Hello everyone! It’s been two months since we started development on Project SOCJUS, so today’s update will be a summary of what we’ve done since then, as well as our plans going forward.

But first, a quick announcement:

Change in Update Schedule

We’ll be moving to a freeform update schedule from now on! Posting weekly updates has been taking up more time than expected, which means less time for coding, which means less progress. Because of this, we’ll be cutting back the number of updates per month to 2-3, instead of 4. Also, instead of posting on a fixed schedule, we’ll post updates whenever there’s something new to showcase, whether it’s gameplay, music, art, sound effects, voice acting, or more!

And now, on with the show!

Voice Actors Found!

One month ago, we started the casting call for Project SOCJUS; it turned out to be a huge success, flooding our dedicated email with replies practically overnight!



While the demo lines took longer to write than expected, we’ve now started the first official round of auditions, which will close on Nov 14 (with possible extensions for people with extenuating circumstances, i.e. illness, family/work reasons). We might also make the demo lines public later on, so everyone can have a look at them.



So far, the first round of auditions has been very promising; a lot of talented voice actors and actresses have sent in fantastic audition reels! Once the auditions have ended, and we’ve listened to all of the audition reels, we’ll select VAs for the main cast, as well as their understudies. The understudies will take over the role if, for some reason, the original VA can’t continue working on the project. Once the cast has been selected, we’ll be posting samples from their audition reels for you to listen to!

The Concept Stage

Right now, the project is still in the concept stage; this means that most of the work being done is focused on developing the game’s overall look and feel, as well as prototyping the gameplay mechanics and engine.

Earlier, I promised that we’d have some engine footage to show off at the end of October (seen at the bottom of this post). Unfortunately, it turns out that my estimates were a little too optimistic; the prototype code we hacked out in the first two months doesn’t mesh well with the combat mechanics we have in mind, so we’ll have to give the engine a complete overhaul.

Rather than rush ahead and try to code everything as quickly as possible, we’re going to take some time to design the engine architecture first, then implement it once we have a better understanding of what’s needed. I’d also like to remind everyone that we are relatively new to the industry, and this is our first time coding a brawler engine, so it’s natural for these kinds of delays to happen.



Meanwhile, concept art for the game is progressing steadily; so far, we’ve had:

The Coming Months

Here’s what we’ve got planned for the next few months:

Engine/gameplay preview video

Concept art for the game’s enemies and levels

Early soundtrack and SFX demos

Voice clips for the main characters

Demo scripts for the next round of VA auditions, featuring NPCs/enemies/villains

Our top priority will be to get the engine up and running as soon as possible; because of this, there might be some delays in writing the demo scripts, since I’m handling both half of the coding and most of the writing; they’ll probably be available a few weeks after Nov 14 (the end of the first audition).





That’s it for today’s update! We’ll be taking a short break next week, so there might not be an update then. Until next time, have a great weekend everyone!