SITAR Out Today (tell your friends)

Something's In The Air Redux is out and available for all.  If you are a dater level Patreon you can get it at https://arianeb.itch.io/somethings-in-the-air-redux/patreon-access for free still.

Also the Demo is available for free to anybody.

Kind of a relief this day has finally come. Now fully re-rendered excellent quality versions of all my games are now out.

Non Patreon access: https://arianeb.itch.io/somethings-in-the-air-redux
Home page: https://arianeb.com/somethings-in-the-air-redux/

Help pages for the game

In preparation for the release of the game, I've been working on new documentation. First is a FAQ which I believe I linked to before. Second is a basic overview of the differences between SITA and SITAR.

Third is a complete walkthrough of all the 26 paths plus Rachel Meets Ariane paths. While this info is more or less the same available in the help paths built into the game, it includes additional insights like why some paths are not available at certain times, and some fun alternative routes to check out.

Fourth is a catalog of all the Notebook entries and how to reveal them. I tested that all the entries could be reached, and even made a few tweaks to make some of the hard ones easier, and made some of the really hard ones optional.

Now What?

Two things I want to do: Voice the rest of the game, and release the game on Steam.

Voicing the game is a bit experimental to begin with obviously, every line costs a few pennies, but it is way less than hiring professional actors. The technology is not without its flaws, but it is getting better.  In fact the "getting better" part is the reason why I started voicing from the end of the game instead of the beginning.  I am trying to keep re-voicing down to a minimum, and the further you get in the game the less important it is to get the voice work just right.

My game plan going forward is to continue to voice the game from the back forward. The three endings will be voiced next followed by the alt Rachel scenes and finally the 26 paths.  I'm hoping voice acting tools will be more complete as I get to the beginning scenes so that the beginning voice lines are the best.

Voicing Rules

I can't voice every line in the game so I am compromising.  Current rules: Voice on important to the plot lines stated by main characters and main NPCs. Narration will not be voiced (You can press V for Self Voicing, it will not conflict with voiced lines), player character will not be voiced either.  I know there is a growing trend in AAA games that the player character is voiced, but in case you haven't noticed this isn't an AAA game.

So I am going a classic traditional route and letting people hear their own voice in their head for the player. There is a recent Extra Punctuation video about this tradition, which cuts at least half the lines from needing to be voiced, especially since including player voice would involve doing a generic male voice and a generic female voice that ruins player's "head canon" on how they read the lines.

Also "texting" scenes, article readings, instructions, Elemental Realms and long dialog trees (for example those in the token game) will not be voiced either.  Dialog trees might have introductory lines voiced, but the tree itself will not be. There are probably lines in the token game dialog trees I have never witnessed in the 10 years since I originally wrote them, so no way an I voicing them all.

Issues with voicing is that I am limited in how much I can do a month, and I have no idea how long it will take to finish the whole game, hopefully by the end of the year. I am thinking of not updating the game again until it is done. Voice lines are in small mono mp3 files with high compression so they don't eat much memory, but it does add up. The RMA voice consists of almost 1400 lines at around 50 MB.

This is why I am not releasing the game on my web site store until the voicing is done as updating the web site store games is difficult for the customers. Itch.io allows free game update downloads after purchase, so does Steam, which means I can do a Steam release sooner rather than later.

Once SITAR is voiced, I want to voice Date Ariane Remastered next, and hopefully better voice acting controls will be available by then.

Patreon Plans

With this game completed, there may not be a reason to continue with Patreon for now. My plan is to suspend billing so nobody will be charged for May through at least August, which should give me enough time to figure out what I want to do next.

Under suspended billing current Patreon members can still access the Patreon and see the content, but no new Patreon members can join.

I'd like to do a new game, maybe outside the Ariane saga?  I got an idea for a gaming loop game (no story) that might be fun, or might be dumb but I won't know until I start making it.  Or I could make a fifth Ariane game that is either a prequel or sequel to Hopepunk City.  Anyways, I need some time to think about it.

If I can't come up with a new game to fund or test by September, I may just shut the Patreon down like I did after finishing Ariane in Paradise until I am ready to fund a new project.