As of about five minutes ago, our second Kickstarter is now live. From here on out, I'll be posting updates to that project instead of here. We need all of your help to help spread the word and make our game come to life. Please help raise awareness and let me know if you have ideas or suggestions on what we can do!

Thanks again for all your support so far,

Bishop

Hi everyone! It's been a while. Lots of things are new around here, and I thought I'd keep you posted on what our plans are going forward into the new year.

Evaluation and evolution

We learned a lot from the first attempt and got a huge amount of feedback (as well as many new fans to the series!). We've spent the past few months looking at that feedback and seeing how we could incorporate it to improve the game. We've made some pretty big changes to the format, but I'll touch on exactly what they are in a minute, after I've explained the rationale behind the changes.

The biggest thing we learned from the first attempt is how much money we can expect to receive in funding. Chalk it up to bad marketing, or a bad project page, but we only managed to raise around $9,000. Unfortunately, even if we needed no music, or programming, or software licenses, that still wouldn't cover the cost of all the sprites, animations, and tiles that we need (or, at least, not at a level of quality that would be worth showing to the public). Taking this into account, there are two changes we've made to the format of the game:

1) Episodic release schedule
Considering our history, this probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The first thing we decided to do was to break up the game from one huge, monolithic adventure into eight episodes. Each episode is planned to have about as much content as Act III of the original Vacant Sky, along with plenty more optional quests (which comes naturally considering how much more exploration-focused Awakening is).

This change makes sense for a number of reasons. From the perspective of the players, it means they get to experience the game sooner, so that's always a plus! From our perspective, it means we're able to get feedback as we go along and constantly improve the game based on feedback from the released episodes. It also breaks up the burden of art assets, as the cast and size of the explorable world increases throughout the story.

But the biggest reason why this change makes sense is that it means we only need to raise enough funding in the beginning to build episode 1. Theoretically, the revenue we get from episode 1 should fund the development of episode 2, and so on. Therefore, our second try at Kickstarter will be to raise the funds needed to build episode 1. If we breach our goal, any extra money we receive will be used to develop the subsequent episodes. Of course, anyone who pledges to receive the game will receive the whole game as it is available.

2) New exploration format

All right, so what about the game itself? The fact of the matter is, unless we end up with a lot more money than I expect, we just can't afford the huge amount of tiles and sprites we need to make the game. If we do it episodically, we might just barely scrape by, but it's still a big risk.

One of the things we brainstormed about to exhaustion was ways to get around this problem. In designing the gameplay of Awakening, we looked at all of the aspects of RPGs which are taken as givens, whether they benefit the genre or not, and ripped out what we could in order to get closer to the heart of what an RPG is.

Traditionally, the way you navigate an RPG is by walking around fields and dungeons, touching enemies to engage them in combat, and pressing buttons to activate switches or open chests. For the solution to this problem, we looked at other games, specifically tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, which have the player performing the same actions, but in a wildly different format.

That brings me to the results of our brainstorming:

The game board

This is the game board, and it is now the principle form of navigation in Vacant Sky: Awakening. Towns, buildings, fields, dungeons, etc are all handled in the same format. It's a mixture of board games and tabletop RPGs, wherein each space represents some kind of event - a discussion, a battle, a found item, a boss, a story event, and so on. It might not be the most glamorous to look at, but in testing, we've found that players have found it really fun once they get over the initial shock of the unconventional format.

Although the move was at first a cost-saving decision, I've come to prefer this new format over the conventional map exploration format for a number of reasons. Primarily, it gives us greater integration between narrative and gameplay. There's not really any such thing as a "cutscene" anymore because the events they would encompass have been integrated into the game board as event spaces. That might sound like it's just a difference of semantics, but you'll see what I mean when you play the prototype (more on that in a minute).

Behind-the-scenes changes

As a result of the new format, we've made some changes to the team lineup. Kate Holden, who previously was responsible for character design and map sprites, has taken over as illustrator, a job which plays a much greater role in the new format. I would also like you to welcome Anna Fitzpatrick to the team. She will be working as environment illustrator. 

Here's a look at their work together in the new format:

Rather than with sprites, events are now illustrated with expressive character portraits, which 1) lets us show off Kate's awesome designs and 2) lets us bring the characters to life by showing their body language and facial expressions.

New format, new engine

One of the other big changes is that rather than releasing on PC alone, we're now committed to making the game cross-platform, supporting not only desktop, but also mobile. In fact, I should be receiving my Ouya dev console in the next couple of weeks, so I'll be hard at work making sure the new engine (which runs on Monogame) will run smoothly on it.

I'd also like to invite you guys to play the prototype of the new format which was made in the old engine (PC only, sorry!). This prototype covers the first dungeon of the game, the Tamillan Highlands. Please note that it uses some placeholder graphics and doesn't yet have any alternate character expressions in. Give it a try here and let us know what you think!

Onward

As of now, the plan is to launch the second Kickstarter on or around January 6. Our target goal for episode 1 will be $8,000. I'm confident that we'll be able to easily make our new goal, but I'm going to need all of your help to do it. Once the project goes live, I'll need everyone's help to get the word out and reach as many people as possible. We're only asking for the bare minimum we need to complete episode 1, and every little bit we get over that will be used to build episode 2.

Thanks again for sticking with us for so long. I encourage you all to check out the prototype, let us know what you think, and share any suggestions you have on what we can do to make our second attempt as successful as possible.

Happy Holidays!

Bishop

Everyone who pledged should now have received a promo code to get a free digital copy of Vacant Sky's soundtrack. Let me know if you didn't receive a key or had a problem with redeeming it.

Enjoy, and thanks again for your support!

First of all, I would like to extend an enormous and heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported this project. Although we didn't reach our funding goal, I would be hard-pressed to call this effort a failure. We raised nearly $10,000 and got a ton of support as well as new fans of the series. That sounds like a huge success to me.

I'd especially like to thank those of you who have encouraged us, offered suggestions, and asked us to relist the project. Your words of support have definitely helped us all stay motivated throughout this insanely stressful month.

So, what are we going to do?

We have no intention of letting this get us down or abandoning the project. On the contrary, the support we've received has encouraged us to redouble out efforts, since we know now that so many of you share our dream of making this game come to life.

We plan to relist in the near future, but before we do that, we're going to consider a new strategy and look at what we did wrong, what we learned, and how we can make the project better. A lot of you have given us suggestions already - keep them coming!  It's very helpful to get other perspectives on the project and its presentation.

There are a couple of big things that we're planning to do before we make a second attempt:

1) Finish Vacant Sky Complete Edition.

It hasn't fallen by the wayside! The Kickstarter has brought in a lot of new fans of the series and they've made it clear that they really want to see the Complete Edition. Not only will it finally bring volume 1 to its long-awaited conclusion, but it should also rekindle interest in the series among old players as well as give us something to show to potential new backers to prove our skills and experience.

As of right now, Act I+ and Act II+ are pretty much done, pending the implementation of a few new skills. Act III is coming along - I just completed my first full playthrough of the main ending route yesterday, so we're almost ready to move on from the implementation phase to the polish and debugging phase. Once it's done, I'll let you all know - you'll be the first to have it.

2) Create a demo.

The problem with using Contention Complete as a demo to draw in new backers is that although it's updated, it's still outdated - since then, we've all improved as artists, game designers, writers, and developers in general. So, we've decided to produce a short demo using the new setting, the new engine, and the new characters in order to showcase just how far we've come since the original game. Not only that, but it will also serve to introduce you to the cast of Awakening.

We're still deciding on the exact details of the demo and what it will contain, so keep your eyes peeled for updates in the near future.

As an extra thanks to each of you who pledged to this project, you will all receive a free digital copy of the soundtrack of the original Vacant Sky. Expect an email with the coupon code within the coming week or so.

Thanks again to all of you. It's going to take a little longer, but we can make this happen.

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

This was Kurt Vonnegut's #1 rule for creative fiction writers and I've taken it to heart not only as a writer, but also as a game designer. A common failing of big-name titles, especially RPGs, is that they pull out all the stops to pad out the playtime for as long as possible.

Like a good story, a good game should be straight to the point. A game should be as long as it needs to be to get its point across. This rule has been a driving force behind the design of Vacant Sky: Awakening. Let's look at some of the ways we've been paring away the fat of RPGs to get down to the essence of the genre.

Encounters as challenges

Like in many modern RPGs, battles take place on a cut-away screen once the player comes in contact with an enemy sprite on the map. In most RPGs, the damage and negative conditions which you acquire from fighting carry over from one battle to the next. On top of that, you typically have some magic meter which governs how often you can use special attacks or healing.

Typically, there are two ways to recover from damage: to use an item (either a healing potion or a healing spell, which requires magic potions to recover your magic points) or to return to town and heal at an inn.

The problem with this approach is that it means that the optimal strategy is always to play it cautiously to avoid expending unnecessary resources. You might need your magic later, so it's best not to use your coolest attacks. You don't want to run back to town to heal, so you avoid battles. In essence, the winning strategy is to avoid fighting (which is the core of RPG gameplay) and to avoid using your awesome, hard-earned abilities. I don't know about you, but it seems like the best strategy is just to not have fun.

To fix this, we've decided that all battles shall be self-contained. At the end of a battle, all of your health is restored and all negative conditions which you might have accrued are also removed. You start each battle fresh.

This allows you to give each battle your all. You can use your strongest attacks without worrying about whether you'll need that magic for healing in a later battle. You don't need to run back to town every three battles to heal up, interrupting your dungeon-crawling and forcing you to retrace your steps.

On top of allowing you to take on each battle at full strength, the game also allows you makes a quick save before each battle, allowing you to retry it if you fail rather than making you go back to your last save. 

Lastly, because each encounter is designed to be a self-contained challenge, Vacant Sky: Awakening will never force you to fight a battle that you've already won. Once an encounter has been cleared, it will fade out from the map and no longer trigger unless the player manually decides to fight it again.

Isolating consequences

Because each encounter is its own challenge, it only makes sense that what happens in battle stays in battle.

Throughout the game, you can acquire consumable items which can be used in battle for a quick boost in health or to revive a dead party member. Rather than being used up permanently, however, the item is only used up until the end of battle. This fundamentally changes the question of item usage from "should I use it?" to "when should I use it?". I know that when I'm playing games, I'm always too afraid to use any of my items because I might need them later, so I always end the game with 99 of most items in the game. With this system, you have an opportunity to use each item in each battle and it becomes a question of when is it most advantageous to use.

You spent the time and effort to acquire an item, so you should be able to use it.

Eliminating grinding

One of the most egregious design flaws in RPGs is the need to grind (fight pointless battles over and over to raise your stats) in order to progress. If there's an enemy that's too tough to beat, just take a few hours away from what you were doing to fight weaker enemies until you're strong enough to beat the stronger one. Until you run into an even stronger enemy.

This design anti-pattern has refused to die with age. Even nowadays, AAA modern RPGs continue to make use of it. Not only is it a flagrant example of wasting the time, it also cheapens the gameplay itself. Boiled down to its essence, the winning strategy in any game with grinding is to fight meaningless battles over and over again until your arbitrary numbers are high enough that you can win any battle by mashing the OK button. If anything's a challenge, it's because you haven't wasted enough time yet.

The reliance on grinding has played a huge part in giving RPGs a bad name. It ultimately renders all strategy and thinking pointless, because the less risky solution is to just grind until you're strong enough that thinking is unnecessary. And really, who wants to play a game where you don't have to think?

In Vacant Sky: Awakening, not only are you never forced to grind, but grinding is impossible. Why shouldn't it be? In Mario, if you can't figure out how to make a jump, you don't backtrack to easier stages and repeat them for hours until your jumping stat is higher. No, you learn how to make the jump.

The abilities that a character has are based upon the equipment they possess and their own natural talents. Battles must be won by coordinating the efforts of your teammates and figuring out a winning strategy to overcome the enemies. If you die, then try again, and keep trying until you've found the path to victory. 

Each battle in the game is manually authored to ensure that it presents an interesting challenge. You can't abdicate the need to think by hacking away at goblins. You need to look at the resources at your disposal and find a way to win.