So here we are with the first actual blog post of 2018! And just as promised in our 2017 retrospect, I’m going to share with you what exactly we will focus on throughout this first month of the new year!
With the ever-so-busy December lying behind us now (and my cold finally gone as well), I feel extremely motivated to work on GENBA no Kizuna again. As mentioned before, finishing the demo will be our main priority for now, which is why I have already started working on just that over the last few days. Together with Nobuhiko:
I think his patience is wearing a little thin after standing there for so long, while I kept making adjustments in regards to the visual presentation, haha (which, for example, includes sprite size, text size, or font color).
The biggest trouble I had was certainly with deciding the size of the actual sprites. There were quite a few things to consider.
For one, the sprites should look properly proportioned in comparison with their surroundings. Proportions don’t need to be 100% accurate in order for everything to look good, but you certainly don’t want it to look noticeably off. Furthermore, I want there to be enough space so that it’s possible to display at least three characters at once without them overlapping. That was a problem we had with SHINRAI, where it would get kind of crowded on screen sometimes. And last but not least, I also have to make sure that the characters themselves are properly proportioned in relation to each other. For example, Keiichi is the tallest character in the game while Rei, at least within our main group, is the smallest one. So that’s the kind of stuff I’ve been playing around with.
Here’s another shot with Nobuhiko as well as Keiichi on screen:
Tonight, Natsu and I will talk about all of this one last time, so that I can make the final adjustments tomorrow. Afterwards, we can finally get the first part of the demo ready for Patreon. While patrons will be able to check it out and offer some feedback, we will continue with the second part, which includes the first gameplay segment.
I still need to finish the investigation comments, so I will take care of that starting on Monday. I also need to finally look into those sound effects. I’ve already talked with our composer, who is going to help out with this as well, so hopefully, it won’t take too long.
That’s really all that’s left to do in regards to the demo. It isn’t much and, theoretically, should be done quickly, but please keep in mind that I also don’t want to push Withering Without Hope completely aside again. As long as I’m still in the proper mood for it, I want to continue working on that as well. So another thing I’m going to focus on this week will be to finish the script for the second half of the prologue. And throughout the rest of January, I’d like to make a lot of progress on the first actual chapter as well. And not just in terms of writing.
So yeah, those are the things we will work on throughout January. Let’s see how much we will get done by the end of it!
As always, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3
