Love, Money, Rock'n'Roll News

Dear friends,

The hottest summer in the history of meteorological observations is coming to its end. Weather forecasters tell as that such heatwaves will only become more frequent. And while global warming walks the planet in a sure step, we, the small people, go about our business — we give you the monthly report.

Today we’d like to address some factual data. The work we’ve got left is:
Finish/remake emotions for some secondary characters
Finish a certain amount of animations
Add the missing sounds/ambiances (WIP)
Finish the in-game script (add the display of sprites, backgrounds, CGs, music/sounds, and game logic to the text)
Finish up the code.

I’ll address the two later points specifically. The overall script is ready, but due to the fact that the sprites were often adjusted or even remade, and the code that handles their display was rewritten, they still need to be added to the script. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take nearly as much time as writing the text itself.

As for the code, the game is playable! However, as with any IT product, there is no limit to perfection and small bugs usually get fixed all the way to (and sometimes after) release.

There is still about two weeks of summer left, and we wish you to enjoy them to the fullest! In the Autumn, expect us to give you a release date! And please enjoy this new in-game CG.

You can still support us by making a preorder and receiving valuable bonuses as well as future DLCs and seeing your name in the credits.

Dear friends,

Recently we’ve shown you the evolution of sprites in our game, and today by popular demand we present to you a collage of all four heroines! (We also took some of your criticism to heart and made changes accordingly.)

As for the development, it’s going its course. All of us are hot at work (figuratively and literally – look at the temperatures outside). Interestingly enough, the text when translated into the game gives a very different impression than just being in a Word document. A stronger impression that is! Which is understandable – the combination of words, images, music, and sounds affects more perceptual centers in a human’s brain. I’d go as far as to say that we’re confident the game will find plenty of grateful readers. Expect more good news in the fall!

You can still support us and receive valuable bonuses, future DLCs, and see your name in the credits here.

Dear friends,

We can feel the summer in the air, but along with long-awaited warmth came another spike of Covid-19 infections in Russia. Take good care of yourselves and your close ones, make sure you are vaccinated and stay healthy and sound!

Some of our readers have pointed out that there have not been any posts for quite some time. As we mentioned earlier, we are getting the game ready for release and will announce the due date in autumn. Unfortunately, the team is small, and an SM specialist is not part of it. Meanwhile, I have been so preoccupied with work that I could barely write a couple of paragraphs for you. I do realise that it is a poor excuse and will try to provide updates more frequently.

You have also demanded to see the new sprites, and here they are! Besides that, in terms of updates, I can only mention bugs that inevitably appear when building or testing the game.

Having finalised the script and looking back, I now realise what a monstrous piece of work that was! 450k words are equivalent to “The Lord of the Rings” or “War and Peace”, and I do not consider myself an equal to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien or Leo Tolstoy. In any case, this all is mere rhetoric, and the average user wants to see the final product. Rest assured, that is what we are working on! Thanks to everyone for your support! Without you, the game would never have had a chance to see the light of day first place.

You can still support us by making a pre-order that would give you access to some valuable bonuses, future DLCs and the opportunity to see your name in the credits.

The spring is in full swing, the May holidays are around the corner, which means it is the time for another update!

For starters, we’d like to mention the part of the game that has gotten woefully insufficient coverage so far – its sound design. After all, there is more to the sound of a visual novel than its music; there are also background noises, like of eggs sizzling on a pan, the sound of steps or flowing water. We are aware that you particularly enjoyed the ambiences in Everlasting Summer, so we will try not to let you down with LMR, too!

Next, an explanation is required concerning the topic that has raised many questions in the comments to our previous post. “Why don’t we publish screenshots, videos, and recordings of the game development?”

To start with, LMR is a visual novel. The process of making it is fairly monotonous – you’d have to be watching me type the script for hours, and I doubt there would be much demand for that. On the other hand, perhaps this concern is well-founded, and we will definitely considering it for our projects, but I wouldn’t like to change anything now when the release is approaching soon.

“Perhaps you could break the game down into episodes?” – some might ask. I am against this solution for several reasons. Firstly, this may sound somewhat pessimistic, deterministic, and, maybe, reductionistic, but nowadays the majority of young adults (the ones that haven’t reached their 30s and 40s yet) are entangled in so-called clip thinking – and no matter how amazing the product is, they are ready to consume it, at best, once, but not twice-thrice-ten times, etc. One shouldn’t be mistaken: no matter how significant the size of Everlasting Summer community is (and it really is quite significant), it is still a drop in the ocean compared to the people who only played through one or two routes but still appreciated the game. Secondly, this model has only reached mainstream adoption due to purely economic reasons – games are released in episodes only due to the trivial lack of funds. Full stop.

Anyway, I digress, and the main point of the update is to inform you that we continue working on LMR! However, after having analyzed the workload (especially testing and fixing bugs), we’ve got to relay that the release will take place no earlier than in autumn. Don’t get discouraged, though! Autumn is the time in which LMR’s story takes place! Leaves turning yellow and warm autumn sun will become an extra ambience that would help you to dive into the world of the novel!

As a goodbye, take another look at Catherine – she’s been working all days long to tell you the most detailed story of Nikolai and his friends!

You can still support us by making a preorder and receive all the future DLCs and other valuable bonuses.

Happy coming of spring, dear reader! This year we’ve had a particularly cold winter in Russia, so all of us have waited for warm weather with great anticipation! (Although the wait is not quite over yet, so we are hoping to share a bit of warmth with you in this post.)

While finalizing the game code, we have implemented distribution functionality on mobile platforms. We've been asked about that a few times - as you might (or might not) know, one can’t just insert a license key on Android or iOS like it is done on Steam and get a copy of a game. We aren’t going to dive too deeply into the details, but rest assured, everyone who made a preorder for mobile versions will get ‘Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll’ in the same manner PC master race specimen do.

In regards to the creative process, we have changed the ending of Kagome’s route to better align with the overall concept of the game and match the vision of the scriptwriter. In LMR, each route is not only focused on the respective girl but also develops the plot overall. It has been of utmost importance for us to make the story feel real and integral, because in the world of the novel, apart from the events happening with the protagonist, there are other developments that aren’t directly related to player choices.
Oftentimes, it is hard to keep track of four different stories, their interrelations and interactions, and we hope we have managed to do just that.

We usually deliberately avoid telling bad news in our posts, but this time will have to be an exception. Our artists are facing certain difficulties, which will lead to all the necessary elements being completed later than the beginning of April as we had intended before.

Other than that, we are doing our best to release the game as early as possible this year!

You can still support us by making a preorder and receive valuable bonuses, all the future DLCs and have your name in the credits.