The Making of Part 2 - And Opinion Poll!

So, it took a while to make. Long enough so I'd like to ruminate on some points with y'all.

So to begin with, the text.

The dialogue wasn't so bad to work out, I've a good grasp of the characters and that helped make it all natural. I also knew from the outset that I wanted branching paths that felt natural, which naturally led to something else I wanted- different outcomes depending on your choices. The ideal with Cerise- and actually with all your projects- is for *your* Cerise to possess some particular assets in how you deal with her than many other players don't. Hence the devolved choices on tutoring, marking, etc.

The end result of this being that there's a lot of text that won't turn up in any given playthough compared to the total amount there is- same for the art- but also depending on how Cerise feels about you, her expressions and phrases will change. Though she's ever-obedient as you'd expect, that doesn't mean she doesn't have her own opinions or the like, and the idea is she more adapts to what she feels your tastes are rather than 'falling out' with you.

There was a huge lag though in converting the text I'd written on Twine (and that I released well over a month ago) into script text for ren'py. I was not only editing it as we went for clarity, but also the structure and manner that I wrote the text for Twine meant every single line needed changing and tweaking. In the future, I'm going to write the text in Twine to more efficiently copy over to ren'py and hopefully save a day or two off that part of the process for a similar amount of work. All in all, the converting added a whole extra week onto the development of something already a week long. So about 2.5 weeks total...maybe more.

Artwise I'd say the biggest thing I had to drop to get this out on a reasonable timescale were the character assets for Keller. In making part 2 I had the idea that- though you would be playing as Keller and deciding what kind of person he is, he would still undeniably be a character, and hence, have art. So dropping doing art specifically for him in the conversations was a shame...

...that said, I think it may have turned out for the better considering how I designed the Cerise assets. If I'd make the Keller images too, it wouldn't then make sense that she'd be facing *you*, she'd be facing the Keller sprite...so I'd have had to have drawn a different position for her, like maybe 3/4ths.

To be honest, I am still thinking of redrawing all the character spirites at 3/4 perspective if only because it can look a lot more dynamic than head-on; though I imagine the effort would take several days per character. If you have an opinion on it do speak up- it is actually something I need feedback on to decide whether to undertake it.

(A rough for an unusued/not made CG)

The CG's went by pretty alright all told, my one gripe was that toward the end I hadn't prepared enough for the finish, nor had inserts for when the piercings/tattoos appear. Also not an image for the kiss- I think for the full demo release I'm going to add art for that- maybe even the $5 release. It was also frustrating that some of the art I made could only be used fleetingly, like the legs in the corridor or the close-up of the position 3 stance. I need to remember to be more careful in picking what *needs* to be drawn as each CG takes days to do.

Oh! And Ty Lee's art should have variants for her TW designation to be on her collar- that was a bit of an oversight I will be correcting with an update.

All in all...I can't even count how long this bit took. Probably two months and a bit.

In the future, I may pick the CG's with more care and try not to pick moments in every scene...Also, I'd like to do more with animation where possible, which will require some stuff that I think I'll cover in another update.

I'd say the biggest unexpected lag was the gap between having all the assets ready to use vs. coding them in the script. I felt it very necessary for Cerise to be very expressive, but in doing that it turned out I had to make a great many custom faces that I didn't think I'd require when I started out. As reference, here is an image of the different faces I'd pre-saved before coding vs. the amount I ended up with.

So yeah, every time I hit a snag it'd be a few minutes diddling with a new face, saving it, transferring it to the right save file, etc.

The bits that took the longest though were about assigning variables and positions for the images and making sure that images were hidden properly. In the future it might be more worthwhile to come up with some code so I can shorthand where images will go based on some preset command, and have them automatically hide/show based on another. Not sure how I'd do that but it at least feels possible, maybe?

The screens for the dryrun were probably the most challenging bit of coding in this, but compared to part 1, the coding wasn't as difficult in general thanks to my experience in that part- it was just very time consuming.

So much so, it was something like two weeks to do all of this bit even though it was very copypasta and tweaksand rejigging labels.

So yeah, that's where all the time sank, roughly speaking. I do feel it was a worthwhile timesink though as this section highlights something that Part 3 will be missing, which is interaction with OC's and making choices in regards to a continuing relationship, not one based on training...and also with smutty options. Much as what may happen with Ty Lee people will find erotic, I'd probably say Part 2 has more in the way of lewd acts and conversation. Either way, I think Part 2 provides a good example of what kind of flavour interacting with the company at large will bring, and hints at some of the other stuff you'll be able to do in regards to R&D and the scoring system.

And now with this part done, you get to decide down which Ty Lee tree I should sink time into first! Pick an option below, the one with the most votes will get worked on first...and also lemme know if you're approving of what's currently on the table, it'd help me know if I'm on the right track. Comments on bits you particularly liked or perhaps want to see expanded on are also welcome.

As for other Non-TW stuff such as Volition...well, we'll have an update on that soon. Stay real, True Believers, and Enjoy!