Vapourware Bloom: Memories - a new kind of action adventure RPG by Studio Fawn

[FUDU]

When do you think you will be ready to start beta testing? 6 - 9 months.

 

[Zombra]

So I hear there's this game in development called Bloom. :D

 

[Studio Fawn]

So... figured I would post another update

On KS I pushed back release date about 6 months (since I needed more time). So far it seeems we are ok, but it might get pushed back some more (especially if we go fully voice acted...which I really want to do)). And we got more ambitious with what we were doing with creatures (emotions affecting behaviours, and more complex interactions between creatures, and a lot of other stuff like that).

Anyhow, here is the world so far (missing a handful, but gives you an idea).

Current count of maps = 275
Left to do = About 60

Since these are tiny, here is one to give you an idea.

And, to go with environments, needs some creatures :3 This is about 46 of them....but in total I think we are at 60? ((With some more left to go)) Just about everything shown here is rigged with their base animations (which is why I can render them like this).

-random - Here are some plant models ((these I didn't count as characters))

Here is some music :D (( couple more tracks on this link https://soundcloud.com/music-vortex/sets/bloom-music-2015-update ))




So....yea.... bideo game making....it is bananas.

 

[toro]

So... figured I would post another update

On KS I pushed back release date about 6 months (since I needed more time). So far it seeems we are ok, but it might get pushed back some more (especially if we go fully voice acted...which I really want to do)). And we got more ambitious with what we were doing with creatures (emotions affecting behaviours, and more complex interactions between creatures, and a lot of other stuff like that).

Anyhow, here is the world so far (missing a handful, but gives you an idea).

Current count of maps = 275
Left to do = About 60

Since these are tiny, here is one to give you an idea.

And, to go with environments, needs some creatures :3 This is about 46 of them....but in total I think we are at 60? ((With some more left to go)) Just about everything shown here is rigged with their base animations (which is why I can render them like this).

-random - Here are some plant models ((these I didn't count as characters))

Here is some music :D (( couple more tracks on this link https://soundcloud.com/music-vortex/sets/bloom-music-2015-update ))




So....yea.... bideo game making....it is bananas.

This looks good.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Just discovered this thing is still trundling along (the game I mean):

http://cliqist.com/2016/03/29/bloom-memories-loses-programmer-gains-new-one-new-engine/

When I saw Bloom: Memories launch on Kickstarter I wasn’t sure about it. It looked beautiful and had an interesting premise but I had a hard time being sold on taking the plunge. However, I liked it enough to go in for a copy of the game and, like so many others, I’ve been waiting patiently on seeing a final product. While it’s still far from finished and no release date in sight at least we got some very important news in the latest update.



Apparently a couple months ago the lead programmer for Bloom: Memories fell far behind on developing the engine they were going to use as a framework. Due to personal and work issues conflicting with his commitments towards finishing it he left the team on good terms. With such a major and important position being left vacant the development team could have just given up and moved on, but that’s apparently not how they roll. Determined to get someone else to help out and was as passionate about the project as they were they started looking.



And found someone they did. The update also announced that Ariel Manzur will be taking on the responsibilities towards getting this important piece of technology out the door. And not only that but he’s brought with him the “Godot” engine which is apparently leaps and bounds better than what they were working with before. So, despite there being a bit of a delay development for Bloom: Memories isn’t completely scrapped. The new engine will have to obviously be worked into existing assets but they’re back on track it looks like. Which is quite fortunate as I’ve been greatly anticipating the release of this game.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ew-kind-of-action-adventure-rpg/posts/1530871

A Big Shakeup!

Heya everyone I'm pretty excited for what has happened the last two months, but stick with me because it will take a bit to explain (story time!).

So, the last couple months saw no advancement with the engine. James had just been so swamped with work that Bloom had been suffering a long time in terms of progress. While we got far with the engine in the last 2 years, we still had a long way to go to reach something we should ship....and that was a big problem.

A couple weeks ago I finally accepted that Bloom simply wasn't going to come out on a schedule I was satisfied with like this. It has been stressful seeing this coming, I had just kept hoping things would pull through and progress would rocket forward again....but it was time for a change.

I spoke with James and he recognized things just weren't working out as well. It's just with his family and work, his life had simply gone on a different path than Bloom. Things ended on a good note though (we are still friends, and he is around if we need him).

contd

All of this left me needing to pick up the pieces and get this project back on track. So I began to search for options..... and began to look for someone serious to take on the task of getting this finished.

This is where things get....coincidental?

About a week after the last update I had met another game dev online. It was such a random thing running into each other (since it was not game related), and of course we connected on facebook. We chatted a little bit, but soon after forgot about it all.

That was, until a few weeks ago....right around the time that it was becoming apparent a big shift was needed on the project (though still on the fence about what to do).

He sent me a message letting me know he was coming to the US to attend GDC, and even was going to be in LA after that.

"Sure, we might say hi when you are in the area" was my non-committal response...I was still more focused on just figuring this entire thing out.

GDC came and went as I was trying to contact everyone I knew to track down a new programmer to take over. This time I had to be sure to find someone serious about getting the game done and who was in the right position in their lives to take on the work (since, well, it isn't exactly like I can hire someone).

Eventually I got another message from my friend about meeting up. It turned out he was actually going to be staying in the same area (10 minutes away)...which in LA is pretty amazing. Yea, we could say hi.

We also got to talking a bit though....and it turned out he was Ariel Manzur, the co-creator of an amazing engine called "Godot". He also happened to be looking for a new project to take on (having just released a cool point and click game, http://store.steampowered.com/app/330420/ ).

I don't know if I believe in fate....but life sure has a strange way of working out sometimes.

Long story slightly shorter, I'm happy to announce we have our new programmer for Bloom! Ariel Manzur is ready to take it on and get this thing done. Since he is the person who created the Godot engine, there is no one better that could get us going in it. Not only that, but after taking a long look at the engine...it actually boasts some features you won't even find in Unity or Unreal.

While we lost the BloomCore engine....we just gained something even better (and more polished). With far more features and power and 8+ years of work put into it.

So what happens next?

Well, Ariel is finishing up vacation here in the states...then returning back home (where he needs to finish up a bit of work for a week). Then we are going heavy into getting our engine toolsets running (for importing art and creating character data and whatnot). Ideally getting the main tools will take 2 months.

After that we are going to be moving fast with implementation and try to get our prologue done (which, like we said before, we will be releasing for free to everyone. Currently the prologue is looking at about 1-2 with some replayability). This will take the engine to be near feature complete (vertical slice of the game), and it will just be a matter of getting the rest of the game content set up.

This should sum up my feelings lately Let's get this done!!!

Anyhow, sorry for the wall of text Been a weird couple of months!

Here are some new arts to make up for it (wish I could post the finished prologue map, but that would be spoilers!).

First off are some new plants (all with full animations for their growth cycles).
...
The next couple months I'll likely be heavy into writing, but I'll break it up with a few more creatures too. Just a handful of them left to do.

Anyhow, thanks for all of the support! While the sea may have a lot of waves, if you just keep your head up you can swim forever :D

Stones of Arnhem could have done with this level of detail:

 

[Grauken]

one thing I learned from Kickstarter, only back smaller projects if the guy really driving it forward is the programmer/engine head of the team, not the artist, things can still get fucked up, but the other way round is often a surefire way for disaster

also, I'm sure changing engines midway into development won't be much of a hitch, just convert and then upload all the assets and content via awesome button into the new engine

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

also, I'm sure changing engines midway into development won't be much of a hitch, just convert and then upload all the assets and content via awesome button into the new engine

John Romero said the same thing, yanno.

 

[Llama-Yak Hybrid]

So it's still somehow being developed? Good. Was waiting for it, I hope it'll be released faster than Grimoire.

 

[Studio Fawn]

Yup, still developing I wouldn't give up on my baby :D

90-95% of the art is finished and the story has been hammered out for a couple years (revising characters, adding new story points, rethinking structure) ....I'm pretty proud of how much I've done so far, even if there is a decent amount of work left, mostly it is just about putting the pieces together. The hardest bits were the last 2 years, facing the mountain of work and unknown evolution of the game and just making it happen.

Art / writing / design are the main bottle necks of most game development. Look at any games budget and you will see these areas are where most of the money goes. It just takes so long to create the content.....but once it is made, plugging it in goes a lot faster.

Making games isn't easy Especially when dealing with sooo little in resources. I think the key for any team is just having a person in charge that doesn't give up and doesn't settle for "let's push SOMETHING out ASAP and be done with it". Someone who can step up and fill more roles when things get tough (for example, when the animator leaves after the kickstarter....stepping up and learning how to animate and rig, because fuck it, it needs to happen and excuses don't fly here).

I've seen much much bigger and well funded teams with far better resumes fold under half the pressure we have faced haha. I've seen them cave at the first bump in the road....when the money ran out....or when their campaign didn't go as planned....or when, well, basically anything happens.

But since I'm at the wheel here, this bus doesn't stop till I say it does :D Even if I have to learn to program myself and finish it Dust an Elysian Tail style :D

one thing I learned from Kickstarter, only back smaller projects if the guy really driving it forward is the programmer/engine head of the team, not the artist, things can still get fucked up, but the other way round is often a surefire way for disaster

also, I'm sure changing engines midway into development won't be much of a hitch, just convert and then upload all the assets and content via awesome button into the new engine

Sure, if you want a crappy looking game with no soul I guess In indie development, artists are MUUUCHHH more rare than programmers.

Some games are more reliant on cold mechanics and lean more on the programmers strengths (like Factorio)....but others are more about the creative heart in them (so the story, art, stuff like that). Bloom is a game that leans heavier on my strengths (since it is an action adventure RPG).

A programmer trying to get someone to do the art / story I'm doing would cost a crazy amount and be way too much work for most people (if you can even find an artist that does work like this in indie gaming, which again is really rare from what I've seen There is a reason so many indie games are pixel art or use so many pre-made assets. I do concept, models, rigging, animating, texturing....along with all the backgrounds and writing / design. If you know anyone else doin stuff like I'm doing in the indie space....let me know! Because I would love to connect with them!! I just haven't seen it much).

And the writing shouldn't be overlooked either! At least I hope it turns out that way (the few people I've gone over stuff with seem to really like it, but hard to judge your own work). I've thought a lot about if I should find someone to take over the writing....but it just seems impossible for anyone else to do it. Since the game / world / design are all more personal and drawing from my own life / thoughts / perspective....I just don't think it would be the same written by someone else (like in the prologue, the brother character is heavily patterned after my own brother. Or the old woman says lines my grandmother has said to me). I guess authenticity isn't something you can outsource? haha

Luckily moving over assets to new engines isn't a problem when the game is all 2d in the engine (no re-rigging and dealing with 3d models / shaders). The biggest thing is just getting back up to speed with import tools and scripting (and since we were making an engine from scratch before, we actually just jumped ahead a bit by moving to something more feature complete like godot. For example JUST the particle system we had worked on for a couple weeks in the old engine... and it was only extremely rudimentary....now we have a full particle system ready to go :D ). Projection for getting back up to where we were mechanically is like 2 months (not bad IMO). And I'm still finishing up other stuff while that happens, so after all of this I don't expect a delay caused by the programming (all delays have been mostly from me trying to create so much )

The goal is to get the prologue done first and give it out free to everyone (My guess is it will take 1-2 hours to play through, it's only 14 pages of dialogue, so not immense with some replayability. The prologue alone is as long as other full indie games haha). Then plug in the main games content (and use feedback from the prologue mechanics to improve whatever we need to)...and release the full thing.


Soooo...yea....taking a little longer than I wanted ....but I'm so proud of it Even if people hate it, I'll still be super proud of it! The only way I won't be proud is if I don't finish....and I won't let that happen.

I kind of feel like I'll never get a chance like this again :D And chasing after it, pushing through all the problems, just making it happen over years of focus and work, facing the ups and downs as you keep growing....most epic thing I've ever done with my life haha :D

There is a reason you don't see a developer making a passion game like this often

I hope it turns out good! Though, I think as long as I give it enough testing / feedback / update time I could turn it around even if it isn't so great before I release it.

 

[Grauken]

There's so much bullshit in your post I could argue with, but you know what, at the end of the day if you manage to finish your game everyone will be happy, so godspeed to you and hope you finish it

Also, keep it down with the smileys, don't want to devalue them too much

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Really like the organic and whimsical art. Hope this works out.

 

[Studio Fawn]

There's so much bullshit in your post I could argue with, but you know what, at the end of the day if you manage to finish your game everyone will be happy, so godspeed to you and hope you finish it

Meh, codex has said the stuff I say is bullshit for years. Before I even began, the very idea of creating a game (the first kickstarter) they all thought it was bullshit and no one could really do something decent with such a small team and without "decades of experience in the industry" (at the time, everyone was really aroused by the big-ticket kickstarters, like double fine stuff).

I don't deal in bullshit though. I say what I'll do...and then I do it even better than I said I would. And along the way, I call things honestly (even when stuff isn't working out as planned).

Though, I guess it is easy to get jaded with kickstarter projects....stuff like this pops up now and then http://kotaku.com/successful-73-000-kickstarter-runs-out-of-money-1735005793

Then people go "wow, that game raised more than this other game...and they were just doing pixel art! And they only lasted a little over a year in development?! Then ran out of money and shut down?! OBVIOUSLY this other kickstarter that got less over 2 years ago is impossible!".

And yet.....I'm still here....still working. Weird.

Also, keep it down with the smileys, don't want to devalue them too much

Don't blame me for the forums turning them into pictures! They fit way better when they were just text.

Really like the organic and whimsical art. Hope this works out.

Thanks! I hope so too! Even if this new programmer ends up not working out, I have another backup plan in mind....so...it is hard to imagine things crashing as long as I'm around.

 

[hello friend]

...So? How's it goin'? You getting there?

 

[Studio Fawn]

...So? How's it goin'? You getting there?

Goin pretty good. Been working on the core features and putting them in the new engine (I'm pretty happy with how the AI system has developed. The scripts to drive the creatures are a lot of work to do.....but it gives a ton of flexibility. Just have to make sure to keep it all straight in my head as I'm doing it to avoid weird conflicts). Our test spider has his full AI, roams around....listens / smells / sees....and tries to attack certain types of creatures if it is hungry (using various attack patterns, favoring his projectile). I went into more detail with some examples of 3 predators on the latest update. ( https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ew-kind-of-action-adventure-rpg/posts/1685625 )

Latest thing is our creature spawner system (and after that we need our event scripting). With those we will finally have just about all we need for the prologue (other than cosmetic stuff).

Oh wait, also plant animations, we need some special controls for those to manage the animation frames (since they don't play like a normal walk animation or something). We need to tie that to energy levels still.

I posted an update on KS a few weeks ago about how I was messing with particles and AI and whatnot (and me adding another dungeon to explore one of the characters a little more). I decided to go all out with that and put in weather effects (which will impact mood of creatures, sight range, even the spawners so certain items / creatures only show up with certain weather....like the water sprout ability you need to find more of when it is raining I think). Easy enough to do all that.

Here is a video with some random particle examples I messed with.



Oh yea, I also updated the website a bit a while ago ( www.studiofawn.com ). Eventually I'll be starting a blog with smaller dev updates....then sending out update newsletters for anyone interested (likely the same stuff as kickstarter).

Still a ton left to do, I think we are a month behind on where we wanted to be on the prologue. Which isn't that bad I guess. The biggest issue I worry about is getting the sound effects haha. We don't have a dedicated sound designer (Jose is giving them a shot, so at least should be ok for placeholders in worse case scenario ). Oh well, we'll figure it out :D

Soooo....yup, thing are going ok Ariel is a great programmer, I'm really enjoying how we work together.

 

[hello friend]

Nice. Glad to hear things are still on track, I'm excited about this game.

 

[Namutree]

This game looks neat.

 

[HoboForEternity]

looks great. passion projects are usually the most promising, even it takes a hell long time.

look at AoD

 

[Studio Fawn]

Hoy hoy, so another update for you guys

Here is the last KS update (goes over some new things like targeting, or plant growing being in... https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ew-kind-of-action-adventure-rpg/posts/1746581 ) . I'm pretty pumped for how the targeting worked out (my ultimate hybrid design~!).

Since that update though we have added some more combat commands for the scripts and put in projectile arcs....and right now Ariel is putting in the code to support "the bridge" (feedback on energy / health / mood is found in there along with some other things we will go into probably the next update).

BUT! The main reason for this is I've been working on a new dialogue screen / assets for the prologue and would love some feedback on it :D Decided to keep going with these half body portraits (even if they are a bit more work to do than something like a headshot).

 

[Zombra]

The art looks lovely, with a wonderful storybook feel, and I really like the half body portraits - it's perspective I don't see that often.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Half body portraits are cool. Kinda like japanese visual novel or some jrpg. Definitely better than usual mugshots, especially if the characters have several shots depicting different emotion. (Like VNs in general)

 

[hello friend]

Looking good.

Will dialogue be skippable? If loading a save or checkpoint, it's good to be able to get right back into the last failed encounter rather than waiting for cutscenes and the like to finish.

 

[Studio Fawn]

Looking good.

Will dialogue be skippable? If loading a save or checkpoint, it's good to be able to get right back into the last failed encounter rather than waiting for cutscenes and the like to finish.

Yup, non skippable dialogue / cutscenes are horrible.

 

[AN4RCHID]

New Kickstarter update - https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ew-kind-of-action-adventure-rpg/posts/1777324

Jumping on the scripted events bandwagon Studio Fawn ?

Flavor Events
First off is our new feature I like to call the "flavor events". Effectively these are slower paced events meant to flesh out the world a bit and rely more on pure choice for the player on how to proceed. You've likely seen them before in a variety of games (especially older RPGs).

For example, if you get lost in "the tangle" (a maze-like section of the forest), instead of kicking you back to the central part of the maze to try again....we could present you with the situation "You've become lost in the tangle. As you wander trying to find a way out, you come across a fork in the path. Take the clear east path? Take the west path blocked by brambles? Or stop and try and gather yourself?". Then each one of these path choices have their own risks and rewards.

Originally I was going to make these just text....but it didn't last long before I decided we needed backgrounds. Here are some examples of where I'm going with that. It's nice to be able to do some backgrounds that aren't confined by the limitations of the top-down playable view.

.

To go along with this we have also slightly expanded the attributes for the player. Now instead of having just strength and accuracy (which we were using for the targeting system)....we have power, finesse, and spirit.

These will be raised through the adventure and influence not only moment to moment game play (power and finesse acting as strength and accuracy) but also be checked during the flavor events for success chances and other more "rpg-y" elements. Nothing too heavy, just enough to give some more customization in what you choose to focus in and how you choose to play.

 

[Studio Fawn]

New Kickstarter update - https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ew-kind-of-action-adventure-rpg/posts/1777324

Jumping on the scripted events bandwagon Studio Fawn ?

Ya, but the bandwagon is more like a really old train I'd been watching a lot of projareds pool of radiance playthrough while working lately ( https://www.twitch.tv/projared/v/106618002 )....and started thinking about how much I loved older school RPGs and their little text situations.....

So....decided to add a bit of that to Bloom. Cuz I can :D

Randomize them in so there is a decent pool for different situations (like a set for if you get lost, a set for discoveries, and so on and so on).....and lets me play with the stats of the player a bit more while putting in a stronger unique progression (also replayability)...and boom! It all makes sense!!

What can I say? I'm impressionable.

 

[HoboForEternity]

good decision.