Fruitbat Factory to Localize Eiyuu Senki for PS3

06/05/201418/05/2014 / Jakke Elonen / 41 Comments

Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest is coming to PlayStation 3 for the first time in English. Prepare to battle cute world leaders in this massive tactical RPG from Japan! Fruitbat Factory will release the game simultaneously in Europe and North America.

Download press release here

Featuring over 70 characters by renowned artist Oyari Ashito and other industry stars, Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest was developed by TENCO and published on Playstation 3 in Japan by MAGES. label 5pb.Games in September 2013.

In this fantastic adventure, the player finds themselves in an alternate world populated with famous characters of history and legend – who also all happen to be beautiful maidens – and must fight their way to world domination.

“After a successful launch of operations on the PC market, we were looking for an opportunity to expand to console gaming. With Eiyuu Senki we found the chance to do it with a bang. It is a funny mix of a strategy game, RPG and visual novel that will forever change how you remember historical figures.” –Ozhan Sen.

Synopsis:

In a world wherepowerful nations run rampant and heroes battle one another for supremacy, the great nation of Britannia seeks to unite the world through peaceful means while the European Union has adopted an aggressive policy and the Seafaring Nation of Vinland thrives on pillage and plunder. Far in the east, the small nation of Zipang is stuck fast in a quagmire of civil unrest.

In the midst of all this, our memory-loss stricken main character has a fateful meeting with a Hero of Yamatai, Himiko. Together they settle Zipang’s internal disputes and set off into a world covered with the burning embers of war.

“As long-time fans of tactical RPGs we’re very excited to get to work on this title, which we’ve seen many fans wishing to be localized. We are aiming to release Eiyuu Senki simultaneously in North America and Europe, and will give more updates as they happen.” –Jakke Elonen.

Eiyuu Senki – The World Conquest will be available on Playstation 3.

MAGES. Inc. is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment contents for consumers and various platforms. They develop and publish through their labels ‘5pb.Games’ and ‘5pb.Records’. For more information, visit the developers’ homepage at http://mages.co.jp/

The Devil’s in the Details

04/03/201404/03/2014 / Jakke Elonen / 9 Comments

A while back we started working on 100% Orange Juice’s Steam features. It all started with adding achievements.

Tony, our programmer, is head over heels for Steam API, so after that he started getting some weird ideas.

The game’s entire multiplayer system has been reworked now to use Steam’s servers and a lobby system. It’s already fully playable, and supports many features we didn’t dare wish for before, such as player timeouts, leaving the lobby and rejoining it. Tony’s working on the lobbies now, and we’re discussing a possible system for multiplayer levels and perks. We’ll have to see how feasible that is to add.

At some point someone got the bright idea to bring 100% Orange Juice up to HD resolution as well. So now we’re doing that too.

For reference, this is where we started from:

100% Orange Juice default screen (click for full size)

The screen’s considerably less cramped at 720p, and the cards started to stand out as just a bit small and unclear for their purpose.

Now that we had more space available, we tried rendering the cards in higher resolution also, and the difference is quite amazing.

This is where we are now:

100% Orange Juice in 720p, and cards rendered in higher resolution (click for full size)

Please don’t give us any more ideas.

Human Tanks on Steam & Contest

10/01/201411/01/2014 / Jakke Elonen / 1 Comment

Human Tanks have now entered their new hangar on Steam, and are happily enjoying barley tea together.

There’s a -10% release discount on War of the Human Tanks, as well as two new packages available on Steam.

Sound of the Human Tanks DLC, priced $9.99 contains all of Sound of the Human Tanks I,II and III, for 90 tracks of funky game music from War of the Human Tanks and Human Tanks: Alter.

A further Imperial Edition comes priced at $16.99, and contains the game as well as the music collection.

The game is fully armed with new Steam features, including:

61 Achievements
Steam Cloud
Stats and Leaderboards
Steam Trading Cards

To celebrate the release, we are announcing a map design contest for War of the Human Tanks.

The goal of the contest is to design a new bonus map for War of the Human Tanks. The design can be as detailed as you want it to be, as long as it adheres to the physical limitations of the game (maximum map size is 17*17 octagons, which can be passable or non-passable), graphical or a written concept, and designed for any difficulty level – up to you! We’ll choose the design we find most interesting and add that map as an extra bonus map to the Steam release of the game (to be found under ‘Free Battle’).

Contest rules:

One submission per person
The design can be submitted in any form we’ll be able to read
Fruitbat Factory retains the right to modify the winning design as they see fit
Submissions are accepted until 10.2.2014
Entries to be submitted to support@fruitbatfactory.com

The winner will receive a unique War of the Human Tanks t-shirt, an Imperial Edition of the game on Steam, and the eternal fame of contributing to the war effort.

Human Tanks Infiltrate Steam

12/12/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

Again, happy news (well, not really super news at this point, if you’ve been keeping up). Yakiniku Banzai’s awesome Strategy/advanture game ‘War of the Human Tanks’, our first release has finally been greenlit! It already made it to rank #27 before the entire top 100 of Greenlight games was let in, which just goes to say… Human Tanks are awesome, or something.

We’ve been hard at work on the game’s Steam release since the news came to us, and are hoping to be able to publish the game sometime soon.

The glorious, Human Tank themed (surprise?) steam trading cards are already ready and raring to go, but we’re having some unanticipated difficulty with implementing our planned achievements to the game.

The base issue is that the engine doesn’t support using non-C code, which creates problems when trying to handle Steam’s class-using callbacks… if that says anything to anyone.

If you have any ideas, let us know. We’ll keep on trying different things for a while longer, in any case.

Here, have a Cookie.

On the other hand, our third release, 100% Orange Juice, the goal-oriented board game played by Orange Juice’s all-star cast is currently 86% of the way to the top 100 of Greenlight. We are hoping to see it greenlit soon.

Peace out… and let the war begin!

99 Spirits on Steam

27/11/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

It’s been a hectic few weeks. To sum them up:

99 Spirits is now available on Steam, with full Steam functionality.

We’ve added 49 Achievements to the game, as well as Stats, Cloud Saves and Leaderboards – and of course, Steam Trading Cards.

We’re already really happy to see lots of activity in the 99 Spirits Community Hub.

A brief explanation of 99 Spirits setup on Steam:

99 Spirits is available in two editions – regular game, and Steam Special Edition, which comes with 76 page digital Artbook, as well as the Music Collection.
Purchasing either edition also gives you Tsukumogami, the original Japanese version of the game. Tsukumogami is added as a separate item to your Steam library. Work is currently ongoing to add Steam achievements to Tsukumogami as well.
The Artbook & Music Collection is also available as a separate DLC – if you’ve gotten your Steam key from another source, this is a great way to upgrade your game to the Steam Special Edition.

Moreover…

Steam Winter Sale just started!

While the sale lasts, you can get 99 Spirits for -15%, the Artbook & Music Collection DLC for -20%, or the Steam Special Edition for -25%! Don’t miss out!

Progress Report 2.0

05/11/201305/11/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 2 Comments

RE: 99 Spirits

We are busily preparing for 99 Spirits‘ much awaited Steam release. As it’s our first game there, most of the features and their use are new to us, but the transition has gone surprisingly smoothly (thanks to the efforts of Tony, our resident walrus).

Right now, we have finished implementing Steam Trading Cards and Cloud Saves to 99 Spirits.

What’s taking most of our time is adding Achievements to the game, since they require a fair bit of testing and we want them to be well prepared and meaningful, rather than a compulsory chore. They’re great fun to work on, though!

If all goes well, you will see 99 Spirits appear on Steam quite soon.

RE: 100% Orange Juice

In answer to a popular request, we have finished another major undertaking for 100% Orange Juice, and can now present you with a comprehensive 52-page User Guide for the game!

Learn everything about the game’s underlying mechanics and pick up tips and tricks!

The guide is based on the original Japanese design by Orange_Juice, and updated with up-to-date information for our English release of the game. We hope it will help everyone struggling with any aspect of the game.

This user guide comes included in 100% Orange Juice 1.2 patch, also out today, which fixes a bug with ‘Tragedy in the Dead of Night’ card in multiplayer, as well as synchronizes players’ speed. You can also download it directly from our homepage.

100% Orange Juice is now 67% of the way toward top 100 on Steam Greenlight.

RE: War of the Human Tanks

War of the Human Tanks currently enjoys rank 57 of 1429 games on Steam Greenlight! We hope to see it join 99 Spirits among the Greenlit titles soon. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about this series.

99 Spirits has been Greenlit!

30/10/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

Yesterday 29.10.2013 Valve announced a larger than usual batch of new Greenlit games, and to our great joy, included was our first game to make it onto Steam – TORaIKI’s brilliant puzzle RPG ’99 Spirits’!

In the coming days and weeks we’ll be focusing on publishing the game on Steam, and exploring all our options in the system – of course, we’ll be adding Steam Trading Cards for it too!

This is all thanks to everyone’s continuous support, and we couldn’t be happier for it. As we’ve previously announced, our loyal IndieGoGo backers, as well as those who purchased the game through our Fruitbat Factory store, or from Indie Royale, will also receive a Steam key for the game once released.

Thanks to TORaIKI’s Hoshino Tomo for the celebratory illustration!

100% Orange Juice

10/09/201310/09/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 5 Comments

I realize that we’ve kept pretty quiet after our previous release. It’s the holiday season and all, you know?

That doesn’t mean we haven’t been doing anything though. In fact, it’s time we revealed our next localization project.

And it’s coming out… today. In fact, it’s already out.

…

But don’t tell anyone.

…

We’ve had a pretty furious go at this one, the project was so fun we ended up putting the less essential things like social media, sunlight and our mortal coils aside for a while.

Ozhan‘s trying to tell me the reason for our silence was that it’s an exclusive release, top-secret hush-hush, but I’m somehow not convinced.

Anyway, the game. I’m sure you want to hear about the game!

100% Orange Juice is developed by Orange_Juice, whom you may be familiar with from games like Acceleration of Suguri and Flying Red Barrel: Diary of a Little Aviator. It’s an all-stars board game featuring characters from Orange_Juice‘s other games (including the aforementioned). Oh, and beautiful cards to collect.

100% Orange Juice contains 4 single-player campaigns, and I clocked over 40 hours playing through them (though it might just say something about my board game skills.)

The game is totally hilarious and we had a blast with the story.

It also includes multiplayer support for up to 4 players, which is a rather rare and delightful feature to come across. We’ve actually spent most of the past week improving the Netplay code to make it easier for people to enjoy the game with their friends. You can find an in-depth guide explaining the multiplayer system here. Big shout out to our coder Tony for all the work put into the code.

I could write a fair bit about the gameplay, but why not just watch the gameplay trailer instead.

Oh right, did I say the game is out today?

That’s right, you can get it exclusively through Indie Royale super cheap, so be sure to show some support for Orange_Juice‘s funky games. Available as long as the bundle lasts (for the time being).

Make sure to drop a comment on Steam Greenlight (where we launched simultaneously) too! All games purchased through Indie Royale will get a Steam key when 100% Orange Juice is Greenlit!

Let the party begin!

Let’s build a Doujin bundle!

09/08/2013 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

It’s time for another great offer – Groupees is hosting a Build a Bundle called Build a Doujin Bundle, which is completely doujin game themed. Based on the first day, the bundle is doing exceptionally well, nice to see so many people interested in the scene.

Participating teams are: Fruitbat Factory (that’s us, no mistake there), Nyu Media, roseVeRteX and Sakevisual. We’re happy to be part of it with War of the Human Tanks. The other games are:

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club
Ether Vapor Remaster
Yousei
Yatagarasu
Croixleur
CAFE 0 ~The Drowned Mermaid~
Pester
Jisei
Kansei

Including Desura and Steam keys for the ones that are in Steam. Don’t miss this chance if you don’t have these games in your collection!

War of the Human Tanks… a best seller

21/07/2013 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

While I’m writing this post, our first release War of the Human Tanks is the best selling indie game and the third best selling game on http://www.gamersgate.com.

Can’t tell you how uplifting this news is for our team.

Currently we are resting a little, recovering from the hectic period of releasing our second title 99 Spirits and its highly successful IndieGoGo campaign while also working on a couple of projects we are getting ready to announce soon. That is why our blog has been unusually silent lately, be ready to receive some announcements soon.

In the meanwhile, take advantage of the summer sales all digital distributors are running these days and stock up on games. I know I did…