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Serafina’s Saga – Awakened

Greetings all! Following an unusually long silence, I have big news to announce today.

You may or may not have seen the previous post about my struggles with inspiration and burnout. I have needed a small reprieve from game development. With personal on-goings plus the ups-and-downs of COVID dangers, there were other things I needed to focus on and explore. And while those explorations may continue, I’m happy to report that my inspiration is returning, along with my creativity. For a few months now, I’ve been working on a “new” project. And as production amps up, I’m excited to announce it to you today.

Woodsy Studio’s next release will be a complete remake of Serafina’s Saga!

I’ve revisited Serafina’s story many times before. Her story began as an animation, then became my very first visual novel. At the time, I was still experimenting and getting accustomed to new narrative formats. Now, 9 years later, I’m excited to remake the saga with new wisdom and skills.

The game will indeed be a complete remake. You can expect the same general storyline, but the script will be heavily edited with lots of new branches and content. Some characters–like Jezu–will be much different than before. Others, like Valerie and Belatrix, will get much more screen time than the original.

The 2D art will all be redone, including some animated motion as seen in the GIF above. The music will be remixed with new tracks added, sometimes using FMOD for dynamic layers. All of this will be combined in UE4 with 3D environments to create a rich and immersive experience.

Old vs. New Nikolaos Perin
New vs. Old Arken Jeridar

This project is still early in development, so I can’t yet estimate a release date. So stay tuned, and I’ll be posting updates as this game progresses!

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2021: Love, Loss, and Polyamory

Greetings everyone! Now that a few months have passed since the release of Crimson Spires, I thought it was time to let you all know what was going on over at Woodsy Studio.

I still have some big news about Crimson Spires in store, but alas, I can’t share that just yet! All I can say is that some big developments on the game are coming, and I hope you will love them!

What I can offer is a somewhat more personal reflection of what has been going on at Woodsy Studio over the last year and what I have planned going forward.

First of all, you might notice that I’m saying “I” more often than “we.” This is because my co-creator, Malcolm Pierce, has decided to focus on other work outside of Woodsy Studio for the indefinite future. Without a doubt, he will continue to advise on the story and game design, because we are still life partners and love to collaborate. But he will probably not lead the writing of any more Woodsy Studio games as he did with the Echoes of the Fey series and miraclr: Divine Dating Sim. I will miss his brilliant flare for humor and world lore, but I am also excited to see what we each go on to make independently.

Meanwhile in the realm of non-business partnerships, the two of us have also embraced polyamory. It is something we were curious about for a long time, then made a reality over the last couple of years. Through that process, we’ve survived some of the most challenging but also most rewarding moments in our relationship yet. We experienced a harrowing breakup but also found a new partner we want to spend our lives with.

I feel this is important to mention as a writer of romance stories, because it wasn’t until I actually experienced polyamory that I realized how horribly that lifestyle is represented (if at all) across popular media. When my partners and I sit down to watch something together, we wince at the barrage of Hollywood romances that fall apart due to jealousy and cheating. We are constantly hammered by the idea that caring about more than one person romantically is bad. And frankly, it’s painful. It’s offensive. It’s sad.

As a storyteller, I want to continue to explore a wide range of dramatic possibilities, but I especially want to better represent ethical non-monogamy moving forward. My next project will revolve around a quad, a polyamorous relationship between four people. It will also have intrigue, spaceships, betrayal, heists, telepathic aliens… but I get ahead of myself. (The header art of this article is my first pass at the main character. What do you think?)

You may not hear a lot from me over the next few months, but I assure you I’m still working hard to get better at my craft and bring you top-notch romances. Between projects, I’ve been taking some art classes to continue honing my skills. Thanks to all of you for your support, feedback, and for sharing this journey with me. I hope you will love the next story I’m weaving!

miraclr: A New Visual Novel Project

Hello Woodsy Studio fans! Today, we’re announcing miraclr, a new, small scope visual novel project that we hope to release for Android phones in early September with a (possible) iOS and Steam release later down the line.

What is miraclr?

miraclr is a comedic workplace romance starring the biblical (and apocryphal) archangels, told  in a mobile office collaboration app.

In miraclr you play as an unnamed human recruited to assist the archangels of heaven with the creation and implementation of the first true miracle in over 400 years. Because you can’t visit them in their office, you are  given access to miraclr, an app used by the Archangels for intra-office messaging. It looks a little like Slack, with similarly structured channels and PMs. (Very early screenshot below)

When you first start up miraclr, you will decide on a time zone and a scheduled time for daily morning meetings. From then on, miraclr will unfold (mostly) in real-time, whether or not you have the game open. Your co-workers (the Archangels) will talk among themselves, ask for your input, and private message you for both work and personal reasons. Your timely responses–or lack thereof–will affect how the story unfolds and romantic relationships.

Why a new game now?

Woodsy Studio is currently in the middle of developing Echoes of the Fey: The Last Sacrament, the next episode of Echoes of the Fey and the follow up to The Fox’s Trail, which just released two weeks ago on Playstation 4. So why divert our attention and resources away from that?

First off, The Last Sacrament is going to be a big game. Easily the largest and most complex we’ve ever done. We’ve made lots of progress–all but a few environments are done, half the game is playable and the RiftRealms mini-game is getting close to its final form. We still believe we’re on track to release in 2018.

But right now we need a break from it. We want to get something new out for people to play. We’d like to expand our presence on mobile, something the scale of The Last Sacrament just doesn’t allow with a two person team. And finally, we want to explore other methods of storytelling and experiment a little with what our audience wants from a visual novel style game.

With Echoes of the Fey, Woodsy Studio largely moved away from the traditional visual novel format and dating sim conventions. We’re bringing those back with miraclr, which will feature multiple romance paths and more focus on character/dialog than the mystery stories of EotF. It will also be a bit of a return to an older style for me (Malcolm), since most of my writing experience is in comedy. This will largely be a return to my writing style in The Closer: Game of the Year Edition, though with fewer baseball and philosophy jokes for a different audience.

When will it be done?

miraclr is a unique project for us, in that we’re hoping for a very quick turnaround. The format (a slack-like messenger app) limits the scope of the project, especially in regards to artwork. There will be CGs, emojis, and “photos” shared by the angels in the channel, but we intend for the main draw of miraclr to be the writing and unique time-based format. It won’t be a terribly long game–a visual novella if you will–but there will be seven days of content and multiple branches.

We’ve already proto-typed a version of the app that can display the story in real-time and have most of the first day written, which along with some initial art only took a few days. We also know that Echoes of the Fey is the main focus for our studio, and we can’t let a new project take too much of our focus away from that.

With all that in mind, we’re targeting an early September release date for miraclr. Hopefully you’ll be playing it soon!

*UPDATE*: As of September 20, we are finished with “miraclr” and in the testing/porting phase! We’re now hoping to release on Google Play and the App Store for iPhone and iPad September 26. Stay tuned!

For updates (as well as Echoes of the Fey info) follow us on twitter at @WoodsyStudio.

New team, new visual novel!

A lot of things have been changing for me and my little studio over the last few months. Firstly, I got a new full time job in the games industry, and I have been very excited to work with a great group of devs, artists, and game testers. I’m learning a lot every day and that makes me happy indeed.

But I’m not done making my own visual novels, and although I technically have less time to work on them now, that will be balanced by the fact that my team is growing. Along with Malcolm Pierce, my co-writer for Serafina’s Crown, artist Wendy Gram will join the team for my next visual novel! The visual novel will also be created with Game Maker (thanks largely to the Edge VN Engine by ThinkBoxly) which will allow me to add more game-play elements into the story than in the past.

I can’t tell you much about the new visual novel story just yet, except that it will be a fantasy noir of sorts, with an all new world and all new characters. Here’s a peek at two of the main characters:

Artwork by Wendy Gram and Jenny Gibbons

Artwork by Wendy Gram and Jenny Gibbons

And here’s one of my compositions for the game thus far:

And for the last bit of news, from now on my games will be published through a collaboration with Thesis Games. I look forward to sharing more with you as game development progresses!

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Serafina’s Saga Visual Novel – Classic

See the animation where the story begins…

Serafina’s fate is yours to determine.

Young Serafina has spent her entire life alone in the jungle with only her guardian, a mysterious man named Arken, as company. When Arken is captured by a group of soldiers and carried away, Serafina must venture outside the forest to save him. On her journey to the heart of the kingdom, Serafina discovers a whole new world beyond the shadows of the jungle. She will also learn the dark truth of Arken’s past and thus her own. How she chooses to use this knowledge will change the fate of the entire kingdom.

Download from itch.io     

This interactive novel–approximating 50,000 words in length–features a custom score of 20+ music tracks, 50+ backgrounds, and more than 10 possible endings. As the story unfolds, the reader can choose how to interact with other characters, thereby forming or breaking romantic relationships that will shape the story’s conclusion.

Rated Medium Maturity for strong language and sexual themes.

View Walkthrough

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Quantum Conscience

Within a galaxy of terraformed planets, a secret war rages between two intergalactic agencies. One of them—ARCHON—is developing the technology to invade people’s minds. They have already tyrannized a planet called Teballai, and hope to use their mind-reading technology to spread their power across the galaxy. A second organization—FOE (Freedom Organization of Elites)—wants to destroy ARCHON’s technology in the name of freedom. When a young FOE soldier (you choose the gender) named Blaire obtains the ability to read minds from an ARCHON experiment, she finds her loyalty torn between both sides. Whether Blaire helps the enemy or defeats them depends upon your use of her power.

The interactive novel is now released for desktop (Mac, PC, and Linux) computers!

Download Chapter 1 (Free Demo)

Purchase full game ($4.99+)

(Pay-what-you-want through Gumroad)

Or buy it on Desura

Quantum Conscience

Join the discussion on the Lemma Soft Forums

Choose a download link above to access the .zip file of the game. Once downloaded, extract the files into a folder you can easily access later. One of the extracted files will be the “Quantum Conscience.exe” application with a small game icon. Double-click to launch the game.

If you’d like, you can download the free demo and play through Chapter 1 before purchasing the full game. When you do purchase the full game, delete the original Demo folder or Replace Files  by extracting your new download over the old one. You should still be able to access your previous saves.

 


 

CREDITS

Script, Character Art, & Music by Jenny Gibbons

Backgrounds by Michelle Hagewood & Jenny Gibbons

Story & Game Design by Jenny Gibbons with consultation from Malcolm Pierce

Programming Assistance from “CheeryMoya” & FunnyGuts” (twinturtlegames.com)

Some character portraits by Jenny Gibbons used with permission from the Barbour Lab at Washington University

Sounds Effects from Bluezone Corporation & Adobe Audition Sound Library

Created using Ren’Py software (http://www.renpy.org/)

A visual novel by:

Woodsy Studio