The Artbook - Announcing short story by Phil & Kaja Foglio!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 08, 2020 at 06:09:28 AM

Greetings fellow adventurers!

We have the true pleasure, to announce, that your favourite professors Phil & Kaja Foglio will produce a short story for the Artbook in full Studio Foglio splendor! Very exciting!

The Foglios have said they will share some more details on this soon, like approximate size of the story and story direction.

The Artbook will then contain a short story set in the Girl Genius universe by the Foglios, artpieces and concept art from game development production and anecdotes and short stories from the game dev team. 

It's a hot ticket as they say! Pledgers at 100$ reward tier or above receives the book.

Thank you all backers, for making this fabulously creative production come to life! <3

10 days left! Let's do it!

- Kenny

Twitter: @raingames_kenny & @rain_games

11 Days Left!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 08, 2020 at 06:09:25 AM

Dear Backers,

the 11th day left of the campaign is upon us, and this one and a half week left will define if we are successful or not. The funding goal is within reach, and we can make it if we all get together to promote the campaign.

This is it. Please share the campaign with your friends, relatives, gaming and hobby communities. Let the Old Heterodynes hear you in their graves(?), and ring the Doom Bell everyday for the return of The True Heterodyne. And let's kick Zola Malfeazium out of the castle!

Thank you to all backers for your support so far! You are outstanding!

The "Muse" reward tier at 1000$ was sold out, at 20 items available. Thank you! I've added 10 more to the limited quantity of the "Muse" reward tier, so Phil Foglio will get some more work to do, and let's have some proper art on the walls in Castle Heterodyne.

The victory is near! Will we make it? Well, let's all try our hardest, for we sure will!

Until next time

- Kenny

Twitter: @Raingames_Kenny & @Rain_games

Live interview with Gwen Frey from 'The Dialog Box' podcast on Twitch
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 04:05:26 AM

Live interview on Twitch, Saturday 19th

Greetings fellow adventurers!

I'm doing a live interview on Twitch with Gwen Frey from 'The Dialog Box' podcast.

The Dialog Box is a video game development podcast starring game developer Gwen Frey. Gwen is an industry veteran with 12 years experience. She has worked on AAA titles such as BioShock Infinite, and smaller indie titles such as The Flame In The Flood. Most recently Gwen founded Chump Squad and launched her critically acclaimed indie puzzle game "Kine." On the podcast Gwen has casual chats with other developers. She digs into their pasts, their motivations, their inspirations, and what they are up to. When she found out her favorite indie comic Girl Genius was being adapted into a video game she just had to have Rain Games join her for an episode.

The interview will take place on Twitch, and Gwen will take questions from Twitch chat as well. The interview will be available on 'The Dialog Box' podcast after the live event. Links below.

• Date: Saturday 19th of September
• Time: 18:00pm CEST / 12:00pm EDT / 9:00am PDT
•  Twitch link 
•  'The Dialog Box' Podcast 

I hope to see you at the live event! Follow @raingames_kenny and @rain_games on Twitter for notifications.

- Kenny

We are approved for development to Nintendo Switch!
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 09:05:45 AM

Grrrrreeeeeetings, fellow adventurers! Good news for console players!

We have been approved for development to Nintendo Switch, so it's official! 

If the Kickstarter is successful, which I certainly hope it will be, all pledgers at 60$ tier or above may choose to receive the physical copy for Nintendo Switch, once developed!

Now is the time to bang the drums and tell everyone about it! We're super excited to develop for Nintendo Switch, and I think it will be a great console for the game! 

Please share the campaign with your friends, community and on your social media!

As always, thank you for your support so far <3

- Kenny

Twitter: @raingames_kenny & @rain_games

On being a Spark in a world of MAD SCIENCE!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 11:11:15 AM

Being a Spark in a world of MAD SCIENCE!

Agatha is a Spark, and you, the player, get to experience the power of being a genius in a world of MAD SCIENCE. As Agatha certainly can pack a punch in combat if need be, she has other strengths too. Inventiveness, a sharp wit and a powerful inner energy are also exciting properties of being a Spark. A magnetic personality and charisma creates strong bonds between people, and minions bend to your will. As you explore Castle Heterodyne, Agatha's power as a Spark will grow, inventing new tools to handle problems, solve puzzles and fight enemies.

We certainly want to capture the Spark experience, particularly in "Spark Moments", where Agatha goes into a trance-like state when inventing or solving problems & puzzles. We are considering how this should play out in gameplay. An example of a direction for this i've thought of:

Agatha is building a Grapple Gun on the workbench. Initiate Spark Moment. The world slows down around you, and the camera is laser focused on the workbench in front of you, with a focused vignette on the camera. There are parts strewn on the workbench; cogs and wheels, screws, a gyro accelerator... They glow  in golden light, and... sing to you, in their own way, also when you interact with them. Follow the blueprint "in your head" presented as a design, floating in air above the workbench. Place the correct items available into the correct "slots" of the design, and do it before the Spark Moment runs out of time, and create a Grapple Gun.

We want to be careful with issuing too much of the ideas unto official paper right now, since parts of these designs need to be playtested further, in the early stages of game development. It is important that we don't promise too much of the features at this point, since we need to test and find the most fun mechanics, while not overscoping the project.

In short; we want to allow certain tools to have different useages. For example the Grapple Gun, which allows you to traverse over gaps to a grapple point, but also, for a potential upgrade, allow you to pull back drawbridges that are closed. Ideally, this item would also be useable in combat, as a ranged attack that pulls an enemy closer to you for example.

I also think that the player should have different tools for different situations. For example, bombs that can both break weak walls, and again; be useable in combat as a damaging weapon.

We've discussed the upgrades and modifiable items system internally, and it's still a little bit loose, which is fine for now. My most important guideline for now, is to create an engaging Metroidvania experience with a strong focus on Exploration and Discovery using different items and character abilites.

Also, remember the Dingbot, which gives it's unique flair to Metroidvania exploration, with it's smaller physical size, and component upgrades for new ways to explore and solve spatial puzzles.

In the end, we want the players to feel cool and smart when exploring, with an interesting toolbox of items and abilites, and giving the players the experience of being a Spark in a world of MAD SCIENCE!

Thank you for reading, and for your support so far! <3

 If you want to explore this world as much as I do, and make this game come to life, please help share the campaign in your communities, with your friends and on your Social Media. Please follow us on Twitter where we post regularly as well, and help retweeting. Thanks!

- Kenny

Twitter: @raingames_kenny & @rain_games

Rain Discord: https://discord.gg/vS3pydZ