What is 
Hello and welcome to my first devlog of- wait a minute! This is a REUPLOAD of my first devlog! Unfortunately I ran into some technical difficulties with itch.io and fell out of writing devlogs bi-weekly. So I figured a new start would be a good idea! So my semi-kinetic visual novel follows a Dretchling (totally not a DnD Tiefling) named Priam. Dretchlings are a race of people who have devil's blood, thus making them look like devils and being hated by everyone.
Gameplay
The gameplay focuses on the player guiding Priam’s decision making. They aren’t controlling Priam, but influencing him. He has his own character, and a lot of the decisions you make will be vague. For example, you might see the decision "console", only for Priam to be blunt and speak in a manner that isn't very consoling. I chose this approach to make the choices you make more immersive. I've never been a fan of self-insert protagonists, or characters that could act contrary to their characterization because you picked the bad option. Therefore, I made the healthy decision to project all of my bias into the gameplay!
Decisions are mostly dialogue focused, but also encourage how Priam behaves and thinks. How the story plays out, how people view Priam, and even certain dialogue choices will be altered. You might see decisions that align more to how virtuous or malicious Priam has been, and his inner monologue might reflect this as well.
As I mentioned before, this is a semi-kinetic visual novel. A lot of these decisions will not affect the story on a grand scale until a certain threshold. Once that threshold is reached, you get an ending based on a culmination of decisions you made, rather than one decision netting you a bad end. This is a lot like how Stein's Gate handles its endings, where the story continues or enters an ending based upon how you've handled the situation. By taking this approach, I have made a game that won't take forever to finish while also having some replayability.
Lasty, the game is chocked full of lore to unlock! This is a tertiary reward for choices. Collecting the lore will not lock you into endings or impact the story. It's moreso a mechanic that allows me to not lore dump the readerin order to explain a plot device. Think of the lore entries like the books in Elder Scrolls games. They're around for anyone who is interested,, and completely optional!
Art
Like just about every visual novel out there, we will be using an anime artstyle. This was picked for marketing reasons and because I like anime. CGs are planned, but I'd rather not show them due to spoiler reasons. I don't want to get into the specifics of "how much" yet because I'm currently unemployed, but let's just say enough to make a good game! I plan to commission capsule art and all the bells and whistles needed for the steam page, once they confirm that I'm not a robot, but nothing has been finalized.
Programming and UI
Also like most visual novels, this game will be coded in Ren'py. Yes I know what Naninovel is and yes I know RPGmaker might be advantageous, but it's too late to swap engines. Ren'py is a great program for beginner VNDevs and has more than enough tools to make a successful visual novel. Maybe future games will use Unity or other engines, but I'd much rather release a game first!
As for the UI, I really hope you enjoy purple and gold. I picked those two colors to represent the darker atmosphere of Philistine. They also look really cool and that UI cost me $200 so I don't want to change it. I might look at adding a darker texture to the textboxes or at least adding the option for one, as well as make more buttons, but nothing has been finalized.
Sound FX / Composition
I probably have…way too many sound fx. I have a decent assortment of "recycled" compositions from earlier drafts of Philistine, back when it was a platformer. More on that later, the point is the game is pretty good when it comes to the sound department. And that intro_theme slaps! I wish I could list it, but it's a spoiler!
Progress
As of this post, I have a serviceable build for the demo to be tested. I plan on sending it out once my programnmer makes some final adjustments. I hope to release the demo early next year, and I hope to have the game completed by 2024
The story itself has been outlined, and I am about 60% completel with the story's first draft. Once the draft is completed, I hope to refine and add in the alternate dialogue options. I believe that by the time the demo is released, I should have first draft completed and revised.
Art is a different story. My lead artist has been going through real life stuff, and while I need to find a new artist, I'm not looking forward to searching. I've had nurmerous troubles with artists in the past, and I am currently in no position to pay anyone. I do have enough of the assets created to get a decent build going at least.
The programming is in line with the writing. I script my drafts in ren'py. Much of what will be needed depends on the feedback I get from my testers. Had I used RPGMaker or Unity, this would not have been the case.
Sound Design is actually mostly complete! I've been struggling with finishing the game for too long, but I've been able to reuse all of the FX and comps I've commissioned over the years. Special thanks goes to my sound composer, who has been on the team since the beginning. I actually feel bad asking him to make effects, since he still goes by RevShare despite me offering to pay. The main thing I see Philistine needing is ambience and a few more compositions, but that's it!
Marketing Plans
Let's be clear here, marketing terrifies me! I've been studying Chris Z's marketing blogs, but I still have anxiety. Marketing is easily the hardest aspect of game design, since bad marketing can cause the best of games to fail.
My main idea is to use Twitter. Yes it's going to crap, but it is still one of the better marketing platforms for Indies, until Elon does something else. Reddit is the backup, but I won't be posting as much as Twitter. Most subs despise self promotion, even if it's allowed. I've heard good things about Tiktok, but I don't think I have it in me to release videos. Philistine unfortunately does not have have many gameplay mechanics to show off, as is the bane of many visual novels. I've also found Tumblr to be too inactive to invest into. It's a great place if you understand the algorithm, and its marketed towards indies and people who like typing really long posts, but I don't think I'll get much use out of it in this stage of development.
I will also be utilizing a mailing list. This and my steam page will be the call-to-action. Twitter and Reddit will only serve to spread awareness, whereas getting subscribers to my mailing list will be how I hope to earn customers. I plan on sprucing up my discord server, but this is more of a formality than a must have. I don't expect it to become active, just there for people to congregate.
Will this work? Probably not. Philistine is my first game, and visual novels are niche genre. If anything, just me finishing it will be an achievement.
Conclusion
I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read through this. For me, just putting myself back out there is a big step forward! I hope to publish a new devlog bi-weekly on both itch and my steam once I get the page uploaded.If you'd like to support me, follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/BigoofStudios and join my mailing list for more personalized updates AND a free game! https://preview.mailerlite.io/preview/484172/sites/91543076880779205/2k8VuW