Welcome to another weekend my friends! Kinda long, so some of you may not want to read a lot of it but I thought some might be interested in my process.
Alright, the
devlog update itself - I guess I am about 78% done with coding now. After reading through an event, I realized it needed some changes. So, I gave it a rewrite. It's just one of those things... You write something the first time around and when reading it back, you start to see that you missed a great opportunity for something funny, or a cute moment. Back in the beginning, I didn't do a lot of rewrites like I do today because I was trying so hard to make monthly updates (and that lapse in quality writing shows because of it). Today though, I just don't care if it takes a bit longer. The price you pay to have better dialogue and acting in a story. With that said... I hope to complete coding by the next devlog (one week). Never know what might come up though, so we'll see.
I've been asked what my process is for making my VN's by both fans and a few devs just starting out. It's a bit much to explain in a DM... So, the rest of this might bore some of you. But if interested... read on!
To start with, Serenity and Last Human stories have an outline I've written. It is very basic though. Like:
- Episode 1 (scene 1): sitting in Trina's office, talk to Trina about mom, learn about Serenity (etc...)
- Episode 1 (scene 2): walking home, Kat waiting on porch, etc... etc...
That is just a very rough idea of what my outline looks like. Using that outline, I write the dialogue and narrated parts in a text file. The outline helps keep me on track and makes it easy for me to look back and make sure I don't miss type any details from previous events when writing later events.
Once I have the episode written, I move on to Atom, open my game's project folder and begin coding the episode (yes, I basically write the story twice and for good reason - but I type fast). In my projects, you're going to get a new image with each line of dialogue (sometimes 2 lines, and on very rare occasions maybe a few more). So, while typing the story into Atom, wherever there should be an image, I put the image line in between but have it 'commented' out (with a # in front of each line). Many times, I'll put notes next to those, so I remember to put something in the scene I was picturing while writing it. By doing this, it lets me know which images I've rendered or not rendered when I start that process. Also, it allows me to test run the game without errors whenever I do animations and want to check how they play in the game.
Speaking of rendering, that's next once coding is completed. For a lot of scenes, I can pull up previous scenes (like house interiors, or Serenity Island exteriors (as an example). Clear out characters from the old scene, then work on the scene. In other cases, I am creating a brand-new scene (location) so a bit more work is involved. I call these 'scene locations'. I build these the way I want them, get the lighting right, everything ready with no characters (or other items) and save them in their own folder. Without these scene locations being premade, it would take a LOT longer to finish an episode. So that's why sometimes it takes me longer - when I have to create a new scene location.
And then the fun part... the actual scenes. I'll open up my scene location in studio and add the characters that will be in that scene, then I disable all of them and save THAT file in the episode/scene folder (for the episode I am working on). Each scene has a folder with this file in it just in case anything happens (like power going out or other dumb luck stuff that happens to me on occasion). I then enable the characters in the current scene and begin posing them while reading the dialogue and noting the emotions that are at play for the facial expressions. As I render each image, I name it the way I did when I coded those lines in before. Then I open the image to double-check it, then remove the 'comment' (# sign) from that line in the code - meaning that render is done. Then move on to the next. This process repeats until all renders are complete, which can be anywhere from 1000 to 1600 images. Yeah, it's a lot. I do have many of my own poses saved in the pose library, so that helps move things along. Always have to edit them of course, but that helps speed things along while still having decent poses that took time to create.
Finally, the music. Throughout the process above, I listen to tracks from several sites I have subscribed to for licensed music. When something catches my attention, I add it to certain playlists and keep them organized. Sometimes even writing down the names of songs and artists that favor the game. I want a certain kind of sound with Serenity and try not to deviate from that. For example, the voice of the singer (Jessie Villa) that has really been great for Serenity. I use a lot of her work. She has different projects I've used music from: Emorie, Luna Wave, plus her solo projects. You can search for her on youtube. You'll find all the songs from Serenity in there.
Anyway, once I pick out music and place it in the code where I want it to start and fadeout, I play through the game, correct anything I find, then build it... package it, and upload it to Mega (and itch once it goes public). During beta, my patrons and subscribers will usually let me know of typos or other issues (nobody's perfect, right?) I compile all of those issues or complaints, make the corrections, etc... Once I feel like I got them all, I build one more time. This is the build that will go public (free).
And while you guys are playing it, I am hopefully chilling out with the wife, watching movies, or playing some games myself. I usually break for a week to 2 weeks before I start working again. In between everything, I have my full-time job of course. I have to work around that which is another reason my updates can take a long time.
But there you have it! That is my process in a nutshell. Oh, I didn't have a chance to render a new image for this devlog, so dropping an old image of Triss in this one! I hope you all have a great weekend, love you all, ...Fire
