Heya! I've always wanted to make my own game but never had the time or work ethic to make any of my ideas a reality so I wanted to change that by joining my first game jam! I already know due to factors beyond my control that whatever I cobble together during this jam will merely be a prototype and won't be very polished but i'm gonna try my best to stick through to the end.

My programming abilities are subpar so i'll be using RPG Maker MV to make my game.

SO, WHAT IS DEAD/ESCAPE???

Dead/Escape is a horror adventure game idea i've had for just over a year now and it has gone through numerous phases and incarnations since I first thought of it. D/E was initially inspired by the Zero Escape games and started out as a VN about a group of desperate people pitted against each other in an underground game show turned deadly but I got burned out working on it and eventually scrapped it. This version of the game took inspiration more from old school horror survival games like  Resident Evil but with VN elements.

The game takes place in a boarding school on the eve of winter break, most of the students and staff having gone but several stragglers left behind waiting for flights out or family to pick them up. The school and its inhabitants have been experiencing strange and possibly supernatural phenomena for months now ever since a student was brutally murdered with her supposed killer, her roommate, having fled never to be caught. When a freak storm traps the remaining school residents inside, all manner of horrors start to unleash themselves upon the trapped with the only chance of survival being to escape.

DEVELOPMENT PLANS

I already have a broad strokes idea for the main plot and characters so the writing aspect will be secondary, especially since this version will be heavily overhauled once Devtober is over and I find the time to work more in-depth with it. In the meantime, these are the main focus of my project:

• Setting up MV3D  (what i'm currently fussing with)
• Mapping
• Multi-Branching Plot w/Flow Chart
• Character Sprites and Busts
• Multiple Playable Characters (only 3 for the prototype)

PROGRESS SO FAR?

I have a full tileset for the game already thanks to the Pop! Horror City packs so right now i'm busy getting the MV3D plugin to work with the tiles which will probably be all i'll be doing for the next few days (cries).

To cap off this log, here's some pics of the crappy test map I have:

LOG 01

I'm not going to post my progress every day since it won't be possible for me to do so due to other responsibilities so dev updates will probably be scattered! 

So far i've been banging my head against MV3D trying to get it to work but I feel like i'm nearly there so hopefully that feeling is correct and not me being hopeful.  I'll probably be working on this for a week at this point but once I finish the commission i'm doing I feel like things will be going much faster.

No pics today but hopefully i'll have a proper gif for next time!

LOG 02 (Designing the Main Three)

Finally finished the commissions I was working on, so now I have more free time for Devtober!

Unfortunately I lost 6 days in the process cutting down my dev time significantly so as a compromise I had to ax the 3D movement and graphics and just go for the standard top down 2d RPG Maker look. I still plan to use MV3D but that will be after the jam period where I can work on a better prototype of the game.

While I didn't get a lot done in-engine, I did come up with very basic designs for the three playable characters:

I don't like these designs very much as they were hashed out on the fly but there's no point fleshing them out further until i'm done with this version.  The three are the main characters the player will be experiencing the game through and each of them have their own plot within the overarching one of trying to escape the school.

 AVA  is the most traditional of the three being a mostly defenseless character whose goal is to find a way to contact help outside the school all while running and hiding from enemies. 

LEWIS is able to fight against most of the standard threats in the game and his story revolves around him trying to find and save his childhood friend who went missing once all hell broke loose.

MS. OROSCO is a teacher who possesses psychic powers which can be used to solve puzzles and deal with enemies indirectly, her story is all about confronting the source of the curse while trying to get everyone out alive.

Besides figuring out designs for the main three, I also have a rough draft of the game's general flow and story. 

Will be posting more progress logs from now on.

LOG 03 (Some In-Engine Testing, Twine, and more Cast Designs)

Got way more work done engine wise, created a large test map so that I can test out features quickly and started planning out the girl's dorm map where the opening and first sequence take place. No pics to show for that since i'm not satisfied with how it looks quite yet but the next log will have pics ready.

Did more loose designs for the rest of the cast which was easy to do since most of their designs were ripped from an old version of the project:

This isn't everyone, just the designs I like the most. 

I got ALOT done when it came to planning out the individual playable sections however and I actually have a feeling that i'll be able to have at least up to Ms. Orosco's first sequence done by devtober's end.

I used Twine for this and it is a godsend compared to meticulously plotting out  and connecting character routes in a Word or Google doc. 

Next update will show off some maps and maybe a VN scene or two if time is in my favor.

LOG 04 (Mapping, Plug-Ins, and 'holy crap i didn't realize how much art assets i had to create until yesterday oh man')

Made even more progress yesterday and today and have finally started putting things into motion gameplay wise. I also made another compromise with the project, cutting down the planned 9 sequences to just 4. I'm still gunning for the multiple endings though and with the smaller scope I think it's definitely possible since they're all going to be variations of one ending based on how the player played the prototype.

Made several maps though 2 of them are just testing/debug maps but I also did parts of the girl's dorm which is a major area for Ava's sequence: 

This is my first time tile mapping seriously and with a purpose so sorry if it looks a bit weak!

I also made a faceset for Ava:

Forgot her glasses but ended up liking her design more without 'em so maybe i'll keep it that way  when I eventually start on Prototype B. 

The story structure has been changed significantly due to cutting a lot of the original planned content:

All my other work (configuring plugins, super minor UI stuff, setting up how VN scenes are going to look, etc.) isn't as interesting so i'll leave it out of this log. With much of the setting up work done I think further development will go semi-smoothly...

...well, there's also the art to consider as well.

Despite setting out to make a horror adventure game with visual novel elements, it didn't fully hit me until the other day how many bust graphics, cutscene CGs, and item art I would have to create to make a decent prototype. It's all pretty daunting and with the cast already pretty meaty for an early version, i'm going to have to grind out a lot of assets, more than I originally calculated. 

That's it for this one, I think by Log 05 i'll have gameplay gifs or at least a proper screenshot.

LOG 05 (Facesets and Talk Sprites)

Today was an art day so nothing to say, but a few things to show:

    

Lewis faceset (last one purposely left unfinished).

Ms. Orosco's faceset (she looks like a disheveled, middle aged Velma w/o the glasses :/ )

One of the talk sprites I made of Jessica, Ava's buddy and companion during her sequence . She has 2 more neutrally posed ones I made but itch.io wants me to compress them and ehhhhhhhhhhhh maybe some other time.

LOG 06 (More Talk Sprites)

A quickie and more of a "mini-log" than a a full length one but here are the talk sprites for the main companion characters in the prototype (Lily & Sumire Sera and Mr. Rose the school counselor).

Last log showing assets outside of the game itself, every other talk sprite that isn't the leads are going to have less effort put into them since they're all going to be redone once Devtober is over anyway. 

FINAL LOG

Decided to scrap my prototype, additional work hours has made it difficult to properly plan anything and with the time I have left I won't be able to put out something i'm ok with. Doing the jam did help a lot with figuring out the direction of the project however so i'm still going to work on it, just on my own time!