$5+ Update 8

Here's a nice, big update for today, including a voice acting sample! Today's image: Spoilers? Well, I don't like giving things away, but I wanted to include this picture. I'm sure you can tell what Fumi is proposing here! You will have probably seen a version of this image that I used for the threesome scene goal. Actually that was just a clothes on, no background version of this image that I already had in development for the game. I only just finished the final version yesterday and I think it came out well, so I wanted to show it off here. I personally really like the way this picture contrasts their body types as well as their attitudes; it's a nice comedy moment, and Iku's boobs look particularly huge next to Fumi's flat chest. Anyway, I hope you like it. Voice acting sample: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0B5vgfqb7HxZHB4T1RtV2hHdDA/view?usp=sharing That's a link to a sample of Fumi's voice! As I'll describe below, there's been progress on voice acting, and this is a little slice of that. Let me know in the comments if this link doesn't work for you, but I think it should. Voice acting progress: So this week has been heavily dominated with work on the voice acting. I have been putting the scripts together for the actors and sending them out, but that is actually even more work than even I expected it to be. What I have to do is go through the entire game's text and pick out which lines are most needed or desirable for each character to have voice acted, then sort them into a document with descriptions of what's going on in every scene, what kind of emotions might be in play, what the characters' motivations are, etc. I also have to give the actors some background on their character, and choose some in-game artwork that helps capture the spirit of the scenes/game. This has tended to take more than one day's work per script; it's not something I can just toss off in half an hour. Originally I conceived of adding voice acting as something relatively easy I could do to enhance the game, because it didn't require a lot of extra work on my part. All the real work would be done by the voice actors, right? Well, as it happens it is quite a lot of work for me anyway, but I think it's worth it. Adding voice acting helps the game be something a little different and more special than a lot of games out there, and it's very important to me that I offer you something that's not quite like anything you can get elsewhere. A mixture of (hopefully) good writing, gameplay art and voice acting with loads of very explicit sexual content is a formula that's actually not common, and therefore I think it's worthwhile for me to make my games this way. Anyway, despite the hassle I've put together two complete scripts and sent them out, and I've got lines back from both the actors now. I have pretty much all of Fumi done, I think (I haven't actually had time to review those lines yet, but they've been submitted) and some of Kimiko. I hope you agree that this is great news for the game. The only part I haven't cast now is Masami; I'll be putting out a revised casting call soon in order to try and get someone to play that part. I may possibly ask someone else on the cast to double up and play that role as well; don't worry if that sounds like a problem, as these are good voice actresses and can play different voices so you won't notice they're being done by the same performer. First, however, I will try to get someone new. French translation progress: Apparently the French translation of Crossworlds Part 0 I mentioned last week is more than half done already, although I'll still need to get the player commands traslated as well ("north, south, knock on door, rub tits" etc.). Not much more to say about that, particularly as I assume you speak English. Upcoming time off This is nothing to worry about, but I want to be transparent about what I'm doing. In the coming month or so I will be taking at least one, maybe two weeks off from game development. In that time I will still provide updates, including art from the game, and I will still try to stay in touch with you guys and the AIF community to answer any questions, etc. The game will still potentially have some progress in that time, as other people will keep working on their parts (voice acting, writing and art), but I won't have time to do much. Why the time off? Well, it's for two specific reasons. The first is simple, I have a week-long vacation coming up. I haven't had a proper vacation for ages and I need one. :) I actually do have some plans to maybe write up a few sections of a future game project, however, as that game is about travelling and I might get inspired while on the trip. In fact, I'm hoping I will be. The other week I'm taking is because I need a little time to just focus on writing up an academic research proposal. I have to do this for the next phase of my academic career. I will be able to make both my commitments in AIF and my other work fit together, but every now and then I'll probably have to take a little time to crunch in work for a deadline, or whatever. It's actually a really good thing, because although it takes a lot of work and it might be a demanding schedule I'm creating for myself, I will also be able to design my shedule more or less as I like, so I'll be able to allocate time for game development. I could probably lie and not tell you I'm taking this time off, but I don't want to do anything like that – I don't expect that you'll see anything wrong with me needing to take a week every now and then for some important reason.