New updates aren't the only thing we prepared for June...
Starting this month, we will begin releasing our first official comic, set in Academy34 universe!
Yea, it might not sound too grand, but it is, at least for us. Thing is, every story you'll see in those comics are canon, they depict events that happen whenever player is not around to take part in them. They expand on our characters, show them from new different perspectives, and sometimes new angles. They might even introduce characters that we haven't even added yet in the main game. Long story short, if you want to get the fullest possible experience of getting to know guys and gals and non-binary pals from the Academy, you might want to read them. We don't want to oversell it, but we also don't want to make it look like something completely unimportant. Our writer is doing his hardest to make sure everything you see there is just as engaging, as playing through any of our routes. Sure, there's not as much time to tell a story, since, you know, comics are a little more time-consuming to make, than dialogues with the same repeating sprites, but that just opens new possibilities for experimentation! Though, that mostly means that there will be far more lewd stuff per minute you spent reading, than our game offers. For you that's a win I guess.
The first comic is also special in other regard: It features Sombra as its main protagonist. Anything with her is special for us. You'll finally get to learn what she does in her free time, apart from collecting ransom money or whatever else she's doing! And it will also show how much of a special someone MC has become...
Also there are few things we should clarify:
- Those comics are created in collaboration with us, not by our game artists. That means we do not sacrifice any resources we could be spending on new updates just to draw those comics. Instead, we have a separate small team of our friends, who's responsible for them. They made it clear, that they are not interested in working on the game itself, but they would really like to make something that will feature our version of Overwatch characters. So, basically we can't just close the whole thing down and allocate them to our game's art department. No one ever really complained about that, but we just thought that making it clear beforehand would be wise.
- Everything you see in those comics are canon, and yes, they will also be added in the game itself, so you can read them there later.
- We'll prioritize characters who didn't get enough screen time in the game, or yet to get their own route.
- Comics will rarely include in-game's main character and instead will focus on things that happened "behind closed doors", thought the MC might be mentioned.
- The art style will obviously differ from our in-game art style, since our game's artists had no part in creating the comic, but in our opinion that's not that big of deal as long as the content itself feels right.
- Our writer oversees the entire process of creating those comics to make sure that characters are in line with their in-game selves.
- All of the comics will be released for free, with the week-long (or so) early access period for $5+ patrons. Later every released comic will be available on our website once we implement a separate page for them.
- Generals and High Council members will get access to the entire comic on day one. That means whenever we release the very first page for that new comic about Sombra, members in those tears will already have access to the entire finished comic.
Well, that should be all. Not gonna lie, we're honestly excited to finally get it out. That's a whole new medium for us to explore and another way of telling our stories, which is always amazing. Once the release day comes close, we'll make an another post announcing it, which should be quite soon.
Thanks again for your support, which made all that possible. Love you all.
