Hello, everyone! Today I wanted to share some of the things we’ve been working on for the planned Kickstarter for Lucid9. Due to the nature of the project, it’s been a little tricky creating a campaign, but I expect it to go live some time before the end of this year. 

While the funding we'll receive from the Kickstarter will go towards developing the remainder of the game, one of the things we had to consider was determining which assets would need to be reused from Inciting Incident—such as music tracks, backgrounds, etc. I had to contact some of the former FSS members to confirm how they felt about payment if we were to use their work again. 

The other matter we had to resolve involved the voice acting for Inciting Incident. The two options we had were: 

1) include voice acting for Inciting Incident as a part of the funding goal.
2) list it as a stretch goal. 

If we were to do the latter, there’s a possibility we won’t reach the stretch goal, meaning voice acting would have to be dropped entirely even if the game were to be fully funded. Considering that a lot of work has already been done, we decided to forgo that option and go with the first. As for the voice acting for the “routes”, since they’re still in development, it’s safe to list it as a stretch goal. 

Jacob, our casting director, is currently sorting out an estimate for the voice acting for Inciting Incident. As for the Fallen Snow Studios team, I already have an amount in mind that we’ll likely aim for, but it might change depending on how much the voice acting will be. 

Below is a tentative list of the rewards and stretch goals we have in mind. If you have a suggestion for a reward you’d like to receive from the campaign, feel free to let us know and we’ll consider adding it! 

POTENTIAL BACKER REWARDS

Tier 1 

• Backerkit Access

Tier 2 - Sticker & Keychain Collection

• Backerkit Access
• Name in credits
• Digital sticker set
• Keychains

Tier 3 - Digital Wallpaper 

• Backerkit Access
• Name in credits
• Digital sticker set
• Keychains
• Digital wallpaper (PC/Phone)

Tier 4 - Digital Artbook

• Backerkit Access
• Name in credits
• Digital sticker set
• Keychains
• Digital wallpaper (PC/Phone)
• Digital artbook

Tier 5 - Art Prints

• Backerkit Access
• Name in credits
• Digital sticker set
• Keychains
• Digital wallpaper (PC/Phone)
• Digital artbook
• Print of Lucid9 character signed by their voice actor

Tier 6 - Exclusive

• Backerkit Access
• Name in credits
• Digital sticker set
• Keychains
• Digital wallpaper (PC/Phone)
• Digital artbook
• Print of Lucid9 character signed by their voice actor
• Become a beta tester / early access to game prior to release
• Access to old developmental boards and scripts after release
• Digital thank you letter from the development team

STRETCH GOALS

• Fully Voiced (heroine routes + true route)
• Additional Art & Music
• Opening Theme
• Animated Cutscenes

We'll be sure to keep you updated about the campaign. Once it's live we should have an estimate for the release date of the game along with a cost breakdown of how funding will be used. If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to contact us either here, Discord, or our contact form. Thanks!

- David Acosta
(Creative Director)

After much discussion, we are currently planning a Kickstarter campaign for Lucid9. Due to several reasons—the main one being the amount of time the game has been in development—we’ve determined that this is the best approach to ensure that the remainder of Lucid9 is released in a reasonable timeframe and is something everyone can be satisfied with. Today I'll explain how this will affect the project, and answer any questions some of you may have. 

What is a Kickstarter?
For those who may be unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it is a platform used to fund creative projects. Every project creator sets their project's funding goal and deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers' credit cards are charged when time expires. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. If the project falls short of its funding goal, no one is charged.

However, unlike most traditional Kickstarters, development for Lucid9 would continue even if we fall short of our funding goal, albeit at a much slower rate. Our campaign will mostly be a way for us to formally accept support from our readers in order to increase production values and create a higher quality game. 

Why are we now considering a Kickstarter?
Since the creation of the studio in 2014, Lucid9 has been in development for about 7 long years. While we have made notable releases—with Inciting Incident in 2016, the heroine prologues in 2019, and the partial voice acting patch earlier this year—the pace of development has been extremely inconsistent due to the nature of it being a free project. COVID-19 has made this even more apparent, and many of us found ourselves with even less time and resources than usual. 

A Kickstarter would allow us to not only complete the game in a more reasonable timeframe, but would open many opportunities to further polish and add additional features to the game depending on how much support we receive. 

With an unfunded release, we are fairly limited in the type of content we would be able to create. A fully funded project would not only cover the cost of character sprites, backgrounds, CGs, music, programming, voice acting, and writing, but would include additional art, animated cutscenes, and even an opening theme. 

Will the entire game still be free to play?
Yes! It is still our goal to introduce people to the visual novel medium, and we feel the best way to accomplish this is to make Lucid9 accessible to everyone.  

Any funding we receive will only come from the Kickstarter campaign. Those who choose to back Lucid9 will not only be assisting us in creation, but will receive exclusive rewards such as signed art prints, a digital artbook, early access to the game, and much more. A full list of rewards will be given once the Kickstarter is live.  

When will the Kickstarter campaign go live?
We’re currently aiming for a funding goal that is both practical to achieve and one that fairly compensates everyone for their work. There are still many members that need to be contacted and forms that need to be signed, meaning it will take us some time to sort everything out before officially beginning the campaign. We will keep everyone updated about our progress and make an announcement a few weeks prior to when it is live.

In what ways can I support you?
We’re extremely thankful that everyone who has followed Lucid9 over the years has been so patient and understanding. We hope that you will continue supporting us, either by backing the project on Kickstarter once it’s live or even sharing it with people that you know. Every little bit really does go a long way. 

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment under this post, message us directly on Discord, or send us an email via our contact form. 

As always, thank you.

~ David Acosta 
(Creative Director)

Back in August of last year, we posted a very detailed update for the Lucid9 heroine routes. Truth be told, we've run into a few hiccups since then. COVID-19 has certainly been a factor in stunting progress (some of us being more affected than others) but the length of development has also played a role. I believe the last time we've recruited new members was two years ago, and while a lot has been done in that time frame (please do read the previously mentioned blog post), 2020 has done a number on us for multiple reasons. 

Even so, our biggest troubles are long behind us.

While the general outline of Lucid9 had already been decided on a few months after Fallen Snow Studios was formed—that is to say, we knew how we wanted the story to end—development for the heroine routes didn't truly begin until after the release of Inciting Incident, which is during the period where everyone had their own ideas of where to take direction. There were countless late-night meetings, copious yelling, and numerous compromises which went on for about two and a half years until we finally arrived at something we were satisfied with. Some of the writers that were involved in the process have since left the team, but their ideas are still present in the routes. If you were to ask me who had come up with a certain concept, I honestly wouldn't remember.  

That dark era is now over. What we're left with are heroine routes that have enough structure to cohesively tie in with the overall plot, but has enough flexibility to give the writers the freedom to develop their characters how they see fit. So even if we were to change writers at this point of development, it wouldn't be an issue in the slightest, especially given how much material has already been written. 

The writer for Airi's route has given me a time frame of when he expects to be finished, so expect an announcement about that soonish. Misaki's writer has been consistent with progress since the last update as well, and we're currently resolving some matters with the ones in charge of Elizabeth and Akira. On a similar note, work is being done for the very mysterious True Route that we've mentioned a few times before. While I can't go into specifics about the content (yet), the outline for the route has already been drafted, and writing should commence some time by the end of this month. It's expected to be shorter in length in comparison to the heroine routes. 

We still plan to release Airi and Elizabeth's routes first, Misaki and Akira's second, and True Route, of course, last. 

As always, thank you all for being so patient. Even if Lucid9 is a free project, we'd still like to complete it before the next global crisis hits. 

~ David "CardioPen" Acosta

The partial voice acting patch for Inciting Incident is finally here! There are a few things I'd like to explain about this release and what to expect. 

• As mentioned before, only days 1-3 are voiced, ending with Airi Hiraga's introduction in District 6. The entirety of Inciting Incident will be fully voiced in the next release, which is slated to be out  some time this year. 
• Given that this release is partially voiced, it will not be pushed to Steam or itch.io. Instead, the build will be downloadable via our Google Drive. It's recommended that you have at least 1GB of free space for the zip file. Both Windows and Mac versions are available. Links are further down below.
• There is an option to adjust the volume for the voices in the settings menu (as seen in the screenshot) We will implement more features such as a playback option in the next release.   

If you have issues downloading the zip or have any other questions, please feel free to write us here or on our Discord server. Thank you all for your patience, and we hope you look forward to what we have in store next. 

​- David A. "CardioPen"  ​