[Ciel Devlog #20] Refining The Schedule Sort System

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Hi, RikuoTanaka here, yet again bringing you the latest devlog!
Let’s just jump right in with the news, shall we?

The Development Continues!

Yep, that’s right! The development of the game continues to this day. There are still work to be done, after all!
Most features of the game have been implemented, so now it’s more on the content side of things.
And that means cutscenes. A LOT of cutscenes. This will take quite a while, but we are working on it!

Other than that, a new feature has been implemented into the game.
Say hello to the new Schedule Menu Sorting System!

In the previous iteration of schedule interface, you can only sort the activities/jobs based only on the STATS (STR, INT, CHA, IMG, SPI). We realize that with the growing list of activities and jobs card this sort system will not be sufficient anymore, especially considering the basic of sorting type, such as sort by alphabet (A-Z, or Z-A) or sort by pay/cost is absent. We decide to add all those new sort types to make browsing and selecting activities and jobs card easier.

Another addition is the new Social tab, which contains social activities and list every NPCs that your adopted daughter has encountered. With this social activity, increasing the NPCs relationship will be less dependent on random encounters, since you can now focus on which NPC you want your daughter to be “best friend” with. The new social activity comes with its own cost, she will suffer quite a high discipline hit every time she hangs out with a friend and it can only be selected once a week to avoid spamming and player exploit.

In addition to this new feature, we are planning to add more features down the line to make the gameplay experience more enjoyable. Here’s a little teaser:

You can stay in touch with us for more news on the development to come!

That’s it for today’s devlog! This is RikuoTanaka, signing out! Have a nice day!

[Ciel Devlog #19] More Activities “Battle Mini-games” Variation

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Hi everyone, it’s me num, the game designer and artist of Studio Namaapa. Before I start writing the log, a reminder that our KS campaign is still running, it’s 13 days left before the campaign end, and if you want to support Ciel Fledge or spreading the word, the page is here:

http://kck.st/2z6VfPh

Now, with the KS campaign “advertisement” done, let’s get back to this week devlog.

With the public demo released, we got so many feedbacks and suggestions about the game, one of many suggestions I want to address in this devlog is the help content  and battle minigames variation.

Help Content

One of the concerns  I have about this game is the steep learning curve required for first time player that may discouraged them to play the game. The light hearted, casual look of the game may be deceptive when in actuality the game mechanics are quite complex. To address this, we made a built-in interactive tutorials that explain various mechanics of the game, but then again, some people may find this tutorials too intrusive, especially those who just want to jump straight into the game and learn as they play. Only to find they are missing something and there are no means to access the skipped interactive tutorials.

Say hello to the help menu. We have planned the help menu even before we released the public demo, but haven’t got the time to compile the content yet, so you will not find it in our first public demo (alpha 2). You can see and access the help button if you go to the game menu, but it’s still empty. In the new demo build it should contains many explanation about the game mechanics.

The help content, explaining the schedule slots.

Battle Minigames Variation

For those of you who have played the demo, you must have at least got one or two battle encounters randomly popped up when your adopted daughter is doing any activity. this battle encounters may come in the form of fight battle, score battle, quiz battle. We are aware that there are not enough graphics variation that fit with the description of the activity (ex: fight battle against a sand sack in swimming activity). We are working to add many visual varieties for this battle minigames to make the game more appealing and comfy to play!

Some of the variation we are currently working are the Swimming and Cooking Class battle minigames, it’s still quite rough but you can see it in the works below:

Ciel now actually swimming in the swimming activity.

 

What the class are cooking? It smells.. guudd.

 

The help content and battle minigames variations will be coming in the next update, so stay tune and if you want to follow us, here are our social media links:

Twitter

Facebook

Tumblr

See you in the next update!

[Ciel Devlog #18] Kickstarter Launched! Plus, Some Content Updates

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IMPORTANT NOTICE
If you encounter any Vertex-related errors, please install this to fix the problem:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=8109

 

Heya. wltr3565 here. Big news for everyone:

We have launched the Kickstarter for Ciel Fledge!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1275858615/ciel-fledge

It’s mainly to gain funds for audio department. Notably vocals, BGM quality, and last but not least, some degree of voice acting, for the best immersion possible. Check it out and any help like sharing / retweeting the Kickstarter is appreciated!

While at it, let me present you some updates for the game. As per director’s request, we have made the game to show up the Option screen when you enter a New Game, just to make sure you don’t forget to set up the game to your liking.

Also, the game is at its best when you’re in a battle, so we have added more new Battles in the mix!


– Acting Class
It’s an audition, so impress the judge and get their attention! They tend to not look at you in several moments, so mind your timing.


– Swimming
Swimming is about endurance, so why don’t you improve it by attacking the sandbag until it submits? It recovers itself, so you will want to attack it non-stop.

That’s all for now. Also, for today, I showcased numfank’s illustration instead, to commerate our Kickstarter launch too.

Well then, see you next time!

[Ciel Devlog #17] Adding Schedule Save Slots And An Announcement

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Hello Again!

Hi, RikuoTanaka here, bringing you the latest devlog!
It’s been a while since my last devlog, isn’t it? Well, there is a reason for that.
And no, it’s not because I’m out of ideas to talk about yet again…
It’s because I have to prepare for my thesis defense back then.
But minus a few revisions and submissions, it’s done, and I passed it! Not that anyone cares
Enough about me, let’s just cut to the chase.

Schedule Menu’s New Feature

This week’s devlog will be short, just like the last one. There are 2 things I want to tell you.
The first one is a newly implemented feature that numfank didn’t get to showcase in the last devlog.
If you have been following our facebook page, you know what it is: Schedule Save Slots!
Now you can save your own Schedule for the week in any of the 3 slots available!
It saves the hassle of inputting the same Schedule all over again in the next week.
You can see it in action right here:

Of course, we are also improving the game in other aspects, such as bug fixing and balancing.
Thanks to the feedback of our playtesters, most bugs have already been patched.
The most notable change is the way the activities are unlocked and locked for use.
To show you what I mean, look at the in-game screenshots below.


As you can see in the screenshot, the Language Course Activity requires the Logic skill level 3 for it to unlock.
But if you already raised the logic skill to level 3, then for any reason the skill drops back to level 2, the language course activity will be locked again. And that’s not all…

Do you see the Shortstory Writer and Social Study activities? Not only do they have their own skill level requirement, but they also require the Language Course activity to be unlocked.
This means if the logic skill level drops from 3 to 2, those 2 activities will be locked as well.
So if you want to keep those activities unlocked, you have to manage your child’s skill properly.

Kickstarter Time

The second thing is… well, you already read the above title, we are planning a Kickstarter!
The Kickstarter page will be up on the 25th of October.

In the meantime, you can check our draft page at prefundia below:
http://prefundia.com/projects/view/ciel-fledge/14178/.

The Kickstarter funding will mostly go towards quality improvement for the music, and voice overs for the game.
But don’t worry, regardless of wether we receive the necessary funds from Kickstarter or not,
we will still finish the game. Still, your donation is very much appreciated!

That’s all from me, this is RikuoTanaka, signing out!
PS: Playing Danganronpa V3. I don’t know why everyone else plays Cuphead instead

[Ciel Devlog #16] Playtesting And Improvement

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Hi, this is num, back again with me in Ciel Fledge devlog #16.

During this last few weeks, we have been playtesting the game intensively although the game itself is just around 40% done. I want to make sure that the gameplay element of the game is perfected by getting feedbacks first from many testers, then adapting the gameplay based on those feedbacks. Other element such as story can wait for later.

There are so many tidbits of improvement we have done to improve the game thanks to the playtesters. I can’t detail them all here because most are a minor and quality of live improvement to make player more comfortable playing the game.

This is probably the shortest devlog ever for Ciel Fledge, but before i end this devlog, here’s the newest Ciel Fledge gameplay video, in 90 seconds with all the improvement applied:

Also, for all of you readers who are interested to become playtester for Ciel Fledge, feel free to contact us at our discord server at: https://discord.gg/yvecEAn