed on ways to make it stand out. Honestly, I think I was overthinking it–there are many games out there that are heavily inspired by the devs’ favorites and that doesn’t usually take way from those games but in some ways it adds to them.

But, I still wanted to explore ideas that would add to the experience and at the same time create an entirely new experience.

That’s when I came up with the narrative adventure system. Basically, it works like a choose-your-own-adventure game but with the real-time side-scrolling beat ’em up gameplay in-between narrative events.

Basically, a player will read flavor text and dialogue that will include descriptive scenarios that the player can imagine–like in a tabletop RPG. Then there will be dialogue options or choices that the player will choose from to progress through these events which may or may not alter the path the player takes while adventuring on a planet.

In between areas of a planet’s “stage,” players will encounter these events. And they will work for up to 4 players, with each player taking turns to interact with scenarios.

Another example of the narrative system

This not only allows for the game to become much more immersive with it’s storytelling but it also lifts a bit of the burden that would come with other styles of storytelling such as fully-voiced or non-voiced cutscenes. It also helps the game to stand out. On top of that, it makes it far more reasonable to implement “user-generated” experiences such as a party’s ship crash-landing on a planet or a quest popping up out of nowhere due to certain conditions being fulfilled through previous quests. This also allows for me to explore more options such as unique decisions/options in quests that depend on certain stats.

Anyway, I’ve been working on that lately as I’ve completed most of the other in-game systems and I’m getting closer to being able to build a playable demo. Once I’m done with the narrative system this week, I’ll be trying to test it out and then I’ll be moving into working on building out the gameplay loop of a typical session in Astraverse. Stay tuned for more of the finalized info on the game and more updates as I’ll be pumping out more soon.

LB

Not Necessarily a “Return”

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / 1 Comment

I didn’t want to write a misleading title because if I said something like “I’m back” it would imply that I took a break which is simply not true. I’ve been working quite a bit on Astraverse.

Regardless, I’m FULLY aware of not having updated this dev log in a long time. I need no reminders and I honestly realize how sloppy it looks. Ha Ha

My break from writing regular updates didn’t stem from a lack of work or progress on the game. Slowly but surely, I’ve made quite a bit more progress on Astraverse since the last time I’ve updated this. And to be honest, I think I’ve made so much progress, that it’s hard to really tell exactly where I was in the development process in my last update here compared to now.

This is actually a good thing and should be taken as good news to anyone who has been looking forward to any news on the progress of Astraverse! This means there’s A LOT to share! And if you can tell by any of the footage here on the site, the game is looking like it’s reaching a point of even being playable. Yes, this is also becoming a reality!

So, how much progress have I made? Let’s leave it at that cliffhanger as I’ll be updating this dev log later today with some much needed visuals to give anyone interested a better idea of where we’re at and even what has changed.

LB

Challenges and Opportunity

/ Last BeNeVoLeNcE / Leave a comment

So, now that the move is over, I’m dealing with a serious case of jet lag. Over the course of the past week, I haven’t had much time to devote to developing Astraverse. This is all understandable but the real downside is that I’ve burned up my only free week before working a new, full-time job by just sleeping and waking up at odd times.

The good news is that I have a little help on the programming side of things now. The coder that helped me with some things on my last project is in on the project now so there should be some decent progress made even if I’m working full-time.

Originally, I honestly wanted to have things ready to showcase the demo and push it out to seek funding for the project so that we could work on it full-time. However, I underestimated the time that would be needed to complete the character creator and I honestly don’t think I have what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign or “profitable-looking” project pitch.

Usually, I’d be pretty upset about such a huge and disappointing change in my plans but I don’t really see it as much more than a simple setback that may set up the foundation for a beneficial opportunity.

Instead of seeking some sort of funding for the development of the game from a publisher or some sort of crowdfunding platform, I can put my own money into the project where it’s practical and without worrying about having food on the table. This way, if I need to crowdfund at all, it will be to pay for stuff like paying the extra programmer(s) or paying a professional artist to redo the game’s artwork.

Of course, work will take away from the time I can devote to development but that’s where Astraverse’s game development method comes into play:

At some point, the development will shift from system and feature programming to just pure content creation. A simple way to put this is that the basic framework for the game will be done first–parent assets for weapon types, class types, enemy types, equipment types, area types, item types, etc. being programmed first–and then new stuff will be simply added as modified versions of the parent assets (but presented with different art, stats, layouts etc.). This means that once that initial part of development is cleared, a good 50% (or more) of the development will require much less time and effort to cover.

I heard somewhere that this type of development was called “sandboxing.” I think it’s a great way to handle development for games that focus less on “evolving gameplay” and more on equipment and level grinding (like in a lot of rpgs)–especially when a large amount of content is needed.

Anyway, I’m currently lacking reliable internet at the moment but hopefully in the next week or so, I’ll have something fixed up at the house so that I can post up some more music or videos.

– LB