King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

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VimislikArt
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King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#1 Post by VimislikArt »

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LAST UPDATED JANUARY 27th, 2019

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ABOUT THE GAME

King of the Cul-De-Sac is a free Visual Novel that I’m developing. It’s my first visual novel, but I’ve been making games professionally for major clients for 5 years, and I’ve worked as a children’s book artist for 8 years, so I feel like I have the required experience and drive to see this project to the end. The game itself is aimed towards a younger demographic, but I’m trying to keep it entertaining for erry’body!

THE PLOT

The KING OF THE CUL-DE-SAC is the title given to the strongest, toughest kid on the block, who rules the circle of suburban homes in the manner they see fit. With Karah’s brother moving to college, she assumes she’s next in line for the throne, but quickly realizes the other contenders for the crown will have to be convinced - with her FISTS!

PRODUCTION

I'm keeping this section updated with upcoming deadlines.

DEMO/VERTICAL SLICE
January 28th - DONE!
First two parts of the game feature complete with finalized art assets, music and sound effects.

BETA 1
Spring 2019
All art assets complete, music and sound final, game feature complete, and ready for in-depth testing.

RELEASE CANDIDATE
Summer 2019

THE LEMMA SOFT COMMUNITY

I am STILL very excited about this project, and I’m 100% committed to making sure this project is not only finished, but is the best possible version of it can be.

When the time comes, I’ll definitely be looking for game testers, and POSSIBLY some people to outsource some work to. Most of all, I just need occasional reminders that I'm not producing this in a void.

THANKS!
Last edited by VimislikArt on Sun Jan 27, 2019 6:55 pm, edited 8 times in total.
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Graff
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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#2 Post by Graff »

I approve of all of this. I can't wait to see more.

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#3 Post by VimislikArt »

Second draft is finished! I had a lot of feedback from the initial play test of the script, BUT fortunately nothing seems too wrong structurally with it so far. I reworked the endings a bit, cut some branches, rewrote the dialogue for a few characters, and ran another polish pass on the beginning.

Current plan is to run a second round play test of the script - I'm resending it to the first run of playtesters, as well as a couple new volunteers to get some fresh perspective.

I should be on track to finish the third draft by the 16th, and then I get to start STORYBOARDING!

Just to give an idea of the size of the script, below is about what the first draft looked like. Each block represents a separate video that I'd have to make; some are just a few seconds long, while others would be several minutes in length, with lots of links to separate parts of the video's timeline.

EDIT: REMOVING THE IMAGE BECAUSE IT'S BIG AND NOW INNACCURATE

Because I can't save variables, every event that I think is important enough to lead someone to a different ending leads to a set of duplicate videos - that's why the last sections on the right all look the same. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're duplicates of the same video (there's 25 different inspiring speeches that all serve as the beginning of Act III pep talk), but the basic story structure is pretty consistent. I'll also be doing a lot of visual tricks to make sure that each branch LOOKS relatively distinct, by incorporating different background events, minor color changes, and of course, the changes in the look of the main character.

I'll get some art assets together to show sometime in the next week while I'm waiting for the second play test results to get in!
Last edited by VimislikArt on Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#4 Post by Jerana »

Hey there! (Mind me, I'm a little new to the forums.) I'm a newbie voice actor, and if you're willing to take me I'm okay with sending some voice samples. I don't have any to give you straight away, but send me some dialogue and I'll shoot you a link? I'd also like to apologize again, I'm super new to the forums and am just starting out my voice acting career (or side gig, if you will.) I'm female, my voice range is medium-low. I personally think I'd make an excellent Rosa, but it's up to you. I look forward to hearing from you! (Don't worry if you don't want me though, I'm just looking for a first gig to start off my resume. Thanks!)

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#5 Post by VimislikArt »

I've been keeping a weekly log of what I've done in /r/vndevs; I'm going to copy it in here week to week, in addition to once-a-month art updates.

Got less done than expected this week, but still a bunch!

LAST WEEK: Section 3 is FINISHED. Last week, I said I wanted to quickly design some "Rudimentary Combat Encounters", and didn't think it would take a long time. Apparently meant "I wanted to make three separate combats feel distinctly different from each other, while only using text. It took a long time.

I also did an overhaul on the game so far, separating the sections into their own rnpy documents, and making some universal functions of operations needed frequently in game that could be called whenever needed (this cut like, a couple hundred lines of code).

THIS WEEK: Do Section 4 from start to finish, and get started on sections 5A-5F (the last sections). If I want to make my 3/1 deadline, and make the game work properly for alpha testers, I'll want to get two endings done a week (they're written and designed, so it's doable!!!), plus have a week to do some general polish.
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#6 Post by VimislikArt »

LAST WEEK:
Section 4 is FINISHED. Took longer than expected, since a few days were wasted trying to get a scratch vocal track done (vocaloid would not work for this project, and that makes me so sad), but all the images are done. It will probably be the shortest segment in the game, but it is CRAZY art heavy.

THIS WEEK:
The 3/1 alpha deadline is still doable, but it's going to be tight. This week, I'll try to tackle two endings, and maybe rewrite them slightly so they're a little less asset intense.

I'll make a post sometime this weekend to show off some of the art assets in production.
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#7 Post by VimislikArt »

LAST WEEK: Two out of Six endings are FINISHED and IN ENGINE. WHAAAAT?!

THIS WEEK:
I wanna get two more endings done - I need to rewrite one of them a bit, but I think it's still manageable. If I keep on track like this, I can get my 3/1 alpha done on time, plus some extra time for polish!

Image

On the art end, everything gets storyboarded out, with crazy rough images. They are mostly for my own reference, and many character designs are non-final, as sometimes small story elements will change how I want to handle a character's design.

Currently, I have 400+ storyboards, and a big part of art production will involve finding ways to efficiently reuse and repackage assets to minimize file size, and more importantly, production time.

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I also set an art style that gives Each iteration of the main character takes anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to produce, and by my count, I only have about 70ish unique assets of her I need to produce (plus she's fun to draw). The images above represent about 8 hours of work, with the bulk of time building base assets that can be reconstructed for whatever needs I have, so I can feel free to construct juuuust the right expression or pose for her as the scene calls for it. They are being produced at double screen size (2560x1440), but I'm still trying to find the sweet spot for asset size to make them look as good on 1920x1080 monitors, but not make them so big that the filesize is unpractical for mobile devices.
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#8 Post by poorlyformed »

I'm so excited for this game. I love the concept and the art is fantastic. Also, the deadline for the alpha is on my birthday, so thanks in advance for the present. :P
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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Pre-Alpha|

#9 Post by VimislikArt »

DEVLOG

LAST TWO WEEKS:
Finished endings 3+4 and put them into engine. I have most of the storyboards done for ending 5, but I'm still finagling the revised script. Ending 6 is just an outline.

THIS WEEK:

Finishing up endings 5 + 6 is my top priority, but I'll also need to start on polish for the 3/1 deadline for the alpha. This includes:
  • Replacing temporary minigame testing assets
  • Adding transitions or extra images to assist story flow
  • Small UI adjustments
Considering I have a little less than 10 days, I feel like there's still enough time! I have game testers ready, but I'll likely be hitting up some people here as well!
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#10 Post by VimislikArt »

Wow, I have not updated here in a while! I've been posting regularly on r/vndevs, but progress was relatively slow week to week for a few months; things are finally starting to pick up!

The Alpha is finished, with temporary art assets for everything. I've done alpha tests with friends and colleagues, with a focus on story, and I spent a good month just bug fixing. There are around 405 images that I need create finalized assets for, from sprite pieces to full backgrounds. I have 112 finished so far, with slightly less than 50 of them getting finished in the past two weeks. UI assets are in production as well.

If I can keep going at my current pace, I should be releasing a demo of the game in late October!

Here are some of the art assets I've finished so far:

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Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#11 Post by VimislikArt »

Currently still producing art for the upcoming demo - I finished 7 sprites and 5 pieces of background art, and I'm looking to finish another big batch of art this weekend if possible.

So, a lot of this art is getting rushed through, and a little less than HALF of it will only be onscreen for 1-2 lines. The plan is to blast through art production, and then when I have each batch finished, to go through during gameplay, and see what pieces need to be touched up the most. If a full piece is onscreen for a quick gag, it may not be worth the time to get it just right, but if a piece shows up in a lot of branches, or has a lot of associated lines, or occurs on a screen where the reader has to do more than just click to advance, I will take the time to make sure they're up to snuff.

For example, here's a piece that occurs at one of the first dialogue menu screens:
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The swooshy background isn't great, but what I'm noticing is my attempt to make her squinty eyes is making her look more like she has bags under her eyes. I also want to work a bit harder to make her face pop compared to her hair and hat.

A quick 20 minute adjustment, and I have this:
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I darkened up the area around her eyes to help the whites of her eyes pop a bit more, adjusted her face shape to be a bit slimmer, put more shadows in the hat and hair, shrunk her teeth down a bit, and added her hand in there to balance her out a bit. Very small changes that help manage the big composition issues in the piece.

Is it a great piece of art? Not at all! Does it look good enough to look at for the 6 seconds max you'll be looking at it between the one line of dialogue and a dialogue choice? Yes!
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#12 Post by VimislikArt »

Short update - Of the four different pathways in the first part of the game, the final art for 3 of them are finally COMPLETE! I was briefly sidetracked by some freelance work that plopped in my lap, but I'm back on schedule, and still likely to make my late October deadline for a demo!

Currently, I need to finish 20ish more illustrations to finish final art for this first section of the game, before I get back to UI and sound work!

Below is a piece I finished tonight for the last pathway of this part:

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Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#13 Post by VimislikArt »

Haha, so sort of a lot happened.

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First of all I HAVE A PLAYABLE DEMO! If anyone can give it a try, and comment in the Demos & Beta Testing Board, I'd really appreciate!

I planned on releasing it back in October, but I had an issue when I was building it. While putting in the produced art, I kept testing it by going through the first section of the game over and over again, just pressing through the dialogue, when I realized, "Hey, this feels boring". Now, I could have just pressed the button that flies you through to the next choice, but I figured if this was a game I wanted people to replay six times (eventually), then it should feel fun just to press through it.

Just to test something out, I tried animating the transitions, changing the text to word balloons, and trying to make the text position change from click to click, to keep your eyes from just resting on a spot, ignoring the visuals.

It looked GREAT.

Unfortunately, it meant more than TWO MONTHS changing the position of every bit of dialogue (there's maybe only a few hundred lines, but it's still a LOT), reworking art assets, and animating tons of different scene transitions. This was on top of the regular bug smashing, which considering how new I am to this, that's not a small task. I got pretty burnt out in November, and straight up stopped working on this for nearly a month.

But now I'm back on track! I have some people who I'm trying to woo to the project with the demo, and now that a lot of key systems are built and in place, the rest of production should go much smoother!

Currently I'm setting a hard deadline of Summer 2019 (Hey, that's when the game is set!), but realistically, I should be mostly finished with it sometime in April.

Please give the demo a try if you can! Thanks!
Check out my VN, King of the Cul-De-Sac, currently in Open Beta production! Try it out HERE!

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#14 Post by Piper »

This has such a unique and fun feel to it. Keep up the amazing work! :D

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Re: King of the Cul-De-Sac [Action, Comedy] |Alpha|

#15 Post by RocketAdriftGames »

This game looks AMAZING! Love the art style and character design! Going to download the demo.

Keep up the great work :)

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