timoteoxo
patreon
Chapter2 Gameplay preview
🕑 Added 2023-03-13 18:25:12 +0000 UTCI'd like to show a preview of chapter2 (not sure if it can play as an embed on patreon, if not, follow the link into youtube (click watch on youtube).
This contains a 2 min. preview of the first moments of chapter 2. Spoilers are almost non-existent so dont worry. It's mainly to showcase some stuff I've been working on that will shift the Visual Novel a bit into "game" category.
Most of the stuff here are still bound to change, especially the dialogue, transitions, and the icons. It also doesn't have sound yet which is crucial.
The reason I'm going this route is because it makes it easier to connect different scenes - especially side stories into the main story without them being a menu choice ("Go to the gym") and it being too obvious. With this, I can "hide" routes that are possible and have different ways of unlocking things other than selecting dialogue options. I've also found out, after playing a few more NSFW games(Mainly rafster's Grizzly Grove(see on itch) and Robin Morningwood, that they just stick with you and immerse you better than those that are strictly visual novels. The inventory also adds another way of interaction, and unlocking more of the story.
Finally, it's quite economical to do this, it gives a lot of involvement from the player while needing less time to render - which also means less CGs for more mundane dialogue and scenes. So I can allocate more space and time for the NSFW scenes and important cutscenes.....
Speaking of cutscenes. Here's another I've been testing out.
https://youtu.be/5Vh_Ilv9AL0
I've been testing out a lot of vfx in conjuction with animation and I'm very excited to reach a point in the story where it's all going to come out.
Comments
mta
Thanks. I'm definitely trying to weigh the pros and cons of all the new feature/gameplay dimension I'm thinking of and have scrapped a few. I had item price, stats, and other stuff planned but decided to withhold those. Unlocking dialogue options and CGs are the main goal for these items so its sufficient that they exist and players find them, no need to play around with buying/selling/prices just yet.
mta
Haha. Thank you. I'll take your word for it especially re: sandbox. I don't think I can go there just yet, anyway. For now, even the objects he finds here are tied to the main story(not required but enhances it a bit). I initally had "black market price" for each item, and potential to buy stuff in the prison commissary that have value to other characters but I postponed that. It definitely falls into the feature creep/added dimension that I don't want to deal with yet.
Alex
I like this direction your are going, always been a fan of the point and click adventure games of old. Just be careful and try not to succumb to Feature Creep.
Rafster
Oh my god, this may set you apart of most VNs right away, I LOVE the isometric style in the cell, and it was quite a smart solution. You can include many dialogs and interactions without needing CGs. Better yet, as you say, you can connect many routes this way. In my game I use and abuse of the dialog choices, but I help myself with the different stats. You can do the same with the inventory. I'm a little worried that this change can cause a feature creep, making your game way more difficult to work with (be careful in getting to the sandbox black hole. Do not go there, I know from experience). This change is huge, as a player I'm excited as hell, and as a fellow dev, I'm worried about making the game more difficult to work with. But bah, what I'm saying, whatever you decide, it will be ok with me. I'm a fanboy of your work.
