PROJECT FIVE: THIS STARRY MIDNIGHT WE MAKE

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.

This Starry Midnight We Make, or Mayonaka wa Hoshi zuku yo in the original Japanese, is something we’ve been thinking about doing for a little while now, ever since seeing it at Comiket in 2013. The brainchild of independent development studio Cavyhouse, Starry Midnight is a puzzle-simulation-adventure-story-hyphens game. It’s about magic, it’s about science, it’s about helping people through their problems, and it’s about seeing just how often Hamomoru can look incredulous at the madness that’s become her life since she arrived in Kyoto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9KFZ4oz_g

It is, at its core, a kind of hybrid of a puzzle and a simulation game. The player’s goal is to produce stars within the simulated night sky of the Star-seeing Basin; the night sky of the Basin itself follows the precepts of onmyou divination and its related use of the Wu Xing elemental system. The player must manipulate the levels of energy in the Basin, as well as the positions of the placed stars themselves, to create the objects they require – because helping the people you meet in Kyoto will require the creation of specific celestial bodies in the Basin, and tracking down the full truth of the Basin and its powers will take the creation of complex and mighty objects indeed…

Needless to say, there’s really nothing quite like this anywhere else. We were taken almost immediately by the uniqueness of almost every aspect – the gameplay, the art style, even the setting (Kyoto circa 1910 is not a particularly well-worn setting in any country!) and began work on it almost as soon as we were done, in the main, with work on Trails in the Sky SC. I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done here and am very happy to finally be releasing a product of our own again after a drought of over three freakin’ years. With any luck, there won’t be another huge release drought like this last one (though the next project is also looking like something of a doozy…)

And, as ever, I feel the need to say thank you to our fans. We would not be here without you – without your constant support over the years, we wouldn’t still be here, releasing games and talking about more releases in the future. Whatever troubles we – I – may have had, you guys kept me going, whether it’s through well-wishes in the mail or on our forums or just through throwing money at your computer screen and enjoying what we work on. You keep us going. Thank you for that.

Feel free to discuss the news here, and you may find the website and demo for Starry Midnight at www.carpefulgur.com/tsmwm/ or at http://store.steampowered.com/app/320090. It will be available on May 25th for US$10 (or your local equivalent).