Stolen Life [GxG] [GxB] [Mystery,Supernatural]

[Smudgeed]

That sprite of Valerie looks like a big improvement to me.

Yes! I am improving. I just hope I don't end up drawing like Leonardo Da Vinci at the end and have to re-do all my spites. Wait, I talke that back. I hope I DO end up drawing like Da Vinci, that'd be a blessing.

This is looking wonderful. I've contemplated letting the player define things about the protagonist for the game I'm working on, but decided against it because I thought it was too challenging for myself, personally. I'd be really happy to see that implemented into your game because it would make it easier for the reader to immerse into the plot through the protagonist's viewpoint. I'm really looking forward to that!

Nice, thank you! The plan is to have readers relate more to Maria, after all. I think it's a pretty neat feature, glad you're looking forward to it!

I'm usually happy so long as I can determine who the main character romances, but it'll be interesting to see how you can implement that.

I hope I don't disappoint! I'm trying to make sure everything makes sense with how I implement it. Thank you for your comment

[Smudgeed]

And with all the work I've been doing I can say that the coding is 100% done! WOOOOOO! The coding is all done and the first part is 50% done (I know it's said 50% for a while but now it is actually 50% done.) The game right now is ~17k words :'). The spirte art is coming along slowly, and I'm thinking of re-doing it (once the game is out) as a possible update to the game. But for now I just have to live with it.

I've put in an 'endings' page that displays the endings in the game and will add check marks when you've gotten that ending. Also a death counter that counts how many times you've died in the game..just...because...

I got a bit lazy with the art on these pages, so if anyone would like to donate their artistic abilities to do a drawing on one of these pages, that'd be awesome! Otherwise, I'll just do something later. Or make a proper post looking for artists to do quick drawings for me.

Thank you for reading!

These are the ending pages, I don't know if the ending names are spoilers or not. I tried to make them as vague as possible.

[Smudgeed]

With the first arc of the game practically done (everything is written, I just need to put it in the game) I'm happy to share some sort of cover art for it!

At this point, the Talia sprite is done leaving Cullen, Sam and the side characters. I have a good estimate of the word count of the finished game and so It'll be 60000+ words (in total, one play through of the game will see less words than that obviously). I aim to get this game done sometime this year. I believe I've added in the last of features to the game as well and and that's how you chose to have Maria side in the game (with or against the law). Your law team is Cullen, River and Valerie. Your anti-government squad is Talia, Sam and Alex. The game branches off in that way, creating more options for dialogue and different scenes. Romancing a character on the opposite side as what you've sided on results in different dialogue and scenes as well. It's a lot of fun to write! But I'm taking it one chunk at a time so I don't burn myself out. And that first chunk is almost done!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day! Thank you for reading EDIT: Also, almost 4000 views? That's awesome! Thank you all for taking enough interest in this to look at it!

[bellice]

Yep, still excited for this.

[Seigetsu]

60k words seems reasonable, especially when you already have 17k down. I think you have a good timeline going here and finishing this year sounds really feasible. Looking forward to playing the game!

[Smudgeed]

Yep, still excited for this.

Thank you! It warms me right up to read this.

60k words seems reasonable, especially when you already have 17k down. I think you have a good timeline going here and finishing this year sounds really feasible. Looking forward to playing the game!

Good to know that someone else thinks so! I'm doing everything I can to make this game more manageable for me to write and finish soon. I'm glad you're looking forward to this!


And since I don't think I've posted this up before, here are the Alex and Talia sprites, with the placeholder for Sam smiling ominously back there.... I drew Talia without referencing the sizes of the other sprites and now I can see that was a mistake. Not doing that for the Cullen and Sam ones for sure. This post is also a way for me to say the first draft of the first chunk of the game is almost done! I have three more scenes to write and I'm good.

Thank you all for reading and checking out this project!

[Smudgeed]

I'm happy to announce that the first chunk of this game as been written! WOOO! Though I still have no sprites for Alex and Sam...I mean my laptop crashed in the middle of my making of the Sam sprite so I am a bit discouraged but HEY I'm done the first draft of the first part of the game! I have the outline for part 2 done as well!! I'll be doing the outline for chunk 3 of the game as I edit part 1. Which leaves chunk 4, 5 and 6 of the game :')

My current plan is to release a beta demo of the first part once I edit everything so I can get feedback going forward. I'd like this game to be the best that it can be and that'll probably be easier to do with feedback! I'm sorta at the point where I'm doubting if any of this is any good. The first part of the game especially is kind of lacking because it has all of the introductory stuff and the action of the story picks up in the second chunk of the game.

The demo will be out in July, I hope you'll take the time to play it and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading!

[frybrows]

This looks really interesting!! Since you've been so kind as to be active in my thread, I couldn't help but take the time to read through yours when I found the time. This looks really neat!

What do you think about the story?
I'm very intrigued by the story! I'm curious as to who (or what?) the killer is, and I'm a little worried it's going to be a character I'll come to love. :c I'll have to play and find out!!

What do you like? What do you think could be done a bit better?
I'm sooooooo happy you put in options to define Maria's sexuality!! The options you put were all really great, too. It's going to be hard to pick, because I don't want to close any doors (male routes) but I also really like the potential characterization of a completely lesbian Maria! I'm also really liking the concept of the changing entries, sooo cool.

What are you looking forward to?
I really want to learn about all the endings, actually! Seeing all the titles (and subtitles? if that's what they are), I'm curious as to what they mean! I wish I could just dig through and find out right now!

From the characters listed, who do you like the best?
Ugh, it's so hard to choose? There's so many great characters listed here. Right now, I think my favourites are Valerie and Sam! I adore their designs, and their personalities are the ones that spark my interest most. I absolutely adore geeky/nerd/comic-book type characters, and that's Sam all the way (plus, two-tone hair is awesome). I get the feeling that Valerie takes crap from nobody, which I always admire in a character (that, and her lipstick choices). I just love the diversity in character traits that are already evident among the cast!

Would you play this game?
Yes!! A thousand times yes!

Question / Comments / Concerns ?
I guess it falls under "comments"??

The only thing I'd be wary of is the varying line width in some of your art. I really like your bold style with thick, solid lines (I always tend to stay on the soft, thinner side of things) but it feels like some pieces have thicker linework than others? It's by no means a big deal, but if we're getting super-picky, consistency is the best thing. It helps keep a sort of signature style for people to recognize (again, it's nothing drastic, just something to keep in mind as you keep developing I guess??). Looking though it, I feel that this partially may be caused by the updated-ness of the art, so I really wouldn't sweat over it. My only other concern would be the blocky blushes, but I'm pretty sure that's a stylistic thing. Not all blushes have to be airbrushed to the extreme.
(this looks like such a giant block of criticism I'm so sorry I didn't mean it to be super negative and stuff please don't feel bad)

I love your palette selections, though, they all work very nicely together! Nothing sticks out in a weird way, and all the colours blend together in a really nice way. Still vibrant enough to be interesting and eye-catching, but not overwhelming! The variation in facial features is also extremely refreshing. Keep up the good work!!

And anything else
I'm REALLY digging that shot of the main menu. Simple but effective. Give it to me now, I love it!

--
RIGHT AS I WENT TO POST THIS YOU POSTED AGAIN SO
I'm so excited for the beta!! July is so soon! I'll be sure to play and let you know what I think asap! <3 (also that celebratory pic is beautiful I laughed so hard)

[Smudgeed]

This looks really interesting!! Since you've been so kind as to be active in my thread, I couldn't help but take the time to read through yours when I found the time. This looks really neat!

What do you think about the story?
I'm very intrigued by the story! I'm curious as to who (or what?) the killer is, and I'm a little worried it's going to be a character I'll come to love. :c I'll have to play and find out!!

What do you like? What do you think could be done a bit better?
I'm sooooooo happy you put in options to define Maria's sexuality!! The options you put were all really great, too. It's going to be hard to pick, because I don't want to close any doors (male routes) but I also really like the potential characterization of a completely lesbian Maria! I'm also really liking the concept of the changing entries, sooo cool.

What are you looking forward to?
I really want to learn about all the endings, actually! Seeing all the titles (and subtitles? if that's what they are), I'm curious as to what they mean! I wish...

Ah hello frybrows thank you for your comment! I'm glad you'd play this game once it's out! I hope I don't disappoint

I'm glad you want to know more about the endings! That was the effect I was going for. I'm also glad you would play this game and that you like the sexuality choices! I was worried that no one would care about them haha Whenever I test the game I always make Maria a lesbian...which is bad because I need to test out Cullen and Alex scenes too.

And I hadn't noticed that about my art! Thank you for pointing it out. The blocky blushes are a mystery to me, I have no clue why I do them...thankfully they aren't in the game! I think.... You've given me a lot to think about and that's very good! I want to polish the art more near release so I'll keep those things in mind, thank you! Oh, I don't feel bad about this at all! I want to make sure that the art is enjoyable so all feedback helps! It's very thoughtful of you to worry about that though, but it's okay!

I am so happy you laughed at that, I laughed while I was making it. Thank you so much for your comment!

[Smudgeed]

Hello! I'm excited to announce that I've finished Sam's sprite and the rough sketch for Cullen's! Most likely, I'll be done his sprite today...which means I'll be done all the art for the main characters! I still have to do sprites for the side characters, but I doubt they'll take long. I'm working hard to edit the script so I can get the beta demo out next week, the editing won't take long..it's the art that's the real killer. I've also finished the outlines for part 2 and 3 :')

and with that...I start the writing for chunk 2 of the game, "heads"! The beta demo will be out (hopefully) next week. Thank you for reading! And there's the Sam sprite (ignore the fact she's still in her work clothes, I forgot to put in the other outfit)

[Seigetsu]

Good to hear that the beta demo will be out next week. Can't wait! As for Sam's sprite, I think it is decent, but the right arm looks a little awkward. The upper arm looks curved and a little too long.

[Smudgeed]

Good to hear that the beta demo will be out next week. Can't wait! As for Sam's sprite, I think it is decent, but the right arm looks a little awkward. The upper arm looks curved and a little too long.

Ooh thank you! Ah, the awkward arm strikes again. You're right, I'll work on fixing that right now! Thank you for mentioning it

EDIT: Quickly fixed it a bit, hope this is better.

[Smudgeed]

UPDATE: Hello! I finished all the sprites, though I still need to add expressions and outfits. I'll probably forgo the extra outfits for the demo though. The sprites will be cleaned up a bit in the final release but so I don't spend 10 years making spites it's better to just get them done.

The beta demo was supposed to be out last week, but I was unable to finish all of it by then. Initially, I planned to only have bits of each character's routes in the demo. The way parts 1 and 2 of the game work is that you use the map to choose what character you want to spend time with, so in addition to the main story, you have that. After part 1 and sometime during part 2, you would have chosen what character "route" you'd like to go down, and the map is no longer used and the romance can officially be integrated into the main story. This map method makes it possible for you to explore your options a bit if you want...but it also gives the demo a crazy word count. For these "map scenes" I've written all of Valerie's and the first scene for each character, but since I have all of Valerie's done, I thought it would be fair if I worked on finishing the rest of them. Worst case scenario; when the demo gets released, there may be one or two characters who don't have all their map scenes in the game. However, that doesn't matter for the first part of the game (which is the part that the demo is) since you won't see the affects of your romance in that section.

I can release the demo as it is, but I'd rather refine it a bit first, even if it is the beta of the game. The release date for this beta demo is still this month.

The demo is pretty lengthy, considering it is 40% of the story and all....it also contains a lot of content by itself. It's because of that, that I'd like to have it out sometime soon. The point of releasing this demo is for feedback going forward, considering this is my first project, I don't really have much experience telling stories in this medium.

TL;DR: Demo almost done, need to edit more and add expressions. Debating how many romantic scenes I should have written for the demo. Could release demo right now, but want to refine more. Demo will be done this month for sure. Creator of game really tired. Should sleep now.

Here's a scene that looks kinda funny. It's like they're arranged from tallest to shortest.

And some statistics of the demo as it is now:

Code: Select all

The game contains 3,515 dialogue blocks, containing 30,046 words and 157,777
characters, for an average of 8.5 words and 45 characters per block.

The game contains 39 menus, 89 images, and 46 screens.

[bellice]

Oh man, this is coming along nicely! I can't wait for the demo. (But really, no pressure, you just take your time. The most important thing is that YOU'RE satisfied with your product.)

[Smudgeed]

Oh man, this is coming along nicely! I can't wait for the demo. (But really, no pressure, you just take your time. The most important thing is that YOU'RE satisfied with your product.)

Hehe thank you! This is very encouraging to read and I'm not going to lie, it did motivate me to work harder

UPDATE!

I figure since all I really need to do for the demo is just edit my writing, I should show more screenshots! It would also be a good time to show off the supporting cast (there are some side character's not pictured, I want to fix up their sprites a bit still). Also, there's good news! I hyperlinked entries in the in game text, so when you unlock one it will be highlighted for you to click and check out the entry in the casebook. You are also definitely going to need to play this game with sound, there are a few scenes that won't make sense without it.

Death! I can't believe I haven't talked about this before but of course characters will die in this game as a result of choices (and not choices, of course). Not just side characters, it's possible that some of the main 6 will die too. Although, with how I've written the game no main character will die as a result of your choices if you are pursing them romantically. Since that would mean I'd have to write more endings on top of the 18 I have.

Now back to writing I go. Thank you for reading!