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CyberOwlGames
Home of Cyber Owl Games, we're a small indie company developing Cyber Rift, a story-driven romance visual novel (in development). In the mean time between updates we're making fancy pinups!

Joined on 4/29/22

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CyberOwlGames's News

Posted by CyberOwlGames - July 2nd, 2023


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We just released out newest update to improve the UI and Foundations for Cyber Rift on our Patreon! We've been putting a ton of work behind the scenes getting the brand new UI foundation to work correctly, and this new version is mainly for feedback from you guys, and bugfixing the hell out of the new interface. We wanted to completely streamline the new experience and remove the awkwardness of the older icons, so everything has been reworked and added to the new phone! Our main objective was to make the game feel a lot more clean, and we're eager to hear what you guys think! We also have added two brand new pinups (they're unlocked by default but will be changed to done through the store once everything is working). If you have any issues with progression, or find something that we forgot to adjust please let us know and we'll fix ASAP.

PS: Saves from older versions will be incompatible, once this is stable saves will continue to work in future versions but we need to make sure everything is working.


What's changed:

-2 New pinups have been added

-UI has been entirely overhauled and streamlined

-Popup objective has been removed and changed so objectives are viewed inside phone instead.

-Brand new phone interface (WIP needs feedback)

-Brand new scene replay in phone (WIP needs feedback)

-Brand new pinup viewer in phone (WIP needs feedback)

-Brand new objective viewer in phone (WIP needs feedback)

-Brand new store interface for buying items. Very WIP but we need to know if it's working correctly so please test it out!


Bugfixes:

-Cleaning either Player's room or Everie's room early stopping progression has been fixed (this time we're pretty sure, but please try and break it and let us know how you did!)

-Generator now has a glowing effect

-Objects within scenes were layered incorrectly and have been fixed (some areas might have objects close, so if you see any while in menus let us know!) -Fixed issue that would cause interface to disappear when loading saves (need testing to be safe on this)

-Fixed an issue after finishing wire minigame where screen would fade to blue for a second.

-Fixed an issue where the fuse box would look like it's both opened and closed at the same time due to texture overlap

-Various smaller fixes throughout

-Fixed an issue with the inventory and phone icons disappearing when opening the map

-Fixed an issue where the scene replay scenes were unlocked by default, this is now affected by ingame progression


New Bugfixes:

-Can no longer pause in main menu

-"Redeem the Slob" objective has been fixed to disappear when completed

-"Get some money for Everie's gift" objective has been fixed to disappear when completed

-UI for both the Phone and Objectives menus have been resized to fit better in scenes

-Entering various rooms from Map UI no longers disables the Inventory and Phone buttons (still needs to be tested but should be fixed)

-The "Old Tools" in the generator room will disappear correctly now

-"Prepare the spare" objective has been fixed to disappear when completed regardless of when room is cleaned

-The "Weird Rock" in Forgaris Workshop no longer appears during Fae and Everie conversation

-Shop now correctly deducts currency for items bought

-Some environments have had items changed layer wise to look better

-Soft lock for Everie octopus gift has been fixed (still needs testing to be sure)


Small addition: -Everie has a new dialogue option when her door is clicked after gift is bought (will be developed on later)


Known Bugs:

-All pinups are unlocked by default, will be fixed in patch to be unlocked through other means

Still working on:

-Notifications for when new objectives are active

-UI interfaces are not final and will be visually fixed. Artist is very busy on Cyberia update and will get to it once all art is done

-Button in main menu will be added to skip to latest content without having to playthrough everything

Hope you guys enjoy these new features! We really need feedback for these in particular to make sure everything's working, so please let us know what you think! We'll be updating this rapidly in the next few days, and both MAC and Linux builds will be available in the next few days.


PS: We added a preview of the new Cyberia environment on our Patreon :)


You can check it out here:

Patreon

SubscribeStar:


We've also updated our Itch page to have the latest build here:

Itch


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1

Posted by CyberOwlGames - May 17th, 2023


TLDR: New features and systems, status on update, and what we've been up to.


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Everie sprite has been entirely reworked (including a new nose!) and now has a nude version underneath. This also includes a ton of new facial expressions!


Hey everyone it's been a little while! Life has been a bit turbulent for members of the team, and not to go into too much personal detail but a lot of stuff has been happening IRL for me personally in particular, and it's definitely caused a slowdown in some areas. One thing that also slowed us down was that we were remaking the sprites in a new format, and the main reasoning behind that was to allow for some new additions which we'll be talking about later on in this post. But first we're happy to talk about our current progress and also list out a bunch of the new stuff we're working on!


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Not fully finished, but we think it's a bit cleaner! (arrows are something we're looking into improving as well...)


While working through the systems we realized that the UI really wasn't up to snuff in many ways, and we really wanted to go back and try and improve it overall. Positions of main UI elements have been moved around a bunch, and a few of the extra ones have been consolidated to free up some on screen real estate. Main reasoning is that it's not fun to have the screen cluttered by a bunch of icons going in different directions with inconsistent styling, so we've moved them to the top of the screen as well as removing the pull down for the inventory and giving it a proper dedicated button instead. We've also moved the objective panel into the phone, and the phone will be packed with a bunch more stuff as well!


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Phone UI is entirely placeholder and purely for function right now, but you can get a picture of how it will work!


The phone now includes the ability to go through all the USB pinups the player receives throughout the game. You'll have to put them in a new place in the player bedroom to unlock, but once you've done it they'll be added to your phone and you can look at them any time! Another one of the features is the ability to finally replay the NSFW scenes. This has been a highly requested feature, and has taken a bit more legwork to get functional but we're hoping people will be happy with it! The big issue with the tool we're currently using for conversations is that because we keep jumping between adventure mode and text mode, it's impossible to allow for backtracking after a conversation is done. We've added menu specifically to address this issue, and we're gonna work on adding more repeating moments in case players want to redo non-NSFW conversations again without having to go through the menu again. Finally the last feature on the UI front is the proper addition of the store.


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Still very WIP, but the idea is to let you buy items and get an image preview with a description before you purchase.


You'll now be able to use your hard earned money to get brand new items for the girls! This will be simple stuff like gifts for Everie and Fae, but will also include some new spicy things like lingerie! If you buy something nice enough for the girls they may even let you see them wearing them ;) . The main reason we've redone the sprites is to allow for stuff like lingerie and other outfits to be easily added onto characters without everything having to be redrawn. We're hoping this will let us add a lot more stuff for players to do, and also add some more interesting interactions with each of the characters. It's been a bit tricky getting the UI to work, but now it'll have an active graphic once one of the items is clicked, it'll have a description for each item, and will show the price and the ability to purchase. We're still in the planning stages for a proper Junky minigame, but we wanted to get the shop properly working before we went too far with it. We have another section of the store that'll come in the future, but we wanted to get this part working for the Cyberia update.


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New panning tech (background is just Forgaris stretched, we'll have the new one done for update though!)


The last thing we wanted to mention was the addition of something exciting: panning backgrounds! This is a new feature that'll let you scroll across the new landing area on Cyberia (this gif is the testing grounds not the actual background) and we're hoping it'll feel a lot more engaging then compared to normal static ones. Sure we could have just made a single background, but this is also tech we want to incorporate for stuff in the future. We're really aiming to improve the game overall and do some exciting stuff, and we're excited to show it off properly as soon as it's ready. 


In summary features to expect in Cyberia Update:

-Improved UI

-New Phone interface

-New Scene replay menu

-New Pinup gallery menu

-New store interface

-Improved sprites

-New panning background tech

-And much more...


And that's about it for this public post! We'll be giving patrons a brand new pinup extremely soon! We have no firm ETA on the update, but we just wanted to give a proper status update rather than just keep you waiting. Once the update is functional though we'll be allowing patrons to play the update before it's completely finished, partly for just simple bugtesting but also because we want you to be more involved with the process. We'll be showing off new sketches of the backgrounds for higher tier patrons soon as well. Tune in for more exciting stuff very soon!


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5

Posted by CyberOwlGames - March 24th, 2023


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Hey everyone! It’s been a whole month since our public release, and we thought that we should update everyone on our future plans for this game. We were completely blown away by the reaction to the build, and we're just so happy people have been giving our a game a shot! Thank you to everyone who’s joined us on our journey, whether you’re an old hat who’s been around since the very beginning, or if you just joined us on our adventure. 

First, let’s talk about technical fixes. As with any release, the game is not without its bugs or without room for improvement. We’re happy to say that we’ve received a lot of good feedback, and released a build with the following changes:


  • Players are able to choose their name
  • There's now a minimap button to better navigate the ship
  • Hallways were reworked for better navigation
  • Removal of unnecessary interactions


We decided to release this build publicly with these changes, and our first content update (the Cyberia Update) will be in 1-2 months with earlier builds for patrons to test features. 

Next, let’s talk about our content plan and how our updates will work from here on out. We plan on implementing a tick tock update scheme. In other words, we’ll alternate minor and major updates each month. Every major update will be an additional new part to the story with all the bells and whistles that go with it, including new art, CGs, NSFW scenes, and story progression. Each minor update will be focused on bugfixes, QoL improvement, additional content that may not have made it in before, and other miscellaneous things that might have slipped through the cracks. So, since our big public release was in February, our next release will be a minor patch in March, before having a major update in either April or May.


And now for the really exciting part: a sneak preview of our next planet, Cyberia! It’s cold, it’s snowy, and it just might be hiding a secret underneath all that ice…


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The Cyberia update will introduce a new character, Elsie! She's a little mysterious and a lot fierce. We hope you're excited to learn more about her very soon!


Before we end things off, we’d also like to remind everyone that a perk of being a patron is our monthly pinups! These are high-quality works of art done by our in-house artist. Previously, we’ve featured characters like Melenia from Elden Ring, Jinx from League of Legends, and many others besides. Look out for more lewd art coming your way, and we do take suggestions for future pinups as well. We're currently more than halfway done with the Dehya pinup, and our higher tier patrons can see the WIP sketches a bit early!


Again, thank you all for sticking around, and we hope you continue to play and enjoy Cyber Rift! Please let us know of any feedback you might have either here or via our Discord; we’re always trying to make the game better.


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3

Posted by CyberOwlGames - February 25th, 2023


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TLDR: Addressing feedback with bugfix in the next 1-2 weeks, showing our history from RenPy to Unity, and Cyberia Update coming in 1-2 months. 

Things have been pretty interesting since we released our first public build for the reboot! We've had a ton of interesting comments and feedback, and we've been carefully going through all of them to figure out what's the most pressing issues to address in the future. 


Complaints:

-Players want to be able to change their character's name instead of being called "Player"

-Players want the ability to instantly go to the floor layout rather than clicking aimlessly across the ship

-People really enjoyed the art and environments, but they want more to do and more interactivity

-Plot needs a little bit more work to feel more coherent overall.

-More types of gameplay for rewards rather than the wire minigame


All of these are extremely fair complaints, and we have some solid news in that regard! The first bugfix for the public version will include a new minimap/elevator button so players can immediately jump to anywhere on the ship. This will also remember the location they pressed the button from. We're currently fi

guring out how to change the player name through the various tools we're using. Since we're using a visual novel making tool on top carrying the variables can act a little weird, so we're just ironing out the kinks currently. The ability to change the player name will be included as well. We're also reworking some hallways, but those fixes will take a little bit longer to implement compared to the other features.

We're currently looking into adding a proper minigame for players to earn credits from, as well as a proper shop interface to buy items for the girls. This is something we're going to be developing in the future but we wanted to announce it a bit earlier. We'll have a lot more details soon on this, but for now here's a look at our new minimap feature!


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When pressed it'll take players to the map of whatever floor they're on. It'll remember location of what room the player is in when pressed as well! (UI still WIP and will have an icon)


Today we also wanted to look back at how much has changed overall, as well as just showing some of the older environments that we started with. Originally Cyber Rift was designed on RenPy and its creation was inspired by a ton of various NSFW VNs like Four Elements Trainer and Summertime Saga. From the very beginning we wanted to have a galaxy faring space adventure inspired by Cowboy Bebop, and wanted to use space travel for some really fun and unique locations, all with cyberpunk inspired visuals and themes.


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This was from the very first version! The team was a bit different, and we were still trying to figure out what type of game we wanted to make.


Before our artist originally hopped aboard the style of the game was completely different. It went for a more industrial and gritty take, which leaned far more heavily into the cyberpunk genre. The only issue with going this far industrial wise is it created a bit of a mish mash in terms of genres and settings. It created a variety of issues, and made it a little bit difficult to establish what we were trying to do.


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Everie went through a lot of design iterations over the past few years, and we really feel like we found something special with this new design


Characters originally looked completely different, and we were definitely having trouble figuring out exactly what we wanted to accomplish with the overall story and visuals. The plot started pretty similarly where the player ended up on Jukarya and meeting Everie, but there was no pod or anything holding her. Within the first few minutes of meeting her she gets completely naked and flirty. Although nudity in these types of games is great, this was extremely fast for a character you only just met, and the flirtatiousness of every character created issues plot wise. Cyberia was also introduced extremely quickly, and although we're bringing back Elsie in the new update, the context to going to there is going to be a lot different.


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There were a ton of positives to the old artstyle, but there were a lot of inconsistences with the characters and the environments.


One absolutely major issue with the game which also proved to be a serious enough problem for us to reboot was that our artist lacked experience with these types of games. A lot of the issues were caused by simply not knowing what to look for, or how to make environments make sense without having a proper reference. Near the end of the original version's development the build kept feeling more and more strung together, and it took some time to reevaluate exactly what we wanted to do with the game. Our artist ended up playing through a variety of different VNs and point and clicks, and he proposed the idea of completely scrapping what we had and starting over. Initially we were hesitant, but after some consideration we realized a fresh start was in order to fix the problems we had.


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Though the original pitch room was cool, it didn't quite make sense from a gameplay perspective so we weren't able to use it.


When the team first got this image we were extremely impressed and immediately wanted to consider the idea of a reboot. Originally we considered using RenPy again, but the amount of issues we had with adjusting art and allowing for different gameplay caused us to consider different alternatives. One of the greatest strengths with Unity is the ability to drag and drop art directly onto a scene environment. RenPy you have to structure every single piece of art through code and pull it based on where you want images to appear directly in script. This alone really made the switch a hell of a lot easier, and it allowed us to completely revamp every part of the game. 


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Cockpit had a major overhaul, and we were extremely happy with the results!


One major issue we discovered was the tool we were using did not save Unity environments within their save system. When you're making progression based game this can completely ruin everything, and we realized if we didn't find a solution the game was pretty much dead in the water. After a lot of searching we realized that the game was actually stuck between two genres, and it was a creating a conflict of interests between the two. We had to decide on whether to stick strictly to a Visual Novel version, which completely defeated the point of using Unity, or we could take some time and convert it into a full blown point and click adventure. This decision was definitely a not an easy one, but in the end we really believe it was worth the effort.


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The new artstyle takes a different approach in creating the environments, and the amount of detail really speaks for itself.


Our aim with the new version of Cyber Rift is to really focus on developing our characters, and creating a very memorable player experiences through the new point and click adventure gameplay and story elements. We have an enormous amount of content planned, and this really is only the first piece of a much bigger picture. Chapter 1 Part 2 The Cyberia Update (name still WIP) will be released in the next 1-2 months for patrons, and our demo will be updated until all four parts of Chapter 1 are done. 


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Amazing the difference a few years can make.


Overall we're extremely excited with the reaction so far to Cyber Rift. This is only the beginning of our journey, and we really hope you guys stick around see what we have in store! If you want the latest in all development news, as well as access to all our latest content you can check us out on our links below!


Our Patreon

Our SubscribeStar

Our Twitter

Our Discord

Our Itch Page


We're super excited to hear what you guys think of the new reboot!


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Posted by CyberOwlGames - January 22nd, 2023


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TLDR: Bugs getting squashed, build on track for public on Newgrounds mid February


Today we're excited to talk about the current status with the patron build, and when everyone can expect a public build for Cyber Rift. Currently we released v0.1.9a which was the first technical build for the conversion to an adventure game, and feedback has been pretty great so far. This build was primarily focused on letting patrons experience the mechanics early, as well as garner feedback for the new systems in case we missed anything major. Biggest source of criticism was lack of player direction, so that's why today we're gonna talk about a big new feature: Objectives!


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It'll look a bit prettier than this in the future, but here's the WIP!


Since we improved the new mechanics to get the player to engage with the environment more, we also felt like we need some form of guide in case players get a bit lost. We do have a walkthrough, but now with this system players will be able to have a direct note for what they are currently doing in game as well as a picture of the location that they need to go. We'll also have a small button to toggle objective text on the main screen, currently we're deciding how we want to implement but here's another WIP:


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The squid is purely to get it working though!


The hope with this new system is for players to be able to naturally explore, and hopefully figure out where they need to go without consulting the walkthrough. Patrons have also been showing us places that need a bit of work, and we're continuing to try and fix every major bug we can before we go public. Currently we want to get the NSFW scenes finished before we start showing it off fully, but the build is pretty stable in comparison to previous ones. We're working on getting all the new dialogue and scenes fixed up as well, and we also have a whole new writer to help fix up future dialogue. When the build goes public we're very excited to see how people react and play this whole new version of Cyber Rift!


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Our artist is still plugging away at even more new backgrounds!


Currently the aim is to get the finished build for middle of February. What this means is it will include every feature we're aiming for. We're very much on track to meet our goals, and we're very focused on fixing all the small issues currently. To get a picture of how much content there will, here's the current list of WIP features we're working on:


New Features:

-Full conversion into a point and click adventure

-Ship has been redesigned from top to bottom to allow for exploration

-Inventory system and puzzles using new items

-Redesigned character interactions and story progression

-Over 20 new backgrounds

-4 New music tracks

-Brand new UI

-Foundation for reworked story (this will be heavily iterated on in the next 3 weeks)

-New WIP Currency and Phone UI buttons with access to shop (shop is still WIP)


Our current focus:

-Removal of placeholder dialogue and fixing existing scenes

-Finish new maps for all three floors on the ship

-Finish all backgrounds across the ship (cockpit hallway, hangar hallway, and others)

-3 NSFW scenes (currently in progress and our artist is focused on finishing them to the highest standard)

-Several new character expressions and poses

-Fully reworked dialogue (will be a huge focus)

-Several backgrounds need to be fixed resolution wise (bathroom hallway, bathroom, recroom)

-Adding a lot more character dialogue throughout

-Basic UI shop through phone (in the game but needs work)

-Objective system and way to track progress

-More dialogue across the various interactions

-Gallery accessible through player's room

-Cyberia Teaser


February is going to be a very big month for Cyber Rift, and we're extremely excited to let you guys see what we've been cooking up these past few months. Once the build is done we'll also be doing a retrospective on how much has changed as well as a clear timeline in when the next update will be. Hope you guys are as excited as we are!


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2

Posted by CyberOwlGames - December 24th, 2022


TLDR: Progress and Dates to look forward to:

-Aiming for build to be functional by end of December (without all art/nsfw scenes done)

-Fully functional with dialogue throughout and most art complete for mid to late January


Hey everyone, we've been working really hard on the new build these past few months. We had some unfortunate issues where the coder we had threw in the towel about 1.5 months ago, but we're now back on track and things are starting to go smoothly again! Biggest thing is creating proper functionality with the new features, and currently we've figured out a new structure for how new content and features are going to be developed. A good example is the player room, where we've been able to make it so each option within the room for cleaning can now be individually clicked and the player can now fully clean the room!


(Before Cleaning)

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(After Cleaning)

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After extensive testing we're now able to confirm the saving/loading issue has been fully resolved, and our current focus is getting every objective the player has to complete functional, and creating a streamlined route for players to progress through. In terms of art we're still heaving focused on getting each of the new hallways and rooms done, but at the rate we're currently going we believe that we can get the build functional (as in all the progression without dialogue) by the end of the month. This means our patrons will hopefully be able to play the build without all the bells and whistles early January. We know it's been a longtime coming, and we've had many issues along the way, but we're resolved to get the game working and get all you patrons and new fans alike the best experience we can make!


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Current goals for releases:

-Functional by end of December (without all art/nsfw scenes done)

-Fully functional with dialogue throughout and most art complete for mid to late January


Also we wanted to list what we're working on still background wise for full transparency. These are all the backgrounds we will be featuring in game, as well as future ones, so if you want to go in completely blind don't read. Overall we're very excited for the future of Cyber Rift, and we wanted to be clear where we're currently at. We'll keep you guys posted, and hopefully the next patron update will be something playable!


(THESE CONTAIN SPOILERS SO BE AWARE)

Maps for ship floors

-Floor 1

-Floor 2

-Floor 3


Ship Art Done/Doing Floor 1:

-Recroom Hallway

-Gym Hallway

-Recroom (needs improving)

-Kitchen (future)

-Gym (future)

-Bar (future)

-Greenhouse (future)


Ship Art Done/Doing Floor 2:

-Left Hallway

-Right Hallway

-Bathroom Hallway

-Cockpit Hallway

-Plant Area

-Bathroom (needs improving)

-Player Bedroom

-Everie Bedroom (Needs improving)

-Fae Bedroom (future)

-Elsie Bedroom (future)

-Spare Bedroom (future x2)

-Cockpit

-Command Center (future)

-Medbay (future)


Ship Art Done/Doing Floor 3:

-Hangar Hallway

-Engineering Hallway

-Engine room (future)

-Fae Lab (improving but prob future)

-Generator room (perfecto)

-Hangar (future)

Jukarya Art:

-Junky Landing area

-Junky small pile

-Part for generator 


Forgaris Art:

-Landing Area

-Mountain Area

-Workshop

-Inside lab


(BIG SPOILERS SO DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED):

NSFW Scenes 


-Everie forgets she's not wearing a bra (in her doorway)

-Fae Doctor Inspection (in her lab)

-Fae towel slipup (in bathroom)

Cyberia -Planet approach


For all the latest developments check out our links!

Patreon:

SubscribeStar:


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2

Posted by CyberOwlGames - November 18th, 2022


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TLDR: Game is being expanded with more rooms/levels, objectives, and NSFW scenes


Hey everyone! Things have really been getting on track lately, and we're getting close to where we need to be. The saving/loading issue has been fixed, but right now we're working on a lot of expanded features due to the conversion. What this means is we're currently redesigning the ship layout to be far more expansive than before, and allow players to be able to click to any room they want in the ship from the handy map!


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(Current WIP of ship layout that jumps to each room)


The ship has expanded to be 3 floors (including rooms like a hangar!) , and we'll be adding rooms that will be opened in the future. Biggest thing is we want the game workable and playable sooner rather than later, but we're super focused on making sure the foundation for future content is properly done so we don't need to redo everything again. We've also expanded functionality where there will be actual objectives for the player to complete, and we're working on having detailed objectives in game so players will be able to discover locations and figure out things on their own without being explicitly told what to do. Biggest thing is we don't want the game to feel like you just click a few buttons and then bam you're done. Objectives will make sense based on the situation, and we're going to be adding 3 more NSFW scenes into the build when we properly release.


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(WIP of new Left Hallway from map above)


This time we really wanted to correct all the issues from the initial rework, and once it's complete it'll be the basis going forward. This build will expand the story from the initial build that was Chapter 1 Part 1 to Part 2, and we'll make sure that it feels satisfying to play through it. Features that we're aiming include once it's finished:

-Fully converted to Adventure Creator for Point and Click navigation

-Saving/Loading fixed

-Inventory system

-Objectives and streamlined quests

-Newly expanded ship and navigation with brand new backgrounds

-New music!

-3 NSFW scenes


We don't currently have an ETA, but we're aiming for it to be functional and playable hopefully be end of December. All the art will most likely take longer, but we're gonna let patrons play earlier! We're also really not a fan of keeping you guys waiting, but the initial saving/loading issue really tanked progression for us build wise but we really do think this new version will help alleviate future issues in that regard. On one final note, we're currently working on a brand new logo and we're hoping to show that off to you guys very soon!


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1

Posted by CyberOwlGames - September 21st, 2022


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TL:DR: The game has been completely rebuilt to fix issues and add a lot more fun stuff

Patron Build Release: September 25th

Public Newgrounds Release: First Week of October


Today we wanted to discuss some crazy developments in the past few weeks regarding Cyber Rift (all good ones this time!). Over this past year when we switched to the Unity engine our main hope was to develop a framework to work quickly and effectively, while also adding in special touches to the environment as we went along. We've been using an asset from the Unity store called Naninovel, and tbh it's been really great! The only issue was our misunderstanding of how to use it properly. There was a fundamental issue with the way we were designing the game before, where instead of adding objects and stuff to an environment we were actually adding it to the UI instead. Naninovel is basically a UI layer that goes on top of the game, but we were only using that layer and ended up unintentionally locking ourselves out of all the features we wanted to use from Unity.


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(bit of an extreme example but you get the idea!)


At first this wasn't an issue since the environments were fairly simple, but as we progressed pretty much every time we added a new button to the environment it wasn't actually locked into place. So any time someone with a different resolution than 16:9 ratio played the game it would mess up and cause some weird scaling to the art. This had always been frustrating and we had been trying to find a solution for a while, but now we realized we had to completely change the way the game was made to permanently fix this issue. At first this was pretty frustrating because Naninovel would keep taking over the Unity environment, but as we really delved into the code we discovered that it would be possible to have them coexist correctly, and allow us to create brand new environments in normal Unity scenes. Though this discovery was fantastic, we had to convert every single one of the backgrounds to work correctly. This meant over 25 separate backgrounds had to be reworked, and after doing that we setup special bits of code to let us plug and play new assets directly into the environment. End result is adding new features is going to be a lot faster.


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(to give a perspective of how many environments we had to fix)


With the newly made environments however, we've been able to finally add the interactive elements that we sought after from the very beginning. You'll be to hover your mouse over the environments and have it highlight different objects to know what can be clicked, and also have unique dialogue and prompts based on what you interacted with. So we've managed to upgrade from just a simple Visual Novel with small interactive elements, to a full blown Point and Click Adventure that we'll be expanding quite heavily very soon. The best part of all these changes is we can now add assets far faster than before, as well as add fun stuff like particle effects and unique sounds to the environment without having to redo everything. Once this new version is out, we'll be working immediately on Update 1 and we'll have a lot of news on this once we're in full gear. 


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(Reworked player room with all those green squares as interactive objects with unique dialogue. Players will be able to clean and discover things to their heart's content!)


To give a shortlist of all the changes you can expect:

-Reworked story intro and pacing

-Double the writing of first version with better pacing and structure

-25 new scene environments that we can easily expand on

-2 new backgrounds and 2 new CGs

-New live main menu and music track

-New galaxy map and live background

-New planet zoom in and area selection

-Tons of new interactive environment pieces and sprites


We also really want to iterate that this is only the beginning, and with these changes we're pretty much in overdrive to get the First Update started. We already have a few backgrounds prepared for that update, but we really wanted to fix the first part specifically to address all the various concerns and feedback that people have given. We're extremely excited to show off what we've been working on, and and we'll be publishing the reworked build to patrons 25th of September and the we'll be pushing the fully polished version onto Newgrounds by the beginning of October. And now to give you a sneak peak on what we've worked on, here's the brand new generator room!


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(environment is full of interactive pieces and secrets, so we hope you'll have fun finding them all!)


That's enough for this news update! Hope you guys are excited as us for these new developments, and we'll have even more things to show off extremely soon!


For all the latest developments check out our links!

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Posted by CyberOwlGames - September 1st, 2022


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First off want to say welcome to all the new patrons! We've had a rough go of it the past few months with artist breaking his arm and my gallbladder surgery, but we're getting back into action again. Currently progress wise we have most of the reworked build sorted but we're still focused on ensuring each of the pieces are working. We also originally intended on adding a few new pieces of art to the build specifically in the form of a view of the ship outside in space, a new intro sequence, a generator room and brand new character expressions. Since we don't want to keep pushing dates back we'll be giving patrons access to a rougher version of the build once it's ready in the next two weeks hopefully (once it's stable it'll be straight to Newgrounds!)


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(Concept for Fae's Lab)


Now for the update and what we're planning for it. We've currently gotten to the full rough draft phase of the update, which means that once we're happy with the edits we can start putting it into the build. We already have two new finished backgrounds for both Fae's lab and also a new bathroom area that we'll be expanding upon as the game progresses. What we're aiming for is to have a whole new minigame which player can use to get currency. Why have currency without things to buy? Well to answer that: you're gonna be able to buy things with a brand new shop interface and inventory to store it in. Since this is a pretty ambitious feature we're gonna be doing a lot of testing with it, but the goal is to be able to buy items for each of the characters and potentially some spicy pinups that we'll keep adding to as the game progresses. 


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(old version of universe map)


One aspect of the game that we really haven't been happy with is the universe map, and although the original concept version looks neat, it doesn't quite work for what we're aiming for. Unfortunately it's a bit early for details, but all the future locations on the map will be able to be seen (without details since they're still being made!) and you'll be able to see the full scope of the game. It'll have some semblance of actual galaxy shape, where currently the design is just slapping all of them on a space background the new version will have proper celestial orbits so the systems have some sense with them. We're still developing the new version, but we'll be keeping you guys in the know as we get a bit further.


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We just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful reaction to our game! We initially posted to get some more feedback as well as show some new people our game but the reaction really blew us away. Obviously we need to work on the length of the game through updates but we are extremely happy with the valuable feedback we've been getting on the current build. Patrons can look forward to a new pinup early this month (the less lewd version will also be posted here) and ideally we'll have the reworked version playable by then as well. That's all for now, and we'll keep you guys posted on what's next!


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Posted by CyberOwlGames - August 1st, 2022


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Hello everyone! It's been a chaotic few months and thought it was about time to get a proper news update on what's going on. In IRL news I've had my gallbladder removed due to some major issues health wise. It was initially a fair rough recovery, and on top of that I ended up having to move places from one city to another. Naturally this created a lot of issues in terms of getting development with the game done, and also just keeping things in order. Not to mention our artist also broke his arm last month, game development wise we had to slow down a fair bit. This wasn't something we wanted to do, but it was just the reality of the situation. So now's the time to get things back into motion!


I had the version on the left with more holes :(


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As we mentioned in the last news update (this was patron news for all non patron viewers) we were adjusting the game based on feedback. What this means is that although we're very happy with the art design and new story feedback, it did feel like the initial story beats were happening just a bit too fast.  We've decided to adjust the events by adding days for the events and the framework for adding a proper day/night cycle. This new art below is also from the brand new intro to the game. We realized that the initial version kind of just throws you into the thick of it, so now we added a whole new little intro cutscene to fix that. We're also adding a view of the ship from space (tho we're waiting on our artist to heal so we can do that). 


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For patrons who may have been upset over the lack of pinup for the month we agree with you! Unfortunately due to our artist being indisposed by a broken arm, we haven't been able to get any more made up. Once he's recovered, we're going to make 2-3 pinups to make up for the lack of them. This will be one to finish off the Elden Ring series with Malenia, and a surprise one inspired by Future Fragments! We'll give you more information on this super soon, but for now just hang on tight! Game wise you can expect some form of update this month, and hopefully a reworked build in the next few weeks. That's it for this news update, and tune in for much more very soon!


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