Terminal Status

Today I worked so long on music that my fret-holding hand hurts 🙋

I'm glad it was still clear despite my pussyfooting, I honestly wasn't sure if the implication got across 🙏 that's a good sign, past me has earned some forgiveness

Diluting the meaning from my story only does it a disservice, a lesson I'm grateful to have learned in my training wheels game. I will not be repeating that mistake in Terminal Status.

Menhera requires a certain degree of bravery & shamelessness I didn't have back then, and I couldn't fully commit to saying what I meant to say.

In my mind his reason for being hospitalized was obvious, because the inpatient metaphor was obvious. But mainly I was a coward & got cold feet.

There was originally a line where Lacerae says, "No one will take me seriously unless I'm bleeding out in front of them." When it came time to publish the game, I lost my nerve and had him trail off, leaving his scars to fill in the implications.

It shouldn't be a priority, but I really want to go back and remake Towers are Hospitals at some point. I revisited it recently, and disagree with a lot of the editing decisions I made (specifically how I shied away from being explicit with the content matter).

decided to do #the_color_wheel with Terminal Status's limited palette!
get pastel'd 😎

Right now 4/7 songs have full demos with chords, 2 are close to having demo instrumentals, and the rest still need some love. I'm not sure if I want to release early demo tracks when they're recorded, or keep the songs a surprise.

Until then, I get to keep making allusions to them for fun.

These songs will also be influencing the rest of the game's OST, with motifs from the various tracks sneaking their way into the background music. I hope that when you first unlock the songs there will be an exciting sense of recognition that will follow you through the rest of the game.

A lot of thought has been put into each song, which can be unlocked after completing a character's Free Period scene every chapter.

Not only do I try to communicate things about the character through their lyrics, but also through the genre of music. Every song is written in a different style.

I've been a songwriter longer than I've been a gamedev, & I've been a weeb even longer than that. So I've always been bewitched by the idea of the ever-elusive Character Song, á la old anime and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.

As such, I decided character songs would be a part of Terminal Status.

My cats heard me recording vocal demos for the game today and thought, "you know what this needs? The sounds of me violently jumping around and pushing over piles of objects."

...okay, it's MOSTLY legible. The white border around the letters is currently way too thin, I need to make it thicker.

I don't know how to do that, but one day I will learn or kindly ask someone for help.

At least my draft for the main game's logo is cute.

It accomplishes all my goals: it shows off the pastel color scheme, it has medical aesthetic built in, it's legible. Most importantly, I think it's cute. The final version will definitely need some polishing, but for now it works.

Promotional art for the game Nothing Like You. A cool drawing of the protagonist Intravenous takes up the majority of the image, with the game's name tucked into a corner. It's a simple font with a ring behind it.

Promotional art for the game Towers are Hospitals. The protagonist Post-Op stands in the center, backlight by the sunset and looking over her shoulder. The game's title is centered in simple, slightly elegant font.

Like. This ain't it. This ain't even remotely it.

I have been developing Terminal Status for upwards of four years now, AND finished two full (short side) games, and only now do I start working on proper promotional art.

I know exactly why I have put this off, with is typography. Fonts & logos are not my friends. Graphic design is not my passion.

Thank you for your interest in Terminal Status!

Terminal Status is a future #VisualNovel about #queer 20-somethings in space. It's a #scifi #pastel #menhera romance, and my passion project.

Itch: pride-col.itch.io
Website: terminalstatus.neocities.org
Mastodon: gamedev.lgbt/@TerminalSta...