March Update (Not dead edition) and BTS 1
Ok, I admit, it's been too long since I posted here. Time to give an update here, and for the most part, I'll repeat what I posted on the forum at
You must be registered to see the links
[HASHTAG]#p3389[/HASHTAG]
Episode 7 is adding content to some scenes regarding Azumi and Jasmine, and it is also adding new scenes. The new scenes occur on Wednesday which is, of course, before Thursday. What that means is that extra care is needed so that existing Thursday content doesn't break. So in chronological game order, here's the status. Note: Images also includes animation frames.
· Wednesday Night Strip Club (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion):
- Images - 119 (Done)
- Pages - 104 (Done)
- Status - Edits for Playtest notes.
· Wednesday Night Taxi (New Scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~100
- Pages - 94
- Status - Still images rendered, 1 animation remains.
· Wednesday Night Home (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~150+
- Pages - ~150+
- Status - about 50% rendered and storyboarded.
· Thursday Morning Coffee (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - 0
- Pages - 4
- Status - Planned (Dependent upon the above for the mini-recap on the second page of the scene)
· Thursday Office (Added to scene for Jasmine Inclusion)
- Images - 68
- Pages - 43
- Status - Ready
· Thursday Afternoon Home (Added to scene for Jasmine Inclusion)
- Images - ~4
- Pages - ~20
- Status - Not started.
· Thursday Evening Campus (Added to Scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~60
- Pages - ~60
- Status - Rendering is beginning this week.
· General Bugfixing (85 Bugtracker issues to work through) There has been a lot of great work from our artists over the past few weeks, and if it continues at the current pace, everything will be ready soon (tm) I'm pretty sure it won't be ready for March, but April is looking promising.
Now for the Behind the Scenes part. I thought I'd take a few posts over the next few weeks to describe the process for creating the game, and this is unique to Patreon. It won't be shared on the forum.
At the very highest level, the entire game is a general outline, and that general outline is complete. It includes all the scenes and a short paragraph for each scene about what happens in it. I'm not going to go into too much about that high-level outline. It makes sense to me, but it's "hen scratching" to anyone else. Basically, it creates a framework that the game hangs around. Additionally, I have character sketches, motivations and storylines for each character in the game. Every character has their own agenda, their own secret desires, and their own hidden desires that they themselves may not be fully aware of. All of this is noted down in MS Word files and outlines a story arc for every main character of the game, and even some of the more major supporting characters. That's all well and good, but it isn't useful for actually making the game.
To create the game, I then need to get it organized and fill out that framework with detail. The goal of BEW is to tell a good story, and have plenty of fun erotic content that enhances the story, and vice versa. Another goal is to have strong replay ability to the game. That's why the result will have nearly 80 unique endings. Many, of course will be somewhat similar, that's unavoidable. Each ending will be told through an epilogue, similar to the movie Animal House, or others. A four or five-page summary of the rest of thier lives. After all the choices in the game, do Brad and Emily get married? Happily and forever? Unhappily and short? Kids? Or Brad and Faith? Married? Mistress? Successful career? Homeless bum? These are the types of things that will be explained in the Epilogue for each of the nearly 80 "winning" paths in the game. Some will be fairy tale-ish, others will be very dark, and everything in-between.
So to start getting organized and put all of that into the game, I start with a program called Articy
raft. In Articy I blocked out each of the three seasons and added a blurb about what happens in each season, like is shown in this image:
You must be registered to see the links
This high level view shows the Game Start, Season 1, with information about what happens from the outline, Season 2, Season 3 and the Game Over, return to menu. I can then drill down on Season 1 to see all the Days that are part of the season, as well as the bonus scenes that are associated with Season 1. This is shown in this image:
You must be registered to see the links
Here I can go into more detail about what happens during each day, and see the flow and progression of the main story points. All this information is still at a very high level, so we drill down into another level and go to Wednesday.
When we start looking at the level of a day, things begin to get more interesting. Now I can show the progression between all the scenes within a day. In the next image we can see how the game path progresses from the Intro, to the Office, then the choice of the Bar or the Strip Club, The breakout of the Strip Club to go Home, To the Diner to meet Natalie, or to take a Cab which is part of the Episode 7 content, and finally, for most scenes, ending up back at home for the expanded content that will be included in Episode 7.
Image for Wednesday:
You must be registered to see the links
Each of these scenes is color coded based on who's story is dominant for the scene. Dark Blue means that Brad's own story is dominant. Yellow means Emily's story is dominant. Orange, Red and Green are Faith, Natalie, and Azumi, respectively. There's more detail about what happens within the scene at this level and also an indication of all the characters that are involved in the scene. Each of these blocks will become a Visio file in the next step, where the scene planning is carried out further and I'll go into the actual scene creation in the next Behind The Scenes post.
Ok, I admit, it's been too long since I posted here. Time to give an update here, and for the most part, I'll repeat what I posted on the forum at
You must be registered to see the links
[HASHTAG]#p3389[/HASHTAG]
Episode 7 is adding content to some scenes regarding Azumi and Jasmine, and it is also adding new scenes. The new scenes occur on Wednesday which is, of course, before Thursday. What that means is that extra care is needed so that existing Thursday content doesn't break. So in chronological game order, here's the status. Note: Images also includes animation frames.
· Wednesday Night Strip Club (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion):
- Images - 119 (Done)
- Pages - 104 (Done)
- Status - Edits for Playtest notes.
· Wednesday Night Taxi (New Scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~100
- Pages - 94
- Status - Still images rendered, 1 animation remains.
· Wednesday Night Home (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~150+
- Pages - ~150+
- Status - about 50% rendered and storyboarded.
· Thursday Morning Coffee (Added to scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - 0
- Pages - 4
- Status - Planned (Dependent upon the above for the mini-recap on the second page of the scene)
· Thursday Office (Added to scene for Jasmine Inclusion)
- Images - 68
- Pages - 43
- Status - Ready
· Thursday Afternoon Home (Added to scene for Jasmine Inclusion)
- Images - ~4
- Pages - ~20
- Status - Not started.
· Thursday Evening Campus (Added to Scene for Azumi Inclusion)
- Images - ~60
- Pages - ~60
- Status - Rendering is beginning this week.
· General Bugfixing (85 Bugtracker issues to work through) There has been a lot of great work from our artists over the past few weeks, and if it continues at the current pace, everything will be ready soon (tm) I'm pretty sure it won't be ready for March, but April is looking promising.
Now for the Behind the Scenes part. I thought I'd take a few posts over the next few weeks to describe the process for creating the game, and this is unique to Patreon. It won't be shared on the forum.
At the very highest level, the entire game is a general outline, and that general outline is complete. It includes all the scenes and a short paragraph for each scene about what happens in it. I'm not going to go into too much about that high-level outline. It makes sense to me, but it's "hen scratching" to anyone else. Basically, it creates a framework that the game hangs around. Additionally, I have character sketches, motivations and storylines for each character in the game. Every character has their own agenda, their own secret desires, and their own hidden desires that they themselves may not be fully aware of. All of this is noted down in MS Word files and outlines a story arc for every main character of the game, and even some of the more major supporting characters. That's all well and good, but it isn't useful for actually making the game.
To create the game, I then need to get it organized and fill out that framework with detail. The goal of BEW is to tell a good story, and have plenty of fun erotic content that enhances the story, and vice versa. Another goal is to have strong replay ability to the game. That's why the result will have nearly 80 unique endings. Many, of course will be somewhat similar, that's unavoidable. Each ending will be told through an epilogue, similar to the movie Animal House, or others. A four or five-page summary of the rest of thier lives. After all the choices in the game, do Brad and Emily get married? Happily and forever? Unhappily and short? Kids? Or Brad and Faith? Married? Mistress? Successful career? Homeless bum? These are the types of things that will be explained in the Epilogue for each of the nearly 80 "winning" paths in the game. Some will be fairy tale-ish, others will be very dark, and everything in-between.
So to start getting organized and put all of that into the game, I start with a program called Articy
raft. In Articy I blocked out each of the three seasons and added a blurb about what happens in each season, like is shown in this image:
You must be registered to see the links
This high level view shows the Game Start, Season 1, with information about what happens from the outline, Season 2, Season 3 and the Game Over, return to menu. I can then drill down on Season 1 to see all the Days that are part of the season, as well as the bonus scenes that are associated with Season 1. This is shown in this image:
You must be registered to see the links
Here I can go into more detail about what happens during each day, and see the flow and progression of the main story points. All this information is still at a very high level, so we drill down into another level and go to Wednesday.
When we start looking at the level of a day, things begin to get more interesting. Now I can show the progression between all the scenes within a day. In the next image we can see how the game path progresses from the Intro, to the Office, then the choice of the Bar or the Strip Club, The breakout of the Strip Club to go Home, To the Diner to meet Natalie, or to take a Cab which is part of the Episode 7 content, and finally, for most scenes, ending up back at home for the expanded content that will be included in Episode 7.
Image for Wednesday:
You must be registered to see the links
Each of these scenes is color coded based on who's story is dominant for the scene. Dark Blue means that Brad's own story is dominant. Yellow means Emily's story is dominant. Orange, Red and Green are Faith, Natalie, and Azumi, respectively. There's more detail about what happens within the scene at this level and also an indication of all the characters that are involved in the scene. Each of these blocks will become a Visio file in the next step, where the scene planning is carried out further and I'll go into the actual scene creation in the next Behind The Scenes post.