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[Show Intro] Jala Hey, thanks for coming! I'm glad you're here. Come on in! Everyone's out on the patio right now. Looks like a couple of people are in the garden. I can't wait to introduce you! Can I get you anything? [turned away] Hey folks, our new guest is here! [Intro music] 00:00.43 Jala Hello world and welcome to Jala-chan's Place. I'm your host Jala Prendes (she/her) and today I'm joined by Elmon Dean Todd (he/him) author of the Godshard novels and head of jcat games. I mentioned it on Duckfeed TV's The Level podcast episode 493 a couple of weeks ago as of the release date for this but today we are talking all things Godshard and especially about the Godshard Chronicles video game that is currently on Kickstarter but the campaign ends in just a few days as of the date. This drops so definitely go look at that link right away and then listen to the rest of the episode and then go back to the link and then pledge more so there. So. 00:46.72 Elmon Great I don't know how to follow up with that nice intro there. But hopefully we can keep the you know momentum going so no doing well um, yes, so the Kickstarter would probably be after a few days after this drop so it ends April second um anyway. Without further ado I'll let you start with the questioning after introductions I suppose. Yes. 01:09.74 Jala Woo the interrogation. Yes, before we get to the interrogation I want to give it a shout out to our newest patron on Ko-fi, Desiree! Thank you so much for supporting and you too can be like Desiree and get bonus shows and reviews and other goodies by checking out our Ko-fi, ko-fi.com/fireartmedia now we can get to the interrogation. So let us kick it off by just kind of giving a little bit of brief brief. Ah what what is this thing that we're talking about today. So ah Godshard Chronicles with which is which is the primary focus of this episode. 01:45.54 Jala Is a top down action rpg based on the Godsard novels that Elmon wrote featuring local drop in/drop out co-op which is very cool I'm a fan of that and ah the release date is pending right now as as I mentioned it's on Kickstarter. so yeah so Elmon 02:03.13 Elmon So you yes, no, that was I don't think I can I should probably have you rewrite my? um, my blurbs actually because um I can't do that any better. So I know that was. 02:04.67 Jala What do you did I miss anything in that that basic basic intro. 02:19.41 Jala Ah, well I've got a decade I've I've got a decade of trying to write. Ah you know summaries in my head of different video games to discuss on the level. So um, you know there's there's that it's very specialized knowledge. 02:20.47 Elmon Splendid. 02:33.67 Elmon Ah, you know for some reason that is the hardest thing for me to write is a summary or a blurb on anything I do um I can do everything else and you know decent time but I spend the ah longest Struggling. So Ah. Like the steam page or the Kickstarter page the summary of the game that was what took the longest for me to write out of anything on there all all the content. So just. 02:57.50 Jala Oh yeah, and that's I have a similar problem because I started life before I began painting and doing all the other things I did like podcasting and whatever I was writing and um, that's one of the things that's on my coffee I have an audio bonus episode where I share my writing in audio format. But in either way, um I started life as a writer. So ah in a lot of ways unless I write notes and I have everything coalesced and distilled down and I've had conversations and stuff I cannot summarize stuff if you ask me a question. It'll be like the longest. You know, Okay, now let me start here. Throw everything on the floor look at it and then I can start you know, merging everything together to come up with a cohesive thought. But um, yeah, it's just because you have like so many different gears going in your head at the same time I think maybe. 03:41.34 Elmon Um, well I can relate so. 03:49.60 Elmon Yeah I think it's well um, other authors I spoken with they have the same problem um making glorbs for themselves. Um, so it's It's probably a common thing really? um I think you the and the summarize everything that you've come up with into like ah a paragraph that's. 03:49.77 Jala Maybe I'm projecting too much. Okay. 04:07.50 Elmon Log lines are just um, they're just horrible to do for for yourself if you can do it for yourself. Great Um, but that's a rare ability at least from what I've seen. 04:16.69 Jala So that makes the first question on my list. The worst question on my list because I'm asking you to summarize the story of god chard Chronicles the video game. So ah. 04:28.10 Elmon Okay, all right, let's do it I'll try I'll try my best um I apologize if it's a disappointment but um, anyway, the story Godshard is the um, it's basically a coales um essence a stone. Of a dead god and they contain loads of power. So what happens is the aspiring Knight a Donna which is the protagonist and ruby who she's working with take on their first mission and during this first mission they discover a Godshard. Um, in a cave and then um, basically the story unravels from there. They they try to take this Godshard to deliver it to um the the safety of the knighthood and then of course things take a turn for the worst or um, the the the quest begins. Ah, hero's journey if if if you would call it. So um, that's basically the Godshard it's loose. The lore is based on the books but the books story has nothing to do with this story. It's completely different protagonists completely different characters. Um, actually I take that back. Not all characters are different. There might be. Since elves live a long time. You might see a character like that's an elf that would appear in the novels but the timelines are completely different Timeline. So but. 05:49.25 Jala Okay, that was going to be my next question because I've picked up the Kindle version of the books and I meant to read at least a little bit of them before we were recording. But then we had a surprise suddenly recording. So. I will be reading those later and I was wondering. Um, what the the crossover Dna was there so um. 06:10.38 Elmon Just the same world. That's it. Um, it's I mean well not not. That's it. But it's the same world same gods same lore, but like I said different protagonists different main supporting characters and all that. 06:20.67 Jala Got you? So you mentioned that the Godshards are pieces of a dead god 1 dead god or lots of dead gods. 06:30.34 Elmon Ah there's several so um, in the story hundreds and hundreds of years ago the gods pretty much warred amongst themselves most died those who didn't pretty much left the realm. So the ones that died basically are scattered. Their farms are scattered as Godshards across the land. So what happens is certain kingdoms and such try to gather these Godshards to use as a ah powerful tool or to make to make themselves more powerful and to um so there's ah. 07:07.63 Elmon Kingdoms Kings Empires they fight over this. 07:12.71 Jala The whole archeology thing just reminds me a lot of lunar two because they're digging around in lunar to ah to get goodies like little bits and I know that's not that's not necessarily what are dragon. You know, pulling out. But um, yeah, like a powerful archeologists Indiana Jones Neat 07:30.72 Elmon The Mennonites are actually the ones that try to protect these Godshards from falling in the the wrong hands. So that's that's why when they find it they try to deliver it. But it's funny. You mentioned archeologist because we do have an archeologist named argent. He's played by John Truitt um 07:47.36 Elmon So who was in lunar and lunar 2 at least a mega drive Sega Cd version and the playstation versions. Um, so ah, yeah, he is. We do have an archeologist and he will play that and um, he's actually trying to study these or so he says so. We'll leave it as that. 08:07.67 Jala Yay! The return of John Truitt is very exciting to me. 08:12.32 Elmon And I do have a nice little story on that bit later. So um, ah once we get to that? Um, but yeah I'm I am ah equally excited for forum because ah during the 90 s he was one of my favorite voice actors. 08:24.10 Jala Absolutely. Ah so so ah for folks who do not know what John Truitt sounds like go listen to anything that says galleon on from any of the original like lunar games on the sega mega cd or the um playstation versions of that. And ah, you are in for a treat. It is ham with a side of cheese. But so good because he owns it so hard I absolutely adore it absolutely adore it because it's it's like it steals the show every time I I hear it so um, for sure. 09:01.38 Jala So ah, this game though is part of this cross media I p thing you mentioned somewhere in the Kickstarter and elsewhere on your website about your having a comic that is made is the comic related to the game or is the comic Also a separate thing. 09:16.79 Elmon Ah, the comics actually related to the game. Um, it's it's it's starring a Donna and Ruby ah, the I'm the writer but the manga artists is um, it's Hioshi Kaatanni he's a kaju manga artist from Japan and he does Godzilla and he does what he does ultraman sketches. He's um, he does quite a few other things too. So um, I'm sorry on my mind's drawing a blank I'm actually. 09:41.40 Jala Oh my. 09:46.48 Elmon Ah, the fun. Oddly enough. Um I'm not like a kaeju type of person. So his fans are like always asking me if I'm at a comic con with him ah asking me questions about it and I'll just tell him sorry I don't know. 09:58.63 Jala Oh my goodness I will say that you are going to make fans of our sister show monster dear monster which is also on fireart media. Ah so happy because ah monster dear monster is a podcast that covers monsters from their pop. Or their ah folkloric origins to their pop culture incarnations and so ah Kaiju definitely figure prominently in there as a thing that the fellas all return to rather regularly. So um. Yeah, that will make folks on across the network. Very happy to hear. 10:31.85 Elmon Well, he does sneak a couple in into the comic by the way. Um, so if you are fans of it if there are fans. Um you're in for a treat because um and when he does the monsters section. Ah when he does create a monster for the comic. It's ah. You can see the ah the influence too. So that's that's definitely one of the things he shines with. We do have. Ah um, it's coming to the United States or North America actually um antarctic press will be the publisher for North America we're in talks with the publisher in Japan. 11:06.81 Elmon So that's going to be to be announced but we'll have we should have a we do already have it in Japanese we should have a japanese version and manga format. But like I said I I can't announce anything yet on that. 11:20.83 Jala Yeah, yeah, yeah, understandably so ah, we will have to work out a way to um, we'll probably have to buy and ship over to Cameron who is one of the hosts on monster deer monster who is over in Australia will have to the ship some over to him. Ah we will. We will make that happen. But um, and neither case so you have those books. Um, there's even an audiobook version of I believe the last book that you ah written wrote for all of them really boom. 11:48.74 Elmon Um, for the novels I have audiobooks of all of them all of them. Actually yeah yeah, it's so yeah and um, once done by. He's a welsh narrator. Um. Ah, believe his name is Ronnie ruins and um Graham Mac is the one who did I did a children's book as well. Um, it's kind of like ah um, a police constable in the isle of man pretty much arresting mythical creatures that one's done by Graham Mac the narration so ah yeah that one's like so ages 6 or 7 or up and a completely different style to compared to the novels in the novels for the record they're more of a high fantasy. Ah they're they're completely different style to the game because obviously with a video game um, versus comics versus novels you got to do its the style is going to be a bit different. Um, the way you write it and then everything because like a game is like a play right in a way you you set your characters like on a stage and you have a script you know, just dialogue mainly and you have direction where they go oh versus like. ah novel you have a lot of um I mean you have a lot of ah narration it's ah it's it's a lot more details so it it takes a while to get going and obviously the comic the art tells a lot of the story. So um. 13:16.11 Elmon All 3 completely different mediums. Um, and and quite honestly it's a um if I if I have a preference I think I like the game in the comics. The best yeah novels taken exceptionally long time to write. 13:27.13 Jala Um, yeah, oh for sure because you're always going back and tweaking stuff and and whatnot at least I can relate to that idea for sure. So um. What made you want to make a video game in the first place I mean obviously you've been playing them since a long time ago. 13:49.18 Elmon Um, well when I was a child. Ah let's see there was a couple of things I've always wanted to be 1 of them was ah when I was 10 I wanted to be ah, a writer a novelist and I've also wanted to be a police officer and then I also wanted to make a video game and. I actually became a police officer for 10 years and I've also and during that time I've written a novel and a couple novels. So I've done I ticked off the box on those 2 things and um, this is the next thing to tick the but a pilot's another one but um, that's for later I don't want to? um. I figured a crash up. Whatever would preemptibly end my life before I could finish all the rest. So just in case I'm a bad pilot I can let me do the other things first. 14:35.99 Jala Makes sense to me. So wow that is very cool so you are definitely living the dream I I don't remember if I said that when we were recording or in the green room but I told you you were living the dream I was not lying I was so accurate before I even knew I was accurate. So there. But some so the first book of Godshard released in 2019 but when did you begin working on Godshard as like a thing. 15:04.78 Elmon Ah, 2021 I I believe um, trying to recall back exactly what my mindset was at the time I think um, when I was doing conventions. So people would come up. They would see the art and they would say oh that's a cool game. Um, what's it for and I had so many people do this and then once I said it's a book they would say oh and there would be a look of disappointment on their face and they would walk away and um. After a while I thought well if I had a game perhaps they would they would stay or engage longer or want to check out the story. So um I started looking into. Um. What I needed for a game I started researching and I also wrote for um rp gamer at the time AnHG one zero one hardcore gaming one. Oh one dot net believe is a website but rp gamer um I started reviewing games as well and that kind of gave me more of the idea. Um. Even even before then I like like I said when I was a kid I wanted to when I was grown up but I just never assembled the team ah never had the ah funds for it. But um, you know being ah, being grown up working law enforcement in 10 years investing and all that. 16:23.44 Elmon I Managed to get enough funds to start this all on my um, you know start this myself. So I got a programmer and a pixel artists and then I started and ah yeah, basically what gotard Chronicles was but it was It was a much different looking game back then. 16:37.66 Jala Yeah, you've released some different art from just like the beginning and then like interstitial period and then like what it looks like now and one of the things I was going to ask you about a little bit later but we'll go ahead and say it now because it's pertinent um is like our is the pixel art changing more. Or are we in like the final or fairly final iteration of what it's going to look like at this point. 16:59.57 Elmon Okay, so back in 2021 my vision was like it is now this is actually what it is now is better than my vision. So I wanted something that was kind of like um. 17:15.82 Elmon Trials a manna which is sa then set to 3 in Japan or legend a manna that type of of 16 32 bit pixel art um type of rpg and back then that's that was the division I had but um. 17:32.40 Elmon I hired a programmer and a pixel artist and the pixel I would get back would be completely different than what I was envisioning so but I didn't really have much to go on so I just ran with that and tried to make a game and also um, ah the scope of the game was going to be much shorter. Um, it was going to be much simpler in nature until um I enlisted ah nordiuki you wordda a as a composer who is introduced to me to through my other composer um shano isouda and. Then that was when I decided. Okay, well the story needed to be a bit more. Um, ah it it needed to be a bit more so deeper ah more engaging because with that type of soundtrack behind you. Um I no longer wanted to do just as simple. It was going to be like just a simple dungeon crawler at first. but um but as far as the art goes. Um I ended up getting another pixel artist. Ah because um, the first the first style. I mean it works for an 8 bit. Maybe some 16 bit but it wasn't what I had in mind. Um, so I wanted something a bit more they call like there's 2 types of ah pixel art styles for this There's a noisy pixel art which is the more details. That's what exactly what I wanted. 18:55.54 Elmon Oh I ended up getting another pixel artist. It turned out great but I wasn't getting the assets in time and then um I eventually got fear bit and um, another um pixel artist called Thomas Thomas is the one that created a lot of these assets ah like the dragon and such. Um. And ah basically ah, he created them for another game but he never got paid for the assets so he actually ah according to him. He got scammed out of it and then took his assets back and held on to him for a long time waiting for the right person so we ended up connecting. And um, and I told him I said hey I got this like ah this action. Rpg um, and his assets are more like secret amanus style. Um, so it was ah it was a good fit. So um, and he says yeah they were influenced from this mana series. Um heavily influenced. So. Um I got the asset I bought the assets from him bought the rights and everything and in fearbit. Um, he's done a lot of work in the industry you can look him up. Um it ah starts with the v as in victor, it means I believe it means 4 bit in german but anyway ah he. He has an amazing style and soon as I um I got ahold of him and he said he would be willing to work on my game and he was pumping out these the assets really quickly and they were so much different in style to the other to the previous the the my I guess the I would call the middle the one that's. 20:26.23 Elmon You saw and I guess about ah 2022 ah the upgraded one. They were so different in style so I can no longer just put them side-by-side I mean just the shading. Ah the colors everything it was just just different styles. So. 20:34.95 Jala Right. 20:41.52 Elmon I eventually had to make a choice to axe that previous style even though I I loved it. I really loved the style I just had to ax it because it was um, it just no longer fit with verbit style now verbitz we're using that for everything he's going to do the rest of the game so that style's here to stay um, thomass. We're using his um. Npc's enemies and all that. Ah, that's here to stay. Ah, the only thing that we're going to add is just new stuff of a Donna Ruby and like um, what? Ah we we got a couple of like design your npc characters from the Kickstarter. We're going to add those in but a lot of pixel arts. Ah I would say we're so. So almost 70% done with the pixel art. So um, we're we're pretty good to go. 21:22.95 Jala Awesome! Awesome! Yeah, um, something that was mentioned by Dennis Furia when I was talking to him about when he was working on his card game deck of wonders on a prior episode of the show. Ah, we were talking about it and he was trying to find the right artist for his deck of wonders card game and he just lucked into it where he was walking around a convention with his you know, basically trial version. You know with no art on it kind of type of the game and just. Talking to people and hitting him up and in in you know, shilling it right? Um, and then he just happened to walk by the table of an artist whose style was exactly what he was looking for and so. Ah, he was able to do that. But for something like pixel art. You don't usually have it quite so easily like you have to kind of wade through There's so many pixel artists I find out on the internet. Um, and that is hard to find someone who matches your vision right? so. 22:18.25 Elmon Oh yeah, and you know I tried to find like verbit is like 1 out of like I mean he's a lot of people will say he's my favorite or he's one of the best and he's one of the few that does like he does tile sets. That's that's the environments that create your like you know your. Your overworld your caves and such like that and I remember trying to find like um, somebody like him and I asked. Um there's a publisher I've I've talked to I'm a friends with them. One of the guys and he he I said hey do you know anybody else that can match his style so he named 2 other people Thomas who. Who's already I have his assets already for the game so he's out of the question and um, he mentioned another guy named Hank ah, which is he's from um, the Netherlands and um, Hank's already ah he's exclusive to another ah video game company. so so there 23:13.74 Elmon And he says I don't know of anybody else and I know a lot of pixel artists. But I don't think anybody maybe they're out there. They're just not advertised or but they're they're they're probably with a big company and they're getting paid ah a good salary and there's no way they're going to leave that company. So um, it's It's really difficult to get a good pixel artist for this I think um. 23:33.64 Elmon It's It's well at least for my style I mean there's different styles out there. Everybody has their own style just the style I envisioned that ah these guys are just perfect for it for for for me. So. 23:43.80 Jala Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! So speaking about styles in general So Godshard Chronicles you've mentioned different influences being stuff like the legend of Zelda lunar secret of Mana Grandndia. So Ah. What did you pull from all of these.. How did you combine all of these into the game that you're working on. 24:08.29 Elmon Well secret amount. Ah I like the co-op um, portion of it. So that's that's the main thing I pulled because probably the funnest time I've had playing an rpg with the friends would be the co-op from secret to mana even though. I personally I like secret amount of back then but if you played it single player and you played through a story I mean it? Um, and there might be some people that argue with me on this but I didn't really find a story all that intriguing and I mean the character development wasn't. You know it. It doesn't compare to final fantasy 6 or you know the lunar series. So but um, the graphics on trials of Mano was really good on the super famicon super nintendo era and um so I like that art style. Um, but the co-op was the main thing. Um, lunar and Grandia they had a nice narrative style that was kind of like a feel-good story too and the characters really interacted like ah you know a bunch of really good friends they were they were quite funny, humorous and. 25:15.78 Elmon I Feel like that a lot of that's missing in a lot of modern day rpgs I mean I'm sure it's out there. Maybe I haven't played them but I feel like there's been a gap since grandi and lunar really haven't released Brand new games in such a long time and as for combat um I just wanted something simple. You can pick up and play like. 25:35.40 Elmon Zelda was a good example I mean east the e series would be east Eight Nine that would be a good ah a good another good of reference. But I put zelda because everybody knows legend is zelda not everybody knows east so. 25:48.37 Jala Yeah, yeah, absolutely so the something that I was thinking about with lunar because I am doing episodes on lunar 1 and 2 ah, both the sega cd mega Cd version and the playstation remakes. Ah, later on in this year something I was thinking about when I was analyzing this game was that I haven't really seen I can't really think of another rpg where if you're walking around town and you're talking to npcs. The other characters in your party also will pipe in and talk to whoever and and put in their two cents worth and you know like they get character development outside of cutscenes and stuff they will interject and they will put their personality out there and there will be like a whole thing that happens because these characters are being themselves vibrantly. 26:28.20 Elmon Right? right. 26:39.26 Jala And you know like that's a thing that I really love about that game those games and so um, that's actually something that I was thinking about just in in terms of the characterization and why do I like the characters of lunar. Why do I feel so close to them and part of it is because. The writers on those games definitely were integrating those characters and their personalities as much as they could so. 27:06.57 Elmon Right? Exactly And um, the thing is is beside Beyond the main story. The the players have the option of exploring this extra character Dialogue. It wasn't forced. Um, but. There was a lot of humorous moments. A lot of touching moments that you could explore on your own time and um, that's that's a really nice option for the player. Um, rather than forcing them to sit through the dialogue if they want to or not you know and. 27:34.15 Jala Right. 27:37.31 Elmon And yeah, and that's that's 1 thing that we would like to do on this game. Um, when you talk to npcs throughout the village your other your characters will interact and you get to know them a bit more um and you get to explore more the lore and such through the interactions with npcs or reading a book off the bookshelves. Ah, ah, rather than just you know, being forced to just go through the main story with you know pages of dialogue you know because the main story should just be key events. You know move the plot along I mean of course you got your story art character story art but all the little smaller details. You know, let the let the player find that all on our own time. 28:17.16 Jala Absolutely because that allows the player to engage with that if they want to and if they want to just beeline the main quest the first time or you know, ah dig in deep the first time and then just beeline it the second time then that doesn't ah Bog them down right? with. Extra stuff that maybe they've already seen or read and don't necessarily want on a repeat or whatever. Um, although like I personally like one of the things I love about lunar is that I will always go talk to every npc in town just because I want to see what happens because different characters pipe in. And sometimes there's very funny interactions or you know they're giving me a lot of flavor text or world building and stuff and so like actually talking to all the Npcs feels vital in a way that it doesn't feel in a lot of other games and you know it's like you should use all the tools you've got available to you right? So like. 29:08.97 Jala These Npcs should be having a function of some sort even if it's just a silly moment just to develop the characters a little bit or you know whatever. 29:14.45 Elmon Yeah, and and also like an event happens. You go back to that town. You get different dialogue with some of the npcs you can talk to them a second or third time get something different. So it's always. 29:28.18 Elmon You know it's always a nice it rewards the player for wanting to find out more so it's It's a nice little treat. 29:34.61 Jala Absolutely so let's talk about the gameplay. So you already mentioned kind of legend of Zelda ish ah action Rpg type stuff. So ah, it's the the movement active battle. Ah, how does the co-op work tell me more. 29:47.15 Elmon So co-op it's available right? from the beginning soon as you take control the Donna Ruby will be there. Ah you can have a second controller press start or whatever button we decide at the very end I don't want to you know, just trap myself into the start button. But um, you just press start then you can control the second player. Um, and with that said, ah yeah, from the very beginning you don't have to unlock like 3 hours a game after 3 hours of gameplay. Um, like kind of like some other games I've heard um where you get a plate for a while. And then you unlock the multiplayer. No, you can do this from the beginning and um, you can drop out anytime and we want it where player one can also switch to ruby just in case, you don't want to play a Donna and you can use 2 players to also do certain. Um. Puzzles or you can switch between the characters to engage in certain puzzles. So we want it to be yeah, a true co-op game. 30:50.34 Jala So here's a question I know that there's Ai if you don't have a person playing with you so that's fine, but like with the character switching is this like a tactical necessity is this like. Lost vikings where each of the viking guys has like a different thing that he can do or is it just you know like is there a different play style or is it just you know like 1 or another character that you're you're toggling between just because of personal preference. 31:16.20 Elmon Ah, personal preference I don't want it to wear because that would be in my opinion that'd be kind of annoying where you have to switch just to progress through the game because you you need to play Ruby So let me pause it switch to character and then proceed ah rather you know, just. 31:22.28 Jala Yeah, yeah. 31:33.56 Elmon If you want to play ruby because she casts fireball spell versus you know a Donna casting like an ice ice shot spell by all means you can switch to Ruby Adonna has a healing spells so that that may you know be more appealing to some players who want to play more defensively ruby. As of right now we're um, having her more of the dps um whereas add donna'd be more well-rounded so they are different characters. So yeah, it's just plays style really for now for now I mean we may during a development ah tweak a few things. So um. 32:10.50 Elmon So don't don't hold me don't We're not sitting anything in stone just yet. 32:11.20 Jala Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah, Absolutely absolutely. You are ah still in the Kickstarter phase. Ah things can can always change in development and especially also during play testing when you get to that phase. So um, yeah, like that that could well change but like we're talking like right. The concept as it is at this stage. So um, yeah, moving along though Lunar is all about power of humanity and love overcoming everything and all of that stuff because it's a very positive game and so on but does godshard Chronicles have any particular themes to it. 32:45.99 Elmon Yes, it um it does have hope and um, rather than focusing lunar tend to do more the romance. Um we this is kind of has more of the power of friendship family themes in it. 33:04.34 Elmon So you know you have a Donna and ruby ah they develop ah a certain type of unique friendship throughout the story and that friendship of you know, trust and hope um does overcome a lot of ah the obstacles they encounter throughout the story. So um. And it's also has a deep theme of family into it as well. Um I don't want to spoil too much with ah one of the characters but this will come into play as during a crucial point in the story. 33:34.16 Jala Awesome! Awesome! So ah, the final question for the conceptual section of this So who would you recommend your game to. 33:44.69 Elmon I would recommend my game to anybody who likes Jrpgs or even anime. So it's ah now if you're more for the turn based that might turn you off, but um, you know so sorry I did think of turn based at the time but um. A lot of people I kind of want to make this game accessible to more people and I know turnbase does turn off ah quite a huge demographic. So um I just really wanted a lot of more people just to pick up and play the game but um I would say like um kids can play it too. You know. People like me in their forty s that grew up on this stuff. You know, um, even older if you want to if you if you have grandpa, whatever who wants to play by all means hand him a controller and play with them. You know. 34:21.52 Jala Right? right? right. 34:31.87 Jala Right? He can be your tails. He can be her tails to your sonic. So yeah, ah, why don't you go ahead and introduce us to Jcat games I Know you've already mentioned a few people who are currently working on this with you. You've also um, dropped the composers. A little bit but um, who all is working like programming and stuff like that who all is working with this. 34:54.15 Elmon Okay, so jcat games were based in the isle of man which is any irish sea between England and Ireland um, we're we're a british crown dependency. Um I formed the company here last summer. Ah, although we were in development we have ah originally started in Florida in the Usa but um, ah I have a I'm a here on a visa. So um, as a startup company. So it's ah ah also the department enterprise here has been very supportive of um. The game company. They're actually cheering me on especially with this Kickstarter so which is really awesome to have the yeah the government cheering you on they really they they're they're really business. Friendly here. So um, ah. 35:30.44 Jala Very cool. 35:38.15 Jala That's that's atypical. That's not something that you hear about in the states. 35:43.68 Elmon Yeah, so ah, no I really I really I meet with ah I meet with ah the digital isle of man sector of it I meet with them every every few months or so we sit down and talk and they're they're just like so excited about the game and such so um. Ah, one of them actually ah used to work in a video game industry. So ah, but yeah, um, so in aisle of man we got our office over here. Ah I have ah already an up employee. He's manx which is like a manx is is the native person from isle a man really. So ah, he his name's Dylan he does a lot of ah if you're on a Discord. You'll see him. He's he does a lot of the um, a lot of our marketing and such so he he's very awesome. Um, as far as our programmer his name's Peter he he also works on quartet which is another um, indie game rpg. 36:39.63 Elmon And I think he's working on forge of the fay if I'm not mistaken. Um, those are the only 2 ah ah games I can name off the top of my head. We also have decky who's worked for rpg maker at the publisher. He's doing the map designs. He's amazing at it. He's also does quartet. 36:58.55 Elmon My familiar and forge it a fa um and if I'm missing a game I apologize. But um I think those are the other 3 games he's worked on not to mention all the other rpg maker stuff and whatever he's done when he's worked for the publisher. 37:07.97 Jala And right right? So the the for to the fate didn't you mention that in one of your Kickstarter updates like a little little bonus you know tap Hey here's another Kickstarter or something or am I misremembering Oh okay, okay. 37:21.61 Elmon Um, that was sort of the necromenser rivenant. So yeah, yeah, it was a different one I try to give out I try to give Shoutouts to the other indie game developers. Um, you know because they are they work they work really hard and the. 37:27.73 Jala Ah, different 1 Okay. 37:38.70 Elmon A lot of those games are really cool. So I mean I can't wait to some of them come out myself. So um, if I can help them out by all means that's awesome. 37:46.69 Jala Absolutely,, That's very cool. So yeah, Um, so you've got those folks working with you but then you also have we already mentioned Nouki I without and he's very famous Japanese composer did the lunar games did Grandndia did bunch of other stuff. Um, absolutely fantastic composer. But you also mentioned. Ah, yeah, your other composers. You've got what is it?? Um goodness I can't even keep track of the ones you just unlocked with the the Kickstarter stretch goals. Yeah, like you you can. 38:15.58 Elmon Um, yeah I'll help you out. 38:20.17 Jala List off all the names for me of all the fantastic people. You've got lined up. 38:24.44 Elmon So um, ah so we unlocked First of all, we unlocked Jennifer Stieell which is she's the singer from the original lunar. So ah games from the playstation so she did lunar 1 and 2 so that the the vocal tracks and lunar 2 are done by her as well. 38:42.27 Elmon And she's even done the playstation portable Um Silver Star Harmony Um, ah, boat song as well. So even though lyrics are different. That's her. So um, so we unlocked her She is super excited to I mean she loves this new um ewardda track as well. She says it's it's. 39:01.20 Elmon She loves it just as much if not more than the boat song she did and um I can't wait to hear her version and by all means Amy Evans is awesome too I I just think it's awesome to have a japanese and an english version. So um, as far as the other two composers. It's going to be um. 39:20.60 Elmon Kumi Tom Tonyioka and she's done final fantasy 11 and final fantasy crystal Chronicles which that includes the game cube the Nintendo ds versions as well. Um, and we also have Michico Nauk and she's done the wildarm series. So. 39:39.91 Elmon Um, I met both um I actually met both of these composers. Um iwada san introduced me to them. Um, when I was in Japan last year ah I actually didn't know um much about Michico Nauke I've only played 1 wild arms game not very long and so I wasn't really I'm not too familiar wasn't too familiar with her work but he andrewd. Yeah yeah, well I know that now I mean I listen to them and they sound amazing and um. 40:04.55 Jala Those soundtracks are bangers. 40:12.32 Elmon But I know I know Kumi Tani Okka from a final fancy crystal Chronicles. So and she has a lot of odd time signatures. Um, so um, so in October we had a um tribute to nordi yuki iwadai um concerts and Japan. 40:13.97 Jala Yeah, that's what I was going to say is I know from Crystal Chronicles. So. 40:30.97 Elmon And I flew out there. Ah basically our um, our composer shano isamuda. He plays the Violin he was performing this concert with Kumi Tanioka and they did a. 40:44.40 Elmon Several lunar songs and they also did ah actually they only did one lunar I can't remember I don't have the set list anymore. But um, um, they did a several final fancy crystal chronicle songs and ah iso Mudaan said ah those songs were. 40:49.23 Jala Yeah, yeah. 40:59.94 Elmon Anything by Tany Oka was exceptionally difficult for him because of the odd time signatures like he says he says ah because they they are really difficult especially on a violin for him I can imagine. So um, so anyway I was introduced through that concert to tani okason. 41:16.72 Elmon And then we went out afterwards and and during that concert. Um, ah k shigama the writer for the lunar and Grandy series was there as well. Um, along with some of the staff from game arts. So um, iward Adi San introduced me to kshigamema I only talked to him briefly for a few just like about a minute or two because um, he was on his way out. He just um, he just wished me luck with the ah with Godshard Chronicles because that was ah Isa Muisan handed out flyers for it and then um I flew out again to Japan about a month and a half later to meet with the manga publishers. 41:50.84 Elmon So um, during that time I met with I would adi san again and he contacted Ka Shigama Ta okka son and um nau k son. Ah he introduced me. This was the first time I met Michio and um, we all went out together and um. 42:10.10 Elmon And yeah, they're really awesome people. Um, if you remember the humor from the lunar series. Ishi Gamema is a really funny guy. So and so. 42:21.80 Jala Oh that's awesome. Yeah, that's one of the stretch goals too isn't it to get get um case she get mine on as a guest writer for a couple of instances or something. Okay, awesome. 42:30.96 Elmon Yeah, we we got it we we yeah I need to message him today and let him know we got it. But ah yeah, that was ah um, no, that was really cool off of his part because he he has a company which he does that for other video game companies. Um in Japan. So. I mean he's already a busy guy so for him to take time out his day to do this for our project I mean that's that's that's huge and um, not I mean that's just shows how much of a nice guy is but he's super funny. Ah cracks a bunch of jokes. Um, you can see where the humor for lunar comes from. Um. 43:03.80 Elmon And um, he's He's super brilliant. We. We actually talked a lot about plot um writing plot and um structure plot Structure. We went over that. Ah he told me what he did for lunar and lunar Ii on the plot Structure. He sent me some. Ah. Some documents of how he did things and like ways to do it. Um I mean he's He's been super helpful for this project. So um, you know. 43:27.75 Jala So it sounds like you flew over to Japan and just got the hookup like right off the bat from this concert. 43:35.00 Elmon Well I mean yeah I was just going to see the concert I mean I really didn't and I mean hang out with isauda and I would adaan and I'm just ah I mean and I would a san's awesome I mean you know I really consider him a you know a great friend. Um. I mean I consider all of them really good. Great friends now I mean we we we really we get along great. Um I think the world of all of them each one of them so when this Kickstarter started going. Um, when we started the Kickstarter um I reached out um, asked them if because ah. Duke San and um ah tany okassan they freelance and they they've done they's done so for a few other ah projects in Japan um, the the main thing is is I speak japanese and um iso muusan is also you know he'sluin so um, it makes it a little easier for us because um. Ah, some of the you know some of the things I I talk when I do business is in Japanese like when I met with the manga publisher that was all in Japanese as well. So um, that makes doing business with them with anybody and from Japan ah essential really? Um, so when people ask how do you do this? did you? well. Ah, like for example I would adi son. He does not use a translator when ah when um, he doesn't like using translators. He likes speaking directly with um you know working with the company or the creator to compose his tracks. So um. 45:04.10 Elmon He's even told me like when people try to send him stuff with Google translate he says I don't even know what they're talking about because a translator is so horrible. Um. 45:08.99 Jala Right? right? that actually kind of reminds me have you seen the movie lost in translation. Yeah, it's just like that scene where Bill Murray is like you know the the director has given him all of these detailed instructions. 45:14.72 Elmon Um, yes I have. 45:24.92 Jala And then the translators like with more intensity. He's like I think he said a lot more than that and like you know the director is going off and has all of these details and then what actually gets handed to the actor is like nothing you know and it kind of reminds me of that. So like you know that's that's something that definitely um. 45:28.73 Elmon Um, and he said. 45:44.80 Jala That is that is of course for comedic value. But there is something lost in translation If you are not in the same language. 45:49.46 Elmon And that's a thing. Um when I so I would Ati he he's He's written half the soundtrack. Um, this isn't just like a guest appearance from Him. He's he's written a lot of songs for this game So with each and every song like um, he did Ruby's theme Song. So. He's asking me like okay tell me about Ruby tell me about her past tell me about her personality and I'll give him like a ah lot to go by and he has follow up questions about this and he he keeps asking questions and then he'll finally say okay I got it and he's done that with several other. Um. 46:27.22 Elmon Several other things. The hardest to want to do was to vocal track. So I explained it and he he followed up and then finally I said um, he wanted the atmosphere of it I was like so I just said I don't know something like the boat song because this is a song about friendship. You know and adventure and he goes okay Boat song Got it. 46:47.21 Elmon Um, but but it does help. Um, ah we can go back and forth on it. Um, and yeah and and and he he's ah I can see the lost in translation stuff if I if I tried to go through a translator. It would not have worked because um, um I think one time ah Iso Muasan. I mentioned something to him and he translated and said it to you What adi son and I was like um wait a minute that's that's not exactly what I meant so I had to go in and say actually let's let's put this in because you ah you know like I said if somebody else ah translates it for you. It could be complete something completely different than what you actually meant. 47:22.83 Jala Right? right? So so after you went to this concert and you had a fun. No Ki with everybody then you followed it up with another one later it was like yes and since I can speak your language. It's easier. That's great. That's great. 47:36.53 Elmon Yeah, and I'll tell you what? Um um, Tony Okka Sa Kumi she she ah she was trying to shove these certain sae drinks to me and um. She's she's quite funny about it too. Ah, but um, yeah, she's ah she no it was it was it was ah it it was interesting to say at to least um I think um I don't usually drink sai. But um, how you how you gonna tell her. No, especially how enthusiastic she is to. Send it your way you know it wasn't bad. She has to taste. She has good taste. 48:13.38 Jala You develop a taste there and then right, right? It's kind of like um so my husband has like a um thinking negroy in the the fridge right now and that's not like my favorite. Type of Socke and I'm like ah ah, he's like you don't want any like you. He also does a lot of like flavored ones and I'm I'm really not into flavored sakee. So I'm like okay you can yeah. 48:39.87 Elmon Yeah I'm I'm not either but the 1 Tony Lucas son sent me. It was it had this kind of sweet flavor to it. It was ah it was unlike anything I've tried before so it was really good. So she you know? and oh I got another funny story about with her and I would adi san so when after the concert when we went to um. We went to izakaya which is kind of like ah um, kind of like your japanese version of an english pub. You know? Um, so while we're eating um one of the other customers in this izakaya he just fell backwards hit his head on this crate and he was bleeding on the floor. 49:16.37 Elmon Um, and of course ah he was he was trying to get up. Um, being former law enforcement. Um, you know I went over okay act as a first responder I told the ah I told the person the owner to call. Um you know, call for an ambulance and. Um, of course this gentleman he was. He was an old man. He was really drunk. He was trying to get up. Um I told him to stay down but he didn't want to listen. So I said look you're gonna stay down until they have paramedics get here I had to go in the police mode and the paramedic got there day they they they. 49:50.94 Elmon They ended up putting him in the back. Um, he was obviously way too drunk to um, even walk and he was he did he needed to get his head looked at because you hit your head. You know that could there's all kinds of issues that can go with that. Especially you've fallen backwards and hitting the back of your head. So um I really wanted him to get checked out because you don't you never know I mean he could just. 50:10.89 Elmon You know, end up you know, dying of a brain injury later who knows so um, so I think ah I think um, that was a little amusing for he would I and I would adi San and Tany Oassan because ah ah I was like. 50:12.21 Jala Yeah, yeah for sure. 50:28.22 Elmon Why does this happen when I hommer around. 50:32.54 Jala Yeah I know that feeling. Um, so recently here just to tell my own little story. So ah, some of the listeners of my podcast gathered here in Houston for what they called jolllicon because you know my ah moniker everywhere I go is Jala Chan in places. 50:49.77 Jala So instead of Jala Cha it's Jellican and um, everybody came here and we did a spartan race and we went around and did the the nasa space center tour and stuff like that and it was a lot of fun. Um, but like there were so many chaotic things that happened surrounding it like the time itself was fantastic, but there was like a major storm. So when people were trying to do their changeover flights somebody's luggage got sent to the wrong place and like um, people's flights were delayed and all this other stuff happened just in transit and then on the way home. One of the people who were going home when they got a lift to go back to the airport. That lift was rear ended on the way back to the airport they got there safely nope injuries and they got on the plane and they got back home in time. Everything was ok but like just chaos happening and I'm like yeah that sounds about right? You know that's that's kind of like the vibe that kind of follows me wherever I go. 51:44.29 Elmon Well Houston that's that airport I mean you're going to get some delays there anyway. Um, at least I have every time I was there and it was thunderstorms. What was it. 51:52.73 Jala All it was up in Dallas actually um, everybody was in transit in they all deposited in Dallas and then had to get an Airbus from Dallas down and it was storms but it was in Dallas. So. 52:02.20 Elmon Oh Wow So well did you have fun at the Spartan races then. 52:06.30 Jala Oh absolutely I've done them before um I So one of the various things that I am I'm a personal trainer and I've also been like an enduras Amp Athlete and I've also been a number of different things I have different incarnations I change every once in a while. Um. 52:21.66 Elmon Yeah, you looked ah pretty fit in your picture. So um, no more power T Um, um, and no keep up the personal training So that's. 52:30.42 Jala I mean um I currently do moitai yoga um indian club training slash um Mace training. Um, which I just started so don't judge me I don't I don't look great at that right now. 52:43.60 Jala I Now I'm getting back into the obstacle course race stuff I used to do ultra marathons and end endurance events rocking Endurance Events led by special forces. So like ah I've kind of had I've I've done bodybuilding I do a lot of different stuff I lift and in. 52:58.65 Jala Whatever I've also been a dancer ah belly dance and pole dance. So whatever I just stay busy. But yeah. 53:07.10 Elmon Yeah I've done I've done bodybuilding as well. Um, um, this was back ah over twenty years ago when I guess the competition wasn't as ah, you know like it is now because if you've I don't know if you've seen that a transformation over the years um back when I competed. I think there was only 1 girl who competed in the um, the bodybuilding for the women's division and she won first place just by default and she just started working out. So um, you know, but ah, but no, that was um, yeah, it's it's that's that's one thing I do to. 53:42.50 Elmon Kind of ah destress one doing a game development is hit the gym. Um, just to keep Well if you said a computer chair all day you're gonna hurt your back. So um, so no, that's awesome. You do that and not well kickboxing Mo Ti right? So um, had ever had to use that before. 53:50.90 Jala Um, yeah, yep, my type. 53:58.34 Jala I Have not had to use it Thankfully that is that is a good thing. So I happen to be. 54:03.84 Elmon Ah, yeah, but your viewer your listeners might like hearing you use it one day tell us to. 54:09.80 Jala Well, Ah,, there's there's like ongoing jokes among the various podcasts that I guess on Slash ah record regularly and you know guest on regularly that um you know like don't don't piss her off. She knows where you live she'll come find you she'll run there and and come get you no matter where you are on the Planet. You know. So because I used to do Ultra marathons as Well. So But anyway anyway, yeah, um, lots of lots of fun stuff there for sure. Um, so circling back to Godshard Chronicles. It sounds like you've had quite a fun and quite a fun adventure. 54:28.37 Elmon Um, yeah I think not. 54:46.28 Jala Just kind of gathering the troops and everything getting this Kickstarter going and that's really cool. Um, you also are going to have hand drawnn animated cut scenes with voice acting. So ah I'm kind of curious about this. Do you have an animator already are they already working on it. 54:56.86 Elmon Yes. 55:03.98 Jala Um, is this something where ah, the animation is being done before the recording. Ah and the actors are matching themselves to the animation or are you recording the audio first. How's how's it all happening. 55:17.29 Elmon All right? Good question. Um, so right now we are matching the animation to the voice acting clips which is how the Japanese Studios actually do it. So um, we're doing it like they do and I think in a. When they localize it.. It's kind of the opposite. Um the voice actors have to match to the um Animation. Ah. 55:36.90 Jala And famously that is very difficult that's part of what ham struggle a lot of the voice acting and final fantasy 10 for example is when you know which is infamous for its voice acting and it's because they had to try to force the the words to match the animation. So. 55:54.16 Elmon Yeah, so um and I think they well they had to do the same in lunar as well and if you look at the Saga Cd version. Um you you can see they they really didn't because they didn't want to sacrifice. Ah what the story they wanted to tell 56:09.64 Elmon So I'm kind of lucky I can just give it to the animator and he can just lipync it to whatever I have um, but ah, okay, so yeah, we have a we have an animator. We have a background artist and we have a storyboard artist. Um, the storyboard artist is also one of my pixel artists. He's he's from fronts. And he's um, he originally that that was his job at a previous studio was storyboarding and he also does 2 d and 3 d animation so he technically could probably do the animation as himself, but he storyboards it to make it look really nice and then we send it to the animator. And we also send it to the background artists. The background artist is from Japan he has his own. He does a lot of video games and and he does anime over there as well. So um, we communicate completely in japanese ah he used to use Google translate but then he just um after I just kept writing him in japanese he just responds only in japanese which is. You know which is cool. Um and the animator. 57:07.57 Jala At least you can understand like the nuance of what he's saying better with the kanji rather than trying to understand the Google translate version. 57:17.94 Elmon Yeah, yeah, but um, there is a lot of ah animation Jargon that I had to learn and that's that's quite difficult but I've been learning it communicating through this guy which is interesting because there is there is ah another company in my. 57:34.82 Elmon In my where on my office is there are just a few doors down and um, they have a they have a Japanese It's a Japanese own company. So I'll go over just ah, walk down next door to him and say hey I got a question about this sentence right here and um. 57:50.34 Elmon If it's enough if's too much jargon they'll say I don't understand what this is going on about this is something about anime and we I don't know you know, ah, you're on your own. Sorry so um so yeah I'll have to figure out some of these things on my own. but um but yeah luckily I have that help but ah the animator I think um and he's from um. He's from near to us s he's from ah Puerto Rico. So ah, he's he doesn't he just goes off the storyboard and he uses the background and then I just feed him voice clips. The voice clips. Um I got actress um or actor i. 58:24.67 Elmon Sorry I'm old school. Um, so if I know some people say don't use actress these days. Um, it's just um, I'm old. So my apologies um, but anyway actor ah Carly Fish um she has recently done the movie fairyman which is on Amazon prime. She's I think she's won an award for her role and as eve. Ah, she's a Donna and she she's done an amazing job. She's um, amazing actor and so she she sends me to voice clips and that's what I send to the animators and then I have Beth and Bevin which is a very welsh name. Um, she's very she's welsh. You can hear it in Ruby Ruby has a very thick welsh accent accent and really, ah Ruby's race is or ah is ah numidians and numidians I'm using welsh ah welshach sense for all any character playing a numidian in a game. So um, so each each type of race or kingdom or area in the game is going to have a specific type of accent which I'll use so like like Addnna's like ah they're ordonians so they're going to be typically like an rp southern in Uk southern england type of accent. Um. 59:42.11 Elmon Like for example, carlye fish is from Brighton ah, which isn't too far from London um, so ah, yeah, or or numidians will have like I said welsh um. Argent is he has a different type of he's from a different type of kingdom. So I'm actually using the american um accent for that one but his his kingdom is basically almost extinct so there's there's really going to be only like 1 or two actors for that. Um. Ah, so sorry for I get loads of voice actor actors are trying to apply sorry um, we are using some american accents. But um, yeah, we already got most of the cast forum. So um, but but yeah, um, as far as the animation goes now. Um, um, it's it's definitely. 01:00:32.96 Elmon Difficult to get hand-drawn animation these days a lot of companies will try to sell you vector-based which is kind of like um, best example is when you watch Youtube and 1 of those little ad games come up. To download and they'll have this little animation. It looks like somebody's holding puppet strings above them when they're moving it. That's the animation that most studios try to sell you these days and um, we try to go that with that with that initially but everybody started. 01:00:52.17 Jala Ah, right right. 01:01:05.46 Elmon Basically criticizing and satan was horrible. So obviously and hand drawnw was what we wanted anyway, um, that that's and we're not going to get to the I mean we're not like an animation studio like ah toe or we're not like um you know these we're not Disney so um, so if if. You're expecting that. Ah my our apologies. We don't have like the millions of dollars of ah a budget to throw into this so but. 01:01:30.15 Jala Right? right? So just having it there in the first place though and having the characters moving with their voices and everything like that rather than just being 100% the pixels and stuff is very cool. 01:01:44.33 Elmon Yeah, and we feel like we can capture more of the emotion and the characters with these animations than with just the pixels. Although there is an art to take sprites and make them do the emotions like final fantasy six does. Um. There is a special art for that. Um, all and big in for the games that do that We Love Them. It's just for the story. We Want to tell we want to tell it in this style because we feel if it's our our way of storytelling The best. 01:02:15.10 Jala All right? Well I mean you've also got um you know the novels and the comics that you're going to be doing and so like you're telling more stories and a broader kind of story where you want to. Really give like that cinematic feeling that you're going to get out of an animation versus having the pixels so you know that makes sense that tracks. 01:02:37.27 Elmon Yes, exactly. 01:02:42.77 Jala Yeah, so ah, God's shard Chronicles has been in development for a while as we've talked about so ah, you already mentioned Pixel art is ah pretty pretty far into development. But how about the other aspects of the game. 01:02:56.23 Elmon Okay, so we can do the quest side quest branching dialogue um, ah pretty much a lot of ah like ah especially the the dialogue aspects we have some combat in although that's the biggest thing we're going to refine. Um, right? after we do um the Kickstarter we're going in a heavy pre-production. So um, we want to get the demo out by later this year so um what we have to do is we have to. We're going to refind the combat a bit more make it make it as fluid as possible. Um, but yeah, as far as like the other stuff with the towns and stuff and hating on side quests and such a lot of that's already in the game and um, good to go I mean we're pretty far along ah as of as far as that coding goes 2 players already implemented. Um, you can. You can just the second player can already go in and help with combat so that's we have a we have a pretty good amount to go but we already have a pretty good amount that's already in. So um, yeah, ah like said demo later this year ah next year we could possibly get. 01:04:07.17 Elmon The levels and everything all fitted in we would like to see if we can um, go through to final stages next year but I did put 2026 as kind of a buffer I don't want to over promise something and say yeah, we'll get it ready by tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and. You know everybody's you know, wondering hey where's your game at so we don't want to do that. 01:04:22.12 Jala Um, right? Well for sure and especially like as you're developing the game there tends to be like oh we didn't account for this. Troubling enigma that has sprung up out of nowhere or whatever you know like there's sometimes just going to be and especially if you've got a lot of different people who all have to pitch in their part if something from this 1 place you know is holding up another person's job. You know that and makes it a little bit more difficult as well. So. 01:04:48.54 Elmon Right. 01:04:52.10 Jala And then also programming it for all of the different places you want to release it that also makes a difference because that's going to be challenging and that'll slow up the end product. You know like um I've been following. 01:05:00.82 Elmon Yes. 01:05:04.94 Jala The development of the first indie game that is coming out of Cuba called saviorless and that actually is going to be dropping the day that your Kickstarter ends April two and ah hopefully fingers crossed I will have an an interview with the devs of that. Um in some form or fashion. Ah, sometime after the episode this episode releases because ah, that's been in development for 9 years because they are working with like all their wifi that they have is wifi in public parks in its spotty and so they are like on an island actually and also. 01:05:35.81 Elmon Wow. 01:05:42.59 Jala Like figuratively speaking you know, ah in a lot of ways they're having to do everything by themselves. You know off over there and so I've been kind of like rooting for them because I am Cuban by Blood. Ah so like I've I've been rooting for them the whole time and their game is finally coming out. But like the last year and a half or so has just been them trying to get the finished product of the game then um, you know ready for all the different platforms. They're releasing it on so you don't like that whole process especially when it comes to. What are the differences between playstation or switch or whatever like those things you know the the steam version is like the easiest one to do is my understanding but I am not a programmer So don't quote me a savior list. 01:06:24.32 Elmon Yeah, what? what's the game called again. Okay I'll I'll check it out myself? Um, no, that sounds like a sounds like a good story for them too. And um, yeah I mean and it sounds like makes it makes it sound like my day easy. You know. 01:06:36.14 Jala Well and and the thing is the the guy who like this is the brainch Childd of ah Josu Paeri He is a fine artist much like me like he started as a fine artist and then he started doing game development because he has a passion for it and his thing is like ah a platformer thing. Um, but like it's all handdrawn art and this that and the other It's very cool. They have a demo out but again the ah, the actual game will be dropping pretty soon as Well. So um, yeah, either way, that's a different game different topic I Only mention it just because like you know, Ah, as an example of. 01:07:14.81 Jala They had no idea it was going to take them this long but also like there they have very extenuating circumstances that they're working under. So it's very cool that that's going to be coming out. Finally. 01:07:22.34 Elmon Yeah, well and that's that's common with everybody. There's they call it. Ah the bottleneck and usually it's art. That's the bottleneck because um I mean I mean I hate to say it but a lot of. Ah, like with artists. Um I mean and you probably know some in the industry like the industry expects you to get um, art turned around rather quickly and sometimes with some artists that doesn't happen and and um. 01:07:53.20 Elmon You know we've we've had ah you know we've had our bottlenecks with ah certain types of assets before too and um, you know so sometimes things happen bad situations happen to people you know, like ah you know some people like maybe they have family problems I mean. I myself I had ah last year I was supposed to get my final book of the trilogy done. Um, that was the only time I was going to get that done for for the for the entire year and um I suddenly had to take care of my mother who has like a parkinson's plus disease so that she can't feed herself. She can't go to the bathroom. So. I'm lifting her up I'm carrying her to the bathroom I'm spoon feeding her I'm waking up every every time she has to do something I have to be there and and do it and take her all her doctor's appointments and such and I had to put aside the entire like the rest of that summer ah just to take care of her until I was able to find like you know, um. 01:08:36.80 Jala Right. 01:08:46.65 Elmon We had a care home and um and now was able to finally find a good care home. Not just a bad one. So um, you know so it's it's understandable. Some things just happen to people and um, it's it's because we got so many people on board I mean you never know. Um, we were going to have a different voice actor for ah. 01:09:05.79 Elmon Ruby early on um but she she ah she had her own health problems to where she couldn't um, she physically couldn't do ah um, you know the voice acting anymore and she's done some big games already. She's she's quite big in the U K and it's ah and I can't imagine how. You know she's feeling you know not being able to because this is this is her. This was her passion her career and um, you know and I told her I said anytime you want to come back. It's yours you know? Um, so um, ah, but and I'm on to reach out and see how she's doing this this story about her reminds me to do so but um. 01:09:31.77 Jala Right. 01:09:43.50 Elmon But yeah, it's there's There's a bottleneck. It's usually art or anything like that. So um, and and then there's just some people who you know it's it's it's it's tough to just keep doing that same Rigid schedule. It's It's really, um, it's it's. You know it's just like writing a novel like ah um, the ones who get to keep getting the writing gigs are the ones that can keep pumping out. Manuscripts Ah, whether they feel like doing so or not, you know it's It's not easy. 01:10:03.83 Jala Right? right? right? Absolutely So on that note, what are some of the most difficult parts of development that you've encountered so far. 01:10:20.51 Elmon Oh get it absolutely getting the art getting the right art um getting it getting it in time. Um, that was like I said we ah mentioned earlier remember the early pixel art that was not my vision so getting that and and I was ah you know. That that wasn't aligning um not not to say it's a bad style. It's ah it works for other games. It's just it wasn't what I wanted um and then like ah yeah, just just getting the art assets over time and but finally we got it like what you're seeing now is exactly what we wanted. Um, so we're. Everything's flowing very well now. Um, let's see programming early on was a nightmare um you know ah you know like ah um I had ah I mean I'm not going to name any names but the programmer I had just ah we I guess we didn't have the same vision. Um, so um, so I had to get a new programmer and that you know that took time and that was like a lot of waste of it like the all the coding from the very beginning. Ah, but the second programmer who's the current programmer said. Yeah, this is basically not very usable. Coding. 01:11:33.25 Jala Right. 01:11:35.86 Elmon Um, so we had to throw all that out and that's kind of a hard pill to swallow when you pay to. You know you pay pretty good money for it. So um, but he was right? it was It was very they call like janky type of ah programming it was the game ran poorly and if. 01:11:51.87 Elmon And I could probably upload some videos. It wasn't it looked more It didn't look like a role-playing game at all and it was like very there was a lot of bugs. It was very jerky. Um, so that was that was the tough thing is finding somebody. You got to have a team that has the same vision as you and um. And you have to work together and like so ah decky like our game designer level level designer mapmaker. He ah like his vision is like you know talking to him like he wants to produce like the best game he wants to make it fun for players like it's. Like ah you know talking to him gets me all inspired because and then he puts out these like maps and um, he's thinking about what players can do and I mean that's that's what we want. You know we want to. We want to give somebody and you got to have some people on your team like carli wants to make like a really good story iod Adi San wants to give good music to tell the cinematics like. Everybody on a team wants to do their best to give like the best you know best game. Best story. Whatever we can you know so that's that's the hardest parts getting somebody on board to do that rather than take a paycheck just a paycheck you know because. 01:13:03.68 Elmon If if money shouldn't be the biggest motivating factor for you to do something passion just like you know you're doing your you know? Yeah, like if you do to podcast like if you came on it and say just give me a paycheck I don't care how good is that going to come out. You know. 01:13:20.40 Jala Absolutely And ah my show for what it's worth being what it is It is 100% The brainchild of things that are important to me so you know like we cover topics. Ah topics, life topics type stuff. We Also cover media and things like that and I Also do these interview episodes with folks that I happen to come across that are doing cool things because I want to signal boost people who are doing cool things. So. 01:13:47.85 Elmon And you're passionate I mean you sound passionate about it and that is the most important I mean I think to make something you got to be professional which is you producing content over and over again in a timely Manner. You got to be talented which um. You sound? Yeah I've seen your art So I'm I'm not going to argue with it. You're there and you got to be you got to have passion behind it and if you don't have any passion I mean your your listeners are going to feel that. 01:14:11.35 Jala Right? right? Absolutely and so you know it sounds too to me like when I first started hearing about the Godshard Chronicles. It actually the way that I first heard about it back a while ago. Was because I was like just googling because I was again I was ah thinking about doing a lunar episode and then I'm like whatever happened to John Truitt where did John Truitt do go did he ever do anything else and I started googling around and then I saw like an interview or something and I saw godshard I saw the name. 01:14:41.13 Jala I'm like ok and it's like ok, it's coming to Kickstarter ok cool and then as soon as the Kickstarter dropped like 5 people message me and we're like Jalla this Kickstarter. It looks like you're jam and I'm like it is my jam I heard about this before I'm absolutely going to back this project. So um, you know like I've i. Have people on the lookout for for stuff. Ah, kind of like this. So. 01:15:05.56 Elmon So quick question. Um, how did you feel when ah you heard John Truitt's voice again. 01:15:12.96 Jala It was it was fun um it's it's just good to hear him again. Um, just because like I haven't heard him since the lunar games so you know like hearing him from working design stays. You know, ah to now it's it's just good to see. People still around in in what they're doing because you know some of the people who worked on lunar are no longer around. Um I believe it's what what 1 of the main main people who conceived of the lunar as a whole thing. Ah, he had passed away some time ago and such so like you know, just. Base and just seeing seeing people again is is really good. How did you even come across him anyway, like yeah I don't even know how you would find him. 01:15:52.64 Elmon Yeah, and um, oh and I got to. 01:15:59.97 Elmon Um, Gosh I can't remember exactly that that was actually a over a year ago. Um, but I reached out to him I can't remember how I found him. But um I did reach out to him and he said show me the script. 01:16:18.20 Elmon Um, if it's if I like the script I'll do it and um and and show and tell me about the game and tell me about the story. So I sent him to script. Um, he loved it. He loved it. He said I Love this script I Love this character because of course a lot of people are going to say he sounds like galleon but um, argent. 01:16:37.41 Elmon Is a very ah has a lot more lines and galleon. He has a lot more story arc um, he's I mean he he you know he had a family. So um, so immediately John Truitt said he liked. He liked the character right away and he said he'd do it and I was I was extremely flattered and then. He did. He did a good amount of the lines for the game already recorded and just hearing him do each one of these lines. It's I mean I'm excited every and when I got the lines I was extremely excited just to hear hear him again. You know, um. 01:17:13.27 Elmon But yeah, he hasn't done much since lunar. He's done um Victor Ireland's done and another game called summon night with his newer company I forgotten I guess guide. 01:17:19.60 Jala Um, I forget the name of it either like I at some point ah Victor Ireland was selling stuff on ebay and I was like is this actually Victor Ireland and I messaged him and and we just kind of chatted a little bit. And he told me about his new company. But I forgot the name of it. It's been a while yet guy gene's something guy gene works or something. 01:17:36.42 Elmon I think it's guying guying something. Yeah yeah, and he did Summon night um and so he still owns like some of the rights we did summon night and then John Truitt did one of the characters on that game and I think that was the last one. He's He's done even even even John couldn't remember like all the roles he's did done except set since gallon. But I think it was somemon night now. It's argent and um and yeah, it's it's it's really good to hear from John again. John John's a really nice person too. Um, he's he he's like he's rooting for us I mean he doesn't. He is busy by the way he is extremely busy. Um, a busy man. He does like everything for his community and such just just ah I'm I'm just amazed. He puts aside time for for this, you know. 01:18:20.52 Jala That is awesome. That is awesome and I'm I'm so glad that that warms my heart to hear all of this because like you know you hear somebody's voice for like ever and ever because you play the hell out of the lunar games because you love them so much. There's some of your favorite games ever. And you hear the voice and you know like you fall in love with Galleon even though he's a villain because it's John Truitt's voice right? And then you're like oh it's really nice to know about. You know how he's doing right and where he's at and that he's he's living his life and and it's all good that is that is great. News. So. 01:18:57.17 Elmon And what was even better. Um, you know some some people wrote and said ah they said I some people said I cried when I heard this this saw the trailer heard the music and then heard John Truitt's voice or I teared up. Um, and you know that that means a lot to us. You know I mean we we want you to have like you know, enjoy this and um, you know so you know when people feel moved by. You know what we're doing. That's um, you know we're we. 01:19:25.17 Elmon That's that's what we're trying to. We're trying to make something that's moving for you. So um, so that was that was extraordinarily extraordinarily. Um you know, powerful for us. So but yeah John true just having him again. Um Jennifer stieel just to have like you know. You know, have her on board. Um, she seems like very excited about it as well. And um I mean it's it's I think um I think it's I don't know um I'm at a loss for words on what to say but I think it's I just hope I just hope I don't disappoint. 01:20:00.80 Elmon Everyone with the rest of the project. That's that's my main goal is to deliver something that's worthwhile for for your time and investment into the project. So in an I can't think everybody enough for it really. 01:20:08.73 Jala Right? right? So speaking of um, the campaign and everything so your Kickstarter as of the time of this recording has been like apparently knocked off another stretch goal since the last time I looked so you know it's doing very very well and I want to say your stretch goals look very wise because it's not like. I'm adding seven thousand more hours or extra features really, it's like I'm adding other people ah being able to work on this who will add their flavor and you love these people so you know you definitely want them to be on board kind of thing which is very smart because that's a way to keep you from. Promising too many things that you then have to find a way to deliver so you must have done a lot of research or at least a fair amount of research before you decided to do this Kickstarter to do all of that. So kudos to you for doing a good job on that. 01:20:47.71 Elmon Right. 01:21:00.70 Jala But how are you feeling overall about the campaign is it going as well as you were hoping. Is it going like fantastically better than you were hoping you know are were you hoping for more and it we still got another couple of weeks yet at least at the time we're recording. 01:21:14.10 Elmon So to be honest I really didn't know how um how it would go because um, the department of enterprise I had to do my yearly visa meeting for my company and they're asking me. Um, so. How much is your company made this past year and I say we haven't done the Kickstarter yet and they they said and I said I can't tell you how much the Kickstarter is going to make so it could be It could be 100000. It could go bust. Um not make anything and so I really didn't know I mean I just I i. 01:21:47.78 Elmon They they try to ask me to estimate and um I couldn't do that even because you really you really don't know until you do it? Um, so um, ah, let's just say I'm I'm very pleased. Um I'm very pleased with withouts going. Um and I had a great answer to give the dumb. It's gone. Ah, it's gone. 01:22:06.84 Elmon Very well. Ah, probably better than I Expected. Um I like I didn't really expect much I just I just kind of go with the flow I mean I just I just took the plunge and just you know wished for the best but um, but no I I think what. I did not expect with some of the emotions and some of the responses and enthusiasm. Um, and um, that just makes me want to do the job even better. Really um and you know this is one of those things if I start something I'm not going to give up on it and. I Think the team's the same way and and really it is. It's the team's work that's done this I mean I'm just I'm just one one small person in this whole mix. I mean it's It's really the team that's making this um project come Alive. So um, um, hopefully hopefully we'll ah. Like said deliver something um worthwhile for everybody who's who's um, you know, put in their time and investment into us. So Ah yeah. 01:23:06.21 Jala Right? It's kind of like um so right now I feel like there is a massive hunger among gamers who have been playing since like the 90 s Because. You've got stuff like sea of stars which is you know like that's also a very kind of like nostalgia triggering experience of a game right? and a lot of indie folks are stepping up to make games and iterations of stuff and mashups of stuff that they and a lot of other people really. 01:23:36.69 Jala Ah, enjoyed back in the day and miss because the big companies. The triple a companies never made any followups or didn't make satisfactory followups or whatever the case may be didn't really even port it anywhere right? And so. 01:23:51.28 Jala You know, um, it's It's the indie scene that has really stepped up and provided that for everyone and I think that's why stuff like Godshard Chronicles is doing as well as it is is because there is really like a sincere wish among gamers for these things that hit those nostalgia points not just. Remasters and re-releases of the old stuff but like make something new that's in the in the kind of Spirit. You know a spiritual successor to these kinds of experiences that really spoke to us. 01:24:17.89 Elmon Right. 01:24:26.51 Elmon Right? And it's and with pixel art. Um, if you look at these older games like final fantasy 6 or chrono trigger they still look. Um, pleasing did I in a way even little kids will look at it and you see the colorful art and it's it's it's very appealing. Um, and it's it's ageless in a way. So like if you take sea of stars or chained echoes which are 2 indie games I've done very well recently. 01:24:56.70 Elmon They're going to look great 10 years from now and they're gonna look great 20 years from now because it's the art style and it's it's a really good art style and um so and by the way I haven't played either 1 of them so I can't and I'm just going to give them props. They both got the job done. They. 01:25:14.75 Elmon Finished the game released it. They got my respect. So um I did but I did buy a copy of um, a lot of our team bought chained echoes and I did buy a copy of a physical copy when I was in Japan to see a stars because I was like oh ah, you know, physical awesome. It was only two Thousand nine hundred and eighty Yen and that's ah, that's a. 01:25:33.90 Jala Oh it is. 01:25:34.16 Elmon Great price by the way. Um, after to track the ah the um exchange rate that is amazing. Price. So I couldn't turn that down but um, no props to them props to anybody in the indie game developing scene that's making a nice retro game if they come up with an rpg. Um, that looks really cool I follow it I try to support it too. Um, so I'm onboard with anybody doing that, especially we're not chained by a corporate a corporation or telling us what we can and cannot do. 01:26:10.40 Elmon Um, we can. We can decide decide. Whatever we want to do um with the story with the gameplay the features and such like that. That's and that's the beauty of indie Dev We do have a lot of freedom. So yeah. 01:26:21.30 Jala Right? right? Those triple a studios they have all the shareholders and this that and the other and they've got profit Margins. They're trying to meet and it's like even when a game does really really? well. They're like a it's mid. Yeah, and it's like no, it's not mid. It actually did really well. But it's not to the expectations that they have because of these these unrealistic goals that they've they've set for how much they want to you know sell or whatever. Um you know and it's like oh the indie scene by and large from everything I've seen is always just people with a passion. 01:26:54.35 Jala And they just they they have a love for the medium and that's what shows through and that's why like I've always been a big fan of indies. So. 01:27:02.88 Elmon And also for indies. Ah yeah, like the backers can write a comment and we see that. Ah so if you know we can't we obviously we can't just honor every request. But for example, we had a lot of requests for a Spanish translation and. I mean I I didn't expect that but I mean in in some of the requests are it was over and over and over again and I'm like okay well if you want it this bad who am I to argue with you. You know I mean I mean if if you're going to yell at us until we get the product for yeah I mean hey, ah you know, um, that's. 01:27:28.96 Jala That right throw it up. There is a stretch goal. But. 01:27:39.86 Elmon That's a problem. We want to have so no, we are honored by everybody. Um, you know our Spanish speaking community who wanted wanted this game in their language and I mean I wish I could provide it in everybody's language. But yeah, um, ah yeah, we we we had it as a stretch goal. It does cost money Unfortunately to um, do a translation. Um, we are ah we did do a little research to find ah as capable translators or capable. Um, you know companies that could could do this so we got a list going for the Spanish one we're about to reach I have mine and pounds. So um, right now because I'm over here. But um. I Forgot what the?? Um, how close we are to the Spanish translation right now I know we're almost there at the time of this video. We'll probably be there at the time of this video but um, but ah, yeah, no, we we should reach that one and I'm going to make sure that whoever translates it. 01:28:36.25 Elmon Does a well very good job. Um I I have studied Spanish growing up. So um, ah not that I'm a fluent speaker read or anything but I can still go I'll still go over some sentences to make sure the original intent of the character comes through and that's the same what I'll do for Japanese and German as well and um. 01:28:50.10 Jala Right? right? Localization localization is really like its own art form. 01:28:56.30 Elmon For french. 01:29:01.10 Elmon Yes, it is and um and what I don't want is the players to get like a horrible translation and it just ruins the game experience. You know so. 01:29:12.72 Jala Right? right? So so yeah, um, with the Kickstarter comes lots of messages and various things to keep up with all at once. So ah, how are you hey. They're in terms of keeping up with the Kickstarter and the Discord and the social media and folks like me asking you to come on a podcast and you're like hey can you record like now because this is the time I've got and I'm like sure. 01:29:37.69 Elmon Oh we got Dylan who I hired over here. He's he's like our mascot on the discord. Um he he looks like a viking um you know he has the long hair and and everything. So um. He's probably descended by one because you know manks here there celts and you know the celts settled here and then the vikings came over. Um, so ah, but anyway he he handles a lot of that helps me handle a lot of that. Um I try to handle as many as I can. 01:30:09.77 Elmon Um I got other people on a team helping out I got you know I got moderators as well and they try to help out and they're doing it by volunteer basis only which is amazing I mean I really got um, it's It's really the team that's making this work. And um, if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here being able to do this. So um, no, it's it's it's Teamwork. It's really teamwork and we got ah you know I I feel blessed to have such a good team I Really do. Um I I like I said if it if I didn't. Meet any of these people in my life. Um I wouldn't have been able to do any of this at all. 01:30:45.91 Jala Well, um I had an episode that I recorded now it's hard for me to remember when it was it must have been last Spring. Maybe I can't remember now there was an episode about um, pursuing your passion and things like that and part of what was. You know part and parcel of that discussion was that piece about just your enthusiasm and your true love for a thing and finding other people who are as enthusiastic as you about whatever this thing is that you are so passionate about and. You know when your true passion shows for the thing that you are doing such as your passion for this project and like your godcharred stuff in general, you know it. It kind of naturally draws people in to where they want. See what it's about and they want to support you because you're out there doing your thing and and you know like it's It's infectious, right. 01:31:41.17 Elmon Yes, well I hope so but I I mean seeing seeing some of the people on the discord and seeing people talking about it and it's infectious. Their enthusiasm infects me I mean because I mean. For a lot of this campaign over half of it I was doing 4 hours of sleep if that at night. Um you know, just because I'm doing the updates I'm answering comments and everything and you know so and I'll come in 4 hours of sleep. Um, and you know I've been asked how how are you even awake or how come you're not are you tired. Like no because I mean I'm getting all the energy from all these ah you know, wonderful comments and everything you know so um and sort of. 01:32:26.33 Jala You're doing a spirit bomb. Yeah, ah. 01:32:29.82 Elmon But for the record I am getting more sleep now that you know all the the beginning the hectic stuff from the beginnings kind of died down a little bit so and I have been. 01:32:34.85 Jala Well you so you say that but like I when I first messaged you about doing this podcast episode I was like I just check the time and it's like almost one o'clock go sleep. 01:32:47.44 Elmon Um, wait a minute. It's ah oh no, it's ah it's eleven thirty over here right now. So. 01:32:52.26 Jala And I know that right now? Yes, but when I was so chatting with you before it was it was like one o'clock in the morning and I like go to sleep go to sleep. But you can answer this later. It's fine. Ah. 01:32:57.35 Elmon Oh yeah, it's there. There's it's been.. It's it's been a lot of nonstop stuff messages. Um, you know updates you name it? um. You know so troubleshooting on some issue Some somebody will find an issue with this. So okay, okay, that's a legitimate issue. Let me take care of that. Um, yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on. So um, so yeah, and and it's it's Kickstarters are really busy. 01:33:32.63 Elmon For those thinking of running one for whatever project just just keep in mind. It's not going to be just you know you do it. It's it's a lot of ah it's I've done police work and I've done shifts where I've done 80 hours a week and um. I think this is a bit I felt busy or doing this in some ways. 01:33:51.41 Jala Um, well, that's because you are always tied to your phone or your whatever device and you are always getting pinged with whatever is going on right? and so like that comes in at whatever time because everybody's all over the world and looking at your stuff. So. 01:34:04.31 Elmon Yes, yes, so it's not like a yeah place work. It was just one call at time Really um and then do your report and then another call do your report and so um, no, this is like everything hitting you at once and then yeah you got this long list of things that take care of. 01:34:21.17 Elmon but it's been a wild ride. Um, and we can't wait to get started on a pre-production. Um, after all this is done I really don't know where it's going to go from here. We're almost at 135000 at the time of this video but um or this podcast. But um I really have no clue if. How high it's going to go or not but we do have some stretch goals planned that are unannounced so far. So hopefully we can reach those. 01:34:47.13 Jala It's going to be so fun to go back and listen to this when it airs right? and then be like oh you're only a couple days away and then like wait until April to listen to it then after it's over with and be like ha you said this number but actually we're at this number that's going to be fun. So. 01:35:02.13 Elmon Ah, the just for the record I hate hearing the sound of my voice. So anytime I do do any interviews or do any videos I don't watch them again. I just I Just really okay. 01:35:08.72 Jala It that that is that is very common that is very common and there's like an actual scientific reason for it. It's because your sound your your voice sounds different in your head the way it reverberates in your head in your own ears than it does when it's on a secondary device such as a microphone. 01:35:27.54 Jala And so like that is actually a thing so you know feel at ease that is normal. 01:35:34.14 Elmon Um I should probably get dylan to do it because Dylan he says I don't mind the way I sound. 01:35:38.38 Jala Yeah, right, right? So um, just to wrap up some questions here. So what is 1 thing that you want all the listeners and Kickstarter backers and whoever happens to tune into this episode know about your project about Godshard godshard Chronicles this game specifically. Whatever. 01:35:58.76 Elmon What do I want them to know. Um, besides what we've talked about I mean I guess they already know it's an action Rpg right? At this point. 01:36:06.53 Jala Um, right? Yes, we already covered that part. So. 01:36:10.69 Elmon Okay, yeah I assume um, that would maybe ah they should be playing the game if they can't figure that out by now. Um or or maybe I'm just bad at explain now I want them to know that we're going to do our best to provide the best. 01:36:14.67 Jala Right? right? That's right, This is a call to action. 01:36:25.90 Elmon Type of story experience and um soundtrack and also gameplay because I want it I just want it to be a fun game for everybody really I want it to be accessible, fun and just something memorable where you won't you know, just forget about it afterwards and we're going to try to make it. Um. For those who like 100 something hour role-playing games. Sorry we're not going to do that. Um, we're going to try to you know, keep it on the shorter side I mean it's you know, like how final fantasy four those used to be I don't know how long it'll be but um. It'll probably be more around the fifteen Twenty hour Mark um, if. 01:37:06.80 Jala And that's the sweet spot. That's okay so um, I'll disclose this as somebody who is on um, a a dedicated video game podcast for the last decade and who also makes guest appearances on various other people's podcasts about video games. Most people that I know want their rpgs to be 15 to 20 hours they don't want them to be longer like if you have cool easter eggs and stuff which I know you're planning you know that make it replayable. You know like oh I want to go back and see some more stuff. There's other little hidden stuff if you're looking around and you might find stuff on on further replays. That's fantastic, but the actual core experience being like a nice 15 to 20 hours that's good that doesn't like overstay. Its welcome where it's like a baldersgate 3 situation where it's like 7000000 hours and you just don't have enough time in the day to play everything in that game you know I I have been playing that game since it came out. 01:37:59.81 Jala And I'm still in the first act because I don't have enough time. 01:38:00.95 Elmon Yeah, yeah, exactly that's that's the biggest complaint for gamers these days is time because not money not how much a game costs because there's loads of games out there. But it's time and um, we basically want. 01:38:11.64 Jala Right. 01:38:16.53 Elmon Yeah, if you don't have much time we want you to be able to beat this game and not not overstay a welcome with like you know, lengthy ah dragged out story I mean we can sum it all up. So um, that's that's our goal. We hope to make it um try to hold me to that later on. 01:38:33.24 Jala But right, right? But some yeah we'll we'll see how it goes as it continues to take shape for Sure. So I did want to also ask if you had unlimited budget unlimited time you could have anybody you wanted recruited and all of that. What would your dream iteration Of. Godshard I don't mean this game I Just mean like Godshard your thing your big thing. The big world thing. What would your ideal iteration of that be would it be like movies or a whole series of games or like just kind of the spread of of cross media stuff like what you're trying to do right now. 01:39:09.82 Elmon Yeah I'd probably do um a series of games. Um, yeah like I would keep doing sequels I would continue building the world. You know how like the trail series is all the same world but is you, you're in this region instead of this region. Um. 01:39:26.80 Elmon You know something like that just keep building to the world and then making it big growing it and then possibly an anime. Um I I would love to do an anime on it. Um, one day. But um, ah I would like to grow the world through various sequels first. 01:39:37.33 Jala Right? right? Got to get that audience all revved up before you can do an anime. So right. 01:39:44.15 Elmon Yes, we got to get this one done first. That's the focus before I start you know you know getting too big on. Um, it's it's 1 thing at a time is to want what I like to do so. 01:39:53.94 Jala absolutely absolutely I just had to throw that out there because sometimes I get interesting answers about what people want um you know so so yeah ah thank you so much for doing this interview and chatting with me about this game and I also have just 1 more question for you. What is happiness? 01:40:13.85 Elmon What is happiness um, having a very good relationship with your in a good life balance with your friends and family that is happiness. So so yes. 01:40:23.70 Jala Awesome! Absolutely 1000%. So ah, that is all for this episode folks. So if you want to follow Godshard Chronicles and all of that I will put the links.. There's copious links that will be in your show notes. But if you want to speak it aloud. Ah, man where can people find you on the internet if you are to be found which you are please find him. 01:40:47.60 Elmon Um, so god godshard.com and we also have the steam page just search godshard Chronicles and yes, please wish list it that helps us out loads if if you don't want to spend any money and just help us out for free wish listing. It helps us out for free. And um, yeah x formerly known as Twitter which they always always put in a parentheses. Um, yeah godshard rpg and we're the same as that on Tiktok and Instagram as well and we're also on Facebook. Yeah yeah, this guy um, which I try to post. 01:41:16.17 Jala And Bluesky you're everywhere. 01:41:23.10 Elmon Or I have dylan posts so you're also if you're trying to talk to me there. You're actually talking to Dylan half the time. so um, so um so anybody sending me those flirtatious messages and all that which I'm just joking I don't get those anymore. But um, no, ah. Yeah, you can reach in all those we try to post different stuff on each one so that way. It's not like you know the same you know regurgitated rubbish as you would see you know over and over again. So. 01:41:51.87 Jala Right? right? So as for me, you can find me anywhere I am to be found at Jalahan including jalahandnda place where you found this episode and all of the others so that is I also am in the Discord I pop up in there sometimes kind. 01:42:05.77 Elmon Um, you're you're also on my discord as well. 01:42:11.61 Jala It random I'm in a lot of discords. So I just kind of pop in and out. But yes I am also in the Godshard Chronicles Discord If you at me I will appear that is how you do it. You just summoned me summoned me and I will be there. So. 01:42:20.70 Elmon Um, ah we do last thing. Um, since you do art throw us out there. We do have the art contest still going on and the winner gets assigned Cd ah by nordi you keep you word a so um. 01:42:36.90 Jala And there's other like you know, runner up prizes that are also very baller that folks should absolutely check out. So yeah, um, there's that as well and I don't know if I missed it. Did y'all put um like some of the. 01:42:39.34 Elmon Just in face. 01:42:53.51 Jala Art assets somewhere where folks can see it so they have references to work with. 01:42:59.16 Elmon Yes I believe I put the um I posted the list of characters in the update. So if you go to one of the updates where it announces the art contest. You can see the characters right? The cast of characters right? below it. So. 01:43:12.78 Jala Awesome! Awesome and there you go and that'll be on the Kickstarter page so that is all for now folks until next time take care of yourself and remember to smile. 01:43:15.28 Elmon Yeah. [Show Outro] Jala Jala-chan's Place is brought to you by Fireheart Media. If you enjoyed the show, please share this and all of our episodes with friends and remember to rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. Word of mouth is the only way we grow. If you like, you can also kick us a few bucks to help us keep the lights on at ko-fi.com/fireheartmedia. Check out our other show Monster Dear Monster: A Monster Exploration Podcast at monsterdear.monster. Music composed and produced by Jake Lionhart with additional guitars and mixed by Spencer Smith. Follow along with my adventures via jalachan.place or find me at jalachan in places on the net! [Outro Music]