Hello everyone! This past month we've made a lot of progress with the game's main story campaign and overall feel of the game. Some of these things will impact the game's level of polish and player experience.
Before anything else though, we have 2 big announcements to make. First is we'll be at GDC this March 18 to 23 as part of the MIX Asian Game Showcase and we're also going to PAX East on March 28 to 29. Thanks to our publisher Keybol Games for making it happen!
Second, we're going to have another Kickstarter campaign! Yes, you read that right, Grand Guilds is launching a crowdfunding campaign. Our 1st attempt last September 2018 was unsuccessful but we're highly optimistic for this re-launch, especially with the amount of support we've recently had.
No official launch date yet for the Kickstarter but it will be somewhere between last week of March and first week of April 2019.
PROGRESS REPORT
Now on to the monthly progress report for February! As usual, we've been working on the story-related content for the game. This includes enemies, maps, characters, and combat encounters.
NEW VOICE LINES
One huge progress we've had is with the voice lines in the game. We recently had a highly successful casting call. Hundreds of voice talents auditioned for our main and supporting roles which was really awesome! We have such a talented new cast and I'm extremely happy about it. We're currently in the process of recording and integrating the new lines into the game.
NEW LOGO
As part of our upcoming Kickstarter campaign, we redesigned the Grand Guilds logo as well. We wanted to move away from the Final Fantasy feel of our old logo but still keep it relevant. We also made it so the "guilds" concept is more apparent.
ENEMY UNIT SUMMONING
In terms of gameplay, enemy unit summoning is back! We had this system as a core feature in the very early development stages of the game. I scrapped it in an attempt to make the game more focused on skill cards instead of character cards. Now it's back but to a lesser degree. Only some boss enemies will be able to summon units as part of their deck. These summoned units will also work differently compared to regular ones. A summoned character will not have cards and will have to rely on their basic attacks and the boss enemy's cards. Hopefully this will make things more balanced and less overwhelming for the player.
NEW MENU SCREEN & MUSIC
Lastly, I redesigned the main menu screen to fit better with the current story we have. I'm also planning to have the menu's background change depending on the player's current stage in the story.
Alongside this, our composer made a new soundtrack for this menu. It's designed so it kinda tells you the story of the game or what to expect. You can listen to it here:
That's all for this post! If you haven't already, come join our Discord server! We don't bite - Discord.gg
Thanks for reading! See you in the next one!
- Justin V.
