Orkastle Update 01 - Backgrounds, Monsters, and Chapter Story Notes

This is the first of what will be irregularly posted updates for 'kastle.

 パチパチパチパチ\(´・ω・)/

I ended up dragging work on the 'log out a pretty long time for a couple factors, mostly just wanting to pack a lot into it, but also stuff like finding optimal workflows, learning some things I'm not used to doing, and making some foundational decisions. If the 'log does really well it'll all have been worth it. If it doesn't, it's time for Joey Animeman to get nervous (not a threat, I just think Joey is probably looking forward to my success ('ω')).

Either way, I'll be making loads of follow-up videos and whatnot after the 'log finally drops, since the floodgates will be open for me to make any kind of content to talk about the game instead of being gatekept by this massive Genkidama of an announcement video.

Not too many days left at any rate. Very little work remaining to be done.

Rather than to just keep reporting on a theoretical progress meter for the game, it'll be more interesting to make updates focusing on specific elements at a time as they reach significant benchmarks.
For this first update, I'll be covering the 6 chapters that constitute the planned story by showing off one background from the area of the chapter, an important monster from the chapter, and some notes about the corresponding story content.

The backgrounds will be backgrounds displayed during ADV style cutscenes.

Each chapter will probably have a total of about 7 or so backgrounds of this type within in it, along with top-down field movement style backgrounds.

I settled on the idea of the backgrounds being black and white with monochromatic dithering. It essentially means the backgrounds are approached very similarly to manga backgrounds. What will actually be displayed on the screen in the game will typically be a zoomed in portion, making generous use of panning and such for immersion. I'll show this all off in action in the devlog.

This ended up being the best choice for the ratio of ease of doing and quality of effect achieved. The characters are pixelated in a more minimalistic style (KiraKira Star Night's non-gameplay character art is sort of the feel https://youtu.be/KUOZLGJJVzI?si=rdeqIo0HYKPi-Npb&t=2549 timestamp for example) and this background approach should complement well.

If you say Famicom-esque to someone these days, it can default to an initially negative impression, but I'm confident by actually seeing the game in action, we'll smash through the freaking racist bigot xenophobic piece of shit 4k resolution slave zoomer chuds (ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ

I honestly think even erotic appeal can be captured in these kind of pixels, but I'll be making a lot of full resolution art to promote the game anyway.

I'm not revealing anything I think will spoil the experience of playing, but keep in mind I am revealing some info here that spoiler fanatics might dislike, so proceed with your own discretion.

At any rate, enjoy this summary of the game.

This is the church area corresponding to Chapter 1.

The slaves of the castle that make up the main cast of characters are living in quarters separate from the main castle at the start of the story. They have not yet been integrated as proper slaves in the castle, nervously awaiting the approaching day they will be.

The church area is attached to these slave reserve quarters, and it's the first area of the girls' escape route.

Being the first dungeon, I want it to serve as an introduction to all the appealing aspects of dungeons in the game but also not get bogged down by feeling tutorial-like. Branching and secret paths, things that can go unexpectedly wrong, funny and engaging character dialogues, scary elements, etc.

The biggest focus will be on establishing character dynamics while cooking up the tension that will carry the rest of the story.

The standard orc will be the main antagonist of this chapter. In an emotionally-fueled brash move, the protagonist will force a confrontation with the orc. The way this conflict concludes will set in place the rivalry between the protagonist and deuteragonist that's going to be the dominant element of the story.

I want to drive home what kind of personality and what kind of threat these creatures are early in the story like this so that elements may then build off of that.

By the way, the protagonist of the story, Yuriel, looks like this.

The deuteragonist of the story, Reiya, looks like this.

The two of them have their own respective philosophies on how best to lead the party and deal with things, and their own unique form of pride. The trials they will go through throughout the game will provide a sort of tug of war for their differing identities.

This is the forest area corresponding to Chapter 2.

Rather than entering the main castle, escaping via the surrounding woods is the obviously  more appealing option, thus the girls start the treck through these woods and large graveyard area.

It will gradually become apparent escape through the woods is not even remotely viable due to how deep, dangerous, and hard to navigate they are. I want to capture the feeling of some naive hope shifting into deeper despair as the seriousness of the situation settles in.

The main antagonist of this chapter will be known as the "Ghost." He is a collection of many dead spirits, and he has some direct relation to one of the members of the party. He will tease and antogonize the party in a creepy and deeply malicious way throughout the chapter. I want to capture a feeling like you're swimming in a pool with a shark.

This is the giant library maze area corresponding to Chapter 3.

After managing to get out of the forest area, the girls accept that they will have to go through the castle upon learning that there's a comprehensive long distance teleportation device deep inside utilized by the orcs.

To get into the main castle, however, they have to first go through the library and research building attached to search for a means of entry.

A pair of opposite personality twins with an angel/devil dynamic who reside in the castle will lock the party in the giant library, which, for magical reasons, is practically endless. They're given a riddle to solve with the promise of being freed and allowed to enter the main castle if they solve it.

This chapter should be an interesting mix-up, because the characters will spend a couple weeks stuck in this area, so I can put something almost resembling elements of daily life sim into this chapter. I'm considering even having a pool area. It'd give me an excuse to design bathing suits for each characcter, which is honestly one of things I look forward to the most in a lot of VNs when it comes to visuals and design.

This creature will be known as the "Beast." It is the pet of the devil twin and is claimed to be harmless. It will creepily appear and act weird, constantly feeling like it could be a massive threat at any given point. The chapter will deal heavily with concepts of morality, so the natural fear instinct toward such a creature and inherent desire to defend yourself from it with force will flow into some nice thematic development.

This is the magical astronomical observatory area corresponding to Chapter 4.

This is an area within the main castle focused on magical rituals performed by the magician orcs, often involving use of the female slaves.

One of the party members is haunted with a vision of a two-headed dragon and is led into this area, followed by the party.

This will be a pretty dramatic chapter, with climactic tension pacing the whole thing. Unlike other chapters, because it mostly takes place in a wide-open room, there won't be much exploring, and it will be mostly combat, so I need to make sure the combat system is able to be dramatic, fun, and deep enough to handle a scenario like this.

The main topic of the chapter is responsibility and blame. The two-headed dragon is a loose reference to a certain "remix RPG" about such deep concepts as "JRPG-man bad" and "touch grass" (it's actually a good game though lol).

This is an orc wizard, many of which will be featured in this chapter doing strange rituals. They specialize in illusion magic, so it's a cool opportunity to make the main characters deal with illusions that reflect info about some deeper parts of their psychology.

This is the slave quarters corresponding to Chapter 5.

This is likely going to be my favorite chapter because I planned a really creepy, tense, and dramatic scenario for it.

I want things to seem not so bad at first, but then really set in the dread of how disturbing the situation for the slaves that came before the main party is. It's an opportunity to introduce a number of cute girls (who sadly will all be slaves living horrific lives).

This is the antagonist of the chapter, whom I still haven't given a proper name yet (I refer to him as "Jail Bear" at the moment, which is an actual name of an enemy in Final Fantasy 5). 

This is my favorite monster. He's physically weaker than most monsters in the game, but he has the means to completely and utterly manipulate people and even change people on a fundamental level permanently. He is responsible for monitoring the slaves.

He doesn't harm people by default and is even a bit friendly, but he is very easy to offend. His presence puts the party in an extremely difficult situation which causes some heavy drama that leads to a key turning point in the rivalry between Yuriel and Reiya.

This is the main orc quarters corresponding to Chapter 6.

It will be a sort of complex series of nested lofts. I want to combine a feeling of a swanky high end modern apartment with elements of a classic church aesthetic.

The ruler of the castle lives here.

This is Gorzulu, the orc warlord who bought the girls to serve as slaves.

At the end of the journey, some heavy truths will come out and a difficult decision (something I want to allow the player the choice over) will have to be made.

But is it really the end....?

(There will be a true route (*‘ω‘ *))

I'm going to get a little meta but not to the expense of the integrity of the story. Orkastle is meant to embody my perspective on creator culture as it pertains to otaku, specifically in the West, and I want to integrate a little cheeky response to some negative things otaku have had to deal with throughout the years.

If I can say so myself, I find this initial ending I planned both emotionally heavy and intellectually clever, so I think it should go over very well. The topic will be the value (or lack of value) of truth (focused on a different angle from the way Umineko handled this, so no rehashing the already beaten path). I plan on making something that highly satisfies people even if they put the controller down right then and there and never touched the game further, while still providing great set up for the true route.

Next update will probably focus heavily on battling stuff, since I want to really develop all that ASAP and create something that Patreon subs can try out and is actually fleshed out enough to be genuinely fun.

Somehow I got a gorillion times faster at drawing and designing during the process up to this point, and all the groundwork is done, so I'm pretty manically excited about the near future.

Stay based and otaku.