Somnova Studios

Hello, little darlings. Uncle alabaster here with a progress update. Things are moving about as fast as you might expect for a big project organized over the internet, but we're on track. Even with a more ambitious Act 1 outline, scenes are coming along nicely. It's worth noting that we just finished up the opening stretch of scenes in the story, which is a big deal. And it's not just about introducing the setting or the main character. It's about establishing how he speaks, how he thinks, how he feels. What it's like being inside Erik's head, basically, and that's a good thing to have on record when you're trying to unite the writing styles of seven different people. Doesn't make the job easy, of course, but it's nice to have a foundation, which is exactly what we didn't have on our first try. On our first go, the writing team basically split up at the beginning in order to tackle their respective girls' scenes. Actually, I don...

Article images by sho-N-D Today, I'm taking a break from putting off writing ACTUAL game content shoehorning unforgivable amounts of girl-on-girl action into Missing Stars to talk about everyone's favorite subject. No, not cupcakes. Everyone's OTHER favorite subject. Sex. So uh. Yeah. There's gonna be sex in the VN. There's gonna be naked people doing naked things to other naked people using their naked parts. However, the prospect of sexuality in visual novels is a bit of a touchy subject. More than a few fans and followers have expressed apprehension about sexuality being presented in this project. Why? It can't be tastefully done in a story about mental patients. The main concern brought up is fear that the player will partake in fictionalized rape of feeble-minded persons. At the risk of sounding timid and unambitious when it comes to the story, I can safely say that no, the player will not be raping anybody. One of the first things we as a te...

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. William Shakespeare, Macbeth : IV.i 10-19; 35-38  The season of fear has descended upon us in full strength, howling winds and cold rains (in some places fiercer than in others - keep safe), and with it, Halloween! Ghouls and Goblins and Ghosties, oh my! These may be the final few hours of the holiday proper, but don't think we've forgotten our dues. While we've had a bigger pic for you in mind, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for next year to see it... See, the little demons he...

I am not a professional writer. None of us here are, so we're all -- to some extent -- learning as we go. As part of that learning, I've been reflecting more on my creative process than I have in the past. analane touched on this earlier in the month, but I thought I'd go into more detail regarding one aspect of our job in particular: how do we create our characters? More to the point, how do we figure out who they really are? How do we get to know them? Because that's what you have to do: know your character as though she was your closest friend. Of course, methods will differ between writers. Some maybe take a walk and run over scenarios in their heads, working out how the character would react in each. Others might be inspired by real people and real interactions they experience in their everyday life. The really weird ones might role-play their characters to truly inhabit their skin; I assure you all of us here at Somnova Studios are perfectly well...

The leaves around here are turning all sort of pretty colors. The wind and the rain just don't seem to let up for days at a time. It's autumn, at least in my neck of the woods. I love this time of year, so I'm doing pretty well. But how does the change of season affect Missing Stars? We're a volunteer outfit, and that means we all have lives outside the team. A lot of us are also pretty young, with school starting up again and consuming a lot of what would have been free time. Oddly, though, the last week or so has been the most active, productive period for months. Some of you will be surprised by this; most will probably be shocked it didn't happen sooner, but Somnova has had its first real roadblock, the first major hiccup, the first time I've personally had reason to step back and wonder, "Are we going to make it?" Of course, I'll never know the answer for certain -- not until Missing Stars is released, anyway -- but for now, I'm conf...