Good evening!
This post was originally uploaded to the geoWaffle Patreon on the date above. It has been re-uploaded here.
Well, progress is going smoothly. Here's proof.
The good news is that the route is past the halfway point; certainly in terms of writing. I'm nearing the end of day 3, day 4 is planned to be (relatively) short, and day 5 is the day of the shoot, so it's more of a victory lap than anything.
If I sound a little dour about the route, it's not because progress has been difficult (it's clearly been remarkably quick), but is actually because the route will not be out quite as soon as I'm implying it'll be.
In order for me to explain that, I'll need to explain...
Remember last time when I started speaking about marketing? Well, things are coming much clearer into view now, and I'll try to break down the plan as I see it.
It can be easily divided into phases:
It might seem a bit strange to post the same demo twice across different platforms at different times, but the answer is pretty simple.
On Itch and Steam, demos that you download are saved to your computer. In theory they will usually be deleted, but there's a chance they won't be. If the game's development is going to take some more time, then I need to be able to hold the attention of the prospective players, and that's a hell of a lot easier if the marketing is literally on their hard drive.
By comparison, a Newgrounds demo is an ephemeral experience. If someone plays the Newgrounds demo and takes an interest in the game, then they're going to want to see if they can get their hands on more. If they can, they're likely to actually follow through. But if there's nothing more to get their hands on? They'll probably just close the tab.
Obviously the advantage of Newgrounds is that anything uploaded to there will get seen by a hell of a lot more people than a simple Steam of Itch demo will.
Hopefully that reasoning makes sense. We'll see if I change my mind about it.
Now, one of the things about the way I work is that I try my best to avoid doing frivolous things until the real work is done. I don't like the idea of making an Itch page, because it's incredibly easy to sink days and days of development into for diminishing returns. Of course, I have to make an Itch page, so I simply have to show restraint in the matter.
On the other hand, a Sound Room for DTF strikes me as the single most frivolous waste of time I could engage with during active development. Would you believe me if I asserted that it's a necessity?
One aspect of the game's marketing that I mentioned earlier is the fact that I want to make sure that the game's music is accessible on other platforms. The obvious answer is to at least make sure there's a soundtrack upload on a Youtube channel. The game's music is damn good, and it'll certainly help draw some extra attention (as well as help hold the attention of those keeping up with the game). The game's brilliant and wonderful musician suggested that the music uploads have some sort of eye-catching, albeit simple, visual flair. Something like the Undertale piano soundtrack uploads. I heard that and said "yeah, fuck yeah, let's put boobs on it!"
So, in order to maximise the utility of the visuals, as well as add something extra to the game, I decided to create the visuals within Ren'py and present them as the game's new sound room screen; accessible from the main menu.
I uploaded a short clip of the animation to twitter, in case you're curious. Which you are.
The game already used an internal sound menu for testing purposes, so this is sort of a more elegant solution anyway.
Can't say the same for the main menu, though. I absolutely need to find a way to make those menu items look less... Stupid.
It's... Sort of a work in progress.
Getting the Steam page up and running will take some time, so for now I've been using Itch to take a crack at the actual page design and writing and whatnot. Here's what it looks like right now...
The plan is to probably just to have a trailer lining the page, rather than a collection of screenshots. Regardless, it's probably looking entirely as one would expect.
Hey, I'm trying sell a product here, not change the world of video game storefronts.
I'll do that next time.
Anyway, the actual body text has gone through a number of revisions...
The description was originally super long and unfocused, and it's only when my editor compared it to similar pages that I realised one simple fact: I talk far too much.
So I boiled it down to its bare, appealing essentials.
I have a hard time explaining exactly how this situation arose, but it was immediately evident as I was writing it that it would need to go through another phase of revision to be less... Misogynistic? It's strange; it's almost like when you remove a lot of the context and nuance, a game about picking up chicks and getting them to work through their personal problems in the span of a week so they can shoot porn with you suddenly seems less like a wholesome and heart-warming tale of personal connection in a world where moving on from the past is not the freedom it once appeared to be, and appears instead to be some sort of porn game.
Run-on sentences like that are why I have an editor.
He does not work on these.
The page is in a much better state now, but it'll take longer before I'm happy with it, I'm sure. For now, enjoy the meager screenshot. As though you needed more reminders of what Vee looks like.
It'll be worth the wait. There are catgirls and threesomes in the next route, I promise.
See you later, gharial
-Marina