Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Royal with cheese...

...Because I am already running out of titles for my posts and I like Pulp fiction, ok? With this out of the way, let's give you a status update.

I have finished the quest (I should test it, but it should be fine) and I added 2 more scenes to Malena's romance, which should be good enough to consider her complete, until I expand the game some more. I also made up my mind on what happens if you date both Malena and Jane at the same time (long story short: don't do it. Nothing good comes out of it). I have still to decide what to do you if you cheat on either of them with secondary characters over a long time, and right now there aren't really consequences for ditching Malena, but in the future these things will probably change. Now I am thinking about what to do next. Finishing another one of the old quests left hanging sounds like a good idea, and I have to think about adding Piper's romance or not. Piper should have been in this release, but I don't know if I feel like working on more of these things right now, as it can be draining (It has also become apparent that these scenes are picture sinks, and I had a sudden fear of being unable to do the second chapter of my game because I run out of pictures for Celeste... Which isn't too unlikely, really).

So I'd say that it should go like this:

-Another quest will be added for sure, as part of the "let's try to at least tie a few loose ends" plan.

-Then I either add yet another quest (always from the old stuff that isn't complete), or work on Piper's side of the romance.

-Then I take care of some smaller stuff here and there (maybe add some more random scenes during space travels, add some items to store, some interactions with NPCs, the usual stuff).

-Then I look at the calendar and decide if I can try to expand the main quest, or if it's time to prepare a public release.

I think this should work as a general plan. If I am forgetting something I talked about previously, let me know, I am working on a lot of plans for the game all at the same time, so it's getting a bit confusing even for myself.

2 comments:

  1. Maybe you can use 3D images for Part 2? Like those in your fanart tab, they look really good. O just recycle old images that are not used often. I think you should not hold back using images out of fear of running out of good ones for Part 2.

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    1. The 3D images weren't done by me, and I would need someone to do all of them (switching between normal pictures and those would look awful), because it takes a lot of time to make them properly, and the right tools, so if I had to do it myself, it would probably kill the game, and it's hard to find someone with enough time to do it, without considering the fact that inevitably there would be slow downs due to communications between us (I would need to describe the pictures I need in details, in order to get a good match for the scene), delay between writing the scene and adding the pictures, delay if something doesn't fit well, being unable to ask for pictures unless you are really sure about how the scene is going to be, two different real life schedules, etc... It becomes really complicated.

      There would be good sides to it, like not having to go picture hunting as much as I do now (I would probably need it for rooms, though), and being able to ask for a specific picture instead of having to look for one that fits would be great, but the biggest problem with an amateur making a game is having only that much time, and taking even longer to complete a game would force me to work only on smaller projects.

      Recycling is a possibility, but it can be bad for players, if they notice it, as it can break the immersion. I try to keep a balance, as with all things, since using too much pictures would probably leave me without pictures even before I start working on chapter 2 (and even now, I am over 800 pictures in total, so it's alredy becoming an issue), but I wouldn't compromise the game for the second chapter, don't worry (I can always hope that the models I use get a lot of jobs from now on! :D)

      Also, I probably won't work right away on part 2, but I will make a different game in between. Hopefully, this will give me time to organize things properly, and avoid problems.

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