WiP: The Dreaming (visual novella)

[Taleweaver]

Hi everybody,

with about 1/5th of the script written, the entire plot flowchart completed and the art in... well, pre-production, I'd like to announce the next TallTalesProduction VN as in progress:

THE DREAMING
In a private mental asylum, young Dr. Gabrielle Sanders is trying to find the cause for the delusions of a new patient: Julius, as he calls himself, has vivid hallucinations of people that aren't there, and he is no longer able to distinguish reality from hallucination. With his past shrouded in shadows and dark secrets surrounding his mental condition, will Gabrielle find a way to free him from the Dreaming?

For this project, I'm going for novella length - unless you hit an early "game over", you're treated to somewhere between 18.000 and 40.000 words altogether. The plot will have multiple endings, and the general atmosphere will be one of psychological horror. LVUER is my artist for this project, and I'm hoping to complete it somewhere in May or June. Most of the script will be written until the end of this week.

Wish me luck!

[Midnighticequeen]

Good luck, Taleweaver! You can do it!

[Taleweaver]

Short update: Today, the "Dreaming" script left "Daemonophilia" behind in terms of length. I estimate I should have complete one third altogether now.

Still no graphics I can show you, but I don't think that will take too much longer.

[Alphonse]

Ooh, sounds really interesting! It even made me ignore my dislike for titles that have the word "The" at the start of them. Finish it so I can play it, okay?

[Fang-tan]

Oh no, I hear the last name Sanders and I can't help but think of Cohen...
Anywho, this seems like something I'd be interested in. Can't wait!

[Taleweaver]

Okay, halfway done:

The game contains 2102 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 29300 words,
for an average of 13.9 words per screen.
The game contains 16 menus.

I hope to do another major part over this following weekend because I finally have a bit of time to spare. Still not much art to show you, but LVUER is doing a splendid job - one of the sketches she made was so awesome I promptly felt the need to add an additional scene just so that this specific character would get some more air time.

Estimated release? Hard to say. At the moment, I think aiming for late May is realistic, but that will depend on how much time I find over the weeks, and on how LVUER is getting along with the artwork.

[Taleweaver]

Taleweaver has been productive today. The backbone of the game is now complete. I need to write one more ending, and then, in therory, it is playable.

Of course, I will add a few more scenes, more flavor, more to make the experience tighter. The game still has no extras, too, no gallery (well, because there isn't any art to show off yet), no music room... not even a title screen that is worth calling "title screen". However, it all works nice and clean in Ren'Py 6.9.1, and I am pretty confident LVUER and I will be able to release this game until the end of May.

[Taleweaver]

Next status update: script is now almost complete and needs another 5.000 words, maximum, to increase immersiveness. Not much to show in terms of graphics, unfortunately, because LVUER has bought a graphics tablet and wants to redo everything she made so far so that it will all look coherent. On the positive side, using a graphics tablet should be a little faster than what she used to do, so I guess we can still make the May release.

I think we are now in a status where I can issue a call for playtesters. The game is pretty much in Final Alpha status now, there are only stand-in graphics so far, but everything is playable except for the unlockable content I plan to include. So if one or two of you would kindly apply for proofreading and general playtesting, I'd be very grateful.

[Midnighticequeen]

I'd be willing to be a beta tester for you.

[Taleweaver]

Okay, this is the final pre-release statement I will be making about The Dreaming (notwithstanding answering any questions you might have about it here).

Lint sez:

Code: Select all

The game contains 2641 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 36715 words,
for an average of 13.9 words per screen.
The game contains 22 menus.

Substantially shorter than I intended it, but I shortened a few bits here and a few bits there, and it has only become better and more concise. Maybe it will gain some more length as soon as we have all the artwork complete - so far, there are still many pieces of placeholder art, and for some of the scenes, I need to see how everything plays together eventually so that I can write according to the visuals.

It's still one of the most interactive VNs I've ever made. Although it only has six endings, the large number of choices makes it quite challenging to find the True Ending - however, as you know from my games, I like to drop a few hints to make it easier. Still, "The Dreaming" is far from fair and will sometimes kill the poor protagonist without warning if you don't act quickly... and sometimes if you do.

Well, and I finally have a teaser pic for you. It won't be in the game, but it is an example of the art style LVUER will be using ...and it shows our protagonist, though differently from how you will meet her in the game.

Have fun!

[Taleweaver]

Before I forget to mention this:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =11&t=5590

Au fait!

Thread closed!