Lust & Lead - Dev Log 09

Hello everyone! The past couple of weeks weren't as productive as I would've liked. Just as I was really in the zone, I got slapped in the face by a cold that took me out of commission for over a week. I'm still recovering now, but I'm at least well enough to start working again, I think.
I also haven't really been on top of messages recently, which I apologize for. I'll try and get around to responding to everything soon. For now, though, this is a Dev Log, so what did I actually manage to get done before getting sick?
Cutscene Hell
This is probably going to take up most of the Dev Log because it's basically the only thing I managed to work on. After the last post, I immediately did as I said I would and got back to work on cutscenes.
By my count, I had 10 cutscenes to finish for the Alpha and, as of writing, I've gotten five of them to at least their first-pass/blockout stage, with most already having additional animation and lip-sync work. Altogether, that amounts to around 15 minutes of cutscenes.
I was in a pretty deep concentration mode before suddenly getting sick and subsequently having all the wind taken out of my sails. That said, being unable to work did give me a lot of time to actually think about what I was doing rather than just continuing to bulldoze through it. And, yeah, I think my current approach to cutscenes might be a bit much for a solo developer.
There are currently 38 planned cutscenes throughout Lust & Lead, with 10 of those intended for the Alpha. Even if I had people helping with other parts of development, that's still a huge amount of work for me to take on by myself. I also still have plenty of other things to finish for the Alpha and can't realistically spend the rest of the month doing nothing but cinematics.
So, I started looking more closely at what those cutscenes were actually accomplishing. For important character moments, scenes where framing and composition matter, or major story beats, I absolutely think they're worth it. But when you've just got characters sitting around talking to each other without much else happening, they start to feel a bit... expensive. Not literally expensive, obviously. But if we treat time like money, then cutscenes are effectively a black hole.
After reading through the script, I started noticing how many of the more expository scenes boiled down to characters standing around talking, where the only cinematography would be variations of shot-reverse-shot. At that point, the solution seemed fairly obvious. How many games have scenes where characters just stand around in their idle poses, look at each other and yap?
Yakuza, Deus Ex, Dreamfall, practically any JRPG and plenty of older third-person games all do this in some form. No bespoke animation for every sentence, no elaborate cinematography or choreography, just characters staged together with some simple cameras and conversation. It's cheap, straightforward and, most importantly, effective.
So, I decided I'm going to experiment with building a much cheaper system for handling those kinds of story moments. Fully animated cutscenes aren't going anywhere, but I think they should be reserved for the scenes where they're actually adding something rather than being the default way of delivering narrative.
I kind of feel dumb for thinking I could just tank 38 cutscenes by myself. I should've taken a step back earlier and not become so enthralled by the idea of upping my production value without actually upping my production value. I'm still a solo developer and maybe I should act like it.
When I started struggling to make some of the longer conversation scenes visually interesting, that probably should've been the point where I stopped and looked at what I was doing rather than waiting until a cold physically forced me to. In a weird way, getting sick did help put things into perspective. Still would've preferred not getting sick.
What's Next?
Yep, that's basically the Dev Log. This one mostly covers the progress of a single week rather than two, so there isn't much else to report.
My previous to-do list still holds up, just with one fairly obvious addition: the new non-cinematic scene system. That's probably going to be my next task after posting this and I could also do with a break from cutscenes in general. Even now, while I'm still recovering, I don't particularly feel like jumping straight back into them.
There are still going to be plenty of proper cutscenes in the Alpha. Of the five I haven't started yet, at least two can probably be moved over to this simpler system. The remaining cinematics are generally fairly short outside of one important scene.
As for a November Alpha release, I'm going to keep working toward it for now, but getting sick has obviously eaten into an already fairly tight schedule. It's looking increasingly possible that I might need to push it back a little. I don't particularly want to do that or look unreliable, but at the same time I need to be realistic about what I can actually achieve. If that does happen, I'll let you guys know in advance.
Also, sorry for the lack of visuals this time. I haven't really had much opportunity to prepare anything, and I don't want to start randomly dumping stills from cutscenes while they’re still in the state they’re in. Plus, I'd rather leave some things for you guys to experience for the first time.
Anyway, that's all for today. I'm going to get back to work, though I'll probably take things a bit slowly. See you all next time!