jrmiller_

Cradle Song was our first project back when we were just a group of volunteers, and so we were very ambitious with its design. Far too ambitious, actually. After several years of working on it, we realized that we had dreamed too big for the resources we had, and decided to put it on hold while we developed more reasonably sized projects.

We do hope to return to it eventually when we have the ability to properly do it justice (and actually finish it).

Originally I disliked the idea of Kickstarter mostly because it involves paying for something that doesn't exist yet and may never exist at all. It seems like an large risk for the consumer, and the reward for that risk is at best what they paid for and at worse nothing at all. This seemed unfair to me.

However, after talking to some people about it, I softened my views. I realised that while my original thoughts were true, the chance to have something that may never have otherwise existed can be worth the risk, especially if it's from a reliable company/group.

Also, after we announced that we didn't have the funds to make the next episode right away, we received a lot of requests to start a Kickstarter. Seeing our fans so eager to support us made me think that it was something we owed it to them to at least try.

I'm afraid I can't really answer that question. It was a personal decision on his part.

Hello looper.

We ended up changing the art style because the artist who worked on Juniper's Knot and Dysfunctional Systems left the team. We found a new artist to take his place, and decided to allow him to reworked the style rather than copy it completely. We've allowed our fans to give us feedback on the changes, and you can see how the new style has progressed here.

When it comes to recruiting, I suggest hanging out in places where people with the talent you are looking for hang out. For artists, I would look through Deviantart, and for musicians I'd check out SoundCloud (although we found ours on Newgrounds). If you want your company to own the intellectual property of the stuff your contractors produce, you will likely have to get a work-for-hire contract signed. As for the terms of that contract, it just depends on what people are happy with. I'd check with a lawyer to be absolutely sure of what you need though.

In Canada there is nothing special you have to do to start a company, other than file your income taxes differently. I did register my company name though, which required paying a little for the registration and the name search to ensure it wasn't already taken. We'll be getting incorporated soon, and that's a bit more complicated, but if you're just starting out there is no reason to do that. Look up the laws for "sole proprietorships" in your country. It's usually the simplest way to go.

Thank you for your congratulations! I'm quite pleased to see more visual novels on Steam, as more attention to the genre can only be a good thing for us (and other developers).