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Showing posts from 2017

Happy New Year!

Aaaaand before we knew it, another year has passed. With the demo release finally announced, this seems like a good point to wrap up our year here at Somnova. This year has had no shortages of challenges big and small, but we're glad to have been able to overcome them, and we're glad for the lessons they taught us. As 2018 comes knocking and the team enters a new phase of development for the visual novel, once again we'd like to thank you for the support, encouragement, and the occasional shitpost. We promise to do our darnedest to give you the best game we possibly can. Here's to a brighter year ahead for all of us!  

Merry Christmas!

Christmas! Time for cookies, hot chocolate, and, most importantly, presents! Let's start off with the big stuff. Designed by Morthiasik We have a demo coming soon! Progress is going well with our lovely beta testers (you guys rock) and we will be able to release on January 6th, 2018! We originally wanted to release this on Christmas, but everyone does it on Christmas. Besides, after all these years, Three Wise Men or not, this is an "Epiphany". Here's a Christmas Natalya to celebrate. What a cutie! Art by Shuuko Merry Christmas, everyone. Enjoy the holiday with your friends and loved ones!

I'll Have My Halloween Extra Spooky, Hold The Olives

Wait, it's Halloween again? Already? We hope that everyone has a great holiday this year, and that you get a bunch of good treats. Speaking of treats, Kuroe once again shows us his incredible art prowess with a lovely Isolda piece for y'all to take a gander at. What's inside that pumpkin? Candy? Or... something else? Kuroe has even stepped up his game and has offered to lend his art skills for some CGs! Our new art member Shuuko has also been extremely helpful in that regard as well. Thanks, you two! But that's not all! One of our composers, Flare, has also taken the time to record a short piece, In Her Element, from our game's soundtrack on the piano! Take a listen: You can also download an MP3 of it here. We have a few things in the works that we hope everyone will enjoy, so please stay tuned. Feel free to visit us on Discord! Or on our forums, if you like talking about things old-school.

Natalya and Sofiya Sprites Revealed!

Hey there! It's Kuroe here once again! Today, we've got not just one, but two cute girls to show you: say hello to our resident Russians, Natalya and Sofiya ! Sugar! Spice! Last year, shortly before I joined the Somnova team, the Twins route was in a rather precarious state. They didn't really have fully fleshed-out personalities yet nor a definite character arc--no one was even quite sure what their disorders were going to be, in fact. The gimmick of having the "Twins route" split into individual "Natalya" and "Natasha" routes later down the story also proved problematic for the team, and it was apparently a colossal bitch to have it make sense story-wise and programming-wise, not to mention the fact that it would take until the heat death of the universe for the route writer to cook up two whole routes by themselves. After much debate on the dev channels, the fate of the girls eventually became a choice between scrapping them o

Some Quality Reading

It's that time again - time for another update! This time we have something a bit more substantial for you guys to take a peek at, and we're very excited to see what you think. Handled by the prolific Kuroe, we're proud to present  Missing Stars: Overture! Missing Stars: Overture is a collection of short stories featuring your favorite Missing Stars heroines. We decided it was high time to give everyone a preview of our writing and, as an added bonus, a preview of a new side character - Fran Dragovic! Dreamworks face on POINT Fran shows up in two of our short stories, and we figured we might as well give you guys a picture of what they look like in uniform. Fran is one of my favorite characters in Missing Stars , and I hope they become one of yours! You can download your own copy of Missing Stars: Overture on our website . We hope you enjoy!

Introducing Her Grace, the Duchess

Gentlemen, please take a bow. You stand in the presence of The Most Noble Lady Katja Böhm , Ojousama of St. Dymphna, Best Girl, Model of Perfect Propriety, Peerless Among All Her Peers, Delectable Diva, Singer Superior, Sumptuous Siren, Statuesque Seductress, Impeccable Inamorata, and Honorary Hussar of the Guard (long story, that last one). It's okay, take your time. Breathe in. Tidy your clothes up and clear out your throat. You may feel a bit overwhelmed. Truth be told, though, there's hardly a need. She's actually quite nice in person.  Here, you may see for yourselves:  Making eye contact is permissible - even encouraged! Sorry, sirs – it simply seemed suitable to start so. Let's set status aside for a sec. As you may've already gathered (and I do apologize for wasting your time with the bombastic-yet-in-my-biased-opinion-nigh-wholly-deserved introduction), our art team's amazing AE has finally finished spritework for m

Annaliese sprites inside; ready your defibrillators

Yo. My name’s Ultra_HR. I write Annaliese. I’ve got a few things to say, but first, check this out: I’ll just give you a few seconds to let that sink in. Please feel free to take yourself to your nearest hospital if you feel you may be having the symptoms of a myocardial infarction (and note that Somnova Studios cannot be held liable for this). This is Annaliese doing what Annaliese loves best; listening to music. Savour this smile. Protect it. Annaliese hasn’t changed quite so much as the last Missing Starlet we featured, Jeanne. In fact, the design we’ve settled on here is pretty much the OG Annaliese, sidetail and all. Why change perfection? Annaliese originally had full-blown over-ear headphones. This made for a nice design that many of you will be familiar with and for a fair while she wasn’t seen without them. Choosing to replace these with earbuds was a relatively big decision for a girl whose life revolves mostly around music, but in the end, I think it has more po

Jeanne Sprite Design Complete!

Woah, an actual Missing Stars update! Jeanne's been through a lot. From her initial conception five years (really, that long?) ago to today, she's been through art style changes, four different artists, and, most recently, her final sprite direction guided by the lovely Eora, which, in comparison, took a lot less time than all the other stuff. So here she is! This is the finalized design for Jeanne! This sprite's master file is really big. No, that's not because of Jeanne. Team-wise, we've added a few new faces. Duane and Lamalama are our newest musicians, and they've got a heck of a lot of talent. Discord deviant Likhos  has joined as a colorist and is working hard already! Lastly, Fia  has joined as a researcher/psychology consultant to ensure our characters are accurate in terms of their disorders. We're happy to have them all aboard, and we all are making incredible strides to ensuring that the public will see Missing Stars  by the end of t

A Call to Arms!

Hello everyone, We've been making steady progress with Act One's scripting and editing, with exciting changes and cute characters! With more and more scripts being completed, we've decided to open up positions for new musicians. We're looking for people who can produce music similar to the ones below: https://soundcloud.com/user-864732935 In addition, we are also looking for something called a leitmotif. What's that, you ask? It's a unique musical piece that can be used to represent something relating to a path girl. Essentially we're looking for a riff or tune for each girl that encapsulates the theme of their route and characteristics. For example, Katja's may be elegant piano while Lena's may be fast guitar. If you're a musician but don't have access to recording software, then feel free to submit rough ideas for our team of musicians to use to write a song. You'll be credited! As always, we're also look