99 Spirits in Dual Audio

12/03/201312/03/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 2 Comments

The great reception has been great for 99 Spirits on IndieGoGo and there’s much to write home about.

Currently at 134% with 5 days to go, we are striving towards the stretch goal which would allow us to also localize the 99 Spirits Fan Disc released in Japan this winter.

This is a sizable addition, and it will be added to all pledges that include a copy of the game for free!

It’s a shame that this kind of extras seldom make it outside Japan, and we hope we’ll get the opportunity to release the fan disc, which is a visual novel format side story for 99 Spirits.

Big thanks to everyone who’s helped us get this far!

Thank you for helping 99 Spirits reach its goal

And in other happy news:

After considering feedback from the audience, we have decided to add dual audio to the game. You heard right.

We will always keep the original Japanese audio in our releases, but we’re not unsympathetic to those who prefer playing with an English dub either. What’s most important to us is that all players can enjoy the game.

In our release of 99 Spirits players will be able to toggle between Japanese and English audio at will, giving everyone the best of both worlds.

For the English version, we have the pleasure to announce that Amy Ann Burke will be narrating the opening and voicing Hanabusa in combat. She has previously done acting work for the BBC and is currently voicing in the animated webseries “JRPG Parody” (the irony of which we’re not blind to).

We hope this addition will prove useful to many players.

Gather Your Fruitbat Party

08/03/2013 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

Yesterday we had a nice chat with Jake Booth from Gather Your Party dot com. You can read it by following the link below:

http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2013/03/07/interview-with-fruitbat-factory/

We would like to thank Jake for this fun interview, and we hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

OH! By the way, we are at 85% on the 99 Spirits’ IndieGoGo campaign. It’s so good to see more people pledging everyday. Thank you!

Cutest character ever

Here’s a sketch from the 99 Spirits artbook we’ll release as part of the campaign. A taste of things to come.

Spirit Hunt Progress #2

26/02/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

The 99 Spirits IndieGoGo project just hit 40% of target funding – big thanks everyone!

To commemorate that, we’re launching a 4-day 40% discount for our previous release, War of the Human Tanks – you can head over to Desura to grab your copy.

Shizuru expresses her gratitude like only she knows how.

Also, here’s an update on the current status of the localization:

We just finished working on chapter 7 out of of 12 of the story.
The game mechanics are starting to be in playable condition – as illustrated by this gameplay preview we put together last week.

We’ll still need to perform a lot of play testing before the release, and there may yet be large changes ahead. However, the first compiled versions are starting to look pretty good.

We are working on a trial version and aim to have it complete by the time the IndieGoGo project closes – note that one of the pledge rewards features an early access to the trial a week ahead of others!

99 Spirits – Playing the Game

19/02/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

Our IndieGoGo project for 99 Spirits is running well – in the first week we have raised 31% of the total goal, which is cause enough for celebration. Big thanks to everyone who has already helped us there!

One theme has come up repeatedly in comments since our entry to Steam Greenlight and IndieGoGo – many players would like to see detailed gameplay footage from the English version.

After many revisions and 4 days of recording, here it is: the first English gameplay footage from 99 Spirits.

Do note that the video above is from a pre-alpha version of the game, and all content is subject to change.

We found that trying to explain the gameplay in a compact video isn’t an easy task due the puzzle mechanics mixed in. I tried to shoot different aspects of the gameplay, and we added overlay explanations (top-right) to clarify what’s happening on screen.

We hope you’ll enjoy the footage and don’t hesitate to drop any comments, questions or improvement suggestions.

Call to Arms: 99 Spirits

12/02/201313/02/2013 / Fruitbat Factory / Leave a comment

After a long preparation, here it is:

Fruitbat Factory is proud to announce our new project, Puzzle RPG 99 Spirits is doing a simultaneous entrance on IndieGoGo and Steam Greenlight.

99 Spirits, recently released in Japan Fall 2012, is the first RPG produced by the Japanese indie game circle TORaIKI, and is currently being localized for English speaking audiences. 99 Spirits was the recipient of the December 2012 Indie Dev Grant.

The game features an original battle system where players will have to puzzle out the true identify of the enemy before defeating them. 99 Spirits revolves around the real Japanese legends of Tsukumogami, where everyday objects come alive on their 100th birthday.

We are actively seeking the community’s support for the ongoing localization on IndieGoGo and for the game’s Steam release on Greenlight. “We truly appreciate the support of everyone interested in playing more unique Japanese PC games in English to help fund our current project and ongoing work. We are doing what we love and will continue to do so even if no funding is made available. We are doing this to gauge popular demand and to cover some of our immediate project expenses in the hopes of making a timely release possible so that we may continue creating interesting titles in the near future.” explains project lead Jakke Elonen.

30% of all the proceeds of a successful campaign will go to the original Japanese developer of the game, TORaIKI, giving fans a unique chance to support both the localization and original developer directly. Fans of the genre will also be able to enjoy exclusive items for their early support of the game including t-shirts, posters and a sneak peak of the game before it’s available to the public.

The project also offers all kinds of cool rewards for the pledgers, including t-shirts, posters, an artbook, a special boxed collector’s edition and a dakimakura.

99 Spirits will also be making it’s debut on Steam Greenlight. “Every independent developer faces the day they must enter the arena known as Steam Greenlight. For 99 Spirits, today is that day,” says Yoshifumi Ishii, the game’s translator. “Go to the game’s Greenlight page to check it out, and vote for it if you like what you see. Tell your friends. That’s all we can ask of anyone.”

99 Spirits is planned to be released on PC (Windows) in Spring 2013.

Additionally , our homepage has had a Downloads section added with trailers, screenshots and more!

Brewing Spirits

01/02/201301/02/2013 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

We have been preparing something big for 99 Spirits. You can look forward to an announcement within a week or two. Meanwhile, here’s a new screenshot from a little further into the game:

We are presently also working on adding a feature some of our players have requested to War of the Human Tanks, and making good progress with that.

In other news, we have added some more distributors to our list of partners; here is the current list of them:

~~Amasson~~ Amazon
Bandcamp
Desura
GamersGate
Green Man Gaming
Indievania
J-Box
Nyu Media
Shiny Loot

We are still working on getting War of the Human Tanks onto Steam, but we need more help on that front. You can lends us a hand by dropping a YES vote to War of the Human Tanks’ Greenlight entry.

It gives us great joy to see the ongoing, overwhelmingly positive response from people who have tried the game. We are still small profile, so if you like our work please tell your friends about us also.

99 Spirits and a New Font

16/01/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

And now for some development news.

As I began editing the 99 Spirits scripts, I found I wasn’t very happy with the font the game used; in English it looked rather clunky for the theme and feel of the game.

After discussing it with the developer, TORaIKI, we found it’s possible to redeem this, and after careful evaluation the font used in the game’s story segments has been changed into one which I believe captures the spirit of the game much, much better, making the text more colorful while retaining full readability.

You can see the outcome in the shots below.

Our whole team is extremely happy with the new looks, but more importantly, what do you think?

2012 Reflections

26/12/2012 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

With the year 2012 drawing to a close, we’re looking back at the year that has passed and evaluating what we have accomplished.

Fruitbat Factory came to be in early 2012. The missive we set to ourselves when we started was to bring unique and interesting Japanese games to English-speaking audiences worldwide.

Our first localization – strategy game War of the Human Tanks developed by Yakiniku Banzai, was announced in May and released September 14th 2012. It was met with a by and large positive reception, though it’s obviously not a game for everyone. War of the Human Tanks is still struggling on fiercely in Steam Greenlight.

Our second localization, the Puzzle RPG 99 Spirits by TORaIKI was announced in October, shortly after the game’s release in Japan in August. Just last week we wrote about winning the Eclectic Indie Dev Grant competition with it. 99 Spirits is planned for an early 2013 release.

Following the release of War of the Human Tanks, we have taken advantage of two bundles – Bundle in a Box and IndieFort (which right now is still running) to spread awareness of our work. It’s been great to see new people commenting on the game and taking an interest.

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Now let’s review some stats (everyone loves stats, right?):

War of the Human Tanks and its soundtrack, Sound of the Human Tanks;

available from 8 digital distributors,
over 7600 copies distributed,
made it to top10 sellers on Green Man Gaming, and rank 6 on GamersGate,
29,255 unique visitors on Desura,
21,316 unique visitors on Steam Greenlight.C

And our company Fruitbat Factory;

40,089 video views on YouTube,
25,548 unique visitors visiting our homepages 34,560 times,
5,611 visitors on this blog.

It’s hard to say how they compare, but those are some nice numbers overall. We hope things will only get better from here.

99 Spirits of X-Mas

22/12/201222/12/2012 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

Good news everyone! Yesterday Bundle in a Box that our first release War of the Human Tanks partook ended with great success and our next release 99 Spirits won the Eclectic Indie Dev Grant.

6322 people who bought Bundle in a Box – Eclectic Delights were given the chance to vote for the game they liked the most amongst the 22 candidates. After two weeks of voting, our 99 Spirits won the Eclectic Indie Dev Grant. We take this as a sign that we are doing something right and can hope for a favorable reception for 99 Spirits once it is released, so it is a tremendous vote of confidence.

Thank you!

To celebrate, we decided to publish the opening sequence of 99 Spirits, which we recently edited to English. This video will show up when you start a new game. It’s very brief and not a trailer, so it won’t show you any gameplay, you have to wait a little more for that. But this is not all! While we still have a couple of months until 99 Spirits‘ release, we have something big planned for next month already, so keep your eyes peeled!

For the duration of the next six days, our War of the Human Tanks is being featured in the GamersGate’s IndieFort Bundle alongside Will Fight for Food, Zafehouse: Diaries and Zombie Shooter 2. Don’t miss this chance to grab all of them at the incredible price of $4 and save $36!

Last but not least, Merry X-Mas everyone! We prettied our sites in the spirit of X-Mas if you noticed, hopefully they’ll be easier and more fun to navigate now. We also have some nice discounts coming for the holiday period, to give you a chance to buy our products at very affordable prices to gift them to your loved ones. We hope you’ll enjoy our Christmas presents, and share in our excitement for the coming year.

Those Who Hunt Tsukumogami

11/12/201211/12/2012 / Jakke Elonen / 3 Comments

In answer to a popular request, today we’ll walk you over the basic gameplay in 99 Spirits. We’re calling it a Puzzle RPG, but what does that mean exactly?

Read on to find out! (Note: all images are still very much a work in progress.)

The combat in 99 Spirits revolves around a puzzle mechanic wherein you work out the true identity of the enemy Tsukumogami, ordinary objects that, as per the Japanese legend, have come alive on their 100th birthday.

At the beginning of each battle, you face an enemy shrouded in an impenetrable mist which signifies the concealment of their true nature, and no attacks performed on them can cause lasting damage. All you can do is simply exchange blows with them until they run away. The battle itself is kind of turn based, you have a set number of strikes every ‘turn’ – or ‘clash’ as we call them, and you either defend or attack as long as they last – but the enemy can interrupt you with their own attack, and with good reflexes you can parry that and counterattack.

Now, when you obtain the Gokon sword, you gain two new abilities in the form of the gems you can see at the bottom:

You fill the two gems by attacking and defending, respectively. Once the first gem’s gauge fills up from your attacks, it allows you to read a part of the essence of the enemy Tsukumogami.
These hints come in the form of either a keyword related to the item in question, or part of the name of the actual artifact:

Once you have gathered enough hints for that ’eureka’ moment when it all clicks, you can use the sword’s second gem to make a guess at the item that is the essence of the Tsukumogami you are fighting.

Activating the gem brings up a new menu, where you enter your guess:

And if it’s correct…

The enemy’s true form is revealed!

Each Tsukumogami is unique from their hand-drawn artwork to their fingerprint-like combat hints, so an experienced spirit-hunter might be able to identify a familiar prey from a single hint. Based on early testing sessions with family, I can already tell this part can also be great fun with friends trying to outdo each other to puzzle out the correct answer as fast as possible.

From this point you can unleash all of your skills to vanquish the enemy.

If all goes well, you’ll defeat the Tsukumogami and continue your journey.

A keen reader might’ve picked up on there being more than two gems in the sword, but that’s a story for another day.

The game has nearly 100 different Tsukumogami with dozens of different skills to conquer, and you can eventually capture them to learn their skills, making the battles increasingly more complex and tons of fun.

In closing, don’t forget to support 99 Spirits in the Indie Dev Grant voting at http://bundle-in-a-box.com/!