#astbts

[marron121]

If you played A story told by the stars, the visual novel @lauraqwerty and I created, and are curious about how it came to be and some of the details on the development, we wrote a Postmortem about the game, almost half a year after its release (although it feels way longer than that 😵)!

We wrote about the first concepts of the game, some of our tips and things we learnt along the way, so consider reading it on the links below! We would love to hear what you guys think 😊

Postmortem (English version)

Postmortem (Spanish version)

[marron121]

Quick announcement thingie 8: Life be like that sometimes

>Quick announcement thingie 7

More than a year since the previous quick announcement! Let's shoot for 2+ years next time lads.

Anyhow, life is hectic. The tl;dr is...

I don't have a job anymore lmao.

@lauraqwerty and I released A story told by the stars, which is a very nice game that you can play for free! If you like visual novels, give it a try.

Alongside friends, we organized the second edition of the Aaron's Awesome (Games Festival)! You can watch it on Youtube (although it's in Spanish).

In there I also released T.E.L, a free FPS which is quite decent, but I'm not really proud of.

Anyhow, that's the short gist of it. For the long explanation, read below... if you dare...

Okay, so I guess I should start with the 1st one. For the past two and half years-ish, I was working on a company that I cannot name for NDA reasons, as the main UI programmer for the game they were developing, and now I do NOT work there. Let's just say events happened and, ngl, I could be in a way worse position. For now I'll be taking some rest and, if everything goes fine, I'll be with a new job soon.

In the quick announcement 7, I mentioned we were working on a game called TWOgether. We tried to make it we the smallest scope possible, but even so the game became a bit too big and we were in a very busy situation, so we cancelled it.

Instead, we decided to go even smaller, and I had the chance to direct our 1st official project. It was an honor and alongside the amazing help of Lau, my friend and second half of our "studio", we ended up releasing A Story Told By The Stars, an hour long visual novel about two pals. I'm very proud of what we accomplished, and if you think you would enjoy it please give it a try. You can even play it on browser!

PS: When you finish the game, consider reading the postmortem, where we talked about the development process and challenges, among other things. Around 1k people have read it so far, so I must assume they enjoyed it.

On July 2022 I made the A3 (or Aaron's Awesome Festival), a quite cheap-looking direct where I displayed games from mainly friends, like a Nintendo Direct. And this year, with the help of a bunch more of my friends, including Lau, we made the second edition, the A3²!

I can confidently say that the event was a success, and I'm very happy that my friends and I were able to create something so cool. Since he's also on here, @narvalian did all the backgrounds and its animations you can see on the video.

And in that same event, I revealed AND made available T.E.L, which you can see the trailer above (a good one, if I may add). It's an FPS where you play as a young programmer stuck inside is own computer, where things happen. And, well...

...I'm not really proud of the game.

I do think it's a decent game, and I'm very happy that I managed to make some of the things that happen ingame, but T.E.L was going to be a game based around a joke with my friends that I have, and basically because I was lazy I wasn't able to make that and instead ended up making this effective, yet basic, first person shooter.

I had a lot, and I mean A LOT of ideas working into this game that I wasn't able to accomplish going into it, and instead of just saying "hey, this isn't what I want to do, so let's just stop." I just kept pushing and pushing, and I think the game reflects that.

Actually working on something I ACTUALLY want to do is something I want to become better at. Let's hope next time I write one of these I've actually improved on that.

[marron121]

A story told by the stars is out now!

@lauraqwerty and I have finally finished the game! It's a visual novel about two guys and their story, so if you're interested please check it out, since it's completely free!

We also added some neat features like different text speeds and a special font that should help dyslexic users, so we hope everyone can enjoy it! 🥰

(To download the game simply click on the image🌠)

[marron121]

If you are a fan of visual novels and want to try a free one, please consider trying A story told by the stars!

Made by @lauraqwerty and I, it tells the story between Ansel and Mark, two young men who are studying to become the leaders of their city.

The game can be played directly on the browser, it has Spanish and English languages, and a font that should help if you have dyslexia.

If you try it, do let us know! We would love to hear your thoughts about the game.

[marron121]

The game is approaching release sooner and sooner, and as such it's only fair that we show a bit more of the gameplay of A Story Told by the Stars! Ansel and Mark's relationship didn't start on the best point.

And, wait, that pose at the end seems familiar, doesn't it?

[marron121]

I can say happy that the entire English dialogue of A Story Told by the Stars has been completed!

The game I'm working on with @lauraqwerty is advancing quickly now that we're approaching the finish line. Hopefully we will be able to have a trailer soon!

[marron121]

Here's the trailer for A story told by the stars, the game @lauraqwerty and I will release this Friday! I hope you're all excited to meet Ansel and Mark!

[marron121]

We're already testing compiling the game and seeing if it doesn't explode, and so far we have a good success! Please pray for @lauraqwerty (who did the amazing icon you can see) and I so this continues working perfectly 🙏

[lauraqwerty]

Omg guys we did it!!! 💪👏👏👏

We put a lot of effort creating this game and I think it has turned out beautiful ❤️

Mark and Ansel are so precious for us and we hope you enjoy their story as much as we did ☄️

The game is completely free and you can download it from out itchio page!

We would also appreciate if you can rate it or write a comment when you finish it ⭐❤️

Shoutout to the increíble job of @marron121 doing all the tech stuff behind the art. It has taken a lot of work but it's really awesome and smooth to navigate through the game. And of course, for writting the story told by the stars which united this two guys forever✨☄️❤️

Now if you excuse me I'm gonna cry because I still can't fully believe we finished this ❤️😭

A story told by the stars is out now!

@lauraqwerty and I have finally finished the game! It's a visual novel about two guys and their story, so if you're interested please check it out, since it's completely free!

We also added some neat features like different text speeds and a special font that should help dyslexic users, so we hope everyone can enjoy it! 🥰

(To download the game simply click on the image🌠)

[lauraqwerty]

Hey guys! Lau here 🌸

So, the game is going good!

We have a lot of things to do still, but we're making progress!

Almost half of the scenes have being drawn and we can't wait until you can meet Ansel and Mark. We love them truly <3

Please spread the word if you can, we'll update you all soon!

The game is approaching release sooner and sooner, and as such it's only fair that we show a bit more of the gameplay of A Story Told by the Stars! Ansel and Mark's relationship didn't start on the best point.

And, wait, that pose at the end seems familiar, doesn't it?

[lauraqwerty]

Hey guys!

Lau here.

So, there's still a lot of work to do involving art but hopefully everything is going to be ok, so, pray for us, the end is near and the last steps are the most difficult of all.

We got this ❤️💪💪💪💪

We're already testing compiling the game and seeing if it doesn't explode, and so far we have a good success! Please pray for @lauraqwerty (who did the amazing icon you can see) and I so this continues working perfectly 🙏