Before we begin to discuss last year's games, Thank you for all of your support - particularly to our players, and streamers, for your ratings, comments, kind and constructive words in 2023, rest assured, more good stuff is yet to come from our little studio in 2024 and it is because of your encouragement!
We would also like to thank all of the voice actors and musicians who lent their time, creative energy and talents to us to help us. Our games (and audio drama) wouldn't be what they are without you! With that said, let's discuss what Hyakuten Games produced in 2023.
Hyakuten Games had its first foray into the horror genre with the ‘deity machine’ series. ‘The Perfect Specimen’ really draws into medical horror and the feeling of violation that is entailed with non-consensual experimentation. The intention was to invoke a sense of ‘can you survive with your sense of self intact’ - rather than the risk of dying.
‘Mother’ is quite different, it is all about inevitability, the sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is very subjective in this game, who is right really depends on your personal perspective - our main character is trapped...or is she? It isn't as black and white as others that will be in the ‘Deity machine’ series. No voice acting for these (a creative choice to add a touch of uncertainty), but both are accessible!
How do two different people react to the same news? That's the premise of the two games Sweet Mellow-Di andKaraloki. The titular characters both discover they're sentient digital beings but both take the revelation in different ways. These games are short (one is sweet, the other…not so much) and emulate the ‘only one in the chat’ experience, one being positive and supportive, the other being negative and psychological. Both superbly voiced, with original score created for both games and both are accessible to play.
‘Roses in the thorns’ is a subtle nod to the war that causes the events of Royal Duality (our first and biggest project to date) to take place the way they do. We used a similar format in homage (a Fae and Vampire perspective is presented at the start and the story meets in the middle at the end) to unify the narrative storytelling of the game to RD itself. There are some recurring characters that make an appearance, so if you have a spare 30 minutes, you might want to check this out.
NOW if you reach the ‘canon’ Fae ending, you'll end up in the events of our Only one of any asset game entry, ‘The vulture’, where we meet a mysterious man in the bitter cold who is far more than he seems. These games were developed in isolation, but one flows into another seamlessly. Ambient music and sound effects lead the sound design of these experiences, we encourage headphones on (no voice acting, due to cross-character continuity).
We became keenly aware than Tyranobuilder was an inaccessible visual novel engine a little too late in development. However, we did not want to accept that Royal Duality would be ‘inaccessible’ to a specific group of users (particularly those with hearing needs), to rectify this, an audio drama which acts as a companion piece was created - Royal Duality - Tales for the Silent One. I can safely say that lots of lessons were learnt during the creating process! As the director and engineer of the audio drama, I became aware of how overwhelming podcast and audio drama creation is!
After a foray of little projects during 2023, it is time to buckle up, because we'll be waiting for you in the Waiting Room (To be released in 2024). This game will act as the spiritual successor to Royal Duality. We won't say too much, rather, we'll let the trailer speak for itself!
See you there!
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