itch.io

Thank you for that quick reply! Just bought the game. :) I'll probably replay FE and HB beforehand, but I'm very much looking forward to it. <3

Welcome back, and good luck in your future endeavours!

Some happy gushing+a question about itchio's version of Princess of Ruin
I'm so very glad to see you (and this game) here! I've been a fan of Unbroken Hours as a studio for years, now - Frozen Essence was one of the first indie games I downloaded as I was getting into female-oriented dating sim, and is still near and dear to my heart as a player. I was wowed by its scope and inventivity, and it -along with a couple of commercial games- definitely cemented my love of (structural spoilers for Frozen Essence) hidden routes. <3
Then there was Heartstring Bugs, and while I never thought I'd be so into a stat raiser, I could play it and replay it a hundred times and never get bored. It's just such a charming, fun game!

I've been eying Princess of Ruin for almost as many years now, as soon as I learned about it on your website; but I was hesitant to buy it from here as you were inactive for a time. When I saw you'd made an itch profile, I was honestly overjoyed, doubly so when you posted PoR's game page. The thought of finally being able to play makes me so happy!
I have a potentially dumb question however: it seems to me that the files you can unlock by paying are still called PrincessofRuinDemo1.5 (their size is also close to that of the free files, it seems). Could you please confirm that they are indeed the full game files? Or are they still just the demo version?

I hope this is the right place to ask this; and thank you very much for this, in general! Halloween may be near, but being able to get back into your older games and getting to support you/play PoR as I've been wanting to do for a long long time? Sounds more like Christmas!

Hello again!

This reply makes me happy in ways you wouldn't believe, and I really hope you'll be able to keep on keeping on. :)

I feel you, asking for help is really difficult. I've been terrible with that in the past, and still am now, so I completely understand your position. But the fact that you were willing to open up about your project on lumiradio already shows how motivated you are. I feel like identifying and working around your shortcomings is a good compromise -- you can work on your project, feel like you're making progress on a regular basis, all the while getting a clearer picture of what additional skills you'd need so that it's easier for you and other parties if/when you need outside help. And again, I'm not qualified, but the steps you've listed seem to make perfect sense to me (I've done roughly  the same to select the narrative game development software I felt the more comfortable working in at present). What the engine allows you would be even more of a determining factor in your case, I presume, so that's really important.

Yay for Picrew! I'm a staunch believer in playing around with your characters in order to get a firmer grasp on them and remain interested in their stories -- but the type of games I'm trying to make might also skew my perspective. There's also a danger in thinking up a thousand what ifs and neglecting the setting you're supposed to be working on, but used as you said (as a visual aid) it is definitely serviceable.

(AZERTY keyboards are used in certain European countries :) It's normal for games to be developed with QWERTY layouts in mind, in any case. Duly noted re: difficulty, I'll remember to take deep breaths and calming walks :D)

May I follow you on here? There are times where I'm not often online for months on end, so it might not be timely, but I'd be happy to get notified about your future games (even if they're not THE project)! As for THE project: fight on!

Hey Raven! Hope you are doing fine!

We talked a couple days ago on lumiradio about gamedevving and getting the drive to work on projects, remember me? :) I’d told you I’d do some research and get back to you on itch, so here! Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I had a busy couple of days.

There might be a lot of points you’ve already worked on/are proficient in. You’re free to completely ignore those -- it was just easier to organize like this, since I don’t know what you’ve already done. This is also one perspective, one way of working and, because my own project is very different from yours, there are a lot of areas in which I don’t have any experience (ie looking for professionals, for instance). This is far from perfect, but hopefully it’ll give you some pointers and resources you can use to work on your own stuff and keep the fire going!

(I haven’t gone far into Adventures of Asset, as I have an AZERTY keyboard and am not used to arrow keys anymore, but I really like the concept)

This is a HUGE comment. It includes links. Use whatever you want in it, and good luck with your future projects! :)

Planning & organization

• Know the scope of your project from the beginning: taking, for instance, the example of a game designed to help learning maths: what type of game (this you already explained to me, iirc)? How long do you want it to be? What type of structure will it have? (worlds, levels, something else?) How do you reward progress and failure? What assets would it include? (among those, what can you make yourself, and what will you need external help for?) And, as we’re talking maths, what level of knowledge/specific notions will the game cover? Do you need external advice on how to include it in the game, or can you manage? The more you work on that, the less trouble you’ll have mid-development.
• Know your strengths and weaknesses, and think of what it means for your project: If there are some things you need and cannot create by yourself, you’ll have to either learn, use free resources, or commission others to have it done. Thinking of what you need or don’t need, what you can allocate to the project or not, and finding a compromise before what you want the project to be and what is possible for you will also help you have a clear view of it.
• Don’t hesitate to iterate: you were talking about acquiring more game creation experience, but the version of the game you develop now doesn’t have to be your final one! You’ll always be free to refine your concept, even if the game is published, and lack of experience/resources needn’t necessarily be a reason for you not to get started on it. Alternatively, you can create a demo or a first build that’ll give you a better idea of what the final game will be, and refine that until you’re satisfied -- and then work on the rest.
• Find an organization method that works for you: allocate space, be it on a hard drive, a cloud storage solution, or even notebooks, depending on the type of person you are. Creating a space specifically designed for your project will help you be motivated, as well as allow you to keep better track of all the assets you’ll have to use throughout.
• Find an entourage/your own moral boosts: having people you can talk about your project is important, whether or not they can take part in it. Even if they don’t help with the tasks, they’ll be keeping you on track.

Since our conversation, I’ve looked into dedicated Reddit channels, and /r/gamedev/ might be an interesting/inspiring place for you to visit, get info and encouragement. You can also come up with your own dumb things to do to help with your determination. Personally, I keep tiny jpgs of my cast of characters that I made in an image creator (https://picrew.me/) when my project was just a vague idea, in my project drive. It’s silly, and they’re caricatures, but it helps with my focus, as well as keeping my art consistent.

• Draw up a timeline: for a big project, this will also matter. Depending on the type of game, what you need, and what you, as a person, can do, you’ll need to divide your workload into a series of steps.
Again, choose the format that works best for you. People having been trained in project management will tell you that Gantt charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart) are the bomb, but honestly, you can write your steps on a calendar and do just fine. Note that overestimating the time you’ll need for each step is always better than underestimating it. If you don’t make your own assets, dedicating specific periods of time to looking for them/people who can create them will still help you go forward. You can arrange your timeline to work on several things at the same time if you need certain parts of the game to be completely done before others. 

The project proper: resources & assets

• Not having certain capabilities/assets should not be an obstacle to developing the rest of the game; you can work with placeholder art/music until finding an artist that’d be willing to help. 

I have less info for you in the points that follow, as I draw my own art/use completely different software than you do -- I dunno how Godot works, and some of the resources I suggest might not be supported by it. Still, I hope this at least inspires you some. 

GODOT

• Community: https://godotengine.org/community
• Tutorials: https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/community/tutorials.html

ART

• You can find asset packs (free or paid) on itch.io for you to use, should you want this solution. There are also packs dedicated to user interface. The proper way to use those and credit the authors is often indicated in the description of the pack - you can also message the creators if you have any doubt.
• You can hire artists if you want art that’s specific to your project. As I’ve told you, this isn’t a process I’m familiar with, so I wouldn’t know where to look for, but this question https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/7lr68g/places_to_find_artists_for_your_game/ has some elements, as well as this one: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/15256/where-to-hire-2d-sprite-artists

(You may want to hire an artist when the rest of your game is done with, so that you know precisely how many/what kind of assets you’ll need, so I suggest working with placeholders if that is your plan. You may also do research on artist rates beforehand so that 1) you’ll be aware of the budget you’ll need and 2) you’ll make an offer that is worth their time. Way too many professional artists get ridiculously low offers.) 

• If you want to do the art yourself and don’t have sufficient chops for one reason or another, you might wanna simplify your designs. Looking into vector art or simple pixel art tutorials might also help (l use inkscape and piskel, which are free, to do both respectively). 

MUSIC

-  Here are some sites that offer music that is free to use (caution, make sure to read the policies on each site “under Licensing”) before including it to your project. Some come with caveats when it comes to commercial projects and specific instructions when it comes to crediting authors): https://freemusicarchive.org/ ; https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/, and of course, https://incompetech.com/ 

- Should you need to hire composers, this can help: http://www.gameacademy.com/hire-game-musicians/ (same remarks as when it comes to hiring artists)

ADVERTISING THE FINAL PRODUCT

Once your game is polished and perfect (https://ninichimusic.com/blog/2018/1/4/10-places-to-find-beta-testers-for-your-indie-game, if you need a larger pool of beta testers, but you may want to directly use students as testers, given what you want to accomplish?), and assuming you want it to be spread, you might consider sending a link or review copy to YouTubers specialised in your type of games, ask Steam curator groups to evaluate it, or even send an email to your old school, depending on the levels of maths involved?? I don’t personally care about advertising, as I told you, as I’m just a hobbyist: my games would be freeware, and all I want is for the people coming across them by chance to end up having a nice experience. But if you want to make projects to help people, how to reach them would definitely be something to consider. You can advertise both to indie fans and to teachers, in your case. :D (for instance, by looking up forums for both categories, reaching out to teachers you know irl, etc).

Godspeed!

Hello again!

I'd be happy to tell you what I thought of the last three paths, if/when the drive to play the game juuuust a little bit longer manages to be stronger than the fear of it being over ;:D (one more coincidence: as a Mass Effect superfan who has yet to properly finish ME3, I relate to everything you wrote to an almost frightening degree).
You are doing a terrific job of introducing what's to come, though, and I really want to experience all of it! I think I'll get to Detective as soon as I have enough time to properly enjoy it. :) And then the others two, gradually.

On that note: boy oh boy, I did *not* think it was possible for me to get more hyped than I already was about the ??? route, but you somehow made that possible. Here's the thing: I LOVE true routes. They might be my favourite aspect of the genre (I think they're more of an otome thing than anything else, I'm not sure about many of those being in typically male-oriented dating sims...). So much so that if someone were to contact me tomorrow asking me to write a thesis on them, I'd be grateful. So much so that I'm currently teaching myself to code and write tiny multiple-choice stories for the sole purpose of one day being capable enough to release one specific game, which is basically just a huge pretext for having one of those :D (E.T.A.: 3430, if ever, given my current learning curve > <;) The idea of an entire dimension of the story not being accessible to the player at first is wild. 

Kowing that, the fact that there is a true route in SR is reason enough for me to be giddy; doubly so because, judging from the game description, it seems pretty meaningful to the story as a whole and not there just because. And now you're teasing more character development, including a possible redemption arc, for our favourite Not-Yandere Yandere? Be still my heart.~

Again, this game has brought me so much joy already, and I'm not even at the halfway point. <3 If, as you wrote, making players happy was the mission you gave yourself when developing the game, then mission friggin accomplished.

I'll let you know when I'm done, then! In the meantime, thank you for sharing all of these details about your experience, as well as what went through your head during development. It was really interesting, and really pleasant to read. It's always neat to see how a project evolves from beginning to end. Also, getting SR all the way to release is all the more commendable given the effect anxiety/depression can have on productivity and the perception people have of their own work. All the kudos to you.

Have a lovely week as well (and then some ^^) and take care! <3

Hello Melancholy Marionette!

I'm three routes into SR, and I just wanted to say: thank you.

I play a lot of story-driven games, be it mystery or drama or romance, free or commercial, big or small budgets... A handful of times, I've come across titles made by small dev teams or dev persons trying their best to tell new, surprising stories in spite of the limited resources they had. Those particular games are few and far between, but they have always had a special place in my heart as a player, and they end up staying with me for years. So I was pretty excited when I came across your profile and read the description for this one. And it doesn't disappoint! <3

It's super obvious that a lot of love went into it. I really appreciate you going the extra mile and having an OP (which is super catchy, by the way, I've been singing it for several days). As I appreciate you wanting to include as many CG as you possibly could - I do agree with some of the other commenters, though, CGs aren't the most important feature in an otome. Plus, you can always add more later down the line should you want to and have more funds to dedicate to them. ^^

To me, the main point of interest is the story. And while it's not always perfect (the student route could've been more developed, for example, imho), I'm loving what you're doing so far. You have a pretty interesting concept to begin with, and you're using it in really clever ways -- I just can't wait to learn more about the bigger picture, but all the while, I never want to be done with this game, I'm too emotionally invested not to be sad when it's over. Finishing each route feels really bittersweet, which might be done on purpose?

And Kuro is... fascinating. I don't normally care for yanderes; in fact, I normally hate the trope, but the idea of a constant, invisible companion who's been with you since the very beginning of your life is really interesting. Such a relationship would be both desirable in a way, and a recipe for disaster. So, I find myself excusing a lot of things coming from him that I wouldn't if they came from garden-variety yandere characters (That, or it's just the fact that you write him so well and give him depth and layers, and that his VA is doing an amazing job). Either way, I'm weak for him, even at times when I really shouldn't...

So thank you for creating him. Thank you for making this game, for all the feelings and thoughts it spawned, and in advance for the other three routes (Detective/Gamer/???) which I'm sure will be a trip. Thank you for having the guts to carry the development process through to the end, which might not always have been easy.
I love SR to bits already, and I'm glad it exists. And I'll definitely make sure to check your other works if I ever get back onto a PC. Hope you'll keep on being creative, and stay safe!

(PS: true story: I played Nintendogs as a tween; my first dog was a Shiba Inu I called 'Kuro'. So all the lines about him being a pet/a dog hit really weirdly. I think it says much about the strength of your character writing that I managed to overlook this and feel for this Kuro as intensely as I do. :D)

(Edited for clarity and to correct a couple of mistakes, because I'm not a native English speaker and wrote this at 3 A.M., still reeling from the end of the Princess route. Apologies if this comment is too long or confusing in any way ^^;)