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226

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 25, 2017, 05:31:56 PM »

Another #screenshotsaturday, another time for a major update!

Through November we described three protagonists - Vena, Fabel and Iudicia - who are staring in Tales From Windy Meadow, our #pixelart fantasy Visual Novel. Now, with our new logo and some spelling fixes it's a good moment to group all the descriptions together.

Starting next week, we're going to focus a little bit more on the Windy Meadow itself - the area designs and the mood we're looking for. You can expect a new YouTube upload as well. The programming of the game had to be postponed, but we still hope to share with you the game's gameplay in December. : )

Also - I wanted to thank you, Jubal, for helping us with the grammar. : )

We hope you're going to have a fantastic weekend!

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 17, 2017, 04:52:53 PM »

I hope I didn't ruin anything this time! : P

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 11, 2017, 08:46:18 PM »

Thank you! I'll fix it later on.

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 11, 2017, 05:05:18 PM »

Say hello to Fabel! : )

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 04, 2017, 09:32:56 PM »

Hi there, Jubal! A complex topic that deserves a complex answer. : )

In the Viaticum setting (the one in which both The Tavern and TFWM are set) there is no real distinction between animals and monsters (beasts). The general understanding is that animals are small, monsters - larger and more dangerous, but it's completely subjective. You can still find small rodents, cute birds or a house cat, but many animals are mostly present in their wilder forms. For example, a sheep in our world is a huge beast with a couple of horns and an ability to easily trample a hostile human. 

You mentioned a boar, and it's surely a good example. However, it's difficult to find a boar similar to the ones we know from Europe. We actually plan to show a boar in our game, and we want to portray it as this giant beast with large tusks and spikes spread all over its body. Basically, in Viaticum humans are not the dominant species. We need to be clever. Or at least run fast.

Predi, Vena's mother, is a master arbalist. Sometimes you have only a single shot, and a bow may not cut it. A good crossbow is much more reliable.
Latro, Vena's father, is the one who mastered the art of the spear. It's a defensive weapon, one that can be thrown and one that can be used from a good range even in a melee battle. When a huge beasts jumps on you, you don't want a sword or an axe. You want to stab it and run away. And Vena is very, very impressed by her father. To the point where she probably wouldn't change her weapon of choice even is she would find it tempting.

When Predi and Latro were hunting together, they were often facing their game in the open battle. However, when Predi got sick and Latro was forced to hunt with young Vena, they started focusing on traps and keeping each other safe.

Also, they don't hunt to feed themselves. It's too dangerous and too difficult to live solely from hunting. But at the same time, animal trophies are worth a lot. Bones, tusks and feathers are used by craftsmen, rare meat is considered to be a luxury, furs and skins are essential for many trades. Some trophies are also valued by alchemists and other magicians. Overall, Vena's family is fairly rich, one of the richest in Windy Meadow... but I don't think she realizes how much she already has in her life.

-------

In the game not every information will be put as bluntly like that. A lot of things will be only suggested through some conversations or graphics. : ) Explaining things can be nice, but it's pretty boring for most of the player, myself included.

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: November 04, 2017, 05:27:57 PM »

Well hello there!
Tales From Windy Meadow just landed on our website! (We’re going to change the logo, though. ; ))

It’s also a great opportunity to share with you the description of one of our three protagonists - Vena, the huntress. What do you think about her?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! : )

232

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 28, 2017, 05:06:00 PM »

Happy #screenshotsaturday!

We visually updated the main heroes of Tales From Windy Meadow. Do you also think we made a right step? : )

In the following weeks we're going to introduce you these characters and share some new information about their personality and background. You can also find some additional info in our recent IndieDB devlog.

233

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 23, 2017, 06:17:57 AM »

I can't really say... Because complex animations are still long way down the road. ; ) However, we won't lipsync the faces for the sake of the dialogues. We focus on the characters' emotions, so they'll work more like idle animations.

234

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 21, 2017, 04:53:48 PM »

1) The majority of our spectators, especially from Poland, asked us to keep Calor with the longest beard possible. Just remember that we have to stay reasonable - from time to time a blacksmith has to get pretty close to fire.



2) This week we wanted to introduce you Argentia. This travelling merchant doesn't live in Windy Meadow, yet she's the most trusted trader who keeps returning to our village from Berytus city. She's a young, but already respected member of the merchant guild, who puts trust in her wit and insight. And, of course - her crossbow as well.

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 15, 2017, 09:02:38 PM »

Shouldn't a blacksmith be able to make a razor on his own? : P

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 15, 2017, 07:10:42 PM »

he's a small-village blacksmith, I'm guessing he doesn't have a lot of time or money to keep it neatly trimmed!

Actually, blacksmiths in medieval times were quite wealthy! They were an important and valued part of their communities and there is a good reason why so many languages in Europe have various smith-related popular surnames like Smith, Schmidt or Kowalski. You can see a list here!

Sure, our game's setting is a fantasy world one and isn't really a part of Europe, but I think it's one of these things worth keeping that even though most villagers are rather poor, blacksmiths are most likely among the richest members of their communities. : )

237

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 14, 2017, 07:57:03 PM »

#screenshotsaturday

Well hello there! We made a huge progress lately and I would love to share with you newest concept arts from Tales From Windy Meadow, our incoming Visual Novel.

A) One of the in-game areas, a part of the village's domesticated forest. The wilderness in our fantasy setting is a hostile space filled with threats. Because of this, even basic mushroom hunting or looking for herbs is too dangerous for anyone to make a living out of it. In result, every village tries to control a part of the forest, taking care of its plants, keeping beasts away and trying to live in symbiosis.



B) Meet Calor, our friendly village blacksmith. He doesn't like his job much, but he's good at it. Really good, actually. Because of his talent people from other villages can buy new tools from him without making a trip to the city, what makes Windy Meadow a fairly popular place.
However, we can't decide which beard do we like the most... Which one is your favorite?

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: October 07, 2017, 06:03:40 PM »

Happy #screenshotsaturday! I have to be honest, when I see some of the concept arts I get, I instantly think - these have to be a part of the final game...

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: September 30, 2017, 05:59:37 AM »

Hi, Jubal! I wish I'd be that talented. : ) :
Some great artists work with me, though I want to learn how-to pixel art myself. : )

If you ever try The Tavern - let me know how you liked it! : D

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Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Tales From Windy Meadow - fantasy pixel art Visual Novel

« on: September 28, 2017, 09:18:18 PM »

(Updated on 25th day of September, 2018.)

Welcome to the updated description of Tales From Windy Meadow, a Visual Novel currently developed for Windows. You can also read about it's world and protagonists on the of website Moral Anxiety Studio.

Tales From Windy Meadow is a single-player collection of interactive stories focused on a community of small village set in bittersweet fantasy world. This Visual Novel explores topics like finding your place in life, loneliness, pursuing your goals and dealing with your past and disadvantages. 



Our pixel art graphics are inspired by games such as VA-11 Hall-A and Kingdom: Classic, we want to create distinctive visuals and combine them with immersive, relatable writing and both guitar and piano music.



To make the dialogues more dynamic, the text-based narration is mostly replaced by animations, limiting the on-screen text almost exclusively to conversations. Even though we're using Ren'Py, we added some custom features to support our storytteling as much as possible. For example, you can bring up the game's map whenever you want to visualize where the various locations are set or use your mouse to hover character names to read their descriptions.

The game is in it's final stage. We’ve made more than half of animations, all of the backgrounds, UI, pretty much all of the coding not related to graphics. We still try to make the improve dialogues, music and sound effects, nevertheless we plan to release the game in Q4 of 2018. We have a lot of delay, though it's mostly because with time the game became much more ambitious than we originally assumed.

To stay in touch with us, follow us on Twitter (@MoralAnxiety) and Facebook (@MoralAnxiety) to make sure you won’t miss any updates!

Much love,
Maciej Aureus Gajzlerowicz
Moral Anxiety Studio