focusontheheart - Tumblr blog

[focusontheheart]

We're getting closer and closer to release now, and we're excited to unveil a feature you'll find when you play!

Along the course of Aloy’s journey, you will have the chance to unlock full page, high definition illustrations of major or intimate moments in the path. Each route has six illustrations – but tread carefully, because your choices will determine whether or not you find and unlock them all! After unlocking, all discovered illustrations will be viewable in a Gallery accessed from the main menu.

Many of our illustrations were created by the artists on the FOTH team, including those from alternate teams jumping in to create for others. Some teams also had artists in the Horizon community create illustrations for their route with nothing but contextual clues and minimal spoilers for the scene. All artists have done phenomenally and we can’t wait for you to unlock each and every one!

[focusontheheart]

💘🏹 We are very excited to announce the projected release date for Focus on the Heart will be May 24, 2024! 🏹💘

[focusontheheart]

ACCESSING OPERATIONS LOG: > DATA DECRYPTION IN PROGRESS... > LOADING DATAPOINT > DECRYPTION COMPLETE 2024-AP-04 - PROJECTED COMPLETION DATE: 2024-MA-24

[focusontheheart]

Something unexpected is coming Aloy's way this year! 👀📆🎁

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the cutest birthday present art done by @kittleskittle

[focusontheheart]

Q: What platform will you be publishing on?

A: We will be publishing on itch.io!

Q: Will "Focus on the Heart" be available on mobile?

A: Unfortunately, no. We have no plans to release on mobile formats.

Find questions and answers here, tagged with #foth: FAQs. Other hype and general asks can be found under the tag #foth: asks and answers.

This FAQ post will be updated periodically.

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Q: When is the release date for Focus On the Heart?

A: The projected release date is Spring 2024.

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Q: How much will it cost?

A: Focus On the Heart will be free to play!

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Q: What platforms will Focus on the Heart be available on?

A: It will be available to play on PC and Mac.

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Q: How can I support Focus On the Heart?

A: Engagement! Like us on Twitter and Instagram, retweet our posts, comment on previews, etc. On Tumblr, reblogs are the best, and send in asks! Our teams are all working exceptionally hard to deliver a memorable experience to Horizon fans, and seeing our fan works shared is beyond appreciated.

Everything we have been working on has been 100% volunteer work, made by fans, for fans.

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Q: What determined the looks/style/etc. of the game and the characters?

A: Beyond our standards for the sprites, all route artists had free rein and were responsible for choosing what Aloy wore and what style they drew their routes in!

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Q: How did you decide which romance options to go with/ Why is there no [character I ship Aloy with]?

A: Every ship featured in Focus on the Heart is here because of volunteer teams who wanted to write and draw for them. When FOTH was first brainstormed, @chloefraazers put a call out on Tumblr with information about the project and asked for volunteers. In this ad, she tagged the major ships of Horizon, and in the post she mentioned that we are open to other ships if there was a writing and artist team able to commit. In addition, she put the call in the multi-ship Horizon server, and @kittleskittle reached out on Twitter. It took about a week for the teams we have to fill up, and there were initially others that had interest (we had a writer for a Yarra path, and an artist for Ikrie) but unfortunately neither could get full teams together. In the interest of moving forward, we went ahead with 8 – and a nice balance between female and male love interests!

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Q: When do the events of Focus on the Heart take place?

A: Our stories takes place around 3 months after the events of the Burning Shores DLC and her adventures in the ruins of Los Angeles. During this time, she’s been recovering from an injury and poring over datapoints with Beta and Sylens, searching for anything to help prepare for the looming threat of NEMESIS—until she receives a message regarding a companion’s goings-on that piques her interest.

[focusontheheart]

From all of us to all of you, sending all our love! 💘

We couldn't be more proud and more excited to be making this project for these characters we love so dearly, and for all of you who love them too.

We at Focus on the Heart know and understand the importance of queer stories and voices. We’re throwing our love and support behind our queer heroine, no matter which path players follow. 💖🌈

We've got an exciting announcement coming soon! Keep an eye on our socials 👀

(click image to see full resolution)

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Lineart by @nerd-artist | Colour by @kelsochronicles

[focusontheheart]

Take your time! Forbidden west just launched on PC yesterday, and I'll probably want to replay the first after that, hehe.

I checked the faq but I don't think it was mentioned, have you decided in a launch platform? Will it be on itch.io, for example?

Yes, happy launch to all the PC gamers! We hope you have fun playing, finding blorbos old and new, and (re)exploring the world with Aloy. 💕

We'll be publishing via itch.io, as answered in this ask here! Thank you for the mention of our FAQ, we'll be sure to get that updated. 😊

[focusontheheart]

I’d like to say as someone who is excited for this project: Take as long as you need. I think its better if everyone involved delivers a product about which they feel good, even if it’s not perfect. You guys have established a deadline, but I for one would not mind if it was moved to accomodate. Cause in the end its a passion project. I am wishing you all the best on this and looking forward to playing all the routes!

Thank you so much for your kind words!

We're looking to bring you and the fandom the best game we can deliver, and your faith and excitement in us is very heartening and heartwarming. 🥰

We're at a bit of a quiet spot right now development-wise with bringing everything together, so there isn't as much content to share as we'd like to. But when we have some more sneak peeks to share, we hope it inspires the same excitement in you to play that creating and working on this fangame does for us. 💘

In the meantime, keep an eye on our socials in the coming weeks, we hope to share some fun stuff soon!

[focusontheheart]

Soo do we have a release date now that we in march

As stated in this ask here, we are currently working on a bit of everything at the moment, and will be posting updates at a later date when we have a more established time frame. Thanks for your interest!

[focusontheheart]

Background details sneak peek!

Delving into the earth to find hidden secrets... what interesting things are waiting to be discovered?

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Want some cheesy Valentine's cards? 💕 Happy Valentine's Day from the Focus on the Heart team! 💘

We put a spin on these and asked our writers to design some cards instead! Want some candy hearts and red lollipops with them? 🍭🍫

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Kotallo by @fogsblue | Nil by @mythicaitt Petra by @mayalli | Seyka by @bookmancer-legendarium Alva by @elsodex | Erend by @maybirdie Drakka by @cthu-boo | Talanah by @foibles-fables

[focusontheheart]

Background details sneak peek!

Clear skies and open roads... where do they lead to?

[focusontheheart]

Hi there ! I was just wondering if there's a set release date for FotH? I'm very eager to mark my calendar

Thank you so much, we're so glad you're excited!

We're hard at work on a bit of everything at this stage, so as of right now, we don't have a set release date! Our target is this coming spring, and we will be posting updates when we have a more established time frame!

[focusontheheart]

Background details sneak peek!

Balmy winds and salty sea spray... do we take to the sky or the sea?

[focusontheheart]

Looking forward to the full game <3

Qs about the development process - how does the team structure for a given LI's route function? Does each route have an Artist-Writer-Programmer trio that collaborates to get a route completed, with the named Role Leads pulling everything together for consistency? With such a huge game, did y'all use version control and code repos to manage the scripts?

Hi, Game Lead kittleskittle here!

You're very close with the team structure! Each route has one or more writers, and the same goes for artists. Leads for each route were chosen by team members, and those leads report to the project leads. Whole project leads manage their specific department and collaborate with me to come up with standards and ensure route teams are adhering to them. It's a lot of work, but they've all done amazingly. Having such a structured team is a large part of why this project has been so successful!

As far as programming goes, I've coded the majority of the routes, the UI, and the background + other additional animations myself with support from other programmers on the team. This helps keep the standards I've designed for the game and the overall vision on track. However, we do make use of GitHub as a code repo for the project!

The biggest reason this project has worked, in my opinion, is our rock solid organization and standards. I've made these a huge priority from the start, because I believe that any project lives or dies based on the quality of its internal organization and leadership. We have many important documents in our project gdocs folders for just about everything you can think of, from the GDD (Game Design Document), to standards for sprites and scripts, to QA. We also have tracking documents for progress with assets such as backgrounds and audio, which have been a lifesaver in terms of measuring progress.

Hope this answers your questions, and thanks for asking!!

[focusontheheart]

Background details sneak peek!

Always on the lookout for the best vantage point... do we set sights on the horizon, or what's nearby?

[focusontheheart]

Hey crew! Which horizon character is your crush? Bonus points if they aren’t one in the visual novel!

It goes without saying that every one of the LIs featured in FoTH are very well adored and beloved by the team, and we'd be here for ages if we had to list every NPC we've come to love as well. 😊

As a whole though, we all have a very soft spot for Vala and Fashav #gonetoosoon 😭💔