Astra - Monthly Update (August 2022)

Hello Patrons,

Hope everyone is having an amazing Tuesday so far!!!!! Or Wednesday for you people in the future time zones. :P We're coming in HOT with the August update, so let's get started!

WRITING

It's finally done. Episode 4 took quite the long while because of the sheer amount of variables, branching paths, continuity revisions...etc. This is, by far, the most complicated content we've created to date!

We really hope this sort of horizontal writing will elevate player agency when it comes to choices and also the multi-playthrough possibilities.

The final word count ended up being 61k. Most of our game episodes are usually between 35k-40k so this is already in excess of 50%. Basically, you are getting 1.5 episodes worth of content however it is not all playable in one playthrough. It should still play out like a normal episode length; the excess writing being the different choice permutations.

Anyways, we are really happy with hitting this milestone! Episode 5 planning is also completed so we'll be hitting the ground running for scripting. Our writer is taking a short (well deserved!) and then we'll be back in the groove.

CHARACTER ART

We finished up the Iris CG which can be seen here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/astra-couples-cg-70808694 

We also have the WIP for Luna's CG here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/astra-luna-bet-70808872 

BACKGROUND ART

BG Content this month was a bit on the lighter side. We wrapped up a suburban home for Polaris in the first BG. As for the second one, the existing dock BGs we had didn't feel right thematically for Kai's planet. We are making a separate dock for that planet which will hopefully have that cyberpunk/messy aesthetics.

ANIMATION

Just more work is being done to clean up the UI animations. That should all be available in the read-only version for episode 4!

PROGRAMMING

While it's been great news all the way through so far, I have some unfortunate news for this section. Our programmer had a loss in the family (immediate family). They took some time off initially however their health has been on the decline and they've been in and out of the hospital.

He has done great work including all the scene designing (putting all the assets together) so we are hoping for a speedy recovery and that things return to normal.

That being the case, the current read-only and art version of episode 4 is on halt until they are back to 100% since we don't want to bring him undue stress.

There is the possibility they may have to bow out of the project depending on how long things go for however we want to give him some time right now at the very least. Hopefully things turn for a favourable outcome and we don't have to cross that bridge.

AUDIO

The legendary Eric has been hard at work on some complementary tracks for Astra. Like mentioned before, we did a analysis of what tracks get used often and are making alternative songs for them. Even one additional song will help make things not feel stale.

The track's WIP should be available later this week which we will share as soon as we can.

That's all the news for this month! As always, feel free to post your thoughts and feedback below. Thank you for your continued support! <3

Cheers,

Dishu & PF Team