herotome

[herotome]

speaking of larping as a knight u can get through basically any task by imagining that ur a knight or perhaps a squire undergoing various ordeals and such.

for example.

-car maintenance. a noble knight would never allow their steed to languish without proper care.

-laundry. a squire must maintain the wardrobe for themself and their knight and work hard to prove themself.

-exercise: a knight must train to keep their skills sharp and maintain their strength and stamina.

-conversation with annoying coworker? a knight must be gracious even in the face of provocation and maintain diplomacy and restraint so as not to make things difficult for their king and also not misuse their power by obliterating an unarmed man with sheer force of might no matter how much he DESERVES IT

[herotome]

Maybe it's weird considering they're heroes, but who's most likely to go to jail and why? Haha, maybe Dart for speeding on his motorcycle?

I feel like speeding should be punished by a fine, at worst?! Dart is quite a responsible driver though, generally speaking... I recently started thinking Griffin might be the worst driver (since before he started using a wheelchair).

Most likely to go to jail, though... I think it'd be Warden for manslaughter.

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lis react to me bear hugging one of their legs and gnawing on their ankle like the rabid dog I am when I see them

Surprise and horror! ... Initially. If you make enough of a habit of it, here's how they'll be desensitized to it:

Warden: He..................... will start having you bite other areas of his body to test his fortitude...

Griffin: Bites you back! But can't help devolving into nibbles and kisses.

Mia: SCREAMS like an overdramatic little kid, Charlie bit my finger style. This is all a bit, right?

Dart: "Argh, mangy mutt!" shakes his leg, very seriously asks if you will stop misbehaving in exchange for scooby snacks. He'll also call you "fleabag" a lot.

Jade: The most stoic deadpan reaction in the world. She'll just be standing there while you bite away... People will ask if she's okay and she's just like "Why wouldn't I be" while proffering her ankle to you like a chicken leg.

[herotome]

Devlog #183

Hi-ho, Wudge here.

I wrote some transition lines, and coded in a good amount of expressions for Nurse Jordan:

Their scene is flowing a bit more naturally now.

And speaking of natural dialogue flow...

I'm sure a lot of you know that I've manually been putting in Phoenix Wright style pauses into my dialogue.

What?!{w=0.3} No,{w=0.1} that's not what I meant—{w=0.3} I promise!

... Like so.

These pauses have some definitely added a lot of charm to the game and has been praised in the past, but it... is... ¡¡¡time-consuming!!! to do them all by hand.

About a month or two ago, I discovered KingyoDev's Speech Pauses plug-in tool for ren'py. After some consideration and experimentation, I think I've reached a happy compromise.

This plugin will automatically scan for every period, ellipsis, and dash in Herotome and add the necessary pauses. However, I'll still be manually putting in pauses for commas when necessary. This is because I don't feel that every comma needs a pause.

Lions, and tigers, and bears.

Pausing between commas works fantastically a list like this!

They don’t have metaphysical links to their letters, do they?

Whereas a comma used in a line like this... eh, I don't think a pause is strictly necessary - especially when the line is spoken by a fast talker like Griffin. It sounds pretty natural without a pause, doesn't it?

This will be a big adjustment to the back-end of the game, but I doubt it'll be noticeable on the player side.

Lastly, I don't know if anybody remembers this graphic, but I tried using it for the part in the game where MC officially gets hired :')

I'll probably update the text to like, "Got a Job!" or something. I'm not sure if the graphic will be here to stay; I gotta find other instances in the game worth celebrating in equal measure.

I'll also have to replace the hemihead font shown here...

That’s about it, I think.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[herotome]

If a survey were conducted in the world of characters, what would their popularity/power ranking be?

On the other hand, what happened to the original Jungle Cat? How did it impact society?

Omg when was the last time I mentioned the original Jungle Cat.. how do you even remember it???

Context, in the world of Herotome there's 2 heroes named Jungle Cat:

The original. There weren't as many superheroes around when he was active, so he was able to become a household name despite not necessarily being popular. His name became even more well-known when he died.

The successor. He has no relation to the original JC, but became eligible to inherit the Jungle Cat brand and was able to spin the persona to be vastly more marketable.

As for popularity/power ranking... I'll keep that to myself for now! But I will say the #1 hero in the nation is Gemini (as established in the Super Demo), and the most powerful among the LIs is Jade.

[herotome]

Speaking of burnout, how do the ros deal with it?

They don't!!!!!!!

Lol it'll probably be a plot point in more than one route. None of them are good at turning themselves "off."

Warden feels like he has to work hard as a new leader.

Griffin feels he has to work hard to keep everything working smoothly.

Mia feels she has to work hard to prove herself.

Dart feels he has to work hard to find and confront certain villains.

Jade... Jade is just perpetually overwhelmed in general lol.

[herotome]

Hello !

I have no idea if this has been "asked" before, but I've finally found the motivation to make my own vn/dating sim. I was wondering if you had tips or "warnings" to give based on your experience ?

I've mainly been struggling with gluing all of my scene ideas together, even after choosing the ones that felt truly relevant. I've got the main plot points down, but it's pretty hard to find what to put in between. I also have trouble coming up with player choices ideas.

I'd also like to mention that I'm very much looking forward to playing the full game, no matter how long it takes you to make something you'll be proud of. It's pretty rare for me to find a dating sim where all of the RO appeal to me. The MC's real cool too.

The writing, the sprites, everything's absolutely brilliant ! The UI really fits the game and looks real good too (graphic design major here !).

Thanks for reading ! (Hopefully there aren't too many typos, English's not my first language).

I love hearing when people are inspired to make their own games! In fact I got to know @qkayoostudio from an ask just like this. 😁

Honestly, I struggle with the same things. In between important scenes, often I'll need to put some sort of transition... and coming up with that transition can be very challenging when I'm dry on ideas.

Similarly, dialogue choices (which used to be my FAVORITE part of writing) have become more difficult to write, because working on the main plot(+art direction+code+sound cues+etc) drains a lot of my creative energy, so there can be very little left to put towards the small things.

It sounds like you're focused in the right areas though! I guess my advice is... try not to sweat it. You can always put in a placeholder "insert dialogue choice here" and come back later. Some of my most popular choices and lines are added in waaaaay later in the process, if that makes sense.

A lot of my most recent script is peppered with "idk I haven't written this part yet."

Other advice...

For the most part, small indie games that die in development come from two realms of inexperience:

giving up too early

pushing oneself way too hard

Learn about burn out. Try not to do it. Your body will pay the price. If you're pulling all nighters to finish a project faster, consider that the project will be unfinished for even longer if you crash out from sheer exhaustion. Get some sleep and take care of yourself, that's the best way to ensure a project gets finished, period. You can't finish your game if you're unwell or dead.

As long as you're still alive and willing to work on it, the project isn't dead. I remind myself of that a lot.

[herotome]

I was just wondering what the lil mottos(?) on their character profiles are and if they're like projections of some shortcomings they believe they have onto their idea of what heroes should be like? Mia's is "Heroes don't cry" and she's mentioned to be insecure so is Mia someone who cries very often and hides it? :( I also just noticed her bday is 2 days after mine ayyyy

And Griffin's "Heroes have no limits" why do i feel like that could have something to do with his disability and has Warden ever hesitated in the past and someone was heavily hurt because of it :(( my bbies i wanna console them so bad if any of it is the case 🫂

This is just me thinking out loud so pls feel free to ignore the questions. I just wanna say I'M INVESTED AF banajsjsj i keep getting new questions (tho this is the 1st time i actually decided to ask-) and mining on any crumbs you give us

Additionally I wanted to ask if the game once it releases is strictly going to be on itch.io only or could it ever possibly come on steam? And like um is it going to be pricey 😭 I'm sry for asking but i wanna save up an approx amount in case b4hand feel free to not answer and with how much work you put it in I think you deserve all the money!! Shwjjwbsn I'm not good at asking questions sry this is so long I'll see myself out thankyouu ily bye

P.s. what's up with Griffin and his taxes?

Eyyy you're the first person who's commented on their little profile mottos and you absolutely nailed how they parallel each character's insecurities. Congratulations!

I do want to put the full game on steam eventually, yes. Idk how much it'll end up costing (depends on how long the full game ends up being); I don't want to charge people too much because I know international conversion rates can inflate prices to a ridiculous degree.

Since I'm not relying on Herotome for my income, at present I do have the privilege of keeping the price low/free to play, but I can't speak to the future because situations can always change.

Still, accessibility is one of my major goals for the game, and keeping the game affordable does fall under that category.

I don't remember what's up with Griffin and taxes... *checks notes* Oh lol, you mean how I listed Griffin's dislikes as "modesty and taxes"?

... Man, I wrote that post 4 years ago, what was I thinking back then. Griffin does seem like the kind of person who doesn't like paying taxes, but why... I dunno... Griffin does still pay them, she knows better than to cross the IRS.

[herotome]

I have huge glasses like Myster, and it cracked me up imagining an “are they gonna kiss” moment with MC and they both pause to take their glasses off lmao 💀

It's very generous that you assume he won't forget to take off his glasses and clunk against MC's face like a goober...

There's also a strong possibility of this happening,

[herotome]

Devlog #182

Hi-ho, Wudge here.

TW for white flashing light!!

The player will encounter a certain "red hero" during the course of the game... and you'll have the option to recognize her as Mia - the redhead girl you literally just met yesterday - or to insist that you sincerely do not know her secret identity.

If you choose the latter, you'll get this ridiculous flashback revelation sequence.

The white flashing light actually hurt my eyes. It works here for a stand-in prototype of what the effect will be, but I'll be switching it into something less eye straining in the final product. Please don't worry!

I fixed this spooky double face on nurse Jordan... It took like 3 mcfreaking days to figure it out and I always knew it'd be something stupid. 🤦 The issue was that the image folder was "nurse" but the actual images were named "jordan." They were supposed to all be named "nurse."

Jordan's expressions now work properly!

I also updated some stand-in text into proper code (eg, some pronoun contractions and names that change according to variable checks), and replaced my hemi head font with The Neue Black.

That's about it, I think.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[herotome]

Dart: Depends on the day. He'll be a bit mercurial about it. Either 100% yes or 100% absolutely not, no in between.

Darts answer to questions has been "depends on the day" a few times now. Im thinking deep down he quite enjoys riling mc up and hes a bit of a brat 😂

Yeah on the inside he's deadpan laughing like "Hahahaha you get riled up so easily and I am impervious to getting riled up, hahahaha"

[herotome]

Myster is so cute already

What black magic power do you wield to make me crush so hard on someone I know nothing about???

[herotome]

Do you check for trackers and remove them before sharing links?

[herotome]

I have a question for Myster: honey, what will our wedding be like? Uwu

And a weird question for everyone: If they're playing a video game and see two paths, which one do they take? Right or left? I know it doesn't make sense, but people almost always take the right path, and I got curious jajaja

Lolll it's like you can sense that I recently playtested a part where you just gun it for Myster... without ever having met him before..

In response to the ask, Myster says, "Uhm... /// With me? You'd really be okay with me? I don't know... What's your ideal wedding? Do you have a pinterest board or anything?"

As for going left/right...

Warden: right

Griffin: right

Mia: left

Dart: left

Jade: thinks about going left, then goes right

... and the two secret LIs too why not,

Myster: left

Ink: right

[herotome]

I Guess I Should Update Ya'll...

The upcoming Kickstarter's demo is wrapping up. Which means in a week or two, we'll go into refining the Kickstarter page, then going full speed ahead on the campaign. (Despite the fact we're only 10% of the follower goal on the actual Kickstarter page. Near existential dread there, but!) If the team has any fortune left, the Kickstarter follower count won't at all be indicative of the success of the game's campaign. So instead of looking at something I can't control, I will focus on showing everyone the vibe and feel of the sequel, and what they should expect in terms of changes.

First thing's first! Matching the narrative tones between the in-game sprites and the CGs has been greatly improved since the original game. Yes, partly because I have improved my directing and we have WAY more time to work with than before. But also, ssam_reptile's utter dedication to getting that look down while insisting on honoring @nekojirou sprites cannot be denied. There will be some scenes in the demo (that we're obviously not going to show here) that will absolutely have moments of "...Oh this is clean." And we can't wait to see ya'll's reaction to the events that play out.

Speaking of play, the core gameplay (read a visual book) is the same. But we've updated the UI a bit. The original UI artist makes his return, and presents us with a far simpler look that will hopefully cut down on confusion. Some fun little highlights:

Speaking character's name moved to the center

Quick menu display has more recognizable naming and icons

New font and font color

Name of the song playing now appears! With a volume slider!

Some of the new, cool features to the UI to be added post-campaign

And the story? For now, let's just say that breaking this game up into two has given us ideas and opportunities that we would not have had if this sequel was included in the original Women of Xal like we originally intended. One of the most notable changes is in fact the tone. Taking place weeks after the events of The True Ending of Women of Xal I, Xjena is learning the hard way that you cannot be a Matriarch without making enemies. And enemies of the powerful tend to be quite formidable themselves.

For the 1% of you who are familiar with how my stories tend to progress, this will be familiar territory: The honeymoon period that was the first part, no matter how light or dark it started, can never truly return. From this point on, things take a more serious turn, and the writing's real teeth come through. The script will still make you smile, laugh, and have heartwarming moments, but the characters have moved on from castle shenanigans. They're locked in for the turbulent second half, and the writing/presentation will reflect that.

Women of Xal II Demo Features

40 Minute Demo

New outfits for most of the returning cast

New locations

New environment art

All new music

Two new key characters

Liz has freckles now (You can thank ssam_reptile)

Please hit that Notify Me At Launch button! I'm quite serious when I say that the Kickstarter website LOVES seeing traction from the first few hours of launch and will help us encourage them to boost us from within.

[herotome]

Superman desperately scanning the street during a fight to find the most morally acceptable car to throw at his opponent, knowing that not everybody has insurance, and loss of transportation can ruin a life -

A wave of incredible relief washes over him as he spots the hard geometric lines and silver paintless sheen of a Cybertruck.

[herotome]

I need something a little spicy. Kljusy a little spicy margarita 🍹. If the ros had their own personal offices, would be down for getting frisky in them?

And why is Griffin at the top of the list

Griffin is the spiciest of the margaritas 😔

Warden: It would take a fair amount of convincing, because Warden would be genuinely so mortified and ashamed if someone walked in.

Griffin: It would be Griffin's idea.

Mia: She would be... intrigued and bashful about the idea. She'll try it, but her uh.. 'performance' would likely be more subdued than usual.

Dart: Depends on the day. He'll be a bit mercurial about it. Either 100% yes or 100% absolutely not, no in between. Personally, I think he's being mercurial here on purpose because he secretly thinks it's funny to have a strong yet unpredictable opinion.

Jade: If by "getting frisky" you mean playing co-op Undertale---