DragonDares

Status Update #2: April 2019

Added 2019-05-01 00:48:21 +0000 UTC

If last month was a big month for Dragon Dares and associated projects, this month was a small one. Eventful, but small.

While I'll usually stick to specific progress on projects for this patreon, my personal and professional lives are so intermingled enough right now that I'll need to explain one for the other make sense. So bear with me.

Because of the nature of the progress and lack of polished assets, this post won't have as many cool pictures and gifs as the last one. Sorry about that.

Summary

This month, the following happened to trip me up:

I got sick. Twice in two weeks. Not good for productivity.
Went on Vacation with my husband, Phoe. Fun, but also not good for productivity.
Had to deal with an inordinate amount of Easter-related obligations.
A bunch of other time-consuming nonsense, like taxes and car troubles.

Despite all this, I managed to get the following done:

Wrote out a full scene for Slime School (STILL working title), with extensive editing help from Choo and Phoe.
Worked out a compositing system in Blender to allow me to partially automate the coloring and shading process on my backgrounds. Will result in much faster work.
Partially completed the next playtest build of Dragon Dates. Trading Card mechanics will receive consideration and testing.

And finally, the largest events:

My husband I are moving into a bigger place, and splitting expenses with a third person! Our new roommate is going to be our ongoing collaborator and friend, Choo.
Unfortunately, this means reduced productivity for a bit, since I need to save money for the move. Lots of commission work happening.
In the long run, this means more stability for all three of us, and faster development on Dragon Dares.

All things considered, I plan to do the following over the next month:

Prepare the next version of Dragon Dates for Tabletop Simulator playtesting.
Complete a prototype of panel dropping and dynamic camera system for renpy.
Develop the story and world of Dragon Dares.

SLIME SCHOOL (still working title...)

Despite interruptions from various sources, development on Choo and I's collaborative game continues to go smoothly.

With the exception of one fully written scene and a pre-rendered WIP background, the game is still in pre-production so there's little I can show at this point.

Due to moving-related responsibilities on my part, most tangible progress coming from this patreon in the coming months will be Slime School related. This is because Choo will be producing most of the base assets, while I'll be in charge of refining them and putting them in the game.

This project has also proven helpful in establishing a coherent workflow for writing and revision, which will come in handy when the Alpha Modules and Dragon Dares proper enter development!

Expect to see meaningful progress on this one over the course of the next month!

COMPOSITING

In terms of long-term development speed, this is the second most exciting development of the month!

In the process of creating assets for both commission work and Slime School, I've been using Blender to partially pre-generate the painted backgrounds for both stand-alone images and Visual Novel backgrounds.

It's a complex process, but the results are pretty impressive! Using the Cycles rendering engine in Blender, I'm able to separate the components of a 3d image into independently editable layers:

Colors:

Shadows:

Ambient Occlusion:

Shadows & AO combined, run through a Color Ramp to provide better shading:

Combined (with post-processing):

I skipped a few steps specific to this image, but those are the basics. Thanks to Blender's Render Layers, I can split these up further for masking and other assorted editing techniques as well.

The process then ends with me cleaning up the resulting layers individually or as a group, and painting over it for a convincing hand-painted look.

I'll be releasing this completed background sometime in may! A lot of my upcoming commissions will be using this technique too, I'll be getting a lot of practice. I hope you all will be impressed with the results!

DRAGON DATES

Because of all the practical issues getting work done this month, progress on Dragon Dates has been thin. And Because of the results of the last playtest, Dragon Dare's mechanics are seeing an overhaul that'll require at least 42 new cards to test, and well over 100 to implement it properly in more polished builds.

...That overhaul is Trading Card mechanics! In addition to the common pool of accessory cards for dragons to equip, each player will get a deck of cards of their own to spice up the game! These cards will be able to be played for various effects, based on their type and aesthetic.

I can't say whether or not these mechanics will stick, but it's an exciting development!

THE MOVE

The first most exciting development of this April is definitely this: We're moving in with Choo, who is a close friend and collaborator. Having another person in our household will greatly improve everyone's financial security, and will make working on Dragon Dares much safer and easier.

Taking this project from a solo venture to a three-person team is under serious consideration if the move goes well. Needless to say, this has good implications all around. This may effect the specific financial goals of the patreon, but that's a bridge we can only cross once we've arrived!

All that said... Moving costs money. And a lot of time. While I'm definitely capable of getting both of those, this patreon doesn't quite provide the funding I need to complete the move.

So I'm opening back up commissions for the next four months, and taking a lot of time out to pack up our current apartment. I'll try to keep the patreon as active as I can, and I'll be hopefully rolling out a few new features!

DEVELOPMENT PLANS

Although we can expect reduced productivity for a few months, I have no plans of resting on my laurels during that time. While I can't speak for later months, I'm hoping to get some important things done in May:

Dragon Dates TCG

I'll attempt to finish the sample cards for Dragon Dates' Trading Card mechanics. With any luck, they'll be able to see playtesting by the end of the month.

Renpy Feature Development

With any luck, I'll be able to flex my Python muscles a little bit, and we'll see a completed prototype for animating comic-style panels and dynamic camera movements like zooms, pans, and 3d parallax effects.

Dragon Dares Story Development

Over the course of the next month, I plan to greatly flesh out the story, characters, and world of Dragon Dares. With help from both my contributors and the Dragon Dares Discord Server, I hope to get to know the little town of Rabbit Rock a LOT better.