Sep 27, 2023

Stardander School for Witches - David Maletz

In your own words, What is Stardander?

David: Stardander is a RPG/Visual Novel hybrid where you guide four witches through witch school - learning spells, gaining friends (and familiars), uncovering mysteries and defeating dangerous fae who want to exterminate the human menace.

Natalie: A lively, witchy, story-focused interactive adventure in a rich world. It lets you play as four young witches as they grow over seven years of their lives. It hits the notes of spooky, mysterious, and endearing all at once.

How long has Stardander been in development?

David: We’ve wanted to do a story-heavy witch game since the release of our previous visual novel, </reality> in 2017. But, it took a while to settle on what we wanted from the game (and we released another game, Aground, before we came back to Stardander), so development didn’t seriously begin until 2020.

Natalie: Longer than we expected! Stardander actually started off as a magic academy simulation where you play as the headmaster - then it briefly pivoted towards a battle-focused game, and then to a simple event-based design (a la Sort the Court). However, after making Stardander Revenant in one month for a game jam in September 2021 (which we won 2nd place in), we found the right formula - a balanced mix of visual novel, turn-based combat, trials, and RPG elements.

Who makes up the Stardander team?

David: The core team is me (programmer, gameplay designer, editor/sometimes writer), my wife Natalie (artist, story writer, art director), Chase Bethea (composer), and Laura Onderwater (background artist). We have several other collaborators who made additional art - such as illustrations, character designs, enemies and enemy animations.

When do you expect Stardander to be complete?

David: The first half of the game, Part One (Years 1-4), will be releasing on October 2nd 2023. We plan to release Part Two (Years 5-7) in Spring 2024.

Why include combat and other gameplay elements into a visual novel?

David: Personally, I love turn-based combat, and I feel like it meshes really well in visual novels, as there’s no time pressure - you have time to think or pause before making your move. While gameplay elements can distract from the story, they can also enhance the story, like one of my favorite visual novel series, Ace Attorney, where the trial system forces you to pay more attention to the story to present the right evidence. It shouldn’t surprise you that there’s a trial system in Stardander as well! But, for those who only care about the story, all gameplay elements can be skipped or ignored (there’s only gameplay penalties for gameplay elements, it never does a game over if you fail).

What makes your game unique?

David: The world is very unique - there’s a lot more worldbuilding than is immediately obvious when starting the game (and there’s already a lot to start). While the mechanics of stat building, trials, and yearly mysteries have certainly been done, the combination of them is unusual and they work together in interesting ways. Finally, the battle system is different from any turn based battle system I’ve tried - and I’ve tried a lot. It’s designed to let you experiment with all the different spells you’ve learned, very few of which are damage dealing - encouraging you to get creative!

Does the team come from a gaming background? What are the team’s favorite games to play themselves?

David: I play a huge variety of games, and my favorite is often changing based on my mood or what I’ve played recently. But I always enjoy Pokemon (and, in some ways better, Monster Sanctuary), Finding Paradise is the only one that’s actually made me cry from the story (although all the games in the To the Moon series are great), and I loved the out of the box puzzles of Baba is You.

Chase: I have an eclectic palette of gaming. I started playing games when I was six years old. Starting on my Grandmother's Intellivision and moving to GameBoy (some of my most beloved titles on there like Turok Battle of the Binosaurs, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2, Link's Awakening). Eventually, moving to the N64 and late to the game with Sega and playing on my Father’s PlayStation. I love a myriad amount of games from ICO, Lumines Plus and Shadow of Mordor to Eternal Ring, Beyond Oasis, Twisted Metal Small Brawl and Exit.

Natalie: The only games I played before meeting David were Chip’s Challenge and Zoombinis (the original!) on my hometown library computer! David and I were briefly hooked on Dofus (an MMO) in college - before quitting in favor of actually-getting-things-done-in-real-life. The games that stick with me always have strong storylines or characters; I greatly enjoyed the Dreamfall series and many of the Ace Attorney games.

Who is working on the music in Stardander?

Natalie: We are very lucky to have Chase Bethea working with us to create the soundscape for Stardander. Chase is an award-winning freelance Composer/Technical Music Designer who has been working in video games for over a decade. His tracks are textural, atmospheric and complex - and his use of dynamic and adaptive techniques keep the music fresh and vibrant.

What games inspired Stardander?

David: Long Live the Queen and Magical Diary were definitely inspirations - they both include stat building mixed with story (with Magical Diary even taking place at a witch school where you learn spells). The battle system was kind of inspired by Into the Breach - the systems are pretty different, but I remember having a flash of inspiration when playing the game. I loved how you were able to see what the enemies were planning next, and then have a chance to counter them with a wide variety of options almost like a puzzle. I used that enemy preparation, player action, enemy action style when designing the Stardander battle system.

About how long will it take to beat the full version of Stardander?

David: It depends a lot on your reading speed, and how many optional exploration scenes and battles you choose to do, but approximately 10-20 hours.

Will there be multiple endings?

David: Kind of. The core seven year story and mysteries are linear (with many optional scenes and minor choices), but there’s a major choice at the end that greatly affects the conclusion of the story. We’re also planning optional romance routes, which don’t change the main storyline but could count as multiple endings. There’s also one secret romance route that DOES greatly affect the main game ending.

How many characters do you play as?

David: There are four perspective characters - although anyone you befriend can fight with you in the battles, and they all have their own stats and spells. Natalie can introduce the characters better than me!

Natalie: In the first versions of Stardander, you played as Dare, the cat-headmaster-fae who runs the school. But early feedback from players told us that this perspective felt distant and less involved than we wanted. So we switched to a student perspective, but then realized there were more sides to the story than a single student character could really bring out. That’s how we ended up creating four unique and colorful main characters. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, challenges and quirks. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Sep 27, 2023

Moving to Free-to-Download

Water 2050 - gerson

🌊 Exciting News for the Water 2050 Community! 🚀

Dear Water 2050 community,

We've got some game-changing news to share with all of you. In our ongoing mission to address the global water crisis, we're making a significant change to our game model.

Water 2050 will soon be transitioning to a FREE-TO-DOWNLOAD model with the option for in-game purchases to support our project.

Why are we making this change? The heart and soul of Water 2050 remain unchanged. The gameplay and our unwavering focus on addressing the water crisis remain as strong as ever. We're incredibly grateful for the support from all of you who purchased the game and helped us make a difference.

By transitioning to a free model, we aim to reach even more people with our message of water sustainability. We believe that together, we can create a bigger impact and raise greater awareness about this critical issue.

What's Next? We're hard at work on a treasure trove of new features and content that will expand your gaming experience. From new languages to exciting surprises, we're dedicated to making Water 2050 even more engaging and informative.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been part of this incredible journey so far. Your support has enabled us to keep improving the game, adding new features, and fixing bugs.

Stay tuned for more announcements and surprises in the coming days. Together, let's continue to make waves in the fight against the water crisis. 🌊💙

Thank you for being a part of our Water 2050 family!

Sep 27, 2023

《古剑奇谭网络版海外版》9月28日更新维护公告

Community Announcements - 阿阮

各位仙家弟子：

《古剑奇谭网络版海外版》将于2023年9月28日5:30进行例行停机维护。

“长携手”大区全服预计10:00开启。

在维护期间，您将无法登录游戏。如果在预定时间内无法完成维护内容，开服时间也将继续顺延。

本次例行维护，更新内容如下：

☆中秋活动开启

清秋玉轮送团圆

临近中秋，步云洲也多了几分团圆喜庆的味道，伴随月饼的香甜气息，一个名叫【常绒绒】的小贩来到步云洲，她声称自己是玉兔下凡，更为大家带来不少新奇玩意儿，各位仙家弟子快去看看吧！

常绒绒

>>星河月宴

明月星河之下，何不与亲友或是心仪的前辈们吃上一桌团圆中秋宴，共享星河鉴洲的明月与风光~

星河鉴洲

仙家弟子们前往步云洲承露台处即可找到【常绒绒】，接取【星河月宴】任务！

月宴主人对好友使用道具【月宴请帖·携友】即可向对方发送宴会邀请，受邀的仙家弟子会收到一封来自月宴主人的邀请邮件~

加入月宴主人的队伍后，就可以通过步云洲传送门前往星河鉴洲，参加星河月宴啦！

星河月宴

仙家弟子们若有心仪的前辈，也可邀请来参加你的宴会哦！对指定的前辈使用道具【月宴请帖·邀君】，即可将前辈邀请至星河鉴洲参加星河月宴。

此次中秋活动中，可受邀前来星河鉴洲赏月的前辈名单如下：鹿蜀紫都，乐天星，白浅，乐天晴，明月尘，祸烨莲，祁连琮，步微月，弓指玉，商遥青，李令双，风清洛，乌芒，伊琅相思，阿绵，清都，逸虚，姜宁，明炎光，穆于锡，罗洛儿，崔远之、辰溪、黎觞羽、司空瓒。

>>寻路月宫&摘星星

听说最近有只蛤蟆人闯入了星河鉴洲，不知它打算在那做些什么，仙家弟子还是找个时间过去看看它吧！

寻路月宫

>>全新中秋活动奖励-挂饰【林梢顽月】

完成中秋限定活动任务，都可获得中秋活动代币【祭月香】，用于在常绒绒处兑换超级丰富的中秋活动奖励。全新挂饰【林梢顽月】上线啦！

▲挂饰·林梢顽月

每到八月，人间关于月亮的东西便会堆满大街小巷，人族依明月之貌制成各色糕点与各式灯笼，表达自己对于那一轮遥远而皎洁的明月的喜爱。栖居山野的猴族，喜爱明月皎洁又向往人间烟火，在尝试了千百次、却还是捞不起水中圆月的时候，终于福至心灵，计上心头——那就先用山间的甘蕉来替代好了，那尖尖的甘蕉，也很像天边的月亮嘛，虽然不是十五的圆月就是了。

☆数值调整

修复遗珠宝鉴可使用的装备等级不正确的问题。

维护期间给您带来的不便，敬请谅解。

祝大家游戏愉快！

《古剑奇谭网络版海外版》项目组

2023年9月27日

Sep 27, 2023

Alpha 11 - 'The In Between Update'

A Frail Qubit - Battlefrog

Hello Alpha testers! After 3 or so months, a new version has been uploaded! Here are some of the highlights.

New Opening Cutscene

There's a new opening cutscene, which introduces the Sage as a 'master of the Infinite'.

Revamped Main Menu

The Main Menu has been simplified to one screen! It's a lot easier to navigate.

Computer Glossary

The Computer has been given some definitions! Hover over a highlighted word in a Computer and get more details on the Lore and other tidbits!

Revamped Movement

The Player movement has been tweaked tremendously to add exponential acceleration and friction! A couple of Alpha testers complained that the acceleration was too fast and the deceleration was too slow. I agreed - the movement code was always my biggest pain for the longest time. Luckily, I enlisted GPT-4 to help and I got it working within the hour. Let me know how you feel!

Gravity for Black Holes!

The Black Holes were simply just another wall, but bigger. I have added a 'Suck' feature to the Black Holes, where if you get too close the Black Hole drags you in.

Here is the full changelog:

Added new Opening Cutscene (with Input key selection).
Added 'gravity' to Black Holes.
Added Glossary support for Computers.
Added one in-Trial cutscene (Trial 7).
Added Launchpad SFX.
Added DecreaseSize to Waypoint.
Changed look of Waypoints.
Changed Player Movement to have exponential acceleration, friction.
Changed Splash Screen.
Changed Computer entries.
Changed ExitCloud to be clearer on open status.
Changed version to Alpha 11.
Fixed Sage dialogues having awkward Player positioning.
Fixed Character names not being centered in Dialogue.
Fixed Player tints not showing.
Rewrote Distortion 2, 3, some Computer Entries, both Roam dialogues.
Renamed Darsa to Wright, Motoo to Winfried.
Finished the first Roam level.
Unified all Menus into the Main Menu.
Moved 'Delete Save' button to Options Menu.
Disabled Cheats on Debug builds.
Improved Computer Visuals.
Bullets vanish when hitting a Black Hole.
Smoothed out Shrink zoom-in.

Alpha 12 is now in the works!

Here is a preliminary list of features I plan to add:

Add the Second Roam Level.
Update the Ice Floor logic; Make it more predictable and more like Ice.
Update the Powerup acquisition process! I changed the particle in this version but it's still terrible. I'll add an explainer cutscene for each of them.
Add basic Steam achievements!

- Broc