VN Urban X (no life)

[bobdillan]

So some backstory: I like many people played Urban X life, then Urban demons cause wootch did the vanishing act. And some people still were left wanting, the story that could have been, the art that could have evolved, etc. So I decided that since I want a little experience before I tried to tackle making a game starting from nothing, i would start with the basis of Urban X life.

Consider this more of a spiritual successor (if it actually gets made), than another clone, my main goal is to capture the feel I had when playing and have a similar artstyle (silhouette wise) so while I will be drawing my own original art, it will be heavily inspired. Basically I wanna try and grab those still wanting more from the games that were and sit em down in front of this and go "here play." and so they play and get some form of closure.

As of know the story elements I am thinking about, is keeping the whole main theme (demonsy stuffs, puzzle games etc.) but adding my own modifications for improvement, for example I will probably have none or severely limited time with the player (you) playing as the chick, they will be supporting character not main that you can control if anything besides another chick in le harem. the main goal is the progression of the "dreamworld" and delving into it, while gaining abilities to use outside etc. (if you would want more in the chicks story let me know)

Some Basic Q&A:

Q: Is this an Urban X life clone?
A: yes and no, it is meant to server as a sort of ending for those that never got one, but also be its own thing that isn't a direct ripoff (basically I will try to keep what I think/feel are the important elements to the experience I had when playing the game, and try to keep it similar for a full story)

Q: is this just a attention seeking cashgrab?
A: half-right, it is attention seeking but no money, while I will appreciate anyone who would want to throw money at this, there will be no way to. while I may in future set up some sort of supporting thing (So that I could pay for things like photoshop and after-affects etc.) I will not be doing so until I have my own completely original title that is at least an alpha 0.5 (so a version 10 of most modern games XD )

Q: Why tho?
A: cause I found a little passion for this that i want to abuse the shit out of to make something ^_^

Q:shot-a ?
A: ehhh? the character I drew (can be seen below) is teenish looking (insert obligatory all characters above 18 here) but nothing that will come close to getting it questioned by rule 7 (go read it) (also no talking about this rule here please)

Q: what engine?
A: at the moment I have been planning to use unity, although that would be more 3d exploration and 2d scenes and talking... still undecided on that, will probably mess around with it a bit, but if I can't find a style that suits the art then will probably try something else.

Q: False promises?
A:.... honestly possibly, I am busy rn and about to be a lot more busy, so don't get your hopes too high for anything soon, but I do want to get better at this stuff and no better way to practice than to make this.

Q: The art style was kinda shitty in certain aspects.... you gonna do that?
A: I am sorta imprinting the things I liked into my designs incorperating certain elements (the giant tits) but in a way I think looks nice.

Q: can you show us some arts?
A: sure I shall be posting any art I draw here.

Q: discord?
A: no, way too early to do anything more than here. (and no money!!! tis no cash in this grab!)


So that does it for QnA, has some Progress pics. (All of this one done in the past few hours..... so nothing final and 100% WIP)

Peino (Peio's long lost cousin.... or spiritual successor peio):



Mom (temp name Janet):



I am a magic man, I turn this ^ shitty base sketch, into this yummy nice sketch:



And that is all the progress I have so far.

So give me your thoughts (if they are just no's, and negatives... kinda don't care, am more interested in seeing if anyone wants this. hence the vote not having an actual "no" choice, cause I don't want to know how many people don't want this (kinda silly to want that knowledge imo) I want to know if people would play it (kinda pointless to make something no one plays)

Peace.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

hearing about new projects is always cool, I am not familiar with the game, I just find game making and art making to be cool.

 

[eosar]

When one is horny, one will fap at anything.

Proceed.

 

[Max Craving]

Nice art

 

[Roding]

all i have to say is PogU

 

[bobdillan]

back at uni this week, so probably no updates until the end of the weekend if any.

 

[bobdillan]

progress update (sort of): so I haven't really been drawing much lately, and have uni work to do, but I have more details, and good news.

So first the good news: I found out thanks to my uni even though I am not doing a course in arts or games stuff, there is a resource of video courses and tutorials (course grade stuff, so think similar to skill share but a little more formal, but also potentially not as good) on drawing, 3d design etc. so more learning in this area for me, which means I should get better faster and have something sooner (I wouldn't expect anything this year though, while I would like to am doing lots of things irl atm).

Current known changes to the game (could possibly change): am going to be using 2D sprites as using 3D models then 2D animations and scenes seems a little redundant when I could just animate the models. So I will be doing a sort of 2.5D where the background is 3D but the char is 2D (so think how rpgmaker while being 2D give the illusion of a 3D background but in this case will probably be an actual 3D background. Story changes (besides the name of course) are no more using drill to cut hole in floor of attic to peep on mom and sis, I thought that was too unrealistic and would be obvious to spot (if the drill chippings weren't enough of a giveaway) however fret not because the night peeping will stick around, but it will now be in the form of mini cameras (like the ones used in movies by the secret agents) pushed through the air-vents.

Menu Progress: did a quick sketchup (nothing worthy of showing yet) of what I am thinking for the menu, and the idea I have is to have a sort of necronomicon type book sitting on a cliff edge open, with burning flames coming from the pages within (probably coloured). reason for on a cliff edge is because it will overlook the Urban City known as X or Xol, short for Xol Invictus ("unconquered sun.") while it should be Sol, their ancestors changed some letters in certain Dieties names to X's for an unknown reason (Will be related to why the MC gains powers) just watch out for Orxus (google Orcus). gonna try and do something interesting with these two lesser known roman gods (maybe use a few more, but for now just these two). and so you will have the book with flames on the left, menu above that and then to the right just a big view of the city (hopefully most it not all will be explore-able)

And that is all the progress there is for now, here are my to do's:
- make base sketches for each main character
- start concept art for buildings based off the ingame map
- make a layout of the city
- #learntocode ;P
- and other stuffs.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

what is it you plan to use for the 3D program, or do you mean 3D in game?

 

[bobdillan]

what is it you plan to use for the 3D program, or do you mean 3D in game?

probably just blender, while I am more experienced in maya, that shit ain't free sadly. but it will just be buildings and paths and stuff.

 

[bobdillan]

Ok so I need opinions, should I flesh out the story and finish it first, then go through adding more content with each character and potentially adding new ones (and updating the story along the way if needed, could break saves though). or should I go character by character, updating story when needed (this would mean that certain scenes might have to be temp unlocked as they wouldn't make sense storywise to be avaliable early, and I don't want to be a massive cocktease and have no proper sex scenes until the story catches up).

Also on the story, am undecided if it should be connected to character progression (some things will be, but am talking like to get to sex, I kinda want to lock that behind story (not behind a specific power though) that way it feels earned story wise, or I could break that off into a substory (don't know if I should be making things that complicated though).

So give me opinions (on the questions that is)

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Perhaps both? I would say, focus on going character by character, since as you go along you could get new ideas which may make you want to change the story, so this way nothing is set in stone. I fill character by character would be the easiest to be able to build with, as it is simple to break the game apart and do a bit at a time with noticeable improvement from the player's perspective. Rather than more story, they think, more content. The reason I say do both is, While it is not easy just to do only the story and then the characters, because you may get new ideas along the way, it is also not any easier to just focus on characters and hope a story comes out. That is assuming, by characters, you are attempting to add and finish each character in one go. what may work instead, and probably what a lot of devs already try to do is, do each character a bit, adding a bit of progression for each, rotating to different characters, all assumed to be on the same timeline. the idea is, if you get more story ideas, (such as you figure out some cool scene with one character), that idea can ripple across to the other character arcs, allowing for some story events or portions to be a game wide effect, not just per character.

 

[bobdillan]

what you are suggesting is what I was meaning with the second option. which is what I will probably go with tbh.

 

[bobdillan]

News Update:
So I have a sorta roadmap for a build now, the first build will basically be a pile of shit (seriously though it will be bad). why? well because the build will be purely about the scenery, not characters, not content, just a block or something that you can control to explore the area, which is the point of the first build, to block out the area and have some things modeled. I am going to try and keep some of the main area designs as the first game, but for now I am going to break it up into multiple builds, the first being the suburbs with players house, and the 2 neighbouring houses behind, and the others houses around it. at this point in time, only the first three will be interact-able, the rest is like in gta and rpgm games, just to fill the area, my goal is to have the insides of the houses instanced.

This does not mean that I won't be working on character art, and scenes, it just means for the process of building the city, of which I am undecided if I should make a full explorable city, or just have instanced areas, like in the game this is based off of, my instances will be substantially bigger though, since I want to have more content in the long run, there won't be any content, in the first few builds as they are purely for feedback on the playability and ease of exploration. the last thing I want is to have content, and story, that is inhibited by shitty gameplay and exploration, so the builds will be for feedback on layout, and eventually movement, and bugs of course. I am going to try and work on a system where it removes the buildings/makes them transparent, so you can see your char and the area behind them, since I am going to lock the perspective (like in rpgm), as free camera would just create more issues, and I can be a little cheaty and just rotate the same house here and there, to make it look like it is a different one

Don't get your hopes up though, this will be a long process, so don't expect anything anytime soon. I am currently quite thinly spread as it is, but getting good at art and games design is one of my passions so I am not going to stop.... I will just be very slow XD

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I believe that is called the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). In the SFW professional game-making world, gameplay is the most important thing, over the story and art (although debatable depending on your philosophy). All the time they make MVP's with blocks for characters, solid colors for textures, etc. They block out the game to see if the basic game mechanic is fun. For example, good old Mario. The MVP for that is a floor, being able to move side to side (a cube for a sprite), being able to jump, and a platform to jump on. That's it, no pits, no enemies, just jumping on platforms as the core mechanic. Sounds similar for what you are trying.

The issue with NSFW games is that there is no one best way to make a game. Art is important in many NSFW because the art is the NSFW content, sometimes stories are the most important because that is how the NSFW content is delivered. Etc. So I always like to do a vertical slice instead, just a bit of the game with some final quality art, to see the raw reactions. But I do this because I focus on player mind states as my personal game design philosophy technique.

I am getting done with some projects in the next week, and after that I am interested in applying my art skills. So I have been going around looking for project opportunities. Do you think you would like some help with art, such as for characters? If so I can send you a private message with a link to my latest test sample.

 

[bobdillan]

@Saki_Sliz I appreciate the offer, however part of my reason for this project is to develop my 2d drawing skills. Also want to do this standalone so I don't have anyone relying on me, as I am in no way ready for that kind of responsibility. plus this is very early stages, it could all go to shit and I would have to overhaul everything, or ditch the product and try again with a new strategy, although I am hopeful that this will work, once I nail gameplay should be smooth sailing in that area, and just smashing out the drawings.

On the topic of Nsfw not having a specific way to be made, I don't want it to be one of the nsfw work games that are shitty because of the mechanics. like you have those ones with potential but the gameplay just drags it down, a good example is the earlier version of "No More Secrets." while interesting and not the worst, it is what held the game back as the gameplay didn't really do anything for the story, and wasn't really needed. hence why they probably moved to ren'py. This project however, will rely quite a bit on these base mechanics later on when there is content, while "No More Secrets." is basically linear, this will be quite freeroam, and there will be other gameplay elements added in later. as of the game this is based off of, it had fishing, I will probably do a bit more (maybe even mining in the dreamscape, depends on the story).

 

[YohanGh]

Is it going to be the same story with similar character or nah?

But good luck with your project, was waiting for this for a long time

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Understandable, best of luck

 

[crazybeaver]

Good luck! I really want to see it!

 

[Ecstazy22335]

ad some ntr stuff in it as well pretty please

 

[bobdillan]

ad some ntr stuff in it as well pretty please

..... define what you mean by NTR, if you mean NTR NTR, then no... just no. but if you mean netori (which isn't actually abreviated to NTR, but gets lumped into it for the tag) then probably, since I do plan on having all the same chars and one of them is a housewife who you bone, and well afaik pretty sure she wasn't a single housewife.

But if you are asking NTR as in the proper NTR, (where you get cucked), then no, no and more no. The MC is basically getting the powers of gods, wouldn't fit the story. And I personally hate it :| like lividly hate it.