Aspiring Developer - Plum's Nightmare

[Zalius Black]

04/16
BIWEEKLY UPDATE TIME: Welcome to WIP Hell Part 2

Holy shit I got the date wrong last time​

Mechanical
Some balancing and minor changes but nothing crazy significant. Major focus has been on art-related stuff.

Visual
The past two weeks have been mostly practicing idea creation, just now learning wtf composition was, figuring out the process I mentioned last time, and figuring out how tf to nail plums likeness consistently.

DRAFTING/IDEA CREATION
I do character shape language/design studies from time to time and make my own from a set of 5 references. It's great practice and allows me to come up with looks to work off of for future characters I plan to implement (or maybe in future things), a few of them below.


The Sandrunner enemy has been completed, a demon enforcer is being drafted, and after that there is one more enemy that i plan on creating for the intro level.



ART LEARNING
Didn't know wtf a golden spiral was and the importance of composition, now drawing sex stuff & compositing RE's has become more digestible to create. I am beginning to learn how to block out shapes and color immediately - no lineart, see the cactus below. A quick method like this is preferable for RE's, but i'd like to make it so that Plum is still attractive within the style so ill need some practice.



PLUM LIKENESS - THE ETERNAL BATTLE
I've created a new battle idle as well as a fallen down sprite (which utilizes the new process - much faster rendering - i hope to continue using it). (Don't mind the random emoticon by the fallen down sprite, it was an experiment that I probably wont use again). Also, I get more revelations each time i draw her face, and not only that, her body type is something that I'm aiming to hone in on. I was creating the dialogue idle sprite (as I was last week) but i thought it was all off. Below you will see me using the new battle sprite to correct my proportions and whatnot, I think checking my new art of her with that battle sprite will be very useful to achieving likeness properly because that worked like a charm. Also, I'm going to hold off on making new alts until I have most of the art needed for the intro completed.




THOUGHTS SO FAR
This shit is hard! I'm pitting the quality control I put on myself against the skill requirement of achieving said quality control, and as high as it seems to be, I refuse to give up because I'm an arrogant bastard. I'll probably keep working on art stuff for the next 2 weeks, but I ended up damaging my iPad screen so I can't really do that till Friday.

HOWEVER, I've come pretty far. Below you'll find a colored drawing from the start of last year, and another drawing that was one of my earliest. I am absolutely making progress as time goes on one way or another!



Thank you for reading! Catch you next time on TIME, cause this was a day late. See you on the 29th of April!

 

[ShadowMaster69.]

Keep it up! Love following your development so far!

 

[Zalius Black]

04/29
BIWEEKLY UPDATE TIME: Every Time We Saiyans Fight, We Get STRONGER
And yet I keep having to re-learn which font sizes I've been using for these.
​

Mechanical
I've added at least one specific random event to each overworld map I have right now. To further explain...
In the game, four maps make up a minilevel, two minilevels (occuring at 50% and 100% trial progress) form a trial, and completing a trial counts as finishing a full level. Gaining trial progress inside each trial follows a random event loop inspired by World of Horror. What I'm working on and plan to release as a proof-of-concept - is a full playable trial. It'll make more sense when I release it, haha.

Anyway, I’ve completed the maps needed for the first minilevel, as you’ll see some snippets of below! My plan is to add at least two NSFW scenarios within each minilevel. I'm also working on the visuals and basic functionality for the second minilevel maps. As it looks right now, I’m predicting another mechanics-focused week in early June.



Visual
As I mentioned earlier, I've finished mapping the 4 maps for the first minilevel (I’ll probably polish them more later, but they’re solid for now). I also finished the Demon Enforcer I discussed last week, along with the rest of the enemies planned for the first trial. I considered adding non-lewd enemies... but honestly, I could be spending that time better elsewhere! Now that enemies are done, I can focus on painting random events and drawing NSFW scenarios that will appear in the minilevels, alongside the remaining map work. I'll be posting a cropped WIP for one of the scenarios in the first minilevel, along with one of its alts. Despite how it looks, the scene is more teasing than anything.


I'm noticing some of my clothing materials feel the same, sounds like another study I'll do at some point.


Still need to add the side HUD for the overworld random events.


Rendering on the left is FOR SURE not done either, but I wanted to show it so far! I'm experimenting a lot. This particular scenario has 2 ass grab variations and a spank/post-reaction in it. Im satisfied with the impact I drew but i cropped it out. I suppose you'll have to see when it's out!

SCENARIO/ARTSTYLE QUESTIONS
I'm not finished with the scenario art yet, but working on it raised some questions about how I want to utilize different art styles going forward.

• Should I use my full, polished battle idle coloring for idle-like poses and battle cut-ins?
• Should I use this faster, easier coloring style for characters in random event scenarios, especially since these scenes will be more complex and have alt variations?
• Then switch to a painted style for background elements in random events?
• Then with random events or scenarios that have a character and a background, I blend the 2 styles together??

I’m sure I'll figure it out as I keep working. That said, I’m feeling great about how much I accomplished (both for what's in this report, and what I've accomplished that wasn't mentioned!). The more I draw and work on the game, THE STRONGER I GET.

That's it from me, reader! I must return to the cold abyss now — but I always come back.
See you May 13th!

 

[Zalius Black]

05/13
BIWEEKLY UPDATE TIME: Mechanics Galore - and a VERY Important Visual Fix
And here I thought my "mechanics update" was going to be in June.
​

Mechanics
Even though this is where most of my work went, I’ll try to keep it brief with bulletin points — it’s not the most exciting to read!

• Trial Stat Effects:
  • Core trial stats now have mechanical effects beyond just pass/fail checks for random events.
• Map Structure Overhaul:
  • Reworked the trial’s pacing: instead of 4 maps per 50%, the player now progresses through 2 maps every 25%.
  • Total of 8 maps per trial; this structure flows better.
• Dialogue HUD:
  • A rough but working dialogue HUD is implemented.
• Intro Sequence (Fear & Hunger-style, I suppose):
  • Player listens to a story and makes choices for a slightly varied starting experience.
• Lewd CG System:
  • Full support for various lewd CG implementations:
    • Loss scenes for specific enemies.
    • Mid-battle cut-ins (some unique to enemies).
    • Generalized logic built into both the game and external HUD plugin.
  • Now I just need the time and power to forge more art!
• Analyze Ability:
  • A new ability where Plum learns more about enemies as their Pleasure rises.
  • Higher pleasure levels reveal more detailed and useful information.
  • I plan for this power to have some wacky scaling in how it's used
• Ability & XP Acquisition:
  • Improved progression system for abilities and experience.
  • Still needs balance tweaks, but already functional for a tech demo.
• First Boss Implementation:
  • Mechanics are in progress.
  • Main issue is visual clarity — too many state changes obscure what's happening.
• Writing Progress:
  • Completed a solid draft of the game’s introduction.
  • Will continue writing alongside concept art and illustration work (more on that below).
  • Also, I've found writing quite inspiring when it comes to drawing for this!
• More Shit:
  • That I don't remember right now. I'm tired but I shall not have this be a late update!

Visual
I completed 3 random events - but then it got me thinking, I shouldn't prioritize these.



Random events aren't what would convince people that the project is worthwhile even though there's a lot of them, It's the character art! (I'm about to get into an artist-learning moment - theres a couple faces at the end if you wish to skip it)

On the note of character art, I've had an issue recently with awkward posing and inconsistent proportioning with characters. It took getting lucky browsing through youtube one day to figure it the fuck out, the mannequins/shapes I was creating were still too abstract and quite subjective before I got into detailing, resulting in varying interpretations. Not only that, I found an awesome mannequin on twitter that I have adapted for my own use and have been practicing with - I plan to actually detail newer mannequins in the next couple weeks with characters to ensure that weakness has been diminished, and to experiment with dynamically changing its proportions intentionally for characters of different body types.

Before - the "skeleton/mannequin" was too vague, made detailing more inconsistent and inaccurate.


Some of the attempts at establishing/practicing with a mannequin. These will be far easier and appealing to apply anatomy to.


First mannequin I plan to detail. I also learned a bit more about foreshortening arms - exceptionally important.


I also mentioned in a previous post that I do shape language studies of characters in existing media. Well I have extended that into merging faces of characters in existing media to make new ones for characters. Not final - but I think this process definitely works for idea creation. For example, the cow woman on the right - I used Nabe from Overlord, Yamato from One Piece, and Ash from the fire emblem mobile game to determine her features.


And that's it for now! Apologies that I don't have more visuals to show, but I hope you can understand why that is. Art studies/learning slows me down, but it's also one of the primary points of starting the project, forcing me to do those things! I will see you again next update on 5/27 - and I'll keep seeing you until I get this thing playable. Farewell!