Infinite Stars Episode 01 - [Free][Episodic][Sci-Fi][Creative Commons]

[InfiniteStars]

It's been a challenging journey, but it's here... finally!

The game is now free on itch and you can get it here: https://infinitestars.itch.io/game

The first episode is roughly 35-45 minutes long, with a very unique art and music style. It took just shy of 6 months to develop, but we're already busy with Episode 2, and estimate that our development time will halve now that everyone has found their rhythm.

You can find some of our assets to create your own scifi games here: https://infinitestars.itch.io/ (We update them regularly so it would be wise to hit the follow button on itch)

[InfiniteStars]

A kind internet hamster did a Let's Play of our first episode!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuXNN9aFe2I

Woooooo!

[InfiniteStars]

We were just featured as one of the top 3 new games released in September on Indiexpo!

https://youtu.be/js5RXUFmTlM?t=98

[jkiln]

Hello everyone!

I'm J. Kiln, and I'd like to say that I found "Infinite Stars Episode 01" rather interesting! From the cool sci-fi future setting, to the neat character designs, and the intriguing story! The sound and music is pretty good too!

I look forward to where this series will go, perhaps boldly, where no one has gone before in the medium of VNs.

But until the next episode is released, I thought I might share a short fan-fiction I wrote? And if you find it interesting, you could check out "Infinite Stars Episode 01" if you haven't? And perhaps tell your friends about it, or support the wonderful developers on Patreon?

https://www.patreon.com/infinitestars

Thank you!

///////////////

"Katya" (a short fan-fiction, inspired by "Infinite Stars Episode 01")
by J. Kiln

---------------

Screams... that was when it became undeniable that something was wrong.

Katya heard people screaming while she was hanging out with her friends at the park. She had a feeling something was off but couldn't tell what.

Just minutes ago everything was strangely quiet. There weren't any transports moving about, or crowds here and there, not even the sound of footsteps in the streets.

Like a wave of silence had suddenly swept over them without Katya or her friends realizing it.

And then all of a sudden there were people screaming and running for their lives.

Something had come to the colony... and it was hunting people...

Katya lead the way as she and her friends fled down a narrow alley, trying to get away from whatever was shooting at them. But that was a mistake.

Katya was the first out of the alley, but when she turned back to look, her friends stumbled and fell one by one in the shadows, their screams echoing in Katya's ears.

Katya caught only a glimpse of the shooter at the far end of the alley, before she ran.

She ran, abandoning the lifeless bodies of her friends, as the Sentinel moved swiftly over them, humming as it went.

Katya saw its weapons flash and blaze behind her friends' silhouettes, and she told herself that if she had stayed just a moment longer, she would've been killed too.

She cried as she apologized to her friends... Tears fell down her face as she whispered, "I'm sorry", while she ran away.

"Katya!!" she heard a familiar voice shout her name. She stopped in the middle of the street, wondering if it was her friends beckoning her to turn back, before Katya saw her mother sprinting towards her, coming to hug her tightly.

Katya tried to tell her mother what just happened, but her words quickly gave way to sobs.

Katya's mother didn't wait to hear what her daughter was trying to say, she was already pulling her by the hand and leading them both back to their home.

She told her daughter to go to the kitchen and start grabbing whatever packaged food and bottled water they had, while she looked for a flashlight, an emergency comm-radio, a compact map computer, and other tools they might need to survive in the wilderness, far away from whatever was happening in the colony.

As she went to fetch her daughter, the front door was shot down as a Sentinel burst through it!

Katya ducked and hid under the tablecloth of the kitchen table, and glimpsed her mother's last moments before the Sentinel chased her down.

Katya gasped, as shock and fear immediately paralyzed her.

The Sentinel didn't leave after it was done. It searched for Katya, going from room to room, humming like a bee as it went.

On the floor beside her mother, Katya noticed the survival equipment she was gathering into a backpack, and Katya saw what looked like a portable arc saw beside it.

A thought flashed through Katya's mind, and she decided to act on it. She crawled out from underneath the tablecloth, and slowly went to pick up the arc saw.

She saw her mother's horrified expression, staring up at the ceiling... and Katya looked away.

She powered up the saw, causing its cutting end to crackle to life, and inadvertently drawing the Sentinel's attention!

Katya shut off the saw and darted back under the tablecloth with it, just before the Sentinel would have spotted her.

Katya held on to the saw tightly, as she heard the machine nevertheless approach the table, humming louder as it came closer.

Something whined as it charged up, and Katya knew in an instant the Sentinel wasn't fooled: it was preparing to open fire.

"MEOOOW!" A furious screeching cat suddenly called out, causing the Sentinel to spin around and fire at it instead! Katya sensed her opportunity and scrambled out from under the table!

Before she realized what she was doing, she inflicted a deep, glowing gash into the Sentinel's back!

Katya then leapt onto it as it whirled around, firing at where she was. With an anguished cry, Katya forced the arc saw down its head! Shorting and melting circuitry as the saw sliced through!

The Sentinel malfunctioned as it lost power, and Katya fell with it to the floor as it collapsed.

Then... it was over.

Katya climbed off the dead machine, and crawled to her mother's body.

She still couldn't look at her mother... couldn't meet her terrified eyes...

The cat let out another meow, drawing Katya's attention...

Katya looked at it: a dirty little black cat, a stray that no one wanted, so it came and went as it pleased.

Katya gently picked him up, dusted the debris off of him, and held him close to her.

And the little black cat licked away Katya's tears in return.

[InfiniteStars]

So much has changed! We’ve been spending most of our time on Episode 2, but during down times we’d circle back to Episode 1 to fiddle and polish it a bit more. I think going back to improve existing work is something that we’ll continue to do.

Episode 2’s patron release is just around the corner, and the story continues after Mayvheen and Veera returned to the UIC Tabitha. (You’ll get to meet several new characters, and get your first peek inside the Concordat Cruiser)

We’ve added the long awaited Veera’s armor sprite, implemented the correct backgrounds, made some minor story changes, added new music tracks and also added a short, tongue in cheek scene after the credits. There’s more, but it’s too much to mention here.

We hope you enjoy the update to Episode 1, and we’re so excited to share the next episode with everyone! You can try the game here!

[InfiniteStars]

Someone else did a playthrough of the updated version of Infinite Stars Episode 1.

It's such a great feeling watching someone else enjoy a game you've created!

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/830535467?t=12m36s

[InfiniteStars]

Just an update! Episode 2 has been incorporated into the game, and it's no longer Patron only, so you are welcome to go check it out!

[InfiniteStars]

We've been working on some new characters for the game, but you can read more about it on Itch! (Tried sharing the images here, but they are too large!)

https://infinitestars.itch.io/game/devl ... nite-stars!

[InfiniteStars]

::Excited Friday Noises::

We did it. We're survivors. We made it through another week! And as a reward, you get a devlog update. (It might not be the reward you want or deserve, but it's the reward you are getting.)

My personal life has been OK. I secretly turned a year older last month. Dobson is entering his second winter and hates getting up in the morning. We leave him to sleep in while we start working to pay for all his treats. I've been spending some weekend time with family, and I'm slowly chipping away at my day job responsibilities.

Now, for the reason you actually clicked on this post. Infinite Stars. I took half a day to replay the content from Episode 3 to get a refresher. It sounds silly, but when working on each story segment in isolation, it's easy to miss the forest for the trees. It was great to refresh my view of the game. I also fixed some minor flow issues, added some more flavour choices and fixed some more typos.

I've done lots of writing this week. Lots. I also realised I've grossly misjudged the work it would take to finish the current episode, and that's even before the… You know. Everything that happened. I look back at some of the words I've uttered, like "weekly updates", and I'm almost too ashamed to show my face around here. While I can't wait to wrap up the current episode finally, it's not because I'm getting tired of working on it. I just want to get it done so we can get to all the other juicy bits we've been planning for over a year. Player created stories. Free exploration. Shorter, micro-content releases. I'm super excited about all of that.

Lastly, with all the writing that has been happening, I've also been working on some of the various steamy, kinky and, quite frankly, explicit scenes involving the Tabitha crew. We're all adults here. I hope it will tease and titillate unless you are a minor. Then it just teases and fades to black. (Should you really be playing games with adult content as a minor?) I can't enforce it, but I can prevent minors and those of us who are more gentle in nature from running into sudden sexy surprise smut. I've given the solution a lot of thought, and explicit content will be turned off by default and will have to be turned on in the settings. While there is definitely some character insight and development during the smut scenes, it's also written in such a way that skipping it won't leave you confused or missing any major plot points. Players who are unaware of the setting will be able to go through the whole game with a few fade to black scenes without even knowing they missed anything.

Lastly, our Discord server has been growing slowly. If you'd like to be more involved in shaping the game, come join us! Right now, we're asking for everyone to share a scene from the game that annoyed them, felt boring or just made your eyes roll so we can fix it for the Steam release. Also, once we reach 500 members, we can apply to become an actual community server - we're still a way off but getting there. So come join the server, say hi, and meet more Infinite Star fans. (As a bonus, you'll get to see some photos of Dobby the House Iggy and other pets owned by fans.) What are you waiting for?
https://discord.gg/QtAxhP6

[InfiniteStars]

Devlog 2022-07-08
https://www.patreon.com/posts/68813471

New sound track, photo of a cute pupper (with all his teeth) and updates on the dev progress! <3
Have a fantastic weekend!

[InfiniteStars]

Devlog 2023-05-26

Friday! We made it to another Friday! (Phew)

Baby is healthy and happy (writing this post from the hospital as we wait for the paediatrician visit, and I'll upload and post it a little later today.)

NGL, it's been tough, but not as tough as I expected. I haven't gotten as much work done as I would've liked, but we still got stuff done. The power cuts haven't helped, and it's the main reason why I still have to do some testing. We'll get to that shortly. Last complaint before getting to the weekly progress: I miss hot coffee, mostly because I'll make a cup and then fuss over the little one, and then the power is off and my coffee is cold. Whelp.

Now! The main feature! I implemented the new Shuttle BG that Stoffies drew, and it looks gorgeous! Look! Behold, and see that I do not lie!
[Shuttle GIF]

I ALSO implemented the new MedSec BG from Stoffies, and we used the opportunity to add some extras. Kiaria now has an actual workstation! And we have a little X-Ray corner. We have plans to add some minor animations to the MedAssist drones, but that will come in time.

[MedSec GIF]

If that wasn't enough, my sleep deprived self managed to implement the first ever nsfw MxM content in Khalil's corridor scene. I haven't gotten around to testing it yet (at time of writing) but if all goes according to plan, it should be ready to go by the time I post this devlog.

We've also been continuing to write and polish the other scenes I mentioned last week, and I'm hoping that we'll have some of them ready for our next public release on the 2nd of July.

I feel like I did/added more, but I can't recall. Have a pleasant weekend, enjoy some quality time with your loved ones, and be the change you want to see in the world! Love all of you.

[InfiniteStars]

Devlog 2024-01-26

Hay, Hoy, It's Friday! That means devlog time!

This week has been much of the same– we're working super hard on the next content release!

All the planned main story line content for this batch has been coded. Most of the expressions have been done. I'm still working on the lore items for the game, which is coming together nicely! We're planning on having a total of 20 unlockable lore entries on release, with many more to come.

Talking about the lore items, here is a preview of what they'll look like once unlocked.

[gorgeous image by Grace]
Just look at that gorgeous artwork by Grace! <3

Tae is working on two surprise player portraits for all of you.

Stoffies is busy finishing up the last of the old backgrounds.

Crowbie is still on a well deserved break for the next 2-3 months.

Trix was invaluable in helping with the story controller for the system navigation screen!

[System Navigation Screen]
This isn't a mockup, this is the actual, in-game system navigation screen that we'll be using more and more for future content. If you were a Captain or Admiral patron during the planning phase, you'll notice a play on your name somewhere on the screen! <3

I'm writing and coding like a madman, and I'm slowly shifting gears to focus on the launch preparations.

We've got 6 new tracks in the making, and I received the first track's draft earlier today. It's looking promising.

If you want to be considered as a Beta Tester for the upcoming content release, please apply over here! We have limited spots available, so don't wait too long!

In other news, some of you might recall our Spooktober 2023 Visual Novel Jam entry, and as it turns out we finished in the top 2% (4th place!) The jam entry was coded as a HRM (one of the player made mods that Tabitha can run as a simulation) and we'll integrate it into the full game as a triggerable seasonal event during October/Halloween.

As you can see, it's been a busy week, made possible by all of our amazing fans and patrons! We love you all to bits!
Have a fantastic weekend, stay safe and I can't wait to share the new content with all of you!