Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition

I'm slowly trying to get through my stack of shame, and one of the games I put on the backburner was the remastered version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Nintendo Switch Version).

I tried to play it with some studio friends last year but it was a pain in the butt to deal with and super frustrating, so I put it in the back and moved onto some other games to play. 

After finishing a few other games in the stack and while FFXIV Endwalker is coming out a few months away, I decided to revisit it and set aside a few hours each week to play it with friends who are willing to put up with the rough multiplayer aspect. 

At first I thought it was still a royal pain, but as I'm now in Year 4 and there are a lot of dungeons to do without cutscenes getting in the way as much, I'm enjoying it a bit more. When you get into a dungeon and everyone is in, it's fun, but it's the stuff in-between that really dampens the experience. The flow of the game is really off, and I wish they redid some fundamental things of the game to make it work for a modern age. 

I wouldn't know how to pull it off, and I don't think Square-Enix did either. Still aiming to finish it, though.

Blog Revamp

It's been some time since I've made a post not directly related to what's going on in the studio. I've utilized a black/blue color scheme on my blog for a really long time. I wanted to kind of revamp it to match a new color scheme I'm liking a bit more these days. Black/White/Light Blue. A bit less edgy, but a lot easier on my eyes.

The new cover photo is a commission from Loren Petty (@lorenpettyart) who worked with us a bit on whimindie projects last year. It shows an up-to-date montage of the projects I've been focusing on. 

Stay safe everyone.

Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #61

Hi all, Happy August! Here is the monthly update for what's going on at whimindie. Our 61st development log. Note that some of this information will be cross-posted to our Spellbearers project page on Kickstarter for project backers.  

--- 

Spellbearers

This month, our team put a lot of work into building Level 3 and implementation of Achievements for both Steam and Xbox versions. Take a look below!

First Look: The Fiery Lands of Floga

Here are some first screenshots of Level 3 - The Fiery Lands of Floga that our game director and lead programmer Gerren Willis provided last week. If you've backed our project and already received a copy of the soundtrack in the mail, you can take a listen and match the music with the area. It's going to be quite hectic!

What kind of traps and obstacles will have to go through in Floga? We're excited to have you find out soon! A shout-out to our terrain artists Parker Colon and Kevin Picotte and VFX artist Zion Jones for realizing this in-game! 

Achievement Implementation

A lot of work on Spellbearers this month went into implementation of our achievement system. We set out to implement a global system that will interact with both Steam and Xbox from the get-go so we can minimize our amount of work for porting/adjusting later on. 

Do note that we're still adjusting details on how this Achievement UI will look in game. What you see here is not final and still subject to change.

We also have an in-game achievement overlay planned for platforms that may not have their own achievement or trophy system... I'll leave it at that. 

A shout-out to Parker Colon, Gerren Willis,  Jessica M. Jacuinde, Deborah Groves and Jonathan Dishaw for working on this implementation into the game!

--- 

Selatria

Development is back on track!

After a month of getting the environment set up and moving files over, we're finally back on track for development. A lot of Selatria work this past month is tying the game together and wrapping up loose ends and incomplete dungeons. This also includes doing final minor character voiceover re-takes, contacting team members involved for final credits, and unvoiced scenario quests.

Revised Shutdown Date for Chapter 4 Alpha Version 

For those who participated in the Chapter 4 Alpha, thank you for your feedback and support! Now that we're able to get back to development, the revised shutdown date for Chapter 4 Alpha Version will be Saturday, August 28, 2021. While we did get some valuable feedback and addressed a lot of critical issues in Chapter 4, the participation in the alpha test was not at the level that we expected, and so we plan on doing something a bit different in the future to get player feedback.

Note that if you were given an alpha test key for Selatria Chapter 4 Alpha, it will be invalidated after this date and you will no longer be able to play the game. 

--

That's all for this development log. Catch you at Gameacon in Rancho Mirage in a few weeks (August 14-15, 2021)! We'll be at Booth 112 and 113 showing Selatria, Spellbearers, Corpse Castle, and Reapers! See you there!

Thanks for your support, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and join our Discord! Until next time! Follow whimindie on itch.io Wishlist Selatria - Full Version on Steam Wishlist Spellbearers on Steam Wishlist Corpse Castle on Steam

.