 What's up everybody I'm the Mangus, you are awesome and it's been a while since we've had any major news out of Project Stamina, but they recently conducted a live stream discussing the character creation and evolution of Kira. If you don't know what Project Stamina is, they are the ones attempting to create a spiritual successor to Motiga's Gigantic, the Firefly of video games. Not only was the live stream an enlightening glimpse into the behind the scenes processes of the game, but it was an absolute clinic on how an indie developer can be transparent and honest with its player base. The focus of the stream was the various changes to Kira's character model culminating in what should be the final iteration. I personally had no idea how much actually went into creating a hero and if you're at all interested, I highly suggest you watch the original stream linked in the description below. I'm not going to waste your time rehashing everything that went over, instead I want to talk about how the presentation itself showed us the amount of love these guys are investing into the game, as well as how an indie company can admit the setbacks in a way that creates an inclusive atmosphere within the community without coming off as a weak attempt at scapegoating. Kira started out as a bit of a desperado, a western-influenced gunslinger with dynamite rifles and her big robotic friend R4. That's where the first problem came in. Just as Project Stamina had gone through all the processes of creating her kit and nailing down her appearance, Overwatch released Ash, an eerily similar character in both style and abilities. They had to make a decision, keep Kira the way she was and forever be accused of copying Overwatch or make a hard pivot and redesign her. They understand their limitations as an indie developer and know full well that they can't come out the gate and compete with Blizzard. They consulted with some former members of Motiga as Gigantic had a similar issue with HK206. HK was very similar to Bastion from Overwatch, being able to roam around the battlefield and then become a machine gun turret. Even though HK206 was created first, Motiga was still accused of copying Blizzard and their character design. Motiga told Project Stamina that if they could change Kira, they should change Kira. And so it was back to the drawing board, months of hard work scrapped due to parallel thinking. But I think it was a good call. The second issue was an internal one. They had begun to work out the kinks and develop different abilities for Kira while giving her more of a space pirate than western style, but as they were developing their world, they discovered that Kira didn't fit. Kira is missing a hand and instead has a piece of ancient technology in its place. Project Stamina wants the world that these characters fight in to be strongly influenced by ancient yet powerful technologies. The design of how this tech would look was starting to come into focus, however Kira's hand and pistol did not match the appearance of everything else. Instead of just forcing what they had into a world that it didn't fit into, they once again went back to change Kira's design. This is what I'm talking about with how much love they put into their game. They could've just put Kira in as is, and maybe a few people would've noticed, but instead they wanted to make everything fit together. They showed us dozens of examples of how they wanted to redesign both Kira's hand and her weapons. Several members of the team put an incredible amount of time and effort into the third redesign of just one character, just to make her fit into the world a little bit better. If that's not love for a project, I don't know what is. The entire stream culminated in the final reveal of Kira. She now looks much cleaner, more professional, and dangerous without sacrificing the inherent cuteness of a maniacal, gun-toting, phoenix fox. Her gun switches from a compact shotty into a long rifle in a way that makes sense, with all the pieces being there in both incarnations. Her collar palette is simplified as well as her accessories and outline. Kira is the culmination of all of the love, hard work, and attention to detail that Project Stamina could possibly give. It's been a long roller coaster for me tracking all of these remakes and third-person games. I've watched various companies as they succeed beyond what we thought could be possible, but I've also seen these small indie studios make massive mistakes, excuses, and terrible decisions. However, I've never had a single bad word to say about Project Stamina. If you're at all familiar with my content, then you know damn well that I don't pull punches when I see something I don't like, so me not ever taking a shot at these guys, not even jokingly, says more than I ever could in this video. It's been hard for me to sum up what it is I like so much about this project. But if you watch the latest stream, see the love and experience the way they interact with their community, I think you'll understand. That's all for me today. Like the video if you enjoyed it. Let me know why if you disliked it so I can improve. Sub if you want, but for now, this is the Mangoo signing off. You guys, have a good one.