Progress on "Recipe for Seduction" and a plan to deal with "many hats"

I posted a new devlog over on itch, head on over and give it a read! https://wackymelange.itch.io/reginald-ursingtons-stalking-kittens-knuffles-is-missing/devlog/340053/progress-on-recipe-for-seduction

And don't forget you can already read/play "Knuffles is missing!" in its entirety! https://wackymelange.itch.io/reginald-ursingtons-stalking-kittens-knuffles-is-missing

Cheers /Dagget

The second case: Enhance all the codes!

A new blog post about the progress of my writing and code. https://wackymelange.itch.io/reginald-ursingtons-stalking-kittens-knuffles-is-missing/devlog/333412/the-second-case-enhance-all-the-codes

December preview with VoiceMoticons for Reginald

Gosh, I tend to forget how laborious cutting and editing small audio bits always turns out to be.

I've uploaded a new beta with Reginald Ursington's VoiceMoticons for you to check out! https://wackymelange.itch.io/reginald-ursingtons-stalking-kittens-knuffles-is-missing

The full pack is already available to my subscribers.

Have fun checking out the progress and talk to you soon! Cheers /Dagget

December update on audio and VoiceMoticons

Hey everyone! o/

Recording the first pack of VoiceMoticons is done and it's a huge one!

I finished cutting and editing the first batch for use in "Knuffles is missing!" and am now adding them to the visual novel.

A new public preview of "Reginald Ursinton's Stalking Kittens - Knuffles is missing!" for PC with the first VoiceMoticons for Reginald will be available to the public soon!

As Wacky Melange has been given free hand on how to handle the recordings, the whole pack will be made available under "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International" for other creators to use as soon as I am finished editing.

As of now I expect it to amount to 800+ short audio snippets and I am roughly categorizing things according to expressed emotion(s).

While we were recording I compiled a script with short descriptions of "motivations" and lists of sounds and short words that fit. The plan is to use that script to cut recording time and make it much easier on talent because a VN needs a load of recordings to use for different characters.

Wacky Melange is looking for men and women who would like to voice VoiceMoticon packs!

You can use your normal voice, there's no need act any specific style unless you want to.

A good streamer microphone in a quiet environment produces recordings of adequate quality.

I'll do basic cleaning, editing and cutting of the recordings if Wacky Melange is given the rights to use the VoiceMoticons in games.

Let's get in contact if you are interested!

Have a play of the current preview over on itch and stay tuned for further developments!

https://wackymelange.itch.io/reginald-ursingtons-stalking-kittens-knuffles-is-missing

Cheers /Dagget

November engine development update

Hey everyone!

Posting earlier this week because I'll be away at my family's in the countryside over the weekend.

I'm happy to announce that the VN-engine is ready for implementing the first case!

The audio system has different channels for actors, music, ambience and sound-fx with separate sliders in the settings. The layout of the settings windows are correctly done now. Still looks very raw but fancy graphics can now be easily put in using Unity's layout engine. The most work was building out the parts for stage play, actors, movement, animation and effects. I probably won't be able to use all possibilities to full extend in the first cases due to the amount of needed content but when it comes to it, the engine is already capable.

As you might be aware, any piece of software is never really "done" but all functionality is in and tested well with a mocked up visual novel having all desired gameplay elements.

I have open tickets for a few minor additional improvements and changes but I'll wait with those until after seeing how implementation and testing of the first case works out.

For future bigger enhancements I have already finished the concepts for a more elaborate inventory system and "time" passing. Both of which are needed for things on the horizon, elements of "managing" and "trainer" as well as more in-depth "adventure" gameplay.

The coming time I'll be busy finishing writing "Kuffles is missing!", implementing the puzzles and a few assets I have for sound and graphics at the moment.

A fully playable beta will be released by the end of the year!

Cheers /Dagget

November art and graphics update

Heya all!

Not much changed yet with my efforts finding collaboration for art and graphics, so here's the current situation and my plans going forward.

What happened to the artist from the prologue?

Life happened. That can always occur, especially in a hobby project, and I don't pain over it at all. LordCunt solely worked from photos but the effort to learn the techniques for effective production was far higher for him then he expected. Add increasing workload in his job and there it goes.

Why don't you create art yourself?

I am not a great visual artist and don't aspire to become one. At the beginning of my professional career over thirty years ago I learned free-style drawing and drawing from natural sujets. Did quite well too and this really helped me with visualizing ideas and concepts on whiteboards and such but I never pursued it any further.

The most important reason being that it would be very inefficient if I worked to create the art myself. It would take me a long time to achieve things that even resembles art done by experienced artists who have honed their skills and production pipeline.

My expression of choice is writing, designing gameplay and software development. I'm good with project management, ok with audio and can do many other bits that come with a project like this. I feel that's a lot to handle and I'll stick to these things for the time being.

So, you need only drawn pictures?

For production of a game there are a lot of additional steps that need to be kept in mind. Characters and elements need to be cut and softened against transparency, character sprites for different postures need to have the same anchor point and other things that need to be taken care of. UI design, promotional graphics and other bits.

If an artist doesn't know about these things yet, I can explain and point in the right direction.

I'd even be happy to put the whole art direction in someone's hands as long as things are based on the premises of the series.

How would share be handled?

Simple sharing of what comes in through releases of the games based on the share of the work done.

How are you going forward from here?

I'm hard at work to finish the first full visual novel before the end of the year. It will be released fully playable with only some basic background pictures.

This will show players and artists that I can produce high quality visual novels and adventure games within a brief time frame and I hope to attract attention of fans and artists to the project by this.

Cheers /Dagget