#game dev process

[heartmachinehq]

Hyper Light Breaker: Meet PB

PIVOTING TOWARD CHARACTER-BASED STORYTELLING

A while ago, we shared that we were developing Hyper Light Breaker with a limited form of character creation in mind - our player “characters” would be specific species, all following the same character archetype. The goal was to reduce animation scope down significantly by sticking with the single archetype.

As time went on, however, we discovered that a specific story was taking shape. And it needed to be told through a discrete cast of characters with their own backstories, motivations, and personalities.

We are now pivoting away from broader character customization, in favor of enriching player experience and empathy through highlighting each of these unique characters and their journeys through the world. We are still retaining customization in the form of offering near limitless loadout options, hub options, and other ways for players to have agency over this world.

With that said, please meet…

PROTOBREAKER

PB was featured prominently in our Announcement Trailer, but the character’s identity and role in the Hyper Light universe has been shrouded in mystery since. We’re now ready to share a little more about her.

You meet PB in the Hotel Lobby of the Hub, the launch point for all of your ventures into the Overgrowth. A former highly skilled Breaker herself, she now works a desk job where she assigns and oversees Breaker missions.

PB has a long history in this world. But she is generally reserved, and minces few words. It is up to you to uncover her past, and play a crucial role in writing this new chapter in her story.

PB IN THE WORLD OF HYPER LIGHT

PB has a unique role in Breaker’s narrative. The abandoned wilds of the Overgrowth are shrouded in mystery, and PB has been here since they were first sealed away from the rest of the world.

Within the Breakers, PB is your commander, so she passes along your marching orders from Breaker HQ. But like you, she’s curious about the Overgrowth’s mysteries. In particular, she wants to learn the goals and motivations of the Crowns—why do they fight the Breakers? What are they protecting, and why?

PB knows many secrets about this place, but she’s not quite sure which of them are relevant to the mystery. When you discover some brand new information about the Crowns or the Overgrowth, you’ll bring those stories back to PB. She’ll share her own memories with you, and help you put the mystery together.

PB has a few secrets herself, too. She’s been living in the Overgrowth for a long time, and she seems to have a strange personal connection to the Crowns. If you help her discover more about the Overgrowth, she may share some of her history with you!

LET US HEAR FROM YOU!

How do you feel about our character-based storytelling process?

What do you think happened to PB?

[khywae]

Requiem's Echo is live on khywae.itch.io ! ✨

Enemies-to-lovers, dark secrets, and tension you could cut with a knife… Will you and Leon put your differences aside, or will they draw you together?

See where the story takes you! 🖤

Synopsis:

In a town abandoned by hope and plagued by nightmarish creatures, you are the last line of defense — a lone hunter with nothing left to lose. But when Leon, a government agent with a dangerous charm, arrives to investigate, everything you’ve built threatens to come crashing down. With every exchange, every heated argument, the space between you shrinks, charged with something you can’t name. As you prepare for one final hunt, desire and survival become tangled, the stakes rising as the creatures draw closer — and so do you. With every sunset, the stakes rise. And when dawn finally comes, it will be either salvation, or the end of everything.

[omeletcat]

A friend of mine @pleasantbread286 drew my oc Neil!!!

he uh, took some artistic liberties

for example, this is how my design looks.

I'm thankfull for any fanart, just wasn't expecting femboy Neil lmao.

It is also very wel drawn, genuinly impressed.

[specterofyou]

How To Make Your First Visual Novel

I'm yet again in a talkative mood, and as someone who has made/helped make over ten visual novels, I figured I would be Qualified™ to talk about it!

Step One: Pick Your Fighter... er... Engine!

Deciding the game engine you want to work in is the first step to having a game! Ren'Py is the most popular, free-to-use engine for visual novels, with tons of add-ons done by creators such as Devil Spiδεr and Feniks. Other commonly-used engines include Naninovel (an extension to Unity) and RPG Maker.

Step Two: Wait, What Goes In The Engine?

Whodathunk that for a visual novel, you need a story and visuals!

Clip Studio Paint has a series on making visual novel sprites, though any old art software works for making visual novel art. As for writing, I highly recommend Better Fountain, an extension to Visual Studio Code which enables to you to write in Fountain syntax. For music, I recommend Audiostock which gives access to hundreds of thousands of songs with their subscription service.

Step Three: But What Do I Do With All Of This?

Spoilers, your first visual novel... probably won't be your best. You have to make it to break the first timer's curse. Study your favorite visual novels, listen to other developers' processes, learn more about art/writing/music/etc., and remember that it doesn't have to be perfect. In a year of making visual novels, my work went from the left image, to the right:

You can do it too! Now go out there, and make visual novels!

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 2 - Agrabah

[akyrahaiato]

uhh idk if anyone cares but messy little timelapse of me storyboarding my intro cutscene (maybe spoilers but also this IS the intro cutscene-)

[akabaka-dev]

What’s your favorite character in the SFL series? Do you have any interesting interactions with Akabaka about your favorite? I’m sorry if you’ve already answered this.

If pressed, I'd say either Darling or Stardust are my favorites in the whole series, with Buck as a close 2nd.

Speaking of Buck, tho...

Scene: It's early in development. Aka shows me the first round of linework for Buck.

Aka: "He's supposed to look like Darling, but he looks too similar right now. None of the changes I've tried have looked attractive. Buck still needs to be hot. For the ladies."

Me: "He needs a broken nose."

Aka: "?? No. I need serious suggestions."

Me: "Women love men with flaws."

Aka: "I'm not giving my main male antagonist a busted nose. No one's going to like a dude more because his face is jacked up."

Cue a two hour unhinged diatribe, with references, about women's aesthetic taste in their partners

Aka: "OK, fine- I will test out a broken nose! But please-- please stop sending me pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch, Kristen Stewart, Adam Driver, and posts about rat men."

[sotc]

every time i come across some lines where my male mc jozsef is written shorter than the other guys when he's probably of equal stature and height to ais

[purplishly-prosaic]

Final render for Serafina, my newest Sanguinaria vampire! I tried to challenge myself a little with her design. It's nice to have a few new girlies for the portfolio too. 💅🖤✨️ Got a timelapse for the rendering for this one, at least.

[old-world-bird]

Brought you some background process gifs for The Shadow Whisperer, which are more of a layer-by-layer breakdown actually because I keep promising myself to start recording the process and then never actually do that.

Fun fact: I used my old artwork for some pictures in the frames. Also, gods bless the SAI's perspective ruler.

The Shadow Whisperer is a fantasy romance Visual Novel with a dark twist, made by 3 people.

You can play the demo on itch.

If you enjoyed the demo and would like to support further development via donation you can do so by clicking a "download" button and typing a desired sum. No actual download is required.

[abelas]

your tags about veilguard's replayability are so true, i just started my second playthrough and am struggling through it because i simply do not care for either rook or the companions enough to invest another 70 hours into this game

babe tell me about it. the cc is so fun but I can only make 3 characters at a time on the ps5 and I don’t have the will to finish the story again bc of its repetitive nature so I’m just like 😓 ok time to abandon my hot empty ocs and finish poe2 ig

[vitalghost]

Redraw Time!! This is over one year (top)before and after(bottom). I think it’s a big difference. This is an oc npc for a future game of mine.

[omeletcat]

I made some Lumity fanart.

[nightmare-vacations]

🐑: And then the routes will be posed by a series of values ​​for the 4 answers, route A and route B, and each sprite has to have different expressions in the eye, and…

(🌿 Have to program it/🧶 Have to animate it)

🌿&🧶: Yes honey...

_____⭐_____

🐑: Y entonces las rutas estarán planteadas por una serie de valores por las 4 respuestas, ruta A y ruta B, y cada sprite tiene que tener distintas expresiones en el ojo, y….

(🌿 Tiene que programarlo/🧶 Tiene que animarlo)

🌿&🧶: Si cariño...

Posted by ;🐑

[just-a-girl-with-a-pistol]

I played a thing.....

[less-dev]

These are 'controller objects!'

These objects each manage a different essential system in the background of the game... The player will never see these objects directly, so they don't need sprites at all!

But... it's always a fun warm up exercise to make them look pretty anyway. It makes the workspace far more pleasant to look at~

Can you guess what each one does?