Somnova Studios

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's happened.

The last competitor for the attention granted to Missing stars has folded, declaring it has "shelved" Love Despite and will be focusing on a much smaller visual novel.

For three years, this project has been limping along, no where near the attention grabber of our own VN.

In many ways, I'm rather sad. They've been dead in their forums since August 2014, and only recently revealed the truth.

http://blog.love-despite.com/2015/05/18 ... /#comments

In other ways, I'm worried. With no further competition to unite the many workers of our dearly beloved and disturbingly quiet VN group, what will happen now?

Truly, it seems, Missing Stars is the last real contender for the role of Spiritual Successor to the glory of Katawa Shoujo.

So, Somnova, I pose you a question, as one of the few who's stuck around for over three years now, watching you and hoping for you...and coming to be very worried and cautious about you.

Will you do it? Three years, a major rewrite, dozens of staff coming and going with barely a word or a nod to us about it all...will you make the demo? Will you even get there?

I know a number of you, or used to. I don't see you really anymore, except for one or two guys. Some of you have even left for other pastures, working on VNs there. One of you is the only person who will tell us anything, and you're working on another project.

So I challenge you. What happens now, Somnova?

Don't worry, If they are dead, they would post NEWS like Love Despite. jarek
The Katawa Shoujo was takes 5 Years.
of course you said, missing stars is now Last stand, The spiritual successor of Katawa shoujo. But personally, I believe Somnova studios will not being DEAD.
about somnova studios NEWS here http://somnovastudios.blogspot.com/2015 ... e.html?m=1

PS. Honestly, I want play missing stars demo too. but, i am waiting for when it's done. here is my fan art.

Zaku, this is delightful.

<3

zaku wrote:Don't worry, If they are dead, they would post NEWS like Love Despite. jarek
The Katawa Shoujo was takes 5 Years.
of course you said, missing stars is now Last stand, The spiritual successor of Katawa shoujo. But personally, I believe Somnova studios will not being DEAD.
about somnova studios NEWS here http://somnovastudios.blogspot.com/2015 ... e.html?m=1

PS. Honestly, I want play missing stars demo too. but, i am waiting for when it's done. here is my fan art.

Lovely art.

Already read it, Zaku. I'm afraid I do not require your policing. It is a question posed to the developers...not you. I, frankly, would have sought your idea on it had I felt you had any better idea on this than I.

jarek56 wrote: [...] Will you do it? Three years, a major rewrite, dozens of staff coming and going with barely a word or a nod to us about it all...will you make the demo? Will you even get there? [...]
So I challenge you. What happens now, Somnova?

As much as I like to say something to calm you or give you something to cling to,... in the end, there is no safety net.
And this is even more frightening for the developers because they commited years of their lifes to this project.
We are still firmly convinced that the project will succeed. Yes, some of us are doubtful and nervous, but the good thing is - work is getting done every day.

What I can assure you is, we are not dead. We are just very quiet.

ProNice wrote:we are not dead. We are just very quiet.

I can confirm!
No one's asking anything or calling us on forums, so we just remain silent. Untill now.

Lack of competition doesn't mean lack of determination - yes, we're last from "Katawa Shoujo inspired" group, but I doubt existence of Love Despite was main reason for us to stay together. We're just moving on...

jarek56 wrote: In other ways, I'm worried. With no further competition to unite the many workers of our dearly beloved and disturbingly quiet VN group, what will happen now?

Truly, it seems, Missing Stars is the last real contender for the role of Spiritual Successor to the glory of Katawa Shoujo.

Freeware and fan-made projects often die during the planning stages. I'm active on Lemma Soft, and I occasionally browse RPG Maker related forums. It does not surprise me when a work-in-progress thread stops updating. I currently associate six months of no significant updates with a permanent hiatus. For more information, be sure to look through the Why So Many Unfinished Visual Novels? discussion thread. Also, there are quite a few examples of webcomics and fanfiction that start strong, and then slowly fade away.

Salty Salty Studios' planned visual novel Work in Progress started during March 2012. As of May 2015, the creators are still posting updates. Also, Scalemail's planned visual novel Walkerman started during May 2012. It had a successful Kickstarter recently. From what I read, the creators plan to release part one of their project during November 2015. Finally, it seems that Love Conquers All's next indie visual novel project Ladykiller in a Bind is set for release later in 2015.

Somnova lives.

New workstation, woo!

I never took you for a Malinowski fan Kosher. And I'll certainly be heartbroken if this lovely scene of Lena's bold ideas for Erik's fashion doesn't make it into the final product.

kosherbacon wrote:

Somnova lives.

New workstation, woo!

"Lemme throw all my cool shit and some fanservice into this picture."

kosherbacon wrote:

Somnova lives.

New workstation, woo!

"The sexual life of savages"

The developers doing their best for a game they might finish one day. it fills me with Determination.

2016
I will always believe!!!

Missing stars heroines with Another world graphic



Erik and his Father.
--------------------------------------
I believe somnova studio did it.

Actually this brings up something that's always worried me about this project...

I worry that Somnova might try to make Missing Stars a successor to KS instead of letting Missign Stars be something original but with a similar premise.

I never respect something that tries to ride off the success of something else.

Zezin wrote:Actually this brings up something that's always worried me about this project...

I worry that Somnova might try to make Missing Stars a successor to KS instead of letting Missign Stars be something original but with a similar premise.

I never respect something that tries to ride off the success of something else.

Funny enough most of our written conversations involve how NOT to be a KS clone, but in fairness there's probably very little you could call original in a typical VN academic setting.

That being said I still feel as if there's an original story to tell, and so far everyone continues to be respectful with their written topics and diligent with our edits. Just with one girl's route alone I'd say that Missing Stars isn't shying away from standing on its own merit, but like before we now just need to stay on track with giving you all something to chew on.

Zezin wrote:I worry that Somnova might try to make Missing Stars a successor to KS instead of letting Missign Stars be something original but with a similar premise.

While the premise is inspired by KS, MS very much stands alone as it's own story with it's own characters. At least In my opinion, but I might be a little bias.