The Star Legation
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
The Star Legation has launched and is now available on PC!
(Mac version unavailable due to post-demo issues with exporting to Mac's new OS.)
FREE demo! Download PC or Mac version at link above.
A Sci-Fi Visual Novel!
ABOUT
Solar Echoes: The Star Legation is a Sci-Fi choice-driven Visual Novel game with RPG elements, full of intriguing alien characters, bizarre foreign cultures, and interstellar conflict. Journey through space to gather and manage an alien crew, visit new worlds, negotiate with alien leaders, and even risk romance across the stars! Hidden variables track your relationship with each character, and your reputation will determine your fate and the fate of your crew! Can your diplomatic efforts with alien leaders lead to a peaceful alliance between all the races, or will you incite a massive interstellar war? Will your words bring unity, or chaos?
The Story
Journey through space with a bizarre alien crew. Visit new worlds, negotiate with alien leaders, and risk romance across the stars!
In the beginning, the universe was not a friendly place. As the alien races began to discover each other, hostilities erupted and eventually grew from skirmishes into violent wars.
A plan has been made to build an alliance and you, Trey Donovan, have been chosen to represent humanity! Journey through space to strange new worlds and meet with powerful alien leaders. Bring back a representative from each alien race to join the Interstellar Union. This mission will prove we can all get along, work together, and unify peacefully.
During your mission, you must know when to use your clever wit, an aggressive tone, or a conciliatory approach. Do not worry, this is a diplomatic legation and there is minimal risk: nobody will attack the representatives and cause an interstellar incident.
Character Profiles
Crew Relationships & Romance
Your relationship with each of your alien crew members depends on what you say. Will you gain their trust and respect? Or will they oppose and possibly even betray you? Hidden variables calculate how they will behave at some of the most crucial moments in the game.
Two different human women will be in contact with you during your journey. You can keep it totally professional if you choose, but…it gets lonely being the only human among an alien crew! Multiple endings depend on your conversations and possible flirtations with the ladies. Can long distance in space really work?
RPG-Style Character Design
Trey Donovan is the human protagonist, but you will get to decide what some of his skills are. Is he an engineer or a hacker? Is he persuasive, or more discerning? Is he skilled in the martial arts, or with firearms? Your decisions will change the options and situations throughout the game, and though any path can lead to success, each will have its own challenges.
Game Features
Genre: Sci-Fi Space Opera, Adventure, RPG Elements, Romance, Dramedy, Mystery
- The Star Legation’s beautifully authentic style blends realism with a cel-shaded, anime touch. Design, art, and audio create a unique space-opera atmosphere.
- 100's of decisions to make in this choice-driven branching story
- Experience an engaging narrative filled with intrigue, humor, science, treachery, and heart.
- Detailed background art, cinematic camera work, expressive character sprites, and animated sequences make this visual novel a dynamic experience!
- 32 possible endings (including 5 main endings)
- Build relationships with memorable characters and develop a reputation that will alter the course of the story!
- Over 10 hours of gameplay, with additional hours in alternate routes and endings
- Awesome SciFi soundtrack by Andy Mitchell, featuring 40 tracks with over 99 minutes of original music!
- 15+ High Res CG's to unlock, designed by the talented artist, Aeghite!
- RPG elements with 8 different character design skill choices to make
- Hidden skill-related choices based on your character design that unlock extra routes
- Optional Combat (auto-win option), or Challenge Mode
- Optional Romance story routes with 2 human characters
- All 5 main endings each voice acted by 3 different voice actors
Complex Branching Storylines
Your decisions affect what happens! Some choices can mean life or death, and others can subtly influence a relationship that might affect your situation later in the game. There are multiple paths to success and failure!
An Expressive Cast of Characters
Some characters have over 100 facial expressions, which really brings a new dynamic to visual novel dialogue as they interact during conversations. However, some alien characters are easier to read than others! Get to know each character so you can manage your starship crew. You never know how each relationship might affect the story!
Stand Before Alien Leaders
This is a diplomatic mission, but that doesn’t mean everyone will be agreeable. Know when it’s appropriate to use your clever wit, an aggressive tone, or a conciliatory approach. The fate of your species might depend on it. No pressure!
Adventures Across a Dangerous Universe
The Star Legation will take you to mysterious alien planets, powerful interstellar anomalies, and even throw you into deadly starship battles. A rare fight might even erupt in your own starship, if you get boarded!
Easter-Eggs for Solar Echoes fans!
Gamers familiar with the Solar Echoes tabletop RPG may discover some insider references in the visual novel and hidden meanings in the artwork!
Original Soundtrack
Discover the music of guitarist and composer Andy Mitchell, including adaptations of his unique compositions as well as original music composed specifically for this space opera!
Credits
I couldn't have done this without the work of these incredible artists!
Character Sprite Artists:
John Fell
Aeghite (Omuls)
Starship Interior Background Artists:
Alexis Rill
Aeghite
Starships and Space Background Artist:
Lee Madison
Planet Backgrounds Artists:
Aeghite
Lee Madison
CG Artist:
Aeghite
Graphical User Interface:
John Fell (Art)
Shawn White (Programming)
Nicholas Kingsley (Programming)
Andy Mitchell (Additional Art, Sound, and Programming)
Creative Design, Story, Art Direction, Music Composer, Sound Design, Animation, and Programming:
Andy Mitchell
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- The Star Legation has launched!Feb 08, 2022
- Beta Testing now, game release: February 4, 2022, plus new features!Dec 18, 2021
Comments
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FULLSCREEN MODE: A lot of players have missed it and mentioned this, so I wanted to let everyone know that there is a fullscreen mode in the game. When you pull up the menu, you'll see a list of key commands on the right, and F is the command to switch to Full screen mode.
If anyone needs to contact me, currently the best way is through Twitter @SolarEchoesRPG
Follow and then DM me, and I'll probably get back to you within less than a day. I apologize to anyone that has asked me questions here about the game and I've failed to respond quickly. I don't spend a lot of time on itch.io, sorry!
I really love your game so far!! But I just can't get past the Chiraktis Queen. Anything I do ends up in her killing me, and I just don't know if I'm making a wrong decision earlier or something....any tips ovo
I'm so sorry I missed this post! Yes, the Chiraktis Queen is difficult, but one thing to keep in mind is that you may have succeeded and not known it with her. She is arrogant and won't let on that you've convinced her, and will send you away. But if you play it out past that, you may find out that you succeeded. I'll give you a hint...if you end up leaving in the next scene with Rakchitek, you've actually done well. If it's one of her guards, though...that will eventually end up in a Game Over, though there's a little surprise at the end you may want to witness before reloading. It's not over until it's over :)
One other tip with the Chiraktis Queen is to forget everything you've learned with the other leaders. She obviously doesn't respond to the same arguments. Sometimes making threats and taking a strong stance is the only way to reason with a bully. ;)
what is solar echoes universe even is? I’ve tried to google it and haven’t got any results.
Hello magma-rager, yeah, it's hard to find it on Google because 2 years after I designed Solar Echoes, "Nigel" put out a music album with the same name, and now that's all we see on google.
Go to www.SolarEchoes.com for more details on the Solar Echoes universe, or check out my company website at www.CorefunStudios.com to see more Solar Echoes related products. Originally, I designed Solar Echoes as a tabletop RPG, but I've expanded it since then, including The Star Legation game.
Thanks for your interest!
-Andy
I see, thanks. I highly recommend you to add this information in the description of your game, since it’s kinda important (might as well use extra chance to promote your tabletop game)
Thanks magma-rager! For now, I dropped reference to this being based on the Solar Echoes RPG, since I think it might discourage some people away because they're not familiar with the TTRPG. The Star Legation can be played without any prior knowledge of the game universe, since it is essentially a pre-history/introduction to that universe. I do have a brief mention of the TTRPG at the very end of the game after it's solved, so hopefully that will encourage people to look further. Thanks for your suggestion, and be sure to leave a review if you try The Star Legation, I'd love to hear what you thought of the story and the characters!
Best, Andy
The Star Legation is finished (for PC)!
It's been a long journey, but it is finally complete! The Star Legation is going to release for PC on February 4 in less than 2 weeks. The game will be available for $14.99.
That's the good news!
No Mac version, yet...
The bad news is that I have had to delay the release of the Mac version, indefinitely, while I work to solve issues with the export. The short explanation is that the game engine I used to build the game was updated and it now has an export issue for the Mac. I can't roll back to the previous version of the engine because that version wouldn't export games as large as The Star Legation. I'm currently trying things with a work-around, using the Japanese version of the program (which is in Japanese). A colleague is helping me with this process because it all has to be done with a Mac, and I don't own one. So far, the game has been successfully exported, but there are errors. Some re-coding has been done and we are currently trying the new version out with a Mac beta tester. Until I am confident that no further errors exist in this export, I'm not unwilling to release the Mac version. This process may take some time, since I cannot test and confirm things myself. The Mac version will be released if a bug-free, stable build can be confirmed.
Full Original Soundtrack will be available on release day!
I have put together for you a 99-minute OST (original soundtrack) with 40 unique tracks of scifi music that I've composed for The Star Legation game. Included with this soundtrack are 9 pages of composer notes and the cover art for the album. The music is synthesized techno with some classical elements, and includes a variety of moods such as:
* rave-like techno rock
* emotional, pensive and melodic
* bizarre, intense atmospheric
* cultural, rhythmic and brooding
* mysterious, dark and foreboding
The OST will be sold alongside the game for a price of $9.99.
Just played the demo last night and I must comment how I enjoyed it so much! Sci-fi like this is not my cup of tea, but somehow your game made me enjoy bits of it!
//Long paragraph ahead
It's hard to find visual novels that utilizes motion in its graphics and sprites, as well as sound effects to make the events come to life even with simple moving pictures. You weren't exaggerating when you said some characters has over 100 expressions which is a lovely touch to how their dialogues play out, but without the voice-acting (Kickstarter possible, as I heard, wheee), it'll have to make do for now glancing up and down to read the texts. The part where they're approaching through Erwani was also wonderful.
And speaking of Erwani and other alien characters, I don't know how you made them likeable, but you did. So far, starry-eyed Daeon became my instant fave (seeing his profile here made me think suspicious of him, though). Both him and Iyalen are both cinnamon-alien rolls. The language barrier here, even though all of them speak in perfect English, got me in hysterics. I'm also surprised liking the protagonist here as a real-life character, distinct from controlling him as a player. The dialogues here are indeed natural-sounding. Aliens feel relatable enough for humans without being human-ish at all.
Story-wise, I got hooked enough for the fact this is all about getting different species together in some adventure in a (star)ship. The transmission at the very beggining is delivered pretty well-- I felt a bit of goosebumps, prolly due to the graphic motion doing its magic. I haven't tried the romance bit though, and although flirting isn't a bad thing in general, the simple "Flirt" option felt off to me. I imagined the conversation between Sarah and Trey was more of a serious side, although intimate, so having an option to just flirt doesn't sit well with me. Take this as a grain of salt though, as this is my opinion: perhaps adding a bit more context to the flirt option, maybe?
I have no complaints to the gameplay. The fact that we get to have our own RPG-like (D&D, even) choices in making our character more personal and unique to the player hyped me to play the game. Though there are a few moments where I am confused, like the time when Trey is supposed to pick up a weapon before heading off. The highlight may not have been obvious at first; I'm used to the mouse shifting if it's clickable, unless that's just my own experience. Using Windows 10 here.
I also don't see any game option in the menu, whenever I try to tweak the audio. I had to save the game first, go to title menu before changing the game's audio settings. It also seemed to be resetting whatever I tweaked to default whenever I visit that section, though I cannot tell if what I tweaked changed to default as well or not. I only found out there's no exit button in the title menu and had to alt+tab and close it manually, if it's fullscreen (can't also toggle fullscreen in title menu, if that is any relevant as well).
Aside from these little issues, the game is wonderful. Immersive story, complex gameplay (quite a rare find in VN these days), and ear-candy soundtracks...this visual novel is among my top list for sure. Looking forward for its completion!
Hi Rikka,
Thank you so much for the wonderful review! I'm so glad you enjoyed the characters, story, animation, sound effects, and music! It's really rewarding to hear you respond to the characters like you did. I'm also really happy you noticed the expressions and felt they added to the game. I do hope voice acting will work out through the Kickstarter, but even if it doesn't, I'm trying my best to make the characters dynamic through their expressions. I even have some very subtle "micro-expressions," for moments with the human ladies when Trey says something that affects their reputation score with him. Behind the scenes, there are variables tracking his choices with every character, and the reputation he has with each affects how the story will play out at the end. The female characters have brief little expressions that--if you watch closely--indicate whether Trey's comment was a positive or negative adjustment to the relationship.
I appreciate your constructive criticism of some of the little game details. One thing that I will try to emphasize more somehow is the information in the README file that comes with the game: there is a way into the options from the game, anytime you like--if you mouse to the left of the icon in the lower right of the screen, you'll see the options icon appear, and you can go in and adjust things easily. The game engine I'm using to build this game doesn't allow for options to be accessed from the game menu once you've started (weird, I know), so this was my work-around. I could make the options icon visible, but I prefer to minimize UI options on the screen to keep things more immersive.
Sorry that the Flirt option felt off to you, I noted that. Trey can be played several ways, and I know outright having the option to flirt might have seemed off, but there was an opportunity in the dialogue at that point that I think some people would have tried to take advantage of if they were feeling interested in Sarah. But rest assured, in the rest of the game, the "flirtation" feels more organic. I might re-examine that moment and see if there is another way I could write something on that choice button that would feel obviously like a flirt, but still be short enough to fit on the button.
I did see one other person get a little confused with the weapon-choice-by-mouse moment at the beginning, so I'd added those highlights in there. The mouse does change to a hand when you move over those areas, but that's the best I can do--several months ago I looked into changing the mouse during that part of the game, and the limitations of my game engine make changing that problematic. (I'm not much of a programmer, unfortunately.) Maybe I'll make those highlights brighter, or even flashing, to be more obvious.
Thanks again for leaving such a nice review and for sharing your experience with my game. I'm so excited to finish it and share the entire story! It's also on Steam, if you wanted to wishlist it there to be notified of the exact release, but I'm hoping to complete the game by summer 2021. If you'd like to play more before then, there is a "Special Access" award on the Kickstarter that will allow backers to play an extended demo, with roughly another hour of content.
It really made my day to hear your thoughts, thanks for playing my demo!
Best,
Andy
Corefun Studios, LLC
I'm mindblown that you've actually done so much to the game now that I know you're just starting out as a programmer of sorts. The micro-expression addition seemed like a touch of genius to me! I'll be keeping that in mind when I get back in your game!
Oh, don't worry! I've noticed the option icon as well, it's pretty visible. It's a good decision, and now that I thought about it, your simple dialogue box also contributed to that too in making the game effectively even more immersive. The option I'm referring to is the sound settings. I can't seem to find them in the option icon, but I suppose that also comes with the engine.
I am no programmer or a game developer so this is only a suggestion. From many visual novels I've played, I recalled some of them color-labeled a dialogue with the flirt option or they come up with a simple three to five word liner that can still fit the "Flirt" word next to it. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way that fits to your game.
If it's something about highlights, one thing I recalled as to why I didn't notice it was a clickable item at first was probably due to the choice of color, as it blends like a part of the CG. But there's a no problem then if the mouse turn to a hand, it may have just been my cursor at the time hahaha.
Thank you so much too for valuing my review, I didn't expect you would take all in so I appreciated that as a player. I hope my feedbacks have helped you somehow :D
Added in my wishlist! There's no need to rush in making a masterpiece like this and I'm looking forward all the same once this will be released sometime next year. I'll keep the Special Access in mind, as this is on top of my VN list.
Wish you all the best too. Cheers! 👊
Hi Rikka,
I'm so glad you like the micro-expression idea! Hopefully that will add to the game--I didn't want to include a reputation tracker because I'm going for realism and immersion. I'm so glad you noticed my minimalist approach to the message bar, too!
Regarding the sound options menu, I still don't think we're talking about the same icon. There are 2 in the lower right of the screen, but one is hidden, and that's the sound settings icon. You have to mouse over the area to the left of the planet icon (in the right corner of the screen.) I've included a photo showing what happens when you move your cursor there:
I realize that not everyone is going to read the README (and it might even be hard to imagine what I'm talking about without seeing this photo?) So, if you have any suggestions about ways I can let the player know about this better, please feel free to share. I could leave it visible, but I really prefer it remain hidden if possible.
Interesting that the highlights around the items weren't noticeable--that's probably my attempt to keep things subtle again. One reviewer commented that they liked that function, but hoped to do more of that in the demo and only saw it once. I'm considering adding more point-and-click into the game, especially for battle scenes.
I just double checked the weapons scene to make sure the mouse turns into a hand when in that area, and it does, but only over the weapons. Maybe that's why you didn't notice it? Once you mouse past the weapons you'll see it change. But I do understand that if you don't know to do that, it could be a little counter-intuitive.
Thanks so much for the encouraging words, I really, really appreciate it! I've been disappointed that the Kickstarter for voice acting hasn't been moving very quickly, but when people that play the demo say such nice things about it, it's an encouraging reminder that this is going in the right direction. Thanks for adding The Star Legation to your wishlist, I'm really excited to finish the game someday and to hear what you think about the full experience. It's so hard to contain myself and avoid sharing some of the major events that happen in the story!
Best,
Andy
UPDATE: the full version of the game now has a tutorial at the beginning which details where the hidden sound-options button is: it's hidden underneath the menu icon that is persistent through the game. Just move your mouse pointer under the icon during the game and you'll see the sound options icon appear. You can adjust your sound settings any time during the game.
Thank you so much for making an entertaining visual novel that includes a bit of romance without it being smut. I can't believe I have to write that, but I'm amazed at how much it oversaturates the medium, and it's refreshing to see a game include romance that's more like that of Princess Leia and Han Solo.
I played the demo and would happily recommend it to any kids (or adults!) who like Star Wars-style sci-fi.
I downloaded the demo on my old computer and it worked great. I am a big fan of interactive fiction/visual novels, so I was very excited to try it out. I went through to the part of where Daeon appears and doesn't understand certain idioms and phrases. Are there any plans to release this game for Android and/or iOS? Most kids I think most (including myself) would prefer to play the visual novel that way than on their computer nowadays.
Thanks for trying out the demo, Raytoons! I am planning to release a browser version of the finished game, as well as Android and iOS versions.
Awesome!
I'm on Linux, the Windows binary might work, but I'd love to try a native Linux version...
Thanks for mentioning that. In the future, I'll see if I can convert the file to Linux, but the best I can do right now--other than PC and Mac--is make a browser version.
It certainly makes a change reading a sci-fi visual novel, and from the demo it's going to be rather interesting.
Lovely graphics with quite a bit of animation going on as well
Well worth checking out
Thanks Triority! I'm glad you thought the demo was interesting and enjoyed the animation and graphics. I'm still hard at work making this and am excited to finish it for everyone!
Oh yes - it's coming along well