I’m happy to announce that the very talented KAIOH will be assisting with Project Koto, and we’ve got a lovely first track and several sound elements ready to go. To those of you who are unfamiliar, Kaioh has several albums and other amazing tracks within the Super Eurobeat genre, a genre that is very near and dear to my raven heart. One of my personal favorites is his "Moonside" track from "Eurobeat Intensifies", so be sure to check that out.

I'm not going to ruin any surprises on what the first track is, or how it sounds, but please enjoy this small synth track from him that is a part of the first stage.

Music is a great pleasure for me, and I spend a lot of time listening and looking for new albums and artists that strike me. The genres I listen to mostly being metal, rock, classical, EDM, and Eurobeat style. I prefer full albums rather than individual tracks, but if there is a particular track that resonates with me, it'll likely be on repeat for days before I get tired of it. The weather is starting to cool down now with the changing of the seasons to autumn, and things are continuing to ramp up. In an age where it feels like everything is about 'hype' and 'accelerate'. I'm happy to say that things actually are, we're five ravens now, we may have found a steady supply of birdseed, and the work will continue.

Every story needs a protagonist of some kind. The type of protagonist and what they look like, dress, accessories they wear, everything contributes to a kind of messaging on what it is you want the character to be. With Project Koto being the first title that would have a protagonist it was hard to figure out what exactly I was trying to convey and to what degree? I’m not much of an artist, but I spent some time as a cartoonist trying my best to make people laugh back in college.

This wouldn’t cut it for Project Koto though. The very talented Shoko Takahata-san agreed to help on character design and concept art. She’s worked on a lot of popular anime, and getting to know and work with her has been a joy. She really approaches the character process with a lot of thoughtfulness, considering multiple styles and aspects when I myself am not entirely clear on what I want. Takahata-san will quickly sketch out a dozen styles and give us a starting point to discuss.

(Early concept art designs by Shoko Takahata)

It also usually results in us talking about things I knew intrinsically, but had never actually verbalized or discussed out-loud. We would discuss things we liked from a character sheet, and she would have another dozen or so characters ready to go in a very short time. This worked in a kind of iterative process that gave solid footing to the things I “knew”. There’s a major difference between a very fashionable JoJo character whose dress and presentation give you an immediate sense of the character, vs the subtly of a George R.R. Martin novel where the characters are a bit gray, and have a secret that is betrayed by a single piece of clothing or accessory if you happened to know in advance before the big reveal occurs.

(Early concept art designs by Shoko Takahata)

This kind of subtly in character design and ambiguity gives us a lot of freedom and flexibility. The character will have a subtly to them that will allow them to participate in a variety of scenarios freely. Its my hope you’ll find aspects to the character to identify with as you get to know them. Well back to it, next blog will be about Unreal Blueprints and Game design. Thank you for reading, see you next time.

~Chaos

This was the first year the company was allowed to go as an Trade Representative, which was a fancy way of saying that I was allowed to visit the business area, and meet and greet other industry professionals. All of this was a last minute rush to schedule meetings and tour the convention floor. Unfortunately most publishers were fully booked on meetings and didn’t wish to meet a tiny crow with only a large beak to their name. Still it was an invaluable experience, since there are plans to attend GDC (Game Developers Conference) and TGS (Tokyo Game Show). Some of the major lessons: “Book in advance”, “Schedule early”, and “Work on public speaking”. Who knows, might have more content to share in the near future. Otherwise please enjoy some photos of the event that definitely don't have a theme or give any hints as to what we're working on :).

~Chaos

The phrase “initial commit” for any non-developers out there, is one of the first things you usually write when starting a new software project. You start a source control repository in Github, add your files, bundle them in its first ever commit message which usually is “Initial commit”.

I’ve been reflecting a lot on how people start business projects and go for ideas without any sure promise of reward or financial incentive. My father was an electrical engineer and bought and modified circuit boards to sell for a profit. On the one hand, if no one bought them you were stuck with a bunch of circuit boards. So software development has that advantage that it at least won’t clutter up your garage or living room.

That’s been my “initial commit” setting up the business to put myself in a position to sell my software projects and services. We’ve moved into a new office, and settled on a lot of ideas about how to approach making a game and moving forward with Project Koto.

Unreal was the engine of choice over Unity or Godot. There was a real issue though when you go into Unreal’s terms of service and realize that if you go over $1,000,000 in sales you’ll owe them a 5% royalty fee!?! Somehow that felt really off-putting until I told myself that still means I would be at $950,000 in revenue (assuming I paid nothing else) in thanks to the tools that Unreal provides. Deep Breaths… okay, let’s continue onward. The engine itself is quite feature rich and requires a lot of learning and tutorial viewing. I felt that between the three though, that Unreal had the most potential long term. I use “felt” here because I don’t think there would be anything wrong with using Unity or Godot in the end, it came down to a deeply personal preference and how I like to pursue projects and my comfort with complexity.

That’s where we’re at now. Building out the systems and learning how to use the tools required to build out Project Koto. Sketching various UI designs, talking with artists and musicians, and lots of administrative work.

~Chaos

Well hello, I don’t believe we’ve met.

My name is Chaos, a raven with a love of space, programming and thoughtful work. Awhile back I met a human reading in a park one day the book was titled “NuclearAstrophysics for dummies”. He seemed like an interesting sort, so I agreed to become his mascot to represent his body of work. We’ve been building websites and applications, and helping companies since 2007. With programming experience in manufacturing, eSports, research, travel & tourism, real-estate, ISPs, medical trials, consulting, and of course AstroInformatics.

Wether you are looking for a website, an app, or an engineering solution to a difficult problem. We’re here to help. Fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch. In the meantime:

Our next project “Koto” is going to be a journey in Game Development. Thank you for being here, please look forward more in the future. Welcome. Let’s get started.

~Chaos