Updates (5th August 2012)

Spero: The Ocean Divers - Louis and Phoebe concept art

A few things to mention and announce today!

First of all A Noble Curse is on hold. I say that, but what I mean is I'm rewriting it again. But not changing the entire thing... it's going to take a while to work out in short.

Spero: The Ocean Divers however is now taking my full attention (As well as a few collaborations I'm working on... more on that another day). The script is pretty much done first draft wise! Louis is a merman soldier and Phoebe plays as a mermaid guide. Can I just add that Louis is the manliest character I've ever drawn (Besides Gil XD)

Voice actors! This post is mostly directed at you. I won't start holding auditions until I'm back in the UK because I can't really edit them here (Cut them line by line for example). There will be a few things you should take into account:

• I have little experience in editing anything vocal wise. So I will have to rely on the original quality of the work you send me. If there's too much background noise or static, I can't use it.
• You will have to sign some kind of Non-Disclosure agreement, as I may need your services again for future works of the same series.
• With that in mind. The work is VOLUNTARY if you don't think you can manage much along with your actual schedule then I advise you not to apply.
• I give deadlines. They're usually flexible though, depending on your circumstances. If you repeatedly break them, I will find someone else.
• You can use a pen-name (But I do recommend you leave me your real name for various reasons including dealing with people who claim to be you)

There's a lot more but that's the basics. I'm not overly fussy on quality since this is voluntary but think about if you play a game and all of a sudden you hear static when one character talks. It's not very good XD

Also we'll be running polls on the blog! Some for fun and some are genuinely for feedback. This time it's for fun. Who is your favourite character in Spero: The Forest Dwellers? I'll draw a picture of the winner (and runners up) for the update after next ;3 You can find the poll at the top right of the blog.

That's all for today!

Yoyoli

[Edit] The poll isn't letting me add more than 4 answers for some reason so please wait until another day!

Updates (20th July 2012)

A Noble Curse: Clare Hope



Not much to say this time. A Noble Curse is moving along at a... strange rate XD It's nearly halfway done being storyboarded. There's a picture of Clare's original design above this. Clare is the travelling artist our two main characters meet in chapter 1. She's a kind hearted type, but she doesn't hesitate to shout or complain when things aren't going how she wants (She'll even kick poor Albert a lot).

Spero: The Ocean Divers is progressing well with the script. Even started doing some code work in Ren'Py.

Voice acting still not holding auditions yet. Haven't had time to write up agreements and all that legal stuff T_T but I promise it's coming soon!

-Yoyoli

Updates (5th July 2012)

[Spero: The Ocean Divers] - Conrad and Miles concept sketches

Thought I'd show a bit more info on Ocean Divers. Above is the main character and his best friend, Conrad and Miles respectively. Conrad is an impulsive 17 year old, so you'll be in a few situations where he may act rash without your consent XD. Miles on the other hand is the more 'playful' of the two. He may not SEEM to play a huge part in the game but your behaviour towards him might just turn a situation around.

Some names for A Noble Curse as well! The main character is now Albert Knight (Yes, they're finally given surnames in this project!) and the other brother is Gilbert Knight. Both end up being called Al and Gil instead. Our heroine (No photo of her today) is now Clare Hope... which might have been a bad move because I keep typing her name as Clara XD

One more piece of news today: we now have a public e-mail address for you to... well, e-mail us if there's any problems, feedback etc.

azuretalesqna@gmail.com

We make a point to not keep e-mails longer than needed (usually 30 days at most) so rest assured you can e-mail us and we don't store your e-mail address for very long. It will take a week at most (certain circumstances apply if we aren't available) to respond. We also accept fanart! It's in fact encouraging to see it, who knows... maybe we'll hold a contest! Please be responsible when sending us e-mails (In other words: no malicious behaviour or attitude and certainly no spam... these e-mails will be ignored).

I was going to throw a questionnaire but decided not to. But please do let us know if there's anything about Spero: The Forest Dwellers that you want to say (Screen resolution change, opinions on voice acting etc.). You can comment on any post on the blog (I usually recommend the latest post) as we can see all comments regardless of which post!

That's all for this update!

-Yoyoli

Updates (20th June 2012)

[A Noble Curse] - The main characters

So after a bit of debate I decided to do an update post every 5th and 20th of each month. The only exception being when I'm really busy that day so it'll either be postponed or posted a bit earlier.

The cast of A Noble Curse is completely designed now and the chapters are ready to be storyboarded. The first chapter is ready to be drawn out properly! (Shame I won't until I get back to the UK, but planning it all now saves me from having to plan it then find out it's poorly portrayed)

As for Spero, I'm still writing up the script and doing some concept sketches. It also gives me a chance to go outside and snap some references with a camera (If only it were a nice day for me to head out to the beach D: )

So in short:

A Noble Curse

• Characters drawn and planned
• Chapter 1 storyboarded
• Chapter 2 and 3 planned

Spero: The Ocean Divers

• All the characters have names (Finally)
• Script is still in progress
• Some background concepts done

For those asking about Spero: The Forest Dweller updates, I can't work on that unless I'm in the UK. I've got limited time and resources while I'm overseas, so don't expect any updates on it for at least a few months yet! Also if there are any Linux users who can't play the game let me know and I'll upload a version for it (The only reason I haven't done so is because it's untested).

Speaking of Spero: The Forest Dwellers, who would like voice acting included? I'd make an option for you to switch it off of course but I've had a few volunteers for voice acting. Let me know your thoughts on it!

 

-Yoyoli

Project 2 and 3

It's been 1 week since Spero: The Forest Dwellers launched and I've had some great feedback and support! Thank you all who have enjoyed it so far. I'm sure those who have had a play will have guessed what I'm announcing today, and those who follow us on Twitter (@AzureTales) will have heard a little about Project 3 already.

First I can unveil Project 2 is in fact the next chapter of Spero! Those who got the 'True ending' will have seen a sneaky preview of the location. The next chapter is titled:

Spero: The Ocean Divers

The chapter had already been planned from the start, and I've started the script (Reverse order on what I worked on for SperoFD which started with the art first). I've no release date yet since I'm currently overseas and can't do any final artwork. The visual novel is planned to be longer than SperoFD though (there's a lot of text for this one!). More details on the game will follow once the script hits about 50% done.

Those who follow us on Twitter will know that the Project 3 is a manga series! It spans about 9 chapters (probably about 3 books if it were a physical copy) and a special. The manga will be FREE and available to read online once it's done (I'll release chapters per fortnight probably). I'm considering physical copies late into the future maybe ;P but the title is (subject to change):

A Noble Curse

The manga is set in the kingdom of Crylite, where a cursed beast roams the land and causes tame monsters to go on a rampage across the towns. A pair of merchant siblings, travel to help those who have been hurt and to find a way to rid the cursed beast.

That's it for this announcement! The next blog post will be a quick questionnaire about Spero: The Forest Dwellers. (I'm setting up an e-mail account as well) look forward to some work in progress art and more updates over the next few months.

Also: I won't be available for contact between 9th June 2012 - 14th June 2012 as I'm on a trip with my family.

Spero: The Forest Dwellers is now out!

Yes, it's finally out! I'm so sorry about the delay!

A few things to note: The game is silent. No sound at all... sorry about that. It's planned for a future update. In a sense version 0.0 is the pure base of the game (Version 1 if you prefer), thus it lacks a few things like sound etc. You could say playing this is like beta testing it ^^;

Anyway, feel free to play the game! (Do read the Terms and Conditions first as well as the version notes on the download page!)

The game will probably take less than an hour to complete (It's very short) maybe an hour if you want to go get all the endings.

Very tired, nervous, excited!

-Yoyoli

P.S. More announcements to come next month ;)

Spero updates!

So sorry it's been so long! I've been caught up in studies but I can finally say that I'm now done for summer holidays! Yes, I said Spero was due in spring, I'm sorry to announce there's a delay until MAY and hopefully no further than that.

The website hasn't had its update either I'm afraid. It CAN be updated but I'm missing some javascript, you'll have to excuse my slow progress!

Anyway, progress now:
Character Sprites: 100%
Backgrounds: 100%
CG's: 90% - just the epilogue ones missing
Script: 50% - I've re-written it from the original after some heavy inspiration
Programming - 30% - can't do much without the script in there!
Music: 0% - I'm just going to use atmospheric sounds, so there's no OST (Sorry!)

I am changing to using Ren'Py instead. I was going to make my own visual novel engine but it's going to take more experience and practice as expected. That could take over a year to work out so that's why I've made the change.

If you haven't seen it there's a silent trailer up on our YouTube account:

Thank you all for your patience! I'm working as much as I can to get this released as soon as possible with the best results~ It's a fun challenge haha!

-Yoyoli