Exactly. I don't really feel that excited for a prequel when we've been waiting for the sequel for years.

Istariana vilseriol!

As you can tell by our hiatus, we havent had the most stable development environment for quite some time. Hired guns would come and go and it's just recently that we got members that can commit long term.

The stories of MS2b and various StP portions were made along side each other and it just so happened that we finished LIGHTKRAVTE first. Why leave a finished game on shelf when we can release it? Aside from that, LIGHTKRAVTE is something we wanted to share with people to show what we are capable of with current tools and engine we have. The feedback from players will be gathered and taken into account which would allow us to focus on improving following titles.

If you are not excited or not feeling like LIGHTKRAVTE will be worth of time, you are welcome to skip it and do what you feel like it worth for you.

As for ms2sb, we hope we can get this done at 2022 but we can not promise anything about it for now.

Regardless, I hope this answers on your concerns or opens some of horizons or both.
Stay safe and take care!

I wish we got the sequel sooner but I'm excited for whatever Fault visual novel that comes out

Originally posted by Orphanage:

Istariana vilseriol!
and it just so happened that we finished LIGHTKRAVTE first. Why leave a finished game on shelf when we can release it?

Ah, you just accidentally finished the spin-off before the two already begun games? You don't have any project management?

Yeah, I'm nitpicking at this point... But it's really disappointing.

that is very disappointing
please focus finishing the main series first and do the spin off later, feels like I'll going to be old man seeing the game development at this pace, people going to be tired waiting and forgot at this game tbh

Fault third still isn't out yet right ? which one is the third anyway now ?

Announcing a THIRD GAME while you still have two games TBA that's really not a good sign, and kinda insulting too

Well I do agree that it's somewhat disappointing but on the plus side we can say that they are still alive developing and the continuation of the series wasn't entirely abandoned despite the years it has taken.

Milestone 2: Side Below is still in the making and will come after this release - we know it has taken some years but at least they are still working on it

To be honest, while I agree with you with the fact that it takes a long time for games of the main series to come out (heya ms2b) and that StP was supposed to come out 5 years ago (hahaha.), there are a lot of things to take into account on their side, which I can only relate to considering how the industry is nowadays.

Changing from Sekai Project to Phoenixx, to dealing with the release on consoles of previous titles, along with going from Ren'Py (I think?) to Unity, along with the whole Covid situation (which probably brought its fair share of issues, along with being a small team and all the issues that come from the video game industry (I suspect a long, long importing time from Unity playing a part in it, and it's only a speck I suppose.), to whatever else that may happen: overall, small to big issues pilling up over one another which we may not be aware of... Yeah, I think they have enough stress and possibly crunch to deal with.

It's taking a long time. It's frustrating. I completely agree, and I feel the same. But the thing is: things are coming out. Some are at a stalemate, sure. But they're not just delaying and announcing stuff, they actually bring some results. We just gotta hope that they still have the energy (and finances too, let's be honest.) to deliver.

with all of the kickstarter/patreon/gofundme/ko-fi scams, you'd be suprised that one still wanted to deliver this much content for years. If I am being cynical they could run with the money with a pump and dump scheme, and get away with it like most Coin/NFT scam.

and they could have dropped it first hand, just like most indie games that decided that there would be somekind of sequel/prequel in the future.

I'm just glad with them continuing this path and I could still buy their legit product.

I just don't understand how a spin-off was produced before the next installation. Above was released almost 7 years ago, and Below was supposed to come out after Silence the Pendant. We got the demo for StP awhile back and then that was it. Now this one showed up fully completed and ready to sell.

Originally posted by Orphanage:

LIGHTKRAVTE is something we wanted to share with people to show what we are capable of with current tools and engine we have. The feedback from players will be gathered and taken into account which would allow us to focus on improving following titles.

I'm genuinely curious why this wasn't applied to the main series in the first place.

Originally posted by Rinnsanity:

I just don't understand how a spin-off was produced before the next installation. Above was released almost 7 years ago, and Below was supposed to come out after Silence the Pendant. We got the demo for StP awhile back and then that was it. Now this one showed up fully completed and ready to sell.

Originally posted by Orphanage:

LIGHTKRAVTE is something we wanted to share with people to show what we are capable of with current tools and engine we have. The feedback from players will be gathered and taken into account which would allow us to focus on improving following titles.

I'm genuinely curious why this wasn't applied to the main series in the first place.

well Rinnsanity you need to understand that creating one main title after another isnt always a given - especially when you have to develop a whole story arc after another pretty much by yourself - Lightkravte actually plays on the Timeline like StP does - at first it wasnt planned to be a standalone title like that but it got so big - its comparable to other main titles and much bigger than Mhakna Gramura & Fairy Bell for example.

Well, you need to understand that when you have so much ambition, you need to be able to manage your time and resources (aka, project management).

You began a game 7 years ago that was supposed to be released 5 years ago.

Well, can you understand that people would expect most of your resources to be dedicated to that game?

But no, instead, you went silent for years and announced the sequel instead of the prequel.

Well, you need to understand that now people were expecting the sequel, actually, I'm pretty sure people were expecting a sequel before announcing the prequel.

And yet, you are telling us, that you are so ambitious, that you preferred to release an unrelated title to the main plot instead.

Well, you need to understand you really need to work on your project management skills.
And communication skills too.

Yes, you are a small team, but, well, you need to realise you take more time to release a freaking kinetic novel (and you don't even have your own composed ost, and no voice acting either so that's a lot of things you don't even have to take care about) than most studios (even small indie teams) take for a full-fledged game?

Don't tell us well we need to understand you don't know how to manage your project, we noticed that years ago. Don't worry, we understand that way too well.

I am happy that you've finally got something released but I am going to opt not to buy this title until the others have been released.

This is, frankly, a joke after years of waiting for the main game to be pushed forward and other commenters are right - you really need to invest in some actual project management capacity.

Where is side below?