Patreon opened!

Publicado el julio 1, 2018 por alphaprospector

Greetings everyone, this is AlphaProspector writing.

We launched our Patreon page during June so I think it’s time to write a bit about it. First things first, you can click on the banner below to access/visit the Patreon page:

Patreon wordmark (navy)

Or click here as well: https://www.patreon.com/primumsoft

The goal we have with Patreon is to help us developing things without the pressure of commissions and side works, as well as to shield ourselves from the increasingly pressing economic situation and problemas that are affecting the countries we live in and that are starting to put a dent in our progress.

We’ll keep character and progress updates (including music and other elements) lined up there for those interested in accompanying us through this journey. The site will of course also continue to be updated when major updates happen but, with your support, we also want to build a stronger community this way.

Please look forward for future updates and we hope to see you guys around. Thanks everyone for your support!

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Life, update, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , | Deja un comentario

Development Patreon opening up soon!

Publicado el junio 15, 2018 por alphaprospector

Patreon wordmark (navy)Hello everyone, this is AlphaProspector!

Big apologies for the radio silence. We’ve been having some rather complicated life issues recently that kept us very busy but hopefully that should be cleared very, very soon.

Meanwhile, we ran a public poll between our followers to gauge interest on a potential Patreon page to support ourselves more efficiently. We took the results (which showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the proposal) and all feedback seriously, so we spent a long while discussing and commenting on this and the decision was made: we are going to be launching one in the coming hours!

Obtaining a more stable, monthly income will be a tremendous milestone for us in order to rely less on commissions or exhausting crunch/overtime (both of which take away huge chunks of proper development time) and to provide better quality and polish as we continue facing some extremely adverse conditions in the countries we live in, where making games or any sort of long term projects is definitely not an easy task. We are definitely going to put up a big fight against all odds!

We also really want to get other products and materials printed that, right now, our out of reach for us and, moreover, get our projects prepared to make the console jump, which has been pitched to us several times and it could be another huge milestone.

This way we will also build a stronger and bigger community and providing content more easily (including pre-release/alpha/demo tests) as we ourselves grow up as developers and artists, and so we can strive to tell and build the worlds we love.

Publicado en Development, Games, Life, update, Updates | Etiquetado , , | Deja un comentario

Small situation update+extra

Publicado el abril 12, 2018 por alphaprospector

Where does time go?

This is AlphaProspector here. Unfortunately things have not been going well at all after a rather bumpy return from Japan into the devalued, nightmarish hell hole I live in. This included a severe respiratory infection that knocked me out for two weeks (leaving me 8 days without sense of hearing as well) and instantly led me back to my day job in a rather sorry state (which delayed my full recovery for another week and left me with a chronic coughing for a while, man, Asian viruses are way too strong on my already fragile health.)

Anyway, this coupled with a lot of issues on the art side (caused by events out of our control unfortunately), my own day job consuming my very soul, it all led to a very complicated situation that I hope is returning to normalcy soon.

Some things have been advancing of course, it’s just the things nobody cares about (programming, scripting, music and SFX production to some extent) so getting back up will be a tall order but I’ll be damned it’ll be done.

I’ve been scripting and preparing the Steam build of Hoshi Agari, as well as a little something that I would rather keep as a surprise, so as not to jinx it. From there on, focus will be on polishing the content as much as possible and get back to the full build of Yume no Sono, which being the flagship title it of course will take the longest and the build is in dire need of a full artwork revision, which is why frankly there isn’t much to show visually until some of that is reached. Then of course it’s also planning ahead since things don’t stop here, oh no.

It’s been excruciatingly painful and frustrating (without mentioning demoralizing) when you see the rest going forward and see things get stuck on your front, but life is not like they paint it on social networks or pictures. There are a lot of hardships to be faced, a silent majority muted about.

Meanwhile, a pending post was intended to showcase some of the happy buyers and customers who supported us during and after Comiket 93. A huge thanks to all of them and here is a quick selection from them, including the lead artist and partner in crime, bonkiru, who of course got a gigantic box of goods of all kinds from Japan and then some more, not just circle-related materials.

So, let’s conclude on a slightly higher note:

As you can see, I even gave a hand to some getting the limited goods. When you love something, you share the love. A belated, immense thanks to all our supporters, too many to name! (But you know who you are!) I don’t want to forget of anyone.

Those are the majority of the items we sold during Comiket, which included the trial version of Yume no Sono (Japanese, including a soundtrack sampler), the special release of Hoshi Agari with its full OST (English build, this one is being updated with further content and a few other improvements for a Steam release), a very small full color official doujinshi with several guest artists, postcard sets and a series of keychains, which we hope to see around soon as our publisher also took a few of them for their western touring this year.

Maybe next time we can make even crazier items, divine providence allowed.

We hope to be back soon with better news. I know text updates aren’t the best, but hopefully next time there will be a more visual approach with like, you know, screenshots, character sheets and all the graphics, maybe even some promotional stuff.

That’s it for now, I definitely want to be reporting back sooner than usual and get our projects back on scene.

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Life, update, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , | Deja un comentario

Winter Comic Market 93 Report (C93)

Publicado el enero 15, 2018 por alphaprospector

Hello everyone, this is AlphaProspector from Japan!

Well, that took long enough but here it is! This is a brief report of our experience as a first time circle at Winter Comic Market 93, Comiket 93 for short.

Since there are strict rules in regards of what can be publicly shown of the event, we’ll only show our booth and a few external details that portray the sheer amount people that band together during these insane three days across the enormous Tokyo Big Sight complex.

Primum Soft was present on Day One, in East Hall 3 along music composers and other doujin soft developers. It was great to meet a lot of talented people all around us!

Here is a small chronicle in photos of that day, starting with a very cold morning and seeing an already immense line of people crowding the Tokyo Big Sight access park:

P_20171229_073624The photo doesn’t make it justice. Nothing makes justice to the way Japan does crowds.
P_20171229_074155_1Ironic how the rising sun was literally coming out of the whole complex. Very interesting effect and definitely fitting.

Luckily for us that area was full of circle participants preparing themselves to enter their respective halls so it was a matter of braving the cold for a short while before venturing in to get our tickets cut for that coveted early access.

We quickly met up with everyone else and headed to our hall to setup our booths:

P_20171229_083141The rush to get everything up before the big opening was real.

It was our first time in this kind of events so it took us a bit to put everything ready and even then a few changes happened in the middle. We brought several character goods as well as two software products (one actually being a bundle that included a full soundtrack, the other a trial version also containing an omake soundtrack sampler, I hope that makes people pop the disc in to listen to some tunes) and a very small fan book called 美しい花の楽園, or the Paradise of Beautiful Flowers, featuring a few guest artists and work from our main artist, Bonkiru.

P_20171229_085726The girls were of course curiously and happily monitoring our progress as we set it all up.
P_20171229_083559Yumekatari, the Yume no Sono and Hoshi Agari image album and vocal CD was also put for sale during this Comic Market on Circle A.R.M.’s booth!

Eventually we set up both of the PVs of the projects for everyone’s viewing and listening:

P_20171229_100218The fully set up booth with the PVs running!

Hours went by, we met several doujin developers (including Fenrir from Kuro Irodoru Yomiji, Hizume from Atelier 773 -Nanami- circle, Yoko from circle RebRank and many other contacts! Friends passed by, new people tagged along. Certainly they were some nicely action-packed hours.

P_20171229_110945Go support Ne No Kami and every other doujin dev!

We were even interviewed for IGN Japan! You can read the article here:

http://jp.ign.com/comic-market/20796/feature/steam937

By the end of the event everyone could barely move and, of course, then came the time to return back home/to the hotel in my case and, well, that took a long while.

P_20171229_161930_1So long and hope to see you soon again!

Both Bonkiru and A.D.P. (Arcane Divine Piano) weren’t able to attent the event but they were present in spirit, both through their respective arts placed in the front, as music and characters and graphics, weaved through tales.

Of course this would’ve not been possible without the aid of so many people but here goes a big thanks for ell-san (circle A.R.M. -A Reyvateil Melody-), Vanui-san, Raide and Tom, as well for their awesomeness and help during this massive event!

On behalf of everyone at Primum Soft we deeply thank EVERYONE who visited us at our booth, this is our thank you for you and we hope to see you around again next time we take part of Comiket!

Thank you! / どうもありがとうございます！

ftest670BArt by: ぼんきる (Bonkiru)

Once again, thanks to everyone and for those who purchased Hoshi Agari, please keep the game box because we’ll be using that to provide you a Steam key of the game once it releases there. The Japanese translation will be patched in as soon as it’s finished and tested. More news in that regard as we progress with it, for now please hold on tight to it and enjoy the full soundtrack that was bundled with the release!

P.S.: Those interested in character goods residing in the US will be able to get some of the character goods thanks to Sekai Project so visit them at their booths!

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, PC, release, Updates, Visual Novel | Deja un comentario

Comiket 93 report coming soon!

Publicado el enero 7, 2018 por alphaprospector

This is AlphaProspector, hello everyone!

Just a heads up, I wanted to at least update our status. Everything went great at Winter Comiket 93 but I am currently writing a full on report and am waiting for accompanying art to go with it (along with a few photos, but please take into consideration the Comic Market rules regarding photography in public).

I’ll also dare to write a short version in Japanese but since my Japanese is nowhere near as natural sounding as I would like I’ll ask some aid to polish it up.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I know it’s been a week since the end of Comiket but I’m still recovering from the thrill and others were also not without compromises and activities as well as situations preventing a quick response. But, well, I hope that tomorrow or a bit later to have the complete report up and ready… I’m not sure about it, but I sure am eager to do so!

Hopefully this marks an interesting opening of the year for us so please stay tuned!

See you really soon!

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, update, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , | Deja un comentario

Heading towards Comic Market 93/冬コミに行く！

Publicado el noviembre 4, 2017 por alphaprospector

Greetings!

Circle Primum Soft has been selected to participate in the upcoming Winter Comic Market 93!!!

Held at the tremendously spacey Tokyo Big Sight, Comic Market (Comiket for short) is one of the biggest and most relevant market events in the world. Comiket mixes companies and independent developers, small and big artists, fans, cosplayers and creators of all kinds alike. It’s an honor to be participating in such a massive meeting point.

For those interested in greeting/meeting us and get some exclusive and incredibly limited goodies of our projects, we’ll be present on Friday 29th (Day 1) at East Hall, Block A, booth 39a (location in Japanese for the Catalog search: 金曜日　東地区“ア”ブロック－39a).

We are also participating as a joint booth with circle A.R.M. (A Reyvateil’s Melody, an Ar Tonelico oriented doujin circle that also hosts our buddies from harmonicblend, who we have also worked a lot with… Did we mention we also love Gust and their music?)

See you there!

(And if anyone is interested in acquiring some of the items we’ll put up for sale, we ask you some patience as we may only be able to ship some from Japan after Comiket, but we’ll need to verify stock and such.)

So, what does this mean for us right now?

For the next few weeks we’ll be franctically focusing on completing belated, long-overdue pending circle work to fulfill all the requirements and mandatory items that we registered to sell at Comiket. The race begins! The printing, production/manufacturing and shipping deadlines for said items are extremely strict so we are being very careful in this regard as we dialogue with our Japanese contact. Updates will be done to the Web catalog page as we conclude the cover art of said items and prepare the additional character goods.

Indeed, the next weeks are going to be hectic for us all as we finish fine-tuning things. A true test to our might! This also goes in line to complete the goals we set for our publisher, who has been also standing up for us through the development process.

However, reflecting a bit, this year has been a gigantic thorny road with a lot of troublesome personal situations pervading our lives. Of course, we are still fighting to overcome all these complications!

This affects us all in the circle since as we have stressing day jobs that devour our attentions and souls but it has also greatly affected Bonkiru, our resident artist extraordinaire, who is going through a lot of personal hurdles and issues.

Due to an unforeseen event that exceeded all our planned budgets and capacity, he has taken on several emergency commissions but, due to their very nature as an emergency, this almost usually means an artist takes in a very small time frame far more than what they usually handle in order to cover up medical costs. Medical costs are not cheap, not in the countries we come from, and considering we live under very pressured and devalued currencies the situation gets even more delicate.

He added a lot of materials that also need finishing for different parties but of course this distorted the main circle schedule greatly. However, in light of the key importance of Comiket for us as a group, the financial risks we’ve taken, including all the extra investments in the production of goods, we’ll all try to make haste and get the key elements ready.

All work will be finished, it may just take a little longer but it’ll be cleared.

よろしくお願いします！冬コミに楽しみに見てください！

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , , , , | Deja un comentario

秋とハロウィンアップデート

Publicado el noviembre 1, 2017 por alphaprospector

どうも、αプロスぺクターです。

まだまだこれは小さいアップデートですけど僕たちは本当に忙しかったです！「夢の園」体験版はほぼ終了です。

Big Banner

けれども、ぼんきるさんもっともっとがんばられましたね。

「星挙がり」のアキちゃんはロウィンコス作っていました。かわいいだと思います！

冬コミはとても近いです！だから、がんばりましょう！

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, PC, update, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , | Deja un comentario

Hoshi Agari minisite up!

Publicado el septiembre 17, 2017 por alphaprospector

Update time! Still Saturday here by a few minutes and, moreover, it’s been less than a month.

The minisite for Hoshi Agari has finally been uploaded with some information and insight on the main characters and storyline.

It can be viewed from the bar above or by clicking here.

Hopefully we’ll be bringing more updates soon as we continue to wrap up and finish elements!

P.S.: Here we have some little cute chibi Suyana, Aki and Lidia, the three main characters of this project!

Banners-HAchibi

Publicado en Uncategorized | Deja un comentario

Comic Market 93 (Winter Edition) Registration

Publicado el agosto 18, 2017 por alphaprospector

c93_p

Registration to Winter Comic Market has been completed as a joint venture with circle A.R.M. (A Reyvateil’s Melody, who specializes on Gust’s Ar Tonelico series doujin materials and arranged music). Big thanks to ell-san for lending us a hand with this and his awesome disposition to sort everything out!

Comiket registration is an arduous and rather complex process but, well, there we present you our circle cut panel. We hope to bring a lot of things!

Meanwhile, we’ll continue development of our projects as fast as we can!

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, update, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , , , | Deja un comentario

Hoshi Agary Soundtrack Medley 2+dev updates

Publicado el julio 2, 2017 por alphaprospector

It’s been little over a month so it’s time to drop another update. Apologies for the silence but both my (deteriorated) health and mood have been in shambles recently. Not the ideal state of mind to write any news, let alone to theorize about life and dreams.

Thankfully things are MUCH better on that front now and I’m being extra careful.

Without further ado, let’s get to the updates!

Arcane Divine Piano (also facing similar health issues by the way) still managed to crank a few more instrumental tunes in this time, and here we present you a brief medley of some of them. It was hard to pick up as, personally, I really like all the songs!

The tracklist is as follows:

a) Scholar of Misfortune
b) Illustrious Breathing Nebulae
c) Trance Shift
d) 影の踊り (Shadowdance)

In other news, production of the CGs and other key materials (like this lovely updated Hoshi Agari banner you can see in this very entry, just notice all the neat new details!) has finally begun. We’ll see how this hopefully goes as it’s been also facing some troubles. Soon I may show a sneak peek of that.

Script polishing is also in process but instead of coming down, word count is going up. We’ll see how that goes as I’ve been removing some filler or simply changing a few parts that didn’t flow as nicely as I hoped.

Backgrounds are basically almost done, only a few remain but the bulk of them is looking fantastic and will help set the tone for Hoshi Agari. From here it’ll be building the tone for Yume no Sono, I can’t wait for that!

Oh, an engine update is also coming very soon which will allow implementation of a LOT of fancy effects as well. This could potentialy delay things but it may be for the best as we try to deliver the best products we can. Steam implementation may also prove troublesome but I’m trying to already jump that obstacle by contacting people who have already worked on it to speed things up.

Well, that’s it for now. I may try another update soon. (Easier said than done so trying not to overpromise there.)

Back to the dev-cave!

Publicado en Development, Doujin, Games, Life, music, PC, Updates, Visual Novel | Etiquetado , , , , | Deja un comentario