“A heartbroken university student is surprised to find new love in a massively multiplayer online role-playing-game.”
That would be the premise for my game’s story. I’ve started to realise everything about my game’s story is still stuck in my head – barely anyone really knows what it’s about – so it’s time to scoop it all out and form some structured sentences.
Whenever someone asks me what my game’s about, I fumble, blush and manage to stutter out “Er, well it’s a visual novel that’s a romance... Er no, not that kind of “romance”...”. I am terrible at expressing myself in speech, that’s why most of what I do is written and drawn, or better still, animated. I love expressing myself through animation. I remember hearing somewhere “an animator is a frustrated actor”. That’s always stuck with me. I have a lot to say and express, but can’t do it in the traditional sense.
Anyway, I really think animation is going to be the strength of my game. I know most of you must think visual novels have some of the worst animation in video games, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact there are a lot of examples within the visual novel genre that have awesome animation *cough* Phoenix Wright. I’m really trying to push the boundaries of what you’d typically find in a VN; animation can really instill energy into a character. Of course, I’m creating very simple, low budget stuff, but with enough expression to stand out from most visual novels, in my opinion anyway! Here’s a peek:
https://vine.co/v/exh7gJiaLxK
That telephone conversation has taken nearly a week to do, can you believe it?! All the expressions (there’s still not enough) for 2 characters took about 3 days, and the other 2-3 days were spent painting the characters and coding them in. Bah, I should have done low resolution sprites (I’m joking). Actually, on a full 27″ screen, the game is looking pretty sweet! I’ve created all the assets at 2560x1440 and it’s totally paid off. I’ve seen many visual novel developers still making their games at 1024x768 and I’m stunned. Bigger = better, always with artwork. And, y’know, it’s not 1999 anymore (although sometimes I wish it was. The Matrix, Fight Club and American Beauty all in one year? Hell yeah!).
Anyway, I’ve been wondering how much longer I have left until the game is complete (I bet you have too, right?). Here’s a rough estimate:
- 40% Script
- 45% BGs
- 5% CGs
- 35% Sprites
- 20% UI
- 5% Music/audio
- 30% Coding
Wow. Putting it that way makes me wonder what I’ve been doing for 9 months! Well, in fairness, there’s been research, concepting and a hell’a lot of learning: Blender and Python in particular. Freelance projects, GDC, moving to Germany and business/ website redesigns/ maintenance have also been done in that time; just to justify my slowness! But it’s full steam ahead right now so I’m hoping to be at mostly 50% by Christmas.
Next March, I plan on doing NaNoReno: the visual novel jam. It seems like a much easier game jam for me to take part in, and it’s good portfolio stuff before launch of my actual game. Yep, I still don’t have a name for it...
I’m also considering crowd funding, as I’ve mentioned previously. I hope it will buy me more time to give the game its final polish. I really want to do that, but it all depends on interest.
So, taking the jam and a possible crowd funding campaign into consideration, I think I could be finished in just over a year, but a Christmas launch isn’t something I really want to do; I’ll get buried by everything, never mind the snow! Still, I have to create a load of marketing materials, attend events (I plan on demoing) and do my own PR too. Perhaps I’ll launch around January 2017, or, if polish and hype ends up being minimal, I’ll launch late Summer/ early Autumn 2016. Better to get it out sooner if barely anyone cares. Anyway, we’ll see!
Oh gosh, I forgot I need to create a decent demo too! >_< Send help!
That would be the premise for my game’s story. I’ve started to realise everything about my game’s story is still stuck in my head – barely anyone really knows what it’s about – so it’s time to scoop it all out and form some structured sentences.
Whenever someone asks me what my game’s about, I fumble, blush and manage to stutter out “Er, well it’s a visual novel that’s a romance... Er no, not that kind of “romance”...”. I am terrible at expressing myself in speech, that’s why most of what I do is written and drawn, or better still, animated. I love expressing myself through animation. I remember hearing somewhere “an animator is a frustrated actor”. That’s always stuck with me. I have a lot to say and express, but can’t do it in the traditional sense.
Anyway, I really think animation is going to be the strength of my game. I know most of you must think visual novels have some of the worst animation in video games, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact there are a lot of examples within the visual novel genre that have awesome animation *cough* Phoenix Wright. I’m really trying to push the boundaries of what you’d typically find in a VN; animation can really instill energy into a character. Of course, I’m creating very simple, low budget stuff, but with enough expression to stand out from most visual novels, in my opinion anyway! Here’s a peek:
https://vine.co/v/exh7gJiaLxK
That telephone conversation has taken nearly a week to do, can you believe it?! All the expressions (there’s still not enough) for 2 characters took about 3 days, and the other 2-3 days were spent painting the characters and coding them in. Bah, I should have done low resolution sprites (I’m joking). Actually, on a full 27″ screen, the game is looking pretty sweet! I’ve created all the assets at 2560x1440 and it’s totally paid off. I’ve seen many visual novel developers still making their games at 1024x768 and I’m stunned. Bigger = better, always with artwork. And, y’know, it’s not 1999 anymore (although sometimes I wish it was. The Matrix, Fight Club and American Beauty all in one year? Hell yeah!).
Anyway, I’ve been wondering how much longer I have left until the game is complete (I bet you have too, right?). Here’s a rough estimate:
- 40% Script
- 45% BGs
- 5% CGs
- 35% Sprites
- 20% UI
- 5% Music/audio
- 30% Coding
Wow. Putting it that way makes me wonder what I’ve been doing for 9 months! Well, in fairness, there’s been research, concepting and a hell’a lot of learning: Blender and Python in particular. Freelance projects, GDC, moving to Germany and business/ website redesigns/ maintenance have also been done in that time; just to justify my slowness! But it’s full steam ahead right now so I’m hoping to be at mostly 50% by Christmas.
Next March, I plan on doing NaNoReno: the visual novel jam. It seems like a much easier game jam for me to take part in, and it’s good portfolio stuff before launch of my actual game. Yep, I still don’t have a name for it...
I’m also considering crowd funding, as I’ve mentioned previously. I hope it will buy me more time to give the game its final polish. I really want to do that, but it all depends on interest.
So, taking the jam and a possible crowd funding campaign into consideration, I think I could be finished in just over a year, but a Christmas launch isn’t something I really want to do; I’ll get buried by everything, never mind the snow! Still, I have to create a load of marketing materials, attend events (I plan on demoing) and do my own PR too. Perhaps I’ll launch around January 2017, or, if polish and hype ends up being minimal, I’ll launch late Summer/ early Autumn 2016. Better to get it out sooner if barely anyone cares. Anyway, we’ll see!
Oh gosh, I forgot I need to create a decent demo too! >_< Send help!