Hello everyone, and thanks for checking out my page!
I’m Haptales, a beginner French developer, and I’ve finally found the courage and motivation to start my very first project!
Writing in English, rendering with Koikatsu, and bringing everything to life in Ren'py are all new experiences for me, so please bear with me if you spot a few hiccups along the way^^
About RomCom: Divergence
Follow the life of our protagonist as he embarks on his new life, meets a variety of beautiful ladies, and discovers that things aren't quite what they seem—
Wait, scratch that. You know the drill already, right?
Start a new game, choose a name, and complete the story while unlocking all the endings.
Collect every heroine to 100% that gallery, and ruin the life of every other male character in the process.
Stuck at an obstacle that feels impossible to overcome? No worries— just follow a walkthrough or even use cheat codes!
Does this remind you of someone?
Well, this story is all about the characters whose lives get turned upside down by that same someone.
This visual novel will be divided into episodes, each featuring its own timeline and protagonist (male or female).
Release Schedule
Since this is my first project of this nature, it’s hard to provide an accurate estimate at the moment.
Devlogs should come every 3-4 weeks.
I aim to release a new chapter every 2 months, but this will also depend on my full-time job.
Why Support Me?
By supporting my work, you’ll enable me to dedicate more time to it.
This means faster releases and higher-quality content for you to enjoy.
You'll gain access to subscriber-only posts, lewd previews, and get to play new releases before anyone else.
Additionally, at the end of an episode, you will have the chance to participate in a Class Council where you can interact with the characters (Questions, theories, etc.)!
Don’t Want or Can’t Support Me Yet?
That’s perfectly okay!
New releases will always be available for free one week after the early release, so you can still support me just by playing and sharing your thoughts about the game!
While I plan to complete this project no matter what, every bit of support helps me continue creating better content for you!
If you've read this far, let me thank you again for your time. I hope to see you again soon!
Chapter 3 - Review: Is This the End for RomCom: Divergence?!
Short answer: No.
...
Hello everyone!
Sorry for the clickbait title and image, nothing is actually at risk...
Ah, wait! Don't leave just yet, please! Look, if you stay with me for a minute or two, I promise I'll give you a reward~! You like rewards, right~?
Anyway
It's now been a week since the Chapter 3 public release, and two weeks since the early release. With Chapter 3 out, we're officially halfway through Episode 1...
So I think this is a good time to take a step back and do a little review of RCD's current state, the latest release, and maybe ask what you like (or don't like) about the game so far!
Just a heads-up: this post isn't a proper devlog about Chapter 4 (the next one should be in about two weeks).
Boring numbers
Base game: ~2500 renders, 18 animations
H-Patch: ~600 renders, 90 animations
Script: 97,433 words
Soundtrack: 53 musics, 77 sound effects
About Chapter 3
Chapter 3 was a big success compared to Chapter 2, which was itself kind of like the game's second birth.
I don't have every single stat, but on Itch we were at about 2.5k downloads for Chapter 2, and we're now a bit over 10k total downloads. As for other sources... well, based on the numbers from my Pixeldrain and Mediafire accounts, it's a bit over 6k.
So altogether, Chapter 3 should be sitting at a bit over 14k downloads from what I can track. So yeah... I'm pretty proud of myself for those numbers!
Itch's situation
I didn't realize it before the last release, but apparently removing the payment option re-indexed my game? Well, that's good enough for me!
I do feel sorry for the kind people who donated during the Chapter 2 release, since I honestly don't know whose pockets their money ended up in... but at least it wasn't a huge amount.
Android's issue
I already mentioned this on Patreon and Subscribestar, but let me apologize one last time to my older Android players. I messed up the package name during development and completely forgot about it, so Chapter 3 was treated as a brand-new game... meaning your saves didn't transfer. And since we're already this far in, fixing the package name now would just cause even more problems for other players. So I decided to leave it as-is.
Seriously... everything Android-related makes me feel like a monkey smashing rocks together. At least you'll get to laugh at my package name all the way until RCD's completion!
About the writing
This isn't exactly a new issue... I mean, I already had to rewrite the entire Prologue and Chapter 1 for the Chapter 3 release. But yeah, it feels like I'm not quite there yet.
The main problem is the pacing: every event just comes one after another without really giving the player time to breathe. I'm still a beginner when it comes to writing, so I definitely struggle with that. But I'll do my best to improve it for Chapter 4!
Funny thing: I actually ended up dropping the Toaru Majutsu no Index series (despite really loving it) because it gave me that same feeling. So trust me when I say I take pacing issues in my own writing seriously.
On that note, I feel like Chapter 2 handled pacing a bit better... but what do you think?
Renders and animations
I had to cut back a bit on animations for Chapter 3, but that was more because I lacked the skills than a lack of time. Well... I guess I lacked the skills because I lacked time? Yeah, let's go with that.
So I tried to put a bit more effort into the renders themselves, I hope it shows!
Although, personally, I think one of the best renders I ever made was for Maya's first time, back in Chapter 1. I really think I nailed the angle and lighting for that one...
Monetization, death, and taxes
Honestly, from the start I didn’t think a game like this would do well… I mean, just look at that description! And does the story even make sense?!
Though I secretly hoped to hit it big on day one, give the middle finger to my old boss, and work full-time as a dev! (Yes, all that with that crappy 0.1.0.0! My dear older followers will remember!)
No worries though, I'm a bit of a pessimist/realist, so it didn't take long to be brought back down to earth and start working on the game again! (See my Christmas update from last year!)
Ah yes, for the new folks who haven't checked my other pages: I'm only working on this game after I get back from work, or on weekends. Well... that's not totally true these days, but that's the general idea.
Making this game is really important to me, so don’t worry, I’ll see it through to the end, success or not. But I’m immensely grateful to everyone supporting this project financially, you’re awesome! And nothing would make me happier than being able to reinvest back into it one day.
About Subscriber perks
...So that brings us to the perks I'm offering to my generous subscribers...
Class councils won't be a thing for a couple more updates, and the early release isn't really that big of a deal... So that leaves us with the Scene Scribbles, Misaki's Treasure Box, and Katsumi's Notes.
Well, to cut to the chase: it wasn't a success... in fact, the last two were a complete failure.
Those bonus contents don't seem to appeal to those who already have access, so I guess I shouldn't expect them to attract new people either.
I still plan to keep doing them, though, because they're more of a byproduct of my work on the main game, I don't spend that much extra time on them. And for the Scene Scribbles, they even play an important role in the game's atmosphere.
But I'd love to hear your thoughts... What didn't you like? Or what other things would you like to get as rewards?
I'm thinking of trying my hand at 4k renders, but honestly... with my current skills, I can't help feeling like a total hack.
And so... I need your feedback!
It can be on every point mentioned above, some of them, or even completely different ones!
There are a lot of things I didn't mention (music, release schedule, the way I write these posts, etc), but this post is already longer than most of you will read before skipping to get to the reward, so-
Thank you for your time, support, and (hopefully) feedback!
I'll also leave this link to a new poll, which I'm sure will bring some interesting results!
...Are YOU excited for Call of Uma: Crisis Kingdom - Online?
-Haptales
TLDR:
Oh...? A lurker-skipper has appeared~ Enjoy the attached 4k Sayuri picture~
Did you miss me? Of course you did! Your favorite gal is here to give you the thing you've been waiting for the most, after all~
That's right! Chapter 3's preview is finally here~
"Heeeeh~ Who do we have here?" And since the last one it's only been... Uwah... three and a half months?! At this pace we won't see each other again until next year! LOL
...Oopsie, I made the dev cry~!
Anyway... what do we have this time around...? Let's see...
"Clearly you're not taking it seriously..." First up is... Sayuri's bad end! Oof, well, MC deserves that one, right?
Next is...
"...You already know my term ends this year. Why try to destabilize the school now?" Katsumi's bad end! Mmm... Yeah, that seems about right~
MC should be focusing on Misaki, after all!
"Pathetic... worthless... girl."Wait... Misaki's bad end too? Oh, that one's a bit problematic...
Weeeeell, at least Sora should be safe to go-
"No! I'm not joining those clubs again!"... Guess it's gonna be one rough chapter, all right.
Also...
I-I'm not into that, okay?! I'm only interested in girls! Really! So... please don't... not even as a joke...
...We might just have one of those bad ends too~ Yeah, you know the one, when you fail to get any heroine!
Tee-hee~!
Chapter 3 will be releasing on 09/17 at 2pm (UTC+2) for all Tier 2 subscribers, and on 09/24 for everyone else!
Thank you for your support, and see you next year!
It's already been three weeks since the last devlog... and honestly, I didn't even notice them go by.
Right after the last devlog, there was that one big event I focused on, and before I knew it, an entire week had slipped past...
Anyway, time for a new update on Chapter 3!
What's Been Done?
Right now, I'm at 648 renders and 32 animations.
I also have about 15 more renders mostly ready, but as I'm writing this devlog, I'm still deciding which background to use. By this point, I expected to have more renders and fewer animations... looks like Chapter 3 might end up with a lot more animations than Chapter 2.
Note: This render count includes both vanilla and patch content, since I'm working on both at the same time.
Rendered all Scene Scribbles.
Your messages have been properly added to their respective events. Thank you for participating!
Set up the script so Sensei's event now uses layer-based scene renders.
This event comes back every chapter using the same visuals, with only the chalkboard changing. Using this system will save time and space in the long run. I'll also update the older chapters to use it starting with the Chapter 4 release.
Preview Pic
I was torn between this pic and one of Misaki, but I've got to save the better ones for the full preview!
So, what about Katsumi... and MC holding a sword? Maybe he's trying out a bold new speed-dating strategy? Or maybe he finally had enough of all the rom-com nonsense and decided to commit violence on school grounds just to get this game deplatformed! ... Ah, but don't worry, both of these fictional characters are fully consenting adults. Aaaand, as luck would have it, we even have a respected member of a totally legitimate fictional feminist group in the background, ready to vouch for the whole thing!
On a more serious note, I also found a way to improve mob appearances (not in this preview pic). Still need to figure out if it's worth going back and applying those changes to all the Chapter 3 renders I've already done, though.
What's Next?
More rendering and animating...
I'm getting close to the finish line, but I definitely underestimated the work needed for some events. Like seriously, that one event that ate up a whole week? It was supposed to be quick and easy. Damn whoever wrote the script! ...Well, I might have also been a little too inspired while working on it... Tee-hee~
Takeshi's cultured preview
Another one is coming next week for Classmate-tier subscribers. I hope this new format, shorter but more frequent than before, works well for you.
Fixing the writing in previous chapters
Along with some other miscellaneous tasks.
About the current situation (Itch, payment processors, the E.U., censorship, etc.)
lol
Where to follow me if something happens
Check the support links displayed in the game (Patreon, Subscribestar, Boosty, Itch).
I also have a (mostly abandoned) Ko-fi page, but I at least post new releases there.
And if worst comes to worst... you can probably find the latest release on your favorite pirate site.
For each release, I'll make sure the support links displayed in the game menu are updated to wherever I'm currently active.
ETA?!!!
I won't lie, I underestimated the amount of work needed for this chapter.
Overall, I still think I've made good progress, but time is flying at a scary pace.
The 'good' news is that I've been working on this game almost full-time since last week, so I should be able to make up for some of the delay.
I'd prefer not to, but I still have options to save time, like skipping the rewritten Prologue and Chapter 1 in the early release.
Right now, I think a release in the second half of September is a realistic estimate, maybe even mid-September for the early release.
Final Word
Again, I'm fully focused on making the renders right now, so I'm sorry if I missed things.
The popularity poll will be closed somewhere around the first half of September, so if you are still yet to vote, don't wait too long!
And finally... I hate skirts. Next time? Every single heroine is wearing baggy pants. No exceptions. No skirts. No fighting Koikatsu to make them behave. I mean it. I hate skirts.
And that's a wrap for this 3rd devlog.
A huge thank you to everyone supporting and following this project! I'll ask for a bit more patience as I keep pushing forward.
I hope you'll enjoy what's coming next in RomCom: Divergence!
For Classmate-tier subscribers, I'll see you next week with another little sneak peek of Chapter 3's "plot."
As for everyone else, I'll catch you again by September 10 at the latest.
See something you like? Subscribe to see even more!
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Creator Stats
5 subscribers
36 posts
Goals
$29 of $100
per month
I can consider that my VN isn't a flop!
Yeah!
$29 of $400
per month
This will be a huge help to my finances, for sure.
It won't be enough for me to go full time, but it will be a great motivation to go further!
$29 of $900
per month
Beyond this goal, I'll consider changing my full-time job to a part-time one, thus increasing the time I'll have to work on my game.
$29 of $1,500
per month
Making this VN become my main job!
I'll still have to work on the side to make ends meet, but I'll be able to dedicate most of my time to developing this game.
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