Dev Log #3 | A solid Foundation

This is the first Dev log during the development of the new game. Right now I am working on several important parts at the same time, too much to talk about it all in one post. So I will give every important topic it's own. Starting this week with:

The foundation

The "solid foundation" I've mentioned so often consists of 3 separate parts. The code, the plot and the graphics. For this game, I took extra care to ensure all 3 would be on point, before I even told you about the new game.

The Plot:

Plotting actually began back in July. I knew that I would have to work simultaneously on both games if I ever wanted to transition without a huge gap between releases.

I first brought up several settings. From Fantasy all the way to Slice of Life. Then I thought about the possible mechanics in those settings, the stories I could tell, about the way the 18+ would fit and how much work it would be.

After considering every aspect, I decided to use the early post apocalyptic setting. The reasons were simple. It is effective, because I need very few NPC's (which are very time consuming to make), the mechanics tie beautifully into the plot and the H-scenes can be varied, spicy and also fit very well. It isn't difficult to imagine people getting more desperate and depraved over time, or a guy exploiting women to fulfill his needs.

So the setting was right, now I began to write the plot. 2 months before I even made the first graphics.

The Graphics:

I don't think A Tale of Eden looked bad. But the fact is that I made the game after just 3 months of Blender experience. So I was much worse and much more unorganised then I am now.

For this game I built my own asset library. Books, chairs, tables or even just candles. I modeled all of them by myself. To get better, to build a solid pool of 3D models, to ensure a unified look a bunch of downloaded models often can't provide and to ensure my old PC can handle them. On top of that I bought a few nice tutorials and began to learn more and more.

That took care of the backgrounds. The characters were next. For that I searched for a new Basemesh, a character model I could easily change and adapt to my needs. It took me a while, but I found one. It is much more flexible, it's private parts are a huge Improvement and it s much easier to change. I was also able to make better clothes, better hair and I bought another tutorial that taught me how to properly handpaint the skin.

So I took care of that part. Now I knew the plot and built lots of quality assets to make pretty graphics. Left was only the code.

The Code:

I hated it, but I watched hours of Python tutorials. I now understand much more and while making the graphics and planning the plot I already thought about the code I would need to write and tried it out.

In A Tale of Eden I had Ideas and tried to make them come true, often giving up on them, as I didn't have the necessary knowledge. In The new game, I actually know how to programm every single Idea I have.

And not only that, I also learned new ways to simplify and organize my Ren'Py script, which should make the work quicker and easier.

All of those make up my "solid foundation" and have already made working on this new project much more comfortable. It is only the beginning, but it ensures a baseline of quality I desperately needed. Now I will focus on making all my backgrounds, building a new UI, Items, interesting mechanics, a bunch of H-scenes and a ton of animations. But that will come in future updates.