IDENT# [scifi/mystery/drama][optional GxG/B][NaNoReno2016]

[KiloTango]

@Hi.In.Ni I'm sort of resigned to the fact I'm not going to get EVERYTHING done in the actual NaNo because it turns out it's being a much busier month than planned, but I want to try and do the bulk of the work during the jam and finish things in April (Like, I imagine the majority of the music and CGs will have to be done after)

But as for the character count, I realised I needed them because there's certain reveals in the the plot that would have been too obvious if there weren't enough characters. Thankfully now the bases are done adding other expressions and arms won't take long as I made these in a really modular way so that I could replace parts very easily.

[Hi.In.Ni]

@Hi.In.Ni I'm sort of resigned to the fact I'm not going to get EVERYTHING done in the actual NaNo because it turns out it's being a much busier month than planned, but I want to try and do the bulk of the work during the jam and finish things in April (Like, I imagine the majority of the music and CGs will have to be done after)

But as for the character count, I realised I needed them because there's certain reveals in the the plot that would have been too obvious if there weren't enough characters. Thankfully now the bases are done adding other expressions and arms won't take long as I made these in a really modular way so that I could replace parts very easily.

Ah so you are continuing after nano! That's great! -rubs hands- nice nice.
-cough- dont take too long tho i want to play it already....
I'm so impatient haha.
Good job!

[KiloTango]

I'm hard-deadlinling the full version at the end of April, yeah. I tried to keep the scale small but real life is getting in the way a lot this month, sadly. I do want to try and have something for the end of NaNo even if it's just a demo though.

Oh and as we're on a new page with no artwork on it, here's the icons I added to the front page:

[KiloTango]

No more visuals to show but progress report at the moment:

Rough outline: 100%
UI: 90%
Detailed Outline: 60% (Intro and endgame, and 1 character's scenes fully in)
Writing: 0%
Sprite Bases: 80%
Sprite Expressions: 0%
Code & effects: 0%
BGs: 0%
CGs: 0%
Music: 0%

I think my goal for NaNo is to leave out any CGs except for the really really key ones, and possibly not touch the OST either. Extension edition (which I'm deadlining as the end of April) will have more CGs, a full ost and possibly more sprite poses. Hopefully that's not breaking the spirit of things too much, I did want to get it all done in the deadline but work suddenly all the RL things have tripped me up.

I want to have the fully detailed outline done by the end of tomorrow, though I've ended up with a horrible cold and work is going slow. But at least with the detailed outline it'll just be a case of expanding into full text, it's a bit more elaborate than my usual outlines (I've had to resort to a big table with other tables inside it, so that I can keep track of where everyone is at a glance)...

[Kokoro Hane]

The warning in the beginning automatically grabbed my attention, this plot sounds really cool and unique to me, so I will definitely be checking it out. I also like the art-style for it~

[Zelan]

Aww, colds are no fun. :c Make sure not to run yourself into the ground! It's okay if it isn't totally finished by April, it's not like the deadline for a term paper, after all. c: Everything you've shown us so far is amazing!

[paradigmshifty]

I'm really looking forward to checking this game out I hope everything goes well and you have a demo ready for Nano.
I know what you mean when you say you were expecting to have more time available in March but life getting in the way! All too well!

Good luck

[Mandy]

Oh my gosh! The art style is so cute!
All the characters look adorable and the story sounds interesting too!~
I also love the GxG option! I'll definitely be playing this once it's available! D

Good luck~! <3

[MimirollCookie]

Leann, IS SO PRETTY!

[KiloTango]

@Kokoro Hane: Thanks! I was worried the over the top jargon would turn people off but it seems to have done the trick. Glad you like the style!
@Zelan: Thanks. The joys of trying to NaNo when you're a freelancer etc. I'm hoping the cold shifts soon and I'm mainlining lemsips in the mean time...
@paradigmshifty: Cheers. I'm currently really torn on if I want a skeleton of the whole thing as my NaNo goal (with almost no OST) or a shorter demo but with music...
@Mandy: Yay GxG! I'm keeping all the romances in this kinda light but I tend to default to bi protagonists so it's good to see people are also up for GxG times.
@MimirollCookie: I'm really glad. I was a bit worried about her design cause she's so pointy and twiggy (especially compared to Nola who accidentally came out adorable), but I wanted there to be a range of bodytypes and you don't see willowy girls enough. I wanted her to contrast with Nola because they're on screen together a lot so she's red and all angles and elbows to go against Nola's cyan squiggles and curves

Actually, general question: Would people prefer a shorter but more polished demo, or a less polished one that gives more of the story? As if it's the former I could re-direct some of the writing/bgs time into music and CGs...

[Zelan]

Hmmm, I think I would have to put my vote in for a more polished demo. After all, a demo is supposed to showcase a little bit of everything that the VN has to offer, right? It's really up to you, though - if you're having an easier time with writing and backgrounds, I would say stick to those. c:

[KiloTango]

@Zelan: It's not that those are easier, but they're the things I'd hold off on if I was going to find some time to work on soundtrack. (I was words/code/music on the under-hiatus other VN I've been doing)

I guess it's better for people to not get an unpolished version of the big emotional beats anyway...

Progress tonight: Figured out the remaining blank spots in my outline, worked out the flags I'm going to need to set everything off and built the file structure so I don't go crazy keeping track of all these little scenes. (I decided that the core loop has 5 main choice points, though what choices you get at point 5 will depend on what you've done before that. But even if I keep the scenes short that's a lot of things to keep track of, and that's not even counting the endgame of the story... So yay for subfolders.)

[Pick_One]

Saw this a few days ago, but didn't had the chance to fully reply until now. I like the warning, it sets the suspenseful tone of the story. The identity corruption part sort of jumps out at me. Self contamination sounds like something to worry about. lol...

The concept of the Ident system and the artificial identities involve sounds interesting. I'm curious about the 'activated' part... I like the pressure of the time limit. It's so ominous to read that Nola's survival is not part of Cassie's operator's timeline. :0 Overall, the premise sounds suspenseful and cool.

I think the art style with the title is pretty neat. I like the splatter effect and the chromatic aberration look alike effect. The main menu is looking good so far.

I like the character artworks. Random thought, my first feeling when I saw Leann, is that she looks a bit more sci-fi looking than the others. She looks tough and kinda cool. Marissa's design shows her sassy attitude and I have to say that it's kinda appealing to me. There's something I like about the art done in just achromatic colors plus one unique color for each characters. I can't put it into words. lol. The art feels like a mystery graphic novel? The coloring feels like it's done in copic markers, which is pretty neat to me. Overall, I think the visual fits the story and it's unique. It looks pretty cool.

And I did type up some response for the questions but I see that you made your decisions already. Regarding the demo question, I think a more polished demo is better? Better chances of hooking and keeping the players for the full release of the game. Just got to end the demo on the right spot in the story.

Good luck! I look forward to whatever you release. Also, hope you are feeling better now!

[KiloTango]

@Pick_One: Glad you like the look of it so far, and that the colour scheme thing is working. The art is actually pure digital, but using some of Kyle Webster's awesome photoshop brushes.

Things have been eating my time a lot more than originally planned this weekend so it's probably going to end up a shorter demo than I'd like. The tricky thing is deciding if I shorten it by removing options or cutting it chronologically...

That said, this weekend I finished outlining and doing the skeleton code for everything except the endings (So that's all the menus and variable tracking etc). That doesn't seem like it would be that much but... well, Mr Lint says:

The game contains 236 dialogue blocks, containing 3,562 words and 18,288
characters, for an average of 15.1 words and 77 characters per block.

The game contains 49 menus, 7 images, and 12 screens.

One of those menus is the dev menu but there'll be a few more in the endings. A player is probably going to see like 1/3 to 2/3 of those menus in a normal play through.

This has made me realise I'm probably going to have to rope in some testers because that's quite a lot of moving parts to go wrong...

[KiloTango]

A quick progress report:

The game contains 355 dialogue blocks, containing 5,715 words and 29,683
characters, for an average of 16.1 words and 84 characters per block.

The game contains 51 menus, 12 images, and 12 screens.

One of those menus is the dev nav and a lot of the others you'll only see if you make certain other choices.

Now, obviously I'm not going to get to most of these menus in NaNoRenO. But all that is the entire game's control flow coded/outlined out with all the variable tracking etc. The full game's endings are now split into 6 directions, but most of those have a few variants as well. They're all fairly short thankfully.

I just finished the text of the prologue, and implemented a few fun vfx transitions... interesting what you can pull off with image dissolves. This also meant me actually figuring out how to use time_warps at last so I could get some nice squishy ease-outs.

Tomorrow I want to get in as much of the actual visuals for the prologue as I can, which also means actually implementing Robbie's sprite as he's the first you see.