Starless Umbra

Production

Starless Umbra

Chapter Seven:
Bleak Remembrance

September 1, 2010.

Because I like setting deadlines for myself, and I have a lot more to show you guys. You can expect:

-Plenty of new content to explore. Ch 7 should add about 2-3 hours of gameplay, putting the total gameplay time somewhere around 12-16 hours, I'd imagine.
-Plenty of revised content. You know, working out storyline kinks, removing unintentional sexual innuendos from dialogue, that sort of thing.
-More minigames and puzzles--all of which are randomly generated so they will be different each playthrough.
-Character development, questions answered, and hopefully a more congruent storyline.

Will saves be compatible?
Sure will! Of course, certain features might not work properly, such as the "game completed" indicator, but if you have a save file from ch5 and up, it *should* work, provided you saved in an area that was unchanged from your version to the newest.

I better download ch6 from your website and get caught up!
Woah there! I suggest you wait until ch7 is done. Not only will this release include all prior releases, but there will be plenty of bugfixes and new cutscenes for you to enjoy.

Will I still be able to skip battles?
Of course, just press right when selecting a difficulty to open the option to disable in-game battles.

How many more releases will there be?
There will be a total of nine chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue. That means, three more releases (not including 7) and I will be done with the main continent. Then, I will be releasing SU10--or SUX--which will feature a revamped battle system (cbs), original character portraits, 100% custom music, that sort of thing.

Thank you for your interest in this project. If you have any other questions, please ask.

(if you want to read more, look at this update I posted on the website)

Sorry for the conceited one-liner that I had here before. I was kind of rushed and I didn't know people here were following this. :)

Anyway, after about four to five months of letting school take over, I'm glad to say my undergraduate studies are just about complete and I'm really excited for what's to come in the future of both my personal and professional life. I'll be moved out and starting my new job on the first of next month, where I'll be a QA engineer by day and a game developer by night.

Thanks for following this. Greater things are to come.

You'll need to download this if you intend to play through with no-battles mode (press right while selecting a difficulty). I made the mistake of not testing it after I implemented it and as a result a few things were skipped. This should be the last fix though.

I'm nearly done with 6.xx revisions, I hope. I've been focusing hard on 7.00 of course. There's just a ton of re-working that needs to be done. I'm going to be challenging myself and pushing to do greater things in the near-future with this project, so a lot of effort is going into making sure everything I have right now is acceptable before I make that jump.

If you have any special requests or questions let me know. :)

Until next time, have a great weekend!

--dhm

I just wanted to show my new production machine in action, though you might have seen this already if you're following SU on twitter. It's the HP Mini and I was finally able to workaround resolution issues so that gives me two to three hours a day I get to spend testing and editing on my way to/from work.

Specifically, I've added footprints and and finishing up another minigame. In addition, 6.06 is more or less done. I'll update it once I nail everything and figure out any other issues. This should hopefully be my last revision before my next major release. That's all and thanks for reading.

I've done a lot of stuff, and for some reason I feel like showing it off just a bit. A lot of my screenshots are old and I want them to accurately portray what you get ingame. (more minigames? :P)

Also, expect a download update soon. 6.05 is pretty busted. All in all there's a lot of content I want to add to it, which will balance much with what I add in my next release. As a whole, chapter seven is going to fulfilling in a sense that it will fix a lot of old stuff and add even more new goodies, content, and a pretty nifty ending. (And it will be ready by the end of the year I hope)

I'm always looking for suggestions for optional dialogue (the majority of it comes from people telling me they want more random interaction between character x and y about z, so feel free to do the same, even if x=lynia, y=reene, and z=boobies)

Other than that, things are going well. I've got a very addicting minigame in the works now... and for better or for worse I only have about two free hours a day during the week so I don't get terribly burnt out over it.

--dhm

Every Monday, a new screenshot is auto-magically posted on SU.com as the screenshot of the week.

Rather than returning to SU.com on a weekly basis, feel free to subscribe to this feed if you're interested in seeing production screenshots. Right now I'm trying to catch up on posting older stuff as well as newer stuff, so expect to see something you might have seen if you've played through the game already, but then something completely new the following week.

Thanks for following SU.

Here's a link to the RSS feed:
http://www.starlessumbra.com/rss_img.php

I've created a screenshot of the week feature for starlessumbra.com.

A new screenshot is posted from a huge vault every Monday, automatically. You can view previous screenshots and so on. Obviously this first week is a test, so the first screenshot isn't terribly exciting. I'll be adding more and hopefully I can keep up with the content to have something new for you to see every week.

I also plan on adding an RSS feed so you can subscribe to that if you want. :P

Regards,

--dhm

If so, please comment with a link so I have some people to follow.

I will be posting snippets of development here if you're interested:
http://twitter.com/starlessumbra

This is just a minor fix that's probably required if you intend to play through without battles. (Yes, I had forgotten to disable a boss.)

In addition, there were a few dialogue fixes--nothing too major. I did update the front page with a new synopsis and other random thoughts, though.

Lastly, SU chapter 7 is coming late this year.

That's about it. Happy gamemaking. :)

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Currently Playing: Legends of Illarion

I must be nuts, but if you download my latest version of SU (6.04), you can disable battles if you'd like. Just press the right arrow key while you select your difficulty at the beginning of the game.

My hope is that if you played this game a long time ago (hell, even 2-4 months ago) and you'd like to play through again to see what's new (as always, there is quite a bit) you should be able to without having to deal with the hassle of the DBS. (which will be eventually phased out and replaced with a nice alternative in the future).

Or maybe you're just lazy and you hate the DBS. Either way, give it a try if you feel like playing. There's enough elsewhere, I feel, to keep yourself engaged in the game.

Thanks for reading.

--dhm