Astra - Monthly Update (June 2024)

Hello Patrons,

Here comes the June update! Thank you for your patience with this, we really wanted to have the penultimate build out for you all before making this post. Speaking of which, feel free to check that out here!:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/astral-ascension-106813476

Now let's continue with our regular monthly update. :^)

WRITING

We finally filled in all the placeholder names! Just for fun, here is the list. Please note that there may be minor to major spoilers based on the title of the name so please proceed with caution:

MYSTERY_EMPLOYER - Arden Kaleb

POPIDOLSONG - Neon Dreams

CSI LADY: Helen Colby

Vaela's Brother - Vaerin Kade

Vaela's Dad - Lorian Kade

Vaela's Mom - Stella Kade

Alycon travel business name - Helix Velocity

Iris dad - Galen Alcyon

Kai's Girlfriend - Evelina Rose

Iris mom - Violeta Alcyon

Pop Idol - Nova Sky

Union planet tehy fly to first - Edenia

bitter flower from Luna garden event - Petalus

dark planet form luna garden event - Noctyl

flower gift to luna garden event - Lussenta

Photographer - Cameron Snap

Paradise Planet Name - Valtoria

CARTEL1 - Black Hounds

CARTEL2 - Silver Skulls

CARTEL3 - Dread Ravens

Dominatrix - Morgana Shade

Luna doctor mentor - Mira Lawson

Hipster rich guy: Jonas Jones

His brother: Tobias Jones

Shady_guy in evidence - Marcus Voss

Evidence guy - Derrick Mason

Politician - Richard Donovan

Richard Donovan’s Party: Stellar Equality Party

Vigilante Guy - ROOK

Vigilante real name: Nathan Chase

the planet's name where all this went down - Velora

Pango Planet - Astralon

I will let you know right now that coming up with this many names was... an adventure to say the least LOL. In the future, we will definitely fill in names as we go instead of doing it all at the end! If you are curious why we waited, it's because names usually come up during writing and can cause writers block, so we decide to put placeholders and keep the momentum going. What we'll do in the future is fill them in at the end of an episode so it all doesn't stack to the end!

CHARACTER ART

Sunimu made one last CG for Astral Ascension! Check it out here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/astra-vaela-cg-106881492

BACKGROUND ART

Just another BG to round things out! We have exactly two more left for the project and that will be all the BG's that Astral Ascension needs as a minimum. We may add a couple here and there to polish things up if something feels whacked out or out of place!

ANIMATION

Nothing further for animations at this time. Still thinking about updating the UI for the game but I will wait just a little bit then do a vote to see what your thoughts are on the existing one! (same update as last month)

PROGRAMMING

Firgof was an absolute beast to get the penultimate build completed! Now we have exactly 3 things left:

• NPC Portraits

• Voice Over

• Final Polish

We'll be working through these in sequence for the rest of June and most of July as we come towards release!

AUDIO

Eric who is our musician actually did the voice prompts for BeepBoop as well as a g00se that you meet in the game, it will be pretty fun to have his signature finally on some characters! Additionally, we are looking to make a couple of epilogue specific tracks and the ED track.

VOICE

Iris, Kai, and Celeste are fully done! Luna and Vaela are about half way through. As you can see, things are moving VERY fast! It will take some time to process all these lines and then we also have to get the extra characters done, but I am very surprised how quick it is coming together (compared to previous games). This is a major benefit of making the entire game in one shot and saving voice for the end!

That is all the updates for now! As always, please feel free to share your thoughts below.

Thanks again for your continued support. :^)

- Dishu