Game's Development Timeline

Tonight I think I'll talk about key things that have happened since the game's creation, year by year.

Late 2007: 

• Decided that a game is something I want to try making.
• Taking core classes for my university major. 
• MMOs (I was still into playing/modifying/translating MMOs back then.)

 2008: 

• Lots of throwing around ideas and characters and settings to find a good combination.
• Lots of playing around with how high quality or low quality the visuals can be. (characters and backgrounds)
• Lots of playing all different types of games and reading lots of different types of stories.
• Playing around with all kinds of game making programs.
• Taking more core courses for my university major and interning. 
• Translating & MMOs

2009:

• Moving & Finding a job (most of my summer, fall, and winter was spent on this)
• Working & dealing with work. (No one ever tells you how tired a new job will make you, even if it's not physically demanding.)
• Working 2 jobs (I remember doing nothing but working and sleeping for most of the week back then).
• JLPT1 cert (for a job that didn't pan out in the end :|)

2010: 

• Lots of traveling around & working 2 jobs. (I quit one in the spring)
• Now I'm finally used to my job. Time to find some way to spend my free time!

...and here we are today. :)

This was supposed to be a short project, but due to a lot of things it's been extended and has also become quite elaborate. Not that I mind, however.

While I'm making a casual post, I think I will also pimp a game I like:
 

It's a very cute game about a bear.

Playing with Novelty using Felicia's Route

Tap tap tap novelty.
Sometimes I listen to two playlists at once. Each one plays to one ear...
You'd think it would drive a person crazy, but I find it to be pretty exhilarating.

Tonight I'm testing out the conversion stage my game making plan, which goes something like this:

1. Outline (plan) entire plot.

2. Convert plot outline to in-game.

3. Write story (script) based on plot.

3. Create graphics as needed in script.

4. Seduce composer to compose/give music.

I used to vaguely try to follow this order or production:

1. Generate drawings & illustrating for key points of plot

2. write script so that the series of events are not awkward/well explained

3. Profit?

but well, you can see the obvious fallacy there in that it's too vague and not really considerate of the story, which should be central to an Adventure Game.


But even with the new, more sane order of production, since I haven't tried following that process of production before, I don't know what things I should be doing or avoiding in order to avoid trouble in the next step. Since I'm drawing a blank with writing and drawing tonight, I thought I would try converting a branch that is already done to see how well or poorly it converts.

The page names are boggling my mind (since they're all names entirely comprised of numbers, such as 01321, 0132212.. etc) but I don't think it's anything I can't get used to, although I've gotta admit searching for the freemind bubble that corresponds with 0132213212 can be pretty confusing.

I think the solution to this is to have sub-chapters within normal chapters so that freemind bubbles with pages that are named 0132121, 0132122, 0132211, 0132212 can all be categorized under one folder called 0132, and then those pages could be renamed to something shorter like 121, 122, 211, 212, but if there's another node named 121, 122, 211, or 212, that could cause a lot of problems when it comes to branching and linking stories later on.
 
In any event, I can get used to using all these numbers. Maybe in a week or two 0132 will automatically make me think "Oh yeah, that's Fifi's path".



This reminds me of a thought I had years ago: I wish PowerPoint was a viable VN medium, because it pretty much has everything I want out of a VN creation program. The only thing it obviously lacks is actual game-like functionality, such as the ability to save and load progress. Bummer!

Freemind Mindmap of the Plot Outline

This visual organizer radiates out from the center.
 

The nodes for Sarah's and Judy's branch were added to the freemind plot outline tonight. With this, now Sarah, Felicia ("Fifi") and Judy's paths are very developed (almost done), while Peter, Wendy, Alexis, and Owen still need more work. The other characters haven't been worked on very much, but I have an idea as to what I want them to do.

I hope this week I'll see a lot of progress in Helena and Max.

They are the two least explored characters.

Sarah in a gym shirt.

I've been pretty mentally fatigued lately, 

but hopefully tomorrow I'll snap out of it and get back to being productive...

Sarah's Arc Complete!

Finished Sarah's Story.

It's a little depressing (seems like half of the endings end with someone's death!)

but I didn't want her story to become too unrealistic / farfetched.

As much as we want unfortunate characters to find happiness, 

sometimes they're just doomed from the start.

Drawing more characters and making templates.

When I became stuck with writing and planning, I decided to draw until I knew what to do next instead of unproductively waiting for the next step to come to mind.

I've never actually drawn all of the characters from head to toe,
so if I draw the remaining four it'll kind of be a new accomplishment.

Bigger versions of these drawings can be found here:
http://skimlines.deviantart.com/gallery/#The-Garden

And after I draw all of them, I'll either:
A. Go back to writing
B. Make additional emotions or clothes

Drawing the Gents

Yesterday evening, I spent time drawing the guys of the game:
 

(Actually, one of my rules for distributing these sprites online
is that when they are used that they should be clothed.
I guess I'm breaking my own rules.. heh) 

    I'll probably be drawing a little tonight as well.
Maybe it'll even be streamed!

http://www.livestream.com/skims

Hello World: Group Title

    I had been thinking about the future of this game, and what I hoped it would lead to. I hope that by creating this game, it'll encourage more people to create games that are faithful to who they are and where they come from. It's the kind of exploration of one's true heart that I want to encourage. I hope one day I can work with like minded people to bring out what really matters to all of us.

For that reason, from here on all projects will be grouped together under this logo:

I'm working on three different projects, but this is the one I've been working on the most:
Sa'ee: Between You and I

From today on, all updates about Sa'ee will be here.