Hi all! KT here - Director and Writer of Starbright Agency to give you some much-needed updates!

We've gone a bit radio silent since our last update on our romantic narrative adventure. But I want to assure everyone we've been working hard and can finally announce that a new demo is on the way!

To provide a bit on how we got here: I started Starbright Agency as a simple Otome Jam project. It featured three love interests (Storm, The Prince, Orion) and a linear plot with about two hours of gameplay. I brought on one other artist (Juni) to help me with the character sprites. 

The very first demo of Starbright Agency with placeholder assets.

​And the same scene, but in our last demo! We switched engines between these two demos; the first used Naninovel in Unity.  

​Over the last two years, with feedback from our amazing playtesters and community, the game has blossomed into a larger narrative adventure with more characters, features, and complexity.  We've also expanded our team, launched a studio, and designed a production pipeline to support the development of this title. 

While this was an amazing transformation for our project, it did take us some time to align on how we want to tell this story, build a sustainable process for our team (many of whom are part-time), and scope the idea appropriately so we can actually finish the dang thing.  As a seasoned developer, I always want to err on the side of a manageable, consistent production process rather than something sporadic and hard to update folks on.  Now that we've reached that point (and are close to this new release), we should have more updates to share regularly. 

As for the new demo, it's difficult to describe. 😅 ​While narratively & aesthetically similar to the original, it is a complete reimagining of the gameplay loop, with lots more choice complexity and interactivity. 

In the old demo of Starbright, choices didn't matter beyond a simple branching structure and a bottleneck. Now they matter...and they matter a lot. Scenes have different outcomes based on your decisions; characters build affection; and your hero's performance is judged on your ability to remember basic fire protocol. (Yes, I heard your feedback here loud and clear...) 

An example of the new, very difficult choices you can expect from Starbright Agency.

To put this into perspective, the current version of Starbright Agency has 1,162 Lines, approximately 12,000 words, and 7 choices in total.Our new demo has reworked this entire gameplay sequence, with 1,592 lines, 17,000 words, and 22 choices! This does not include the four new scenes we are adding, which will give you more one-on-one time with Ollie, introduce you to Wishbright's civilian self, and give you some time to explore the city of Neo Seattle. 

And man, I haven't even talked about the phone yet -- perhaps the biggest change to the whole game. While you are saving the day, you'll also be managing your online persona—a vital component of success in the connected city of Neo Seattle. You'll need to keep your status updated, reply to DMs from the city, and monitor your ranking if you want a shot at Number One. We'll discuss this further in a future blog post. 

A sneak peek screenshot of Astro - Neo Seattle's message board! You'll be able to post status updates and maintain your own profile while tracking the goings-on in the city.

​ We've also added a bunch of new art, including some amazing intro CGs for our characters. Check out this one of Orion receiving some adoration from his devoted fan base. 

Orion's fans worshiping the ground he walks on (rightly so, King)

Oh! We also added a new character! You will get to meet her in this demo...sort of.  Let's just say if you want to get on Ctrine's good side, you need to really engage with that phone stuff I mentioned above!

Okay, so the big question: When will it come out?

Previously, we announced that this new demo would include the entire Common Route. Given the work we've put into reworking this demo, we've decided to split the Common Release demo into two chapters to deliver it sooner.  Once we release this demo, you should see the second half proceed at a much faster pace (As I write this, I've completed most of the writing for the CR, and art production has already begun.) 

We are currently on track to have an internal demo available to our alpha playtests by the end of February. From there, we will open builds to our Discord Community for further testing. If all that goes well, you should hope to see the newest Starbright Agency Demo in the spring. In preparation for the new demo, we will remove the current demo from Steam within the next few weeks, so get those last playthroughs in now!
If you want to get first access to this new release, please join our Discord community[discord.com] or follow our BlueSky[bsky.app] for more frequent updates. ​

​We can't wait to share more with you as we enter this new and exciting stage for Starbright. Until then, stay sparkling! ✨

-KT

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