A unique fantasy 4X Strategy game in a gorgeous Art Nouveau style! ⚔️ Epic story-driven campaign & PvPvE multiplayer on PC and console.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
💚Your feedback matters! 💚 How our community has helped us with development.
7 months ago
– Fri, Apr 05, 2024 at 09:10:27 AM
We had this vision when we first made our prototype for Songs of Silence.
We wanted to create a strategy game that had beautiful art, felt epic to play, and was adapted to the needs of modern gamers. That was our goal!
So, we developed a prototype, and even though it was just that – a prototype – you can clearly still see the influence of it today in our game. We kept true to the Art Nouveau visuals and our color palette to craft a unique and distinct look that would captivate the players.
The result can be seen below:
The Army management screen today uses a grid-like format, with your reserves at the rear of the battlefield and the inspection information about your unit on the right, accompanied by an illustration. This screenshot shows how everything comes together beautifully. It looks like an art piece.
Cards & polishing
Over 3 years, we playtested intensely, gathered feedback from creators and creatives, and sat in small meeting rooms to discuss “How do we make this experience fun?”
We were set on using cards in our game from the very beginning. Although you won’t find the first card prototypes in Songs of Silence anymore, the style – heavily inspired by art nouveau – is still visible in our current cards.
The lines got cleaner and more dynamic. The colors and their balance fit better, and the frame is now removed from the card itself and is part of the UI, indicating the card level.
We polished, polished, and polished, and in August 2023, we launched our Closed Beta. The response was huge. We were able to gather a ton of info and understand bugs and pain points much better. We could see how everyone was playing the game, and after we launched our demo in October, we saw many creators playing and streaming the game.
Lists & lists of valuable feedback
With the help of our Discord and dedicated channels, we created and maintained an Excel sheet with over 120 unique suggestions or bug reports, which have been super insightful.
We’re still maintaining that list and have implemented some of your feedback (yes, implementing an option to skip cutscenes was one of the first things we did!)
Another piece of feedback we received was to make adventure locations more visible. Before, they did not have a visual indicator, so it wasn’t very obvious that you could explore the location in the image below.
However, after seeing your videos or hearing your feedback, we made sure you would want to check out the Wyldwoods:
That’s much better, right?
Only with your input can we make this game the best experience. This is where our Kickstarter comes into play.
From the prototype to our second demo (available now on Steam!), we kept shaping our game toward our original vision. Kickstarter will help us gather the funds to implement the suggestions and feedback we received during our Early Access release in May.
No matter what comes, we will stay true to the vision we mentioned in the beginning. That is why you can still find influences from the image from the prototype in our current key art:
Are you excited about what’s coming next? We have amazing stretch goals to meet, the next one being difficult options!
🚀Help us reach the goal and unveil more stretch goals as we go! 🚀
Or do you want to colonize the moon? Then check out The Crust!
The Crust is a riveting sci-fi factory-building management game with exploration, automation, multilevel gameplay, resource extraction, trading, and base-building elements, immersing players in a desperate struggle for survival as humanity faces extinction on a dying Earth. As the director of a crucial mission, players must harness cutting-edge technology to establish a new civilization on the moon, navigate alliances, manage resources, and uncover the secrets of Earth's last hope.
The Second Stretch Goal reached! Get some Popcorn 🍿 – we will have animated intros & outros! | Stretch Goal 3 is live! | Closed Beta Update V3!
8 months ago
– Wed, Apr 03, 2024 at 06:27:52 AM
Humbled. You did it! Stretch goal number two has been shattered and lies twitching in the dust at our feet! 😵(Okay, not literally, but like – metaphorically!)
We’ve confirmed the creation of fully animated intro and outro sequences for the game! What does that mean? 👀🤔
We will add a new lore intro sequence right at the start of game and extend outro video at the end of the campaign: all animated in our beautiful blend of 2D art nouveau stylized and 3D mapping animations!, which you’ve already seen in our Map introductions!
A little sneak peek in our Storyboard for our animated intro!
Unlocking this stretch goal allows us to produce more handcrafted artworks specifically designed for these animations and feature more scenes per sequence.
To make our animations look as they do, we not only need to create the artworks from scratch – which might take its sweet time, you have read that in our previous Art Nouveau update – we also need to create everything in separate layers, to animate them properly!
Here's a description of what the animations will cover:
The intro will guide you into the lore of Songs of Silence - where you can learn about the background of our world.
Our extended outro will go deeper into the individual fates of the protagonists and illustrate the outcome of the story more beautifully than we would have been able to do in-game and with voice overs.
Finally we will make sure that the end game credits gets some extra love: illustrated with a selection of artworks and scored by a special theme from Mr. Sakimoto.
STRETCH GOAL 3 IS NOW LIVE!
This is great, obviously, but it would be unwise to stop just now! We are hungry for more, and we are sure that with mutual effort we can achieve more of our ambitious stretch goals!
The next goal, it’s one for the hardcore gamers, the achievers, the winners, but also the players who want to focus on story – let us introduce you to the extra difficulty levels!
This goal, unlocked at a €70,000 funding, will incorporate two new difficulty levels: Story and Warmaster. ✨
Story mode makes the game challenge easier, lowering battle difficulty to let players focus on our carefully crafted narrative with a reduced chance of an embarrassing Game Over screen.
Warmaster is the opposite, an unforgiving hard experience where enemies will pose much more danger, whilst your own troops are a little less effective. Only for the brave and merciless! Blood will flow!
Speaking of, are you brave enough to hit that pledge button? 🔴 Let’s make the next goal a reality! 🎯
CLOSED BETA - UPDATE V3 - Change notes
We also have great news about our Closed-Beta! Not only did we update the Demo last time – but we also have an updated Closed Beta and make it live NOW! Here’s what changed:
Campaign
We have rebalanced and updated campaign maps 01-03. This includes also some smaller tweaks towards the scripting and voice overs. We hope you enjoy :)
We especially implemented a set of fixes & improvements towards map02 - particularly around the hiding mechanics.
We newly introduced the first version of campaign map 04. We're eager to get your feedback! It's the first map where you can play the Old Race.
Skirmish
You can test now all 3 factions in skirmish & multiplayer (1000 Kingdoms, Old Race, Crusade) and one neutral Hero (Rogue prince). Please notice that the Old Race and Crusade have a special faction mechanic. You can find more info also in the game manual draft we shared in discord.
We're completely updated the balancing for all cards, units, factions. Too many to count - so will list not all details here :D.
We've added a full new set of content including units, cards, locations and battlefield - especially around the Old Race and Crusade.
We' added the new skirmish maps that you can also find in our freshly released demo (Small and medium sized - large are still locked).
Improvements & Fixes Based on your feedback we've implemented a lot of new improvements - these include:
A new tooltip system to make information on locations, units, heroes, cards more accessible and easier to understand.
A new objectives system to give better information on what do in a map
The much wished feature to disband your units!
We changed the way the retreat card works in battles - so you cannot play it by mistake.
We reorganized the inspect screens
And as we know that you all want it: an improved AI - is now more capable of playing cards, creating buildings, healing & transforming units. Please mind that this is only a first update - and we are still working on more improvements.
Finally: we implemented some smaller performance improvements under the hood. We're still working hard until launch to improve the game performance!
Please note that this is still a beta version - and we're currently deep into bugfixing 🐛🛠️. So there are certainly some issues that you will encounter that we will fix until launch. For example it's possible to get armies stuck in locations when you run out of movement points - or crash/block the game in different ways by using some exploits we have not fixed yet.
We have a dedicated section for Beta-Testers and will also have a survey for you sometime this week. Please play the Campaign and leave us any feedback and suggestions you have! We appreciate your insights a lot, as they help us improve the game!
Last but not least, have you ever thought about having your own farm shop?
Restore harmony to this enchanting world! In this cozy farming game, you have to run your own farm shop. Take care of your animals and your farm, sell your goods to the cute Forest Folk, upgrade the island and fulfill small orders from the Harmony Tree to fill the island with life again.
🌽 Farming: Take care of your plants, make fertilizer and sell your farm produce. 🛒 Your farm shop: Sell items in your shop and negotiate with the Forest Folk for prices. ⚒️ Resource Gathering: Collect wood, stones, and weeds for farm improvements. 🐑 Animals: Feed, interact & build bonds with animals for eggs and milk. 🐈 Pet Companions: Give names to pets, interact with them, and let them follow you around the island. ☯️ Harmony Tree Quests: Fulfill orders to heal the Harmony Tree and upgrade the small island. 💰 Trader Brownie: Purchase seeds, animals, and more from the friendly trader. 👷🏽♂️ Upgrade System: Improve your house, barn, and tools to enhance efficiency.
🎨Art Nouveau and the Belle Époque 🎨
8 months ago
– Mon, Apr 01, 2024 at 02:04:38 AM
OUR ART STYLE 🧑🎨
Songs of Silence has a unique artstyle – it might be a bit unconventional for a strategy game – but we love the Art Nouveau style pioneered by Czech painter Alphonse Mucha and other amazing artists like Gustav Klimt and Toulouse-Lautrec. The visuals derive directly from the grand Belle Époque, with the goal to create a visual narrative with our own interpretation of his visual language to adapt to the needs of a modern video game.
Art Nouveau has an ethereal and otherworldly style, perfectly suited to our story and lore. From one illustration alone, you can learn a lot about the portrayed unit or location. Every cape, sword, emblem, plant, or creature is well thought-out and in place for a reason.
It is a passion product for us, and we really put our hearts and souls into it. So much so that it might take 10 different variations on an image until we settle on a final treatment. Here are two variations we had for our Kobolds. One is scared, one is more stubborn. Can you tell which one is which?
With all those iterations and polishing rounds, we want to craft an entirely new and captivating fantasy world - complete with its own compelling storyline and stunning, high-quality art style.
From UI elements to hero portraits - all elements are hand-drawn and created from scratch by our art team. Together with our technical, environmental and animation artists, we create the look you can see in the final game:
OUR PROCESS ✍️
In this extract from an interview with the excellent Creative Bloq, our Art Director Chris Reiner talks about how this creative process works.
"Usually the process starts with a briefing by a narrative or game designer. In most cases I ask for a rough doodle of what the narrative designer has in mind for the character. I do this because I get a better understanding of the idea and expectation of the writer, and eventually it'll help lowering the production time for the art asset.
"Since Songs of Silence is lore heavy, it was important to get the details right. There are quite some lore specific details we needed to convey, so a mutual agreement of the expected outcome was quite important to us.
"After the briefing, a 2D artist starts drawing a bunch of simple greyscale silhouettes defining the general shape and rough details of the character.
"After one of the shapes has been approved, the artist starts working on a back and front view of the character in the scale of the battlefield as well as a slightly more realistically scaled version of this block out. The reason for this is, that we needed to derive two different assets from the visual base design - the less detailed and small 3D unit of the character as well as the more elaborate hand drawn unit portrait we needed for the user interface showing all the detail that we can't show on the 3d model due to it's limited size on the screen.
"Once both visual concepts have been approved, the less complex drawing goes to a 3D artist, who creates and textures a 3D model of the character according to the drawing. After this is done and approved, the model is handed over to the animator, who creates all of the needed animations for the unit, after properly rigging and skinning the 3D model. On a case by case basis a VFX artist is also needed to give the unit extra flair.
"The more detailed visual concept goes to a 2D artist, who will create the actual illustration for the unit."
Let’s have a look at Lorelai, our main protagonist. Her creation process reflects just how many iterations we go through, how much time and thought go into these illustrations to reflect her unique storyline in the game.
We start with creating concepts and sketches, just like the Kobold variations above. After that, if everybody agrees on the sketch, we work on a thumbnail and create a full illustration, including line art, coloring, polishing, and post adjustments.
You can see, she always had her signature pipe and sword at hand from the very beginning. Her posture is strict, but her face relaxed, she looks confident and settled. Her clothes reflect where she comes from: The house Ehrengard – she has noble but comfortable clothing, perfect if she has to fight. Being the last survivor of her high house’s ruling family, this is almost inevitable...
We wanted to portray a strong, slightly tomboyish female heroine with a realistic figure and confident posture together with one of her companions - falcon or war bull - you probably can see what we decided on in the final illustration 😉
Lorelai is on a journey to find her new home, thus her outfit is light, practical, and well-suited for traveling, with leather elements and a light armor plate. Two keys locked over a closed crest on one of her sleeves symbolize her home banner.
Here are some more iterations and the final result:
OUR FRIENDS 🫶
Last but not least, what would this update be without a shoutout for our good friends over at Godshard Chronicles?
Independent developer J-Cat Games Limited is excited to launch their crowdfunding campaign for the story-rich action RPG title Godshard Chronicles.
Inspired by the likes of Lunar: Silver Star Story, the Mana series, and the Zelda series, Godshard Chronicles follows Adanna and Ruby as they progress through the ranks of Mana Knights and chase down Adanna’s long-lost father while discovering the mysteries behind the titular godshard.
Players can adventure in the world solo or bring along a friend in local drop in/out co-op. Composers Noriyuki Iwadare, Michiko Naruke, Kumi Tanioka, and Shauno Isomura are contributing music, while actor John Truitt (Ghaleon in the Lunar series) returns to voice a major role.
Thank you all so much for reading and see you in the next Update! Feel free to drop some suggestions & ideas of what you would love to see covered by us!
Cheers!
🐰Happy Holidays - what we're doing and what's next? 🐰
8 months ago
– Sun, Mar 31, 2024 at 02:15:36 AM
It hasn't even been a week since we launched our Kickstarter Campaign, and we're already over 200% funded, with 700+ amazing backers who believe in us and our project.
I think there's only one word to describe this - 💖overwhelming💖
It's been overwhelming to see how many people love our idea and can't wait for it to be released (us, too!). Having worked on this project for over 3 years and with almost only two months between now and Early Access, we're giddy and excited to share this moment with you all when it comes!
Not only that, but sharing this Kickstarter experience has been a blast, and we still have 24 more days with you.
We have 24 more days of content and plans to share—as well as neat ideas for the community. So stay tuned and make sure to follow our updates here!
We have already met our first stretch goal, and our campaign fund is 51.000+€. Those are incredible sums that will help us make the stretch goals a reality, and it's a huge motivating factor for us to see you so excited and happy, whether in the comments here or in the chats on our Discord Server.
Our next stretch Goal is:
👉Animated Intro & Outro👈
We plan to add a new lore intro sequence right at the start of the game and extend the outro video at the end of the campaign, all animated in our beautiful blend of 2D and 3D mapping animations!
Unlocking this stretch goal will allow us to produce more handcrafted artwork specifically designed for these animations and feature more scenes per sequence:
The intro will guide you into the lore of Songs of Silence - where you can learn about the background of our world.
Our extended outro will explore the protagonists' individual fates more deeply and illustrate the story's outcome more beautifully than we could in-game or with voice-overs.
Finally, we will ensure that the end-game credit roll gets some extra love: it will be illustrated with a great selection of artwork and scored by a special theme from Mr. Hitoshi Sakimoto.
🤔We love talking to you and hearing your feedback!
And here we do! Many of you have asked about possibly of adding the art book as a reward only since the jump from 50€ to 150€ pledge was too much. And we have heard you and so we added the Erudite pledge:
After everything so far (and yeah, it's not even been a week), we're enjoying our holidays (it's the Easter holidays here in Germany:D). We're spending time with friends and family, and we're resting to come back even stronger. Preparations are already done to host some fun events during our Kickstarter!
Meanwhile, the team works hard to polish the game, sometimes lurking on Discord to see what feedback we get.
With our updated Demo version, we're out to hunt the last bugs and are happy that the reception has been 100% positive so far - improved UI and VFX make it possible ✨
We love seeing you have fun with what we created, and maybe you will get to play some over the holidays. We hope all of you had some opportunity to rest and enjoy, and we wish you all the best!
Happy Holidays from the whole Chimera Team!
🎯We hit our initial finding target! 🎯Now, on to stretch goals, and beyond...🚀🚀🚀
8 months ago
– Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 03:11:25 AM
We're thrilled to announce that together, we've reached our initial funding goal! Your incredible support for Songs of Silence means everything to us and to know that you're on this journey with us is amazing. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!
We're also closing in on the end of the first 24 hours, meaning that there's just six hours left to take advantage of our Early Bird pledges! Make sure you secure your discounted editions before time runs out
But wait, there's more! We're not stopping here. With your continued enthusiasm and support, we have our sights set on reaching even greater heights through our stretch goals, the first one we are revealing today!
🌟 First Stretch Goals Unlocked: 🌟
✨ Stretch Goal One: €40,000. New Skirmish Heroes! New generals to play with in our PvPvE modes, with their own unique Cards of Fate and playstyles.
✨ Stretch Goal Two: €60,000. Animated intro & epilogue! Fully animated story cinematics to explain the events leading up to our story, and the consequences of your actions!
✨ Stretch Goal Three: €75,000. Two new difficulties! This goal unlocks Story mode for a less challenging, narrative experience, and Warmaster mode for those who want a more punishing challenge.
We'll be revealing more of these goals as we hit our targets over the next few days and weeks, so keep an eye on the page and these updates to stay informed.
These milestones aren't just about reaching numbers; they represent new features, enhancements, and opportunities to make our game even better. And with your help, we know we can achieve them all.
Here's how you can help to keep the momentum going:
✅Spread the Word: Share our campaign with your friends, family, and social networks. Every additional backer brings us closer to unlocking the next stretch goal.
✅Upgrade Your Pledge: If you've been considering it, now's the perfect time to upgrade your pledge level. Not only will you get more rewards, but you'll also help us inch closer to those stretch goals.
✅Engage With Us: We love hearing from you! Share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback in the comments. Your input fuels our passion and creativity.
✅Stay Tuned: We'll be updating you regularly on our progress and all of our exciting developments. Keep an eye on your inbox and our Kickstarter page for the latest news.
Thank you once again for your support. We can't wait to share the rest of our plans with you!
