Happy New Year from the Azurite Team!
Today we want to clear up some things and talk about the future of the project. Primarily, changes in the way we reveal things. But first, to answer a few things that have been asked a lot.
-Questions answered!-
-Will there be a Demo and if so what is the release date?
No. At least, not in the traditional sense. We rather have something separate to build on Azurite's characters. We can't give much information on that yet, sorry!
-What is the progress on the game's development?
Pretty decent, although lagging behind for sure.
A huge problem with working non-profit is that a lot of people do not have the time to help a lot. Paying them would help, but as its a non-profit game, we sadly cannot do that for multiple reasons, most obvious being legal reasons.
A huge problem we've been having consistently is lack of spriters for new Pokémon, Trainers and most importantly, Tilesets.
This has been a huge issue that we've had to deal with, unfortunately. Especially since we want the Pokémon animated as well.
A lot of what we've been working on would also be heavy spoilers to reveal.
But here's one of the concepts for one of the big cities, Mariadam.
That's kind of a big ship, huh.
-When will we reveal the evolutions of the starters?
Honestly, we're not sure if we will. One of the most fun aspects of Pokémon is discovering new friends. We'd like for that to be a surprise so that the evolutions don't affect the player's choice when choosing a starter, to make it a bit more of a difficult choice.
-Are you afraid of copyright issues after what happened to Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Prism?
Short answer: No
Long answer: This is a risk fan-game developers have in mind before they even start working on a fangame. It's something that we have to accept as a possibility. It's concerning, yes. But we're not afraid of it, because we knew it could happen from the very start.
All we can hope for is that Nintendo is merciful.
The best you can do as a fan is to not ask about it too often and simply support the developers of the fangames you'd love to play.
It is kind of a mood-killer when we get asked about this every time we tweet something out. The shadows cast by the takedowns of Uranium and Prism is already concerning enough for fangame developers without being constantly reminded of it when we show you cool new stuff.
Let's move on from that touchy subject with some updates and changes.
-Changes to revealing stuff for Azurite!-
A lot of people want to see gameplay, and because of that, we're changing the way we reveal stuff.
As fun as it is to show you all the cool new stuff and to see you all excited, we bear the responsibility of delivering it too.
Trust us, nothing fills us with more joy when working on the project than reading the hundreds of comments you guys sent our way. To see you all so excited for the game still, especially right after the phenomenal new official games is amazing.
It's an amazing feeling, knowing that you're working on something people really want to play.
Because of this, we're changing the way we reveal stuff.
We want to be a lot more responsible with our reveals. This will mean that we'll be lighter on reveals this year.
But do not think that means there is less work being done. If anything, 2017 will be the year that we'll be working harder on the game than ever before. Just do know, game development takes a lot of time.
A big reason of why we haven't shown much in-game footage is because we don't want to show you anything in-game that isn't completely finished.
But our new year's resolution is this: To show you more in-game progress.
This will mean we're lighter on reveals. Less will be revealed but every reveal that will be done will be a lot more significant.
Does this mean our communication will die out?
No. We're even looking into ways to make communication easier between developers and our audience. Additionally, more information will be revealed of things that have already been shown.
But know this.
We are determined to make Azurite a memorable, amazing Pokémon experience. Our goal is a very simple one: To make a really good Pokémon game.
-Some final words:
2016 has been an amazing year for Azurite. A lot has been shown and the amount of fans grows. It's amazing to see so many people excited.
From the developers of Azurite, here's something we can't say enough.
Thank you for believing in us!
-Team Azurite
Also Sleepy is a dork. -Cowctus
