Senior Year Development Thread

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EwanG · #76 Post by **EwanG** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:05 am

OK, I won't interpret lack of response for lack of interest in the future

I finally (!) got to Annette's entrance to the game last night, so at least I feel like I'm making progress.

Thanks to all of you!

EwanG · #77 Post by **EwanG** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:14 am

OK, I'm really churning out code now, and I can see the ends of the main tracks for each of the lovelies in sight. That means it's time for me to do a first call for voice actors. I'm going to work up a submission for the Voice Actors forums, but figured I'd give y'all first crack

Looking for 5 female voices, all in the 18 - 25 range to reflect the age of my characters (who are all around 21 - 22 years). Willing to consider younger or older than that, but you'll need a voice that sounds "collegiate". While there are no "ero" scenes in this story, there are some fairly suggestive ones, and so you will need to be comfortable with that.

Audition submissions should be sent as MP3 files to ewan dot grantham at gmail dot com. Character info and sample lines below:

Linda - Student, 22, Moderate voice. Midwestern or light Southern accent.

Two sample lines for Linda audition:

"Well, I normally ride the bus to school, but since it's such a pretty morning, I thought I'd take a walk."

"That depends, are we going dutch or are you paying?"

Becky - Waitress, 21, Moderate voice. Midwestern or light Southern accent.

Two sample lines for Becky audition:

"I figured you for a bit of a sweet talker. Are you originally from around here?"

"To be honest, I've been hoping you'd ask. I'm a little too old fashioned to ask a guy myself, but I thought I might have given you a few clues."

Carla - Cafeteria Worker, 23, Moderate Voice. Ideally would have a bit of a Hispanic accent.

Two sample lines for Carla audition:

"Sometimes. Why, are you still a stray?"

"I've got plenty of experience cleaning up from the cafeteria, mi amor."

Julie - Bookstore Clerk, 20, Moderate Voice. Midwestern or light southern accent.

Two sample lines for Julie audition:

"So you only like me for my brain?"

"Really? I'm tempted to test that. But it will have to wait..."

Annette - Performance Artist, 22, Moderate to Strong Voice. Accent could be anything depending on how you want to play her.

Two sample lines for Annette audition:

"So I let myself be cast... cast my soul like bait... fishing for a bite... not knowing what would come..."

Whispering - "Don't screw it up now. Pretend like this was all part of the plan, turn around, smile and bow."

Thanks in advance!

EwanG · #78 Post by **EwanG** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:29 pm

Forgot to mention that there is about 30 minutes of dialog for each character. Also, while the script is complete at this point, I expect some changes to come out of the Beta Test, so it will be helpful if vocalists can be available for some short changes through the Beta Test period.

FWIW, Vocalists will get top billing in the credits - helping to make sure that folks will actually ready your credit

On a related note, I've decided to drop the "Ten Years After" bonus piece from the game. Now that I'm getting close to where I would need to code those, I'm realizing that it's kind of silly to have a "bonus" where you mainly get to sit there and read. Instead, I am going to take the preliminary work I had done on those, and put them aside for "Senior Year - The Ten Year Reunion". I think that will better serve the story, and will give me some other options that using just a "bonus" system wouldn't.

Note that I have two other games I will be working on between Senior Year and the Ten Year Reunion game. Assuming folks even like the first one. But figured y'all deserved to know that I've changed my mind.

Also, this means that getting the voice actors now takes on some more urgency. Because once I get those recordings I'll be ready for the Beta test, and can still aim for a release in time for folks December Holiday period - when they might have time to play Senior Year and would be looking for something new.

OK, I'd better get back to coding!

monele · #79 Post by **monele** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:33 am

FWIW, Vocalists will get top billing in the credits - helping to make sure that folks will actually ready your credit

I hope they don't just get scrolling text then ^^

Mirielle · #80 Post by **Mirielle** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:23 am

I saw your thread in the VAA and I will definately audition! When I saw that you posted in the help thread I thought you seemed familiar!

But I am glad to see this is really coming along. Must continue coding my own game now...

EwanG · #81 Post by **EwanG** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:29 pm

Mirielle - Look forward to receiving your audition file. And, of course, if you need help with your title, feel free to ask.

Personally I'm getting pretty excited about how the game is coming along. In addition to having already received my first audition file, I also finished Linda's path today. One down and four to go.

Hope y'all are having a good one!

EwanG · #82 Post by **EwanG** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:50 pm

And now I can add Becky's path to the list of completed paths. Two down and three to go. I think the next two (Julie and Carla) will take a bit longer than Linda and Becky did because they both start a little later in the story. The worst one (from a time perspective) is going to be Annette since she doesn't even start until all the other paths are about 1/3'd in.

Now I just hope I get some more auditions soon!

EwanG · #83 Post by **EwanG** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:12 pm

Weekly Status Update 11-25 to 12-1

This has been a pretty good week for the project. Rescoping allowed me to concentrate on the other 90% of the game that wasn't in the "bonus" area, and also left me with a little slack to do some additional graphical work as it came up.

Linda and Becky's paths are completely coded. I have the outlines for the other three paths, and am even looking to add a scene to Annette's path based on the one audition I got for her part. With all that, it looks like I will have graphics and coding completed by next Friday (Dec. 8th). I'm anticipating that it will take two weeks to get all the voices recorded and those recordings integrated into the game. Which means I'll be looking for some beta test help around Dec. 22nd. That means the game should be ready for release sometime mid January - assuming I can make the fixes out of the beta test reasonably quickly, and can pull together the "marketing" piece - renovating the current website for the game, adding links hither and yon, and trying to find reviewers who will take a look.

Interesting times

EwanG · #84 Post by **EwanG** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:19 pm

Quick update - just finished coding Carla's path. Also the one character I'm having the most trouble finding an audition for since she has a spanish/hispanic accent. May have to ask one of the other folks to "stretch" into the role.

Next up - Julie's path, then Annette's path, then time to pull the scripts out of the script.rpy file.

EwanG · #85 Post by **EwanG** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:12 pm

And now Julie's path is finished. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if I can get Annette's path finished tomorrow since it is the one that had the most coding remaining at this point. Still, as long as it's done by Wednesday I'll have plenty of time to pull the script from the code for the voice actors.

Hard to believe that I can finally stop worrying about completing the project, and start worrying about how to package and promote it. It looks like with the voices, I'm going to be between 80 and 100 megs for the final package. Should make distribution interesting...

More soon (hopefully).

#86 Post by **PyTom** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 11:20 pm

EwanG wrote:And now Julie's path is finished. I would be (pleasantly) surprised if I can get Annette's path finished tomorrow since it is the one that had the most coding remaining at this point. Still, as long as it's done by Wednesday I'll have plenty of time to pull the script from the code for the voice actors.

Wow... really getting there. How do you plan to extract the script for the VAs, and what format will it be in? I might be able to whip something up that will automate the task.

EwanG · #87 Post by **EwanG** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:25 am

PyTom wrote:Wow... really getting there. How do you plan to extract the script for the VAs, and what format will it be in? I might be able to whip something up that will automate the task.

Pretty much was planning to do it manually to produce a text file for each actor that had their lines in the context of the overall script. IOW, they wouldn't see lines from paths they weren't involved in, but would see their lines and others where they are.

Pulling the text shouldn't (famous last words) be that difficult. Numbering just their lines I suspect will be

If you have something that could automate that process, I'd be more than happy to use it. Along that same line, any suggestions for handling the voice files and still having the BGM playing in the background? I "assume" I can just play each on a separate channel?

Thanks again,
Ewan

#88 Post by **PyTom** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:33 am

EwanG wrote:Pulling the text shouldn't (famous last words) be that difficult. Numbering just their lines I suspect will be

What do you mean by "Numbering just their lines?"

If you have something that could automate that process, I'd be more than happy to use it. Along that same line, any suggestions for handling the voice files and still having the BGM playing in the background? I "assume" I can just play each on a separate channel?

Well, you almost certainly want to use the voice support, which consists of lines like:

voice "e00001.ogg"
e "This is an example of voice support in action."

voice "e00002.ogg"
e "The voice support automatically stops sounds from playing when we click to advance. It also plays sounds on a different channel, so they don't conflict with music or SFX."

If you want, I can whip up a tool that adds in the above annotations automatically... you'd just need to tell me how you want me to name the files. (I assume you can run python.)

EwanG · #89 Post by **EwanG** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:44 am

PyTom wrote: What do you mean by "Numbering just their lines?"

Because I'm lazy (hard to believe, right?), I'm asking them to do each panel of dialog as a separate file. To make that easy for me, and them, I will number just their lines. For example if I have:

Code: Select all

pov: "I think your ankle is twisted."

j: "Nah, it's just a little sprained. If you can just help me up."

pov: "{i}I slide my arm under her left arm and help her take a couple steps.{/i}"

j: "You know, you may be right about that."

I would want to give them the script as:

Code: Select all

pov: "I think your ankle is twisted."

001 - j: "Nah, it's just a little sprained. If you can just help me up."

pov: "{i}I slide my arm under her left arm and help her take a couple steps.{/i}"

002 - j: "You know, you may be right about that."

So they would then send me a ZIP of files called:

Julie_001.mp3
Julie_002.mp3

etc.

Well, you almost certainly want to use the voice support, which consists of lines like:

voice "e00001.ogg"
e "This is an example of voice support in action."

voice "e00002.ogg"
e "The voice support automatically stops sounds from playing when we click to advance. It also plays sounds on a different channel, so they don't conflict with music or SFX."

Now that I know about it - yes, I most certainly do want to use that

If you want, I can whip up a tool that adds in the above annotations automatically... you'd just need to tell me how you want me to name the files. (I assume you can run python.)

If it's not too much trouble, I certainly would appreciate it. As for running python - hints on how to do so from the command line are always appreciated

Alessio · #90 Post by **Alessio** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:00 am

When numbering, do yourself a favour and do it in steps of 10. Then you don't have to reorganize everything if some parts of the dialogue change. :)

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