Friday, March 14, 2014

Cgs

Since I'm going to have more enemies and non-combat related H-content, I don't think I'll have as many CGs this time.

Basically, normal enemies will just sort of have their way with you, and then that's it, everything happens in-game, and you retain any effects from it. On the other hand, there will be CGs for anything that implies that the protagonist's journey ended.

I'll also take a shot at animating them with bone-based/deform animation, as a sort of compromise. While I dislike bone based animation for gameplay, I think it's fine for CGs, and better than still-frames. It doesn't really take much work, either, when it comes down to it. I'll be using anime studio, since it can deform raster images.

As for how much content there will be in general, at this point I need to start thinking about cutting back and finishing a minimum amount of content that I could release the game with. The minimum is basically,

20+enemies/traps with h-animations
3 bosses
3 h-events involving npcs
A few other hidden h-animations involving items or props, and some other stuff. 

In terms of CGs, that's a minimum of 6. 3 bosses, and at least 3 others. But that's if they're animated.

Anyhow, back to work.

57 comments:

  1. I think it's a good decision that CG's aren't made for regular enemies, that way more time can be spent on events and bosses. Plus people won't feel pressured to suicide to enemies just to unlock CG's.

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    1. Second

      It's also a nice idea to make item related h-content.
      Besides that, I think that some people enjoy animations more than CG, so your decision is alright.

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  2. Could you include an optional mirror match stage in one of your games? A boss similar in fighting style, size, gender, and abilities to the hero (like purple-haired girl in LAB-Still Alive).
    This way you can have one additional boss at minimal effort, and it is possible to get away with doing only stage and boss attack pattern. For literal mirror example: hero(ine) walks into an unassuming badly lit room, tries to lit something, discovers that there are strange mirrors, looks at one, and the reflection lunges out. For further fun mirrors can be walked in with random results like continue to fight inside mirrorspace, walk out of the random mirror, get trapped, get healed/wounded to reflection condition. After the win hero(ine) can get some stage-related power, or power-up if there is a need to somehow grant one.
    If there is need to some boss background, perhaps mirror dweller is hungry, perhaps desires a new toy, perhaps just wants to get out, but for that it needs to impersonate someone, and trap this person in mirror room instead, perhaps it is just cursed mirror/broken hologram projector. Such stages are good that way - they could be tied into plot without much troubles.

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    1. You mean like dark link? I would like to see kurovardis and the guy from erico as secret bosses in it myself, but a man can dream. :')

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    2. Yep, like Dark Link/Dark Zero/Doppelgänger.
      Point being that instead of great and powerful monsters it is the same hero, only much more skilled and creative than average rush and slash player. With some different powers or better loot-able weapon, but still.

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  3. 20+ enemies - 3 Boss => so basically this game length will be around the same as kurovadis ?

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    1. Well, Kurovadis only had around 14 enemies/traps with H animations and 3 bosses. So there's going to be more in that regard. However, the game is more non-linear than Kurovadis, and the game isn't really divided into 3 large stages, so it's hard to compare.

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  4. Off topic question, but I remember you mentioning that you're not a programmer (rather, an artist). How did you get so good with GameMaker? I gotta say, Spelunky, Gunpoint and Kurovadis inspired me to start thinking about making my own vidya, and I'm currently just reading through a ton of tuts and shit. So, yeah, how long did it take you to get to the point where you're really comfortable with the software? :>

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    1. I don't know, around 4 years? However I wasn't actively learning. Half the time I was just figuring things out slowly and sub-optimally. As long as you're learning the right stuff when you need to, you could learn pretty fast.

      Most of what you need could be taught in less than a week. Half of it is just knowing how to use it, which will come down to either experience or how intuitive you are. In my case it's just brute force experience.

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    2. Awesome, thanks for the reply!

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    3. You know, if you want to make a vidya and you're not a programmer, there's TONS of people on the web that could help you, or even handle the whole programming part for you. (hell, I'm a programmer, and I could do it for free -or at least a pretty reasonable fee- if someone on kyrieru's level asked me to)

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    4. Which of your 4 year and one week estimates includes learning the language? Ive heard its easy to learn but I have 0 experience with any language.

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    5. The week.

      Of the entire language, I barely use any of it. There are only a few things you really need for simple games like mine, and the rest you can pick up as you need it.

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    6. Op here.

      @NoRyu, I don't think anybody will be lining up to become my personal Jesse Pinkman anytime soon, so yeah, think I gotta make this one on my own. :)

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    7. Your choice. But you know, It seems like there's two kind of people:
      -programmers who can't draw and are looking for artists. (like me)
      -artists who can't program and are looking for dev help.
      Yet communication rarely establish between these two kind of people. And in the end, the only games made (outside of big studios) are done by artists who uses simple tools.

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    8. True. But still, whenever I think of a dev partner, I just imagine them as a worker making stuff for me with no say in the matter. I doubt anybody wants to develop a game where they have no influence outside of mindless coding or some other work. And I'd feel really bad for being an inconsiderate asshole. The alternative is to let them design the game with me, but I'm >>completely<< incapable of doing that, since I don't want anyone tampering with my ideas, which are LAW btw. :(

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    9. Well it can be an issue in some cases, especially if your ideas are BAD and you don't take suggestions on how to improve them, but actually submitting your ideas to someone else for opinions -and hence, having them influence the game design- can be very important because it points flaws out.

      And don't worry about dev making grunt job. Because it's NOT simple grunt job. Having a flawless program running is one of the programmer's joy, even if it does something he doesn't care for. (hell, I'm paid to make finance programs and I hate the financial world, but I'm still happy when it does exactly what I want)

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    10. That's an interesting perspective, the whole programmer's joy. I definitely would want help in later games, but seeing Kyrieru make the whole thing from scratch by himself, you know, it sorta inspires me :(

      As for the ideas being bad, I dunno. I stand by them, and I am not afraid of letting people test versions of the game, you know, whenever, to get another perspective.

      But really, thanks for all your suggestions :D

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    11. Of course, seeing Kyrieru doing everything by himself is inspiring -especially since there's not much to point out in his games (which is rarely the case in games made by non-professional devs)- but as you can see, he also spends much time complaining about features he tries to implement, and his trial-and-error process. Time that could be spent on artworks.
      On the other hand, he is doing platformers, which remains a game of medium difficulty to make. With the help of a good dev, there's virtualy no kind of game that is out of reach. Want to make a racing game? A strategy game? A first person shooter? that would be way much difficult, and time consuming, to do without help.

      Also, in game making, there never really is absolutly bad ideas (gameplay wise, of course. There can be bad ideas of stories). But there is game-breaking ideas which can really affect the game balance, hence requiring demos (test versions, in this case).

      With that said, I offer my help. Because I like games and want to make them, but I can't make them on my own (remember: can't draw), and the game industry doesn't pay enough to make a good living in my country (well, it pays really less than working for the financial world). But I have enough spare time to help making amateur games on the side. You don't seem interested, but drop me a mail if you want help.

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    12. Awesome, thanks man. But yeah, the way I see it, my first game is going to be a sidescroller anyway, with a bit more complex gameplay than usual, so I'm expecting a lot of testing and searching online for solutions. Plus, while my illustrations are pretty okay, I'm still horrendous at pixel art. I'm really focusing intensely on drawing and stuff, so I don't expect to start really committing time on the game until I'm comfortable with my skills as an illustrator and pixel artist. So, yeah, right now I'm in no rush, but I'm definitely getting that design doc ready. :)

      Again, thanks for your offer, and I definitely have some more ambitious ideas for vidyas that I wouldn't dream of tackling alone, so I'll shoot you a message if you're still interested that far down the road. Also, if you don't mind me asking, what country are you from?

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    13. Me? I'm french, living in France. Here, being a dev in game industry is really paid a minimal wage, and it's not like we have lots of studios hiring anyway. But we have so many~~ big industries and financial companies hiring programmers so work isn't an issue, as long as you're not absolutly set on working as a game dev.

      If you want to shoot me a message, please do. Worst that can happen is that I don't answer you. And it would be nice to see some really ambitious games, so even if I can't help at that time, I could easily provide tips or pointers on how to do things.

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    14. And thus a team was formed on of all things, an H-game Developer's Blog....
      wow.

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    15. There's no new team yet, but why not? it's not a bad place.
      And I've looked in lots of place. Finding people is hard so I don't care where people find each others.

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    16. Oh, no, don't get me wrong, it's nice seeing these things happen... just funny that it's coming from here.

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    17. I wish you two luck, I wish I could get in on it but all I can do is draw and I've been out of practice for so long :'(

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    18. "... but all I can do is draw"
      Well that's all I CAN'T do. Hop in, consider it an opportunity to get back to drawing! XD

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    19. Lol good point, shoot me an email I'll see what I can do

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    20. I would mail you, but seems like your address is not visible on your profile.

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    21. OP here, just a little preview, here's the title of the game abbreviated: H: JTA

      Wasn't that exciting?

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    22. That's so surprising and exiting!
      But an abbreviation with a J and a A, I can't help but think about the Justice League of America XD

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  5. 20 enemies in a fuckin' demo?! BLASPHEMY

    What is bone based animation? Is it like those games where you get a little square cut out while you fight of what the enemy is doing to your character?

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    1. No, in the full game -__-

      Bone based animation is when you "rig" a character. You divide up anything that's going to move, and then put what are referred to as "bones" over it. By moving the bone, or rotating it, you effect whatever part it's assigned to dynamically. It's how most non frame by frame H-CGs are done.

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    2. Think league of legends login screens

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  6. Will we be seeing a futa TF style thing on this game too? Will all the enemies have only one sex animation each like in the other games?

    Any chance of having bonus bosses or extra tough sections of the game that aren't tied to completing the main story (not necessarily with sex scenes, but maybe one at the end)?

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    1. TF? You mean the transformation? Well, there's a bunch of different stuff in this. Most enemies will only have one animation, some will have 2.

      There are going to be sections of the game that aren't required to beat it. However there might be alternate endings based on completing everything, some of it, and not much of it. None of them will be bad endings, though, just different.

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    2. Yes, by TF I did mean transformations. Voluntary transformations is some of my favorite stuff in games like these, and I'm always excited when you get a chance to play around with that. Some involuntary stuff is good too (like the girl to futa thing from Kuro), but others I really don't like (like male to female stuff). A wide verity sounds nice.

      Thank you for answering my question.

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    3. Hm, I hadn't planned on any specifically, but in some of the non-combat related stuff I think It could do some.

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    4. Oh, thank you. If you're looking for specifics, something similar to the transformation powers from Order of Ecclesia (could be disabled if you're knocked down) and a futa TF would be my personal requests.

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  7. What's left to be finished overall so far now?

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    1. Quite a few things. My goal went from releasing a short demo to releasing a demo close to what the demo of the full game will be like, so there's more to do than before.

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  8. So are you still planning the same price tag as the others at $5 or are you thinking of bumping it up some? Personally if your doing all this extra stuff (or at least it seems to me you have a lot more than the others) that asking $7-$10 seems fair still. Just my opinion but also curious

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    1. Nope, still $5.

      I know there are people that will like, say, kurovadis more than this, so I'm not going to charge $5 for any game until I know I've made something better in every regard. Which this isn't. This game started as one thing and slowly changed over time, so it isn't nearly as cohesive as Kurovadis. While Kuro was rushed, I was at least going for something specific from the beginning, more or less,

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    2. Generous little... Brb.

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  9. Just curious, are you planning to have a gallery mode? Where we can view the animations and cg?

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  10. Never really cared about animation much in my h-scenes. I kinda like the visual novel endings better where there's just a story and a picture with two or more alternatives (insertion, cumming, etc.)... Kinda like Monsters Survive, if you ever played it.

    But, alas, that is just me, and I feel I am a minority.

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    1. Yes, yes you are.

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    2. While it's not a big deal one way or another, I personally find animated H-scenes somewhat uncanny.

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  11. Would you say it's okay to mess around with GameMaker Studio to get used to knowing it better or is it best to be cautious (in case of messing things up)? I've used it a little bit and I've been looking at tutorials but sometimes they're hard to follow but I feel some f it's language is a bit vague...

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    1. What the hell are you going to mess up? Rtfm, then play around a bit. Then watch some tutorials, then play around a bit. Then play around a bit, then play around a bit. It's the same as learning anything else, and the language isn't hard to learn at all. The syntax is super forgiving and legible. It reminds me of C#.

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  12. I'm looking forward to this new game as I have quite a high expectation based on the previous two games already created. However, at the same time I'm still somewhat disappointed because I understand as well as others the potential future games have to be involved with more content. It's definitely a content improvement compared to the previous two games so that is a plus but overall I'd love to see much more, preferably anywhere from 2-6 hours of game content or maybe more. Though I understand it is within the discretion of the game developer/artist, one can still hope. Case and point, great games that I'd love to see more content in that would totally increase sales overall and game experience are Unholy Sanctuary, Parasite In City, Marionette of the Labyrinth, Punisher, Pretty Princess Party, Transformation Apocalypse Zuburiusu, Paisley Ne Adventurers, and so much more. I guess the overall point I'm trying to make are these game developers as well as yourself create excellent games that totally kick ass but in the same moment they lack content that I'd love to see more. Guess I'm either selfish but I can't help but think that sales + content + attention to details within the game = the best bang for the buck for the customer and returns for the developer. Anyways, hopes this motivates you!

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  13. Aye, it's me again, I was just thinking about it and the best way to sum up what I'm saying is like watching a really good episode of your favorite anime an then either the season ends or is placed on a hiatus until the further notice. The games we play are like a great episode and when it's over we're waiting, waiting, and waiting... until one day we hear good news of a new game (or new episode to anime *metaphor*). So if the game is very good like eating a delicious sandwich which fills you up for a good time and you can't eat anymore, then it's satisfying. Haha, hope I made any sense there, lol, anyways later!

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    1. Metaphor within a metaphor within a metaphor... deep. ;)

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    2. It's metaphorception

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  14. Hidden cgs...I like the sound of that.

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