itsu-saragi

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #13 - MILF (Man I Love Floorplans).

Please forgive me for that title. Anyway, good timezone! I apologize for the late post once again. My internet was out last week so I had to spend a few days catching up.

April Progress

The realization that we've already gone through 1/3 of the year is terrifying. But that just means I need to quit overthinking and continue working, working, working. So, onto the progress report.

A portion of April was spent playing with Fenik's Easy RenPy GUI. It was mostly just fiddling with layout and incorporating accessibility options, and unfortunately I don't have any nice screenshots to show for it. But I feel a lot more comfortable using it, so that's a win :)

Some progress has been made on side character design. Still no visuals though.

The last few weeks were spent on setting design. In an attempt to create a believable backdrop, I got carried away and ended up designing the entire building floorplan for where most of the story takes place. Looking up standard dimensions and layouts for amenities was probably overkill, but I can't deny I had a lot of fun falling into the rabbit hole. Did you know staircases need to be between 30 and 50 degrees from the horizontal, but the widely accepted standard is 37°?

After finishing the floorplan (that I now feel too awkward to share lmao), I did a quick concept sketch of the backdrop. There's a lot of room for change, but it feels nice to finally have a visual!

*Preliminary sketch of my VN's setting. Please note that this is only a draft and not indicative of the final product.

May Goals

Lots to do for May!

First things first- more art. I want to flesh out the sprites, bgs, and UI. I think the completed setting design will prove to be useful, so I hope to finally make some significant progress.

Second - start writing the damn script. I have a habit of overthinking and overplanning, and last night I was reminded that overthinking leads to less doing. So I really need to suck it up and just start writing :') Improvements can only be made after there's something tangible to edit!

And lastly - continue the unfinished stuff from April. Side character designs, programming designs... There's so much to do...

Thank you for reading! I'll do my best to post the next devlog in a more timely manner. Have a good timezone, wherever you are :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #12 - Trying to Stay Motivated.

Good timezone! I'm very sleepy.

March Progress

This month was spent organizing my outline. I broke it up by scene, each defined as a change in location. This proved helpful in several ways - first, it gave me an idea of how many backgrounds I needed, and second, it created a guideline on organizing my code.

This process also made me more aware of the "flow" of the story; it allowed me to notice how certain scenes didn't mesh well with each other. So once again, some narrative revisions were made. Extra progress!

From there, I did some rough storyboards. And I mean rough. Like barely coherent figures and scribbles. I'd show photos but they kinda suck. But hey, I just needed a visual guide and this was good enough.

It also felt strange storyboarding a VN where its inherent design is just... interchangeable sprites standing in front of interchangeable backgrounds. But oh well.

After all this, I calculated that I'd need to draw around... 20 bgs. What the fuck. Is this biting off more than I can chew? Probably. I'll try to cut that number down somehow.

April Goals

I've broken down my next steps into three categories: programming, setting design, and character design.

Programming: I want to revisit my old prototype (damn that was a year ago) and expand on it. Now that I have the outline broken down by scene, I'd like to translate it into RenPy, using placeholders for art and lines. Oh, and play with UI/choices/endings/etc. My main goal is to just get comfortable using RenPy cause as of right now, opening the program still makes me nervous.

Setting design: Most of the story takes place in a single room - a tiny workshop, operated by the LI. I'd like to flesh out what this place looks like, cause this will then influence the composition for all my illustrations.

Character design: I've settled on the design for the LI, but I want to create depth in all the side characters so that they can help bring life to the story. Yep.

Thanks for reading! It's been a rough few weeks lately. Without going into the details, I've been struggling with motivation and discipline so it feels weird to post these updates when I don't feel like I've made as much progress as I would've liked. But the dev progress is long and time marches on, so I have no choice but to keep on tinkering away or else this damn VN won't get made. At least I have these monthly updates to keep myself accountable, and I genuinely appreciate everyone who reads these dumb little posts.

I'll do my best to stay motivated. So have a good timezone, and hopefully I'll see you next month!

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #11 - Can I Even Call This a Devlog?

Damn I blinked and a month flew by

Anyway good timezone! This update will be very short cause uh. I didn't end up getting much done. Oops. The first two weeks were spent working on the MVNA jam, and after that... I don't quite remember what I did. Probably nothing.

With that being said, I guess this turned into a break, and I think I needed one. Last month I mentioned how I was struggling to take a step back and review, and so not touching my drafts for a whole month helped refresh my brain. But then again, that meant I let a whole month go by without fixing any of my plot holes, so I gotta get on that shit quick lmao

March Goals

In my last devlog, I said I wanted to work on fleshing out this game's scope. That's still my goal for March, but since then I've broken that down into tangible steps.

First, my outline is a mess- it's broken down by chapter, but each one is a jumble of bullet points held together by vibes (how my editor was able to read it, I have no clue). So the first thing I want to do is to break each chapter into scenes. Flesh out the who what where when type stuff. This means more bullet points. But organized bullet points!

From there, I'm thinking I'll make storyboards of each scene, to give me an idea of how much art I'll need and if I can reduce that number as much as possible. This may also help with figuring out the scope of programming.

Is there a better way to do all of this? Probably. Do I know what that is? Nope!!!

Thank you for reading! I apologize there isn't much to report. Hopefully I'll have made more progress next month :)

And as always, have a good timezone <3

[itsu-saragi]

Good timezone! Not a devlog, but rather an advertisement: I've created a cafe backgrounds asset pack for the MVNA Jam! It's completely free, so please check if out if you're interested :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #10 - Outline Complete!

Good timezone! I apologize for the late update. Lots of progress was made during January, but I can't talk about it much, so this devlog will be kept brief.

Writing

January was spent finishing up the outline. This took a long time, but I didn't want to rush it as I felt that if I made any major mistakes here, it would be harder to fix them later.

Working on this outline also allowed me to push the major characters, theme, and romance progression in the right direction, so that was cool :)

After finishing the outline my editor looked over it and they pointed out some key things I'm missing, so... Oops. The main thing I'm missing is the central conflict. Maybe I'll expand on this more in a separate post. But regardless we discussed ways to improve it and I was left with some good ideas, so while the road ahead is daunting, I'm still hopeful.

February Goals

I'd like to continue working on the outline through February, but I think I'm going to push it down the priority list.

For one, I'm joining the MVNA Jam (which is an absolutely terrifying endeavor but oh well we ball), and two, I need a break from thinking about the story. I've gotten so deep into writing that I forgot how to take a step back and review everything, so I'm hoping this break will help me with that.

Instead, I'd like to spend this month mapping out the scope - particularly the art and programming, so I can get an idea of how much suffering I'll face on the tablet and keyboard lmao.

We'll see how this goes. I never know what I'm doing. But that's just how it is sometimes.

That's it for now. I apologize if this month's devlog doesn't make much sense, my brain isn't working well today. Thank you for reading, and have a good timezone!

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #9 - A Year of Revisions.

Good timezone and happy end of 2024! This month has been pretty productive, I've finished drafting about a quarter of my outline. I can't talk too much about it though because spoilers lmao. So instead, please allow me to reflect on the overall progress I made these past twelve months.

Year in Review

Reading through my devlogs made me realize I spent a lot of time changing what this whole VN will be about- I've revised so many basic elements such as the premise, the setting, and even the LI down to his name.

It feels like I've simultaneously made progress but also not; the best way I can describe it is I keep taking two steps forward then three steps back, but every time I take a step back I'm repositioning myself so I can head towards the right direction. So while I don't have many deliverables to show, I believe I'm on the right path to create them. And that's something worth celebrating!

So I guess this year was spent figuring out what this game wanted to be. I don't think I've fully fleshed it out either, but that's okay. I'm sure things will change for the better as I continue working on this outline.

2025 January Goals

Man, I dunno about making goals for the entire year. I don't want to promise anything to myself or anyone else and possibly not live up to them lmao.

So instead I'm gonna take it month by month.

So for January- I'd like to continue to work on drafting the story outline and use it to figure out the programming and art scope. Wish me luck.

That's about it for me. Thank you for reading, and happy new year :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #8 - Promises and First Impressions.

I didn't know what to put for the title. Anyway, good timezone!

I don't have much to report for November; I did some thinking, writing, and RenPy studying, but I got busy with some art commissions so overall there aren't any deliverables I can share.

So instead, I thought I'd share something different.

Sousou no Frieren, or Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, is one of my favorite stories and a big inspiration behind this VN. I followed the manga long before the anime was announced, and I thoroughly enjoyed the anime's release. I also like watching video essays breaking down Sousou no Frieren, and today I'd like to briefly talk about one specific video: Why the three episode rule exists, by pey talks anime.

In this video, Pey explains the importance of capturing the viewer's attention at the beginning of your story, and how Sousou no Frieren achieves this by introducing several "promises" during the first three episodes. These promises aren't between the characters, but between the story and the consumer; it's an unspoken agreement that what you expect will be what you get.

This reminded me of something else: in this video essay (which has nothing to do with VNs or Sousou no Frieren, but is still an excellent video tbh) by SovietWomble, he drops this incredible line:

"You never get a second first impression."

If you're a creator, what's presented at the beginning of your piece of media will be the promise you're making to the consumer, even if it wasn't intentional. Those expectations are inevitable, so you may as well make promises you can and want to fulfill.

With all that said, I've started to ask myself the following questions:

What are the promises I want to make to the player?

Are these promises evident within the beginning portion of this game?

Are these promises in line with the kind of story I'd like to tell?

Have these promises been fulfilled by the end of the story?

So far I've been able to answer about half of the questions, but I'm reluctant to share them as I keep thinking I'm going to make drastic changes to the story lol. I think... I need to shut up and keep writing. That's why:

December Goals

Just keep fucking writing lmao. I need to stop overthinking.

And continue working on programming a prototype build. The scope keeps changing, but I hope I can lock that in a bit more this month. Who knows, not me.

That's it from me! Feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for reading, and have a good timezone <3

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #7 - Little by Little.

Good timezone and Happy November! Sorry for the late update once again, I should've written this yesterday but I was in an emotional funk last night lmao. Nevertheless, here we go:

Writing

October's writing goal was to get my love interest character, Aven, locked in. While I don't think I've gotten him fully figured out, I believe I made some decent progress so hey, that's worth celebrating, right?

This was a harder endeavor than I expected. In last month's update, I mentioned how not only do I want my LIs to be interesting and appealing, but also have a character arc and be cohesive to the theme.

Up until this month, I felt that he had appeal and a decent character arc, but he didn't feel interesting enough nor did he have a strong connection to the narrative's theme. So to solve this problem, I dug into my VN's theme- which is "mundane joys"- to analyze what that meant. Then I started applying those meanings to Aven.

I think that worked, he now feels more solid as a character. I'm still worried that he might not be that interesting, but I hope to slowly tinker and improve on him as I continue this writing hell.

I realize that I'll continue to revise everything I'm creating- characters, lore, the entire goddamn narrative- until the day I ship this VN out. So I'm not too worried about making Aven "perfect". The improvement will come with time, I'm trying to trust the process.

On a separate note, I finally coalesced all my world-building notes into a single document and that felt GREAT. Now that's worth partying about.

I'm setting my VN in present-day society but with a touch of magic (I like to call it "irl but a little to the left"), and for the past year I've been jotting down ideas on how it all works. But I didn't organize those notes until now.

I also had several friends check the lore for plot holes, so that felt nice. Progress.

And one last writing update- I've also been working on the story outline aiming to map out story beats so I can send it to my editor for review. It's a very loose process for now, like I'm throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks but that's okay. I want to take my time with this.

Programming

I don't have much to report on this aspect, unfortunately. October was writing month. I should pick up the slack, especially because I'm a complete beginner.

I always have a mental hurdle I need to overcome when it comes to programming. It's like knowing how complex and confusing code can be makes me nervous to even start RenPy, lol. But at the end of the day, this is the only thing stopping me from learning, so I need to shut up and do it. Or at least, complain my ass off while doing it.

So I think that's what I want to focus on for this month. Thanks to October's writing hell, I've started to figure out what elements I need for this game (character customization, storing & referencing MC choices, etc.) so it'd be best for me to build a prototype using that scope.

Ohhhh boy, this is gonna suck. Let's fucking do it.

November Goals

Focus on programming. Learn and build a prototype based on the estimated scope, so I can apply it to the final build.

Continue working on the story outline.

Thank you for reading! Feedback is always greatly appreciated.

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #6 - My Brain Hurts, but When Does it Not?

Good timezone! Sorry I'm late with the update, but the good news: we're so back. I've finally settled in and have resumed my work on this blasted project.

Writing

I reviewed my notes and decided to do another pass on the love interest character.

Ngl, he's really fucking hard to write. Usually, I can imagine how my characters act and speak pretty well, but this guy... this guy. I'm still struggling to get a grasp on him.

I wonder if it's because I'm creating him for a VN? Or maybe I'm just overthinking?

Actually, let's talk about this for a brief moment.

I'm someone who loves creating original characters. Just this past month, apart from this VN I made two other OCs for some DnD games, and that came easy. So in comparison, why has this LI-creating process been so hard for me?

Well first, it's worth noting that there's a specific method to creating characters in DnD. You pick your race, class, background, et cetra... And those selections in turn inform who your character may be. Does your character have the Soldier background and high intelligence, but low strength? Well, maybe you could interpret that as your character being a military strategist, but with little combat experience. Those rules allow for creativity within the limitations. On the other hand, I'm trying to create a character in my own homebrew world, plus there's no RPG system, so I have fewer constraints which can make my indecisive ass suffer.

Now that I think of it, it might not be a bad idea to try turning him into a DnD character...

I'm getting off track.

Anyway. Though I said there are fewer constraints when creating a VN character, I'm not totally correct there. It's just that I feel there's a different set of requirements that are more... challenging. At least to me.

You see, when I create characters I don't typically construct them with a greater purpose in mind. I just want to make them a cool little creature, and if there's an existing world or story I'll modify them so they make sense in the lore. I’ll add their shortcomings so that they have room to grow, but in a collaborative setting like DnD it’s not guaranteed that my character will go through their arc, nor do I know how that arc will play out, so it’s not my main focus.

But when creating this VN, I've realized that not only does this character need to be interesting and appealing, but I also need to give them a complete arc while simultaneously fitting the narrative and theme. And maybe more stuff I'm not aware of. These constraints aren't mechanical, they're more... structural.

I'm not sure if that's the right word. But it sure as hell made my head spin.

I don't know what the solution to this is other than keep drafting and iterating. Maybe it's turning them into DnD characters.

It's a fun challenge to think about though.

Programming

On another note, after weeks of dreaded avoidance, I finally cracked open RenPy again. And turns out it didn't suck, so yay?

I've added more scenes and choices in my prototype, which is satisfying to see when I run the code.

I think my next challenge is figuring out the scope and the UI. The scope can only be determined by working on the narrative outline so... I should probably prioritize that.

And on the days when my writing brain isn't working, I should tackle some of the UI. Hearing other devs talk about how annoying RenPy UI can be gets me a little nervous, but I guess it's time to find out for myself.

October Goals

Try to get this love interest character locked in holy shit

And if possible, figure out scope, if not try UI

Thank you for reading! I appreciate it.

[itsu-saragi]

Happy timezone! Unfortunately there is no VN update, but I'm happy to report that I'm almost fully settled at my new residence. I promise to get back into dev, at the very least review my notes and crack open RenPy, but first... The Bald gates are calling to me. I still have yet to finish a playthrough lmao

I hope you all are doing well!

[itsu-saragi]

Hello! No VN progress update for July as I’m still in moving hell. We’re almost there though! Hoping I can get settled into my new place and routine by mid-August.

In the meantime, please accept this photo of my cat Uni.

Wherever you may be, I hope you have a good timezone :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #5 - Celebrating the Little Things.

Good timezone, here’s my June progress update.

Unfortunately there isn’t much to inform. Most of this month was spent running around preparing for my move to another US state, and dealing with the stress that came out of it. So not a lot of progress has been made on the VN.

Instead I thought I’d share something a little different.

Back in August of last year, when I first decided I’d start this silly VN project, I bought myself a little notebook. An A6 spiral notebook with 120 pages, so I can write out and discuss my thoughts. Now, almost a year later, I’m five pages away from filling up the entire thing.

I think that’s pretty fucking cool.

(Tuna decided to intrude as I was taking photos of my notebook lmao)

——-

Most of the contents aren’t useable considering I scrapped the VN premise midway through, but there’s still some character/worldbuilding/story notes in here that I know will be important to the final product. And most of all, I like how I can see my thought process written out. Even though I may not have an outline or a script, I’m happy this serves as a reminder that I’ve still made progress on this weird little project.

I’ve already bought a second pocket notebook, and I’m looking forward to filling that one out as well.

That’s all for now. Next month will also be a short update as I’ll still be in moving hell, but I’ll make sure to post my progress update nonetheless.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a good timezone :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #4 - Oh Shit, Progress.

Hello! May is ending and this is my gamedev update.

Writing

This month's writing goal was to work on my love interest character, Fen, and his character arc.

Good news: I did it.

It took some revisions and several times I wrote myself into dead ends, but I was able to get a better idea of who Fen is, and what kinds of challenges he'll face in the story.

I'm afraid to declare that I've completed this portion because I'm indecisive and always think that I may further iterate on what I have. So instead I'll just say that I'm happy with my current achievement.

I also made some progress made with the worldbuilding. It’s really fun to workshop how to subtly work the magic system into my world. I’m trying to make it a soft worldbuilding type of story though, so it’s going to be a challenge figuring out how to present everything so players can get a feeling of wonder.

Some ideas were written down for the plot. I don't really have a concrete outline yet, so right now I'm daydreaming about fun moments I'd like to have and vomiting those thoughts onto paper. Real playing in a sandbox type of energy. Somebody get me one of those plastic bucket and shovel sets.

Programming

Not as much progress was made in comparison to writing, but still! Some progress!

The RenPy prototype is coming along. So far I've put together several scenes with player choices. They look ugly but I'm not worried about aesthetics right now.

I'm not sure how I want to do the ending. Branching paths? Points? I think this will become clear as I continue to work on the story.

Haven’t touched the UI yet. I’m scared to lmao

Next Month's Goals: Plot Outline & Continuing w/ Prototype

For June, I'd like to continue working on the plot outline, mapping out the overall feel of the story. Most likely I'll jump around though, such as putting together side characters. Maybe I'll do some doodles too?

I'm also making it a goal to try and finish up the story section of the coding prototype - so getting a feel for how to enter text, generate choices, and call scenes or endings. I'm taking this one slowly since I'm very new to programming.

That's about it. Thank you to anyone who's reading, have a great timezone :)

[itsu-saragi]

Devlog #3 - Revisions and Indecisions.

Sjdjfdhs hi. Apologies for letting the “see you in a month” turn into several months. Work got busy, then I caught Covid, after recovering I went on vacation, and then work got busy again… But I did work on this VN all throughout.

I didn’t make as much progress as I wanted, but some progress was made nevertheless.

So what exactly did I do? Let me count the ways.

Story Revisions

Changed the premise from magic academia to magic uhhh small business? Workshop? Something like that, I'm not sure what to call it.

My original story followed the player character and their love interest as they explored their university campus. This came to be because I was tinkering with the concepts of "group partners to lovers" & showing the player character as non-humanoid to allow for reader-insert and immersion, like the Obey Me games and the pink sheep MC. But the story stopped being appealing to me, plus the scope started to become bigger than I had anticipated. Multiple CGs in different locations across a giant campus? Yeah that's a nightmare to draw.

I'd still like to explore the idea of a non-humanoid MC though, so maybe that'll be a future game, or at least another brain dump post!

But anyway, I shrunk the premise. One store, one LI, and the customers that enter the little workshop. I'm still sticking to the idea of mundane modern fantasy though.

Because of the location change from university to workshop, I've had to revise the LI a lot. He's shaping up really well though! His name is Fen, I hope I can introduce him here sometime soon.

Building Frameworks

I'm not sure what to call it, so for now I'm calling it frameworks.

Basically, instead of tackling each aspect of the game separately from drafts to completion (ex: drawing all sprites right now and then moving on to writing the script), I want to create rough versions of everything.

I think this will help me because then I'll have an idea of how much work each aspect will entail, and I can hopefully spot and remedy any holes or glaring skill issues.

This is especially important for coding. I'll be using RenPy, the classic engine for visual novels, but I have very little coding experience. I'd like to gain some before I start creating the writing and assets meant to be incorporated into the platform.

By creating the framework (or I guess prototype is the better word in this case), I'll get some understanding of how RenPy works and once I have the assets complete I can insert those in.

For plot frameworks, I'm trying not to go into too much detail. Lots of bullet points cause I fuck with those.

For character frameworks, I must admit I'm putting a lot of thought and detail into Fen, but I think I should as he's the core of this game. I'm reminding myself though that much of him can still be altered if the story requires it.

There's definitely more frameworks I need to think about, like sprites, backgrounds, and music too.

But to sum it up, I'd like to create a rough draft of the entire game, and then only afterward do I start going in and changing details and adding colors to the big picture. I hope that makes sense.

Next Step: Character & Coding Frameworks

For the rest of April and probably the entirety of May as well, I'll focus on fleshing out Fen and putting together the coding framework.

I think figuring out Fen's character arc will help me get an idea of the overall story, which is incredibly daunting yet exciting lol

I'm not planning on making the coding look pretty, I just want to make something that functions. I have no clue how well that will go so please pray for me or something.

Personal Thoughts: I am Afraid

I think the reason why I didn't make a lot of progress is because lately, I've been afraid of doing so. I've never made a game before, or written an original story. I don't know what I'm doing, and instead of directly addressing things I've kept working around them. And because I haven't made much progress, it stresses me out. And then that stress makes me do less work.

Hellooo feedback loop.

I'm an indecisive person who likes to look for the right or most optimal answer. But in a creative project like this, it's hard to know what the "right" answer is cause it can be subjective.

I'm trying to remind myself to enjoy the process and to take small steps, and everything is still changeable as I'm still in the beginning stages. It's hard, but as I'm writing this update I think I'm feeling better.

I'm sure this gamedev journey will be me enjoying the ride and then immediately hating it, so for anyone reading: thank you for your patience. I appreciate you.

I'm going to try and post an update, no matter how small it is, once a month. So. Cheers to me being able to post this in April.

I'm still trying to figure out what to post and how to get my thoughts across. I've never done anything like this before, so please bear with me. If you have any feedback, please feel free to share!

And again, thank you to whoever's reading this. I hope you have a great timezone :)

[itsu-saragi]

No pressure to answer this, particularly since it may go near spoiler territory, but how much customization will we be able to do for the MC? Will they have a set backstory and/or personality? Or are they more of a blank slate that we fill in the blanks for? Maybe somewhere in-between? 🤔 Thank you and good luck with everything!

It's not spoiler territory, so we can go through the customization!

Appearance

The MC appears partially in some CGs, like half of their face or an arm, so the main thing here is the player will have a skin tone choice

Where the MC is shown a little more (e.g. one of the characters resting their head on the MC's lap), we couldn't fit height and body type options into the budget, but hopefully everyone understands that the MC in the CGs just acts as a mannequin to better show how the LIs are interacting with the player, and the focus is always on the LI rather than the MC

Messenger app/Gameplay

Name and username choice

Chat bubble color choice

Profile picture choice

Pronoun options

A few custom options for how the MC might be referenced, such as: boyfriend/girlfriend/partner

Personality/Backstory

The MC is mostly a blank slate and does not have a backstory

Usually when making choices, there's an answer that goes towards an alternate ending, and then 2-3 personality options

The personality options are typically either a more outgoing answer, or a more reserved answer

There are 'flavor' choices that don't usually effect the story, like choosing what genre of book the MC likes best. Note that the MC's personal choices do not have to match up with a certain LI's preferences for the LI to like them

Overall, since the game is partially played as a chat sim, it made the most sense to keep the MC a blank slate/self insert. We did what we could for customization with a smaller budget, and did our best to have some amount of personality choice while also not overwhelming the player, since there will be a lot of player answers!

[itsu-saragi]

Dev Log #2 - Hitting My First Roadblock. Also, Characters and Themes.

In my last post, I said I finished creating the love interest for my vn, and my next step would be to spend time figuring out the main character. But this caused me more trouble than I expected. And while trying to figure out why, I realized that I hadn’t even finished step 1.

Let me explain.

Previously, I mentioned how all games have a foundation, the core game design that the rest of the game builds off of. And I said that for visual novels the characters, namely the love interests, should be that foundation. But I don’t think I elaborated enough.

The core of your visual novel may be different depending on what you’re going for; for example, if you want to make a mystery VN where you want the players to focus on solving the puzzle, maybe the narrative is your foundation. But for my game I want to take a character-centric approach, focusing on how people can affect each other and how it changes them. Thoughts and beliefs and emotions, all that fun stuff. Also known as a character arc. No matter how cool the plot may be, if my characters remain stagnant the entire time then I’m not telling that character-centric story, and that entire foundation is non-existent. Conversely, if I have a solid enough arc, then I can cut and paste that character into any setting and the story should still work. I think. I hope.

So working on the love interest’s character arc was my first step. In a character-centric otome game, the end goal is to end up in the LI’s good graces so it felt obvious to me that I needed to flesh him out, come up with the details and map out his overall character progression over the course of the story. And I did that. Over the course of a few months I gave him a name, appearance, some brief notes about his personality and backstory, and his “how it started vs. how it’s going.” Once I was satisfied with the amount I’ve written, I decided to move onto figuring out the main character.

Then my brain stopped working.

I originally wanted this second devlog post to be about writing the MC. I had all sorts of notes and ideas, about how I wanted the MC to be self-insert but still have a character arc, and the challenges that it entails and what possible solutions are out there. But I couldn’t come up with the solutions, or at least something I was satisfied with.

You see, my approach with writing the MC was to build it off of the established LI. But he wasn’t established enough. Stories should have a theme. To have a character-centric story means that those characters are used to explore said theme from different angles. Like if your theme is about trust, maybe you have a character that trusts too easily, another character that trusts nobody, and a third that isn’t trusted by anybody else. Put them in a situation. Boom, you got plot.

My LI didn’t have that. I had a vague idea of the theme, and I had notes about the LI, but it felt like the two weren’t properly molded together. And because that connection wasn’t forged, I couldn’t use it as reference for writing the MC.

Remember what I said about having a solid foundation? I had a brittle house of cards, and I was trying to build on top of it. Shit collapsed, real quick LOL

So now I’m back to workshopping my LI, further digging into who he is as a character and how he embodies the theme- which at the moment, is about human value. Or collaboration. I’m not sure yet. I’m struggling.

Hopefully I can figure this out though. I’ll keep y’all updated.

[itsu-saragi]

Dev Log #1 - Ramblings about Character Creating

I realized that I didn't clarify in my first post that I'm trying to make an otome VN. Whoops.

So yeah. I’m making an otome VN.

I decided that since this is my first game, I’ll stick to just having one love interest. And for the past month, I’ve been working to fleshing him out.

I keep thinking about that one Game Maker’s Toolkit video where he mentioned that game design is the core foundation of everything else. A shooting game’s main selling point is well, shooting. A player should come out of a platformer game remembering the challenge and satisfaction achieved from navigating a tricky course. When I asked myself what an otome game’s foundation should be, the answer was the characters. It’s romance, right? So shouldn’t the interpersonal relationships be the core?

(From “The mistake every new game developer makes (Developing 2)”, by Game Maker’s Toolkit)

So that’s what I’ve been focusing on, figuring out the LI’s appearance, personality, most importantly their character arc. I’m a little afraid to share any details right now because I feel like I’m gonna change them as I figure out other parts of the story, I hope y’all are okay with that ;w;

The next thing I’m gonna work on is the MC, the player character, and their relationship with the LI. So see y’all in a month or so!