Unnie
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Intro Part 2
🕑 Added 2021-12-27 04:35:40 +0000 UTCIntro Part 2 is partially done. I've decided to split it into 2 days, which I still aim to finish before the year ends. So there will be a part 3.
Feedback while I'm still working on this would be good. Currently it's a bit disjointed as the segments that happen in the house area aren't done.
Again, almost no lewd content here, unless you count innuendo.
Some other changes:
-All NPC were getting drawn twice. The boost won't be as significant thought.
-Changed Yuri's appearance ("princess" from the intro). Named NPC looks aren't set in stone, but I am content at how they are right now.
-Text: Player name will appear on the left side as it did before.
-Text: Instead, important NPCs will have their text color coded to differentiate who's talking. Less significant NPCs will remain white shaded for now.
-Text: Minor pose adjustments will only happen to the person currently talking and when a new line starts, to further help differentiating who's talking.
-Fixed some clothes and arms clipping. I can't test everything for every body part size, so if you see a set of clothing obviously clipping let me know.
Current plan is to work on the dream areas after the intro's done.
New depth sorting method solves several previous issues(NPCs drawing over/behind walls). Trees are now usable, which lets me start developing the forest area and tweak locations that needed vegetation.
The lab area is still probably the most done one and the one I'll post next.
The meat world will probably be last. The tileset I intended to use heavily for it turned out to be very lackluster in practice.
Though given the scale I'm going for, it's probably a good idea to start making abstract minimalist areas instead. I guess that would be in spirit of Yumi Nikki.
Writing is probably my weakest point. If it isn't blatantly obvious, I'm going with a VN approach.
The direction can still be changed, so criticism is good.
Half the time I'm not sure whether the MC should have descriptive sentences or just implied ones, or maybe a silent protagonist altogether is better. Should the responses be exclusively choices, even if they're superficial? Should there be inner thoughts? How much personality do you prefer?
I don't know if I should make names, concepts and conversations more conventional for the setting or for the audience. i.e I've had honorifics present but after rereading it over and over I just couldn't handle the cringe and removed them. Yuri was meant to be more tsundere as well, but I've toned it down a fair amount.
If you don't want to provide feedback, it's probably better to wait for now. Everything is a bit disjointed at the moment.
Some other stuff I'm not sure about, and would like to hear your thoughts:
Clothing size restriction. The idea is a piece of clothing will be unusable within the range of, let's say, 2 points of body part size it was acquired at. This would prompt a reason to purchase and throw away clothing, trying out new ones and occasionally being stack with certain sets. There are currently 8 hip and 8 chest sizes.
Eyelashes. Some of the new eyes have them. I'm not sure whether it looks better or worse. At the very least on MC.
Should the house (from the demo) be redesigned? I feel like I've got better material to work with, but it'll take a good chunk of time. If it's serviceable I can leave it be. It will also be absolutely impossible to redesign later if not now.
I might as well talk about how I'm designing story content.
Once necessary conditions are met, either an optional event will become available or a mandatory one will trigger. You can take the intro as an example on how those will look like.
They will be split into either linear(i.e going clothes shopping with Akari) or continuous(i.e first time getting pregnant)
The former will prevent your character from resuming regular cycles until the event is finished.
The later will lock you out of other continuous story content(or incompatible linear segments) until the end conditions are met, but will allow cycles to continue as normal. Incompatible changes, actions and encounters will also be disabled until the story segment is resolved(with the previous example in mind, getting somehow "unpregnant" or giving birth prematurely, before the segment has progressed enough). The idea in this example is to establish what happens, how world reacts, and why it makes sense, before letting you do it again more casually.
As of right now I only have these sketched out in notepad and I need an actual game layered out before I could start coding them in, so humor me. Planned major events are: First time getting pregnant, changing back to male, mirror body swap
Heroine specific content is a distant future as far as I'm concerned.
Finally, I realize what kind of game I'm making. I aim to squeeze in a new animation every month or so, though isn't it nicer to have established characters for that?
Frankly speaking, if feedback is poor I'll focus on that for a while.
Also, very late Merry Christmas.
Comments
Unnie
Sure, send me a message of any typos you've noticed.I don't think I can fix the "..." issue you mention. It's fundamentally impossible. But it's only really used when NPCs are moving, as not to mess up pathing. Best I can do is move the check later into the conversation, just before new movement instructions are sent.
Lithoboli
I didn't run into any errors, but I did notice a couple of typos which I'd be happy to clear up for you. Besides that, I feel that the repeated "..." to delay dialogue is a bit clumsy, I found myself skipping actual dialogue while mashing spacebar.
Unnie
Thanks. I have an idea what causes it.
J S
Discovered a small bug - After attending class I got stuck on the second desk from the right in the bottom row and couldn't move despite the character turning.
Unnie
Send me a message of what you would like to get involved in. I haven't collaborated with anyone on a project like this before, nor do I have anything specific in mind, so you'll have to humor me. But maybe some help can accelerate things, I don't know.
Unnie
Thank you. Yeah, I've made the close, to avoid confusion softlocking it left in the first part.
Unnie
>I would like to know when we will get more of what we got with the first demo? Current plan is to finish the intro, implement 2 real world and 4 dream areas, populate with existing content, connect everything together, add 2-3 story events. Any mechanics I need to implement(buying, cooking, day/night cycle etc) will need to happen before connecting all areas. Any animations or monster I design before "connect everything together" will just be videos or gifs as there's nowhere to showcase them. "When" is a difficult question for me. If it starts to slow down, I will expand the intro part 1 area to functions as a demo v2, but that will use up a significant amount of time I could put elsewhere. >A menue on pressing escape with controls, fullscreen and other options in the future. Sounds reasonable. Though I didn't think it was as important while I'm just releasing segments, but maybe it will add to the authenticity? >A forward/back button to go back on dialogue because, when I accidentally press enter I would have to play the entire game again to re-read the dialogue. I can make a log that shows all conversations within the room. Pop up on key press maybe? Might be a good goal for now. I don't know why I haven't done it yet. >A way of saving progress. Like with the menu, I feel that's a little redundant at the moment. I'm not insane though. Of course I will add save system. >Keep up the good work and give yourself some time to relax if you haven't already. Thanks. This is a hobby for me, so I'm fine for now.
Sebastian Hans Eli Fors
After playing part 2 I think that you've got a good grasp on the story telling narrative but moving forward I would like to know when we will get more of what we got with the first demo? Obviously, you need to make the story and gameplay hollistic to the development of the content so keeping that in mind here are a few 'creature comforts that I think would really make your game feel more whole. I would rather you develop the other parts of the project but, I think it would be worth having these features so players can make the most of the game: A menue on pressing escape with controls, fullscreen and other options in the future. A forward/back button to go back on dialogue because, when I accidentally press enter I would have to play the entire game again to re-read the dialogue. A way of saving progress. Other than the creature comforts, I would just like to see the various creatures/corruptions/transformations/pregnancies and birthing get fleshed out once you have the game in a semblance that will allow you to implement them. Keep up the good work and give yourself some time to relax if you haven't already.
Sebastian Hans Eli Fors
Hey Unnie! First off WOW this is a lot to come back to. It sounds like you have a clear plan for what you want the game to be.
SecretSebastian
yup nothing to complain about. so far very nice. Well if you need some inspiration with the story or help i am glad to help you unnie. till now i am happy the way the MC is written with its own Textlines.
Cryonicprawn
I assume the game is supposed to close after you change the hairstyle, but everything was running great! I'm super excited to see what you do next!
