Today is the 5th anniversary of Soma Spirits and the story that began with that game is now complete.

Thank you to everyone, old & new. Especially SpecialAgentApe: without your music and help there would be no game. And to my fantastic testers and the many(?) returning players of Soma Spirits.

It's been a long two-and-change years but here we are! Soma Union is now and available for download both here on RMN and on itchio.

Thank you, everyone! Enjoy the story!

Hello, everyone!

It's been quite some time since the last development log, since I felt it was best to focus on getting as much squared away as possible before providing an update. And I come here today to share a couple bits of exciting news:

First: There has been significant progress since the last major update but I am happy to share that Soma Union is essentially content-complete and is currently in it's testing phases. I have a good idea of how long this phase of development will take, and includes things like cleanup, removing any remaining placeholders, and performing the ancient and forgotten art of playtesting your game before release. The Progress Chart will show you just where we're at!



The second big announcement is that Soma Union was recently featured in Mother Forever's Mother Direct 2021 alongside other great MOTHER-inspired indie games. Special thanks to the Mother Forever team for putting together a great presentation, and to Agent Ape for providing the music for our segment! You can see our trailer below:



I'm hoping that by the next devlog, Soma Union will be available for yo uall to play! Thank you all so much for your continued support of this project, and we'll see you soon!

Hey all!

The RPGMaker.net 2020 Misao Awards have wrapped up and I'm pleased to announce that Soma Union has won the award for Most Promising Demo! Thank you to everyone who voted for us and for making this possible! And an extra special thanks to SpecialAgentApe for his continued work on the OST, and to everyone who has provided input on the project.

Soma Union's demo saw a bit of an unusual release, as I wanted to ensure that it would be representative of the final product. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the game's reception considering how different it is at its core compared to its predecessor Soma Spirits. From the start, I've wanted this game to be a new experience, and more than just "the sequel to Soma Spirits" so I knew I was taking some pretty big risks with the new story direction and the more Sci-fi-flavored setting. But it has been nothing short of encouraging that people have enjoyed the project so far! And I hope the final game will be as pleasing for everyone as the demo has been!

2021 is going to be an exciting year for Soma Union, as we're entering the fourth quarter of content development on a strong note. Barring any major setbacks, I'm abooooout 99% certain that Soma Union will see its full release sometime this year, so please look forward to it when that time comes.

And please be sure to check out some of the big winners for this year's Misaos! Great games like Weird and Unfortunate Things are Happening and Beetle Ninja are absolute gems and two of the most enjoyable RPG Maker games I've played this past year, so take a look!
https://rpgmaker.net/misaos/2020/

Thank you again! I'll have more updates in the coming weeks!

- Sgt M

Hello and happy October, everyone! It's been a couple of months since I've really been able to give a major progress update on Soma Union. We last left off at the beginning of August upon Chapter 2's completion, and Chapter 3's development began not long after.

My approach to Chapter 3 has been a little different than the content I've done so far, partly in due to needing to figure out some of the finer details of the first area's story. As with Chapter 2, this chapter also begins with a combatless interlude featuring a second playable protagonist that tie into the main cast's story-line. Unfortunately, my first iteration of the events that happen in the second interlude ended up leaving a large and very noticeable loose end that would have done more harm than good. This whole area was put on hold for a while as I worked on other parts of the chapter instead, and hoped to find a solution along the way.

The good news is that a lot of headway was made during that period of uncertainly, with more than 60% of non story-related work being done on the next two areas. Almost the entirety of the 6th dungeon's gameplay has been completed. Area 7, which was planned to be the longest dungeon in the game and comprised of two distinct halves, ended up being so massive that I have split them into two separate dungeons: Areas 7 and 8 respectively. Though this is reflected in the progress chart below, it hasn't made a significant impact on the overall size of the project.



Then within the past week I was able to figure out that story roadblock! And in it, the second interlude went through a major rewrite, and explanations were found for things that I (unwisely) did not have explanations for before. It feels all the more stronger of a game for it, so it will definitely worth taking the time figuring it out than go ahead with a flawed story.

So I guess the short of it is that things are sailing right along, and my goal is to have 3/4ths of Chapter 3 completed by the end of the year. Then it will be onto the fourth quarter, which... I'm not gonna think about until I actually get there lmao.

A Different Kind of Story

One of the greatest benefits of this project compared to Soma Spirits though, is that I am not trying to juggle five completely different story paths at once, most of which can merge into other paths depending on the choices the player makes. I know it's something I have talked very little about up until now, but Soma Union's story structure isn't quite as chaotic and is a good deal more straightforward than it's predecessor, although it wouldn't be a sequel to Soma Spirits if there weren't any plot-affecting choices along the way.

While Soma Spirits had six major choices to make and a total of five endings, Soma Union only has four choices, and two endings that have multiple variations depending on the choices preceding them. And unlike Soma Spirits, neither of the endings in Soma Union will be billed as the "true ending" so there is no need to guide the player into an intended way to reach the game's big conclusion.

Also nobody liked playing Soma Spirits five times to see all of the endings, let's be honest. I ain't gonna do that to you all again.

So that's all I have for today! I'll be sure to check in with you all again before long!

Welcome once again!

Last week was a big week for Soma Union, as we've finally made the Prologue Demo available to download! If you missed it, you can find it here! In just one week, the demo has been downloaded almost 100 times between RPGmaker.net and itch.io, which I've been absolutely floored about how well this release has been received. If you've played the demo, or plan to, thank you so much for showing your support for this project!

This month's progress report will be a relatively short one, as most of my time on the project this month has been put towards the demo, so the chart doesn't look all too much different from last month's. However, a decent chunk of Area 5 has been worked on, including all of the encounters and about 2/3rds of the dungeon's layout. Let's take a look!



My goal is to have Chapter 2 wrapped up by the end of August, and then Chapter 3 completed by the end of the year. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that Interlude 3 has been turned into a full-fledged dungeon, and this is because there was so much story content that I would need to cover in that segment that it would have been far too long of a section to have without any significant gameplay. As such, the events of this section will largely stay as intended, but now with combat, puzzles, and the other standard aspects of the game included.

Thank you all again for your continued support! And for those following Soma Union for the first time: Welcome!