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!
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.
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!
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