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PROJECT SIX: THE MIDNIGHT SANCTUARY

Ah, little blog. You’ve gone neglected for far too long.

So as the news says, reports of our demise are rather exaggerated. 2016 may have been a quiet year for us, but 2017 will be anything but.

Today we announce our first project of the year: Cavyhouse’s “The Midnight Sanctuary”, known in Japanese as “Mayonaka Garan”.

Midnight Sanctuary really is something of a departure for us – previously, we haven’t worked on “novel games”. TMS, though, is not just from a developer who we love to work with – it’s also not even remotely a normal kind of adventure novel game. Midnight Sanctuary is one of the first novel games to embrace virtual reality as its primary form of interaction. While the game has a robust cinematic mode, the real experience for Midnight Sanctuary comes with donning a headset and immersing yourself in the action fully. It’s quite unlike any game we’ve worked on to date, and it’s proven a unique and fun challenge. (Ask me about feeling as though I’m decking into the matrix every time we need to test a new build of the game…)

While we realize that VR is still a young technology and that not all of our customers will have access to VR hardware, I do encourage you to experience the game, especially the full game once it releases, in VR if at all possible. Midnight Sanctuary will come across rather differently with the change in perspective.

Should you hunger for the demo of our latest digital confection, you may get it here, or here.

Moreover, this is not the only time we’ll be speaking of Midnight Sanctuary. Please stay tuned to this Drake-channel, as there will be more news concerning Midnight Sanctuary in the very, very near future.

Beyond Midnight Sanctuary, one might wonder if there’s a lot for us to say about our extended silence. Well, let it merely be said: Carpe Fulgur is still here, we don’t intend on going anywhere, and we’re still going to try to do what we do best.

We will, however, be doing it with a spiffy new website. This has been a long time coming – probably too long. The website is still fairly simple (as per our tastes), and you can expect further updates to it as time goes on, but a new coat of paint and some shined bumpers are what the old girl needed.

And, although it has been said often, it must be said again: we are still here thanks to all of you. You, who have pushed Recettear well over the 500,000 units sold mark, you who have supported all our projects through thick and thin… thank you. What’s coming will be exciting, and we’re happy to be here to bring it to you.

This journey’s lasted six years so far. I hope you’ll join us on its next leg, as it takes us into rural Japan, into the heart of mystery… and to places beyond, where we’ve never been before.

Posted in Uncategorized.

PROJECT FIVE: THIS STARRY MIDNIGHT WE MAKE

package_sane

 

So: with the confessions of last Christmas out of the way, it’s time to talk about what we’ve been up to the last few months.

It is, I think, Rather Exciting. Continued…

Posted in Carpe Fulgur, This Starry Midnight We Make.

Addressing Something Important

This is a post that I have been meaning to write for a while, but has been difficult, to say the least, due to the subject matter. It is, however, time I got it off my chest – not just to possibly help myself through unburdening, but because our followers and fans deserve an answer to why the past year in particular has been so quiet after last year’s thunderous announcement.

The answer is not short, nor is it pleasant.

And as a preface: please note that the following blog post is extremely likely to trigger a heavy emotional response to readers sensitive to suicide and related topics. Please proceed with caution.

Continued…

Posted in Carpe Fulgur, Suicide, The Future, Trails in the Sky.

Robin-post: Some Thoughts on Silence & Purpose

This is a “guest” blog from Robin, the other half of Carpe Fulgur , who had a lot to say about our recent announcement himself and why it is we’ve chosen to do what we’ve done. Without further ado, I’ll let my partner in crime take it away:

Hello.

Thanks for coming. I know we haven’t been on the best of terms, lately. I’ve been busy with other things, and haven’t had the chance to pay you the attention you deserve. I know every time you ask where I’ve been I get evasive and never give you a straight answer. I know you’ve been suspicious, and I know you’re sick of listening to excuses. More than that, I know that you’ve stuck with me, and believed in me no matter how suspicious I’ve been.

Well, here. I know it’s about four days too early, but- happy anniversary. http://www.carpefulgur.com/drakblog/?p=48

So, putting the jokes aside, now that we can talk about what we’ve been doing, I wanted to talk about why we did this. I know a lot of people have been rightfully bothered by our silence for… far too long now, and have been wondering what happened. For those people who feel bothered, betrayed, upset, or just curious, now that we can talk, I want to talk. I’ve been wanting to talk for months- going on a year, now, really. Not really to make excuses- while there were elements beyond our control, I do recognize that we could have done better to make this happen sooner- but to explain why I think it’s nonetheless important. Continued…

Posted in Carpe Fulgur.

PROJECT FOUR: TRAILS IN THE SKY SC

trails_sc_banThis is the post I’ve wanted to make for two years now.

Continued…

Posted in Carpe Fulgur, Trails in the Sky.

Two Years And Climbing – Post #2: The Chantelise Notes

For the second part of our two-year anniversary post series, it’s time at last to discuss Chantelise and the changes made to it in localization. I am sorry that these notes are so late in coming, especially gvien how short they are, but with everything we’ve been up to, Things kept popping up in the way.

And they are fairly short. By and large, between the fairly straightforward nature of the game and script and the general size of the script compared to either Recettear or Fortune Summoners, there were not a particularly large number of changes made. The flip side of the coin is that there were only two substantial changes made, but they are a bit larger than any change made to either of our other extant titles. Both can spoil the plot of the game to some extent, and so are hidden under the jump. (And remember, reading this post first is a good idea to get a primer on why we do things the way we do.)

Continued…

Posted in Uncategorized.

Two Years And Climbing – Post #1: The Present

Two years ago yesterday, Carpe Fulgur unveiled its English version of Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale to the world. It was the story of a girl and a fairy taking a silly gamble on running a fantasy item shop, and the meta-story behind the game’s release was that of several unemployed twentysomethings with a desire to enter the localization industry. We entered it expecting to accomplish little more than gaining a jumping-off point for our resumes.

Two years on, it’s safe to say we’ve gotten a bit more than that.

I know the blog, and indeed Carpe Fulgur in a wider sense, seems like it has been on silent running ever since Fortune Summoners was released. In a sense, we have been – but that’s been due to the fact that what we’re currently working on is bound under non-disclosure agreements. This isn’t quite what we had planned – we’d originally hoped to lift the veil of secrecy over Project Four some months ago. The day where that will actually happen is hopefully now not far off. Know, however, that we have not been idle – far from it. We’ve been working on a project that we think is wonderful and that we desperately wish to share with you. The very instant we can do that, you will know. Because we want to talk about it.

This blog post is not about announcing that, though. It’s about discussing where we’ve been and what’s going on right now.

What is going on right now, first and foremost, is our large summer sale on Steam. It’s been up for a while now and I suspect many of you saw it, but  as of this posting it will be up for another 18 hours. The CF Collection can also be thought of as “CF: The First Two Years” – it is all three of our games collected at one low price (namely, 75% off). Each game can also be purchased individually for 75% off as well, if you wish. If you’ve been waiting to get Fortune Summoners especially, now is your chance, as it will not be on sale like this again for quite some time.

Also, the soon-to-be-present holds a pair of convention trips for Robin and I. We will be traveling to Japan again for the 82nd Comiket convention to scout new potential titles, as well as meet with our current partners to strategize for the coming year. I suspect we will be in particularly deep counsel with EasyGameStation over various things. We will also be at PAX Prime – we attempted to get a solo panel just for CF, but didn’t quite manage it. I will be on a panel with several other indie-RPG luminaries (such as Robert Boyd and Jeff Vogel) discussing the path RPG mechanics are taking, among other things (and I can hopefully get a few words in on the subject of localization), but we will not have a “proper” solo panel.

And finally, this blog. This is not the only blog post I intend to make this month – old words, perhaps, but now I have the time and energy to back up my intent. Over the next week or two, to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Carpe Fulgur’s reveal to the world, I will be posting about various subjects, including the long-needed editor’s notes to both Chantelise and Fortune Summoners, and once the Steam Sale is over, something everyone always looks forward to – hard number updates across all distro platforms for all three titles and a discussion of how successful they’ve been. (We have, admittedly, waited on discussing this for FS because we knew that its first big sale would go a long way to determining how successful it would be in the long term.)

And really finally, because we perhaps do not say it often enough: thank you. You people, our fans, Recettear’s fans, Fortune Summoners’ fans, indie RPG fans, are the people who have given wind to our sails, as cliche as that may sound. Without you, none of what we’ve accomplished – or intend to accomplish in the year(s) to come – would be possible. Your continued support is the main reason we get out of bed in the morning.

 

We’ve been in business to the public for two years now – it’s almost mindblowing to think that we’ve been doing this for years now. I can’t wait to discuss where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and what we’re doing with all of you.

Click here to discuss this post

Posted in Carpe Fulgur.

Delays and their causes

So anyone who has been paying attention as of late will have noticed that our third game, Fortune Summoners, has been delayed twice now, with the second delay having been announced on the day the game was meant to come out.

This all perhaps requires some defense.  First of all, as a general mea culpa, the second delay announcement itself came so late due to the fact that I’m in the middle of changing apartments and thus my Internet situation is spotty at best at the moment. I’d actually hoped to have Fortune Summoners out before I moved, but that didn’t quite shake out. (The good news is, the move will make it tremendously easier for Robin and I to get things done in the long run.)

More generally, though, Fortune Summoners is being held back for a reason. This may not smooth any furrowed brows, but I can say this: the game is actually playable, right now. It can be played to completion in English.

We aren’t just settling for “playable”, however.

From the start, one of the goals I set for Fortune Summoners as a project was that the release would be absolutely flawless – that we’d release the game and then would have no need to patch it. While Recettear and Chantelise were both well-received in their respective launches, the sad fact is that they both launched with issues that required patching – multiple times, in Recettear’s case. (As you can imagine, the initial state of the FS demo left us a bit frustrated and left me wondering how I missed one or two of those issues.)

This isn’t actually acceptable to us, especially not if we intend to expand our business out onto platforms where patching *isn’t* readily available. We have to prove, to ourselves, our potential partners and most of all to you guys, our fans, that we can produce a product that is flawless out of the gate.

So we are taking the time to really get FS right. A few crash bugs were found in the last build, in particular, that were completely unacceptable in a game people would be paying money for. We wanted to make sure we corrected EVERYTHING before we got the game in your hands.

There have been other considerations as well – schedule timing with our distributors compared to when we had builds of the game available, for example – but above all, this is about quality. We were perhaps a little hasty in announcing a date for FS – a lesson Robin’s been whacking me over the head with, I assure you – but I would much rather give our customers something as close to perfect as we can make it, rather than something rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline.

I hope everyone understands, and don’t worry – Fortune Summoners will be in your hands very, very soon.

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Posted in Uncategorized.

Chantelise Unleashed: What To Expect, What Took So Long

So apparently people are excited about a certain little thing we’ve been working on for the past few months. It’s a little surprising, to be honest, but then I am such a terrible judge of these things. Continued…

Posted in Uncategorized.

Localization: Why We Do What We Do

So, one has to wonder: if a blog is posted to on the Internet infrequently, does anyone still check it? Well, hopefully they do, or nobody’s going to read this!

Continued…

Posted in Carpe Fulgur.


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