- Jul 4, 2017
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In between the random jumble of requirements on my time that comes from trying to be an adult, and then "slacking off" playing games with friends, and THEN snatching an hour or two here and there to work on art for TMI, I do get time to ponder questions about the other aspects of the game. And I've written some of them down.
I am by definition an amateur at this stuff, so my thinking is all theoretical and comes from distillation of many posts by other people and more serious sources like blog posts from some randos, or even occasional interviews with actual authors. Basically, don't take any of this as gospel, your mileage may vary.
Here's some topics that I think about. I don't expect answers or discussion. And honestly it's probably just Too Long Didn't Read...
* What will make it fun to play?
More generally, why are some games FUN and others are a chore to slog through? Any game that makes it to a playable state has 100s of hours invested... did the developers not WANT to make something fun? or they do want to do so, but don't know how to "bottle the lightning"? Why do I think I can succeed at that aspect when clearly many other can't? Thinking objectively, there's probably nothing special about me, and the other developers are probably not stupid or lazy... so does that mean there's some aspect of luck?
* How much story should I be writing?
I find myself imagining a "vibe" for sections of the story.... but when it comes to turning that into words on a page, lines of dialogue... it's much harder than it seems. But I don't want to just have a stupid "one paragraph of backstory and here is the heroine on her knees facing a dirty dick" type thing.
One of the aspects of On Edge that is absolutely crucial to why I loved the concept was the somewhat slow introduction of the situation (weird and pornlogic as it is) and the certain amount of *effort* (running around RPGM style, clicking things) that the player must put in before there is any sexual action payoff.
Personally I don't enjoy games where you have a chick jump on your MC's dick with no *effort*. It just becomes like watching a porno clip then, except more clicking and less tattoos. In VNs and KNs, that effort might be reading a bunch of story first, although again, that's not terribly far from reading a H-manga in many ways - most of these games have very little choice about what happens. And that lack of choice comes from a hard truth that I am learning as I try to make this stuff myself... every branch you allow the player to take increases the amount of game content required - and the bigger the difference the choice makes, the more and more it increases the pain.
Wait, how did I get so sidetracked from the orignal question...
* How can I represent the character's personalities without making it dumb and heavy handed? Does it even matter that they have personalities?
no notes.
* Does anyone other than me even care that there is a (perverted and pornographic) logic to the events in the game? That the series of choices made by the characters might be considered "reasonable" by an outside observer, given the circumstances at the time of those decisions?
I fucking hope so.
Regardless, I'm making this project to satisfy myself primarily. If other's enjoy it then great, I will have succeeded at my two goals: prove that I can make a game, and give something back to the h-gamer community. Will I ever ask for support? not sure - i'd hate for this to become more of a "just a second job" than it already feels like sometimes.
* Are the dumb jokes or mish-mash ofstolen ideas inspirations going to add anything to the project? or is it just busy-work that will be ignored by the majority who will be SKIP SKIP SKIPPING to get to the gloryhole scenes?
Again, I hope so. I like dumb jokes, and semi-pop-cultural references. No skibidi toilet though, I promise.
* Why the fuck am i so caught up in mimicking darkcookie style?
It adds so much more work to the AI art process... I remember when I started this project 1 year ago there were basically almost no games with AI art on the Latest Releases page. Now it seems that they are about 1/3 of them, and they are immediately obvious even from the thumbnails. Have I missed the boat? Will my little project get tossed into the same "shit tier ai slop" category?
* Why can't I just sit down and spend more of my leisure time on making this project instead of doomscrolling dumb shit, or getting pulled into online shooted matches with friends?
I read a comment on 4chan /aco/ just yesterday that said:
"You ever had a school assignment due for a subject you don't give a fuck about? That's what WEG development is like all of the time".
And it's very close to the mark, although I think there is a caveat needed - the first 1-2 months is very different because then you are fucking excited about the process and want to do it more and more.
But once that initial burst of enthusiasm for the new hobby is over... then it becomes a grind and your brain (mine at least, and by the mountains of evidence of abandoned v0.2 games around, many other devs' brains) somehow avoids doing the work and shifts your attention onto other things, even when you have a vague sense of guilt about not continuing the project you were so keen about...
The devs who somehow manage to keep grinding content for months and years... they are just built different.
Maybe I don't have enough autism (Full Disclosure: I don't have any... or at least no more then any other lifelong introverted nerd). Maybe I should swallow ritalin like those grindset asian ivyleague kids and sit down for 8 hours and create 3 dozen images. Then that would be podracing!
Meh, enough ramblings. Thanks for comeing to me ted talk, it's bedtime now.
I am by definition an amateur at this stuff, so my thinking is all theoretical and comes from distillation of many posts by other people and more serious sources like blog posts from some randos, or even occasional interviews with actual authors. Basically, don't take any of this as gospel, your mileage may vary.
Here's some topics that I think about. I don't expect answers or discussion. And honestly it's probably just Too Long Didn't Read...
* What will make it fun to play?
More generally, why are some games FUN and others are a chore to slog through? Any game that makes it to a playable state has 100s of hours invested... did the developers not WANT to make something fun? or they do want to do so, but don't know how to "bottle the lightning"? Why do I think I can succeed at that aspect when clearly many other can't? Thinking objectively, there's probably nothing special about me, and the other developers are probably not stupid or lazy... so does that mean there's some aspect of luck?
* How much story should I be writing?
I find myself imagining a "vibe" for sections of the story.... but when it comes to turning that into words on a page, lines of dialogue... it's much harder than it seems. But I don't want to just have a stupid "one paragraph of backstory and here is the heroine on her knees facing a dirty dick" type thing.
One of the aspects of On Edge that is absolutely crucial to why I loved the concept was the somewhat slow introduction of the situation (weird and pornlogic as it is) and the certain amount of *effort* (running around RPGM style, clicking things) that the player must put in before there is any sexual action payoff.
Personally I don't enjoy games where you have a chick jump on your MC's dick with no *effort*. It just becomes like watching a porno clip then, except more clicking and less tattoos. In VNs and KNs, that effort might be reading a bunch of story first, although again, that's not terribly far from reading a H-manga in many ways - most of these games have very little choice about what happens. And that lack of choice comes from a hard truth that I am learning as I try to make this stuff myself... every branch you allow the player to take increases the amount of game content required - and the bigger the difference the choice makes, the more and more it increases the pain.
Wait, how did I get so sidetracked from the orignal question...
* How can I represent the character's personalities without making it dumb and heavy handed? Does it even matter that they have personalities?
no notes.
* Does anyone other than me even care that there is a (perverted and pornographic) logic to the events in the game? That the series of choices made by the characters might be considered "reasonable" by an outside observer, given the circumstances at the time of those decisions?
I fucking hope so.
Regardless, I'm making this project to satisfy myself primarily. If other's enjoy it then great, I will have succeeded at my two goals: prove that I can make a game, and give something back to the h-gamer community. Will I ever ask for support? not sure - i'd hate for this to become more of a "just a second job" than it already feels like sometimes.
* Are the dumb jokes or mish-mash of
Again, I hope so. I like dumb jokes, and semi-pop-cultural references. No skibidi toilet though, I promise.
* Why the fuck am i so caught up in mimicking darkcookie style?
It adds so much more work to the AI art process... I remember when I started this project 1 year ago there were basically almost no games with AI art on the Latest Releases page. Now it seems that they are about 1/3 of them, and they are immediately obvious even from the thumbnails. Have I missed the boat? Will my little project get tossed into the same "shit tier ai slop" category?
* Why can't I just sit down and spend more of my leisure time on making this project instead of doomscrolling dumb shit, or getting pulled into online shooted matches with friends?
I read a comment on 4chan /aco/ just yesterday that said:
"You ever had a school assignment due for a subject you don't give a fuck about? That's what WEG development is like all of the time".
And it's very close to the mark, although I think there is a caveat needed - the first 1-2 months is very different because then you are fucking excited about the process and want to do it more and more.
But once that initial burst of enthusiasm for the new hobby is over... then it becomes a grind and your brain (mine at least, and by the mountains of evidence of abandoned v0.2 games around, many other devs' brains) somehow avoids doing the work and shifts your attention onto other things, even when you have a vague sense of guilt about not continuing the project you were so keen about...
The devs who somehow manage to keep grinding content for months and years... they are just built different.
Maybe I don't have enough autism (Full Disclosure: I don't have any... or at least no more then any other lifelong introverted nerd). Maybe I should swallow ritalin like those grindset asian ivyleague kids and sit down for 8 hours and create 3 dozen images. Then that would be podracing!
Meh, enough ramblings. Thanks for comeing to me ted talk, it's bedtime now.
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