Change of Plans

In consideration of the newly planned art style, the current red poses will have to be discarded. The poses are going to be kept, but all the art I completed by tracing off of them will be deleted. The final sprites will be drawn from scratch. To be honest, the red poses were ugly and were impossible to work with due to how poorly drawn (>"drawn") they were. Hopefully I'll make something that doesn't look like shit next time.

What's the holdup?

Why is chapter 2's summary not done yet? Why are updates taking so long? Am I still working on the game, or am I just fucking around?????

I assure you that progress is still being made. I've been busier than expected, and it's only getting worse from here on out. BFD's still happening, but it's just going to be a while.

I've been allotting most of the development time to asset creation. Specifically, I've been working on improving my art skills so I can give BFD some quality sprites and backgrounds. I've even decided on an art style, which will make the practice sessions a lot smoother. I've even been getting more familiar with Autodesk Sketchbook and the feel of digital art in general.

I completely forgot to write about it since I finished it at a time where I was getting really busy with irl stuff, but I completed the voicebank for the second utau. I have a video showcasing its voice on my Instagram.

The summary progress is by far the weakest point. I'm just going to have to admit that chapter 2 isn't a very easy summary to write due to the fact that it's more slice of life-oriented and that I'm still fleshing out the protagonist and his relationships. I feel like shit knowing how little work I've completed with the summary over the past few months, and I can only hope that a burst of creative energy and insight will come to my aid. Maybe I should pray for a muse.

FIRST UTAU COMPLETE

Casting has not been completed (will likely occur after the next two are finished), but I've posted about the new voicebank on Instagram!

Visual Novels and Theatre

At a first glance, these two mediums seem like two completely different worlds. One is among the oldest art forms developed by man, with a rich history and appreciation throughout the entire world. The other is a relatively new type of artistic mutt that is typically associated with shovelware nukige. However, if we consider the conventions of contemporary theatre, we'll find some traits that might make a bridge between these two worlds.

The most obvious similarity is the reliance on dialogue. While monologues are used in both mediums, most of the action and character development tends to occur through verbal interactions. In fact, most of their scripts are words shared between characters.

A more obscure (and debatable) similarity is between stage directions and code. VN characters operate both from their dialogue and the programming that dictates which sprite they will use/how they will look. Actors use stage directions as a tool for determining how they should portray their characters, although they are given a bit more leeway compared to computer code.

Musical theatre uses songs sung by characters as tools for conveying plot and themes. VNs often have opening and ending songs that reflect on the plot and themes of character routes, and these songs are often sung by the characters' voice actors.

With these elements in mind, it could be possible to translate a VN into a stage play. The interactivity and choices would obviously have to go, but putting a kinetic novel or the true ending of a route on stage doesn't seem too difficult.

But how would this play out the other way around? What if we tried to translate, say, a musical into a VN? Would we try to spread the songs out through the novel and have the voice actors perform them? Would we have to use cutscenes, and would readers get annoyed by having their reading interrupted? Could we incorporate these segments into the general BGM to reinforce their importance?

These are all questions I'm mulling over while making BFD. I promise that chapter 2 is being worked on, but it's taking longer since I've been spending a lot of time on other assets. I'm almost done otoing the first UTAU recordings. New character designs are being completed. Chapter 1's directing is being planned out.

I'M FREE

Summer is right around the corner, and I now have more free time to work on BFD! THIS IS THE MOMENT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.



...Not to say I'll be completely free this summer. I still have a lot of plans and personal things I'll have to deal with, but I'll still have more time to focus on creating.  Development will go by much faster for the time being, and I'll hopefully be able to write about more updates soon.

With that being said, here's a brief progress report. I'm halfway done with the summary for chapter 2, and it's taking longer than I anticipated. It was like this for chapter 1, but ironically enough, I expected to finish chapter 2 faster since I had the framework for the rest of the story. I think a lot of it comes down to chapter 1 being more plot-heavy than chapter 2. It's not that chapter 2 is completely plotless, it's just that the first half is a lot more slice of life and is driven by character interactions instead of events. Now that I think about it, some readers might find chapter 2 boring after the drama of chapter 1.Hopefully they'll make it to the second half and appreciate the turn things take.

My biggest problem is currently with art. I'm still not at a good enough level to be producing sprites, backgrounds, or CGs (speaking of which, I finished a list of CGs that will appear in chapter 1). I'm still not going to hire an artist, but I'm really going to have to push myself to improve at a faster rate. At least my tablet is working (with Autodesk Sketchbook, but for some reason it doesn't with Fire Alpaca).

All Red Poses Finished and an Endless Supply of Bullshit

Good news: all the red poses for the character sprites are finished! These sketches are essentially prototypes for the final bases of each sprite, which will be used as templates for all expressions and outfits. In spite of my tablet problems, I managed to get it to work! Bad news: my drawing skills are still terrible.

Even though I'm still in the early stages of development, I've had many thoughts of hiring an artist. Considering my current skills and workload from irl stuff, having someone else do some of the work will make the development process go by faster. Even so, I don't plan on bringing anyone else into the team. I suppose I should explain why I'm sticking to being a solo dev.

BFD is based around a lot of artistic and stylistic concepts that are difficult to describe accurately to others. I have everything in my head, but I can't get it out without oversimplifying it. Trying to get an artist to give me exactly what I'm looking for while being bad at explaining would cause a lot of frustration on both sides. Furthermore, BFD has a lot of uncomfortable content that few people might be willing to commit to. Considering these two factors, the chance of me finding an artist that is able an willing to meet the standards I set is incredibly low. Because of this, I'm better of working by myself. I guess I just need to learn how to draw :P

Drawing on Shit that Does Not Work

Hai hai, TEOL Dev here with an update post. Progress has been pretty slow, but it's still being made. Most of it comes down to real life conflicts, but with summer coming up in a few months, a lot more is expected to be done. For now, here's a list of what's been worked on:

• The summary of chapter 2, which is about 25% completed
• First UTAU recordings done, editing and voice casting not complete
• The first draft of the opening of chapter 1 has been started
• Probably the biggest achievement, as well as the subject of today's post: all of the sprite poses are completed and are ready for being transformed into digitally-stored sprite bases

I'm not that comfortable with digital art yet, so I designed the poses in my sketchbook in terms of what the base would look like.

I don't have a scanner, so I took a picture of the sketch with my phone and uploaded it to my computer. From there, I start the process of making a rough outline in an art program (usually Fire Alpaca). This is where the trouble comes in.

My drawing tablet, which has worked in the past (although I admit to not using it much), just stops working for absolutely no fucking reason whatsoever. I think the issue has something to do with the USB cable, but since the problem hasn't been solved (it might never be), I'm stuck with using my mouse and my touchpad. Basically, my rough outlines look shittier than normal. I'm definitely not going to be working on the actual sprites until this gets resolved. I guess I'll just be working on other stuff.