Sneak Peek at Goldstream 3D + St7 Updates

Hi Patrons,

Here is another update on my current tasks coming in summer-hot.

Story 7 Animatics Progressing

Work on converting the script into visual storyboards is continuing into the main fight scenes. The intro animatic is 100% boarded - I actually had to cut back a few scenes since it was dragging into the 4 minute mark. Revisions to the intro may change depending on how the rest of the story develops, but for the most part, it is complete.

The fight scene choreography is playing out pretty nicely, which I did not expect for a 3-man battle. The multitude of angles and characters' positions actually provides more flexibility in how I frame the shots. One vs one battles tend to stick to a Left-side vs Right-side dynamic, whereas now I am freer to have characters attack from the side and behind. It works nicely with my "air-y" theme for the animation.

Talking of themes, as I draw the boards, the story is revealing interesting subplots and callbacks. I intend on leaving spacious gaps in the animatic so that more of these details can sprout up organically over the next several months. As such, I'll be pursuing a 50-60% completion rate for the fight animatic before launching full-production mode (hiring, announcement, marketing).

Handling Spoilers

Similar to previous stories, I'll be live-streaming nearly the entire development to the public. Significant plot details and spoilers for Story 0 have not really been dispersed, despite me streaming most of it live last year. So I trust that the same will occur for Story 7.

I may hold a poll with you Patrons on how you'd like spoiler details to be handled in these update posts, since a lot of my "update" content may necessitate story-heavy details.

GoldStream 3D

To prepare for future premieres, and the long production road ahead, I've been future-proofing my systems. Thanks to the support of generous donations and patronage, I can invest in a beefier PC and fancier software. I built my current computer sophomore year of college, nearly 10 years ago. It's undergone a single RAM and GPU upgrade. Modern games on this PC can only run minimum graphics and SD resolution.

This was like $1200 when I first got it..

Safe to say, it's about time for an overhaul! Getting an industry-level workstation will allow for faster rendering times, more complex 3D scenes, and smoother game development.

The latest "game" is GoldStream 3D, my first fully 3D Unity project, meant to replace the current stream overlay. I'm working slowly, but surely, to bring all the features into the new dimension.

Current Overlay 2.0

Hopefully my computer can handle all the extra processing until the hardware upgrade!

A lot of the 3D assets you see here are from the public asset store, some paid, some free. I'm not an adept modeler yet, but I'm getting there. Don't worry! The simplified 2D will be put front and center, but 3D, particularly stylized low-poly, is something that really fascinates me. Combining 2D and 3D is something I've been doing for a couple years now, and stepping into the world of models, polygons, shaders, and textures may be necessary for the future.

Story 0's Release

My official ETA for Story 0 was "Summer 2021", which I've since realized is a different time period depending on where you live in the world. So more accurately, (and maybe more vaguely), the premiere will be in several weeks.

It still pains me to make you guys wait, especially after so many of you got keychains/merch (please let me know if yours hasn't arrived yet). So I'm just gonna stuff this downtime with as much production and preparation as possible before the big release!

Thanks for checking in, have a good evening.