So, by now, we’ve heard back from the first couple of beta-testers who’ve managed to play through the entirety of GENBA no Kizuna.
I don’t want to get into their impressions of the story, characters, mystery or really the game overall just yet. I’ll save that for once we’ve heard back from everyone. What I am going to say, however, is that we’ve received a lot of very helpful feedback already!
Jul 13
Weekly Update #519: First Beta-Feedback
Jul 06
Weekly Update #518: Steam Achievements
As mentioned in last week’s blog post, the beta-test phase for GENBA no Kizuna is now officially underway! The beta build is in the hands of our testers and although no one has completed their run yet, I did already receive some very helpful feedback reports!
Now, while we continue to wait until we’ve fully heard back from everyone, I’ve decided to tackle two major things this past week:
the remaining three bonus scenes as well as the Steam achievements.
Jun 29
Weekly Update #517: Beta-Test Phase
That’s right! After spending the last couple of weeks thoroughly testing GENBA no Kizuna, we’ve finally reached the point where we can send out the beta build to our testers!
Jun 27
Summer Sale 2024
Summer is back and with it the annual Summer Sale! So if you’re looking for something to help you cool off from the blazing rays of the sun, why not jump into the chilling murder mystery presented to you in SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair? Both the game and its complete soundtrack are once again 50% off!
Jun 22
Weekly Update #516: Chapter V Testing
While Natsu has spent this past week fixing the issues I’ve found during my chapter four test run, I’ve continued with more testing and am currently busy going through the fifth and final chapter, meaning that were getting very very close now to finally being able to share GENBA no Kizuna with our beta-testers!
Jun 15
Weekly Update #515: Chapter IV Testing
So, I’ve dedicated this entire past week to going through the penultimate chapter of GENBA no Kizuna. Which was actually my very first time experiencing it in VN format myself! That’s also part of the reason it required so much time, because I had to really get into the nitty-gritty here, testing every little aspect you can think of, in order to ensure that everything works as intended. It might not seem like it, but even something as “simple” as a VN requires extensive testing, especially if it’s of the interactive kind.
Jun 08
Weekly Update #514: Beta-Test Phase Drawing Nearer
So, first of all, in case you’re a patron and haven’t seen it yet, I have published a new Patreon post last Sunday, which delves a bit deeper into the topic of beta-testing! You also find instructions there as to how you can apply to become a beta-tester for the full version of GENBA no Kizuna! It’s still gonna be a bit longer, since Natsu and I have yet to thoroughly test the full game ourselves, but the beta-test phase is slowly drawing closer, so be sure to keep an eye out for more info to come very soon!
Jun 01
Weekly Update #513: Plans For Jurassic June
The most important month of the year has once again come around: Happy Jurassic June, everyone!!
This year, we’d really like to share some exciting news with you regarding our upcoming murder mystery project GENBA no Kizuna!
So, today, let’s talk about our plans for this special dino-centric month!
As you may have seen last week, I’ve already started my own beta-test run and our primary goal right now is to finally hand out the full version of the game to others for testing. In order for that to happen, however, I first still need to thoroughly test the second half of the game myself, which I’m doing my hardest to get around to very soon now.
This past week, I’ve been mainly busy with some more script adjustments to the finale and bad ends and also finally whipped up a game over screen which I only yesterday noticed we were still lacking, ahaha. It’s nothing too fancy, since I didnt want to stray too far from how we did it in SHINRAI, but I think it gets the job done:
(There may have been a tiny bit of inspiration from old-school “Tales of” game over screens w)
May 25
Weekly Update #512: Testing & Polish
As the title of this post already gave away, this past week, I’ve been primarily concerned with testing GENBA no Kizuna and refining it!
Basically, I’ve started to go through the entire game from the beginning again to check if everything is in order, both on a technical level and regarding the script. I also had a list of things to retroactively add, remove or change, which I’ve compiled while working on the last two chapters. You know, stuff like foreshadowing or hinting at a reveal that happens later in the game, or removing dialogue from the earlier chapters, because it made more sense for the topic to be discussed in the later ones.
May 18
Weekly Update #511: Another Quick Progress Update
So, last week, I mentioned a huge zip package I was preparing for Natsu and by now, she has essentially already taken care of coding everything that was inside of it! The gallery illustrations still need to be properly placed and there is some checking/testing to be done in order to ascertain whether everything works as it should, but that aside, GENBA no Kizuna‘s credits, ranking system and most of the extras are done now, too!
When it comes to said extras, I still need to do some more work on the three remaining bonus scenes, unfortunately, as I ran into some unexpected issues. However, I’ve at least made up for the delay with those by also tackling the Steam achievements and starting to do some play-testing. I think I will primarily focus on this latter task now, given that we really want to hand the game out to beta-testers ASAP and I can always show them the extra scenes later.
Things are thus progressing well, even though I would obviously love for everything to be done at a much faster pace “orz
With that in mind, I think I’ll get right back to testing… once I’ve shared some more art with you, of course! This time, I’ve got some more chibis once again drawn by one of my favorite artists and fellow VN dev Jun:
As always, they’ve turned out super cute!! Be sure to check out Jun‘s Ko-fi for commissions, her very own store for adorable anime and gaming merch and, most importantly, her VN project Neko no Sentouki! Personally, I’m very much looking forward to it!
Now, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care :3
