"a2 ~a due~" on iTunes + "Pirate Mermaid" Preview

Hey all! Sorry for not updating in forever, but I have some exciting news to share. Elagotech has helped us port our short visual novel a2 ~a due~ to iOS!

  Click here to get a2 ~a due~ on iTunes (for both iPhone and iPad)!

I think Elagotech did an awesome job with the iOS version! Here's the main menu on my iPad. You can pick the "Extras" button for lots of goodies, like CGs and sketches, the music box, a replay gallery, and a bonus Chinese/music glossary.

And here's an in-game scene. The top menu button brings up save/load/preferences menus. The three music notes over the right side of the text box are for auto mode, skip mode, and the readback log in that order, so it's easy to skip forward or recheck old text as you like.

Please give the game a try if you can! :)

***

The other game I have been working a lot on is my fantasy otome game The Pirate Mermaid. Though I've neglected to post about it here, we've had lots of progress updates on our Lemmasoft thread and our Twitter accounts (this is mine, this is my partner Nellie's).

Based on feedback from the original demo, we've redone the sprite/CG art, polished up the GUI, and added several new features (optional animations, choice hints, a detailed stats screen, and more). You can see our shiny new preview video below:

One of my personal goals for "The Pirate Mermaid" is to explore different types of animation using Renpy ATL. This ranges from the moving backgrounds and animated GUI shown in the video, to cartoon character emotes for comic scenes...

 and more complex CG animations...

I'm having a lot of fun so far, and I hope players will too! I've included an option to switch off the larger animations if they are too distracting/laggy as well.

As always, let us know if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions by posting here or on the Lemmasoft forums. :)

Introducing Navigame

Any Android users out there? a2 is now on Google Play, so please check it out and give it a try! :D

Nellie and I had a lot of fun (i.e. pain) trying to optimize everything for the Android app, and it took more planning than we'd initially anticipated. Repositioning things after changing the resolution, then redesigning the GUI to be more "small screen/fat fingers friendly," were the main issues. Then getting the game below 50 MB was a bit challenging because of all the music files, but everything worked out in the end. It was a good learning experience, and I think the game looks really cute on my phone now. <3

Speaking of me and Nellie, we've finally decided on an "official" name for our collab group thing! We were bouncing back and forth between Team N/A and Variable X + NSEY for a while, which got pretty confusing. But we've decided to call ourselves Navigame from now on.

Why Navigame? Well, it turns out our initials spell out the four cardinal points on a compass (NSEW). And going with the compass theme, "Navigate" is one letter away from "Navigame," and we make games, so here we are. We'll be using this name for full Pirate Mermaid game, the a2 remake, and some secret upcoming projects that we're very excited about, so please look forward to it! :)

a2 is complete!

a2 ~ a due~, the one month music "Valentine" game I described in my previous post, is now complete! You can download it from our Lemmasoft thread or from the links below.

Downloads
Windows, Mac, Linux + Music Album
Android
iTunes 

We're planning to release a "remastered" version later on, which will retouch the things we weren't able to fully refine in the one-month time frame. So feel free to leave suggestions after you've tried the game!

And now...to finally get some sleep... (collapses into bed)

"Pirate Mermaid" Demo is out!

Finally, the public demo has been finished! (throws confetti) Many thanks to our wonderful beta testers! Nellie and I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts and feedback - feel free to leave comments here or at our Lemmasoft thread! :D

Edit to clarify - "The Pirate Mermaid" is a collaborative project between NSEY Studio (Nellie) and Variable X (Arowana). Just wanted to make sure NSEY Studio gets the credit they deserve, since Nellie is the one who does all of the beautiful art! :)

Download links:
Windows
Mac
Linux