Letters To A Beloved Ghost: DLC Release!
9 months ago – Mon, Mar 04, 2024 at 04:43:40 AM

After a long development process, balancing chronic illness with an unexpected increase in scope, Letters To A Beloved Ghost can finally be purchased and played! This DLC represents a collection of side stories, some silly and some serious, culminating in a meta-narrative conversation with the GUI's narration herself.

What was that about scope? Oh, right- The DLC contains OVER 150,000 words of new content and OVER 100 pieces of brand new original art. I've been very busy getting this ready for all of you to enjoy, and I truly hope that now that it's here, you do!

And if you backed this EF2 Kickstarter- Your download keys should be in your email! If they aren't, reach out!

Thank you all again- And good luck finding all the hidden secrets I've hidden away in this game. None of the lore here will leave you lost in future main-line games if you decide to skip it, but there sure are some fun hints. Happy hunting!

February 7th- Surveys Are In + Progress Report!
10 months ago – Wed, Feb 07, 2024 at 09:52:44 AM

Hi everyone! It's been a minute now- About a month since surveys opened and you were able to submit your reward preferences. They've now closed to make time to design anybody's custom merch, but if you missed your chance- Please do reach out to me!

The hard deadline, however, was for the voting- Alice and Renfield needed to get their designs set with enough time left over to make all their assets for the Beloved Ghost DLC! Whoops... Is that a spoiler that both of them will be appearing in it? Well, in any case. Alice's leftmost design won, and Renfield got his upper-right design!

Here's a rough doodle for Alice's winning design- Nothing polished just yet, as I like to become familiar with drawing characters before jumping into art that's for official in-game use.  Well, that, and I've been really busy working on the in-game art for a particular DLC story- It's a long one, so I hope to beta test it on the sooner side. Speaking of beta testing- Reach out if you'd like to be a beta tester! Especially considering...

Becoming a beta tester is probably the only way you'll be able to play this DLC during its earlier-stated release month of February: Not by a huge margin, but I made a mistake. I estimated release for the DLC based exclusively on myself- The time at which I believed I would be able to finish creating and implementing it. I failed to factor in enough time for testers to actually... Playtest a completed version. With this in mind, I'll be setting a soft release date of Sunday, 3/3. As long as nothing goes seriously wrong, I should have the DLC ready to playtest by 2/24, giving about a week for problems to be located and fixes made. 

The date will be solidified as soon as beta testers have their copies, just in case anything happens. The Beloved Ghost DLC is turning out to be a lot larger than I originally believed it would be- It currently sits at around 150k words of new content (a number that continues to grow) and thirty-two talksprites, to give some idea of how busy I've been! Thirty-eight CGs, along with plenty more assets and writing, still wait on my list... It's crunch mode now, folks! As soon as I finish writing this update post, there's five more sketches I hope to take to their completed state before the day is done. Putting it that way, what have I gotten myself into...?

Of course, plenty of the DLC assets will be multipurpose too, so it isn't as though I'm slacking on EF2 either! Several of the talksprites and backgrounds will be used in both Beloved Ghost and Entropic Float 2. I'll leave you with a few examples in that category, and get back to work! Thank you, as always, for reading!

Backerkit Surveys Sent!
11 months ago – Fri, Jan 05, 2024 at 04:51:16 AM

I've been working hard on the Letters To A Beloved Ghost DLC, and in the meantime, backer surveys are ready and have been sent! Make sure to get your response in before February 1st if you want your design votes for Alice and Renfield to count, and to select your physical rewards! If you're late with your survey answers, you'll still get your access codes, and certain physical rewards will have additional stock available- But don't you wanna lock it in? Go answer!

Here's a talksprite for Yume, who as you know, appears in Beloved Ghost and the background of EF2 as a member of Renfield Future! (Speaking of, that song from the stretch goal is currently in progress~). I've almost finished drawing every necessary talksprite for the DLC and can soon move along to CGs, BGs, and alternate expressions! I spent a couple weeks away from my big boy computer for the holidays, so I banged out most of the chibis for the all-characters stickerpack while I was there.

And on the topic of BGs for Beloved Ghost and beyond, I tend to use The Sims 4 as a base for my interior backgrounds- Laying out floorplans and furniture to screenshot and draw-over later, to ensure that placements and angles make sense. Not directly tracing any individual furniture pieces or anything, but taking cues from the shapes. This is how I designed Jessie's rooms when working on My Dreamy Darling Deathwish! This weekend, I'll be making the Ruby Teahouse (Shinjiro's restaurant!) and figured I may as well hop on stream about it. No specific time planned, no schedule going forward, but for as long as I'm working on populating a save file with Entropic Float sims and locations, I'll stream it every so often, and happily answer EF questions while on those streams! I figure it's a good way to unwind and stay engaged with my lovely community, since I do tend to get a bit... Hermit-like, while focusing on development.

Speaking of hermits, here's a talksprite for her.

So I'll sign off now with a reminder to answer your surveys- Thank you, as always, for reading!

Campaign Completed- Two Stretch Goals Met! Reward Surveys Soon!
11 months ago – Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 05:16:11 AM

What’s got Bea so shocked? Well, for now let’s say it’s the success of the Kickstarter Campaign! The additional title screens in this update don’t represent a use of KS funds yet though- We’re still in the pledge collection period, where Kickstarter takes two weeks to make sure every pledge is valid, collecting funds, and taking fees. After time’s up, you can expect to see surveys coming from Backerkit, where you’ll also be able to add standalone items that weren’t included in your pledge. For example, a full-body acrylic standee of that Bea!

Besides the surveys, once funds are collected, I’ll also be posting in a designated channel of the discord server if you want to follow along with accountability! I’ll start things off with a post of the exact number deposited in my bank account, then share the exact amounts and subject each time I spend KS funds.

Since we hit two stretch goals, the original budget is in a little bit of flux- If my estimates are correct, we should have a little bit extra after the original designations of funds, adjusted taxes, and the costs of fulfilling the stretch goals, but the costs are still just estimates so I’m not going to commit the spare funds to any specific purpose just yet. Could be more voice acting, could be more art- I tried to estimate high on expenses rather than low, but you never know for sure. That’s a great thing to follow along on discord for!

As stated in the roadmap, I plan to release the Beloved Ghost DLC in February 2024. For this reason the surveys lock on February 1st. I need time to apply your votes for character designs! Digital rewards outside of download keys and physical rewards alike can be expected around May of 2024. Then, it’s just development of Entropic Float 2 until it’s ready~

Thank you all again for your overwhelming support in making Entropic Float the best that it can be, and, as always, for reading. I can’t overstate my gratitude! And now it’s time for me to get busy making. I’ll leave you with one more preview of a chibi for the DLC, to show I too have been hard at work, not just title artist Soyokaze- One of many that will be joining the sticker pack included with all physical reward tiers!

Pledge Troubleshooting

Card Declined

To prevent this error, double-check your card details and ensure the amount loaded on there covers your pledge (if there's not enough, it's possible you may receive an overdraft charge). If Kickstarter's first attempt to collect your pledge fails even when there's enough cash, manually retry it; if it still fails, try another card you have.

Transaction Blocked By Your Bank

Some banks will flag the transactions if you're new to crowdfunding campaigns or your pledge is more than what you usually spend. Contact your bank as soon as possible to explain that you made this transaction. From the official Troubleshooting articles:

When you call, it’s helpful to include the details of this transaction, such as:

• The charge being from Kickstarter
  
• The amount pledged for the project
  
• The date when Kickstarter attempted to collect your pledge (this is the date that the project ended)
  
• Additionally, it may be helpful to request that your bank add any charges from Kickstarter to their “allow list”
  

Authentication Requirements

Your bank may want you to manually authorize the transaction. These requirements may vary depending on your financial institution, but if you do it online you may have to clear your browser cache, cookies, and history and retry the authorization module. Alternatively, try calling your bank to speak to a teller.

For more help, read the official Common Pledge Problems help article.

48 Hours Are Left!
12 months ago – Sat, Dec 09, 2023 at 04:53:48 AM

Hey, it's the final stretch!! Check out some of the talksprites I've been hard at work drawing over the past month- There are 48 hours left here in the Entropic Float 2 Kickstarter where YOU TOO can get involved in all kinds of fun things! A download key to a soon-to-be-released DLC joins the download key for Entropic Float 2, available on its own at the $5 tier and together at the $15 tier- A $20 value compared to the planned retail for both separately! These two tiers also get you votes on two different character designs! If you can't afford any reward tier, but you can toss me a dollar? You're still supporting a trans and disabled gamedev, so that's winning too!

If you can swing it a little higher, rewards abound- Commissions at discounts from my usual rates (I could rush it through if you want one as a holiday gift for somebody~), physical merch, and even options for your OC to join the world of Entropic Float, from a simple cameo up to integration as a significant character (following a long discussion to determine where they best fit into the narrative of course~).

Here in these last two days, we're just $271 USD short of our second stretch goal- Creating an actual song for in-universe band Renfield Future! Being able to do this would have many benefits- Bringing the band and the main character from it to life, giving us an option to use in trailers without going through the headache of licensing existing songs, and further supporting one of our amazing voice actors~

Reaching this point has been truly amazing- And now's the time to double down! If you haven't pledged yet, don't miss your chance, and if you have, share the project far and wide! Help us make the world of Entropic Float better, one game at a time, and thank you, as always, for reading!