Orange Chair Software Development

Restructuring This Journal

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:11:00 +0000

Okay I have a followup entry to the Portas Aurora: Arrival Kickstarter Recap entry, but it is not finished yet and I am try to push forward with the team's current project. Leading me to post this entry first.

Currently I have not found another way to create a second journal. I can see the site limiting users to 1 journal as a way to save space and prevent lapsed journals from distracting viewers from the newest material. Therefore, I will be restructuring this journal to allow for multiple projects to be view under 1 location.
I will be changing the name of the journal to Orange Chair Software Development. I will still have a section that is all about the Portas Aurora: Arrival game as we will be revisiting this game, but we have agreed that we need to tighten our focus what we want to deliver with the game.

If someone does know how to create another journal without creating another user account I would enjoy be able to start a new one.

Portas Aurora: Arrival Kickstarter Recap

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:29:00 +0000

The Kickstarter campaign for Portas Aurora: Arrival for August was as follows:

The Money side
Goal: $25,000
Pledged: $ 868

Dollars Pledged via Kickstarter $667
(meaning that the user was actually on the site)
Dollars Pledged via external referrer $201
Average Pledge $ 18.87

<- This is a breakdown of where and how much each person pledged.

The Video side

2141 Total plays with 27.60% completing the video.
1918 views being on the Kickstarter site.
223 views from offsite plays.
The video went through a lot of changes over the course of the campaign.

While I could do ten entries on all of the things we learned while doing the Kickstarter campaign I will try and sum up the main lessons learned.
Lessons to take away from the Kickstarter campaign:

Get the word out that you are going to be launching a Kickstarter before you actually launch it. There is a lot to be said about that first 48 hours of your campaign. It can get you spotlighted if you have some "above average traffic".
Design a few different reward tiers between $10 and $25 because they are the most popular.
The project video needs to show a few key items. First a simple idea that people can catch on to. Second it needs gameplay act or action. Third show the team talking about the project to humanize them to the viewers.
Need to have your video in more places then just Kickstarter. You need eyes on your video is key to making your goal. The more viewers the higher the chance that one will pledge.

If people have more areas of interest just leave a comment and I will expend on them.

*Edited to add a link to the Kickstarter Project Page - Thank you

Portas Aurora Recap

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:13:00 +0000

The Kickstarter project for Portas Aurora: Arrival from September was not a success in terms of raising the capital to help produce the game. However, it was amazing. We received tons of feedback, and met dozens of great people making this last month a successful month. For more information on the data we collected from the Kickstarter project I will be posting another entry.

The team behind the Portas Aurora project were hit with a large chunk of life after the close of the Kickstarter campaign leading to the game being placed on the back burner. We had discussed other opinions to continue the development of Portas Aurora: Arrival and we are not wanting to let the project fall by the waste side. With the new year the remaining members of the team looked to pick Portas Aurora backup only to discover a massive amount of assets had been lost or destroyed between multiple moves. Even with multiple copies and backup the game as it was is a shell. The team has joked that it is not a over huge lost because many of the comments we received targeted at the graphics were that they were sub-par and needed to be reworked leaving us with a clean slate.
If you have have some ideas, we would enjoy hearing them.
Thank you.

Ding Screen

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:34:00 +0000

I have gotten comments that the game does not look RPGy enough. After further questioning to determine what was missing I was informed that I lacked a "Ding Screen". Therefore, I present the Portas Aurora: Arrival "Ding Screen".

I am sure that it needs to be modified to some degree, but for now it looks fair?
All comments are welcomed.

Character Sheet Area Update

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:28:00 +0000

Version 1

Version 8 - Blue

Converting the game to 1280x720 has opened up more space for information and while that can be great for players it was hard to get the space to look "right". The grey squares are Skills (smaller boxes) and Talents (larger boxes) we do not have art assets for them so I have not placed this screen in the video.

This area is called Head Quarters in Porats Aurora: Arrival it is the normal character sheet from most RPGs.
There is a star system map in the window, but players do not normally use it for system interaction and therefore it is a smaller size.

Any comments or suggestions for improvement would be amazing.

RPG Promotion Sites

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:28:00 +0000

Thinking about doing some promotion for your RPG? Here is some of the sites that have featured Portas Aurora: Arrival. Even if you are only looking for possible RPGs to play then this list maybe helpful too.

http://www.enworld.org/
http://gamebanshee.com
http://rpgkickstarters.tumblr.com/

There are also a few forums that RPG fans like and I have seen some traffic from.
http://forum.rpg.net/
http://crowdfundingforum.com - This one is more generally targeted, but there is a strong group of RPG fans that look here for upcoming games.
http://gog.com - Has a great community.

If you are looking to do a Kickstarter Project there is a few more sites that you may want to look at I have gotten a bit of traffic from each of them.

http://gaming.wikia....ckstarter_Games
rockpapershotgun.com - Katchup

If there are anymore sites that people can or should use you can drop them in the comments and I will add them.
Hope this helps a few people.

Edit: Added the forums to the list.

Brief History of Development

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 01:59:00 +0000

Brief Development History:

Aug. 2011 - The story behind Portas Aurora: Arrival is begun
Oct. 2011 - The current Engine 1.0 is written
Nov. 2011 - I built a space trader-like game that had players moving around doing the normal space trading actions, but it was fair to okay at best.
Dec. 2011 - An Avatar section was added to the space trader-like game.
Feb. 2012 - I started to build the combat section of the game. It was fun up to and sometimes including when the Ai would cheat and use map objects to kill my ships.
Apr. 2012 - I realized that these 3 elements could be merged together with a little work and using the story I had been writing as the cement. The story really requires all of the sections to be deep. In Civ players are teased with the option of peaceful victory it really only makes up about 10% of gameplay options. For the story to be believable the game would need close to a 50% split in its combat vs other.
May 2012 - Finished a rough Design Document and began generating a prototype with all 3 elements rolled into a highly immerse game.
Jul. 2012 - Working prototype.
Aug. 2012 - Launched Kickstarter Project.

A few people had asked about what lead up to the create game state and after thinking about it, it made sense to include a small section about the game's evolution. If there is additional information you would like please comment or message me.
Thank you.

EDIT: Fixed a date issue and added the most recent material.

GUI - Update

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Continuing to upgrade Portas Aurora: Arrival's GUI to have a more "polished" look. Sadly it takes a fair amount of time.
I also rearranged the stats of the ships and added a Hull Strength % at the top to allow users to have a greater understanding of how stats work in Portas Aurora: Arrival.
If you have any ideas or feedback I would enjoy hearing it.
Comments can be left here or on our Kickstarter Page
Thank you.

Radically Updated Trailer Video

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 03:12:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone that gave feedback or asked questions.
If you liked the new Trailer and want to know more about Portas Aurora: Arrival Check out our Kickstarter Page
In addition if you have feedback for this video or the Kickstarter Page we would be happy to hear it.

I really did not realize how much people were turned off by the first combat series. I will be cutting it and replacing with an HD version.

The video still needs a better introduction and a way to link the Galactic Senate to the "Blue Assembly of Triangles".

EDIT: Updated after a few comments both from GameDev.net and other places.

Welcoming Linux to the family

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 04:48:00 +0000

Last night we welcomed Linux to the list of supported Platforms for Portas Aurora: Arrival.
Hope this allows more people to enjoy the game.
Portas Aurora: Arrival. Check us out on Kickstarter: http://kck.st/PBGcQK
For more information check the game out at: http://www.portasaurora.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PortasAurora
Follow the game's development on Twitter: @PortasAurora

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