A new month means we have another update for Penny Blood. In the update, some of the team was introduced, and they talked about how they were playing through Penny Blood: Hellbound. So I would like to share their introductions and images we got from Hellbound. We also got a message from Hirota-san, some information about publishing, and more updates for Hellbound. So let’s get into the update.
Multiple team members were introduced along with their roles in Penny Blood: Hellbound.
Team Introductions
Matsuzo Machida is the one who kicks us off in this update. Machida wanted to dive more into the companion game for Penny Blood which is Penny Blood: Hellbound. Mahicda talks a little bit before the introduction begins and he says this:
As I announced last time, in this month’s update, I’d like to dive deeper into the development environment of Penny Blood: Hellbound. Hellbound is an action game with a lot of replayability that becomes more fun the more you play. It also features a roguelike system, and the story is deeply connected to the story of Penny Blood itself. The development cycle is now reaching its climax, and all the development staff members are charging into a death zone filled with agonizing death cries, covered in their own blood, sweat, and tears.
Okay, maybe that was a little exaggerated, but I think it’s mostly accurate. Today, I’d like to introduce three men who have been fighting hard within that death zone. To start us off, we have Furukawa-san, the development director – the one who’s been keeping the PBH flag held high as he leads the rest of the development team. Aside from being brave enough to take command, he also possesses deep respect not just for Penny Blood but the Shadow Hearts series as well, and has been racking his brains day and night about how to give everyone who plays the game – including fans – the most enjoyable experience possible. If we were to talk about him in DQ3 terms, he would be the Hero.
Development Director Furukawa
The first member introduced is the Development Director Furukawa:
Good evening, everyone! Furukawa, development director of Penny Blood: Hellbound here. It’s hard to believe that already two months have passed since we began Early Access, and I’m extremely grateful that so many people have given the game a try! We’ve been building the game in a way that will allow players to enjoy the world of Penny Blood to their hearts’ contents, so I hope you’re excited for what’s yet to come! We’re planning to add a lot of new features in future updates, but I’d like to introduce one of them here. The image you see below showcases a new weapon for Saltykova: the Serrated Fans.
Machida then pops back in to introduce Kihara-san:
Next up we have Kihara-san, the main programmer. In terms of game development, programmers are powerful individuals who support others from the shadows, but they are also ‘mages’ who can shrewdly decipher specification documents filled with unreasonable requests and make the impossible possible. They fulfill the most important role in terms of increasing the overall quality of the game from the ground up, including everything from spectacular special effects to making sure the gameplay gives players as little stress as possible.
Main Programmer Kihara-san
The next introduction is the Main Programmer Kihara-san. This is what they shared:
Thank you for the introduction! I’m Kihara, the main programmer. I’m grateful that I got the chance to work on developing Penny Blood: Hellbound, but the truth is…this is actually the first time this ‘mage’ has ever developed an action game…so I’ve had a lot to learn, and I’ve been fighting very hard every day while making sure I don’t cause any trouble for my party members. I’ll continue to work very hard to make sure everyone who plays Penny Blood: Hellbound has a good time, so I hope you’ll keep cheering us on! *The screenshot you see below is just something I made for fun and has nothing to do with the game.
Machida pops back in once again to introduce the last team member:
Last but not least, we have our producer, Suzuki-san, AKA “Our Suzuki P.” His job is to tend to the wounded soldiers among the development staff who are fighting hard within the death zone mentioned above, as well as manage the schedule and even deliver beef rice bowls in the middle of the night…which makes him the ‘priest’ of the party, the one who takes care of every last problem, no matter how big or small it may be. When I (Machida) played Dragon Quest 3, the priest (the one who could use Kazing, the guaranteed revive spell) would often die first, causing me to experience many tragedies, but thankfully our Suzuki P is a tough one and boasts as much HP as our Hero!
Producer Suzuki-san
The last team member introduced is the Producer Suzuki-san. Suzuki-san shared this with everyone:
I’m Suzuki, the one in charge of buffing and healing the dev staff!! With this game, action gameplay where you cover the floor in a ton of blood and then ornately surf across it was born from Machida-san’s super crazy (I’m complimenting him here) image of “cute X covered in blood.” Based on that, our super crazy (literally this time) development team elevated it into an ecstasy action game that retains its fun no matter how many times you play it. We’ve still got a couple of game-changing updates left to reveal, so we hope you’re excited!
One more time Machida pops in to say this:
…Well, what did you think of the comments from the passionate men who’ve been working on Penny Blood: Hellbound? Reading through them while you listen to Miyuki Nakajima’s Project X theme songs in the background or other theme songs meant to represent how professionals get the job done may help to boost your immersion. That concludes this month’s update. We’ll be sharing more voices from Hellbound’s development staff with you next month, so I hope you’re looking forward to it.
See you all next month.
Matsuzo Machida
Message From Hirota-san
Hirota-san pops in for some quick words before introducing a guest composer. Hirota-san said this:
Good evening, everyone. For a while, we were getting sun like it was early summer, but there have also been some cold days as well. Every day it’s really hard to decide what to wear. Please take good care of yourselves! The development of Penny Blood: Hellbound is reaching its climax, and I’m working hard every day as well. Currently with the sound development, I’m in the phase where I’m just creating everything that the game still requires. I’m also desperately working on composing the remaining songs that are required. Our guest composer, Iwadare-san, is also composing some amazing music for us. He even wrote some comments for everyone.
Guest Composer Iwadare-san
Iwadare-san talked about their work on Penny Blood: Hellbound and said this:
Fans of Penny Blood, it’s very nice to meet you all. I’m Noriyuki Iwadare. I’ve been participating in this project as a composer. I started working on this project after Hirota-kun asked me this wild question: “It’s dark, and there’s a lot of blood in it… You sure you’re okay with this, Iwadare-san?” But I felt that this would be an opportunity to pull out a new side of myself.
So my heart has been pumping with excitement as I continue to enjoy the atmosphere. Hirota-kun’s songs are really addicting – they’re cool, of course, but they are also filled with new elements you can discover the more and more you listen to them! So I’m doing my best to add my own elements to the world of Penny Blood: Hellbound in equal measure. I hope you’re all excited about the remaining tracks!
More From Hirota-san
After the introduction, Hirota-san popped back in to talk about the music in the game. Hirota-san added this about the game’s music:
Please be sure to send Iwadare-san your own passionate cheers as well. The entire staff is working as hard as they can to deliver you the best sound possible in all areas – the music, the sound effects, the voice lines… We hope you’re looking forward to the finished product. Penny Blood: Hellbound is really serving as a great place to experiment on things in preparation for Penny Blood itself. For example, having the music change when your Malice Gauge gets maxed out is an experiment that will connect to Penny Blood’s Madness system. I’ve been able to perform a lot of trial and error and discover things here, such as the fact that we’ll need sound effects in addition to the music to send the information to the players.
The quality of the tracks and sound materials is important, but this was a good reminder of how important specifications can also be. I truly feel that completing Penny Blood: Hellbound has given me the ability to make the sound for Penny Blood even better, so I hope you’re all looking forward to seeing the final version of Penny Blood: Hellbound as well. Lastly, I’d like to talk about a concert I’m planning to do in September, which is also the month I was born in.
I’m planning on performing songs from Penny Blood: Hellbound, Penny Blood, and Shadow Hearts as well, if possible. The music will be performed on piano, violin, and cello (which I’ll be playing). I’m thinking of scheduling it on a day between 9/15 and 9/18 in Tokyo or maybe Kyoto. I hope you can all make it. I’ll let you know the details later…so keep your calendars open!
Penny Blood Publishing
Next up on the agenda we have the publishing to talk about. It seems the be the bane of many small developers these days in the current climate. This is what the team had to say:
We saw the comments on the last update so we want to inform you of where we are. We are still pitching different publishers in hopes of finding a partner. As we stated during the campaign, the next phase will require a publisher since RPGs are quite costly to develop. That phase is still ongoing and we will update you if anything changes.
As mentioned in a previous update, Penny Blood: Hellbound isn’t using any backer funds for development. It’s something we can focus on while we continue the search for a publisher. Although the game currently has a great review score on Steam, we understand not everyone loves roguelikes. These last 18 months have been challenging for the video game industry, but we are not giving up. Despite the speedbumps, we hope that you will continue to stick with us and cheer on all these talented developers so that publishers may finally realize just how special and worthwhile this IP truly is.
Early Access and Updates
The last bit of the update talks about the demo/early access for Penny Blood: Hellbound and some minor updates. This is what was shared:
We’ve released a new demo for Penny Blood: Hellbound on Steam with Online Multiplayer. It’s still very much in its early stages but if you are curious about the game or if you want to play it with other fans, give it a try and tell us what you think! As always, it’s still a work in progress so please provide any constructive criticism for the online gameplay. It helps us make the best game possible. We are fixing a lot of bugs in preparation for the Early Access 2 build to give you a more stable experience. Here is a selection of some of the biggest adjustments that will be coming:
- Ranged characters can now also perform blood-surfing attacks. (Dr. Eugene and Saltykova)
- Your buddy (the AI-controlled character) will now use Weapon Skills.
- The Druid’s AoE (where trees sprout out of the ground) has been adjusted so that the camera will zoom out and let you see the entire screen during the attack.
- The mouse cursor will now be invisible when playing with a gamepad.
- ! marks now appear when all enemies attack.
- Fixed a bug where the New mark (orange mark) would keep appearing even after accepting rewards in Purgatory.
- Scapegoat will now create a scapegoat that looks like the character using it instead of always looking like Clara.
- Fixed the gameplay so that Ecstasy Skills now hit certain enemies even while they’re in the middle of an invincibility frame action.
Wrap-Up
When I found out that the spiritual successor for Shadow Hearts was coming out, and that was Penny Blood I was excited. More and more of the recent updates have been about Hellbound which is cool to have a companion game. But more focus has gone away from the main game. I understand sometimes companion games or smaller games can help funnel money into the development process. I just want more and more info on the main game, Penny Blood. Stay tuned for more updates from their Kickstarter page in the future.
