July 2024 Monthly Update

Hello lovely patrons!

Welcome to our newest monthly update where we update you on all things Two and a Half Studios. As always, these will come out every month on the 6th (AEST).

With our newest Kickstarter wrapped up, we're now busy with production and will be for the rest of the year (the work never ends). It's definitely been a busy month on all fronts, so lets just into a quick update!

A Date with Death - Beyond the Bet

Art

We're still working on finishing up with the CGs for Beyond the Bet! When we're done with those, we'll be moving onto backer rewards - the custom outfits, accessories, etc. Some of them may be added to the game post-release, depending on complexity.

Background wise, we're also adding two new BGs to the game. Our BG artist Jenny Li will begin them in a couple of months when her schedule clears up. We're very excited for them, since Jenny's work has been so amazing in game already.

Writing & Outlining

We've had huge progress on the writing of the DLC! At the present time, both the first and second day are complete, edited, and implemented in game. The third day has also now been fully written, though we're still going through the editing process before it's implemented in game.

This leaves just two days left - one full day, and then all the different endings for day 10! We're very excited to be getting through the initial writing quickly, as it gives us more time to go through and add extra content.

We're continuing on to keep writing and editing this month, and hopefully get closer to finishing the fourth new day.

Programming & Beta

We have completed programming on day 1 of Beyond the Bet, and also finished up with our testing of it! Beta tier members can play it right now!

In other programming news, as we mentioned above the second day has actually finished being implemented in game. What follows is a lot of testing to make sure everything leads to where it should. There's a lot of choices in this game, so it's quite intensive.

We're hoping to finish up with that & day 3's before releasing the new beta.

Voice Acting

We've finished the recording for day 1 of the original game in English! Jonah has been hard at work bringing Casper to life in one of our two confirmed voice over options.

At the moment, Cats on a Lilypad Studios are working on editing the full recording down to individual lines, then will begin implementing them in game.

It's quite a lengthy process - first we take all the lines into a spreadsheet, and give direction/context on each one. After we pass this over to Jonah, who reads through, gets a sense of each line, then records the hundreds of lines in that batch.

Lastly, it's forwarded over to C.L to edit down hours of content into individual lines.

The voice acting may release as a free patch some time after Beyond the Bet releases - it's a long and slow process, but we're working through it!

Translation

We're working with Kakehashi Games on our translation! We've already passed over the full original script and work has begun on it. Like English voice acting, it's a very lengthy process, and the Japanese localization and voice acting will likely be released some time next year.

Future Merch Collabs

We've shown off a teaser of a new plush & a preview of a new figure already, so here's a look at the box!

BackerKit Late Pledges

Missed our Kickstarter? You can grab some merch goodies from our BackerKit pre-order store now!

This is our last store opening for the year, as we have a lot of packages to ship out in the next ~6 months.

Check it out here!

New Project?

Not a lot to say on this yet, but I wanted to include it anyway!

We've currently hired a background artist for a brand new unannounced project. We're hoping to be able to show off a sketch this month!

So, what's this game about?

We're planning a narrative-focussed store running simulator with five(!!!!) love interests and a large host of side characters, including some cameos of characters from our other games. A store needs a lot of customers, huh?

The game will be story centric, with lots of storylines you can explore and go down as you try to keep your aunt's antique store afloat in a remote town filled with people with strange secrets.

All of this is subject to change, of course, as we work on the concept more. At the moment, we're working on the systems which include selling things, buying things, auctions, stat rolling akin to D&D or Disco Elysium, a stat tree and more. We do plan to have different difficulty levels, so those that are just interested in the story can play, too :)

Hopefully more about this in the coming months!

Astralis Publishing Title - The Inn Between

Art Teasers

We have a few little previews of various new sprites, CGs and backgrounds ready for you. All of these can be seen directly on the developers Patreon in full, and we'll link to each below for ease!

Sprite: Abbas (The Inn Between)

 BG: Thorn Succulent's (The Inn Between)

Patreon Support and Wishlists
For now, you can support the game by wishlisting on Steam, following the team on Patreon, or following them on Twitter!

Astralis Publishing Title - Cage of Roses

No huge updates this month, but work is going quickly and Ebi is aiming to release a demo in time for Steam Next Fest, and release in Jan/Feb of 2025!

Wishlists
You can support Cage of Roses by wishlisting the game on Steam and following the developer on Twitter!

Focus for the next month

• A Date with Death - Writing, editing and art creation

• New project - Background art, love interest planning, system programming

Thanks once again for reading, and I'll see you next month!