vertebrae-entertainment

[vertebrae-entertainment]

Happy pride, everyone! We are grateful to those who have fought before us, for those who continue to raise their voice for queer rights. Without the fighters, we would not have the freedom to express ourselves!

Even in Norway, our freedom is being seen as dangerous- resulting in the burning and breaking of pride flags even at schools and in kindergartens. Now more than ever, its important to show support and solidarity to your friends and loved ones- especially transgender people. It could save a life, showing someone theyre not alone.

See you in the parade! -Hauk

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10.06.25 - Post playtest update!

This lovely piece of Satya fanart was made by @sauriany! Thank you so much for enjoying our demo!

Hello again, and thank you so much to everyone who participated in our TEKNOKRAT demo playtest! I have learned a lot about what did and didn't work.

I would like to especially thank those that provided the notes they had taken during gameplay, presenting me with various theories and impressions of the plot so far! I even had a very specific audience hypothesis confirmed, something that probably will need a fair bit of work to reach a more ideal state...

I am happy to report that the build was incredibly stable, and no one had any issues running my weird bloated spaghetti code. What luxury! So stable, in fact, that I think we could potentially release a somewhat improved demo on Itch.io over the summer!

Sure, it won't be perfect, but its better to have something out than just hoarding it forever-- call that ripping off the bandaid!

Going ahead, the plan is to replace a few more sprites to get everyone looking more animated/fun, finish the intro/op, do some more audio and music polish and fix a couple of backgrounds... and I think that should do for now. Especially Uriel could do with some love, he needs to be twice as endearing, STAT! There's also a few things I'd like to improve on dear Jimmy...

I took a couple of weeks off work to spend with my partner after the playtest, so I am still figuring out an estimate for how long these tweaks would take... I'll let you know! May-June is always filled with things to do!

Best of luck in these hectic pre-summer times! -Hauk

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ONLY A COUPLE OF HOURS LEFT OF OUR ONLINE PLAYTEST EVENT! Jump into our Discord now for the last chance to get your hands on this early TEKNOKRAT peek!

discord.gg/bvVJVy9fh9

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HAPPENING NOW: only 30 minutes left until our first online playtest of TEKNOKRAT 🫀

Get access through our Discord channel, and help us make sure this thing actually works! discord.gg/bvVJVy9fh9

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HEY! The TEKNOKRAT demo is approaching a playable state, but we need your help making sure it works as intended!

Active only from 22.05 to 25.05, join our Discord server for the first online playtest of our gay sci-fi visual novel!

Please note that this game is intended for an adult audience, and will contain references to sex, drugs and terrorism.

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06.05.2025 - TEKNOKRAT update!

Hello again everyone! There's been a fair amount of new stuff in our gay cyborg romance visual novel TEKNOKRAT added these past six months of development, and I think its time to go through whats new!

First though, I would like to thank you all for keeping up with our projects this far- your support means the world to me!

Our demo will contain around 13k words, and give you an introduction to the setting, our characters, and your place in this bizarre techno-future. As a temp-worker at a cyborg maintenance workshop, you meet all sorts of enhanced people- though three are of "particular" interest in this story.

Stray - a tech demo sugar baby with a mysterious past, owing everything to the powerful politician who saved him

Uriel - currently fighting a devastating addiction to a hallucinogenic drug, this DJ does his best with the half-life he has left

Bane - freedom fighter or terrorist? one things for sure, this man has dedicated himself fully to changing society

On your way to wooing one of these three troubled souls, you will also get to know your rude but well-meaning boss Satya, professional distance enjoyer & government worker Bones, and slowly unravel the mystery of who the Teknokrat truly is- and the nature of his ultimate plan.

Say hello to your Vision! In the future, your eyes are your screen- activated at the mere thought of scrolling. Receive messages and files directly into your brain! Surely that can't be a problem...

Want to try TEKNOKRAT?

The demo is approaching a playable state. Get an early peek at our game as a playtester by joining our discord, and be the first to know when our next online playtest is happening!

If you are on Bluesky, we are also active here with more regular, smaller updates!

Whoah! Thanks for reading our dev blog, I hope you have a great May!

-Hauk

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Today we celebrate the titular villain- the Teknokrat finally getting a sprite. Have a size comparison!

_

Want regular updates on our gay cyborg visual novel Teknokrat? -Check out our Discord server -Follow our Bluesky

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apologies for the radio silence, we just finished moving! keeping up with anything that wasn't scrubbing floors or shoving belongings into cardboard boxes was a losing battle.

now to figure out where i left off on teknokrat… we'll see if i manage to stick with the demo before christmas plan-

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🇳🇴 Likestillingsenteret slapp nettop den nye gaming-veilederen «Gaming for alle», en ressurs som gir barne- og ungdomsarbeidere verktøy for å skape trygge og inkluderende gamingrom.

Dette prosjektet har vært et samarbeid mellom Likestillingssenteret, Ungdom og Fritid, Vertebrae Entertainment og Marina Drec. Vi har stilt med tekst, veiledning og grafisk design.

Veilederen kan lastes ned på nettsidene til Likestillingsenteret her:

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Looking for work? National Work & Welfare Agent Bones is on the case! You'll need his help if you ever wanna get hired within the cyborg prosthetics sector...

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04.11.2024 - Status update!

Hey!! You're being too quiet!! Whats going on over there!! Well, good question- lets get into that:

Things are going slow! There are multiple reasons for that. First, we took on a load of side work this year to keep the lights on. Second, we're moving apartments right now, with very sudden and short notice!! Third, we have two projects and half the team is absent because of sickness! Bad news for project productivity, indeed.

Other Projects

Theres some cool stuff going on here! People who keep up with our Facebook page may have seen that we're currently collaborating with Likestillingssenteret (The Centre for Equality), Ungdom og Fritid (Youth Work Norway) and streamer MarinaaD on the multi-year educational project Trygg Gaming (Safe Gaming) on how to build safe and equality-minded gaming spaces for youths and discourage hateful conduct! This is our second time collaborating with Likestillingssenteret and MarinaaD, and we are supplying the project with some gaming and game design expertise, as well as our knowledge on the queer subset of game and gaming culture. Additionally, we have had the honor of supplying the campaign with its visual design, much helped by the center's in-house media team!

Other than that, we have some updates on the game development scene in our hometown of Hamar! I was invited to participate in a small project group to map out the potential for establishing a new hub for game development studios in the region, alongside the capable hands and minds behind Sarepta Studio, Encircle Games, Raidho Games and Snowleaf Studios. Last week we presented our proposition to the other businesses in town. Big things are happening, and i advice any game developer in town to keep their ears open!

As well, Global Game Jam Hamar 2025 is right around the corner! Like '23 and '24, buying a ticket to the event ensures you an event t-shirt designed by yours truly. Operations here are now in the hands of the freshly established Hamar Game Events... which is to say, its the same group as before but under a new name! Its gonna be loads of fun, and i hope to see some of y'all there :D

Life and stuff

Earlier this year Åge got very sick, and has been unable to regularly join me in the office. This has affected development greatly, as i am unable to work on Fangst by myself- and i can only do so much graphical work before the pile becomes too much to implement for a two person team.

Then a month ago we got an email that our apartments are getting torn down in favor of a new block project!! Poor luck!! So in short, now we're moving. We should be relocated by December, hopefully before the snow starts setting in.

Teknokrat > Fangst

The main point of this blog post, really. So, given that half the team is sick for the unforeseeable future, what are my options? I have little chance of finishing Fangst in any defendable state by myself, and we do not have the means to hire or outsource.

I decided i should focus on giving Fangst a fighting chance by releasing an self-driven project before it, which ended up being Teknokrat.

So here i am, making an unfiltered gay romance sci-fi visual novel. I write, code, make the art and the music. The rawer and raunchier the better. This should help us gain experience with a commercial release, and help us find our audience. Its lack of workforce and budget will be both its strength and weakness. And when its out, we will be readier for Fangst than we ever were earlier!

I'm very excited for this one- its currently resting at a comfortable 15k script length, soon in a demo-worthy state which will get an early playtest run in our Discord before being dropped on Itch and Steam.

If you havent heard about it before, its about class warfare, cyborgs and techno! I hope you'll look forward to it :3

In the meantime, consider Fangst on hiatus until Åge is able to rejoin full time. This doesnt mean their unmistakable creative flair will not be found in Teknokrat, however! Åge is helping me with design, marketing and planning- as well as lending me their video editing expertise. Get well soon, your presence is missed!

Twitter is dead!!

We moved that branch of our social media operations to Bluesky. Hit us up here! We're also here on personal accounts, and are really enjoying our time here so far. Live updates can as usual be found through our Discord.

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OK! I think thats most of whats been happening lately. As always, i hope you're all well, and that you know we appreciate your patience and enthusiasm for our projects! Talk soon, when Teknokrat is looking more ready for sneak peeks!

-Hauk

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Huge props to our pals at Perfectly Paranormal! Their time-travelling adventure game The Holy Gosh Darn is out today! Check it out and show a fellow Hamar-based Norwegian narrative adventure game studio some love!

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If you knew working in cyborg maintenance meant being hands-on with guys you met while clubbing, you would have applied sooner. But your simple life is about to be turned upside-down when an order of assassins contacts you with a request to kill a high profile client.

Teknokrat is a gay romance visual novel set in a future painted by class war, poverty and technological oversaturation.

Your choices determine their fate. Three love interests, six endings, and a raving techno-trance soundtrack- all packed into a wild journey from the trudging temp lifestyle at the bottom of society to taking down a highly influential politician at the very top.

Teknokrat is currently in development, and is a solo project with art, story, programming and music by @artbyhauk.

Keep up with development here: Vertebrae Discord (live updates and playtests happen here!) @vertebrae-entertainment Twitter // Check out our other projects on Itch.io! FAQ (Coming soon!)

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its giving 2004 its giving tribal tattoo gba its giving shadow the hedgehog. perfect

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thinking about edvard munch's "The Sun" (1911)

like yeah thats how it feels. thats what it feels like to exist sometimes. he gets it

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sometimes your doodle to quickly illustrate a concept turns out kind of insane looking

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Teknokrat's story breached 10k words today!