Like a phoenix, I rise from the ashes.......... of lazy depression and working a day job. Wooooo. Bad news first: While I promised to finish Ventio Mortis before the end of the year, I am ashamed to admit that it's been a struggle. I completely intend to finish it and get it out there one of these days, but for now, we can all just assume it's reached the "development hell" stage. From this point on, there will be no more empty promises or release dates/quarters. If there are updates, I will be sure to post them asap. Until then, I simply apologize, and hope to at least one day finish it and release it to the world. That being said! I'm happy to announce that I am back to work on Sector Chimera, and progress is going quite well. I've begun chiseling out the first world's side quests, finalizing the main quest content, and have implemented a new "battle system" akin to simon says. The "combat" might change in the future, but for now it's safe to assume this will be it's final form. I've also started to finish all the background art for the "N" zone, which I'm already tired of, but it'll be so sweet when it's done.......... Finally having the first chapter of the game ironed out is exciting. It's a moment I never thought would come. I was afraid I'd be constantly trying to rewrite things, redraw things, but now I've finally managed to reach a level of comfort in my work, and confidence in my abilities, to actually know when enough editing is enough.
I know I've been m.i.a. lately, and it's been hard for me, as well. I've been trying to decide if I should put this 'game dev' stuff behind me and focus on my sales career, and I've since decided that this is what I love. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Period. Even if it's never going to be a paying career, this is what drives me to wake up in the morning. I missed having the sense of accomplishment that one gets from creating content and art. I hope it shows through, and I hope, truly, to finish something that I will be proud to share with all of you. That being said, I of course still have to focus on my job, regardless, but I promise myself that I will continue working toward my singular goal -- the goal that has always driven me -- making a goddamn game. Thank you all for bearing with me. This has been an interesting journey in my 6~ years of development, and this last 2 years has been the hardest by far with reality crashing down around me at every turn. Conversely, this has been two of the most rewarding years, as well. Since I've posted my content online, I've been surprised to see that people are genuinely interested in my art, my characters, my visions. So, I won't give up. I can't give up, because I made the mistake of posting my work online, and now people expect results! And I thank each and every one of you who comments on my itch.io, tumblr, facebook, ect., because without your support, I would have given up for good.
1 Comment
Hello everyone! Just wanted to give everyone an update on what I've been doing these past few months. 3 Projects have been in my focus for a good portion of this later half of the year, but I will be changing my focus back to Ventio Mortis very soon. Since I now have all the character assets required to finish Ventio Mortis, I've let people play test the game to give me a good idea of what may need to be changed here or there, as well as any spelling/programming errors I may have missed. I've come to the hard decision to completely rewrite everything I have, save for select opening scenes. Now, this may seem like a horrible set-back -- and to me it's felt like one, hence the reason it's taken so long to get around to just doing it -- but it will be the best choice for the overall finished product. The reasons for this choice are as follows: The story was too "all over the place". I had a clear vision of the characters, the setting, and the story, but not the ending, and it caused a lot of problems during the core programming phase, as well as defining what assets I would need for CGs later on. As well, my main (and only) editor has been in college the past year and hasn't had time to actually edit any of the dialog. As the winter break comes closer, she will be more available to actually edit. This wouldn't normally be a huge set back, but she is not only an editor, she is the co-creator of this concept and her input is very important to the diversity of personality in characters and the eloquence of Hollowelle and Inan. As we reach the re-write phase of my plans for Ventio Mortis, I would value now more than ever anyone's input. What did you like so far? Which character did you like the best? Who did you hate the most? What would you have liked to be different? Now is the time for you to make an impact on the final game. While I want to make something I am proud of, I also want to make something that you want to play. And as we reach the end of production, I will once again start a kickstarter campaign for proper background CGs. Alright, long winded explanation done and over with, let me show you what has been being worked on this year, and what I hope to bring to you in the future. Sector ChimeraAs you can see from the screenshots above, a lot has been changed. I've switched engines for Sector Chimera, and I believe this to be a much better fit for what I imagined. I will still include combat against kere, as it's an integral part of the story. I've also changed the way you interact with people via your computer. There is a "forum" system, where you can choose responses that may effect later choices. I've changed the city character select menu for freetime events. You'll be able to interact with groups of people, or just talk to them one on one. The choice is yours. I've also revamped the textbox. It will display relevant information about the speaker, along with their city icon and face. Dialog will now have definition links so you can better understand the lore of Chimera without having to feel bogged down and bored by game explanations that aren't immediately relevant, as well as collect and update dossiers on your fellow Limbonites. Another huge thing I've added is maps and locations for Chimera. I also intend to add side quests once the main story is programmed and mapped out. Since Chimera is primarily a puzzle solving type of game, it's important to check locations more than once! I've also considered adding a quest log, but that will remain solely dependent on if I actually add side quests or not. Something you may have noticed if you've been here for a while is that everyone has an updated sprite. I will be slowly showcasing each new portrait over the next few weeks/months and describing the "character of the day" so that you can all learn more about the strange people you've been stuck with here in Chimera. Don't Talk To StrangersA little side project of mine that I began working on in the height of my depression. The concept is simple: I wanted to make friends that weren't real and I wanted a game that could trick me into believing I was talking to someone real. After discussing the idea with friends, they agreed it would be a neat concept, and so I started production just to see if I could do it. And that's how we got Don't Talk To Strangers. Well, as it turns out, making believable characters and an immersive chat system aren't that hard... but predicting what someone would want to say in response to these characters was quite difficult. Originally this was a two choice system. Either pick option A or option B. However, I've since decided that I will either rework the GUI to support 3-4 answers, or will implement some sort of "dialect" option at the start of the game where players can decide how they would typically type. I'm 25 and out of touch with proper texting etiquette apparently, as I abused smiley faces. The one compliment that was resounding that directly involved dialog was how the characters use your personal information. For instance, one might try to ask your name, and then from there on will refer to you by name. Or had to chosen NOT to share your information, they'll continue to be in the dark until you decide to share it... or not. Another huge way this works: If your favorite food is pizza, and you talk to a character who also loves pizza, they'll comment on how you have the same taste. Let's say your favorite food was tacos. They'll instead make a comment about tacos and how they feel about that particular food. Let's say you put your favorite food as... something else. Something... "bad". They'll probably have something to say about that, as well. Don't be afraid to be weird, and don't be afraid to play honestly. The results may surprise you. If you are interested in writing a character, let me know (via the contact form below or on social media)! I want diverse characters with interesting and engaging personalities, and I just don't think it's possible if I write all 8 of them. More on this game will be spoken of in the future, but for now just know that it exists. Monster PartyThere really isn't much to update here, but I do have some things I must get out of the way. First of all: writing for this game has been temporarily halted. Since this game is a joint project, I've been working closely with a friend of mine, Inujuju. She's created the characters Nea and Zephyr. I originally attempted to write these characters on my own due to her business, but when she read Zephyr's dialog she was not pleased. Which is quite fair, as I strayed from the original character traits we gave him. I will be rewriting his dialog, and/or give that responsibility to Inujuju depending on what we decide. Zephyr deserves to be cute and shy, and I hope that Inujuju will be able to write that character archetype much better than I could. That being said, I've begun working on Ashe's CGs. 3 are already done, with many more to go. Backgrounds are being selected and edited, but are mostly place-holders until I can decide what I want to use. The character creator has since been completed, and to avoid spending anymore time on it that needed, I've decided to leave it as is and come back to it at the end if any items really bother me style-wise. Lastly, and most importantly: I may be changing the name of the game. With the release of Monster Prom, I just thought it was a little too on the nose and that I may be accused of ripping from the game when it's released. This choice was hard as my heart was set on Monster Party, but it's ultimately the right one and I know this. TLDR; In the future?My main focus will turn to Ventio Mortis, as I want to try to get it out before the end of the year. This may not be the case, but it is what I am aiming for all the same. I have high hopes that while I begin writing now, my partner on the project will be able to edit the dialog during winter break and all will be well. That being said, I will also be working on Don't Talk To Strangers in my spare time. Chimera and Monster Party have both been benched for the foreseeable future so that I do not get distracted while pushing Ventio Mortis into its final stages.
Once Ventio is complete, I will start working on Monster Party again. And then after Monster Party, I will move on to Chimera, and so forth. Both Ventio and Monster Party are not huge games with a lot to them. They're fairly straight-forward, and so I believe in my ability to see them through, whereas Chimera is intended to be a large game that will take some time, and that is the reason why it's last on the production list. All of that being said, we here at Jingleriot Gaming are chalk full of ideas for upcoming games in the future. If there's anything you'd be interested in seeing, let us know! When the time comes to reveal these projects, you can bet they'll be here on this blog. But for now, we're spearheading our current projects and moving our way into the final long stretch for Ventio Mortis. Thank you for sticking around until the end of this post! Ghosting for a few months will usually leave you with many updates. First things first: sorry for inconsistent updates. Not that I'm the queen of consistency, but I'm generally uploading more often and I haven't been. I, number one, got a new job. Number two: I've had a pretty intense case of seasonal depression sweep over me this month. However, I have been working on the games in between long "staring at the wall in despair" sessions. Venio + The Kickstarter: So, if you've been following us from the start, you know we launched a kickstarter for Ventio Mortis. I realize now where I went wrong, and am unsurprised that it wasn't funded. I know I need to have a following, and more importantly, a plan next time. On the other hand, I got to see how to take those steps, made connections, garnered interest and random support. It really made me excited to know that even though this kickstarter never could have taken off, it still managed to gain quite a bit of support and attention despite the lack of followers or connections! It made me feel good, even if the kickstarter fail felt a little bad, so to speak. In the future, we will try to run the kickstarter again. When our advertising has gotten better, our following has gotten larger, and our posts can be more consistent, and the game comes closer to being finished, as well. Thank you to everyone who helped and spread the word to their friends! It meant the world to me. Another update for Ventio Mortis -- the artist, drawkill, finished the final sprite and so from here on out it'll just be scripting the game left. It's very exciting, and be sure to catch a glimpse of the detective's sprite in the next coming days. Chimera + New Direction?: I've been toiling away more recently, however, on Sector Chimera. I've been working on making maps, scripting quests, fleshing out scripts, and most importantly... deciding what artistic direction to take the game. I want to make this game a 3D game along the lines of persona 3+, but I have no skill in 3D modelling. I'm not expecting to become a skilled 3D artist in the next week or month or year, or ever, really, but if I can't find a way to get help with the modelling on the low, or find a way to make decent money, haaa... I'm going to be practicing 3D modelling. Hopefully one day chimera can be the game I always imagined, but for now it's likely going to stick to the 2D sprite design it currently has. Which, isn't bad. Just not what I always wanted. Anyway, here's some visual updates from Chimera! To balance the "grime" and "misery" of Chimera, the first world in Limbo is a bright magical fairy tale land. Another noticeable difference is that these are actual maps, and not just pixel scenes. Another thing we wanted from Limbo was that you could battle enemies, traverse a map, complete quests, meet weird inhabitants... And of course, have that authentic RPG feeling. You will be able to roam around with the real world companions you make, and maybe even help them on their own personal quests along the way. Limbo looks pretty, but don't forget how deadly it can be!
The very long, tedious, and mostly boring process of adding all the portraits to the game is underway, and should be done within the week for Ventio Mortis. What does this mean for all of you? It means a playable demo of the first chapter is on its way now that I received the final character portrait needed to release the demo!! Once all the portraits and animations are in place, I'll be sending the game out to testers to fix bugs, and then be releasing the demo into the world in a week to two weeks time. In the meantime, if anyone would like to play test the demo before release to help find bugs, please fill out the form below and you will hear back from me with information on how to be a part of the playtest! If you're just excited to play the demo, hang on tight. It'll be released after the portraits are finished being put in place, and the bugs are finished being stomped out as best they can be. Here's a little preview of the boring work being done in the background. If Ventio Mortis isn't your cup of tea, then hold on tightly because Sector Chimera is moving along just as well! I'm trying to get all the sprite work done before working on the game itself, but I did manage to begin working on the arcade, finished some portraits, and made a new sprite for the character Kit. Unfortunately, a great deal of the content I finished cannot be seen yet, since it's very spoiler-y for the end game, so here's what I can show! Some finished character sprites, most you've already seen. The Arcade, nearly finished. And the first boss world, original art credited to edermunizz
I'm extremely exhausted from long work days and long "work" nights, but I am so so excited to show off some more progress (at least art wise) for Sector Chimera! Since I'm making all the art for this myself, it's a lot easier to tell everyone that a demo will likely be released within the next month (unless anymore surgery, moving, or work hours come into play...), so keep an eye out for that! Now onto the pretty pretty previews~. First up is a look at one of the stores you can visit in the city! This is Second Image (name may be changed at a later date, but for now that's what we're sticking with). It'll serve as the "armor" clothing store for the most part, with the ability to buy companion gifts here later on. Aaaand here are the first world's enemy sprites! These were a lot of fun to draw, and I really can't wait to work on more later on. These guys are a little too specialized looking to feel right having them as basic monsters, but that's just how it'll be for now, so expect troops of these lil guys. If you're wondering what's going on with them, I'll explain a bit! Kere are the enemies in Limbo. They were once other dreamers who killed and hurt others too much and mutated into monsters. The more they consume other dreamers, the more disfigured they become, so if one looks more humanoid, that's why. Their eyes glow, their teeth are sharp and big and curved into smiles, and they turn into shades with gross tendrils. These ones have flowers simply because their domain is known for being beautiful, and so despite their dis-figuration, they're a little more pretty than the rest. The purple glow is also a result of the domain they became corrupt in, so the first world's creatures are all purple. And now it's time for me to sleep and wake up early tomorrow to go to my day job. I hope you guys are as happy with these graphics so far as I am, but if not let me know in the comments below. And let me know if you are! And most importantly, remember not to get lost in your dreams.
First and foremost, many many apologies for not posting anything recently! I was writing a post yesterday when in an attempt to clear some tabs, I closed the blog update page and sat in my chair defeated for a moment. But here I am again, prepared to write a new post! This post will have updates from all three games, and I am very excited to share all these updates with you~! Up first, we have Sector Chimera. All new art, including a redone MC's bedroom. In these screen shots is the new room, a first peak at the "forum" system you can use to see how the others in the city interact (which you will be able to respond to on occasion if you decide to.), an updated HoloCall system (the holocall device will be "turned off" when you have no available calls, and will be on and animated when you do.), and all new character face sprites! So far, only Quinn has a new face sprite, but everyone will be following shortly. I've also drawn up the inside of the restaurant, but that will only be available for preview on the patreon page.
Up next is Betterflies with updates on the script and UI. I've begun writing and programming the very first solo branches for the romances. I've already finished Reza, Vincent, and Magdalena's, although I may make some tweaks to Vincent's route to add more dialog between him and the MC. I've also decided to add in a daily planner feature, because I think it would best fit the game to include it. Your character will be able to decide between doing art, exercise, group therapy, and staying in her room, with other slight variations as time goes on if the story demands it. And the last update is a stats menu! I'm still iffy on if I want to include it at all, and it's very much in a rough draft stage, but if I decide to keep it, it will be keeping track of the MC's personality, romantic and friendship stats with each character, and the basic ability check stats. What these stats are, what they're named, and how many there will be is still undecided, but the preview is as accurate as it can get for now. Last but not least, Ventio Mortis! I've made many strides through the opening chapter (which is longer than I realized when I had playtesters take a stab at it), and I am proud to say that the first chapter is finally completed! I will begin writing the second chapter when my editor goes over the script and updates it, but for now I don't want to overwhelm her with too much writing. I've also received the finished portrait for Robbie, which means only Drisdon and the Detective are left and we are that much closer to the release of the Ventio Mortis demo!! If you'd like to get a peak at Robbie and a little bit more information on the hot-head, it's available on patreon. In the mean time, here is a preview of Inan and Hollowelle talking. Sidenote: I do intend to change his sizing, but for now scripting the little things remains my first priority for the game since editing his portraits will only take about 10 minutes. Link To PatreonThings should be going back to normal fairly soon, since I will no longer be explicitly bed ridden tomorrow evening. I really can't wait to jump back into working on some games in full force these coming days. I've been ironing out details about Sector Chimera. My goal is to really flesh out the plot in a way I hadn't done 5 years ago when the project first became a gaming glimmer in my eye. I've been working on this process with the amazing creative team that's been with me every step of the way since the beginning, and I really think that the world of Chimera and Limbo is finally going to be birthed in the way we always imagined it originally, but with the quality of waiting a few years to really perfect it. As with Ventio Mortis, the main step I am on with that game design is currently scripting. I am waiting still on character portraits from the incredibly skilled drawkill, who has finally been able to take a step back from their busy schedule to work on some portraits again. I am beyond excited to see which character she will be bringing to un-life next. In the mean time, I've been continuing to write up the branches that will lead to each romantic route. It is still every bit as important to me to create something gripping and personalized to the way you choose to interact with the world, as well as lead each player through a set story. While Ventio Mortis is indeed a fraction of the size and scope that Chimera is planned to be, I still want it to be more than just a "here is the route to date so-and-so" type story. With that, however, means it'll take a little longer than anticipated to write the script, since I will have many variables to work with. I hope that the extended times for the game will make its release worth it. However, I do intend to release a demo for Ventio Mortis as soon as all the character portraits are released to me! So keep an eye out in the next month or so for your first playable glimpse at the grim dating sim. As a peace offering for more wordy posts lately, I'll be sharing some very old prototypes for each of the games to show how far we've come since original development of Sector Chimera, more specifically. Enjoy!
I've been slowly but surely finishing pixels and their animated idles. It's a lot harder to make interesting idle animations in under 3 frames with limited expressive options than I expected! For instance, Gen, the red head, is supposed to be twirling her hair and I'm not sure if it even translates. Either way, I'm fairly satisfied with her pixel. Some changes I will be working on include fixing Aus's cigarette smoke animation, and fixing Ivan's foot tap animation.
Finally started reworking Sector Chimera. It's being re-built from the ground up. Currently in the works is a character portrait artist, and I am handling most backgrounds myself. Whatever backgrounds I don't make will be supplied from itch.co, namely ansimuz, who made the cityscape background. Currently a lot of place holders are in the actual game content until all of the graphics are updated, so please pay no mind to the garbage GUI. As it stands, Sector Chimera will be a little point and click-esque, with Limbo being your standard 2D RPG experience. I also scripted the characters so that they will be in the city when you can talk to them or as ambiance, and when they want to talk to you they'll have the little speech bubble over them when you hover over them. You'll be able to click on the store, restaurant, and bar as places you can visits, and of course, you can go to your apartment. I am still up in the air about designing all the character's own rooms. As it stands, that won't be happening, but if a scene calls for it, then so be it. My creative team and I have also added a few new romanceable characters, along side the original main cast. There should be about 6 romances, with two ladies, two dudes, and two agender folk, with two of them being a part of the main cast of characters, and, of course, one is slightly forbidden to add that extra oomph that horrible people like myself enjoy in a video game romance.
I'm also hoping to have a very synthwave/cyberpunk feel to this game and its soundtrack especially. Neon lights fit the story and theme so well, it would be a shame not to capitalize on that aesthetic. I'm also hoping to give it a more authentic cyberpunk feeling by having the grimy scavengers as the pinnacle of the game's events. A classic ragtag team vs corporation story.
Since this game is very developmental at this state, I would love to hear what people would want or hope to see in this game! If you have input, or you're excited, or anything else, feel free to leave comments below. |