As a Solo Dev, What is your workflow? [conversation]

[YumaDazai]

As a solo dev, I often find myself jumping around, going from scripting to art to coding. I can't seem to just stick to one thing until it's done enough to go to the next. For example, I keep jumping from script writing to working on Defining things in the code, to concept art.

So, I wanted to ask, Where do you guys start, and what is your workflow?

[Ben The Sodaman]

Hi YumaDazai,

I'm still starting out - having gravitated to Ren'Py during my first game jam with seven days remaining. Grain of salt here until someone doing this longer also weighs in.

I think each developer will approach the situation differently. Where I was more inclined to write the story with scripting with placeholder comments for things I would like to have. Whether that's a camera zoom in or shake (still learning this), a character getting in another character's face, audio that I would like to have, expressions that I would like a character to show, or a background or location that I don't have yet.

So for me, the flow looked like:
* Scripting
* Coding and troubleshooting with placeholder graphics, audio, characters (e.g., backgrounds being solid colors with a tiny bit of text to let me know if the location loaded at all, sound effects made with my mouth or brief humming to let me know if something at least loaded/played, and characters tending to be the same character sprite with some chicken scratch on their artwork to signify they are a different character)
* Art - backgrounds
* Art - characters with extremely limited* expressions, focusing on the characters that seemed to surface the most in my script
* Sound effects, because I'm less picky about those effects
* Music last - because I knew next to nothing on actual composition

(Granted, this was a small exploratory project while trying to learn several applications to a basic level. A lot of things were cut to meet the deadline.)

Where I speculate that perhaps someone from an art focus may lean toward drawing the characters and backgrounds earlier in their workflow.

Or someone with an audio focus composes the foundation or finished tracks earlier in theirs.

[YumaDazai]

Hi YumaDazai,

I'm still starting out - having gravitated to Ren'Py during my first game jam with seven days remaining. Grain of salt here until someone doing this longer also weighs in..........

Thanks for your perspective! I agree with the focus changing the workflow! I personally am an animation college student, so I often find myself thinking about the art, look, and atmosphere of the game more than the actual script/code/gameplay. Audio hasn't even crossed my mind yet.

Of course everyone will be different and have their own ways of doing things, but it is very interesting to see how it varies so much. I find myself forcing myself to work on the script to have it at least in a somewhat playable state so I can get some code in that I can edit later. I think for me, having something actually coded in the program makes it feel more real/concrete. Like I am actually making progress, even though just working on the script or art is progress, it doesn't feel real until I implement it.

I am coming to realize that even tho art is important, this early into my process, beyond concepting, its not very useful to me. Making sure the script is good, and gameplay elements are solid is important. There are many games/stories that have sub par art that are held in high regard for their story/gameplay. The experience should be the main focus in the beginning in my opinion. It's harder to fix these things far down the line.

Again, thank you for your input!

[Imperf3kt]

I'll start off with my current project is not a visual novel at all but I am using Ren'Py to make it.
I'm actually making a tutorial / guide for an entirely different game.

Being the only person working on it, I find myself making very slow progress.
My work process will go something like this.

I'll come home from work and have a particular goal in mind, a particular section or feature I'd like to either add or get working etc.
I'll make a start on the coding/scripting and as I finish parts I like to test it as I go. This of course, will require artwork assets, so I often find myself needing to stop and create the artwork.
Once that is done, I can test my code / logic, make sure it works as intended, make any changes necessary and then go back to the artwork to clean it up if required.

This is probably not the best way to handle things, but it's all I can do being the only person working on my project.
I don't know what artwork I need until I start coding things and I can't test what I've made until I have art assets for it.
I often find myself reusing images with intention to change them at a later date.

[Fuseblower]

I don't know if I should attach "flow" to my "work". It's either a raging river or placid lake Stillborn

I always start with the drawings (all watercolors) which are guided by the general idea of what the visual novel should be about like "80s horror movie tribute" ("The Doomed Diner") or a Sherlock Holmes' type of detective story ("The Case of the Slushball Slasher). The story is inspired by the drawings and I write down the ideas I get from them which will slowly become a story. The challenge is to forge a story out of all these elements. Of course, someone who's more into writing than drawing will work the other way around : making the drawings support the story instead of having a story stringing together the drawings.

But I work different if I have to finish it in a limited amount of time.

The Case of the Slushball Slasher was made for a month long jam so I thought : I want 10 backgrounds, 8 characters and a couple of small CGs. Restricting myself in order to make it in a month and the whole story structure more or less lifted from Sherlock Holmes stories, listening to audio books and writing down words from the "flowery English" of Arthur Conan Doyle. It was done within the time limit and I had a finished product.

... Unlike The Doomed Diner in which I indulge in my love for 80s Horror movies. This is a visual novel which uses illustrations instead of sprites with backgrounds. I started out with the idea "I'll make a quick 100 or so watercolors and figure out the story later". Those 100 watercolors are now well over 400 and they're no longer quick either, giving an uneven feeling to the illustrations as a whole, also not helped by me at first going for a cartoony look which became more realistic since I made a caricature of John Carpenter (famous horror director) and was so pleased with it that I decided to make about every supporting character in the likeness of 80s horror actors and directors which necessitated a more realistic look since I'm not much of a caricaturist.

Since you're an animation student, you've probably heard of "pose to pose" and "straight ahead" animation.

"The Case of the Slushball Slasher" is like pose to pose. It was planned, it had a beginning and an end and I just had to fill in the beats between. I knew what I had to do and then I did it. It was finished in time.

"The Doomed Diner" is like straight ahead. I just started with what I like to do and experience it spiralling out of control I (re-)watch a horror movie and get new ideas. I just keep piling stuff on it. To be sure : it has 5 finished story lines, it also has about a 100 drawings which are still in need of a story and it will need a 100 more to make them into a story.

But in the end it's about what you want out of the work you'll do. I like that the Slushball Slasher is a finished product. But The Doomed Diner has some really nice drawings (in my opinion). Sure, it's uneven (and not finished) but I've really got to know my paints (Indathrone Blue, really bad to do skies with )

As for the music and sound (or lack thereof)... It was all made very quickly. I'm not a musician by any stretch of the imagination. I just hope my stomp boxes or casually mentioning that the bass comes from a Moog synth will trick people into thinking it's actually decent

Of course, at no point did I set out with the expectation that my work would be great or successfull (which is just as well as I look at the number of views at itch.io, would have had more views if I'd just thrown the watercolors out on the street) The work is its own reward, to make something more than just a single drawing. And it's a learning experience, not a waste of time. I just like to draw and paint and making visual novels with renpy gives me a good excuse to do just that (and renpy is really easy on the coding side so that takes one complication out of the whole equation).

[BlackjagX]

Good question.
Ive tried a few different approaches.
But the one that keeps things moving for me goes like this.

1 Set up a new renpy game.
2 Write some of the story so far. Not too much.
3 Code it how you want it to appear on screen.
4 Do the backgrounds and add them.
5 Do the characters and add them too.
6 Play it through and see how it goes.
7 Make any adjustments where needed.
8 Repeat and add another chunk.

The reason it keeps me happy this way is that i dont get too far ahead if i want to change things.
And i get to polish it each run through.
Also you see it and it throws up new ideas that can be added.
Its a slow method but at least you wont get overwhelmed.
And you get to switch between art n writing n coding, which keeps things fresh.
Hope that helps...

[RizVN]

• I start with an idea.

Then for the first iteration, I do this:

• I look for sprites that I can actually use.

• I write 1 chapter of the story.

• Then I would start modifying the sprite, searching for relevant backgrounds (only for that chapter), and musics.

• Then I implement everything to the game.

• After that I playtest the game.

• I barely edit anything at this point.

• As long as everything works, great, then I push the game to github.

After the first iteration, I either build the project as a prototype and upload it to itch.io to get feedbacks, or I continue to the second iteration and so on:

• I write 1 chapter of the story.

• Implement everything to the game.

• Playtest.

• Push to github.

• Repeat until the game is finished or I dropped the project.

If I still have time after each iteration, I enjoy my time chatting with VN communities, playing games, relax, rest, or anything really.

# Note:
1. I focus on quantity AND quality (in that order).
2. I start looking for sprites first before writing because I'm not an artist, so it might become a problem down the line. For example, if I choose to write first about an otome VN with a male character that is a werewolf-zombie-dragon-hybrid and there are no free sprites for it, then I'm royally screwed. I have to rewrite the story or drop the project or do AI art (I'm not against AI, but it's still hard to get it right).
3. I generally do not edit things before getting user feedbacks, because I might waste a lot of time fixing things that are not even important to the end user otherwise.

I hope this helps.