Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Nova-box team is working from home until further notice. But don't worry, we're doing everything we can to meet deadlines.
This month, we have some exciting news to share about Across the Grooves. We’ve also been working on Unity versions for Along the Edge and Seers Isle!
What have we been up to?
Since last month, the production of Across the Grooves has progressed well. Thus, we’re glad to announce the game is officially in beta stage!
Also, themusic has been integrated and we can tell you the songs are amazing! Camille and Julien did such a great job on the music and sound design, and so did Christelle on vocals!
Of course, we still have some images to finish, but the game begins to take shape and we’re very proud of it.
Get ready for some psychedelic moments!
A big update is coming soon for Along the Edge and Seers Isle
Good news! Working on a Nintendo Switch version for Across the Grooves allowed us to build Unity versions for our two other games.
Pros:
- more stability and better overall performance and optimization, - animations (fades between images, display of text and bubbles) are more fluid (60fps). - some new features added, especially on Along the Edge (improved compatibility with 16/9 screens, addition of the log system, harmonization of the tutorials), - better support for gamepads, - fan-translation support. From now on, you’ll be able to translate our games into your language independently.
Cons:
- saves are not compatible between the current version and the Unity version, but we have a plan to make sure that it doesn't penalize players. However, unlocked achievements will remain unlocked and will synchronize between the two versions.
This is a screenshot of Along the Edge "before" (v1.x):
And this Along the Edge "after", in the upcoming Unity powered version (2.x):
Regarding saves, we have a plan to allow players to not lose their current game.
Deployment in three phases:
- phase 1: the Unity version will be available in beta on Steam, players will be able to test it if they wish (opt-in in the game properties), - phase 2: the Unity version (version 2.x) becomes the default version, but version 1.x will remain available in beta branch, - phase 3: definitive removal of version 1.x (this will happen as late as possible, but as this version will no longer be maintained, there will come a time when we’ll have to remove it because it will no longer work on most configs).Phase 1 was expected to be launched fairly quickly (by the end of the month or early April), but with COVID-19 there is a high risk of delay.
In any case, we’ll keep you informed as we go along via the newsletter and specific Steam news so you have time to prepare.
You'll get extra-fresh updates about our projects and our whereabouts once a month, nestled in the coziness of your own inbox (we'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime).
Once again, we're sorry for the lack of communication these last few months. We've been pretty busy working hard on our next game, Across the Grooves. But since I, Cyndie, joined the team as a communication intern, I'll keep you informed about the game more often!
What have we been up to?
A lot of stuff has happened in the past seven months.
Besides working hard on Across the Grooves, we also went to two events in October: EGX in London and Indie Game Factory - Animasia in Bordeaux.
In London, we were selected for the prestigious Leftfield Collection curated by David Hayward from Eurogamer. It aims to bring light to interesting and creative games, so we are very proud to have been a part of it!
Also, we came back with the “best game” award, granted by a jury in Bordeaux during the Indie Game Factory Awards!
Here are some pictures from the team during the events:
Moreover, we’re very glad to announce the end of production is fast approaching! Soon, you’ll be able to embark on a journey with Alice, across Europe and alternative realities!
Also, in the last newsletter, we mentioned that Mélanie joined the team as an art intern to help Nico. She’s done such a great job we decided to hire her as a freelancer! You can find her artstation here.
And here’s an exclusive image taken from the third chapter of the game she’s been working on:
They talked about our games
In their last Visual Novel Review Digest, VN’s Now! talked about Seers Isle and gave it the final score of 8/10!
"[Nova-box's] work is a consistent feast for the eyes and Seers Isle is no exception with stunning designs and backgrounds"
Rock, Paper, Shotgun mentioned Across the Grooves in the article “2020's most exciting new PC games”. Our game shares the list with some of the most anticipated games of the year such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Death Stranding, so that’s pretty amazing!
This is a piece of information we've been hanging onto for a long while, and we hope you will be as excited as we are about it now that we can finally talk about it: we're very proud to announce that Across the Grooves will be released on Nintendo Switch!
We've been big fans of the device ever since it was announced and we believe our games will be a perfect match for the Switch, especially in handheld mode. This will allow the game to become your travel companion of course, whether you're commuting to work or going away for a weekend, but you’ll also be able experience the story in a format that will be the most akin to reading an actual comic book.
And since good news never comes alone, we're planning to release Across the Grooves on Switch and on PC, Mac, and Linux simultaneously!
Of course, all of this wouldn't be possible without the help of our friend Daniel Borges from Manufacture 43, who's been in charge of porting our home engine to Unity in order to make it compatible with the Switch. By the way, his shoot’em up Pawarumi has just been released on PS4! For more information about the game, please visit the website: https://pawarumi.com/.
That’s all for now, but more information is coming soon, so stay tuned!
You'll get extra-fresh updates about our projects and our whereabouts once a month, nestled in the coziness of your own inbox (we'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime).
Hello everyone! Once again, I've let a couple of months lapse since our last newsletter. Sorry about that. Let's get back to a (hopefully) more steady schedule with a big announcement!
Announcing Across the Grooves
After all these months working in complete secrecy, we're super excited to finally be able to talk about our next interactive graphic novel!
It is called "Across the Grooves" and it will arrive early next year on PC, Mac and Linux. As usual, it is written in French and translated in English, with both languages available at launch.
The core team is the same as Seers Isle, with Nico as the lead artist, Raphaël doing the code and me, Geoffroy, as the writer. We're also working again with Camille and Julien from Illustrason for the music and sound design. Christelle will once again lend us her voice for a couple of songs. To ensure the quality of the text, we're also working with the same editorial team as on Seers Isle, with Rachel in charge of the English localization and Alix (A.K.A. “L'Oiseau Lecteur”) on proofreading. Victoria has been helping us since April on our communication, so if there's been an upturn on our social networks, it's probably thanks to her.
Last but not least, we have the chance to work with two great art interns this year: Mélanie Ertaud and Alizé Giraud (we'll feature their work over the next couple of newsletters).
So, without further ado, let's dive into the story!
Alice lives an uneventful life. She’s in a long term relationship, has a stable office job and a nice apartment in the center of Bordeaux. One day, Ulysse, her ex-lover, comes back into her life through an old vinyl record she receives in the mail. When she puts it for a spin on turntable, she is thrown back into her own past, forced to relive old events. When she comes back to the present, her reality has changed.
Determined to bring her life back on track, Alice packs up and embarks on a hunt across Europe, following the tracks of Ulysse while trying to uncover the origins of the record. However, her journey gradually turns into a quest of self-discovery as she explores new parallel realities each time she puts the needle in the groove.
Here are some screenshots from the game:
Dear newsletter subscribers, you're amongst the first ones to hear about this, but later today, we'll be sharing this news with the world.
If it doesn't bother you too much, a retweet, a "share" on facebook or a "like" on instagram of our official announcement will go a long way. The team and I thank you in advance for your kindness.
Also, please add Across the Grooves to your wishlist on Steam, doing so boosts our visibility on the platform way more than you might think.
Our friends from Manufacture 43 released their game on console last month.
Turns out we're not the only ones who had a busy summer. Daniel, from Manufacture 43, one of the studios we share our co-working space with just released his shoot'em up (or "schmup", I don't know what the cool kids call this kind of game these days) PAWARUMI on Nintendo Switch and on Xbox One, to critical acclaim.
Once again, it has been quite a busy couple of months! Besides working on Across the Grooves, we went to London with our friends from Studio Black Flag to attend the Casual Connect convention in May. We had a great time and we even came back with two nominations (Best Art and Best Narrative), and the Best Audio trophy for Seers Isle.
Here's a couple of pictures from our trip:
Let's conclude with our usual exclusive image from the game. This one happens in chapter one, just after Alice realises her world has been turned upside down:
You'll get extra-fresh updates about our projects and our whereabouts once a month, nestled in the coziness of your own inbox (we'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime).
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone! These last few months (sorry for the lack of communication, we've been quite busy), we came and went to San Francisco, we welcomed a new studio in our co-working space in "Les Chartrons", and we have a couple of events planned in the very near future.
We went to San Francisco
So, as you may already know, Seers Isle was nominated for "Excellence in Narrative" at the Independent Game Festival 2019's awards. The nomination came with an invitation to the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, California in March, where the awards ceremony was also taking place.
First, to remove any unnecessary suspense, let's start by saying that we didn't end up winning the award. After all, we were competing against Lucas Pope, who did a splendid job on Return of the Obra-Din and totally deserved it (he brought back home both the GDCA and the IGF narrative awards along with a couple more this year). However, being nominated was already a great mark of recognition from our peers and we spent an excellent time there: the conferences were very inspiring, and we met more cool people than we can count!
On the business side, we also made some interesting connections there. It's still a bit early to talk about it, but stay tuned, some nice things will certainly come to fruition in the next few months.
Here's a couple of pictures of Nico and I (Geoffroy) wandering in the streets of San Francisco.
Coming up: Casual Connect in London and Bordeaux Geek Festival
From May 27th to May 30th, we will be showing Seers Isle at the Casual Connect event in London, as finalists for the Indie Prize! As "it is dangerous to go alone", we'll be crossing the Channel with our friends and fellow officemates from Studio Black Flag, who were also selected for the Indie Prize.
So, if you're eager to meet us, have a chat, and test both of our games, you know what you need to do. Here's the link to the website of the event, where you should find answers to any of the questions you may have: http://europe.casualconnect.org/
Meanwhile, if you want to try Studio Black Flag game, Orphan Age, we've been told the demo has been recently updated on Steam. We warmly invite you to smash the button here below if you want learn more about it:
From June 8th to June 10th, we will be sharing a demo space with some local game studios on the Bordeaux Geek Festival in, well, Bordeaux. To find us, look for "Bordeaux Games" on the map of the event. We'll probably be there on Sunday afternoon. Here's the website of the event for more information: https://geek-festival.fr/
Loïc A.K.A. "Ukioq" moved in with us!
Loïc actually joined our co-working space back in January, but with the lack of newsletters (our fault), we didn't get the chance to introduce his studio and his project until now. So, let's correct that right away:
Loïc has been working as a one-man team on a game named Purple Noise Echo for the last three years. This is a tactical game with a dark neon ambiance in which you play Node, an amnesiac entity waking up in an unknown place made of hexagonal tiles.
To survive, you will have to rely on several things: controlling hostile entities, managing your resources and exploring your environment.
Purple Noise Echo is about to be released on Steam in Early Access.
Don’t hesitate to follow Ukioq on Twitter to get Purple Noise Echo latest news! It's this way: @uki_lb
What have we been up to?
As you may have witnessed from the lack of newsletters since January, we've been quite busy!
When we're not globetrotting for events, we're still working on our next title, which is still coming along quite nicely, despite all the distractions. We'll officially announce this next game in the next couple of months, once we have ironed out some last details business-wise, so stay tuned!
We also have welcomed two interns who will work with us until the end of summer: - Victoria, who's helping us on marketing stuff (if you noticed some changes in the frequency and the quality of our online communications recently, it's completely thanks to her), - Mélanie, who just arrived monday morning and will be helping Nico with the art of our future projects (yeah, projects with an "s", we're already putting down the foundations of what will come after next, but don't expect to hear much about this one until next year).
You'll get extra-fresh updates about our projects and our whereabouts once a month, nestled in the coziness of your own inbox (we'll never send spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime).
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone! We wish you all a happy new year! This month, we will talk about San Francisco and New York with two events coming up for Nova-box.
Animation First Festival in New-York this weekend
If you happen to be in New York this weekend, you'll have the chance to try out Seers Isle at the Animation First Festival, organized by the French Institute / Alliance Française (FIAF), as our game made it into the official selection along with other video games from Bordeaux, France.
It takes place on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th, and you can get all the information you may need directly on their website, over here.
Seers Isle got a nomination for the IGF Awards!
We're very proud to announce that Seers Isle has been nominated for the Independent Game Festival Award, for the category "Excellence in Narrative. It was chosen as one of the six finalists in a panel of over 500 entries. We're very proud and grateful for this distinction.
The consequence of that is that Nico and I (Geoffroy) will be in San Francisco from March 18th to March 22th to attend the awards ceremony that takes place during the Game Developer Conference. We will also have a kiosk on the expo floor, so don't hesitate to come meet us and try our games if you're going to this event.
We also answered some questions from Joel Couture for GamaSutra as a part of the "Road to the IGF 2019" series on GamaSutra: Read Nova-box's interview on GamaSutra
New Prints on Society 6
We added new prints from Seers Isle on Society6! You can check them out over there: Seers Isle Prints
What have we been up to?
Well, January is always a month with a lot of administrative stuff to work through, and this year was no different. So it's been "paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork" for me (Geoffroy). I'm putting the final touches to the funding files for our next game that are due by the end of the month, and I've also turned into a small travel agency to get ready to come over to the USA for the Game Developer Conference in March.
In spite of all that, Nico, Raph and I found the time to build a first prototype of the next game, and it's coming along quite nicely. Julien and Camille (our musicians) will begin recording some music next month, and we're all eager to see what they will come up with impatiently, music being one of the main themes of this next project.
Speaking of this, here's an image of Alice with the headphones on for your viewing pleasure:
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone! Here comes the last newsletter of 2018. This month, we had a party, we did an interview, and the holiday season sales are in full swing.
We adopted a piano
So, last week, Studio Black Flag, Manufacture 43 and Nova-box held a party in our shared office of the 21 rue des Retaillons, with a double purpose. One was to hold the monthly after work meetup of the "Bordeaux Games" society that we all are part of, and another was to properly welcome an old German-made upright piano to our workplace.
We did this on an initiative from our friend Charly Martin (who you may remember from the music credits of Along the Edge and Echoes), who created a society called "Autour du Piano" ("Around the Piano"). One of its missions is to salvage forgotten pianos from mouldy basements and give them a second life in public or semi-public places.
So, we jammed and we chatted into the wee hours of the night. We would like to warmly thank everyone who came, we had such a great time in your company. Here below, some snapshots from the evening.
We talked in front of a camera
Right before the Animasia convention in October, Quentin, AKA "Soy Indies" had a chat with Nico and I (Geoffroy) about Seers Isle's release and our thoughts about narrative games in general.
You can watch it on Youtube, however, I'm afraid the whole interview is in French (and I apologize to our international friends for that). You can also follow Soy Indies on Twitter (@soyindies) and on Twitch (http://twitch.tv/soyindies).
Well, I must admit that December has been quite slow. 2018 was a rich and frantic year, and the team is looking forward to some well deserved rest (I'm currently battling a nasty cold as I'm writing these lines). We're still working on our next top secret (for now) project, and it's coming along nicely, so stay tuned for a great year in 2019!
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
This month, we welcomed a new housemate (again). Also, we wanted to tell you about Black Friday sales and share some tidbits about our next game.
Manufacture 43 moved in with us
So, a couple of weeks ago, we welcomed yet another indie game dev to our urban "commune" of the "21st Cobblestone Street" (well, to be honest, it's "21, rue des Retaillons", but it sounds way more like a "secret hideout" translated in English, don't you think?).
Daniel from Manufacture 43 has been working on his "Ikaruga meets rock-paper-scissors" shoot'em up Pawarumi for a couple of years, and he's in the midst of porting the game to console systems.
As you may already know, I'm personally not very good at this kind of demanding gameplay, but let me tell you that I've heard nothing but good words and praise for his title. It is a visually stunning piece of work set in a very original "Neo-Aztec" future. So, if you're into shooting at everything that moves from the pilot seat of your spaceship, you might want to check this one out.
An "in game" screenshot of Pawarumi. Beware of the nasty pink bullets!
Here's a link to Pawarumi's website if you want to learn more: http://pawarumi.com. And, of course, you can get the game on Steam:
So, the time of the year when people lose all sense of sanity and restraint over crazy deals on the internet is upon us.
To uphold the tradition, our games will be on sale at their usual discount on Steam (and other digital retailers) during the Autumn Sales, running until next Tuesday (November 27th): — Buy Seers Isle on Steam with 10% off, — Buy Along the Edge on Steam with 30% off.
We're making good progress on our next project. I (Geoffroy) have written the story outline while Nico has been painting some concept art to pin down the visual style of the game. Meanwhile, Raphaël has been going quite deep under the hood, and if all goes according to plan, we might have a brand new game engine soon, opening up a whole new universe of possibilities, the sky being the limit and all (more on that later).
We're not ready to go into too much detail about the game, but we can safely say that we'll be visiting some familiar grounds, as you can witness for yourself in the concept art here below:
Concept Art: Alice at the balcony, thinking about her life.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
Hello everyone! This month, we received an award, welcomed new housemates, and made Seers Isle available in a bookstore.
Studio Black Flag moved in with us
That's the cycle of life. The bad news is that our friends from Shinypix moved out of the 21 rue des Retaillons (Nova-box's batcave, where the magic happens) to rise up to new challenges and opportunities. We wish Fabrice, Ludo, Julien and Olivier all the best, happiness and success in their future endeavors. We will miss having them with us.
The good news is, our friends Adrien and Maxime from Studio Black Flag quickly filled in the vacant desks, moving in with us at the start of the month.
You may have heard about them and their incredible upcoming game, Orphan Age, in past issues of this column. If you haven't, I strongly suggest you take a look at it. In fact, we love their game so much we wrote a small interactive novella named Orphan Age: Diaries to go along with it. I can safely say that it's not the last you're hearing about them. Stay tuned.
Black Flag is moving in. From left to right: Adrien, Maxime, and a tired writer.
Indie Game Factory and the Animasia convention
Last weekend, the team attended the "Indie Game Factory", a professional meetup of the French game industry, followed by the Animasia convention where we showed our games to visitors.
Seers Isle's music composers, Camille and Julien, gave a speech about music and video games while I (Geoffroy) participated in a panel about narrative design and writing for video games, sharing the stage with Sybil Collas and FibreTigre.
We're also very proud to announce that we received the "Best Game of 2018" award during the convention. Our friends from Howly Games got the "Best Art Direction" award for their upcoming platformer Unspoken Chronicles: Nora (they're doing a kickstarter campaign right now, go check it out) and Tako Studio received the "heart crush of the jury" award for their puzzle game Minimal Move.
Seers Isle Steam keys are available at "Krazy Kat", a comic book store in Bordeaux
We're thrilled to announce that you can buy Seers Isle Steam keys in a real brick and mortar shop. Our friends from Krazy Kat, a comic book store located 10 rue de la Merci in Bordeaux have a limited run of keys nestled in a nice and exclusive leaflet.
If you're in the Bordeaux area, we strongly suggest you go pay them a visit. Matthieu and his team are of great counsel, very friendly, and they even have a bar where you can drink a beer or a coffee in the shop.
Well, this month has been quite hectic with post-launch frenzy following the release of Seers Isle. However, we found some time to start the pre-production of our next project. Everything is still under the seal of secrecy, of course, but since we love you best, here's a concept art picture, exclusive to you, newsletter subscribers.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks:
If you already have Along the Edge in your Steam library, you can "complete your collection" using the second bundle and have 20% off on Seers Isle without having to buy Along the Edge again (or the other way around). That way, we can reward your fidelity.
And to top things off, Along the Edge is also on sale with 30% off until Monday, October 1st!
Press reviews
We've been overwhelmed by great feedback from the players and the press. Here's a selection of quotes from the reviews we received (follow the links to read them in full).
— “Seer Isle once again proves that Nova-box know how to make a visual novel with choices that matter. It’s rich, artistic, emotional and mysterious, and it draws you in quickly and holds your attention rapt. The twists are surprising, the characters are relatable and the environments are gorgeous. Seers Isle is about as perfect as visual novels can get if you ask me.”, Seers Isle Review, Jacob Wood, Indie Hangover.
— “Seers Isle est bien plus captivant que j’aurais pu l’imaginer. Il réussit à rendre vivant et interactif un genre qui ne l’est pas. Il faut saluer sa bande-son de grande classe, et sa direction artistique magnifique.”, Seers Isle – Le cycle des chamans disparus, Veltar, The Pixel Post,
— “Si on aime ce genre de productions, cela vaut le coup de donner un peu pour passer quelques bonnes heures de lecture un peu interactive”, Test de Seers Isle, Zekkangel, Jeux OnLine.
Animasia Convention in Bordeaux, France
Put it in your diaries! If you want to come say "hello" to us or try your hand at our games, we'll be at the Animasia convention in Bordeaux. It happens on the weekend of the 13th & 14th of October.
If you are a video-game professional, there's a special day for us on Friday, October 12th with interesting keynotes by our fellow game devs, under the moniker "Indie Game Factory".
There will be two interventions from Seers Isle's team members:
Camille and Julien from Illustrason will talk about music and video games,
I (Geoffroy) will share my thoughts in a panel with Sybil Collas and Fibre Tigre about narrative design.
Places are limited, so you should move fast if you want to come and watch our talks!
You'll get info and directions for the Animasia convention over there: http://animasia.org (in French). For the pro keynotes, take a look over here (in French also, I'm afraid).
As another incentive for you to come see us, we're working on a special collector's print to sell Steam keys in conventions, and... other places (we'll tell you more about that soon).
Here's a glimpse of our prototype:
New prints available on Society 6
You may have already seen the portraits of Seers Isle's characters Nico made with our friend and colleague Ludovic Rivalland. If you love them enough to decorate your walls with them, go no further. We added them to our fine art collection on Society6.
Note that we also have a selection of illustrations from our games available. And if you are interested in Ludovic's work, we strongly suggest you have a look at his ArtStation profile: https://www.artstation.com/ludopanda
What have we been up to?
Well, as you may imagine, we've been pretty busy with the launch. However, we didn't forget to celebrate! Here's a couple of snapshots from the release party we had last Friday at Nova-box's headquarters.
And if you want to hear from us more often, you can also follow us on social networks: