Re-writing, Freelancing, and Gaming
First things first, Die Aki! Has come leaps and bounds in January. Not only did I finish the cover and the back leaflet (for now), I also begun re-working the story. As a part of all that I’ve decided to make it a vertical scroll, for the sake of the more ‘modern’ reader.
SCaN is well on the way as well. I have finished the rough designs, and can’t wait to start making art and implementing the prototype. White boxing ahead, everyone! It will be interesting to see how I will do the scaling, as it will no longer be pixel art but instead, traditional digital.
With these projects, I’ve also been having plenty of freelancing work to do, as well as all the learning I’m doing to support me on this path. On top of all that, we’ve been playing this great game, Ancient Kingdoms by Ancient Pixels. It has its kinks and they are still balancing and ironing things out, but if you’re into some MMORPG-esque stuff without the toxic communities, you should definitely look into it!
Contents
- Re-writing, Freelancing, and Gaming
WIP: SCaN
I’ve also made a draft of the house’s map, as well as figured out all NPC’s involved in the story. And the items and other things I want to put in there for some of that passive lore about the world should the player choose to explore.
A ton of thinking has happened with the game this month. The main design is done, the progression is shaped, and a few crazy nights went by trying to figure out the balancing.
Switching out the ‘traditional’ GGD
As it turns out, I had dived into another one of those ghastly places not too far from ‘tutorial hell’. I got so stuck up on the so called proper way of doing things and got very lost in trying to make things perfect.
So. My husband kindly bonked me in the head with some reality, and I switched to a more core thing – the actual designing.
Who cares about making a bloody document that has all the intricacies of the mechanics in it, when there are two of us. And he knows that side of this all like the back of his hand. And I’m getting better with the whole design factor.
That then, means that I currently have a crazy CPS file with tons of layers of mindmaps, scribbles, and hand-drawn tables of progression and appearances. It was a lot, but it has been done!
Pc and Baddie progression, Balancing
No doubt this part will still be tweaked and tweaked some more, balancing is never truly done, I suppose. But I am happy to inform you that we’ve now got some nice timetables for the NPC’s, key events, and all that stuff.
This means that while playing the game, our BBG ‘Jane’, will be escalating things as the days go by in a very nice manner. On the other hand, Mr. V suggested that we add in some daily balances as well, so that the player wouldn’t get stuck in a loop of KidCatGrandma. Variety is a spice of life, and having to plan a bit where you use your resources will surely add to the excitement.
Oh, and there are side quests, hidden things, and environmental lore.
Beats
So, I’m actually going through this course on Level Design by Kevin Oxland on Udemy alongside the development. I already finished the first course I wanted to check out this year, which was the Game Design course I’ve mentioned in my previous update.
In this course for level design, I came across the idea of Beats, or the moments that change the game’s state in a significant manner. Funny enough, this also fits in well with the Three-act Structure for story-telling (just another thing I’ve been looking into, more about it when I get to what happened to Die Aki!). And it so happens, that I’ve made one such chart, albeit a crude one, for SCAN.
As you can see, the game will progress from the tutorial, all the way to lvl 4 and then the finale. Currently, there are 6 endings one might have… Which is very exciting, if you ask me! Especially for such a ‘small’ game. ( I swear, this thing just grew randomly…)
At each level threshold something changes about the game, rather significantly. Thus, they are the beats the game will follow. If you haven’t done this yet, you should totally try! It will give a nice roadmap from A to B, and can help you stay on the path and purpose.
Characters
As I mentioned, the main cast of characters is now fully here. There are 5 key players on the field, which I shall not distinguish from the decoys – where’s the fun in that?!
In total, there are 13 characters the player can interact with. I find that that is fine for a small game of a few hours of playtime. There’s no point cramming too many things into a story if they don’t fit. Now everyone has a purpose and something to say that very clearly relates to the situation at hand. I can’t wait to start making some art for them all!
Next stop, prototyping
I truly can’t wait to start implementing the prototype, so that I can see this thing start to come to life. And don’t even get me started on the art! After all, that’s where I’m putting most of my efforts. But then again, the art and assets are usually the thing requiring most of the working hours. There’s just so much to do!
One thing Mr. V threw into the air the sound design of the game. To be honest, I have not given it more thought than to keep it minimal. Maybe some ambiance, and NPC sounds in the lovely Hollow Knight style, where they don’t seem to be actually speaking any cohesive language (correct me if I’m wrong and there’s actually some crazy guide to the bug language). In all honesty, I rather loathe to even think about it, since that’s not our forte. But, rest assured, we will cross that bridge when we come to it!
SP: Die Aki!
Wow, has this project gone through an industrial shredder and been put back together like some legitimate comic project! For a moment there, towards the end of January, I actually thought about giving up all this re-working, and just making my Cat protagonist go through a gamification, like SCaN.
Now, while that may have been fun, my husband talked me off that particular cliff. You see, I was worried that I shouldn’t be doing different types of mediums, but focus on one. Meanwhile, I do like making both things, and want to keep on telling stories in both mediums. As Mr. V says: ‘If you want to make a game, make a game. If you want to make a comic, make a comic.’
So. Whatever I want to make, I will give it my best efforts from now on!
What’s done so far
As you may know, I considered Die Aki! pretty much finished. Until we found out it needed polishing and iterations. Much, much polishing.
The good news is, though, that despite the not flowing narrative, cliche dialogue, and mysterious events regarding a die and a spider… We have a lot we can repurpose. The art isn’t going to be wasted, at least I don’t think it will be. Which brings me to my next point…
Renovated Story
Yup, I done it. I re-worked the story. Remember that beats thing from the SCaN project? Well, I made one for Die Aki!, as well. And well… There’s now a whole Three-act timeline for it.
Doing this truly helped me figure out where I need to change things, where I’m missing stuff, and so forth. So now, not only does the story have a proper beginning, but it will also have several entirely new scenes that will, hopefully, clarify things.
One of the bigger changes is the premise of the whole situation. The story was originally going down the direction of a comedy, but then again, I’ve never been a comedian. I don’t know how to write funny. So the new direction would be more in the lines of my expertise – darker and emotionally loaded. Like one of those proper fantasy things, you know? Not to say there aren’t any stellar fantasies with comedy in them.
Either way, I hope that with this change, the story won’t be such a slog for me, and that it will flow better for you, the potential reader.
From Traditional to Vertical
On that note, I’ve also decided to reformat the comic into the modern consumer’s tastes. I plan to make it into a vertical scroller, which is quite the change from the original.
The thing is, that the more I looked into this whole vertical thing, it’s not just that it is nicer to read on a phone or tablet. I also find that it will be easier for me to do the re-working in the future, considering the fact that if I need to add or remove a panel or two, I don’t have to figure out the whole layout chaos of a traditional page.
I’m doing a ton of research (AHEM! Totally not just consuming a boat load of webtoons for my own enjoyment!) on the topic, and have already learned some interesting things like pacing with gutters and such. I’m also looking into the greyscale market, albeit there doesn’t seem to be much of it available.
On the other hand, I get it, people like colors, but then again… There’s just something about the dramatic feel of a greyscale image. Not to mention the fact that it will tickle the imagination bits in your brain a little, when you can choose for yourself what color hair or garments the character has for the most part.
That being said, I will stick to greyscale for comics at least. I think the game art will have some color, maybe a simple, minimal palette or some such.
Thumbnailing and Sketches, Lettering and Publication thoughts
The next steps for Die Aki! are the thumbnailing of the vertical comic, re-writing the script, and sketching the art. I’m rather looking forward to all this, despite the initial dose of demotivation when I got pointed out all the things that need fixing.
The new premise and the fresh scenes should be interesting to draw, that’s for sure. I mean there’s now a monstrous fish in the mix, too! And the font will likely be changed to the default by CSP, as it does look nice and clean. And that unnecessarily high ‘ in my previous chosen font really bothers me.
When it comes to publication, I know I’ve been talking about Itch.io as a possible platform. But I must admit, I’ve looked into other ones as well, and have come to like the Tapas site more than, say, Webtoon. These platforms, as restrictive as they may be in some aspects, have a huge readership, so it would make sense to publish there. We’ll see, I guess, once it’s time for that. After all, Mr. V’s opinion matters here, as well, since he is the head honcho of this operation.
(Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter/X! That’s where all the recent/current news related to my progression are!)
So, where are we at in our goals for the year?
Lets see…
I finished the Game Design Essentials way ahead of schedule. The Design is ready to go (a little flimsily but ready nonetheless) for SCan. I read two books on making Manga, so I’m ahead there too. I posted my Forest Guardian, as you can see above. (Isn’t it freaking amazing, by the way? I love how it turned out.) And well, Die Aki! is being re-worked, so not anywhere near publication at this point. I should really learn to not say things will be out soon before they are actually done and already in the publishing pipeline. Well, live and learn, I guess.
One goal I didn’t manage to hit was my insane 85 hours of drawing. I mean, I got to a respectable 32 hours, but I’ve still got ways to go in my attempts to hone in on how I spend my days. I still consume way too much stuff. Hours, just wasted on silly things. Ugh! How on earth does anyone even combat their fatigue-weakmindedness? How does discipline happen? Great questions of life, if only I knew the secrets.
February plans
In the next month, here are the things I will be working on:
- Finishing the Level Design course in Udemy.
- Making a SCaN-prototype, maybe whiteboxing the house a bit. Basics like movement and interaction with NPCs, objects, etc. Maybe even making a crude version of the dialogue boxes, which is very scary for me!
- Another Art piece I call the ‘Aion Mountain’. It’s been brewing for a while at the back of my mind. Time to make a divine mountain, yes?
- Thumbnailing and drafting the new story/panels for Die Aki!. Perhaps even starting the sketches, or giving you guys some concept art related to it.
And that’s it, really. It seems like a lot, and it may very well be. It all depends on how much freelance work I will have in the coming month. I hope there’s plenty, though this section of the year is usually a little bit of a slope in the business for me. Seasons and such, you know.
Oh, and I’m fine
That little operation I mentioned in the last update went well. The stitches are out and now I just need to fight the urge to fiddle with the healing wound. I’m happy to inform you that I got a lovely treat and a coffee for my efforts, courtesy of the glorious Mr. V. Sometimes I feel like a little kid, needing a lollipop after a visit to the dentist, heh.
Other than that, I’ve been wondering how to learn to draw faster, as in how to make the process itself faster. I suppose there’s not much more to it than to keep on drawing as much as I can to figure what suits me best. It’s just a little maddening to see all these people online draw like it’s nothing, while I’m still in the wire-frame/boxes for robot bodies phase. Don’t compare yourselves to others, kids, not like that anyway!
With this quote from the lovely Albert Einstein, I leave you to work on your stuff for another month.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
Have an amazing beginning to the year,
Mrs V.