Thanks to the release of GENBA no Kizuna, 2024 was a big year for us (which I’ve talked more about in last week’s blog post).
But of course, we’ve also got big plans for 2025, which mainly revolve around our new project SHINRAI Saku – Blooming Beyond Despair!
And today, I’d like to delve a little deeper into that subject and how far we’ve already come along with our next VN, so…
Let’s get right to it, shall we?
- Current Progress
As of right now, the script is just a tad under 18,000 words long and covers about 1/2 to 2/3s of the story I want to tell. It’s a bit difficult to estimate, because (as one might expect) we have the longer and more complex/complicated scenes towards the end, and I don’t really know yet how long they might turn out in their fully written form.
However, as I’ve mentioned a couple of times before, I don’t expect the final script to be significantly longer than GENBA‘s shortest chapter, which ended up being somewhere around the 28,000 word mark.
I guess that’s a little too much to call it a “short story” as I’m always tempted to do, but at least for my standards, it is a very short story!
Now, outside of the writing, not all that much has been done yet, aside from a couple of base sprites for some of our major recurring characters, and a few design sketches for our newcomers. But there is a good reason for that!
- Current Main Goal
Due to the short(er) nature of the story, I want to primarily focus on the script for now and get it fully written out as soon as I can. I hesitate to say “first draft” here, because my perfectionism always drives me to do a lot of revisions from the get-go, but I’m trying really hard not to overdo it this time. After all, I can polish things as much as I want later, but first and foremost, it’d be nice to have the story in more than just key notes, so I can give it to my partner-in-crime to read.
That said, purely working on the script for days can get really tiresome for me, so I will keep working on the occasional sprite here and there, just to get a change of pace. But other than that, art-related assets will take a backseat for now.
- Development Plan
Really, the plan here is to have the story fully written out and then go through it from the beginning again and turn it into a visual novel scene by scene. At that point, things will flip around with asset creation taking center stage and the script just being refined.
By then, I will also have a much better idea regarding the scope of the required assets. How many sprites will be needed, how many backgrounds, how many music tracks and so on and so forth.
I’m really trying to keep things simple and not go overboard, but still, the art assets will definitely make up the lion’s share of our to-do list. Especially since there isn’t really all that much we can recycle from our previous projects. Even the GUI will need to be redone, given that the updated resolution won’t allow us to just copy-paste what’s seen in Broken Beyond Despair.
- Development Length…?
So yeah, a lot of work ahead of us and with this, too, it’s difficult to make an estimate how long it will take us, but the whole idea is to create a much shorter project in a much shorter time for a change. I’m always hesitant to make predictions or promises, especially this early on, though I’d love to have something specific to tell you around the halfway mark of the year. So that’s what we’ll be aiming for!
In 2022, we finished up GENBA‘s second chapter within the first few months of the year and then, from April to August, worked on completing the entire third chapter (plus the final social phase of chapter 2), which we released to patrons for SHINRAI‘s anniversary. Now, granted, GENBA‘s third chapter had the majority of its assets already done in April, but still… when I look at this, I’m very optimistic about Saku truly not taking that long to complete.
But again, that’s a topic better saved for our mid-year report in Jurassic June!
- Conclusion
Well, that about sums it up for our plans. You never know what curve balls life might throw at you and, VN development aside, I also have some other tasks and goals set for myself, of course. However, overall, the coming weeks and months will be dedicated to making as much progress on Saku as we can! As stated in a previous blog post, I really can’t wait to start sharing visual stuff about it publicly, so for that reason alone, I want to get lotsa stuff done lotsa fast!
So here’s to a very productive year! Whatever your own goals and ambitions may be, I hope you can also tackle them with energy, confidence and optimism. Let’s make this another successful and positively memorable one, shall we?
Now, as always, please enjoy the remainder of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care :3
