The Silent Kingdom - demo
The Silent Kingdom - Development News
Hello, everyone!
The Silent Kingdom has been in development for the past two years. I'd like to talk about the state of development, as well as my current plans.
First of all, the prologue seen in the demo has been greatly improved for 1.0 (still unpublished). My plan so far is to release and sell 1.0 -which will contain both the prologue and chapter 1- on Steam, while leaving the original alpha demo on itch.io for anyone who wants to see how this game started. What do you think? Should I sell the game on Itch.io as well and remove the alpha demo forever?
As for 1.0 improvements regarding the prologue, some dialogue has been tweaked, new dialogue and details have been added, and many graphical updates have improved the maps. Let me show you some examples!
The battle system is also being remade to display character animations. I want them to have a 100% anime feel.
The game will also have its own original score, composed by Mikel Dale! Most of the music tracks used in the alpha demo will be replaced by the new ones. You can listen to the main theme (and the princess' leitmotif) in the composer's twitter.
After remaking the prologue, I've been working on Chapter 1 nonstop, which is 3 or 4 times the length of the prologue. It's been a lot of work and I'm a single dev, so I can't be as fast as a real studio. Still, I've been doing my best. This game is my world and I'm getting closer and closer to the day of release!
Chapter 1 will contain tons of new CG illustrations!
I'm always posting news about the development on twitter and Kickstarter. If you'd like to see more information and screenshots, don't hesitate to visit any of them. Thank you for your patience and interest, everyone!
Are you looking for more otome games to play? Don't miss the Magic & Mystery Otome event! Click on each game to visit their page and enjoy the works of many passionate devs~
Comments
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so when is the second chapter being released ?
Development of Chapter 1 (which is what happens right after the prologue, and takes place in the Kingdom of flowers) should be finished in less than half a year. I can't give a date yet because I don't want to risk anything going wrong, but I'm in the final stage.
I might make a new development news post by the middle of the month ^^
I love seeing all these updates on twitter but seeing everything compiled here is fantastic. I'm so absolutely excited with each update to play this again. You're putting in so much love and passion into this and it shows every step of the way!
Aaaah, thank you very much for following the project so closely! ;A;
I really can't wait to see it released so that I can know everyone's opinions about it. The thought keeps me going!
Wow, the improvements look amazing! I’m looking forward to try out the updated demo.
Regarding the alpha demo on itch: isn’t it possible to have both, the alpha demo *and* the updated one, on itch.io? Perhaps by creating a separate game page for the alpha demo? I’d just love to keep it around for nostalgia reasons and it’s a nice way to show everyone who’s interested how many improvements have been made.
Thank you!! ^^
Oh, now that you mention it, I think I've seen some itch.io pages that host several files. Perhaps I can do the same and host both demo versions, so the player can choose which one to download.
I also want to keep the alpha demo out of pure nostalgia (>w<)
The work you've put into Silent Kingdom is stunnning. I cannot wait for the new CGIs!
I would suggest leaving up the demo because that way, people can get a taste for your game without buying it. On steam, if people buy your game and then refund, you *still owe Steam its 30% cut!!!* So you will lose money if people refund your game!
Of course, there's no way to keep all people from refunding your game but if you have a demo up, then some people might choose to play your game and just not buy/refund it if they don't like it for whatever reason. So it gives you a little extra barrier against a high refund rate (which again, is a pain because Steam will take its 30% cut even on refunded purchases).
And thanks also for the shout-out to the amazing games in our Itch.io bundle. I am so thrilled to be partnering up with you this summer to show our beautiful games off!
EEEEH? REALLY?? O_O I didn't know that about Steam! How can that be legal? That's very disturbing ;;;
In any case, I wasn't planning to remove the demo from steam. I would just update it to 1.0, so the current alpha version would be lost forever. That's why I thought I could keep the Alpha version on itch.io as a memory of how everything started ^^ The differences between both versions are quite noticeable.
You're very welcome! It's me who thanks you for organising this awesome event. I'm honoured to participate~
The new art looks great! And I can't wait to hear all the new music. I agree that you should also sell the game here on itch.io as well.
Thank you for your kind words! I'm happy you're enjoying the art so far ^^
Looking good, glad to see the devegoing well. If you can also please sell the game on itch.io as well, I fell as having the game being sold on two platforms would give players more choice, and keeping the demo up is s nice. I wish you and your team the best, and hope you all are well.
Thank you very much! ^^
In that case, I'll consider the possibility of selling it on itch.io as well, though I think I'd wait until the game is 100% finished. Meanwhile, it'll release as an Early Access on Steam as soon as chapter 1 is ready (it'll have 3 chapters in total.)
I wish I had a team hahaha. I'd have been able to get work done faster ;w;
You shouldn't wait for the game to be completed to sell it in itch too. It's still a good place to get revenue, even if it's not ✨ Steam ✨. You just have to be extra clear that the game is still a work in progress and it only contains x amount of chapters as you progress. Like mentioned by someone else, you can have multiple files on the same page and in the same way, you should be able to update the game files just for those who paid. Anyways, keep up the good work.
WOOOWW THE DEVELOPMENT İS AMAZİİİNG AND ART İS SOO COOOL!! ^^ ı think keeping demo is not a bad choice since demos can also help people to decide ıf the game is their cup of tea generally . ı do hope this game will have lots of enjoyers after all these efforts too. thank you for your all hard work! :)
Thank you for your kind words!! I'm happy you like the improvements and new art ^o^
I'm working hard to make this game the best it can be, and it's my hope that people will enjoy the story and collecting all the CGs.
So you think keeping the alpha demo is a good idea? I think so too. I like comparing how it started VS how it's going, even if I'm a bit embarrassed about the first demo haha.