Hurray! It's finally happening! One Night Stand is coming to Steam on November 8th 2016! (I got so excited writing that, I gave myself hiccups!)
It's much later than I anticipated, these things always are *hiccup*, but at least it's finally on its way. Steam achievements and Steam Cloud are enabled, but Cards and Wallpapers are not. I plan on adding those at some point when I get back off holiday... That's right, that thing I said I'd never do again (see my last post), I'm doing again! I truly thought One Night Stand would be out by now when I booked my trip... Oh well, I've received a few bug reports from people with the itch.io version (thank you!) and have updated the build a few times since it's release. I think all issues are now sorted *fingers crossed*, but regardless, I'll be taking my laptop with me this time!
Also, the IGF 2017 entrants have been announced and One Night Stand is one of them! However, there are over 650, and some of those are truly, unbelievably great games, so I'm not so sure about my chances!
It's much later than I anticipated, these things always are *hiccup*, but at least it's finally on its way. Steam achievements and Steam Cloud are enabled, but Cards and Wallpapers are not. I plan on adding those at some point when I get back off holiday... That's right, that thing I said I'd never do again (see my last post), I'm doing again! I truly thought One Night Stand would be out by now when I booked my trip... Oh well, I've received a few bug reports from people with the itch.io version (thank you!) and have updated the build a few times since it's release. I think all issues are now sorted *fingers crossed*, but regardless, I'll be taking my laptop with me this time!
Also, the IGF 2017 entrants have been announced and One Night Stand is one of them! However, there are over 650, and some of those are truly, unbelievably great games, so I'm not so sure about my chances!
Okay, so putting One Night stand aside for a moment, work has resumed on LoveIRL (remember that game?)! After having such a long break from the project, I now see a lot of issues with it, mainly the story and pacing, but, sadly, also the real-world art style. The in-game art style (low polygon renders) have been positively received, but not so much the real-world stuff. Also, I don't like it. I never felt 100% on it, but looking back, I really don't think it has enough appeal. One Night Stand taught me, if I didn't know it already, that a game really needs a solid aesthetic to be successful. I've seen it happen enough times, but I was so solely focussed on my project, I just couldn't see the art style with fresh eyes. I guess this break has been pretty worthwhile after all!
| To the right, you can see some new doodles I've done which reflect a newer, fresher art style. By no means is this artwork final, but it incorporates the look I really want for the game. I think it's a little more Japanese looking than before, but that's a good thing, considering the visual novel market. However, I can't go full blown anime... It wouldn't work, being a true-to-life game set in England, and it's not really what I enjoy drawing, either. I've been very inspired by older anime recently, such as Rose of Versailles, but also more recent work like Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Zero Time Dilemma, Goodnight PunPun and Yuri on Ice. I really want to draw on the strengths that these art styles have to offer... I really appreciate what they do. I've also been reworking some of the script and making the story shorter and crisper. I think it was too lengthy and waffly before (mmm, waffles) and lost it's point along the way. People have shorter and shorter attention spans these days, even visual novel fans, so I think it'll pay to cut down. It also creates less work for me, which is totally needed as this project always feels like it's spinning out of control and constantly growing! I want it done, even if that means changing over half of what I have so far. Hey, when the half you have isn't good enough anyway, that's really not a problem. |  |
To make it feel cleaner and crisper, I even restarted the project in Ren'Py. Now, even the buggy and messy code that I had will be replaced with what I've learnt whilst making One Night Stand. Good stuff.
When the time is right, I may still consider a crowd-funding campaign to add extras to LoveIRL. Animation, voice overs and other language and platform support would be lovely to have, but with it just being me (and my low budget) I'll never get the dream game out without a little help. Still, a lot more work has to be done before I can think about that!
When the time is right, I may still consider a crowd-funding campaign to add extras to LoveIRL. Animation, voice overs and other language and platform support would be lovely to have, but with it just being me (and my low budget) I'll never get the dream game out without a little help. Still, a lot more work has to be done before I can think about that!