New Stories for 99 Spirits

04/07/201404/07/2014 / Ozhan Sen / Leave a comment

99 Spirits – Cage of Night is now available for the first time in English. It is the first of the two side stories to PC Puzzle RPG 99 Spirits, giving you a chance to know more of the fan favourite support characters. We are releasing Cage of Night directly on Steam as a DLC to 99 Spirits, and it includes both English and Japanese versions of the game.

The game stars fan-favorites Saki and Komiya, and adds brand new characters. A story of tragic love and foxes’ games told in visual novel style, the Cage of Night is set during the events of 99 Spirits storyline and is set in a darker mood than the main story.

Additionally, it features six Mini Scenarios with in-between scenes from 99 Spirits that will bring a smile to your face and a Developer Symposium with commentary by TORaIKI, 99 Spirits’ creators to tell you where and how this all started.

99 Spirits – Cage of Night was a successful stretch goal on the 99 Spirits IndieGoGo project.

99 Spirits – Cage of Night is available with a -10% launch discount on Steam

Fruitbat Factory Reveals Five New Games!

13/05/201413/05/2014 / Fruitbat Factory / 7 Comments

May 13, 2014 – Fruitbat Factory is happy to announce five new games to be released for English-speaking audiences worldwide on PC (Windows).

Download press release here

Human Tanks: ALTeR
The long-awaited sequel to the original strategy game War of the Human Tanks.

Human Tanks: Limited Operations
The third and final installment in the Human Tanks series with many new challenges.

QP Shooting – Dangerous!!
A bullet hell shooter starring the pudding-loving dog girl QP from 100% Orange Juice.

99 Spirits – Cage of Night
A new adventure starring Saki and Komiya from 99 Spirits alongside new faces.

99 Spirits – Weeping Demon’s Bell
Another 99 Spirits story featuring Waka and Kotetsu in a thrilling web of events.

Human Tanks – ALTeR
is the much-awaited second installment of the Human Tanks, Charge! series, and sequel to War of the Human Tanks. This time you assume command of the enemy of the first game, the Royal Army, and fight back for all you hold dear!

Human Tanks – Limited Operations
is the last of the three games in the Human Tanks, Charge! series. In contrast to the first two games, Limited Operations has the player complete difficult missions with pre-assigned resources and face up against even harder opponents. War of the Human Tanks was localized by Fruitbat Factory and released worldwide September 2012. The Human Tanks, Charge! series is developed by Yakiniku Banzai!.

“We’ve had players asking for the sequels ever since we originally released War of the Human Tanks – our first game. We are really happy to finally be able to give a favorable response – yes, we will be bringing over the entire Human Tanks series! Many will also be interested to hear that the games will be available on Steam upon release.” says Jakke Elonen, project lead.

QP Shooting – Dangerous!!
is a bullet hell type shoot’em’up starring the pudding-loving dog girl QP, whom you might remember from 100% Orange Juice. Nothing can stand between QP and her pudding – not even difficulty options to reduce the experienced gamer to tears! QP Shooting – Dangerous!! is developed by Orange_Juice. 100% Orange Juice was developed by Orange_Juice and published by Fruitbat Factory in September 2013.

99 Spirits – Cage of Night
stars fan-favorites Saki and Komiya, and adds brand new characters. A story of tragic love and foxes’ games told in visual novel style, the Cage of Night takes place during the events of 99 Spirits storyline and is set in a darker mood than the main story.

99 Spirits – Weeping Demon’s Bell
is another new addition to the 99 Spirits storyline. Within it unfolds a new adventure for Kotetsu and Waka, where a duty Kotetsu undertakes turns out to have unforeseen and dangerous consequences. The two side stories are planned to be released as DLCs to 99 Spirits. 99 Spirits was originally developed by TORaIKI and published worldwide by Fruitbat Factory in May 2013.

“We are releasing our third Steam game, 100% Orange Juice, in just a few days, and after that we’ll be putting on the finishing touches for Cage of Night’s release as a 99 Spirits DLC. We are also excited to bring over more of the adorable dog girl QP in the hellish shooter QP Shooting – Dangerous!!. Her quest for pudding seems to never end.” adds Ozhan Sen, graphics and marketing lead.

War of the Human Tanks and 99 Spirits are available on Steam for PC (Windows). The Steam version of 100% Orange Juice is hitting the shelves on May 16 with all-new online multiplayer, HD resolutions support, Steam achievements, stats and trading cards.

To add some music to the celebrations, Sound of the Human Tanks, music collection for the Human Tanks series, and 99 Spirits – Artbook & Soundtrack Pack can be found -50% off on Steam for the duration of this week.

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!

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…

The X Factor

21/06/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 1 Comment

Recent 99 Spirits reviews of note:

75/100 “Though not a flawless experience, 99 Spirits manages nonetheless to be a strangely addictive JRPG” – IdieGameMagazine

Says the 99 Spirits review of the Indie Game Magazine. If you haven’t yet, you can read it fully at: http://www.indiegamemag.com/99-spirits-review/

“Just as I am always after a unique storyline in a game, I am always searching for something unique in terms of gameplay and 99 Spirits has given that box a BIG tick.” – The Otaku’s Study

Is what the Otaku’s Study says on their review, which can be found at: http://www.otakustudy.com/2013/06/sams-quest-for-something-different-1-99-spirits-from-fruitbat-factory/

“Without a shadow of doubt, 99 Spirits is one of the most imaginative and accomplished indie games on the market.” – True PC Gaming

Is True PC Gaming’s take on the subject in their article: http://truepcgaming.com/2013/05/31/99-spirits-review/

“Mixing the puzzle and RPG genre along with some anime themed influences, 99 Spirits became an absorbing and addicting title that was nearly impossible for me to put down for too long.” – Moonlitasteria

Adds Moonlitasteria in our flury of 99 Spirits reviews, available at: http://moonlitasteria.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/indie-game-impressions-99-spirits/

After the successful launch of 99 Spirits we haven’t been idle either. We are looking forward to announcing full details soon, but at the moment we can say that our plans for this year include three new game projects, and a cool extra on top of that.

Game Project #1 – not really a secret. If you’ve followed our earlier events you should already know what it is. 2013 release planned.

Game Project #2 – an unannounced license. It’s looking quite fun so far. Planning for a 2013 release.

Game Project #3 – something most of you can guess, something a lot of you have asked for. 2013 release…? We’ll see.

The Extra – This is something we’ve had several requests towards, so why not, we figured. It’s a lot of work setting up, but will be a big thing for us if it works out.

Look forward to more news!

99 Spirits of True PC Gaming

17/05/2013 / Jakke Elonen / Leave a comment

Last weekend had the pleasure to be interviewed by Adam Ames from True PC Gaming.

It ended up a long and fruitful talk, so if you want to read more about our work on 99 Spirits, head on over to http://truepcgaming.com/2013/05/15/trial-and-error-99-spirits-interview/ and give it a read!

We have been sending review copies of 99 Spirits around for the past week or two – if you haven’t gotten one but would like to review the game, just shoot us a message.

Our current status is such that the game is fully in order and we are preparing the gold master to give to our distributors this weekend.

Almost all IndieGoGo goods have also been produced, save for the game discs for the special collector’s edition, which of course will get the release version of the game. We will ship all of them together when they’re ready.

Spirit Hunt Progress – the Final Tally

01/05/2013 / Jakke Elonen / 1 Comment

Today we got some big news lined up concerning 99 Spirits‘ localization progress.

First but not least, the translation and editing of 99 Spirits script and graphics is now officially complete!

With a month to go till the 31.5. release date, we will be spending it testing and polishing the game to be able to release it in the best condition possible. In this context we want to express our thanks to the alpha testers for their feedback which has helped root out several issues and given good ideas to improve the gameplay in various ways.

We are also focusing our efforts into getting more visibility for 99 Spirits. If you write for a game blog or news site and would like to preview 99 Spirits, don’t hesitate to shoot us a message.

Secondly, we are happy to announce that a playable demo for 99 Spirits is now available for download!

You can get it from our homepage and in time from our distributors. We are excited to hear your feedback!

Who knows, there might even be a little Easter egg in the demo…

Printing Spirits

27/04/2013 / Ozhan Sen / 1 Comment

We are reaching the last stages in the preparation of the pledge rewards for the 99 Spirits IndieGoGo campaign. After working on their design with TORaIKI for quite a while, we finally have most of the goods printed. Behold:

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Did you spot my cat? She’s not included. There are still some finishing touches that need applying like flattening the artbooks and applying the stickers where due, but we are almost there.

Note that there are only a few days left to tell us which t-shirt size and pillow covers you want if you have pledged for those. Please contact us at support@fruitbatfactory.com. Those that haven’t told us which one they want will receive a Large-sized t-shirt and Hanabusa pillow cover. Check our forum for more info.

Preorders for 99 Spirits are still active, and with the release date of May 31th looming closer you might want to take advantage of the 25% pre-order discount for the Deluxe edition. As a reminder, the Deluxe Edition contains the game and original soundtrack for 99 Spirits, as well as the original Japanese version at a reduced price. With the pre-order discount it’s twice the bargain.