A glimpse into the future

We’re in a bit of a rut. We don’t want to show any more Cinders materials in fear of spoiling too much. But at the same time, we would like to share what’s going on and what we’re working on right now.

So here’s a little sneak peak into our future projects and plans.

We’re still busy with writing Cinders, but that doesn’t mean Gracjana can’t work on conceptualizing our next project.

The process starts with several quick sketches in her notebook. We test different shapes, styles and variants of every character to see what fits our vision. Then the best sketch is taken further to become a more polished concept art (like this) that is eventually turned into the final in-game asset.

These are those very early sketches for some of the characters in our next bigger project. Chances of them actually looking like this in the game are pretty slim, but they should give you a hint of what mood and themes we’re aiming for this time.

I recently got involved into a bi-weekly game design workshops (a full blog post about it), and this is the fruit that these meetings bore. A small arcade co-op game with a pretty unique core mechanic of having two ships interconnected with a flexible energy beam.

All the art in the game is actually hand-made using pieces or paper, pencils, crayon drawings and such. It looks quite neat in motion.

It’s a small project, but pretty fun to play, and it’s not like there’s an abundance of hotseat co-operative games out there. We plan to release it soon for free. Most likely with the source code available for those who would like to learn from it.

Version 1.1 of Caster is available

So how’s Cinders going?

It’s been all about Magi updates and Mac port lately, so there’s a certain drought of pretty images from Cinders. Time to correct this with a screenshot of Madame Ghede’s magic shop:

Madame Ghede is one of the two possible “Fairy Godmothers” in the game. The one representing conscious choice as opposed to belief in fate. She embodies the more down-to-earth side of Cinders, so it made sense to make her a strong and independent Wise Woman, who makes her own ways through life.

The game itself is probably going to be delayed a bit more (surprise, surprise!). Technically, it’s done. But Ayu is still working hard on the remaining scenes, and writing a game with so many little and big choices takes time. Sorry for this, guys. And thanks for your patience.

We may use this brief idle period to start working on our next game, so it’s not unreasonable to expect some news on that soon.

Magi update v1.4 for the PC

A new update for the PC version of Magi, bringing all the changes we did while porting the game to Mac, is now available. Improvements focus mainly on the cosmetics, and keeping the game up to date with modern systems.

Download the new demo:

List of changes in v1.4:

• Added MoaCube logo at the start of the game
• Replaced the old generic message popups with nice custom ones
• The game now handles toggling fullscreen like a good boy
• Magi now saves its data in the AppData folder
• Tutorial has been shortened
• Sound system has been switched to our own Caster extension
• The game now has a nice hi-res icon and a new splash screen
• Several typos were fixed
• Some minor bug fixes

We’ve sent emails with the download link to all Magi owners. If you haven’t received one, just let me know in the comments or through email.

Magi for the Mac OSX is out!

Mac version of Magi is finally done and available for purchase! The full version costs $5.95 for the duration of the Magi sale. There’s also a free demo available.

Invest in MoaCube and get all our future games for free. Learn more.

If you haven’t tried Magi yet, it’s a unique and very challenging strategy game about wizard duels. You can take a look at the screenshots below or just try the demo. You can also check the Strategy section of our forums for some handy tactics and character builds.

All owners of Magi also get a 50% discount for ArcMagi when it comes out. Though, at this point we can’t tell if ArcMagi is going to have a Mac version.

Why it’s cool:

• It’s a strategic and challenging game that makes you work for victory.
• Can be played in short bursts and works great as a coffee break game.
• There are 10 different characters and over 50 unique spells.
• Spells are designed so that each has its unique tactical purpose.
• It’s pure nerdy and addictive fun, with builds and strategies and what not.

System requirements:

Intel Macs with at least OS X 10.5

512MB Ram

Display with minimum 1024×768 resolution

Magi OSX port is almost done!

I finally got around to finishing Magi port to OSX. As you can see, it works and is completely playable by now:

We plan to release it in few days, but there’s still some work left to do on the new demo. More extensive testing couldn’t hurt, too. If you own Magi or the Investment Bundle, and would like to check the Mac version before its release, please contact me through email or comments.

While working on the port, I also fixed and improved some of general Magi aspects that I found to be outdated — like saving in the proper place, fullscreen handling or message popups. PC players may expect an update with all those improvements to come soon.

An update on Cinders pre-orders

We have some good news for everyone who pre-ordered Cinders.

A new preview build comes out on Tuesday (August 16). It addresses every issue that was posted on our beta forums, plus adds few more improvements. It won’t have any new story content, but if you played the current build and would like to test the new one, please post in this topic on our forums.

Secondly, you’ll probably be glad to hear that pre-order owners will receive the full game a week or two before the official release. That way you get to play sooner, and we get some extra help with the last-moment testing and proofreading. It’s a win-win situation, so there’s no reason not to do it.

If you have any questions, let us know in the comments.

Cinders is code complete!

We just finished the last timed Cinders milestone! It means the game is now code complete!

This means no more of this (sans few tweaks and beta testers requests maybe):

Finishing the code of a visual novel is not a big deal usually. But mind that we weren’t using Ren’Py, and opted to write our own VN framework in GameMaker. It allows for more flexibility, better graphics and nicer interfaces, which are all very important if we want our games to stand out quality-wise. It also means that we now have a very useful tool that we can use to speed up the development of our future games.

All that is left is to finish writing the story. With me and Ayu now able to work on it full-time, it shouldn’t take more than few weeks. As Gracjana is now essentially free, having done all the art already, we may also decide to expand the game with few extra locations and scenes.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress and the release date.

Rewards for discovering endings

We just finished implementing a neat little feature.

Whenever you discover a new main ending or get to a certain branch of the storyline, a new decoration appears in the main menu.

(It can go from this…)

For example: if you manage to find the ending in which Cinders becomes the queen, her menu depiction starts wearing a tiara. It’s an immediately visible reward, and it just feels good to spruce-up the main menu, as you go on discovering new ways to play Cinders.

(…to this.)

Of course, we still have the usual gallery for watching all the discovered endings, but we thought this would make it more fun to collect them.

Cinders as The Evil Queen

This is a bit spoiler-ish, but I just had to share it.

Cinders’ actions during the game determine what ending (and what variant of that ending) you get. For example, Cinders can obviously marry The Prince and become a queen, but what kind of queen she becomes is determined by what you did during the game. Is she going to be good but too naive? Machiavellian but competent? Or maybe devilishly evil and sexy, like in the pic below:

There’s going to be a special image for every variant of every ending in the game. Collecting them should be lots of fun.