- In person playtesting this month! - 1 March 2024
Disclaimer: I work full time in the industry, and have bills to pay. I’m the only person working on this project. I can only work on this as a passion project in my spare time. The first episode is in great shape (as many of you know from playtesting), but I’m struggling to find time to finish polishing it. I appreciate you being kind, patient, and excellent to each other. Hey folks, I’ve had to pause things for a number of months. I have not had time to finish polishing the first episode. As noted in my last update things are in a good place. However, I’m strapped for time. I took a job as a senior technical artist working in Unreal for an international company! That being said, I have a good feel for what I’m doing now (at work), and I have started working on the final episode in my free time. Which feels great! I will be doing in person playtesting next month at IDGA (indie game deve…
- Big round of playtesting has wrapped up! - 28 September 2023
Play Testing This round of play testing has been the single most helpful round of place testing to date. Being able to watch people play, and see their facial expressions was pivotal in understanding when the experience was actually working for someone, if someone was frustrated, if someone was laughing at a joke, or if someone was (in general) empathetically connecting with the characters on screen. After doing all of these tests, I now have a good idea of what's working and what needs to be brought into balance for the release (of the first part) of Act 1! Seeing The Forest Through The Trees As a game developer it's important to not have to explain your game, and what's happening in it (unless it's intentional); it simply needs to be able to stand on its own. Sometimes that's what's going on within the story itself, the gameplay mechanics, and how they work in various situations. Some…
- Another Solid Update. Who Wants To Play Test The Demo? - 5 July 2023
Demo https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/041/518/440/605a748b2423339d14d22506467142a5_original.png?ixlib=rb-4.0.2&w=700&fit=max&v=1688585147&gif-q=50&lossless=true&s=7be4179b40e3fa4bd1ddffc4cae234c4 A substantial amount of work has been done since the last update. Currently, I have a demo lasting about 1 - 1.5 hours (that’s if you skip many of the interactions). I call it a demo but it's a large chunk of the game (about ⅓ of Act 1), and it needs more play testing / stress testing. It skips the prologue which I hope to bring back for the final release and jumps right into the game's intro. It’s also lacking a couple interactive bits pivotal to the story. They are not included as that will ruin the bigger picture for you folks. Anyway, I’d love to get it into the hands of some of the original backers / fans for some play testing! Email info@iragame and I’ll add you to the list and you will g…
- Big Update, Gameplay Footage, Sponsors, and More! - 14 January 2023
Life Update Hey there folks! It’s been a minute. Last time I posted an update I was climbing out of a tough place. I didn't intend to worry anyone, my intention was to be transparent, and normalize some of the struggles that we all go through in life. Doing creative work while being depressed was just about impossible, but things have continued to go well in recent times. Honestly, I’m doing solid (all things considered), and through a lot of hard work have found my way. Anyway, enough about that. Moving on! In other good news I’ve also completed a world building fellowship with Epic games. It's been an honor, and a privilege learning alongside folks who've worked on some of the largest IPs, from the Lord Of The Rings, to the Matrix series. I feel honored, and humbled. My work in the industry hasn't gone unnoticed. I was 1 of 100 people chosen to be included. I’ve learned a lot from thi…
- ❤ Ira's Development Resumes ❤ - 15 June 2022
Hey there. I know some of you have been wanting an update of where things are currently at for some time now, and I feel like I’m in a good place to provide that. For starters, I’m alive, and so is the project. In my personal life (as noted in my last update) things were not going well. Sometimes despite your best efforts things happen to the people you love, and things are just outside of your control. You simply can’t save people who desperately don’t want to be saved. No matter how much you care about certain people in your life, no matter how much you love them, they are going to make their own decisions, and sometimes those decisions are self-destructive (addiction is a terrible disease). The resulting depression from the situation I was in could only be described as a gray nightmare that I couldn't wake up from, and it basically sucked all joy from the things I loved. My creative…
- I’m going to take a mental health break - 7 September 2021
I need to pick up the broken pieces of my life, start putting the pieces back together in order to create something new. In the last year, I’ve lost more people that I love, than what should be statistically possible. I’ve tried to make the best of things, I’ve tried to be understanding, I logically understand the impermanence of life / relationships, but there comes a point that attitude can only get you so far. I’m not only emotionally spent, but I’m 6 figures in emotional debt. This is the single most painful point in my life to date. I’m leaving my apartment in Chicago (my home for the last 5 years) and I’m moving to the backwoods of Michigan to create a space so I can recover. I will be taking my studio with me though, and rebuilding it where I set up shop. The irony of all of this is that I’m going back to where everything starts in Ira. The town of Pilgrimage is based off of Shel…
- Initial playtesting begins! - 8 August 2021
Hey folks! As promised it's been 3 months and play testing begins at the end of the week! This play test will feature the first 1/3rd of the game. All the meat and potatoes have been incorporated, but minor details still need some finesse. Things like pacing, environmental sounds, and animations for certain environmental interactions have either been created, or on the to do list, but still need to be implemented appropriately (in some areas). Touching up cutscenes will need to happen as well. That being said, the game is there and it’s doing what it's supposed to! For the moment I will be collecting play data and responding accordingly to that feedback. After I get through this phase I will open things up to backers / followers on Steam who are interested; specifically using Steam keys for testing purposes. If playtesting is something you'd be interested in doing then drop me a line at…
- 3 Months until completion. Then playtesting beings! - 28 April 2021
Hey there. It’s been a minute. So, what’s been going on in the world of Ira? Let's start off with the teaser of the main menu. The orange glow of the sun cascading around Mount Azimuth as it looms over the town of pilgrimage. This is it! This is the menu you will see when you startup Ira for the first time! Many of you have probably seen a version of this at some point. Well, now you know it's part of the intro and main menu. Listen to the music, the dust blowing in the wind! Pretty soon you will get to see where the road to Pilgrimage leads. This is how the journey begins, on a dusty road right outside of Pilgrimage. Completion date? What? A completion date? This cant be real right? Well it is! We will be doing final playtests in July! 3 months out! That's right. That's the hard deadline! No more delays. Playtesting begins Technical Stuff The last six months have been slower than I wou…
- The Last Morningstar - 4 August 2020
So much has happened since the last update, both personally and in Ira’s development. I created a post awhile back detailing the passing of my Grandfather (Patrick Morningstar) who is one of the inspirations for Ira, and the Morningstar family (in game). I’m sad to say that my Grandmother has now passed as well. She lived 96 years and was sharp as a tack to the very end. Ethelyn and Patrick were married almost 80 years. They experienced so much together and saw the world slowly change before their eyes. The homestead is based on the home they lived in throughout their entire married life together. Patrick built the house from the ground up starting with just the basement, and building it up level by level over the years. He would always share stories about how it was built. One story I will always remember is how the main cross beam of the house was put into place. When it came time to…
- Big update: Pandemic, Discord, Development, Tech blog, and Publishers - 27 May 2020
Pandemic Well, I got sick. Did I have Covid 19? It’s very possible. I had soreness at random places all over, I felt extremely fatigued to the point I was sleeping 16 hours a day. It felt like I got hit by a truck while simultaneously having mono, and took me a few weeks to get back to feeling normal. That on top of already having a pre-existing heart condition it was a little concerning to say the least. All that being said I’m doing just fine now, and I hope all of you are doing well too. Discord I set up a Discord for other indie developers, and fans like yourself in general feel free to join in here. Let me know you if you join and are a Kickstarter backer; I'll give you a special role. On the Discord I’ll be sharing smaller daily things in this location, and I'm still trying my best to be active on Twitter. Ira Twitter, my personal Twitter Development Per usual I’ve been busy, busy…
- Progress Update - 10 March 2020
Hey Folks, It’s time for another update. So what’s been going on the last few months? Well, things have been busy. I’ve been working like crazy (what's new right?), but it's a good kind of crazy. Just working hard to make sure everything is in order. Which makes big updates a bit of a challenge. For those of you who want more frequent updates / and interactions with me and Ira in general please feel free to follow @IraGame on Twitter. I will also be putting a discord together in the near future. So stay tuned for that. If you have any social media requests feel free to let me know in the comment section below, and I will do my best to accommodate your preferred platforms. In other news the MegaGrant has made a huge difference in Ira’s overall level of quality, and in general the richness of the experience. It’s incredible having the proper resources to define environments now. They feel…
- Ira has been awarded a MegaGrant! (No exclusivity) - 19 December 2019
Ira has been awarded a MegaGrant! My apologies for the lack of updates over the last few months. We’ve been waiting on some big news and it’s finally here! I’m happy to announce that after a long time and a lot of hard work, Ira Act 1: Pilgrimage is now the recipient of an Epic Games MegaGrant. What is the MegaGrant? The MegaGrant is a grant awarded by Epic games to UE4 game developers of all sizes with funds to make their projects a success. What the MegaGrant is not. The MegaGrant is not an exclusivity deal with Epic Games and comes with no strings attached. That means as of this moment, we will be releasing on the same platforms as before. Steam is still our first release platform. Nothing has changed in that department. What are we using the MegaGrant for? This grant covers the remainder of Ira’s development costs. That means we have funding for better assets, more help, and our mos…
- Falling Into Place - 1 September 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2F7fbe2004a44d88a22caac01011fdbbfecdabce5c.png Falling into place It's been a couple months and things have been very busy on our end. The biggest thing to highlight since our last update is how everything is falling into place. The closer we get to finishing the faster things are moving. It’s great to see all of our work taking shape and we thank you for your continued patience. Our future plans We are on track to finish by the end of the year and we will also be reaching out to 3rd party publishers within the next 2 months. Ideally we want to partner with someone who can help us with advertising so we don’t disappear into the background noise of the gaming scene upon launch. We have a few leads to go on and will keep everyone in the loop with whats planned. Backers in game I’ve been working hard to translate kic…
- Characters based on Kickstarter backers - 10 June 2019
It’s about time we started sharing some of our backer based characters! It’s been a really fun and challenging experience writing different people into the story of Ira while staying as true to the Kickstarter as possible. Some of you sent us some detailed descriptions of your life and we found them to be inspiring in or work. Ira's story and characters are literally defined by the people who helped make it a reality. We might be the first Kickstarter to do such a thing in such an in depth way! So thank you all. Anyway, without further ado we want to introduce you to Johannes West. One of the original scientists, idealists, and founders of the Azimuth trading company. Before his mysterious disappearance he was working on a classified project named, The Black Iris. What happened to Johannes, and where did he go? Well, you’ll have to play to find out. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam…
- Look at these beautiful scenes! - 30 March 2019
Here are some updated scenes. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2F7fbe2004a44d88a22caac01011fdbbfecdabce5c.png https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2Fd372e01c9fbd4b9685002c2335f150c4a0f176bf.png https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2F5e36d53863725b213543deb981df82299fddbf29.png Our updated lighting system is working great. I had to convert a lot of scenes over but it wasn't too bad and they look way better than they did before. To top it off they run great on the Nintendo Switch too! I wasn't sure how the new system would ultimately preform, but, its doing exactly what its supposed to. Our locomotion system has been updated. The charters look more natural when navigating environments. Overall we are doing great and continuing to finalize various scenes. Let us know what you…
- A New Year - 16 February 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2F7d29879f5daa006bc9fc2d548b482f9ba94f5367.pngWe can’t believe It’s 2019 and at this point our project launched on Kickstarter about 3 years ago. That time frame doesn't even include our initial Kickstarter. It’s more like 4 years all together (for us). At this point we are way over on time, but, you already know that. Regardless of that fact everyone has been really supportive and understanding. Seriously, not a single bad thing has been sent our way. We know we've been fortunate in regards to that. Where are the torches and pitchforks? Anyway, labors of love can take a lot of time and energy to bring into existence, and we appreciate your continued support and understanding. In full candor we had taken a mental health break around the holidays. Between all the bug issues at the end of last year and burning the c…
- Update: Black Iris, Bugs, and Post Process - 22 December 2018
It’s been a minute since our last update, and a lot has happened. Time has gone by exceedingly fast as well. By the time we finish Ira you’ll be able to play Ira on the new Nintendo Neural link by Elon Musk while flying around with your jet pack… Moving on. As always I’m going to give it to you straight. We’ve gained an incredible amount of ground in a lot of fronts, and got tripped up in a few others. Thus is the life of a game developer! First off, Here's an image from a long abandoned project of Intel Co’s dubbed "The Black Iris". What's its purpose? How does this tie into our haunting retro future narrative of Ira? Well, you'll have to play game to find out. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F11796511%2Fbb824b1a9304c6e6777aec6e65e30a5372cdd8b2.jpg Where did we get tripped up? BUGS, BUGS, and more BUGS. We ended up updating to a (supposedly) commercially…
- Big update: New characters, new improvements, and lot of progress! - 6 June 2018
Hey folks, It’s been a minute since our last update, and it’s time to share some of things we’ve been working on. Before we get into that I’d like to apologize for the extended silence, and fill you in on what’s been going on. I had someone who was very close to me pass away recently, and I left the good old state of Illinois to spend time with them, and take care of things before and after their passing. This person was my grandfather, and he lived to the ripe old age of 93. He’s actually the inspiration for Ira’s family, and some of the locations in game (the Homestead, Pilgrimage). So, In honor of him we are making Ira’s family's last name Morningstar after his. It seems only too fitting. All that being said I’m back at it, and our team appreciates everyone sticking with us. So, without further ado we have some wonderful things to share. Character updates So I’ve spent a serious amou…
- Tiny Update - 18 March 2018
Hello from 2018! Where have we been? Well, we’ve been holding off on any major updates until we get our marketing campaign completed. Basically we are going to overhaul our web page, social media accounts, cut a full trailer (general things of that nature). It’s going to be the biggest single update that Ira has ever had! It just takes a lot of hard work, and finesse to get everything where it needs to be. So, once our updated setup is in place It won’t be too long until you can actually sit down, and play Act 1! Anyway, that's all for now! We’ll leave you with a sneak peak of the Intele Co public works building.
- Tiny Update - 18 March 2018
Hello from 2018! Where have we been? Well, we’ve been holding off on any major updates until we get our marketing campaign completed. Basically we are going to overhaul our web page, social media accounts, cut a full trailer (general things of that nature). It’s going to be the biggest single update that Ira has ever had! It just takes a lot of hard work, and finesse to get everything where it needs to be. So, once our updated setup is in place It won’t be too long until you can actually sit down, and play Act 1! Anyway, that's all for now! We’ll leave you with a sneak peak of the Intele Co public works building.
