RMMV Ceress and Orea [Love/Emotional, Adventure, Puzzles, Exploration]

[Plueschkatze]

And it's saturday again!
So prepare yourself for another incoming CaO update! YAY!

UPDATE TIME!


I did spend the first part of the past week preparing some promo footage for social media, mainly for indiedb.

So here's the logo I designed for CaO.

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16378648/87af379812714ecc87b0df3dceea13c6?token-time=1517011200&token-hash=pqYUpanHF1dCxqmPpxBXn7F3JY37Zln5fpl1B9w_iGc%3D

Logos are hard. I took a lot of inspiration from those beautiful japanese logos, mainly JRPG ones and their western versions.
I think I'm liking the outcome, tho there's room for improvement. But there always is, am I right?! ;P



The rest of the week was used to continue actual gamedev.

I ...

• finished eventing the opening scene.
• pixeled more behaviors (actually a lot of those...).
• added a lot of smaller details to the maps.
• created a new map.

So this week there's not much new content to show off.
So I'll share some gifs I recorded.
It's just little Ceress (who's sprite I updated!) slipping and jumping around. Hihi.

Spoiler: GIFs in here

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16378648/3314d960adfa43db8063b4b9eb66c5ac?token-time=1517011200&token-hash=p6fj_uYuT-VmIr4h0H8I9CRuIptacewyUd_yLpk_YMQ%3D

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16378648/e615dcbcf71b47ed9b0161ec02919c23?token-time=1517011200&token-hash=Q_nnMafbfgOh_oFYcHf44k_hHf3rDBw5Hvxxn0CMmvo%3D

I changed my gif recording tool from LICEcap to ScreenToGif and I'm loving it.
It let's you have so much influence on the outcome. It's amazing. I can highly recommend ScreenToGif.



Change to my Devlog on banned.url:
I also came to the conclusion, that I'll do a public and a patron version of the devlog.
The patron version will be one, that adds to the public one and includes footage that will be patron only.
Some of that might later be shared on other social media channels, some not.


And here is this weeks #screenshotsaturday entry.

Tho it's actually a gif not a screenshot.


Take good care of yourself everyone!
I'll be back with another update next saturday. =3

- Plueschkatze

 

[Plueschkatze]

WEEKLY UPDATE!

And another week has pasted!
I hope everyone had a good week?!
Mine was fine. I had a lot of time for development!

Here's a quick breakdown of my archivements:

• I finished 3 new maps.
• I pixeled some custom tiles for those environment.
• I finished another sprite and made some changes to existing ones.
• I tinkered a bit with the backstory and changed some things.
• I started eventing a quest/puzzle.
• I got the OST and SEs I commissioned and started implementing those!
• And I worked on the elevator pitch for CaO.

For those of you not familiar with the term "elevator pitch"
it's a real short sentense to describe your game to others.

For CaO this currently is:
"Ceress and Orea is a bit of an adventure, a bit walking sim, a bit puzzle,
a slight bit of horror, but a bittersweet love story to the fullest,
about overcoming death to be with the person you love. "

Here's a new screenshot of one of the new maps!

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16506087/c8dc9cec53f84aef97a786f0e5415f77?token-time=1517616000&token-hash=AunBrNDq7EEcAu2OVT6QKb0MliCfvTVaR7dSYFe70sE%3D

At this point CaO is in development for 2 months already.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to release the full game towards the end of Q1 2018! But no promises made by now.

And here's what I share for #screenshotsaturday this week:
https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJ3Ijo2MjB9/banned.url-posts/qdT8JQ2fontt5mbjp4RwjgIm6LBw3xScpYOIjkDm2w8iJoROPEN_PXw-zxTHO8Dj.gif?token-time=2145916800&token-hash=ccep5XfkBy7ovYM0FmaXU88L1POYhud63EsRdEKtuhI%3D

A huge thanks to everyone who's interested in this project.
Take care everyone! <3
Until next saturday.

- Plueschkatze

PS: And as usual there will be a patron only post containing more new footage.
Thanks again.

 

[Churro]

I am looking forward to play your first Demo! Love as main topic is one of my favorites
For just 2 months of work you have a lot to show!
The atmosphere of the maps is great and really gives an underground feeling.
Keep up your great work

 

[Kes]

This looks very promising.
I do have one query. In your dialogue you use quote marks. In my personal opinion these are not needed and take make the dialogue box seem just a bit cluttered. It might be that you are using them to distinguish spoken words from silent thoughts. I've seen a lot of games which use the 'dim background' option for thoughts and no one seems to be confused by it.

 

[IAmJakeSauvage]

This looks very promising.
I do have one query. In your dialogue you use quote marks. In my personal opinion these are not needed and take make the dialogue box seem just a bit cluttered. It might be that you are using them to distinguish spoken words from silent thoughts. I've seen a lot of games which use the 'dim background' option for thoughts and no one seems to be confused by it.

I disagree - I think it looks more polished!

 

[Kes]

As I said, "personal opinion", not making universalist claims here.

 

[Plueschkatze]

@Kes I can see what you mean. I don't have anything aside from dialogue lines tho, so they might indeed be unnessesary. I honestly didn't think much about them, it's just how I did write my script, haha. Thanks for the feedback.

@IAmJakeSauvage Thank you. I think a lot of that is just up to personal preference in the end.

 

[Plueschkatze]

And it is saturday again!

This means...

WEEKLY UPDATE TIME!

Every saturday I'm like: "WOW?! Why does time fly like this?!" Hahaha.

This week I got a lot done:

• I made 2 new maps
• I evented some cutscenes.
• I did a lot of smaller fixes and improvements.
• I finished 2 puzzles.
• I did a bunch of placeholder art that needs to be exchanged with actual art.
• I went on a huge bug hunt! And I've been very successful on it. HAR HAR.

More can be found in the patron only addon of this devlog! <3

~~

Aside from all this…

FELLOW GAME MAKERS~
I’ll need a few NPCs to fill the background of certain scenes.
So I thought I could ask around the community and chose a few of your lovely characters! =3

• They need to fit into a fantasy world setting (so I might need to change their cloth to blend in nicely)
• They need to be human.
  
• I don’t need dialogue for those, because they’ll be in cutscenes.
  
• I need a visual reference, so I can create a sprite.

Since I only have limited slots, I’ll chose some that I think are amazing, interesting or simply very fitting. Please don’t be sad if yours is not one of them! This might be because of many reasons that are far from “I didn’t like it” or “I don’t value your work”. It’s just a very subjective choice of which designs and characters I like and how I think they’d fit that particular scene I need NPCs for.

Here's a preview of one of the environments in which we characters will be used!

Spoiler: SCREENSHOT

If you are interested, please send me a PM containing the following:
TOPIC: CaO NPC
Name of your game:
Link to some informations about that game:
Name of character:
Visual reference(s):

This is open for a week until febuary 3rd.
EXTENDED UNTIL FEB 10th!

~~~~~~


And on to #screenshotsaturday.

Screenshot version here:

Spoiler

What else would you like to know about this project?
And what would you like to see on future updates?
Should I talk a bit more about the project? My thoughts? My process?

Thank you!
Take care everyone!

 

[EpicFILE]

That town map is really breathtaking.
I love the caves too, because they seems natural-looking and lively.
Your progress is pretty fast, and by seeing how much you've made this far,
maybe you can try to move it to development thread.

Anyway, the NPC inclusion seems interesting.
I think I'll try to PM you.

 

[Miss Nile]

I haven't commented here before now, but I've been secretly following your progress and admiring it from far. ^^ Loving the looks of everything, and that town map is really beautiful. <3 Good luck with this and I will continue to watch. ^^

 

[Plueschkatze]

WEEKLY UPDATE!

This week was insane.

I got a lot of stuff done. Big and small.
Progress is going very well at the moment!
I hope I can keep the speed up!

What was done?

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16777652/655378f2edc249afb6c24b79e87bc074?token-time=1518825600&token-hash=PrIVRsneIvM21T5-wPCmYiW_F9eQZqC1GMBYlS4WW6A%3D

• 9(!) new maps. This makes a total of 22 maps that are done as of now. More to come!
• I commissioned a dash plugin, that limits the amount of time Ceress can dash with stamina.
  This means that I can allow dashing, but also that I'll be sure that people won't rush through the game at all time...
  It also will be super handy for some scenes in the later part of the game.
• I deployed a super early alpha version of the first 15-20 mins of the game and handed it to a few people for testing.
  For this I went back in and made a lot of smaller adjustments to polish the beginning even more.
  Not sure if I shall share it public? Anyone interested in playing and giving feedback? X3 (If so hit me up!)
• I did a bit of eventing for the area I'm currently working on.

Have a small preview of one of the new maps! <3
https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16777652/013b3d4dcfc54d63bb1fe3d379847332?token-time=1518825600&token-hash=6dH5JyFRGxtdIKCYg6hrFS_8ipWVSwNi84t44jwTWxs%3D



banned.url only add-ons this week:
- A small progress gif of one of my maps. I think I'll do a even more detailed one for next week!
- 2 extra screenshot of the new maps.


https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16777652/ff84a6f06d5c4b7ca4f73b1f0c186f2d?token-time=1518825600&token-hash=FxWXC0TPV__blaFvM8iKpwjI2SbLa7hbz202t7YKHp4%3D

Are you interested in seeing or knowing anything else? Let me know! <3


PS: I'll ask to move this thread to project development at some point next week,
so you might check there or subscribe so you don't miss out on new content!


I'll also EXTEND the NPC search for a week until febuary 10th!


See you next week!
Take care and I wish you a lovely weekend (and week)!
Love,
- Plueschkatze

 

[Plueschkatze]

Taaa da da dam!
It's this time of the week again...

UPDATE TIME!

I know I almost always say this but... Wow. It's saturday again!
The days sure go by fast lately!

So how did I progress this week?

• I made another 8 maps. So we are at 30 now!
• I made some smaller fixes to some animations, aswell as pixeling new ones.
• I made another 2 memory cutscene and a puzzle.
• I looked into steamworks and game publishing stuff!

This weeks screenshot:

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxLCJ2IjoiMSJ9/banned.url-media/post/16914739/fcf168fbcc514337bff64531f87085de?token-time=1519430400&token-hash=86rmKRuunDoMRs9J4bpWkuVH7rpjfjGO8guu8PCZ4ug%3D

I decided to always let my screenshots have the logo in the lower right corner from now on.

And the additional .gif I have for #screenshotsaturday this week!
https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJ3Ijo2MjB9/banned.url-posts/4RwU5wSwei2HMQnjDC-2ZErzyWANUWwVKNoSPbxaGr2J-iknKQx3Ct3ea74jdmYD.gif?token-time=1519430400&token-hash=KQxdnkdq6JeBn2jxZdyYVUgS9B2AJ42s-JiQYDLtN24%3D
Lil' Ceress' idle~ bounce bounce~ <3

Now let's talk about the overall progess.
I have one more main area that needs to be done, out of 4, which means 3 are done.
Plus everything I have in mind for the credits, which I probably should count as an additional area...
So let's say 3/5 are done! ;3

Additionally I need to do a lot of smaller fixes and I need to polish the areas I have done so far,
plus replace some placeholder art pieces with actual artwork. Hehe.

I also need to do some paperwork in order to continue the work on a steam page...
And I need to do some extra stuff, like a 'studio logo'.

So there's still a LOT to be done.
I think it would be realistic to say that I'll need at least another 1,5-2 months to reach the quality I want for this small project.
Which would make a release in April likely. Not promised, tho!


Attention, pls!
If there's someone around here, that has some experience with selling games on Steam
and would be willing to have a little experience chat, I'd be really thankful!
Just message me/pm/comment, I can also hand you my discord ID if you prefer that


EDIT:
Oh... I'm also thinking about entering the birthday event with a trailer and maybe some other stuff,
because yeah... there's still a lot work to be done this month! Haha.



Take care everyone!
I hope you're doing great.

- Plueschkatze
PS: Back to work! Woop woop!

 

[EpicFILE]

Wah, you're progressing pretty fast.
Ceress' sprite looks lovely.

I don't know a thing about selling games on steam.
But good luck on your effort anyway!

 

[kaiijuu]

Aww, I really want to play this game. (I'm currently playing Dear Edwin) and the sprites, lighting, maps...all of it's so beautiful!

 

[Plueschkatze]

Thanks to both of you @EpicFILE and @kaiijuu!

 

[RocketKnight]

Beautiful game, i want a demo. Please.

 

[animesock52]

This is so pretty
The color is ust so lovely. Very welcoming visually.

 

[Wavelength]

I really love the concept! Video games need more pure, unabashed love stories!

The mapping is beautiful, in general - my favorites being the view of town and the rainy grotto. It looks like you're using Parallax Mapping in some form or another - if that's the case, I recommend adding more curves and imperfection to the straight edges in natural areas (cave walls, cliff edges, etc.) - nothing in nature looks "tiled" like that, and while it's a necessary evil with tile mapping, you're under no such duress when using parallax mapping!

You asked whether I'd lean toward buying the game. For me, I'd have to see more dialogue to make the decision. There's no need to spoil anything, but it would be nice to have a sense of what the more powerful lines of dialogue look like. Good writing is vital for any story-based game, so to see just a few lines with simple sentences like "I sentence you to death." and "Please don't punish her!" don't reveal a lot about your style and therefore makes it very hard for me to commit to spending money. I'm not sure whether the larger community of game buyers feels the same way about this, but it's something that I feel.

 

[Plueschkatze]

@RocketKnight Thank you! I did send you a pm :3
@animesock52 Thank you a lot. Yeah. I love colors. They are super important to me, haha. They can make up a lot of great atmosphere.
@Wavelength Thanks a lot for the great feedback! Especially the part about textlines on screenshots! I hope a trailer will help with that, because my dialogue boxes are always very short, so a short sequence would maybe be more helpful than a screenshot. You have a strong point there with the cave walls. It's still a bit hard to make them look very natural while keeping the grid in mind. (And my limited devtime~ since I set myself a deadline for this project~ haha!) But yeah. There would be room for improvement and I'll keep that in mind for future projects! X3

 

[Wavelength]

Yes, I definitely agree that trailers/short videos will be more illuminating than screenshots, when it comes to showing off your game's writing! Even a very powerful scene could sometimes be betrayed by losing its context (which happens when you only show a single line of dialogue).

Best of luck on your very promising game!