The Azimuth Gap
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
The Azimuth Gap is a science fiction visual novel set in outer space during a time when a space-faring humanity has long-since colonized nearby systems. It will be a mix of suspense and psychological horror that will take the player on a journey of emotion and discovery. It will be a fairly linear story with multiple endings, character customization, the ability to shape the player character's personality and relationships, and a romantic subplot.
Story Summary
In the space-faring future, there is an organization called the United Space Federation that employ what are referred to as Responders: groups of engineers and scientists sent on year-long missions to investigate reported phenomena in various quadrants of space.
The USF Dixie is in the middle of one such mission on a very routine tour, with the exception of the presence of a Corporate VIP and her android assistant. As the crew is under the assumption they are being evaluated by headquarters, everyone is on their best behavior. Other than a series of maintenance issues, the tour is going well … until the ship arrives at the next incident site and the crew find something there that they did not expect to find: an alien vessel. When all attempts to hail are met with silence and life-scans come up negative, the Captain makes the only logical choice: send in a team to investigate.
You will assume the identity of First Responder Ambrose and join your crew in investigating the alien ship, but on the very first trip over, something goes terribly wrong...
Cast of Characters
Ambrose, or Ambs to her friends, is a First Responder aboard the USF Dixie. She is an astrophysicist with a background in electrical engineering and a trained astronaut.
Elijah Harris is the Dixie's Chief of Security and a good friend of Ambs. He is kind and funny and, in times of stress or danger, the strength that keeps his loved ones above water.
Claire Harris is the Dixie's Supply Officer and Elijah's very pregnant wife. She is both sassy and sweet. Ambs is the future godmother of their child.
Maya Kendrick is a First Responder and brilliant scientist with a background in chemical engineering. She is Ambs' fiery best friend.
Finn Lauano is a mechanic and the go-to man when Ambs' and Maya's ideas aren't exactly above board. Incredibly tall and sturdily built, he is the ship's "gentle giant".
Jun Yoshiwara is the captain of the USF Dixie. Stoic and stern but fair, he has the complete trust of his crew.
Dr. Lola Whitney is a USF corporate VIP. No one knows why she is aboard the ship. Secretive and snobby, her face seems stuck in a permanent scowl, making her unapproachable.
Isaac is a top-of-the-line, custom-designed android with a unique personality construct. Even for a fully functioning replicant, he is remarkably human-looking. Isaac is Dr. Whitney's assistant, though his duties and agenda remain unknown.
There is also a 9th secret character!
Features
- the script is just over 110,000 words with a prologue, seven chapters, and an epilogue that changes depending on the player's choices
- 7 normal endings and 5 bad endings
- a romance with the android Isaac
- a character creator where the player will be able to name their character and choose from a variety of hair and skin colors to make their character their own [Note: The player character is gender-locked to female.]
- 18 CGs
- a custom soundtrack featuring over 20 unique tracks
- The Azimuth Gap will be FREE
The game is being made with Ren'py and will be released per chapter. I will release Windows and MAC versions exclusively on itch.io until it is completely finished, and then I intend to release on Steam as well. There are currently no plans for a mobile version.
WARNING: The Azimuth Gap will include optional sexual content, violence, and minor gore. Though the game has a psychological horror tag, it does not include issues of mental disorders.
If you have any questions, please contact me at frozenstargames@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @theazimuthgap!
Credits
Story by Ashley E Wrigley
Character Sprites by Audia Pahlevi
Backgrounds by Ruan Ming Ren
Music by Ivan Mosquera
GUI by Kathaeris
Download
Development log
- Thoughts on PatreonApr 22, 2021
- What's Next for The Azimuth GapFeb 19, 2021
- Kickstarter Launched!Jan 25, 2021
- Kickstarter Coming SoonJan 18, 2021
- UpdateNov 18, 2020
- The Azimuth Gap Demo Now Available!Sep 26, 2020
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
As a space nerd and aspiring astrophysicist, I LOVED this demo. I'm also super jealous of Ambs for getting to go on a spacewalk on her birthday, and I don't even want to go to space unless there's something I can't learn while staying on Earth. I loved the worldbuilding. I love knowing everything about how everything works. A lot of scifi doesn't answer those questions, but this did and I love it for that. Can't wait to see more!
Thank you so much! I'm so excited to see someone else out there appreciates the details. :) I absolutely haven't forgotten about this project. The script is finished, I'm just trying to do the art myself now and it's a process. I absolutely will get this story out one day, and I hope you will enjoy it beginning to end!
This was very interesting!! AHHH i love Isaac arleady lol i can’t wait for the full game to come out , good job!!:D
Thank you so much! I am working on doing the art myself so that it can finally be released. It will be a downgrade from the lovely work of Audia and Ren, but I really want to be able to get this story out!
i am sure it will be as beautiful or even more! don’t worry and take your time!:)
is it complete? or is it discontinued?
It's on hiatus currently. I couldn't get funding to finish the art, but I've since developed in my own style since then, I am hoping to come back to it myself soon. :) Thank you for your interest!
I'd like to back this but am unable to do so on Kickstarter. Is there a different way to support you which would go towards the Kickstarter?
Apart from that, the demo looks great and I am quite intrigued to see where the story is headed. I wish you good luck!
Thank you so much for your interest! I'm so glad you like what you see with the demo! I do not currently have an alternate method, though I may look into a donation system. I was going to create a post soon to talk about how I might proceed in the coming months and would love your feedback! :)
You're so welcome :)
Playing the demo was a pleasure. I really enjoyed the established relationships of the crew and their banter, how the dialogue makes it clear the characters are comfortable with each other, having the ho-hum of working in space get infused with a spike of exhilaration of being in freaking space! when doing more rare tasks, I like the female relationships are respectful and friendly, the atmosphere is well drawn and written which pulls me right in, and I like how grounded in the body the game is which very much evokes the human on a more primal level but it also gets enough into the mind to establish the basis from which to contrast human and android as it has this interesting split narrative between body and mind without actually splitting it. I'm looking forward to see how the body and mind are further explored through Ambs in contrast to Isaac. It's an excellent game thus far.
Usually I don't like android characters and especially not romance with them; however, I'm realizing it's more a problem with how they're written/portrayed and their function in the plot which makes me dislike them. Not that I have a tonne of breadth of experience with them, but the only other android I've liked is Agashi's Silas from This, My Soul. He was written on that fine line between android and human in a way that felt realistic to me and did not veer off-path of what an android is, which was interesting for how the game explores Silas and it drew me in. The game got into some of the questions of how and why humans comes to establish relationships with and act on their feelings towards androids. Most don't manage that. Certainly, it's in part a matter of what works for me rather than some grand imperative of how androids 'should be done'. I'm uncertain if etiquette suggests it's rude to comment in a way that seems to advertise someone else's work. If it is, I apologize; I'll delete this part of my comment if you would prefer :) I mention him only as a means of better explaining what I'm getting at and because I think, based on what's in the demo, The Azimuth Gap will go into that level of depth with Isaac and in the relationship between himself and Ambs. I am quite looking forward to it. Even if it doesn't though, I'm still very much looking forward to this game.
About alternate methods of donating... I'm not good with tech stuff, at all. The only thing I know about it comes from reading through old posts on Azalyne studios's blog on tumblr for the game Seven Kingdoms: the Princess Problem. There she came up with an alternate to Kickstarter allowing for donating through Paypal, but I wasn't even aware of these types of indie games at that point so I don't know how it worked. The posts about it were most likely around the time of her Kickstarter so beginning in August 2015. I'll see if I can find the specific posts about it and put the links here so you can read up on it if you'd like. [edit 1: it seems more info is in July. I'm making a list of links to useful posts]
Once again, thanks for the great demo and I wish you success. Cheers!
[edit 2: adding info on paying through Paypal for a Kickstarter campaign] Azalyne Studios set this up on their own prerogative. Here's a link to the tumblr post describing how it works on the buyer's end 7 Aug 2015. Seems part of the process involves becoming a Paypal approved merchant (5 Aug 2015). And they set it up after the initial Kickstarter goal was reached to avoid having to give refunds through Paypal if it came to that (20 July 2015). I'm not sure if this will be useful to you but at least the info is here if you need it. Kampai!
Aahh, thank you so much. Just like constructive criticism where someone tells you specifically what you need to work on, constructive praise is also so incredibly helpful. Reading such a detailed account of what you found to be working well really made my day! I hope that you will continue to enjoy the way the relationships develop, especially with Isaac.
And yes, I've played "This, My Soul", too! [And it's totally okay to link it! :)] I really enjoyed it, too. I'm in the same boat in feeling like android characters and especially romances with them tend to be unenjoyable. I often find they are written too human for me to reconcile in my mind. And so I agree with you that "This, My Soul" really was able to walk that line in such a wonderful way. I really hope that I have managed to do the same that it will be equally enjoyable to you. When writing the story, I always tried to keep in mind that he is an android and what that means for him in his motivations and each interaction.
Also, thanks so much for the link about Paypal! That's really helpful and I will look into it. As it stands, it doesn't look like The Azimuth Gap will reach it's funding goal, so I have to look at what's next. But I plan to keep trying to release this game, and will make a post soon about what avenues are available!
Oh, the music is really cool! Can we expect an extended demo? Maybe to the lead-up of the alien vessel?
It may make people want to find out what's coming next.
I would love to create one. There is a lot of artwork up to that point, which is why it's still so limited. As soon as I was able, I planned to extend the demo up to that point. Perhaps, if people don't mind placeholder artwork, I could release it sooner...?
Ohh. Yeah, that's not an easy decision. You want to grab people with a cliffhanger, but if it's placeholder art then some people could be turned off by that. Although I think only a small amount would turn their noses off, especially when you make it clear that you want to give the people a deeper look into the story, but it's placeholder art for now that will get replaced in the future.
Does itch.io allow different releases? Like an additional demo-beta release?
I'm not totally sure how it works exactly. This is my first time publishing a project. I could probably post a demo-beta separate to what's already there with placeholder art and just explain that in the description. I will look into it!
Great! I look forward to it. And if it's not going to happen then that's fine. too.
This looks really promising! I'm excited to see more of this!
Fantastic! Beautiful and I love the character creation. I look forward to seeing and reading more of the story and what happens next. The story seems hopeful at the moment, like most space faring stories are, so I'm interested to see what psychological horrors the team have in store for them!