My fellow Kyosians!
As you can see, we're picking up the pace! Minotaur updates - now (almost) biannual! To be honest, we wanted to post this update a bit sooner, but Larian and Todd got in touch and asked us to postpone, so as to avoid a clash with their releases.
As usual, we would like to thank you all infinitely for your patience and assure you that we've been hard at work! Not only we're now in the final stages of Thea's route (and all the good stuff that comes with it - more on that later), we have also secured the funds to cover the necessary public release expenses (such as purchasing the music licenses, for example), which is a huge weight off our shoulders.
A couple of words about Thea's route - I can now say, with certainty, that in most respects it's our biggest one yet. Additionally, we're going above and beyond to create what we hope will be some of the most memorable sequences in the game. For greater emotional payoff, we put most of them in the last parts of the route, so it's a difficult final push, but I think it's going to be worth it.
I'd love to tell you more about these sequences (no spoilers below, unless you prefer to go in completely blind)! For starters, check out this fantastic sketch of Thea's room in Royce by Adam:
The scene will later be rendered in our usual manner, but for the moment, Adam is using it to prototype key frames for a very special animation that we're making:
In some other cases, we're actually experimenting with different visual styles (and mechanics!) to achieve the desired effect:
Sometimes these new styles will be mixed in with our usual fare, since we're only using them for specific elements in key scenes - like for the paintings in Hoptons' art gallery:
Not much to see there now, but we don't want to disclose Arthur's singular tastes just yet, so you'll have to use your imagination for this one : )
And that's not all! But unfortunately, even though I'm dying to show you some other stuff, that'd be spoiling too much. What I can say is that we have, in particular, one very cool surprise involving Ollie. We'll probably be able to share more right before the release, but for the moment, check out these amazing sketches of some of her... let's say "alternative" outfits for various occasions designed by Demi!
Here she is straight out of bed:
Then later, at a TFX office:
And then she ends her day at The Spire:
What the Hades is going on? Is it a dream? (No.) Did Ollie finally get an android body? (Of course not.) Was Ollie Nod's mother this whole time? (...What?) Time will tell! For the moment, let us know which variants of her outfits you like best!
And now, a short FAQ about less crazy things (some of which I mentioned in our previous update):
- Whatever happened to 0.7.5 beta release?
We're quite happy with how the middle part of Thea's route turned out! The "ducts" section in particular is a very atmospheric affair:
The part, however, turned out to be quite big, which has its implications. First, we only just recently, after a couple of sales, managed to secure the music rights for it (it has 9 (!) music tracks in it, including 2 full songs). Second, it covers Thea's route up to a very late point - it's a decent break off point, but I'm sure that stopping at it will later muddle the impression from the route as a whole, especially since saving in it is still disabled (we'll only be able to activate it once the route is finished). It's somewhat like if we'd released Nod's route up to the moment when he climbed the stairs - you know which ones.
So we're a bit on the fence about how to proceed with it. We feel pretty confident about its quality, and that it doesn't require extensive testing on its own, but some other features (such as controller and Steam Deck support - see below) would certainly benefit from a larger sample of devices, and perhaps it makes sense to roll these things out in one package. In any case, we'll decide soon enough and I promise to keep you updated!
- There was also some talk about adding a short illustrated story as a reward for collecting cards...
Absolutely, this bonus content is in development and will be present in the next release. We continue adding cards - we're up to #14 so far:
And since it costs 8 cards to hear a part of the story, and it's quite possible that, with Thea's route, the total will reach 16, you'll likely be able to enjoy 2/3 of it (provided you're into collecting cards in the first place, of course).
By the way, another thing worth noting is that, because of the resulting size of Thea's route, we have further increased the number of artworks (and therefore skits) and music tracks in the corresponding extras sections.
- Alright... Then what about controller support?
Yes! Yes to controller support, which has been masterfully implemented by Rokari! That irritating placeholder is finally gone from the controls modal:
By the way, the amazing customized Ollie-themed gamepad can be yours for only $999:
(The ears rise up when you touch the thumbsticks.)
Furthermore! Not only that, but Minotaur will also (again, thanks to Rokari) be Steam Deck verified! Take the game with you wherever you go and let people around you hear what you think about its developers after reaching the endings of Thea's route.
Any there any more question? No? Well, in that case, thank you so much for your attention, and I think it's time to wrap this up. I'll be going the...
Memes aside, I wish I could tell you... We were previously hoping to finish the game this year, but as you can see, we're clearly spilling over into the next one. That said, the silver linings are:
- What we're doing right now is one of the hardest part of the game (in terms of development, except probably for the overall ending) - after it, things will get easier... Or that's what we keep telling ourselves.
- Unter's route is shorter than the rest (which doesn't in any way interfere with it being the badassest), and in addition to that, we've been chipping away at it for a while now, so the wait between Unter and Thea's routes will be the shortest one yet
- Richie's route paths B and C also inspire hope: path B is quite compact (yet impactful), and for path C, most of the scenes have already been modelled. We'll probably bundle path B together with Unter's route, and paths C and D of Richie's route will be released as the final update.
So as you can see, for the moment it's crucial that we get through this final part of Thea's route - we're doing our best to finish it as soon as possible, and will hopefully be able to announce its release window to you soon™!
In the meantime... Please wait for Thea, because she's absolutely worth waiting for.
Love ♡🐧
Nick & u7committee
