Unlike huge AAA game companies that can pre-create hundreds of thousands of game boxes and ship them to major distributors worldwide, this is a more humble effort. So what’s next? It’ll still be some time until we can deliver the physical edition.
#Phoenotopia awakening library puzzle Patch#
The actual physical patch will be made of yarn… or something.) Anna’s probably tired of drawing Gail by now.Ĭheck out the twitters of Niitsu Kentaro and Nenohi Yu for more awesome artwork! It kept our current artists from being overloaded. But I think it’ll work really well for us. Using fan art for physical collectors’ editions might be a little unorthodox. So we reached out again, and Nenohi was also all on board :D The challenge we decided for our game’s card was fishing related, and Nenohi happened to recently create a really serene art of Gail fishing that was perfectly suited to the challenge card. Do the challenge printed on the back of the card and earn an actual physical achievement patch (while supplies last). Challenge Cards are Premium Edition’s version of game achievements, except they’re physical. So we tried it and Niitsu was all on board :DĪfter that success, another situation arose where we needed art for the challenge card. But Anna said she didn’t think she could make a cuter Gail than Niitsu’s, and suggested we commission him directly with the art budget afforded us by the publisher. I originally asked Anna to create a cute chibi Gail for the keychain. If you think these two look familiar, this is because they are in fact fanart from Niitsu Kentaro and Nenohi Yu!
Between the box art and the CD’s, Anna, Clement, and Thuy have worked on some part of this. This hidden art in the game proved suitable. 2 CD’s did prove a challenge, so we thought about something that had a “dual” theme. We already had album art created for the OST’s digital releases, so we didn’t need to create new art here. Will scored enough music for the game to easily fill 2 CD’s! Interestingly, I think we were able to help our publisher a little since we found another CD producer that could beat their current producer’s cost. And the slipcover is like a VHS style box that the game will slide into (Premium Edition is all about nostalgic-laden things). The new action scene art will drape the physical edition’s slipcover. The guys at Premium Edition wanted one of the arts to feature a cool action scene, so we got Thuy to return and create this new wicked action scene art, with Anna handling the background. (for some reason, tumblr forces a filter on the above image…)
We tried that with Gail, but something about a really somber Gail didn’t fit her character, so we ended up putting our own spin on it. Something about Link walking toward the screen with a somber expression and castle in the distance really speaks to an epic adventure. We took inspiration from classic Zelda 2 art. The “Retro” Box edition is styled like a classic game box, the SNES in our case. Here’s a preview of some of them:Īnna, the lead artist, made this new art that’s slated to go on the “Retro Box”. We thought about which art should go where, which physical collectibles to include in the collector’s edition, and so forth. Since this is our first chance to have a physically printed game, we got really excited and hands-on with the project. Premium Edition Games gave us the freedom to be as involved or uninvolved as we like. They’re discovering and meeting physical publishing challenges, often for their first time as well. Their primary experience has been books, so games are a relatively new venture for them. Premium Edition Games is a publisher and indie like us. So we got to talking and set about making it a reality. They cared more about whether the game was enjoyable and fun to play. The third time’s the charm, however, when Premium Edition Games entered the scene, and they told us that sales numbers weren’t a concern for them. We would later be rejected a 2nd time by yet another publisher. We were first approached by one of the bigger physical edition publishers but they walked after they heard our sales numbers.
It turns out the indie publishing scene has made some strides alongside the indie development scene, and so long as you stick with printing a humble amount that you’re sure you can sell, you can make a little profit! Indie games can get published too! (This is probably old hat for most, but it’s new hat for us) This comes as a little victory for us since we didn’t think Phoenotopia stood a chance with its so-so sales performance. ( All these goodies are planned to be included in the “ Retro” version of the physical edition) Our next major news… Phoenotopia is getting a physical edition on Switch! Major thanks to Flyhigh Works and the Esquadra team for handling the port! So if that’s your preferred platform, you can find the game’s Xbox game page here. I forgot to make an announcement for this, but the game is out on Xbox! Since August in fact.
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