99 Progress Reports

18/03/2013 / Fruitbat Factory / Leave a comment

This weekend our first crowd funding venture, 99 Spirits IndieGoGo campaign ended with great success. It gathered 252% of the funds we set as our goal and even reached to the stretch goal to release the 99 Spirits Fan Disc.

We can’t thank enough to everyone who helped us along the way to making this a reality.

Currently we are working hard to release the 99 Spirits as soon as possible while preparing the pledge rewards for all the contributors.

You can follow our progress on this by checking our forum. We just started a thread there detailing every step of the process. Check it out by following this link.

OH NO! The fourth wall!

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?

4th in “Best Indie Strategy of 2012”

07/01/201322/01/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 2 Comments

This morning we woke up to an unexpected nomination.

The good folks at indiegames.com have put together their ranking of Best Indie Strategy Games of 2012. You can find it here.

We found War of the Human Tanks in the 4th place.

“War of the Human Tanks would definitely head our top named games list of 2012, but, alas, we have prepared no such thing for you dear readers. We will though suggest you give this strategy/visual novel hybrid a go and see what you can do with its cast of armored humanoid weapons and simple yet deep RTS mechanics. The game includes over 30 maps of tactical challenges and even allows players to use resources earned from combat to purchase new abilities and upgrades between battles in what can only be described as its strategy mode.”

This definitely makes for a nice start for the new year, as we begin to gear up for the work ahead. Big thanks @ the Indie Games weblog.

What was your favorite indie strategy of 2012?

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.