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dingbat91

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The Questions Thread

 

Okie dokie another topic to start up the forums, even a little. in preperation for the games release... as well as to satiate curiosity

 

This here be the questions thread. Where we can put our questions up in one giant bundle of knowledge, and you never know, we might even get an answer :)

 

Anyway I'll put some of mine here to get the ball rolling :P

 

 

1. While you live a life as a student, how much can your actions, or events, effect the entire place itself. for example can an event cause a change in the way the school is run(change of headmaster, teachers. or being restricted to leave/access certain areas because of dangers or evens), possibly effect your influcence inside the school? (becoming a prefect for example) I am a big fan of watching the things you do change the big picture, even in subtle ways.

 

2. can any details be displayed on the combat and dueling system? are they even the same?

 

3. as much as I like a good lightning bolt to the face of my enemies, what can we expect from non combat spells? will they give interesting effects that adjust an adventures path or even allow us to effect people and places in different ways? or will it be limited to '+5 intelligence' or 'puts <name> to sleep for the rest of the day' spells?

 

4. How is teaching and magic going to be controlled. will it just be gaining a point count, or will events and adventures affect your characters (or your own) knowledge? will an exam just happen and say if we passed or failed? or will we actively be given some sort of challenge we have to complete. and if so will these be different each playthrough?

 

anyway there's some of my questions put forward. if anyones else has some to put here then add them! It might just get enough weight behind it to get mine and your own questions answered!

 

-

Dingbat

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Dingbat;

 

1) We, too, are fans of the larger picture, but most of the interaction you can do with the University (and environs) is to come in sequels. As a first year, you will be too busy making friends, getting into scrapes and trouble, and learning the ins and outs of the school environment. Not to mention studying, of course. :rolleyes:

 

2) I'll see about getting a screenshot up for that in our weekend site update, good question. Combat and Dueling are a very small portion of the game, and the interface is similar to the Calendar in that you choose, round by round, your Actions. Before you can experience Combat, you have to be in a Duel- and before this, you have to be in a Vendetta, which in turn requires a very low Relationship with the Student in question.

The primary role of the system is to stop your enemies from using hostile actions on you. If you win a Duel, your opponent is subjected to a Geas which stops them from targeting you with whatever plots they have in mind. Of course, it doesn't stop you from doing anything to them. :)

In the end, Duels are just one way of dealing with a foe- you can always try diplomacy first.

 

3) There are a wide variety of spells, leaving aside the ones which are purely combat related, and most of them are of the buffing form in one way or another (+5 Intelligence is very nice to have!). There is a subset of Spells, however, which have much more interesting effects, such as controlling people's actions, placing them into unusual emotional states, giving various afflictions, altering relationships and ingratiating yourself with the instructors. Some of these Spells will affect your fellow Student's decisions, although that's more of a long term cumulative effect.

These Spells, however, are not a usual part of a Student's curriculum, and must be sought out. Some of the more powerful ones are very hard to come by indeed, and require knowledge of esoteric Skills, favors from Instructors, a lot of Money (and knowledge of certain secret Merchants!) or an unusual combination of factors.

 

4) Every school day you have class in your Morning and Afternoon phases. Depending on which classes you are enrolled in, you generally will learn at least one thing that day, whether it be a Lore, a Pheme, a Spell, a Recipe, Location, or a new Skill. Naturally, you tend to learn more Spells (and the Phemes necessary for casting them!) in classes oriented to magic- but, this being a University dedicated to the study of the magical arts, you pretty much learn Spells from every Class and every Skill. Note that your standard instruction will only teach you Spells considered to be 'safe' by the Praetexta Council...

 

Events and Adventures (particularly the latter) can teach you rare Phemes and Spells.

 

Exams have a set day, and your performance in them depends entirely on how much you have Studied, and what your relevant Skill is. You can do exceedingly well (over 100 is possible!) or exceedingly poorly, depending on how much effort you put in. Exams do not have a strong impact on you in this, your first year, but very poor performance on your mid terms can land in Hall Sessions, which is a mandatory disciplinary study group. Exams are not a mini-game, however, although we've considered exploring that in the sequel. It's a fun design challenge. :)

And, of course, your performance on Exams will have a definite impact in the sequel...:D

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Very interesting to hear all this! and I must say this leads to many more questions in my mind

 

1. You say that the other students will plot against you. now I can understand bad relations being worth some childish pranks or possibly even bullying on the occassion. but what would your relationship with other students do to effect you on a serious level? can students have deep ulterior motives that they are trying to achieve or are they all just innocent students that can just become a pain if they don't manage them. what effect would make you want to risk a magical do.

 

I suppose I can suppress that question to "How strong do the other students effect the world"

 

2. can the player be subjected to a Geas? and are they limited to punishments for loss. or can they be cast by students and/or the player?

 

3. The magic combination system sounds detailed, and highly interesting. How do Phemes affect spells (are they what are needed to cast spells, or do certain phemes adjust the spells function?) is lore only a storytelling device, or does it have an effect in gameplay (more dialog options for example) and do you have any examples of some non-magical skills that will be available?

 

4. you say this game is just the first year, does that mean the game will end upon reaching graduation of that first year? and will you be able to take your character into the next game covering the second year (if that kind of fore-planning has been done yet of course)

 

and to finish off

 

5. how many segments is a day split? is it a Morning/afternoon/evening (in other words 2 classes + free action) or is the splits more frequent. also how many actions can be covered in a split. do you have to choose an entire section to talking to another bothersome student, or continuing on that adventure you'd been working on the last 3-4 days?

 

Thank you for your time!

-

Dingbat

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Dingbat;

 

1) You will find that the Students (all 83 of them!) are quite different and will seek to do things that are according to their interests, personalities and goals. They range from longer term strategies like: "Keep up Appearances", "Know the School" and "Push Back" to short term actions which benefit themselves, their College, their Familiar, Friends and studies. The school will definitely feel alive, especially as you make friends or foes, or gain information about the students.

 

2) Geasa are very powerful, structured magic and are generally beyond first year students. I *believe* that the only Geasa in the game is the one resulting from a Duel- and yes, the Player can be subjected to it if they lose as well. :rolleyes:

 

3) Every Spell is made up of 2 or more Phemes, which you must know before you can cast the Spell. Whenever you cast a Spell you have the opportunity to include extra Phemes. This is advantageous in that they grant additional effects to the Spell, but disadvantageous in that they increase the difficulty of the Spell to cast. Phemes are almost entirely buffs (+1 Intelligence), but some have unique effects. As with Spells, these are generally difficult to come by. As for non-magical Skills, since your name is Dingbat we'll give some 'D' examples: Dance, Dedication, Dialectic and Drafting. There are over 250 Skills.

 

4) You are correct: the plan is that you will take your character into the sequel exactly as you have left them in your last save.

 

5) The day is divided into 6 segments: Early Morning/Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night/Midnight. However, you may only take actions in three of these phases: Morning/Afternoon/Evening. Some Adventures take place in the other phases, but you do not have direct control over that. And, of course, the full number of phases in a day must be considered for duration purposes! Every phase is an opportunity for you to use exactly 1 action; you cannot split your time among several. A slight variation on this is that you *can* control what location you take an action at, though. Some Locations grant you certain buffs when you are at them, so it's not a bad idea to use that from time to time. That said, by going to the Location there is the chance that a member of the faculty will see you going off where you aren't supposed to, and detention is almost always the result of that. :D

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Interesting indeed. well that clears up the minor doubts I had, I'll be pre-ordering as soon as gamersgate lets me >.<

 

two questions from me here:

 

1. While I can understand the huge majority of the time being spent at the school. are there plans for anything outside the school itself (for example things happening during the holidays)

 

2. what kind of world is Academagia set in? is it an alternate world on one based on our current world. and is magic a secretive art (harry potter (trying to avoid my referencing that too much)) or openly practiced (Dungeons and dragons wizards, oblivion schools etc etc)

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@dingbat: You will be able to buy/get the game from the site directly. Therefore I recommend you to support the developers most and get you game through them. Without a middle men and just the PayPal fee - they can get ~ 97% of the payment :rolleyes:

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

 

I really hope it doesn't give this "pseudo-atmosphere" from Bully or Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong - the game had nice minigames etc. but totally lost in gameplay and story. You just did your lessons one after another, without the feeling that time passaes by and you learn something usefull (e.g. about the world or the people). Therefore I have high hopes about a deepth :)

 

 

Now a few questions I got too:

 

1.) Will you have the option to choose the gender of your protagonist ? If yes - will it even affect some events and relations ?

 

2.) Is there a possibilitie of romances ? I know it's quite "early" for first years to have such emotions, but perhaps it could considered in upcoming sequels ^^

 

3.) You just mentioned "80+ Students to interact with" - is there around the same number of "none-student" NPCs (~ teacher/inn-keeper etc.) ?

 

4.) Even though that the lessons wont consist of minigames, are there still some kind of such in the game ? Would also like some challenges and puzzles :)

 

5.) Will you be able to get a pet ? If not - lets keep it for a sequel xD

 

6.) Addition to dinbats question: what is your world and creatures about ? Will it be more a classical fantasy or a modern ? From what I saw at the screens, the graphic looks quite nice and therefore somekind of "encyclopedia of creatures" would be awesome :D

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

PS: Hope there are some nice & funny easter eggs too :)

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@dingbat: You will be able to buy/get the game from the site directly. Therefore I recommend you to support the developers most and get you game through them. Without a middle men and just the PayPal fee - they can get ~ 97% of the payment :rolleyes:

 

 

Will we? the gold page says:

 

Our distributors will be:

 

Beamdog

GamersGate

Impulse

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@dingbat:

 

Well, thank you very much for decision: I hope you enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed making it. :rolleyes:

 

1) Outside events do intrude on campus via the Adventures, and the Player can freely explore outside the campus grounds for interesting locations. Additionally, there are various jobs and other actions which take place in the city of Mineta or local environs. There are small events for each holiday, but due to the costs of travel you do not return home for these.

 

2) Academagia is a unique fantasy world set in a late Renaissance technology period. Magic is definitely openly practiced, but because of the high cost of learning it, only the highly gifted or very wealthy are able to study it. The game assumes that the Player falls into the former category, although by taking some of the wealthier backgrounds you could consider yourself in the latter. Magic has a slight social stigma, in part due to its origins and in part because of the famous civil war involving one of the (now proscribed) pillars of magic.

 

@Hawkey:

 

I know exactly what you meant about Bully: I had really high hopes for that game. When we designed Academagia, one of the first things we considered is how to make a game with a high degree of player choice not feel empty. What we ultimately decided to do was try to make all your choices feel as rewarding as possible. It is for this reason that there are so many random events, skills and adventures- so that you can choose to play almost any kind of character and still feel completely unique each time you play. That said, Bully and Academagia are two very different types of game (sandbox vs. life simulation).

 

1) Yes, you may be either male or female, and it has a definite impact on events and some actions.

 

2) As you are 13 in your first year, romance is not a very strong component of the game- but the beginnings of it is there and you are right: it will be continued in the sequels. :D

 

3) There are about 20 (I think, just under) Instructors in the game, but other kinds of NPCs do not exist in the same way that Students do. Instead, they appear in Adventures, as proprietors of shops and other kinds of passing figures. I do believe that in the future they will play a greater role as your character begins to interact with the outside world more, however.

 

4.) There are a few mini-games in Academagia, but they all generally revolve around the core skill system- making use of that to resolve conflicts, &c., so they are not truly separated from the game as mini-games often are in other games I have played. We aren't opposed to the idea of stronger mini-games for the future, however- it's an interesting design challenge, as I would not want them to stand alone.

 

5) Besides your familiar you may purchase pets, yes. Most pets have a buffing ability, provided that you carry them around with you.

 

6) It is definitely more classical fantasy, and you will encounter a few monsters in various adventures and events. As you are in a settled area, wild monsters are relatively few and far between, but they are present and have a role in the game. We may have to do an encyclopedia- it's a fun and interesting idea.

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Hi, I saw the game on Gamersgate and it's definitely a type of game I'd like to see more of.

I have a couple questions:

 

1. What platforms will the game be available on ?

 

2. You mentioned this being only the first year, how many years have you planned and how often do you plan to release an installment ?

 

3. The students page on the website mentions 84 students per year, does this mean that all or at least the majority of the NPCs will be part of your class ?

 

4. Could you expand on what you mean by late Renaissance technology period? Does it use actual historical events or persons like Da Vinci or Shakespeare?

How did the existence of magic impact historical events (you mentioned a civil war)?

 

Some form of encyclopedia would be interesting and would allow the player to learn more (esp. background information which is assumed to be general knowledge like recent history, a short who's who of magical and mundane society, religion, why some magic is forbidden, etc.).

 

5. There seems to be a great amount of skills. Does the game encourage specialization (maybe with additional classes or choosing a future job to work towards in later years).

 

6. What kind of choices can you make in character creation ? Do backgrounds impact just stats or do the NPCs react differently depending on social class?

 

Thank you for your time,

 

dlwildschut

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dlwildschut;

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

1) The game is PC only. For the future, we are considering the 360, the DS and the iPad as well.

 

2) A total of 5 years are planned, but it's not possible to speculate the timeline for the next installment. Each year has different mechanics, building upon all previous years, and requires a similar amount of time for content creation.

 

3) There are 83 Students plus yourself, for a total of 84. However, they are not all in the same courses, so if you take (for instance) Zoology, you will find a different group of Students than if you enrolled in 'Glamour'. They are all in the same year as you, though.

 

4) The setting (Elumia) is not real-world Europe, but has a parallel to the technology and social environment of Italy during the Renaissance. Magic impacts almost all historical events in this world- it's too broad a question. An Encyclopedia or general historical timeline probably should be developed, taken from our world building notes, but that will have to come a bit later, I think.

 

5) The game does not encourage any particular style of play (there being no specific way to win!), but you are correct in that the Skills and Classes you take now will continue to echo throughout the sequels. It's certainly the case that if you want to be the best at Incantation, you should maximize that Skill in your first year.

 

6) There are many backgrounds to choose from- I believe there are roughly 100, in fact. Some offer unique actions or items, some affect your starting Parental Approval, give you unusual familiars or start you out with more beginning Relationship with Students. Of course, many affect your stats, too. The Students do not react differently to your social class in the first year, but I suspect that this will begin to occur in the second year with the formation of larger Cliques or social groups.

 

Thank you for the questions. :rolleyes:

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A quick addon about students.

 

are the 83 NPC students names and specific personalitys set or generated dynamically? (will we be seeing a "Robert Smith" in every game we play) and will the player know the name of every student in the school right from the beginning or will you have to find a connection with each person before they appear in your active game (ala Kudos)

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dingbat;

 

They have set names and personalities (not generated dynamically), and you have access to the full roster of Students enrolled in your year at game start. However, what you know about them is limited to their Portrait and a brief Description. To learn more about them you must either become their Friend or spy on them. :rolleyes:

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dingbat;

 

They have set names and personalities (not generated dynamically), and you have access to the full roster of Students enrolled in your year at game start. However, what you know about them is limited to their Portrait and a brief Description. To learn more about them you must either become their Friend or spy on them. :rolleyes:

 

interesting! and inter-student relationships? are they also static or dynamic (excluding the natural dynamic of the player)

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nice to know!

 

I have to admit my curiosity is getting the better of me, this games system mechanics are the kind of things I do home programming with:

 

Will we see some of this interaction. or will their relationships be adjusted ( for example might we catch them talking at lunch, or an argument breaking out) or will only thing we personally get involved with be displayed when it comes to this interaction?

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dingbat;

 

They have 3 Actions each day, just as you do, and you can definitely see the results of their decisions. But as mentioned above, you'll need to be their friend (or have information about them) in order to discover what they are about. Otherwise, you will only see Actions that have broader effects, like those targeting your College or one of your Classes. Of course, if they target *you*, you can see what they did, too. :rolleyes:

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That the NPCs got the same action limitation as you sounds really interesting - since it makes it more realistic and understandable how the world/events works :)

 

______________________________________________________________

 

 

! Attention-Bug !

 

It seem that Impulse allready released Academagia yesterday => Link

You should contact them and put it down. Otherwise it could be a conflict with other distributors and the release-date-commitment :(

______________________________________________________________

 

 

 

On the other hand I've got a problem and hope you could help me with it: It could be that I just missread it (~ and I really hope so), but did you actually updated the announcement about Academagia at the main site ? I found in your current presentation something at the end, that really disturbs me:

 

Academagia is a 2D PC life simulation and role-playing game intended for audiences ages 9+. Our game rewards relationship building, research and knowledge over violence, and encourages the gamer to create their own unique story. It will be released on August 13th, 2010, on www.academagia.com, as well as Beamdog, GamersGate and Impulse for digital distribution. The game retails at $24.95.

 

Sorry but if this isn't a mistake you should defintly rethink about the buisness :(

 

This should be in no kind an offend - but more an help for you and the game, to get what it probably deserves !

 

Did you investigate about the current "new established Indie Games" and what their price is set about ? The last years the starting price hit the 20$ spot - which could be considered as a fair price for most of the games. But with the time, more and more Developers started to release their games and got an competition about sales. Even though many of them were just some plattformers/adventures and not plays in the same league as World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Machinarium, Crayon Physic Deluxe & Co. - they tried to attract customers through a lower price. As one of the first new introduced games VVVVV showed that a price of 15$ (or 10$ for people who preordered the game) is more reasonable and it just got a positive feedback. I won't say that all new games should be avaible for this price. As I allready said - the 20$ were really fair for a high quality Independent game with enough entertaiment for a few weeks :)

 

 

Here are some additional thoughts about the topic:

 

1.) First think about yourself - not as a developer but much more as a gamer. What would the game be worth to you ? Would it be really 25$/25€ ? Since you put all your effort into, it could be possible that you are biased and don't see some weak points :D

 

2.) Compare your game with other games of the same price range (~ currently I just know Eschalon Book 2 and Mount & Blade Warband). Does Academagia offer the same amount of content ? Does it have the same quality as them or at least the same approximate play time ?

 

3.) Compare your game with other titles with a lower price - especially game with a similar genre as Academagia. Even though some of them are 1-2 years old, can you stand up with them and warrant your higher price (~ see some of Winter Wolves Visiual Novels) ?

 

4.) Since a demo didn't seem usefull for the game (~ otherwise you could get too many information beforehand), you should allow interested players to "risk-and-buy-the-game" even though they don't know much about them. As an Indie title, you will hardly get much PR from huge communities and Game sites. Therefore you can't just rely on a few reviews - from which you still don't know if they recommend Academagia or not. Giving new interested people the chance to learn your game - it could be more usefull.

 

5.) Sequels ! You allready pointed out that you plan sequels - which seems right since the first game will just consider the first year at the school. But knowing that you will release games of this serie in the future, also could let the gamers wait till they are all out and get an bundle (~ instead of buying 25$ for the first, 25$ for the second, 25$ for the third and so on). Concerning that you like to sell these sequels to - you should attract a high base-community right from the start. Whoever played & bought the first game, will probably also buy the second to extend the development of his character. Allowing more people to start with something the adventure - you allow more people to get interested in the future of your games.

 

6.) You said above that you perhaps aim for other consoles like XBOX360 and NDS. For both plattformsyou can't even set the price as high as for the PC ! At the XBOX marketplace, where the customers use their limited Microsoft Points they got mostly from retail cards, there were some kind of upper limit for 3rd party applications. Don't ask me for the excact number, but I thought it was about 10$-15$. For DS you have to find a publisher first, to get your game at a catridge or offer it via the DSI-Ware market. For Nintendos console you got also the problem, that you need a Development Kit - which is not just restricted but expensive too (~ last year the licence for one game was around 60.000$). The "i-World" is something for itself - since I develop for Android systems I just have a little knowledge about the Apple Store - but it should be at least cheaper than Nintendos console. Naturally you should first concentrate at the PC and just then afterwards think about an portation. The only systems I could recommend so far are the XBOX & Android (~ the XNA / Android SDK is offered for free) :)

 

 

If you don't think about it - I am afraid you get the same misfortune as Citeremis and Aztaka. I'd gave them some advices in the past, but they just ignored them since they got an urgent accident and needed the money instantly before we ended the Beta. After all they managed it aftera while (4-5 months after the release at Direct2Drive) but had to lower the price to 15$, offer it in a few bundles, offer it in contest and less positiv publicity feedback. They were convinced about the "unique-ness" of their game but forgot to concentrate on the core too. Before Academagia will be a "shelf warmer" - I recommend you not to be the next "Indie Ubisoft" (~ they really managed that most people won't buy the Settlers and other good games anymore, just because of their miserable sell-strategy and strict DRM). Hopefully you understand my conerns at least a little and think about it. I still intend to buy the game and support you - but don't expect new people who don't earn their money with development and therefore don't know how hard it can be, to pay such a price :rolleyes:

 

[€dit]

By the way: If you "really need" more money, I would even prefer optional DLCs over a regular higher base price. More people would get the core game and those who like some additional stuff before the upcoming sequel will be released, will gladly pay a few extra bucks for it. Cliff did the same and established Gratuitous Space Battles through this "merchandising" :)

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Hawkey;

 

Thanks for the note on Impulse- we actually caught that before they released it (you cannot buy the game despite the 'add to cart' feature), but as it is the weekend I believe they have not yet changed the release date to reflect reality. There was a lot of surprise on our end, that's for sure. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks also for the comments about the pricing- it was something we agonized over, too, and for the reasons you outlined. In the end, however, we felt that $24.95 was a good compromise between our features, depth of content and replayability and the already established Indie games out there. It's very true that you do not want to set the bar for entry in a game very high, especially in the indie market, but after a discussion with our distributors, it was actually their suggestion to go to the (slightly) higher price point.

 

Thanks for the concern, though- we don't want to be a "shelf warmer" either. :D

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Ah forgot - Braid & Cortex Commander were one of the first who set the price tag to 15$ :D

 

Yeah, if you allready considered my thoughts then it really seems to be a very good game. Just hope you don't get disappointed, beside getting to much influenced through the digital distributors. After all it seems very promising and I'd like to see having it a success :)

 

 

For a larger target group - you should probably contact the Valve guys from Steam. Even though they got some DRM, it's a good way for new Indie games to attract more customers who doesn't keep an eye at small projects !

 

I also recommend trying some "viral-marketing" and create a Twitter/Facebook account for the upcoming gamers. It's easier to follow the development if you post some lines once in a week (~ posting unregulary news is less time-consuming then keeping an blog up to date) :rolleyes:

 

______________________________________________________________

 

By the way: I had to laugh as found your "donation link" (~ it's not just hard to see but moreover I asked myself: do you really think that someone who allready payed 25$ for Academagia will still be motivated and have enough spare money to donate ?). Your game really has to be amazing if you got the guts and put such an option at the sell site. Reminds me of the current "Pay what you want"-promotions which are quite popular, sure without the benefit that you get something for it :)

______________________________________________________________

 

 

Question:

 

1.) Will there be ports for Mac OS and Linux ? Many people got some of these "alternative systems" and therefore it is recommend to think about an portation (~ it just could be a little bit complicated with Academagia, since it seems to need the Microsofts Frame Network) :(

 

2.) Hope it will be DRM-free, since bothering DRM doesn't really protect from pirates and disturbs the honest customer (~ see Cliffs results)...

 

3.) Did you really even increased the "random events" ? Read now "over 800" instead of the former "500+". Seems like a good value and replayability :)

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Hawkey;

 

Thanks again for your thoughts- Steam would be a great distributor, but they do not accept solicitations. I hope that they will contact us, of course. :rolleyes:

 

As for Facebook, we already have a fan page set up, which you are welcome to join.

 

The donation link follows a request from friends and family who wanted an alternative way to support us, as well as to allow people who want to contribute directly to a developer they like. I don't know that we think anyone will use it frequently, but they are certainly welcome to.

 

For the questions:

 

1) Possibly, although as you note it is more difficult.

 

2) It is DRM free, again for the reason you note.

 

3) No, we did not increase them- what we did do, though, is update the site to reflect the actual game. The previous figure was from the design document. :D

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dwildschut;

 

I do not believe we'll have any time to investigate wine/crossover before launch, but we might be able to look at it after. In all honesty, though, it's not something we'll likely aggressively pursue.

 

We do not have any plans for a demo, although we may consider it in the future.

 

Thanks for the questions!

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I do not believe we'll have any time to investigate wine/crossover before launch, but we might be able to look at it after. In all honesty, though, it's not something we'll likely aggressively pursue.

 

I will try running it through Wine at the weekend. But at first I will hopefully enjoy it at standard Windows :)

 

By the way: I can just support the decision not releasing a demo (~ even though in general it is a must have for a new game) !

 

It's quite hard to find a usefull cliff-hanger in a life-simulation without spoilering the gameplay, especially with such an complexity like Academagia seems to have. You don't follow a path that got a cut and where you could continue after. As an example: I couldn't think about a good Harvest Moon demo either, which at least got a main story to follow :)

 

________________________________________________________

 

 

A few questions (~ this time more about the whole project instead of the content - won't like to get more information/spoiler) :D

 

1.) How big is the team of Black Chicken Studios ? To be more accurate, how many people worked on Academagia with which tasks (coder/illustrator/scripter etc.) ?

 

2.) Where do you come from ? Or at least the most of you (~ Europe/US/Canada/Asia) ? This will probably also set when you open the sales at friday, e.g. 10 am in PST would be 18 pm here in Germany (~ so it will be a long night then) :(

 

3.) When did you start with Academagia ? Right after the founding at the 2007 ?

 

4.) Saving: How will the saving option be handled ? Could you save all the time and "try-error" a few events, since most of them happend randomly ? Will there be an automatic limit, like the game will save every night ? Or will there even be a unique save-style (~ e.g. if you know Outcast there was the "gamesav-crystall" or in the X-series you had to buy an "recovery-police" in a station for money, so that you rethink if its worth to save the game right now) :)

 

5.) You mentioned the technology progress will be similar with our known renaissance. Did you got some "Steam-Punk" elements in there ? I really like this stuff, especially if it fits for some nice inventions and plots (~ furthermore it somehow combines the unreal but possible) :)

 

6.) You will certainly be confronted with "Harry Potter" cliches and that your game is just a copy of this setting. As I allready know that your game seems to have a nice unique world which got quite differences (e.g. everyone knows about magic), what was your idea ? Did you got inspirations from Harry Potter but like to change somtehing or is it just coincidence since you allways wanted to create a game in a magic school ?

 

7.) A little spoiler I can't withstand: Is there some kind of "main-story-line" you have to follow with your character ? Sure we can decide what we do etc., but will there some events that will occur in every game to "force" the player in a specific direction ? Some players seem to be lost in a "sandbox" game (/ I know Academagia will be more a life-simulation ^^) without an advice or hint what to do :)

 

8.) Even though the first part still isn't released, did you allready planned and integrated some "metagame-complex-story-quest" that will start in the first year and continue in the next ? Would be interesting to see that you could put the first stone in the early months and see the results 3 years later after you growed up (~ even though this would require quite an overview) :rolleyes:

 

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PS: I read at your Facebook page that you recently finished a player guide. Would be great if you could release together with the game some nice bonus material like Wallpapers, OST - not just the lower down sampled tracks in the game folders - or such stufff (*starringatyouravatar*) :(

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