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magic-soi-sauce · 2 years ago

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Games Report 06/20/23

Hello everyone! Before we get into the meat of this week's dev report, today's guest artwork of Shaun Durand-Coffer and Moon Pie is by Coda Blue, a black games developer we commissioned to commemorate Juneteenth 2023!

We're also breaking a bit of convention today: it’s Sauce here to do some talking about a frequent (and valid) concern/question we get from fans.

Why so many projects at one time?

There are a lot of reasons that go into it and it’s kind of difficult to break down casually. But I’ll do my best to use the analogy of a relay race with batons!

Each project (Sunny Day Jack, The Groom of Gallagher Mansion, AphroDesia, and DacahaBo) largely has its own team, meaning that Writer A is assigned to Project A while Writer B is assigned to Project B and so forth. In a single Project, when the Writer is done with the script, they pass the baton to the Artist (usually me, in this case) to draw additional art like CGs to accentuate key scenes, while an Editor works to tighten up the sentence structure and spot missing plot points (a Musician may be working at this time as well). After editing is complete and art is at least underway, Programmers and Voice Actors can begin on their tasks. As we near completion, Programmers, Audio Engineers, and Beta Testers make sure the package is nice and tidy for everyone to enjoy.

At least, that's how it goes in an ideal situation.

When you’re working on a production, a large amount of variables (defined as an "element, feature, or factor that is liable to vary or change") are in play. Some of those variables might look like:

When does this team member get off from college, their day job, or other life commitment?

When they're done with those, how much personal time do they need in order to take care of themselves, or even recuperate?

What happens if the person actively working on something has a chronic illness flare-up, gets sick, or has something else preventing them from doing their assignment?

What happens if this person isn't openly communicating about delays in delivering work?

What happens if we can't contact someone because they're not responding to our inquiries?

What if we need to remove someone from the team, or someone we were counting on leaves voluntarily?

What happens if work that was "completed" and already paid for needs to be scrapped entirely and redone from the ground up?

Does someone else from Project C need to fill in and work on Project A to help them catch up?

Does someone assigned to one role in a Project need to take on multiple roles to help the entire team catch up?

Even from this short list of potential hurdles we might face during production, it seems like an easy solution would be to eliminate someone's time spent on outside life commitments! Except, it's not: even BáiYù can't quit his day job because in America, traditional employment often offers healthcare as part of their employee benefits and SnaccPop Studios is nowhere close to being able to provide a full living wage for everyone working with us. Maybe one day! But we’re not quite there.

So as you can imagine, sometimes there will be periods of time when an entire group of people aren't working because they don't have the baton quite yet since the person holding the baton is being held up by life. And this isn't their fault by any means, but a lack of communication about that makes it harder for us to estimate when any single relay race will be complete.

So how do you keep a Patreon filled with content?

We are very fortunate and grateful to receive a lot of Patreon support, especially after our SDJ Kickstarter! But getting all those funds is a huge responsibility. You should attempt to keep it stocked. And that’s what we attempt to do.

SP is made up of different teams suited to each individual property. Different programmers, different writers, etc. Each team is tasked with getting a set amount of work done, and between all the variables listed above sometimes we have really good months and sometimes we have pretty dry ones. Keeping all these teams moving together helps us to put out content while say, a writer is out with COVID and SDJ needs to pause for a week. TGoGM had a technical error that saw the game needing to be rebuilt in a new engine. And at the moment, AD is currently sans an audio drama writer.

These are frustrating problems and we're working on fixing what's in our direct control. But we understand that we also have to USE the money we receive visibly or else people ask us where the money is even paying for. And while we make an effort to put away savings responsibly, we can’t just accept large amounts of money without providing a product, or portions of one, in return.

The "Boring Bits"

There’s also in productions portions I like to call “Boring Bits”. These are moments where everything being done is just exceptionally boring to show off. Either it’s programming and bug fixing, or it’s deep lore writing and scripting we can’t show due to spoilers, or something else like that.

At those times all we CAN say is we’ve been fixing bugs or writing. BáiYù and some of the other team members could give an explanation of what's going on during those times but most of us can agree that it's not as enjoyable as something like a new pin-up or an audio drama.

Sometimes to say more would be a spoiler, or we can’t say anything else. Sometimes, it's all a waiting game.

At the beginning, waiting was the hardest part. It could take anywhere from two weeks to months to get back recordings or audio or art. And we have to respect why these things happen. When it’s an instance of slow delivery, we can ask for more clear deadlines or pay a rush fee, but other than that it’s just a long wait.

So, while we waited, we tried to find other means of providing entertainment.

Productions featuring groups of people all over the world, with very different lives, is extremely difficult. But sometimes people who provide quality work require that bit of patience.

So where is everything in the relay race?

At the moment, the status of our projects is as such:

Sunny Day Jack

SDJ is still being mapped out due to the inclusion of Nick as a love interest, as his character becoming more permanent changes several things in the narrative with the other love interests. To help speed things along, we've asked Gil Finnegan (he/him) from the DachaBo team to work with Biscuwuit to split the character route workloads.

It’s a large game, and their work includes labeling every individual scene as well as planning all the programmable variables. We can’t share ANYTHING more than what we have already shared on Kickstarter and Patreon. No new art assets are prepared because they’ve either been made (BGs, GUI) or we don’t how many sprites we need for the full roster until the plot is reworked completely. We can’t give script pages because of spoiler reasons.

We anticipate that a more robust report cycle will begin appearing once we get to scripting, but as a VN writing is a heavy and very important portion of the game that requires this narrative planning, sensitivity editing, and retcon checking. We will likely be in the writing portion a lot of 2023, which was expected since the game is intended to release in 2024.

Sleepy Time Jack

STJ is our additional companion app that’s seeing its final updates with the Patreon Exclusive “Jacktor” portion currently in progress. Due to some less-than-ideal cloud storage issues, we had to remake certain assets from scratch. Additionally, Steam is currently giving BáiYù the runaround and making it difficult for him to get the page up publicly, but we think we've figured out why they're complaining about the logo (they seem to be afraid of the "Digital Talking Body Pillow" subtitle not being part of the app's name in the system).

The Groom of Gallagher Mansion

TGoGM is expected to be finished soon, with free NSFW content planned for the future, but not until we’ve given it some time to sit. BáiYù has had to not only perform his usual Producer duties across all of SP, but also take on Writer and Programmer duties in this project to keep it moving due to life circumstances surrounding team members.

DachaBo

DachaBo Classic is being maintained canonically and updated by a largely separate team, but mostly only as a cosmetic and stability update. DachaBo: Barks & Mews proper remains in pre-production (Planning lore, connecting dots, and conceptualizing) until TGoGM sees its first release in English.

AphroDesia

AD is currently planning its audio reboot. But as a lore-heavy series, it’s being taken under consideration very carefully. Audio drama writers are key, and our current writer is prioritizing living expense-crucial work.

The "Re-Pilot" has a full outline written that is about seven pages long, with a script to follow after. Priority will re-shift back to this project once TGoGM and STJ are out the door, with a slowly metered development since it is an audio drama/planned comic. This production is more about assigning duties and waiting than any other task.

What about other projects?

Anything else besides these projects and the Bachelor of the Month series (currently on hiatus) is not an official SP project, and funds do not directly contribute to those projects, as they’re considered personal items by individual members.

As has been mentioned before, I (Sauce) also make personal works. And that’s part of why I’m the one handling this.

Many people still consider me a part of SP from a heading POV. But part of why I stepped down as "Boss" was because at the moment I’m juggling a college education, full or part-time employment, and healing from years of untreated mental health. It was no longer feasible for me to manage all of these things.

BáiYù instead is compensated to handle the business aspects, and is more capable to do so at this time. I help with Patreon art, tier rewards, and additional creative work while he's been the one writing the majority of the updates and dev reports. I also work on SDJ sprite art, and additional art assets (Steam page, GUI, graphics, etc.) but with my free time I have begun to prioritize taking moments to relax with some non-game art.

I have noticed people saying my work outside is SP work, or attributing it as such. I attempted to even use a separate alias to separate the two, but I guess my style is recognizable to a degree and tried to make the best of it by declaring otherwise myself.

Anything not SDJ, STJ, TGoGM, DB, AD, or BotM is not property of SnaccPop Studios. I've invited some of the individual team members to talk about the projects they do in their free time or as parts of other game studios as SP has a wonderful platform thanks to all of you, but always be sure to look for the official SP branding or else risk accidentally affiliating unrelated work with us.

That is such the case for me, and it could very well be that way for anyone else.

In conclusion...

At the end of the day, SnaccPop does its best to balance a busy, worthwhile Patreon and quality projects done by persons whose individual circumstances are acknowledged and respected. And we understand that a lot of things at once can look flighty and unfocused.

We really hope this breakdown helps, and we apologize for any issues that not having one up prior may have caused!

Making art is messy. Confining creative and quality visions to jobs and roles can be at the best of times spontaneous. But we’re happy to be able to employ or use our funding to pay and contribute to the lives of many different types of creatives in many different lifestyles.

Again, here's how our projects are looking:

SDJ is on track to arrive in 2024.

STJ and TGoGM are in their final stretches with more content to come after.

DB Classic is being stablized before wide release while DB: Barks & Mews is in pre-production

AD is in pre-production, but the personal circumstances of a key writer are making it a bit difficult!

Thank you all for taking the time to be a part of this! Literally, we could not even do that without you all. This is a privilege we take very seriously. And we’re working very hard behind the scenes to keep you updated, our team members with any work we can provide, and patrons entertained longterm and short term.

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magic-soi-sauce · 2 years ago

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Just wondering, in terms of the Sunny Time Crew Show, we know who’s Jack, but who are the other characters and what were their respective roles? Where can we find more information on what the TV show itself was about?

I’m afraid our clues so far are pretty limited. What we’ve been able to scrape together so far is some of the teaser tweets and the artwork Sauce made of the cast, one of which is used for official merchandise.

As always whenever I include some of the official publicly posted artwork for the series, I want to give full credit to Sauce for drawing it. They put a lot of hard work into this and deserve to be credited.

Remember, don’t repost the privately posted images from the SnaccPop Patreon. Let’s give our full support to Sauce and the team where we can, okay?

We know the names of the rest of the cast members thanks to a map of Cloudy Town. There were big, big plans, according to this map.

Starting us off is the star of the show, Sunny Day Jack, the main man himself. Even on the map, his school house is right there at the top, drawing immediate attention. It’s in his signature primary colors, though the print shown is worn with washed out colors.

Luckily, Sauce was kind enough to post a version of the map on their twitter that didn’t go through the aging process. Since the twitter is gone, allow me to show it here.

Directly from the school house is Knackadan Drizzle’s field. Quite the name, huh? It’s a pretty sporty place, fitting for a sports themed clown... or rather a coach themed clown?

While nothing has been confirmed for certain, it looks like Knackadan Drizzle was responsible for the lessons on the show that related to sports, likely also teamwork and cooperation as well. Fittingly, he is colored in shades of green and yellow like his field. I imagine even his green mustache might be something of a nod to the green grass on the field.

The playground isn’t associated with any one person, but right next to it is Daisy Chain Jane’s Joke Shop. Like Jack’s school, the joke shop sports primary colors, similar to Jane’s design.

Now Daisy Chain Jane is a pretty interesting character. Those who remember this post I made about the SunnyTime Town AU might recall that Daisy Chain Jane is a character exclusive to that AU rather than the fictional world of the show.

Then again, Buddy existed in the show as a belt puppet that apparently could talk, so it’s possible that Jane might exist in the show’s canon as well.

My guess is that there were plans to have her character introduced during the next season as Jack’s big sister. After all, the map itself was posted with the caption that there were big plans. Jack’s murder certainly scrapped any future for the SunnyTime Crew Show... at least 40 years ago.

Next we have Rory Rainberry’s Bakery in shades of purple, pink, orange, and red. Some of you might know his actor Jean Laurent, but the character he plays seems to be a lot more wholesome than this candid shot.

As suggested by this picture and the map, Rory is a baker. I’m sure he teaches kids about nutrition, staying healthy, eating sweets in moderation, and maybe a few simple cooking recipes they can do at home like putting peanut butter onto celery.

Finally we have Cloudy-Belle Sue and her white, pink, and pastel blue library. Sadly, we don’t have a picture of her alone, but I suspect that she was in charge of story time with the children, likely using fables to teach important lessons that are outside the scope of the more grounded parts of the show.

Overall, the show seems to have been aimed at young children, teaching life lessons in a way they can digest easily, with cheerful clowns in bright colors acting as both their teachers and friends. CloudyTown was meant to be a place of fun and learning. It’s hard to say for sure what the age range of its target demographic was exactly, but I’m sure we’ll find out in the game’s full release when we get a look into the backstory of the show.

I will point out though for those who might not have caught it - the colors of each character’s locations seem to correspond with the main colors in the characters’ clothes and hair. The main colors of the show, as shown by the logo and at the bottom of the map, seems to make it clear that Jack was always intended to be the main character, no matter what he says that there is no leader of the crew during the interview.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars

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