A demo for Bloom: Memories is coming in about a month.

Hey everyone, since the last post there have been some big developments... and that's the coming prologue chapter in about a month!

I'll be releasing it on steam - so wishlist here to get a notification when it comes out! (Though I'll also make a post about it).

Apparently in the last couple years doing a demo chapter has been a growing trend on steam. And since the game is a fair amount further along now, I figured it would be a good opportunity to put one out myself.

I'd actually tried a demo a while ago on itch, but it was a much much earlier version of the game.

Anyhow, if no luck with a publisher this coming month, I'll also be taking another shot at the entire KS thing to try and get dev moneys to finish up. You can follow that page here if you're interested.

Just gotta keep moving forward, will get there eventually! 

Development on Bloom is still moving forward, slowly.

Hey everyone, figured it was time for another update. 

Since the failed KSer to get a bit of extra support... I've continued to just chug away at the project. Crowdfunding has changed a lot (games in general have changed a lot!) over the last few years, and visibility is tougher than ever.

Heck, even the way Steam works now aday is completely different (with a huge emphasis on wishlists, as I've probably mentioned before). 

I'm still navigating through it all and trying not to make the  same mistakes I've made in the past (like with Labyrinth). 

Then there are topics on development, what still needs to  be done, the perils of making your game known and money.

4) Money money money.

This is constantly the big hurdle. None of this would be that difficult with some types of funds. It just becomes exponentially more difficult when trying to do a game like this with nothing (not just in execution, but personally). The big question is just how to navigate it all with such limitations.

At this point the game is actually worth "something", so it makes less and less sense to go find other work and come back in a couple years or something (that approach would make life easier in the short term, but more difficult longer term I suspect). 

I've also sent out an early build to publishers. So maybe some of them want to get behind the game? But, again, that sort of thing is a very long shot.

KSer didn't work out last time (like I mentioned before, KS visibility is a lot harder now aday. They even have a "wishlist' type feature now for pre-marketing!). But I guess that is still an option in the next months (maybe with an influencer build and longer pre-marketing thing?).

Hmmm, yea, just the same issues as always I guess. Year after year trying to get this thing funded (as you all know, the bit we got from this first KSer ended up being used by the time James left and I had to restart with someone else....since then it's been quite the journey). 

The development of Bloom has been challenging and in order to try and get the last stretch of the game done the developer has decided to launch a new Kickstarter campaign, asking for $6.500, which will allow new backers to help make this game see the light of day.

Hey everyone, I'd been mulling over how to approach the final development leg for a while (up to release). It's been a back and forth thing, setting up another KS....but then trying out patreon instead and all that. 

Anyhow, finally decided to jump into a "home stretch" campaign! 

Hopefully it all goes ok and I can drum up a bit of extra help for this last bit of development. 

And from the Kickstarter page:

Development on Bloom began properly about 7+ years ago. The journey till now has been a roller-coaster of advancement and setbacks... but after all this time we are finally in the home stretch with the artwork, design, and programming nearing completion.

Five years ago we were lucky enough to raise $45,000 (after taxes and Kickstarter fees) , thanks to a group of amazing people believing in us here on kickstarter. 

Back then we were trying to launch an ambitious dream, but now we are working to finish an ambitious reality.

It wasn’t a lot for our team of 3….but we split it between us and, ultimately, helped keep me (Ivory) working full time for a while. 

After the money ran out though, I kept going for years to complete the over 400 unique environments, 75+ unique models (rigged, textured, and animated), and create the other various bits Bloom needed (such as icons, UI, abilities, effects, and writing / game design).  

Now, the bulk of the work is over and it's just a short stretch to finally getting it together and finishing. 

Sadly, during development we had some catastrophic setbacks (such as vital team members leaving the project and going on to rebuild under a new engine).   

These setbacks would have killed most projects….but, as they say, where there is a will there is a way. The journey hasn’t been easy, but we have a lot to show for it.

So we are back to try and find a little more help getting through this last stage of development. 

There are numerous videos available for the game in the form of development updates and this is the latest one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZONRkqjlX58

The development of Bloom: Memories is, despite the setbacks, still going on and now has a debut trailer for the game, of which the release is estimated to be a couple of months away.

From a previous press release we learned this:

"Bloom: Memories" Continues Despite Troubled Development

Through the rocky development spanning 6+ years and long evaporated support... the creative lead of "Bloom: Memories" continues to carry on towards completion of her ambitious RPG (for PC) while documenting the final journey on Youtube (enabled through moving home to parents farm in Kansas to continue work).

Besides featuring progress updates as the RPG comes together, the Youtube channel also hosts various overviews of the previous years and how the game has evolved.

loading...

To date, the development of "Bloom: Memories" has made it past major setbacks such as core team members abandoning the project, to rebuilding in a new engine years into development. Yet, the journey is still somehow kept alive as the team faces the reality of creating an ambitious game in a saturated and indifferent market. 

ETA: A couple months, on Steam and Itch.io

Studio Fawn is a tiny indie team of several people, headed by Ivory, having one released title to their name (Bloom: Labyrinth, available on Steam and itch.io ). 

There is a new update featuring both the disappointing release of Bloom: Labyrinth and the status of the not yet released game Bloom: Memories.

Hey everyone, time for another update. 

So, first off I know you are probably wondering how things went with Labyrinth and steam.... sadly, not very well. I just wasn't able to get much coverage for it and it went by uneventfully. Just a dozen copies sold.

Anyhow, longer term I'm not too sure how it will all work out....but at least for the last month and next month I have a bit of time (since I'm stuck where I am for healthcare)....so I figured might as well dive back into Memories to try and see just how far I could move things and getting this thing finished.

I've also went ahead and begun making videos to cover the development of Memories as I finish it up. The hope is that being a bit more visible will help avoid what happened with Labyrinth (better late than never right? haha).

So, instead of the typical updates...time for even better video ones! Though much more frequent and covering a wider range of subjects. Such as looks back as well as more real time following on what I'm doing as it comes together. The channel is also my personal one, as Ivory, so not necessarily just about the game (even if that is currently the main focus, since that's what I'm up to).

I'll probably post the videos here on KS now and then to keep everyone up to date, but if you want to get them as they come then subbing to the channel is the best way for now (and in the future I might do them earlier for patreon backers for their continued support, but it seems too early to do that just yet...and I'm still figuring all that out haha ).

Anyhow, here is the first one. Things are looking pretty good in terms of what's left!

The Labyrinth game, which was made to gather some money in order to fund the further development of Bloom: Memories, is now available on Steam. Those who were part of the Kickstarter can download the key for free.

The Labyrinth game is coming to Steam on the 22nd of January. The game now comes with a good looking manual that can be picked up at the start of the game.

I could really use the support in getting the word out and trying to build up that wishlist for launch. So even just an email or tweet to your favorite youtuber / journalist / website would be a HUGE help. It's just me doing all that currently, and well, there are limits to how far I can reach -_-

Anyhow, besides all that, I've mostly been working on getting bug fixes and extra support for Labyrinth (trying to iron out some of the rough bits). I actually just uploaded a new build to itch this morning (the Linux version has had to take a back seat for a while).

For example I made an awesome manual you pick up at the start to help fill in the blanks.

I've also gotten back into the swing on Memories work (currently going through all the maps to process them with a visual upgrade pass).

The release of Labyrinth on Ich.io was not a success. so, it is coming to Steam.

Bloom: Labyrinth is NOT Bloom: Memories. 

These are two very different games, that play completely different, with different assets and a very different world. Even the camera angle isn't the same (one is closer to isometric, the other is straight top down). 

Backers here supported Bloom: Memories and bought copies of that (delayed as it may be from the mess of people coming and going). They do share a lot of under the hood stuff though, which is why I went ahead with Labyrinth in the first place (such as save system or merchant system being work we can carry over into Memories later. That type of sharing of base engine and systems between games from the same company is very common in gaming).

"Bloom" is just the IP name....like "Assassins Creed". 

Just figured that needed clearing up. I've seen so much confusion about what was happening lately....this is NOT the release of Bloom: Memories, just a small detour to hopefully help in a variety of ways.

Postmortem 

Anyhow, now that the first bit has passed....time for a postmordem of how release went! -drum roll-

Obviously this time of year was horrible timing for release (sadly, not too many options), and itch was a poor platform to bank on (especially since they deal with more game jam games and different type of audience). So....I think it's safe to say this experiment was a failure haha.

So....time to shake things up and take off the gloves! 

First price drop. I was far too bold in pricing (especially with how important sales are in the short term). It's already been done on itch (not that it matters there too much).

Second, steam! Yup, it seems the best option is to go limping back to the big platform and just help do my part to get Gabe to his 6 billion. Really though, if you think about it....he deserves it, he revolutionized the world with innovative innovation.

Bloom: Labyrinth, the game that was made as a stepping stone towards Bloom: Memories, and also because a release of Memories is well in the future, has been released on Itch.io.

Fight your way through the many floors of the Labyrinth on a quest to save the Blorb from their evil King Wego!

World of Options

Discover and unlock a variety of armor and abilities to aid you in your quest. 

Will you sneak through the hallways as fog? Become a master of the webs? Or perhaps use wind barriers to keep enemies away? It's up to you to find these powers...and decide how best to use them.

A Story of Importance...

All is not as it seems in the Labyrinth. While you may conquer its halls, there is a greater battle just under the surface you may find yourself facing.

Active Development

Bloom: Labyrinth will be in active development for a while. So let us know what you think! And stay tuned for updates. 

(Note: For Mac users, we are working on that version currently. Check back again soon.)

As we reported before Bloom: Memories has been put on the backburner to work on a smaller game first, named Labyrinth, in order to get some cashflow in. The most recent update shows us a trailer.

Furthermore if you don't belief that Bloom is going to happen anymore, you can get Labyrinth for your pledge instead.

Backers wise I'm not tooo sure what to do with Labyrinth. I think I'll probably send out copies to those at higher tiers? But the lower end tier (like the 10$) I think still pretty fair just getting Memories. Even though that is taking a lot longer than expected, it is also a lot bigger than first expected (aiming for a 30$ price point now). 

Though if anyone doesn't think that Memories is going to come (or just tired of waiting), and just wants to take Labyrinth and Faucet instead, I'd have no problem with that (Labyrinth is going for $20 price point...unless I get cold feet in the last moments and go down to $15....how brave do I feel? :P).

It's an opportunity for anyone to pull the ripcord if they just are frustrated with how things are going. (I'd completely understand, the way this has gone has not been ...ideal....)

Anyhow, let me know in a private message and I'll get you a key and mark it down on my end :) Physical stuff will have to wait till Memories though (since I'll be producing them at once and shipping them at once). I'll remind everyone of this in a few (hopefully) days once I the game goes live also.

There is a new update on the side project Labyrinth, with which the devs try to get some funding in order to be able to finalize Bloom: Memories.

First off, after the last update, Kevin in the comments suggested more arrow types...so I spent a bit of time playing with that and ended up creating a bunch of new ones! Wrapping it all up into the crystal system (so about 20ish abilities besides equipments). 

It is an experimentation / discovery process to find them, but they should add some interesting options to toy around with as you try to navigate the halls.

These also will give a lot of variety for the additional "Gauntlet Mode" (which is essentially a jumble of the maps and shifting the discoverable abilities into ground pickups). 

Down the road we'll be looking into adding more support for the Gauntlet mode. For example, I really wish we could have done the multiplayer / online multiplayer for release, but it was just too much for what Labyrinth was meant to be right now.

...

Currently the great plan is to release Labyrinth on itch.io ....and steam will be getting its own special smaller sister game "Faucet".

Lately I've also been considering how to time the releases. And I think the best idea would be to soft launch onto itch.io in a few weeks with Labyrinth....then a couple weeks later follow up with Faucet on steam? 

Seems like that strategy would give the best shot (especially since we are trying to go it alone outside of steam with Labyrinth). It will be an interesting experiment at least! Hopefully doing this now will help inform us about how to handle the release of Memories next year. 

And, if we fall flat on our faces (again), we can always throw in the towel and grudgingly do our part to help Gabe get to his $6 billion at some other point.

The demo for the Labyrinth game, which is being made in order to raise some money for the development of Bloom, has been made available. It is a bit of a rough demo though.

First off, Labyrinth is really coming together fast now. In fact, you can download a little demo to mess around with here ( https://studiofawn.itch.io/labyrinth ). I've discovered keyboard controls need a bit of an upgrade ....and you can't use the merchant still....so without access to upgrades it's definitely a challenge to get through the few levels without dying :P

It's like the Dark Souls of video games!

For those not trying the early demo, here is a video I hastily put together. Sadly I had some problems with after effects rendering it out (causing a horrible stuttering). I probably shouldn't show things like this, but I'm not going to make another one just for this little demo :P I'll make a proper trailer later :)

Work To Do

In the full game we have abilities all set up, icons made, maps laid out (though going through them now filling in the spawns, which should take another week or two to finish).....so overall, everything is nearing towards the end.

The issue at this point is just a few missing features (like the merchant window, or lack of icon inventory count and scrolling)....and then a serious pass upgrading sounds (and getting more of the piano tracks done). But nothing that difficult, just Ariel and Jose need to find time to fit it in between their other work while I keep putting it all together.

So what happens next?

Well, ideally I'd like to find a publisher to release it with (would also let us add in multiplayer). 

Otherwise I think we are a couple (2-4? Depends how others schedules go) months from getting it out the door and moving back over to Memories (hopefully with extra sandwich moneys).

This latest update for Bloom continues about their side project Labyrinth, which they hope wll provide them with some money in order to finish Bloom: Memories itself.

Heya everyone, time for another fun filled update! 

I've got to say it's certainly an....interesting (frustrating) time....hah.

Anyhow, right after the last update Ariel was able to get a bit of work done on Labyrinth updating some of the Bloom stuff to fit. Camera movement, updated spawners (letting them do a lot more than previous ones could, which now that we have it, is something I'll be carrying over to the core game later), and a few scripting features.

That's the good news, the bad news is GDC came along and kidnapped him for this last month....so I've been working to get everything ready for when he gets back for the last fixes we need.

...

So the game is "playable" now, but we are missing some key fixes. 

For example, the AI is still running the very bloated AI we use in Memories (which means they still have way too many stimuli checks bogging down the performance with 100 characters on the screen). Or that we need to add in some A* navigation to get around all these tight walls (a problem Memories didn't really have because of the map design being so open).

...

Anyhow, we are definitely cutting things close though. Money is a real problem at this point, at least for me (btw did I mention we have a patreon? -wink wink shameless plug- https://www.patreon.com/studiofawn ). 

Though, realistically, in a perfect world we might be able to get a publisher or something to help out in the short term for Labyrinth (and that would give a little extra time for Ariel to put in multiplayer support, which is a feature I'd really like to have on release). 

I think that is going to be our next step these next couple of weeks. Get the first area set up and the AI fixed.... then send it around and see if we couldn't get a little help with ....rent :| haha

Otherwise it is going to be a bit rushed....maybe early access? Though the idea isn't to let this side project drag on for longer than it has to. (Since the primary goal is helping us get a little money to finish off Memories while building on the world and characters).

Despite the lack of funding, the development of Bloom: Memories is still progressing.

....

Ariel is all freed up again and we are trying to get labyrinth set up and done as soon as we can. 

But....given the extra time to stew on the game.... I couldn't help but start to mess with the design (-ducks-). 

Basically, as I was playing some more Gauntlet to see how they were handling stuff....it's obvious there are a lot of problems with the core game loop. It turns out running around shooting a bunch of stuff is fun ....for 5 minutes. Even with the quest mode in later Gauntlets, it wasn't exactly enough to keep it that interesting (at least to me).

So, I have no choice but to shake things up a bit in how we are approaching Labyrinth! 

First off, we are going to be focusing in on the single player aspect more (if the core experience isn't fun, it won't really survive with multiplayer). Ideally it will be structured as multiple attempts to make it through the Labyrinth ....each time growing stronger so you can progress further. 

This also means we can keep a better sense of exploration randomizing in just a few of each areas maps before getting something new. 

To go with that, we are also slowing down the game play a bit, making it harder, and giving players a chance to breath. 

One idea for this is to borrow from a really old game I used to play as a kid....where they had an interesting crystal farming mechanic. Basically you would place them down and they would duplicate, but while they were doing that you had to guard them from being eaten by normal people walking around.

....

The further development of Bloom is hampered by a lack of funds. To remedy this, the idea that is brought forward in the latest update, is to develop a small other game in a quick way to gain some additional funds.

After the last update I sat down and considered the various options we had (of which there aren't really many). Got a few more months of runway left, but after that everything becomes a lot more tricky haha.

Anyhow, one of these options is to produce something smaller to help fund the rest of development. I've seen other developers do something similar and it seems to work fairly well (such as Starr Mazer publishing their shooter game or Mike Bithell creating a small project in a couple months with his Subsurface Circular).

Luckily I've been keeping a list of future smaller projects I'd like to do relating to Bloom. If you've been following along, you've even seen me playing around with a couple ideas now and then. 

The thing is whatever project it was....it had to be relatively quick, while also moving ahead the main game (which means working with the games systems we have so we can keep improving them).

Some of you may remember the old classic arcade game Gauntlet (which was later ported around and followed up with various sequels). Even recently a modern reboot was released (though it had become more like a 3d dungeon crawler, ala Diablo).

I thought this might make a great candidate that would fit into the work we have done so far....and, since no games have really followed its claustrophobic 2d dungeon crawling for decades....it seemed like there was actually a reason for us to take it on. 

Not only that, but later iterations of the game (before it went 3d) even supported a quest mode ....where your treasure could be spent for upgrades as you worked towards an overarching goal. Something I had missed when I was younger, but seemed perfect to tie the dungeon crawling adventure together.

There are some screenshots to be found at the link.

With the demo for Bloom being released a short while ago, it is time to look back to how it went and it certainly did not exceed the developers' expectations.

Hey everyone, now that the demo has been out there a bit....I figured it was a good time for a progress report on where everything stands.

Note: About a week after we put out the demo, we did an update fixing some problems and adding a map while taking out some mechanics like hunger.

Anyhow, the total analytics for the demo were a bit depressing -

• 1350 views
• 210 downloads

For some reason we didn't have much luck getting media attention on the demo, so the amount we could reach was pretty limited (I suspect most of the downloads were by press).

Obviously this also means the crowd fund attempt with Patreon didn't do so well either.

The biggest question I have from the poor performance is what it indicates. Obviously the demo is still pretty rough (and the entire getting lost in the forest isn't the same structure as the core game, as well as the main character and abilities)....but it still might be an indication that the project itself is under-performing in terms of design and execution.

If I just failed at getting the word out, it is still a problem...but less of one. Since trying to get attention for a demo during this point in the year is difficult (especially one so rough still). 

Or it could simply be that trying to release off of steam was what killed it (itch.io isn't as popular, by far...and perhaps media didn't give it much attention being hosted on a site like that?). 

Since it all bombed anyhow, I might go ahead and put it up on steam at some point just to see if there is more traction there.....but from what I hear from other devs, the organic reach on steam isn't really there anymore anyway....so, who knows.

There is also an update on where they want to go from here, which mainly is about the lack of money and how to fund the development next year.

Well, obviously we is outta moneys and gotta solve that problem to finish off the next year of development (since there is quite a bit of work to do, and if I tried to part-time it....who knows what would happen). 

Luckily there are a few options out there (sadly, bank loans aren't one, even as a personal loan, or I would have done that haha. Unless there is some super rich person out there following this? -wink wink wink wink-). 

First up is I've gotten in touch with Nintendo and Microsoft to get the ball rolling on platform approvals (and, if we are lucky, perhaps work out some type of advance on sales for timed exclusivity with one of them....though it is a long shot). The platform we will be supporting on release in addition to mac/ pc/ linux largely depends what happens with all of that. 

Should be hearing back from them in a week or two.

After that, there is the option of a publisher....and after the poor performance releasing the demo and trying to get media attention that option is seeming more palatable (since obviously I'm doing something wrong in terms of getting the message out...and I probably don't have the best temperament for that as well).

In the meantime development is still ongoing.

The latest update for Bloom: Memories talks about the demo being available.

Hey there everyone! Sorry it took a bit longer than expected, but we finally got the demo in a stable enough build to send out there as a first glimpse!

It is still pretty rough (placeholder sounds, a small engine bug with some frame playback, the wiggle mites and player being the only thing that eat....)....but hopefully it gives an idea of where stuff is headed.

Also there is some information why they are not in Early Access.

Sorry we couldn't make it onto steam early access though. We had everything all ready on the page, and had submitted the build and waited for a reply....but when Valve got back to us they said our Patreon page was a problem. 

From what I understood, they wanted us to create empty DLC as "donations" and / or put in "donation microtransactions" that they would take their fairly large cut from.... not even for the Bloom: Prelude (since it is free, being the stretch goal from this campaign), but just in general for whatever extra bits we could raise to help finish up the core game Bloom: Memories.....

As you all know, I'm barely scraping by as it is....so going ahead with that wasn't something we could really do.... 

But luckily itch.io has been amazing to get set up on (their customer service even got back to me within hours, after hours, to increase the upload limit!!). Hopefully that will be ok for the early look...and we can figure out what to do about steam down the road.

The news about the demo of Bloom is that it is not going as fast as they had hoped.

Basically we made our first build last night that we were going to try out with people...but we immediately realized we had broken the flavor events when we added the intro (which is game breaking, since flavor events will catch you as you explore). 

So, just needs another week or so in the cooker to sort that out and add more tutorialization and some additional keyboard + gamepad support (the controls, especially on keyboard, can be a bit confusing without guidance)....along with a handful of other fixes (like I spawned in some small creatures on one of the screens with a golem....and he was running around killing them, which wasn't ideal :P ). 

...

In the meantime, here are some teaser tests I did the other week. I think for the final teaser I'll do a combo of the two.

Bloom has a new teaser trailer.

loading...

A slow paced teaser for our indie game Bloom ( www.studiofawn.com ) still in development.

The demo for Bloom is still on schedule, so it should be just a few weeks more before it is available. The team is also looking for extra help in order to get them to be able to release the game in the not too far future. To get the funding for that they have started a Patreon page and will be doing another Kickstarter campaign in parallel to the release of the demo.

Futhermore they have also made a video available, which is a parody showing their journey so far using footage from Lord of the Rings.

In a new development update for Bloom there is information on the itimization system, polishing, weather and the upcoming demo, for which the following is still left to do:

• Currently we have some persisting bugs scattered around (stack breaking is still happening, it is has been a low priority since it is cosmetic....but isn't something I would let anyone play). 

• The fun thing about bugs is after you squash one, you find another here or there. Especially in edge cases, like when you despawn a plant while the plants effect is on you....it won't execute the leave trigger and end the effect. This was pretty rare before, but with the harvesting interactions on plants it became a LOT more common with a certain plant.

• Our lovely grass clumps also keep getting in the way when you try to interact with creatures / plants. Most maps have them scattered around, so this is something that pops up more than is ideal. In order to fix that we will need to add a special exclusion to keep the auto-targeting from being able to target grass specifically (though an easier / cheaper fix is just to try and sort that in the interaction itself....but it would still cause problems doing that). 

• Run / knockbacks are also being added soon, which is needed to balance combat. Currently things are just too hard without a way to dodge / push away hostile creatures, players would die before they reach the 3rd screen.... 

• The other big thing is just flavor events + dialogue need to be looked at more. This doesn't seem like it will be a big task, just more of a polish issue and getting them set up right with portraits or backgrounds and their proper fonts / so on.

• And finally the bestiary / inventory descriptions needs to be added (so players can look up information). These aren't really critical to game play....but for the demo it is something I want players to have (so they can better understand what they are facing, and how they might be able to deal with it). 

So, overall we don't have a "lot" to get to a playable demo...but still enough to frustratingly hold it back a little longer.

In this month's update of the development of Bloom, there is talk about an upcoming demo, the work to make grass look good, working with elements, sound and art.

Hopefully this next month we get the last bits needed for the complete game play experience....and then can finally put it out there a little bit for some feedback by E3! (Hopefullyyyy.... -dies-) 

We also have some new plans for how we are going to handle the actual demo release which I think people will like ....but I'll go into that more next update (E3 is next month and we can't compete against that publicly.....but at least we can get some testing / feedback done till that blows over).

It feels like things are happening a lot faster in terms of game play now that our core systems are mostly in.....also a very fluid part of development. So if you have ideas on element interactions or suggestions on cool stuff....feel free to throw it out there! This is the time I'm setting those up in the game and finalizing everything. I'm trying to not go high fantasy and hard-core magic, but obviously we have been pretty liberal with plant types haha.

In a new development update for Bloom, some of the new abilities that are in the game are shown by means of a number of animated gifs, which primarily focus on your options to evade combat.

So everyone has seen the basic way creatures can become aggressive towards a target when they see you. It works the same way most games handle it (vision cone, distance).

But a big part of the game is having freedom in how to approach / interact with obstacles. 

For example, some fruit which you can eat (at least for Alon in the prologue) which gives you a temporary boost to regeneration rates....or use it to lure creatures away / feed them so they aren't hungry and aggressive.

What is happening here is deceptively complicated. Like I've talked about before, the creature is "smelling" the fruit first (giving the creature a rough estimate of where the fruit is, sending it that direction) ...then seeing it and using the vision stimuli to get a direct point.

The thing is, food is food for a thistle spider, so the player causes the same type of behaviour even if we try to hide him in some pocket fog plants.

Next to that there are also some new portraits to look at.

In the latest development update for Bloom: Memories we learn that someone of the team will be at GDI, updates in AI, bugs, writing and that they are thinking about providing a version for Nintendo's Switch.

As I was setting up some of the creatures AI and getting deeper into the diversity of their stimuli usage...I realized players would be lost trying to figure out what senses a creature was using. Like the moss slug only using smell, or a crag golem having generally poor senses. 

So, in order to address this, I decided to add a bestiary you can slowly unlock by interacting with creatures. These will have some clues for each creature that I think are relevant to help everyone figure out what is going on (such as the spring snails ability to increase growth rate of nearby plants). 

This is also where my favorite update this month came from....something so genius I surprised even myself. Remember the grumble berries? One of the first creatures I made?

They are now sentient potatoes!! (tubers technically) 10/10 best addition!

In the most recent development update for Bloom, information is provided on programming, art and the world map.

Lately we have been digging more into abilities and getting them in the game (along with working out balancing issues). This meant more work on the inventory system (which is just about where we want it now, including having it set up for both controller and mouse / keyboard)....and also messing with the features needed to use them (mostly script events).

Though we still have to address some of the unique abilities (such as the track moss, which creates a patch of sound muffling moss that sticks to the feet of whatever steps on it for a bit....allowing them to sneak up on things while leaving mossy footprints), core plants like the sunleaf (gives energy to anything nearby) and the hushroom (saps energy) are working fine.

I also added a default melee ability for the prologue character, and after walking around a while....realize we very much needed a run button too (at least for the prologue, might handle speeding up travel a little differently in the core game). The run still needs to be implemented, but at least the animation + rendering is out of the way (should be a quick feature to add).  

I'll just list a few more things we added.

• Bridge feedback scaling for creatures based on their size

• Dialogue functions (though we are still working on this)

• Scaling control for creatures (including slight auto scaling while walking vertically to simulate perspective)

• Added "default target" ahead of player to allow abilities to be used when not using manual or lock-on target.

We also worked a bit on creatures sleep / tired, unconscious, and death states....but it still has a few missing aspects (such as a speed debuff as a creature or player becomes sleepy, or having death assign "dead" attribute to a creature automatically to keep abilities from hitting it). 

Anyhow, basically this next month we will be trying to get everything going to a point we can balance enemies damage / abilities and start to get a feel for how things will play (tweaking the speed of attacks, run speeds, adding abilities to counter them, stuff like that....good news is we are actually including quite a few abilities in the prologue to try out. So that will be fun! Especially the way you get them ...mu ha ha).

In a new update for Bloom information is provide about a new feature named "flavor events", art updates, programming and sound.

First off is our new feature I like to call the "flavor events". Effectively these are slower paced events meant to flesh out the world a bit and rely more on pure choice for the player on how to proceed. You've likely seen them before in a variety of games (especially older RPGs).

For example, if you get lost in "the tangle" (a maze-like section of the forest), instead of kicking you back to the central part of the maze to try again....we could present you with the situation "You've become lost in the tangle. As you wander trying to find a way out, you come across a fork in the path. Take the clear east path? Take the west path blocked by brambles? Or stop and try and gather yourself?". Then each one of these path choices have their own risks and rewards. 

Originally I was going to make these just text....but it didn't last long before I decided we needed backgrounds. Here are some examples of where I'm going with that. It's nice to be able to do some backgrounds that aren't confined by the limitations of the top-down playable view.

In a new development update for Bloom: Memories, some information is given on experiements with particles  (including a video), new creatures, a new dungeon, artwork and a timeline.

First off, like I said last time, we are aiming at getting this prologue done ASAP. I'm talking a month or two..... but that really depends what walls we hit (for example, we need to get in the spawners and the event scripting system to move characters around during "scenes". Waypoints SHOULD work for this, but more likely is we will need to custom build some functionality into that to really get the control we need. For spawners I want to randomize some of the creature stats within a range upon generation...which isn't a crazy task, just another job on the pile. And that isn't even considering the loot tables.). 

After the prologue is done and you all get a chance to play it, it will then be time to plug in our content and work on custom stuff that fell outside of the prologue (for example, some specific abilities will need a little work....like getting moss footsteps to spawn or solving how to handle swimming class creatures ((in water and sand)). 

How long will that take? Really not sure. 6 months? A year? Realistically I expect it actually to go fairly fast to get it playable and all the content in (less than 6 months), BUT then I expect polish and fixing little things to be a huge task (fixing animations, replacing sound effects, scripting out some better movements in events....or even just adding stuff and reworking segments of the story that is confusing). 

Keep in mind I handle all of this scripting and plugging stuff in, along with fixing the animations and basically everything except for the hardcore programming + music....so....only so much one person can do so fast :P

Basically, as I've always said I want to do this right. That "fix little things" stage is a fairly important difference between releasing a game that FEELS good and polished...and one that "falls short, but had so much potential". 

So, to the question of "when will it be done" ....I can only REALLY say "as soon as possible!". :) Everything else is up in the air to how progress goes and how peoples lives fit into development (I don't have sacks of cash laying around to just tell everyone to put down everything they are doing and focus only on Bloom haha).

In this development update for Bloom: Memories we get to see a lot of artwork and animated images for the game, the progress in the programming area and the writing of the story. On top of that Dani talks about a card game that is tied to the main story, but should also be playable as an actual card game.

That's when I got the idea to make a very small Bloom card game, focusing on another part of the story relating to the main game. It was important to me to make something that could be printed and played on actual cards... just seemed like a good idea. ((Since, apparently I don't have enough to juggle already? haha))

It was also a chance to start telling the wider story through other mediums and styles. I've always thought of Bloom as a playground for me to creatively explore...with lots of different stories to tell....so, this is a part of that.

Current title for that is "Bloom: Escape", a small game of the mothers escape shortly before the core game takes place.

The game play has you exploring two 5x5 grids of different rooms as you try to escape to safety. Each room has a lit version and a dark version, either on the top or bottom, so when you shuffle the cards the active side becomes randomized. Then on the back of the card are event which you must deal with. 

You can find several allies to help you and bits of story on various cards which you can piece together... and different action cards that let you do stuff like put out the lights in a room.... escape guards...peek into the next room....or even move diagonally through a hidden pathway.

There are some other objectives to winning that I won't go into here, but that should give you the basic idea. 

I spent a couple weeks creating artwork for this.....and then teamed up with a software engineer at Unity, Chris Figueroa, to bring it digital!!! Originally it was just in the back of my mind to take it digital some day....but....I guess it is happening sooner? 

Like I said, this is a pretty small game. 95% of the art is finished and the mechanics are pretty simple. So we will be getting this digital hopefully in the next month or so (during a month long game jam that happened to be happening all June .. haha). And also printed into an actual card game if there is interest.

In a new development update for Bloom, we learn that a new engine developer is going to be part of the project to speed things up. In addition there are also several new pieces of artwork for plants and creatures.

The last development update for Bloom was in October, so it is time for a new one, which talks about delays, but not about giving up.

Anyhow, basically the game is taking longer than we had hoped (likely longer than we even had anticipated in the other update). Largely this is from the expanded scope I chose to run with and the balancing act James needs to do to keep his job and family. (To give you an idea of how much time the art takes, a single new character takes about a week to get into the game, taken from concept to animating....each new map screen can take anywhere from half a day to 2 or 3 days **especially if there is heavier modeling / rendering needed for the map**.)

I guess I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I feel like I let you down in not matching the promises we set for schedule. On the other hand, I feel like I'm going to deliver more than I had ever hoped two years ago....and in that sense, it feels pretty good. As they say, a rushed game is bad forever, but a delayed game is eventually good (great? :D). 

The thing is, since we are such a tiny team there isn't much risk of the project just failing (get that idea out of your head, we aren't going anywhere haha). We don't hire outside help (hah don't have the budget for it), we don't have a large unstable team (been at this for a few years now)...and we can do it all as long as we are breathing.

In Kickstarter update #18 for Bloom: Memories we get information, about maps, various creatures, plant models, programming and music tracks:

Heya everyone! Time for another exciting update covering our incremental progress! 

Sorry it isn't Halloween themed.... but this might help!

---

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?

.

.

Because he had no body to go with!!

---

Forgive me :P 

Onto the update! 

These last couple months have been pretty interesting development wise as we really put our asset pipeline tools to the test (along with a few major upgrades to them). Besides that, we have just been filling in a lot of holes (missing maps, animations, creatures, engine work). So, here is a breakdown of what has been going on.

[...]

In a new development update for Bloom: Memories we are informed about the status with animations, tools and the design.

Since development of a game like this takes so much time, we tend to think a lot about where things are headed. Originally (before even this kickstarter) Bloom was going to be a hack and slash game. But, along the way, bit by bit, that design goal was chipped away as we wanted to inject more and more meaning into the game. We always wanted players to have the option to rampage through the game if they want, but also wanted to create a deeper experience for those interested. 

The last few months has seen even more of that evolution as we rethought the place of creatures in the game. Sure, there will still be aggressive creatures...but we have rethought the need to have the majority of them that way. Instead, we want creatures to behave more naturally (and instantly attacking the player for no reason doesn't really seem to fit).

It is no secret that one of the big goals we have had for a while is to create an emotion (and needs / wants) system that will steer that behaviour. We will be talking about that more later, but basically it frees up the design of the world to emphasis exploration not only in the world...but also the creatures around the player (what they want, why they are reacting the way they do, and what that means about the world / place they are found). 

This also lets us emphasize the "enemy" robots a lot more. Design wise, it will let us go wild boosting the strength of patrols and create a larger sense of danger (along with the high and low type of game-play it naturally creates as you explore). 

Anyhow, now that the revamped engine is almost back to where we were before and we have most of the world / creatures done (with animations!), the next step is going to be tackling some of these deeper systems and bringing everything together. You all know by now it has never been about making "a_game" ....we want to make something new. Expect things to get a bit more interesting :)

This update for Bloom: Memories talks about the progress that was made with respect to the creatures in the game.

After the last post I kept going with some of the missing section of the map. I still need to finish up the area right before the "dungeon", but the lower section is getting there (when we add the atmospheric effects, it will be pushing these even further).

After that, I decided to switch gears a bit and work on some creatures to fill out the world more.

I'm proud to say we have a heck of a lot of unique creatures / characters now (over 50 currently!!!!!). So this next month or two I'm going to start rigging / animating more of them and getting their sprites into the game properly. 

Also, speaking of the game engine, we have made some amazing progress in terms of memory management these past few weeks. Our new custom image format is working better than we had expected in early tests (with 225 full character sprite sheets on screen, we were still running at about 2500 FPS).

It still needs to be integrated fully (converting of current assets are almost complete), but it looks like the hardest part of that challenge is over.

The update comes with a whole range of images.

The next bit is from the comments section, which has some interesting information about the development duration and the engine.

Oh definitely no finished product anytime soon haha. It has only been a year and half since the KS ended :P We still have about a year of work to go :P

Game play slices are still a little off (but should move quickly once we get more into that). James (the programmer) balances a family and full-time job, so it makes progress there a little slower.

The big challenge is we are technically trying to do something that hasn't been attempted before, so we end up trying various things to get over the hurdles (and backtracking a bit now and then, which means the engine breaks while we try something else). I think we have tried 4 or 5 image formats now ...especially since the technology keeps evolving (like new releases of monogame).

After indiecade last year (for example) we noticed HUGE memory problems with the image format we were using (it ran on our main computers, but the laptop had problems with it). We were starting to tackle more game play when that happened, but then we switched to solving performance problems.

BUT! Good news is we are still making some awesome progress other places despite all that :) Like our new world-location system (very different than what we were doing before), or the upgrades we keep making to combat / hit detection and a whole lot of other stuff.

Anyhow, a little further and we should have more game play to show. It will move pretty quickly once we get there too (since throwing in different attacks or enemy behaviour or interactions is more a scripting thing than an engine / programming thing....we have an awesome custom scripting system in the game now).

HOPEFULLY very very soon. The biggest bottleneck with the game has always just been the content though. That is why most indie games are a little more restrained with art (doing models / rigging / animating is a huge task). Just getting it out of the way as fast as I can so it is all there waiting for me when I build out more areas. :)

After four months since the last update developer Studio Fawn released a post-funding update for Bloom: Memories with more information on the games birds eye view. 

Expanded Scope - Birds Eye View

Hey everyone, time for another update! 

As always, I've been working on more maps for the game....but we are finally able to see the end! Here are a few examples of some newest areas to give you an idea of where they are headed. 

Keep in mind that these are still a work in progress. I recently discovered a new technique for applying some atmosphere to the environments, so I'll be going through all of the world maps and seeing if I can't push them a bit further (but we need to rework a bit of the engine to handle the color / contrast being applied down onto characters if I do that).

Projections / The Future

A downside with all of this is that it doesn't seem like we are going to hit our release target (pretty sure you saw this coming though). We "could" rush it and get something out....but this project means way too much to us for us to butcher it like that. So, at the moment, we are thinking it will be an extra 6 months. (Nothing too horrible, and if we go over that we will figure out a way to make it right for all of you who have supported us)

Anyhow, the world is about complete.... we have an army of characters (though not the full army yet)...our story is locked in. We just need time to make sure everything is working correctly to a standard we are proud of.

To be honest, the delay is largely my fault for expanding the scope of the game and trying to do as much as I could with Bloom with the chance you all gave me. Hopefully you understand what I'm trying to do with the game and can hold on a bit longer than expected while we make it happen :)

Well we finally have a new post-funding kickstarter update for Bloom: Memories. The developer Studio Fawn released more images, and music samples from the game.

Heya everyone, time for another update!

The last couple of months have been busy as usual filling out the world. So more maps, more creatures / characters, more music, and a bit more programming. 

Map wise, we have over 50 new ones! Bringing us to over 200! (The 2nd "dungeon" turned out to be rather large ~over 37 maps!!~....good thing we have some fun plans for it ;).

And, last but not least, programming wise we have still been doing some major work on the engine to get it to support more platforms (and make it a lot easier to update / download). So nothing fancy to show there yet, but once that is finished we will be tackling new game features.

Anyhow, hope you like how things are going! Let us know what you think :) And, as always, thanks so much for the support in making this all happen.

Forum member m00n1ight notified me of a new interview on Core-RPG with Dani Landers the developer of Bloom:Memories. So lets all thank him for the new interview.

Your project has a long and difficult story and was funded on Kickstarter only on third attempt. What, in your opinion, was the reason for the failure of the first two attempts? And what makes you go on and try again, despite the fact that many novice developers lose their hearts after the first failure?

Well, the first time I went to kickstarter, I had pretty unreasonable goals… no one knew me (I was coming from nowhere)… and just had a handful of concepts for an idea I wanted to do. So, it wasn't a big shock looking back why I failed.

After that, the attempts just weren't far enough along in the build to really show much to anyone. It was still a lot of talk and looking for help to make it a reality. Finding more team members (my first attempt I was alone), getting more concepts and game models done, or just sorting out some story / design.

Eventually I had enough to show and prove to people I could actually do what I was saying I could do.

What makes me keep going and not give up is just confidence in myself. I KNOW have a story to tell, and a world being made, and a game being created. I KNOW I can make something special. So, for me, giving up makes no sense. The issue is more about how I'll get to the end of the road, not IF I'll get there.

Also, failure isn't really the end of doing something creative (or anything in life). Failure is just practice… it teaches us what we did wrong… and our next attempt is even better.

I don't think anyone has ever done anything great without failing. We don't give up trying to walk because we may fall down when we first start. Eventually we get there, it just takes a bit of drive and trust in ourselves.

According to latest studies, the interest in crowdfunding is running down. Kickstarter is flooded by the pot-boilers and cloned projects, so players and journalists is getting pretty tired of searching for some diamonds in the mud. Journalists in particular is paying much less attention to the new projects now. Have you encountered this problem with news blackout during your Kickstarter campaign?

Yup, I was noticing the drop-off of interest / trust in kickstarter when we went there also. Journalists would do "group articles" on a lot larger number of kickstarters… and people seemed more used to seeing it as a place to get the game a bit cheaper or wanting bigger rewards to match major kickstarters they had seen (which wasn't really how it was early on in KS).

But, even with that, I think kickstarter is pretty important to seeing a new wave of games made by people without the resources to make them the traditional way though. For example, thanks to everyone who spread the word and backed us we were able to push ahead with Bloom. Had kickstarter and gamers not been there to help us… it would have just been one less game getting made.

I really feel like journalists, developers, and gamers are all working together for the same common goal… to make even better games and push the medium forward. Something like kickstarter brings those groups together to make something happen that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.

So, overall, I hope journalists and gamers don't get too bored with sites like Kickstarter. Thanks to them stepping in early, new stuff is getting made and they are making a difference.

Another development update for Bloom has appeared and this time it talks about and shows; hit-detection, water effects, maps, characters and music (obviously it doesn't show that, but you can listen to it).

In the last few months we have made some great progress in pretty much every area of the game. The alpha download is going to be delayed a little bit though (when we went to indiecade a couple weeks ago, we found some big performance issues on less powerful computers that we need to sort out). 

So, what have we been up to? I'm glad you asked!!

Engine Updates! - James has been adding a bunch to the engine in between his other work. Some of the stuff this last couple months have been updated AI, UI, revamped attack and hit detection (supporting multiple frames), new water effects and character reflections, along with updates to the way we handle event firing.  

We still have plenty to do, but it has been pretty exciting as we move into abilities and general game play. Here are some gifs from the latest build (set up to test some of the combat and event handling).

After a long time the next update for Bloom is available to provide information on the latest state of the development of the game.

Anyhow, after the last update I kept pushing ahead with the world maps I had been working on. This includes the first dungeon, which overall ended up being roughly 25 new maps (and set the general sizes for the next ones).

When the maps were finished and ported into the game, James added a couple new features to the engine too (parallaxing with the treetops, some camera controls **this is my favorite, we can now zoom into the environments to give a little more game play room***, seamless world exploration, updated hit detection and collision, and cloud shadows moving over the game). But, to do some of that, he also had to rip down a bit of the existing engine structure and rework it to give us some better tools (the seamless world exploration and collision detection were the big problems there). 

So, a couple steps back and then a couple forward...but overall, it was very worth it.

Next to some images of maps, the update also show animations of two creatures in the game.

Dani Landers of Studio Fawn was interviewd on a site called Enthusiacs to talk about the upcoming release of their funded kickstarter game Bloom: Memories.

Wastey: What’s been the biggest obstacle you’ve had to face….. thus far… as an indie developer?

Dani: The biggest obstacle has really just been finding support. The game is pretty ambitious, and so much of what we are doing simply takes massive amounts of time to do. Of course, I don’t have much to my name….so finding support from the community and family has been what has given me the opportunity to really focus and create. There was a long period of time where no one really believed in what I was doing….so finally being able to show the early stages of what we have made and strangers getting behind us to help us continue really meant a lot.

Wastey: You created the game’s engine itself from the ground up, correct? How daunting was something like that to build?

Dani: Well, not me. That is mostly James Johnston, the amazing programming power behind Bloom. It is definitely a big task, but it is really just about taking one step at a time…eventually you get where you are going. Along the way has been a lot of discovery and sorting out new processes for handling problems we face (like how to process and stream the insane number of frames for character animations). We are kind of forging our own path with this engine, since Bloom has such unique demands.

Wastey: I’m going to challenge you just a little. If you had to whittle Bloom: Memories down to, let’s say, just three core features that would set it apart from the myriad RPG settings out there, what would they be?

Dani: 1 ) Themes – The themes in Bloom are a bit different than most RPGs. They are heavily influenced by my own experiences…and a reflection of a lot of my life and feelings.

2) Art – The art kind of speaks for itself. I really wanted to create something out of love…so instead of doing things like tile sets or other tricks to speed up production, I try to really go the extra mile to make this something special (for example, every environment is individually created / painted… there are hundreds of them).

3) Options!! – A big part of this game is about growing and learning who you are. This means along the way your choices shape who you become and how the world reacts to you. Do you kill? Do you sacrifice? Do you show kindness when there is no reward evident? I’m curious what type of people players will be.

Studio Fawn has finally posted a new post-funding update for Bloom: Memories after going silent for a few months. The update shares information on the games progress.

A Big Update - With Pictures! :)

Heya everyone, Dani here :) Time (finally) for an update on how things have been going over the last few months (short answer: pretty great! :D). 

NOTE:: At the bottom of this update is more information on the small print voting ~~~

As most of you know, I moved at the start of the year and finally was able to get back to work. But before I go into details, I want to announce that Dell / Alienware has decided to sponsor us with a couple new machines! My work computer is definitely a bit dated now, so their help is amazing timing. Huge thanks to the people at Alienware for believing in what we are doing and giving us a helping hand.

So, what has been happening besides that? Well, since James (the programmer) was a bit wrapped up with some other work, I've been free to go ahead and focus on more art assets (one of the biggest bottle necks for the project). As you know, I handle the character concepts....models...textures...and all the world maps...so I need to hop around a lot to make sure things develop evenly. 

For example....these new character designs! (the "core group" now has an additional 3 characters, beyond Ilana and the main character). Here are the concepts, and happily their models are also almost finished.

Note: For those interested, when I do more character sculpting I'll be streaming on twitch as I work at http://www.twitch.tv/dani_sf (and I'll be tweeting before I start at https://twitter.com/StudioFawn ). I actually live sculpted a few already, but I didn't realize you had to manually save on twitch :| Oh well, plenty more to come.

Indie Game HQ interviews Dani Landers about his funded kickstarter Bloom: Memories.

Javier: Congratulations on the success of your Kickstarter Campaign. Now that you’re all good and funded, would you mind sharing some of the secrets? I know you had other two unsuccessful funding campaigns for Bloom. In your opinion, why do you think those two campaigns didn’t reach funding?

Dani: Thanks so much. I guess the biggest secret is to create something you believe in, and never give up.The first two campaigns failed for a lot of reasons (the first one largely being simple we were very naive in how Kickstarter works). The other time was largely because we were unknown and there was a lot of skepticism surrounding our abilities. Pushing forward and showing progress was a great way to let people see our hard work, and get them to understand our passion behind the project.

Javier: What would be your advice for those starting their Kickstarter Campaign?

Dani: Biggest advice is to study other campaigns and try to learn from their presentations. Also getting a stronger understanding of reward tiers (and just how severe shipping costs can be). Besides that, you need to have something about your project that makes it stand out. Why would someone want to pledge to your unfinished game when they can buy from the huge pool of existing games? You need to offer them something they don’t have today…something they wished existed…and something that could only exist if they stand up and support it.

In the first post-funding update for Bloom: Memories Studio Fawn details what happens next now that the game has been funded.

What Happens Next?

Hey there everyone, Dani here again. I’m sure you have already realized, but we have officially made it through Kickstarter!! Thank you all so so much for all the amazing support getting us through. Not just the pledges, but the great feedback and all the support spreading the word and everything else you have been doing to help us reach even further than our original goal. 

While we fell just $1,500 short of the prologue chapter stretch goal, don’t worry, we will be adding paypal onto our website in the next day or two to continue the campaign for a bit (for those that missed us on kickstarter, or the many backers who simply weren't able to use kickstarter). Basically, things should hopefully work out for the prologue chapter :)

So, what happens from here?

Well, in this next week or so I’ll be sending out surveys and a few messages to collect the details on add-ons and shipping addresses for those that need physical rewards (this might be a little slow, I'm actually in the middle of moving and need to be out of here by the 15th...amazing timing right? :| ).

Then, I will be creating more designs for the small print before finally putting them all up for everyone to vote on before being printed out and sent. Don’t worry, the vote will remain up for a while on our website, so there will be plenty of time to let your voice be heard. I'll be making a small announcement with an update here to let you all know when that is ready.

Of course, between all this we will also be pushing ahead with production on Bloom (since, well, that is the main goal after all). For those who selected the alpha updates, this should begin in a month or two when we have our alpha update system set up and are ready to push more builds out (so we will be sending you messages on that when it is ready).

Studio Fawn has a new Q&A for Bloom: Memories in the games latest update.

Loose Ends - Q&A

Since we are nearing the end of the campaign, I thought it would be a great chance to answer some questions that have popped up. 

Q: How long will the game be?  

A: Judging the total game time in the final game is pretty difficult this early and without testing, but I can safely say the final game won’t be a short 2 hour experience or anything like that. In fact, even just the small pre-alpha demo took most people roughly 15-25 minutes to run through… and that was a tiny extra bit added before you even enter the “proper” more open world or have even gained your most basic skills.  

It takes a little time to tell the story and build the experience we want, so we plan to take all the time we need to do it right.

Q: And what is the replayability like?  

A: First off, I expect players to be able to play through the game several times on normal settings and still find it very rewarding. Since one of the biggest features is the ability to approach and handle situations differently, replaying the game and trying something new will definitely give you different experiences.

Beyond that though, we are planning a + mode (after you have beaten the game on normal, for an extra challenge), as well as some more involved ideas (such as the prologue chapter, or other ways to unlock additional content).

Added to all of this is a world filled with secrets and accomplishments…and you have quite a bit of content to keep people busy (as well as a game that might make quite a few completionists happy; what fun is achieving things if you aren't rewarded?).

Q: How does your character grow?

A: Well, the progression of your character depends on how you play and what type of person you are. Instead of more traditional “skill trees”, we like to approach abilities in a more grounded way and provide them through the actions you take (certain challenges, or exploration, or making certain choices).

Of course, there will also be a “core set” of abilities that are needed to make sure everyone is able to finish the game. But we see these more as key story events, instead of real individualistic character progression.

Outside of abilities, you also grow in terms of who you meet and the characters (or items) you have access to which help you on your journey.

In the latest update for Bloom: Memories we get a look at the games music.

The Music - Adding Depth to Bloom

Hey everyone, Dani here (for just a moment) with another update. Thanks so much for all of the support in getting us this far, it has been an amazing week :) 

But first off...big news! We made it through greenlight!! Now with less than a week to go, we are in our final push to reach some stretch goals. 

Speaking of stretch goals, you might have noticed a new one added to the front page -

$65,000 - Prologue Chapter (Unlocked when you complete Bloom on normal). Play as a key character in the Bloom story leading up to the beginning of the journey. Completion of this chapter unlocks new options in the main story on future games.

Also, here is a new concept for that $5 add-on. Of course, there are still plenty more left to do before voting for the top 2 to print! 

In other news, we have officially teamed up with curse.com who will be providing the Bloom wiki! As more information is released, the wiki will slowly be growing to include all the various bits about Bloom. http://bloom.gamepedia.com/Bloom_Wiki

Anyhow, with those out of the way, onto the update!

Since the last update was about the programming, and before that the artwork, we thought it would be a perfect chance to cover some of the music (which, to us, is much more than "just music"). So, who better to talk about this than our composer Jose Mora-Jimenez.

In the latest kickstarter update for Bloom: Memories Studio Fawn announces the game has reached its goal, and is now funded.

We Made It! Goal Reached!

Hey everyone! We have officially made it to our goal! ~celebrates~  

Thanks so so much for the amazing support from each one of you!! It truly means a lot to the entire team that so many people have chipped in to help us move Bloom forward; we won’t let you down.

Good news is, we still have over a week left! So everything from here just means bigger and better! Starting with our first stretch goal at 50k for additional language support on release.

Also, we added a new digital add-on today which might be of interest. 

• Alpha Access - $35 (Get access to regular builds as we create them, along with a reporting system to report bugs or suggest changes. These builds will be bleeding edge and will probably break often, but you will get to see Bloom grow as we build it.)

And, of course, we still have a lot of other great add-ons on the main page for you to check out.  

But for now, we can finally relax a little bit and breathe. :)

Anyhow, thanks again so so much for helping us finally get through Kickstarter! It is definitely going to be a busy (but exciting) year!

The next kickstarter update for Bloom: Memories gives a small update on the project, and Lead Developer James gives a look at how the game was developed.

The Invisible Magic of Bloom

Heya everyone, Dani here again... but only for a bit. This update will actually be in the hands of James (the developer, who handles the techy side). First off, thanks so much for all of the support! We are just around the corner from reaching the goal, so please keep spreading the word and we can push through.

To help things along, I'm also happy to announce a special $5 add-on. 

Small Print - An 8.5" x 5.5" art print! ((Note: This is not the final version, I will be doing several versions and a vote will decide the most popular TWO to print. So if you get two of these add-ons, you will get both different prints)).

Also, we just made it into the top 10 on steam greenlight, so things are definitely moving in the right direction!

Anyhow, take it away James.

............

Outside of the amazing artwork and beautiful music of Bloom, there is something equally impressive and it’s almost invisible unless you know where to look. Because this is a passion project, every team member has poured their heart and soul into Bloom – and I am no different.

I am James, the lead (and only) developer. My job is building the game engine; to pull all the amazing assets together to create the game.

While many programmers view code as a means to an end, a tool… I see it as an art form. To produce beautiful code, to achieve the impossible, to turn a bunch of unconnected stuff into an amazing experience for the player.

Studio Fawn has posted the next update for Bloom: Memories talkng about a core feature of the game called the bridge.

The Bridge

Hey everyone, time for another update! Since we have been covering a lot of the more technical / creative aspects lately, I thought it might be a good idea to shift focus towards a bit of the game design and some of the unique aspects of Blooms game mechanics and world.  

As some of you have noticed, we haven’t spoken about “the bridge” in this campaign very much. This is actually one of the features we are most excited about, as it plays an important role in how we can offer and expand upon non-violent options in the game.

To catch everyone up, “the bridge” is where the energy of life exists overlaying the normal world and its inhabitants. Rumor has it that with enough training, one can begin to open themselves to seeing and even walking within this space at will. Inside the bridge one can see the true nature of friend and foe, past their physical aspects and directly into their hearts.

Sounds good enough on the surface, but let’s talk about how that actually translates to game-play.

First, this can be used at a distance to get a sense of enemy’s moods and understand the reasons why they are hostile. Hopping into the bridge to get a deeper feeling for the situation, and better strategize how to approach. Is an enemy only hostile when you get close? Are they hostile because they are hungry? Or, do they have a deep hatred for you? Knowing the “why” behind aggression is a valuable tool to being able to combat it.

Second, if you are able to focus enough in these areas, you will get the ability to move in the bridge; only you move apart from your physical self. At first, this distance is very limited, but eventually you will find yourself being able to spend more and more time exploring. Also note that the flow of time in the normal world is paused when inside the bridge, adding a new layer of complexity to your strategies.

As your “bridge self”, you are then able to touch other creatures to try and connect with them on some level. This lets you try to manipulate moods, or even try to calm the anger of the most violent of creatures. The “how” you do these things after touching a creature is still a secret… but let’s just say we are trying to make this non-violent option just as engaging as the violent option is in terms of fun and game play.

Studio Fawn has posted a new kickstarter update for Bloom: Memories that gives us a look at the art of the ingame characters.

The Art of Characters

Hey everyone, Dani here again (as always). Thanks so much for sticking with us. For those who haven't tried out the demo, it seems like most of the big bugs are sorted out (so worth a look in update 1). Sadly we saw a bit of a slowdown this week on the campaign though; but at least we are inching closer. 

If you can, please tweet or post to facebook (or post to forums or anything else) about Bloom and let’s push to reach more people. With your support, we can push through to the goal and start hitting some stretch goals (such as the first one, Russian + German + 1 additional language supported on launch).

Anyhow, onto the update!  

Last time we talked about how I approached the maps in the game. From early concepts, down the line through what happens to bring it into the game. This time I want to talk about the creatures and characters in the game.

In much the same way as I approach maps, characters also begin in a rough sketch phase. These are kept loose and revolve around quick exploration of ideas as I draw. I actually have quite a lot of these to work from, and many are roughed out into 3d already (but more on that later).

Studio Fawn talks about the maps of Bloom: Memories in the lastest kickstarter update.

The Art of Maps

Hey everyone, Dani here again. It is official; we have passed the 60% mark!! Thanks so much for all of the support in getting this far! We still have a bit to go though, so please keep spreading the word and we can make it! :)

Anyhow, for this update I want to give everyone a bit of insight into the art side of the game. Since I handle all of the artwork and writing, it is the perfect subject for me to cover.

---Before we start, keep in mind that everything you see are from various stages of development, and likely will be fairly different in the final version.---

So, for this update let’s talk about the maps!

These all began as a series of large over-world sketches to test ideas and generally brainstorm. Basically I was trying to get a feeling for the overall shape of the world, major features, and the pallet shifts needed to keep the game a bit more interesting. In the end, it came down to 4 main sections; forest (green), ruins (red), water (blue), and darkness (black)... of course, with variation within these areas.

   

Outside of these over-world sections are also a range of hidden areas and “dungeons”, but this first map gives us the solid foundation to branch from.

From there, I take the maps and refine them a bit, thinking through exactly what needs to start happening within the maps to give them a bit more life.

Studio Fawn posted the next update for Bloom: Memories that brings talks about new add-ons, the alpha versions, and mentions reddit.

Hey everyone, Dani here again. We have officially crossed the 40% mark!! For less than a week, we are doing pretty good! Thanks so so much for spreading the word and helping us move forward. Don’t forget to check out / vote on the Steam Greenlight as well if you haven’t already.

Greenlight - Click me

In an effort to keep the email spam from updates down, we have set up a sub-reddit for everyone. This saves the kickstarter updates for larger substantial posts.  http://www.reddit.com/r/bloommemories/

Then, if you are having trouble with the pre-alpha, make sure you are running the latest version (new builds now check to make sure you have the latest). The last few days James has been tirelessly working to get all the bugs sorted out. On the bright side, it has helped us clean up the engine a lot as we try to support more machines! Just some of the growing pains of alpha and developing for PCs.

And, for those having trouble donating, we will be setting up a paypal as we get closer to the goal, so stay tuned :) 

Anyhow, I've gotten a lot of requests for specific items (those who ONLY want the game and the plush, for example), so we are adding add-ons! Basically, these work by simply upping your pledge by the amount of the add-on. Then, after the campaign, we will be sending out a survey where everyone can select how they want to divvy up their pledge amount. This cuts down on confusion and makes sure no one gets lost. 

The tiers themselves are a better value, but if you only want a specific thing, add-ons can be pretty great savers. 

Digital Add-Ons 

• Extra Copy of the Game – $10

• OST (Music) – $10

• Digital Art-book – $10

• Companion – $15 

Physical Add-Ons 

• T-shirt – $30 (+10 for shipping outside of US) 

• Signed Archival Print – $35 (+10 for shipping outside of US) 

• Plushy!! – $45 (+15 for shipping outside of US) 

• Signed Extended Art-Book – $75 (+15 for shipping outside of US) 

Hope this helps, and please let me know if there are any topics you want us to cover as we go on. Thanks again for all of the support!

Studio Fawn has released the first update for Bloom: Memories to annouce the Pre-Alpha engine demo is ready for everyone to download.

Pre-Alpha Engine Demo! Ready for Download!

Hey everyone, Dani here, time for our first update…the demo! First off though, thanks so much for all of the support. With your help we made it into staff-picks and are near the top of the games list on kickstarter! We still have a pretty long way to go though, so please keep spreading the word to everyone you can.

Anyhow, onto the demo! 

Demo Link (for PC) - http://www.studiofawn.com/alphadownload.asp

NOTE:: For best results, use a gamepad! 16 direction support in a 2d RPG? You bet!

Over the last 6 months, James and I (mostly James :P) have been building this 2d engine from the ground up to handle the demands of Bloom. What we have now is only the first step forward. This is the solid foundation from which we can expand….so expect everything to get a lot better, with environmental effects, particles, improved AI, full sounds and much much more.

Still, we have included a sampling of various engine mechanics; such as base AI, puzzle scripting, dialog, and even a bit of combat.

Keep in mind though that this is still very early pre-alpha, so you might run into some rogue bugs and errors (and, of course, placeholder graphics). Please visit our help section on our website to see a list of bugs, and how you can handle them if you encounter any (such as pressing J if you get stuck).  

Hopefully this early glimpse into the world gives you a sense of where we are headed and the possibilities as we continue. Enjoy!  

And, again, thanks so so much for all of the support!

Studio Fawn has restarted their kickstarter for Bloom: Memories. Here is a new video with details about the game if you forgot, or simply never heard of the game before.

Bloom: Memories combines many classic game design elements into a gorgeous unique action adventure / rpg.

At its core, we are creating a game that moves away from the cliche of violence and domination. In fact, you can play the entire game without harming anyone or anything if you so choose. 

 Of course, we understand that there are different types of players, and we are dedicated to building a world that accounts for each of them in a rewarding way. Combat, stealth, story or collection … it is up to you to decide how you want to face the challenges ahead.

• Consider talking. The world is filled with strange creatures; sometimes taking a moment to talk to them can be well worth the time. Every now and then, as you consider how to kill the imposing monster standing before you. . . you might instead simply try and say hello.

• Use stealth and strategy to fool those who block your path. Careful planning may be a bit slower and generally safer . . . but of course, nothing is without risks. One misstep and you might find yourself in a very tricky situation.

• Grow stronger by feeding off those you defeat. This is an extremely challenging road, and one that will take you on a very different path as you slowly grow more powerful through taking the lives of others. In the end, you may find yourself with a great deal of strength. . .but at what cost?

Along with your choices also come consequences: Be violent…and the world will react more violently in return. Be kind, and the world may soften, revealing a more loving side.

An update of the current status is given for Bloom, which unfortunately has not made it in their Kickstarter campaign.

ey everyone, Dani here again (I really need to come up with another way to start these), I just wanted to drop in and let you all know how things are progressing (abridged version - things are going great!).

This last week was been pretty crazy as we get everything set up to move forward with the limited resources we have. Thanks so much to everyone who jumped over to our PayPal (and amazon) campaign to make this next phase a little easier! It is definitely helping us out and we will be keeping it up as we forge ahead (so, plenty of time to hop over and take a look for those that missed it).

We've also been extremely lucky with some amazing offers of help on the project (including an animator from Dreamworks!)! So, we are taking advantage of the opportunity and over this last week we added on a couple more people to the team to get this out faster and better than we could have before.

Anyhow, for the next couple days we are continuing to get everything settled and sort out a few production details / who does what (I got dibs on the art! :D). Then we jump into full production and keep pushing ahead! In addition to all this we've also come up with a couple new ideas that should be pretty exciting (like I said, it has been a crazy week!). I’ll be covering them once we have everything nailed down a bit more (so stay tuned :)

Also, once the dust clears expect loads of new artwork / creatures / concepts. And, as always, feel free to chime in with suggestions or thoughts as we go along (feedback is always welcome).

With 14 minutes to go and their goal still $15K aways there is no hope for the Bloom Kickstarter to succeed, but they are determined to go onwards and come back.

So, here is what we are going to do! For next 4-6 months we will be working as much as possible on continued development. This will result in the polished first section of the game adding onto our current build. From there we will take that game section and offer it as a strong public demo up and ready for the world to play. The resources we are working with are tight though, so we need your help to keep us going strong. 

In order to make things easy on everyone, we have moved the pledge tiers over to our website ( www.studiofawn.com ) and set up a PayPal ( http://studiofawn.tumblr.com/donate ) to run while we keep going (some of the tiers have been adjusted a bit with better rewards and all rewards tiers will also be your choice to interchange with the next campaign if they are altered). So, please take a look and let us know what you think.

After the demo is released (the first section of the game), we will be coming back to Kickstarter stronger than ever before for a “round 2” of fundraising. Effectively, this is just splitting up the funding campaigns into two stages (the first now through our website to help see us through the polished demo phase).

Every bit helps as we move into these next months and we are counting on your support to make the road a little less rocky. Of course, rocky or not, we will make it happen.

With 38 hours to go and a $17K gap between where they are now with the Bloom Kickstarter and their goal of $50K a new update is presented on the dedication of the team to finish the game. They have been picking up some steam over the last week, so it isn't entirely impossible.

Basically, we are pretty passionate about what we are doing. It was actually pretty obvious before we even started that indie development was an uphill battle, especially if you are trying to do a project that takes more than a few months (and especially if you are relatively unknown)! We knew trying to go further with art, story, game play, and even music as a tiny indie team with no resources would be a pretty rocky path .. .but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. ;)

We want to assure everyone that our commitment to this project and seeing Bloom through to release isn’t dependent on this campaign (though, it would definitely make things a little smoother!). At the end of the day we believe in what we are doing as developers, as artists, and as gamers. So, when bumps appear in the road (of which I’m sure there will be plenty along the road), it is our unwavering dedication that forces us to find a way over them.

In the eigth update for the Bloom Kickstarter, some questions are answered. Next to linkin to ours and Jace Hall's interviews, two more questions are answered. One on choices in the game and one on platforms:

What’s the deal with platforms??

Basically the situation with the platforms is this. For the initial release (day 1), we plan to release the game on PC and Mac (simply because distributing on steam and giving downloadable links is the easiest and lowest cost for us).

After that, we plan to continue forward with additional platform support (eventually hitting all of the major platforms from Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Android ~Ouya~, and Linux). This isn't the type of game that can be played on a phone, but a tablet version should be doable and something we have yet to explore (since the way we are making the game is very flexible and light, pretty sure it will be ok). We have actually already begun chatting with Microsoft and Sony, so as we move forward we will be lining everything up to get out to additional platforms as soon as possible.

Bloom is a game in development, which is currently on Kickstarter and is tagged as an adventure-RPG. We asked Project Lead Dani Landers some questions to see if we could get more information on this game that is quite different from other games on Kickstarter.

Here is update number 7 of Bloom (currently $19K of an asked $50K, with 11 days to go), which is about the depth music adds to the game.

Last time we went over a bit of the evolving visual art behind Bloom, so this time it seemed fitting to cover a bit of the music. We strongly feel games are about the entire experience and music definitely offers some amazing opportunities.

We touched pretty briefly on this on the main page, but basically our goal is to use the music to reinforce the narrative of the game on a subtle (though substantial) level. 

In order to accomplish this our composer, Jose Mora-Jimenez, works closely with me while we move step by step through the story in the game. We then break down the feelings and narrative at that point and Jose interprets this into music using different instruments to represent the various actors in the game.

There are some samples of music to listen to when you hit the link.

In the sixth update of the Bloom Kickstarter ($13.7K out of an asked $50K) Dani provides more information on how the art has evolved over time.

Hey everyone, Dani here again. For this update I’m going to take you back a bit and give everyone an idea of where Bloom came from artistically and how much it has evolved to what you see today (and is still evolving).

Bloom officially began years ago as two separate graphic novel attempts exploring different ideas and styles. The first was a very short color version (of only 5 pages), and the 2nd was a black and white version that went on to be over 30 pages.

Unofficially, Bloom actually began years before that with various personal projects I had done and I drew elements from them into the Bloom world). An example of this is the golem creature that I had created while working on a cartoon intended for Nickelodeon, and then as Bloom advanced I re-created him to fit into a darker world.

At the point of the graphic novels, the majority of the concept work was actually done while making each page. While this wasn't very effective in terms of design, it set the ground work from which I was able to build from (and many of the ideas you can still see today in one form or another).

After the graphic novels, I found myself with a great body of writing and story-lines along with the solid beginnings of a world. So, in my free time, I continued to refine the ideas and push things further.

Actually, that is a big part of Bloom, the way it changes. Unlike other projects, this one is being lead from the artistic side and the focus on experience and story. Since I am the one doing all of the concept design, writing, and modeling; the game evolves alongside me.

Even in the last week we took another step forward and explored some more styles. We intend to continue this type of exploration and growth as we move forward and in the end should have something truly unique for players to experience. Bloom has never tried to be just “another game”; it is our dedication to really push ourselves beyond the norm to make this something special.

Make sure to check out the update for more artwork.

In update #5 more information on combat in Bloom ($13,3K of $50K, with 25 days to go) is given.

From the outset of designing the combat mechanics we knew we wanted to capture that fast and satisfying combat you find in old school games. The thing is, we weren't happy with just taking mechanics from the past and repackaging them (nostalgia is great, but there is plenty of room for taking these things further!).

We also wanted a type of game that is just “fun” (a mysterious and hard to quantify attribute) and doesn't grow old easily. You know, the type of game that you don’t just throw away when you get to the end or that grows old once you figure out the pattern or ultimate combo that trivializes everything. This is the type of combat you find in older school games, your Castlevania, your Metroid, your Mega Man, even in your Mario’s.

So, what exactly is it that makes these games so long lasting? How come we can come back to them so many years later and they are still pretty fun? Basically, each of them has the same “fun” combat that can keep the player on their toes. It is a balance of dodging and attacking which keeps the player engaged, but beyond that, it gives the player a CHALLENGE and makes you work a little bit. We are keeping these things firmly in mind and applying them to make sure the game provides that same level of satisfaction and intrinsic value as you play (basically, each element of game play is fun in itself, instead of us forcing you to jump through hoops to get a story treat or new item).

But again, this isn't about blindly copying the past (as so many seem to do). Our philosophy is to pick apart the WHY, and then try to push it forward and bring it into our world even better. Is the secret to “The Legend of Zelda” the sword and board? Or is it the simplicity and mechanic of needing to time close combat attacks?

Bloom is currently close to $12K on Kickstarter and with 32 days to go can still reach the asked $50K. Then again the last few days the figure did not increase that much so they could use a bit of help. The game is different and might be too different for some, but I would like to see it being realized, so I pledged.
To provide more information on combat and update was made today.

Game Feel – 

The first step when considering the combat was to consider how the game felt. Should it be non-stop action fighting armies of enemies? Or slower and meticulous? In the end we wanted something in the middle to challenge players but also provide that sometimes hectic action of being overwhelmed by enemies. 

Game Flow – 

The next step is considering the flow of combat. How long should an encounter last? Again, here we took a medium approach and chose something about in the middle of the extremes (an extreme example of this is to think of the difference between a game of “rock paper scissors” and “chess”). Fast enough to let you move on with the game but slow enough to really let you strategize and consider what you are doing. 

The Player! – 

Now we finally get to the player. This is a huge piece which really controls much of the game. With Bloom, we want the player to be out-matched and more defensive in nature (lending to the narrative and creating a feeling of overcoming challenges at every turn). 

Life – 

The first distinction in the player is the relatively low amount of life (at least compared to many other games of our generation). This means dodging, deflecting, and other strategies to avoid damage are highly important. You don’t play a one-man army able to deflect bullets off your abs, but you are equipped with some pretty interesting abilities to help you out. A characters life is more a resource for ingenuity and game-play than a sponge for damage.

Limitations – 

This goes hand in hand with a characters life and is basically a consideration of how a player recovers. Do you recover life after each fight so each encounter is met at the same player strength base? Or as you play, are you slowly worn down from mistakes? If you have ever played a first generation and current generation first person shooter, you will understand the idea of limitation.

With Bloom, we actually have taken a mixed approach to this. The life / energy bar goes up and down regularly through game play, but you are limited at a higher level by the Linked Heart mechanic. This means you can be worn down through the game and defeated but each fight you typically begin with the same of life / energy. 

On an individual encounter level, your attacks drain from your life bar and create an organic limitation in how much you can do how fast. This creates a situation where the balance of power in a battle rapidly swings to extremes as you use larger attacks to defeat enemies, but are then forced to play defensively while recovering and dodging the others. 

Abilities – 

This is really the big one in terms of how combat works. As I said before you are largely overpowered in the world and typically rely on a range of defensive abilities to protect you. Of course you also have offensive abilities, but these are highly draining to your life and leave you exposed. Effectively this creates game-play which requires careful consideration before running into battle blasting your largest attacks.

If adventure RPGs are your thing then you might want to check out the Kickstarter for Bloom. They are asking $50K and are currently at $11K with 34 more days to go.

Bloom: Memories is a beautiful artistic take on the action-adventure / RPG genre that carries players through an epic journey following the theme of the “purest love”; that between a mother and her child.

Bloom strives to capture the innocent feeling of adventure and discovery (taking lessons from such classic games as “The Legend of Zelda”) while at the same time pushing the experience deeper with a heartfelt story of love and sacrifice.

Of course, beyond the story and artwork, Bloom also features strong game design which not only provides fun game play but also further supports the story and art direction.

A few examples of these are:

Linked Heart Mechanic – Because of the special bond between the main character and his mother, they share in each other’s pain and sacrifice for each other. This is represented by five hearts for both characters at the top of the screen which heal over time.

For the mother, these typically allow for her to protect the main character at a distance when he needs her most. While for the main character, his can be used to give him extra strength to rise to the challenges of the world. And, for both characters, pieces of their heart may break during moments of emotional pain. 

Be careful though, a persons heart can only take so much before it gives up completely.

Single Energy / Health Bar – With Bloom, the energy and life bar combine to create another layer of strategy to combat while simultaneously simplifying the interface and allowing players to focus more on the game. We want combat to have elements of thoughtful purpose, of considering the costs and advantages to using different abilities. Mindlessly mashing buttons will only get you so far in this world.

Luckily there are also a variety of ways to replenish your strength, though of course they too come with considerations.

The Bridge – The bridge is where the energy of life exists overlaying the world and its inhabitance. While this is all theory, rumor has it that with enough training one can begin to open their mind to this plane and even walk within it at will. Inside the bridge one can see the true nature of friend and foe, past the physical aspects of a being and into their hearts.

They say the bridge contains an entire world for one to explore… though, be warned, the bridge can be a hostile place to the unprepared.

The Linked Heart and Bridge features are explained in more detail in updates 1 and 3.