Just so's everyone knows, this is what is going on with Locked Souls:
Hiya!
So 2017, huh? Gosh, time sure flies. It'll have been about a year since I released the first demo of Locked Souls soon. Kinda crazy how much has happened since then.
As you can imagine, with how infrequently I've been updating lately, and just the general inactivity of my twitter account, development of Locked Souls has been going slow--glacial, even. So maybe it won't come as much of a surprise to many of you when I say: development of Locked Souls will be put on hold for the foreseeable future.
It does of course pain me to write this, and it's not something I considered lightly, but given how things have been going I've decided it's probably for the best to not drag it out and pretend like everything's fine.
Now, what's the cause of Locked Souls being put on hold? Several contributing factors really, but I know the blame falls mainly on myself for how I've mishandled things. These things are:
- Slow progress with creation of assets (Though I want to stress that I'm NOT blaming the artist in any way)
- Work on other visual novel project required in order to keep a roof over my head and fund Locked Souls development taking far more time away from being able to work on Locked Souls than I previous imagined it would
So, essentially, Locked Souls isn't dead. Far from it. ...It's just, not moving forward from where it currently is, and might not for a little while longer, if that makes sense. Since not a day goes by where I'm not thinking of the game, its characters and the story. It's a very personal, ambitious project of mine and I do intend to see it through to the end--even if by the time I'm finished in however many years everyone has lost interest and I'm the only one that reads it, since it's something I care about deeply and want to see done for my own satisfaction.
I just felt that I owed it to all of you for your immense support over the course of the creation of the game to be upfront with where things are at. I do apologise deeply for releasing a demo only to end up failing to deliver in the end despite how well it was received.
So what am I doing in the meantime, in order to make a living? While Locked Souls is, and always will be free upon its eventual release if ever, I decided in addition to this to also try my hand at making my own commercial visual novel too, with my options of maintaining funds dwindling. This commercial endeavor took off and landed me far more success than I ever could have hoped for, and the small commercial test game I launched spiraling into something far greater as a result, essentially becoming my full-time job.
You may notice I haven't mentioned this game I'm developing by name--or have mentioned it all on my twitter the reason being that in order to guarantee sales with such an endeavor, there was a certain, uh, 'direction' I had to take the game in, which I know advertising openly may not have been to many of my followers' liking, so I opted to go with a fresh twitter account and identity, though those familiar with me will probably be able to spot who I am if they saw it, haha. The game in question is one of an adult nature and follows similar themes and character dynamics in relation to the female characters and male character in terms of the power dynamic, only, they're a little more...monstrous, if you get what I'm saying.
I won't link to this project directly to avoid offending, but if it does interest you and you want to see what I might up to while Locked Souls takes an extended hiatus, simply google 'Frostworks' or 'Quest Failed' and you'll stumble upon it soon enough.
Thank you for your time if you decided to read through all this, and I'm sure that this isn't the end. Kind of just...a long goodbye, I guess? But I'll be back, one day! Even if everyone else has moved on and the audience I have left for Locked Souls is tiny, the prisoner's stories will be finished, and the mystery of the prison will be revealed~
I'd also like to thank everyone for their amazing contributions towards the project in helping it become what it is today, even if in the future it might not be possible to work with them again depending on things, as I see so many of them have grown in such a short amount of time, achieving amazing things~
- Noyemi K for her fantastic soundtrack that sticks with you even long after you've shut down the game. Be sure to support her and her own projects she's got cooking up at the moment!
http://delmunsoft.com/
- Snow the Wanderer for her fantastic art that really brought the game to life, creating characters that are bursting with energy and just so adorable~
http://snow-the-wanderer.deviantart.com/
- DaoDao for their super amazing background art. They turned my filtered photo references into something truly amazing that I'm still in awe of to this day.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=34088
And the wonderful VA cast that I couldn't imagine the characters without these days. The online VA community was something new to me when I first approached them with auditions, but I was blown away by the dedication and quality these people put out!
- Caitlyn Bairstow as May, the enthusiastic prison guard brimming with energy...perhaps a little too much for Luke? Either way, she did an amazing job at bringing May to life and the moment I heard her audition I knew she was the perfect one for the job!
https://twitter.com/CaityBair
- Kristyn Mass as Emma, the sleepy prisoner~ It's no surprise that Emma ended up as one of the most popular inmates in polls thanks to Kristyn's adorably dozy interpretation of the character, only adding to the charm.
http://ohnobones.wixsite.com/kristynmassva
- Jill Harris as Lisa, the stoic murderer. It's not an easy job to voice someone who's outwardly emotionless without sounding too overly dull yourself, but she did amazingly with Lisa, giving her a quiet, yet also vulnerable voice, but being able to add a deadly edge to it when needed, all while keeping the same level of blunt, emotionless feeling to it all.
https://twitter.com/jillybeannomnom/
- Heidi Tabing as Rachel, the brash, energetic inmate. Rachel is one of the most animated characters who swaps through a range of emotions at rapidfire, and Heidi did a perfect job of capturing them all, making Rachel someone who's scarily violent, but also has a soft, lovable side to them as well.
https://twitter.com/AderuMoro
- Rachael Messer as Katherine, the head honcho of their little group. Sultry, teasing, and a powerful, commanding voice when needed, Rachael was the perfect fit for Katherine and I'm glad to see she enjoyed the role so much since I was truly honoured to have someone as prolific as her on board.
https://twitter.com/rachaelmesser
Thank you all for lending your voices to the project! I'm just sorry we didn't get to do more. Since honestly, hearing the characters come to life after spending so long writing the script was one of my favourite parts of the process.
Goodbye for now, I suppose~
