Solstice - a mystery from the makers of Cinders [done!]

[Jason]

Hi all! I'm new here, and this is my first post. I'm the artist behind Cinders and Solstice. Tom asked to me to come here and share some info about the process, so here I am. First of all - thanks so much for all the nice comments! It really made my day

My wizardry pulled you to this forums. I must be credited! I MUST BE CREDITED GRAHHGDFFESARIWJL
Just kidding.
Your works are so awesome, I'm really in love with the process you've shown and handsdown masterful, you're all too generous to share this... Normally the artists I know has a lot of secrets (that or they don't know how to teach their techniques exactly). I'm now interested if you were doing anime before, or if you went straight to realism. (and if you do started w/anime, I wanna see them or your growth over time thing haha xD if you don't mind - I believe it can inspire lots of artists here in the forums)

Artists are a major PITA (not just for me, everyone I spoke with said this). Finding reliable one is harder than finding good ones

Persevering with and understanding them is rewarding though. Also, I believe calling them "PITA" is a little... Well, a little too generalizing... I had to become an artist (somewhat) to understand the pains or moodiness of my artist team members, and teaching them how to get over it. I never treated them as a printer, and I make sure they're not gonna throw out drawings, not even a single one (improving only what they've done, or reusing for later purposes , perhaps. But complete redo? no, no, no.) But then this is just my way of doing things and might be so wrong for others or in reality. xD

[ktalkimist]

Having artist friends (musicians, painters, writers), I see where you're coming from. The good artists especially are wired differently. Gotta handle them with care sometimes. However, deadlines must be followed if we don't want to spend the rest of our lives making one game.

[jack_norton]

Persevering with and understanding them is rewarding though. Also, I believe calling them "PITA" is a little... Well, a little too generalizing... I had to become an artist (somewhat) to understand the pains or moodiness of my artist team members, and teaching them how to get over it. I never treated them as a printer, and I make sure they're not gonna throw out drawings, not even a single one (improving only what they've done, or reusing for later purposes , perhaps. But complete redo? no, no, no.) But then this is just my way of doing things and might be so wrong for others or in reality. xD

I'm not the only one using the term PITA. I chat with lots of indies (many MUCH more successful than me) and every time the artist topic comes up everyone has at least an horror story to share (people that pay lots of $$$ for each game art, not peanuts, so you'd expect that they get good results, but instead...). I think if someone is a good AND reliable artist, could never be short of work nowadays
I also see many successful indie VN team based by groups where the artist is a friend or someone they know well/in real life (Moacube, Dischan, Sakevisual, etc). If you find a good artist never let him/her go, they're super valuable

[TeeGee]

We're fashionably late as usual, but pre-orders for Solstice are finally available on our website. Along with a chunky playable preview build . Here's the new teaser for the game:



Get pre-orders here.

I hope it was worth the wait and sorry again for the delay .

[Jason]

We're fashionably late as usual, but pre-orders for Solstice are finally available on our website. Along with a chunky playable preview build . Here's the new teaser for the game:



Get pre-orders here.

I hope it was worth the wait and sorry again for the delay .

That guy double scratching his head. It's what I felt after seeing the teaser.... Such quality man! D:
I'm so gonna buy this game!

[Ophelia]

So excited! Gonna pre-order next week!

I absolutely loved Cinders and I hope you will keep on making such gorgeous games. (:

[Aurélie]

Pre-ordered this the second I saw it was available! Just played through the preview build and loved it. Can't wait for further updates, and of course the release!

[TeeGee]

Thanks, guys. I'm so glad you like it. It's been in development for so long, with more than its fair share of hurdles, that I lost perspective and honestly couldn't tell if it's any good .

[spiritsongtress]

Yay! Actually, because of the game's setting, pretty much all the characters are of color. It's funny, because someone already called us both racist and sexist because of that in a YouTube comment .

Constance is not the protagonist. She's a former courtesan and the owner of the local bathhouse. A pretty prominent figure in the city, with a complicated past.

The male protagonist is Galen. A doctor hired for the winter season. Out of boredom, he starts investigating the disappearance of the local archeologist. He's both black and gay, so I'm kinda worried how people will react to him. He's also the nephew of Madame Ghede .

The female protagonist is named Yani. She arrived with the last dog sled caravan and her origins and agenda are pretty mysterious, so I won't spoil anything.

I'll post some images of both player characters when their art is ready .

Ghede isn't cold in that scene, as she's actually appearing in Galen's dream.

Good to see that people are making games where protaganists & the cast in general are of color. Its kind of important for people who play and make these games to perhaps consider diversity ( as a starting point to build the world around).

[trooper6]

I just pre-ordered! I'm very excited: yay diversity!

However, I'm not going to play the preview build because I don't want to be spoiled for the full finished experience. But I can wait for it!

[cladinpink]

Thanks, guys. I'm so glad you like it. It's been in development for so long, with more than its fair share of hurdles, that I lost perspective and honestly couldn't tell if it's any good .

If this isn't "any good" then I honestly can't think of a game that is. If it's anything remotely like Cinders, what with its amazing art, engaging story and interesting characters, then this is an instant buy for me! Which is why I'll be pre-ordering in a few minutes

[TeeGee]

Thanks . Well, I guess every creator has these moments of self-doubt, especially after long and rough projects. But I also know that, while art and polish certainly help, VNs live and die by the power of their stories. And it's really hard to tell if your story is good after working on it for so long.

That's why I'm really interested in players' feedback. We need a reality check .

[cladinpink]

I understand where you're coming from. I played through the demo last night, but I was too tired to write down my thoughts on your forum (it was pretty late haha), but I'll definitely be doing that either tonight or sometime tomorrow!

But I can honestly say that so far, I'm still loving the art, story and characters

[NoJoker]

Just pre-ordered it
I loved Cinders, the story was well-written and the art was gorgeous! I'm sure Solstice will be of the same quality (also: the male protagonist is gay, and IMHO there are way too few LGBT characters in games).

[Ophelia]

Pre-ordered, played and now I am really looking forward to this.
I wasn't really interested in this when I first heard about it, but thought to look into it because I really want to support you.
I only wanted to play for a couple of minutes, half an hour at most but I played for hours. I really, really like it, even though the story only just barely began. The art is as amazing as it was in Cinders and the characters are incredibly interesting. I never knew I could be so curious about a tyrannical old man.
Also I love that there are two protagonists. I generally don't do male protagonists, but I'm really fond of Galen, possibly more so than of Yani.