The year is about to end, and before that happens, I'd like to throw in a quick update regarding four specific things:


1st.- Early Gameplay Preview


On December 12th and 13th, I showcased a little tech. demo of Spirit Huntress at RetroSevilla, a retro-gaming expo taking place at Seville, my hometown.

My friend Esciron (@esciron) recorded and edited some excerpts of such demo, and I decided to upload them as a little preview-trailer for public viewing:




Please, note that this is early footage of a game still in deep development. Therefore, you'll be able to find a lot of errors, such as inconsistencies in the animations, seams in some backgrounds, general emptyness...

Also, I removed the combat sections to save that footage for a full fledged trailer coming really soon (January).

Consider this video some kind of teaser-trailer.


2nd.- Game website


I created a website for the game. Not much more to say about that, except: check it out here www.spirithuntress.com.

The site has a subscription form you can fill in case you wish to be directly notified when the Kickstarter campaing begins.

It only features two screenshots and a brief description so far, as well as link to all the social-media related stuff (twitter, devblogs, youtube & twitch channels, Steam page, etc), but I'll keep adding content in it.





3.- Voice acting announcements

As I stated in previous posts, Hibari will be voiced by  by Sydney P. (@Sydsnap) and by Laura Peña (@Laura_PG_) in the spanish localization.

That being said, I'm glad to announce that Lei will be voiced by the very talented Caitlin Myers (@MOM0KI).

Welcome to the team, Momoki!




4.- Steam Greenlight Concept Site 

Finally, I created a Steam Greenlight Concept page for Spirit Huntress that you can visit here.

Note it's not a propper Greenlight Page, for this is only a concept page for a game project.

Still, your vote would be really useful to help create a fanbase for the game, so please, consider upvoting and sharing with your friends.






That's all for now! Stay tuned, news are coming really soon!







Okay. It's September. In my last post, I said that I would launch the crowdfunding campaing before summer ended. And there's only 20 days left for that.

I'll totally try to make it before September ends, but if I'm not able to and I have to wait 'till October, let's just not get mad about it, should we? I mean, I've been living with virtually no incomes since Novemeber (when I said bye to my former boss), I'm sure you will do fine if you have to wait a month or two!

Jokes aside, I've been really busy working on -everything. Graphics. Code. Music. Design. Concept Art. PR. All you could imagine. There's nothing new about this for me: I know that making games is no easy task and that things  seldom go as planned.

But if you never give up, and you're willing to sacrifice almost all you have, and start from scratch when needed, then, as Kipling said, "yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, and -which is more- you'll be a Man, my son!"

I've little left to sacrifice for this dream of making and publishing my own game, the game I want to create. And I'm starting to feel that it's possible. That I can live the dream.

But you want news, don't you?


1st.- Kickstarter news.




For now, all I have to say is that I'm doing my best to launch it in this month of September beginning today. I might have to cut out the demo for debugging issues (I need to debug the game on many different OS's and I don't have the time. Plus, there's a lot of small bugs and unfinished things that would go unnoticed on a Kickstarter pitch video, but that would take me looong to fix in order to achieve a playable state!)

So... be patient. Please, understand!


2nd.- Here are some animations

I noticed that the animations in that "What's Spirit Huntress" post were slightly outdated. I've made a lot of improvement on Hibari's sprites and animations since them. Particularly, I tried making her anatomy more realistic -less boob bounce- and generally, add more key frames and less inbetweening.

Check them out, but don't mind the background images, since they're taken from an unfinished level.











There are much more animations to come. Special attacks, Kick-combos, spiritual powers (namely a technique called the "Soul Purge")... You'll see much more in the Kickstarter pitch video really soon.



3rd.- Any screenshots?

Sure, why not? I've posted some of these on twitter recently, but there you have them anyway!






The first one (Hibari running on some rooftops) is from Istoch Town, the place where the game begins (you'll be hunting your first angry spirit really soon this time!). And hopefully, you'll be able to play that segment of the game if I can complete the demo.

The second one is from the Plains (temptative name), a transition level that connects the Desert area (Sarkans Canyon, formerly known as the Red Desert).

The third one is from the base of the "Cracked Skulls", which also happens to be Al's house. It's kind of a central point in the game and you'll have to go there a lot. Until certain event happens, that is...

And the final one is, again, from Istoch town. There's already a secret in that screen which isn't to difficult to spot...

I hope you liked them. I'm pretty fond of how they are coming out. 

Just keep in mind that they're still a work in progress and that many things in them need -and will- be changed!


4th.- More music

This time, I'd like to share with you two themes from the game's Original Soundtrack.

The first one, "Surrounded by drippling leaves", was uploaded some weeks ago on my Soundcloud account. So, if you've visited this blog or my account on SC, you'll probably have listened to it already.

It's intended for a Forest Area where rain it's almost always raining: the Ada Forest.

(I'd recommend watching this gif while you listen to the track)





Then  there's this other theme, one I think you'd like best. Let me say beforehand that it's (as usual) a work in progress. Particularlly, this track isn't even halfway done yet. But I love how it's coming out.

It's called "The Circle of Death" and once finished, will play when you face certain kind of enemies. Like the one in the picture below:




I hope you liked them!


5th.- Merchandise? What's this?!

If you're familiar with Kickstarter campaigns concerning indie games, you'll have probably notice how the developers try to add some sauce to their attemps by giving the backers the chance to adquire all kinds of merchandise.

It has become a sort of costum, and honestly, I'd like to produce some merchandise of Spirit Huntress.

What kind of merchandise? I haven't decided all the details yet, but the most important, the 3d-printed figurine, is on its way since last month!

Exactly, you'll be able to have (if you're willing to expend your money like that) a fabulous 3d-printed figurine of Hibari, sculpted by the very talented 3d artist Leti Moreno (@erakkia on  twitter).

So far, the 3d model is almost completed. I'll be good and let you look at some WIP snapshots of the model, as well as a photoshop painted preview!




I'm really excited about this! To think I'm close  to have my original character turned into actual merchandise... 

I just hope that someone is actually interested in getting it (other than the people who have "kindly" asked for one as a gift, lol).



6th.- XBox One

Exactly! Two weeks ago, Yoyo Games announced a partnership with Microsoft in order to develope a exporting solution for GM:Studio games to the Xbox One.



This means that, once Spirit Huntress is finished, I'll do my best to bring it to PS4, XBONE, PC, MAC, and LINUX. The WiiU is out of reach by now (which is a shame because I LOVE Nintendo).



That would be all for now, folks. Don't get too far from here, since the Kickstarter campaing is really close (this time, for real, I hope) and I'll be needing all of your support.

Thanks for reading this and have a nice day!





Hello again, my dear readers! My last post was back on novemeber (when I announced I had quitted my job so I could work full-time on this project), and since the Kickstarter campaign is around the corner, I'd like to post here one last time before that happens. I have some important announcements to make, so here we go!



1st.- The Kickstarter campaign status.

After five months of working really hard on this game from morning to night, and making the legal preparations, I'm really close to have enough material to show on a Kickstarter campaign. I had the chance to learn that, if you're trying to raise funds for your game using a crowdfunding method, and you haven't previous experience in the video-game industry, the only way to gain your backer's trust is showing a project in an advanced stage, with impressive visuals and engaging music.

My aim is even highger: I'll try to provide a demo with around 20 minutes of close-to-definitive gameplay.

And I can finally say that I'm really close to get to that milestone! Instead of going with the main game, I focused on this introductory game-play section during these past months.

So, without a dubt, the next post here will officially announce the launch date of the Kickstarter campaign. Maybe within a month. Or two. But always before summer comes, that's for sure. Stay tunned!



2nd.- Important changes.

Putting the Kickstarter issue aside , there are some important changes I'd like to point out.-


A) The game's native resolution has changed from 1280x800 pixels (quite a weird resolution) to a Full HD standard, 1920x1080 pixels. I decided this so the game would look even better on full HD screens. To this day, I'm pretty sure this is the most common screen resolution, and working with native 1080p is allowing me to make more impressive backgrounds and assets. Also, given that the character's sprite is pretty big, having a wider and taller screen allows the player to see more of the room/level he's in.

The downside of it is obvious: what will happen to those using smaller resolutions?

Since I can't waste time making low-quality sprites and assets, I'll have to resize the screen to the selected resolution. I know that's a waste of memory, and of course the overall image quality will suffer.

Once I've completed the level-development stage, I'll try to find a quick way to replace the original sprites with low-resolution copies. I'll tell you more about this in the upcoming months.

Fortunately, the full HD standard resolution is quite popular, and is nowhere close to the higher resolution that PC gamers usually have.

And honestly, the game looks way better like  this:

This one is from a cutscene where Hibari and friends go to "claim" their reward for hunting some monster...





B) I successfully ported the game to Game Maker: Studio, after adquiring the pro license. Not much else to say about this, but thanks to GM:S the game's performance will improve, the game will arrive to IOS, GNU/Linux and Android devices, and, last but not least....






C) Playstation 4! Even if it wasn't officially announced until this very week that Sony is working alongside YoYo Games to create a solution to port GM:S games to Playstation, it was pretty obvious that Sony wouldn't let go such a huge portion of independent developers.

So, if nothing goes wrong, Spirit Huntress will make its way to Play Station 4 systems! And man, couldn't I be happier about it.


3rd.- Show us something!

I would love to show you guys everything I'm working on right now. Every sprite, every level design, every background picture, all of it! But I just can't,  I have to save something for the Kickstarter campaign (let alone the final game).

But I can't just leave without showing at least something. However, those of you who follow me on twitter might have already seen these images (that's what they get for following me! mwahaha!)


These two screens are from the very beginning of the introduction cutscene. Yeah, corpses being eaten by crows. Classy.

 And this one is -again- from another cutscene that would trigger later You can expect it to be fully animated.


And finally, I've noticed it's been a long since I uploaded some original music here... so, let me introduce you a WIP version of another theme from the O.S.T. This one is not for a cutscene, but for some playable segments, usually after defeating a mini-boss and obtaining a new item/weapon/skill. When that happens, the player is usually  fond of his progression, and looking forward to learn some new gameplay mechanics! It's then when he likes to hear an optimistic, yet alive theme, that encourages him to keep playing, and makes him wonder what will come next (hence the name, "Your Path Is Open Now").

Maybe that's too much of an ambitious goal for a composer of my level, but you can't say I didn't try.

Enjoy it, and please, notice it's still a work in progress. However, I'd really appreciate your opinions!




And that's pretty much it.

I'll keep working on this really hard. Just wait a few weeks, and hopefully I'll be posting here the link to the Kickstarte campaign, probably including a playable demo!

Stay tunned, and if you want additional information and early screenshots, you can follow me on twitter at @itoaragon.

Thanks for reading me and for supporting Spirit Huntress.

See you soon!