February 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).

January was a hectic development filled month, and we also ran our yearly Steam festival towards the end of it! We have quite a few updates to share this month, so lets jump right into it.

Dreambound

Programming

Programming is coming along incredibly smoothly. The two of us are currently working on Crow and Ivan's route, and the Ivan route beta will be released this month to everyone on the correct tier (on Patreon and Kickstarter).

For Crow's route, his chapter 3 is almost complete. This includes all testing, music, editing and positioning. For Ivan's route, his chapter 4 is almost complete, though we still have to go over it to add music and SFX.

Each route is roughly 50-70k words and they don't share scenes between them, unlike The Divine Speaker, so while it's "simpler" to program, there is quite a lot of it to be done. But we're making steady progress, as you'll be able to see from screenshots below, and we're excited to be able to release our next beta shortly.

Art

We've been working with out art team closely this month to finalize some designs. We've also begun working on the remaining backgrounds, of which there are a handful. These ones have been created by Vui, who did many of the newer backgrounds for The Divine Speaker:

We'll be sharing some of these backgrounds this month!

And here we have two preview of a new CG sketch from Sinran! We've finished up with Ivan's rotue CGs, and are down to the last 3 CGs for Kaine.

Screenshots

Release Date

Dreambound will be releasing on April 30th! This gives up a couple more months to finish up with the programming and get testing. We're really excited for this game to release, and I hope you are too.

If you haven't already, now is a great time to wishlist the game on Steam! 

Astralis Publishing Title - The Last Rose

For those that don't know, we have a small publishing wing of Two and a Half Studios for games we think align with our studio that want a little help with production, marketing or releasing their game. We're proud to work with many amazingly talented developers to bring their stories to life.

And the first of our announcements was The Last Rose, which we'll be giving monthly updates for from now on!

UI and Programming

The UI for The Last Rose has been implemented, as well as all of the character sprites and currently completed backgrounds.

(This music is just for testing, and these songs won't be in game!)

A look at the gallery, which will feature both a CG and BG section.

We have just a few more things to cleanup, and then we're happy to say that the UI is completely ready to do.

As for programming, we have been working alongside RJ Fern to begin creating a demo! The programming process is quite extensive, with a lot more character movement than we usually use, so while it may take a little longer, we believe the effort will be worth it.

Art

We have some previews this month of new backgrounds, as well as a CG you'll see in the demo:

The backgrounds for The Last Rose are created by the amazingly talented ombobon.

A pretty lady who has never done a single thing wrong in her entire life (I'm lying). Character art by the wonderful Miyukiko!

Screenshots

We're in the beginning period of creating the demo, but we're finishing up with the intro and the first scene at the moment.

Steam Page Launch

We launched the Steam page for The Last Rose just a few days ago!

Make sure to add it to your wishlist so you can see when the demo releases!

Astralis Publishing Title - The Inn Between

For those that haven't heard the news, we also announced that we are publishing The Inn Between by Cats on a Lilypad Studios!

This one is a fantasy romance adventure about Myka, an amnesiac who inherited the deed to a mysterious inn... and the world that is beyond it.

We're really excited to share this game with you, and it's releasing later this year! For now, we're assisting with talent acquisition, editing and marketing for the game.

We'd love if you would wishlist it on Steam, too!

Writing

The common route for The Inn Between has been recently completed! The developer CL recently worked on rewriting and adding a lot more words to the common route, and now it is roughly ~100,000 words long.

They're planning for each route to be roughly 50,000 words extra, taking the total to a whopping 250,000.

We'll be looking into hiring an additional adaptive editor/writer on the project in the future, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

Art

The Inn Between has a very large cast of characters, and some of the main ones have been getting new outfits recently! 

Here's a sneak peek at one of them:

What a handsome little lad. Never done a thing in HIS life wrong, either.

Another thing some of our projects has in common with The Inn Between is the backgrounds, which are also created by Vui! This one looks a little spooooooky.

Programming and Screenshots

CL is currently working on programming a brand new beta (which will be available on their Patreon) that includes the entirety of the common route. When that's complete, then work ont he routes can begin!

Here's a look at some of the UI, characters and backgrounds in action.

Patreon Support and Wishlists

Cats on a Lilypad have their very own Patreon which holds their beta, exclusive monthly (SFW and NSFW) artworks, as well as much more indepth updates about their progress. If you have the chance and it's within your means, we'd love if you could check it out and show them some support!

You can also go wishlist The Inn Between on Steam - let's push for some huge support for the wonderful devs over at their studio!

Focus for the next month

This month is dedicated to Dreambound, with a little Astralis work on the side!

• Dreambound - Ivan and Crow route programming, Ivan route release
• The Last Rose - Demo programming

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