August Devlog: Re-Orienting Toward a Full Game

It's the end of the month - here is an update on the ongoing development to turn Amadeus from a demo into Episode 1 of a full 5-part game.

Before getting to the details, here are some important news items:

• The linktree now (as of TODAY!) has a link to a community Discord server!
  • The server is currently quite small and has dedicated spaces for art sharing, in addition to regular updates on Amadeus. If you prefer more interactive communication feel free to join.
    
  • (There are also channels dedicated to speedrunning, as that is how the server was born, once upon a time... mute away as you like.)
    
• I'm going to PAX West, and planning to attend both the adjacent Media Indie Exchange and the Seattle Indies Expo. See you there??

And now, for this month's updates!

TL;DR highlights:

• Game Progress: Created new sprites/assets, plus a new dev tool to make testing the dialogue system much smoother
• Next major benchmark: plan to release updated demo with revamped UI/controls this winter
• Project Management: what I learned about making an updated Game Design Document that will keep me on track for the full Episode 1 release next summer. (Hint: if writing a narrative game, start with the narrative...)
• Recreation: a list of media I consumed for fun that also helped inspire me and identify my own goals for this project.

Details below for those interested.

Game Progress: New Assets & Dev Tool for Sprites

I said I created new sprites and assets. Of note, a particular very important character now has a finalized design and a portrait. This character was mentioned often in the demo, but has yet to make an appearance...

That's right, it's time for the Solea Portrait Reveal!!!

I'm really happy with her design (including the full body portrait, which I'll save for later). I think it conveys a lot about her character. I want to give a HUGE thank-you to my girl Lecy for answering a ton of my questions about Black haircare while I worked on this design, because I wanted Solea to feel grounded and real, even though the world is fantasy and she's a witch. There reaches a point where drawing from my lived experience as A White Person has its limits, and talking to other people became very important to help me tell an authentic story.

Making this portrait also helped me begin to build and test a new dev tool, because I can now envision a conversation between Amadeus and Solea. Building dev tools is one of those things that I cannot overstate enough how important they are. This tool is going to help IMMENSELY with creating dialogue scenes, helping me choose just the right expression to match each dialogue line.

Using this tool, I can change the values for the left and right sprites and then type L/R to have the game live update to that sprite, so I can swap them around live without having to manually activate/de-activate the sprites. In visual novels, especially those without voice acting, the expression sprites are TREMENDOUSLY important in setting the tone of written dialogue. The same line can feel markedly different with a different expression. In addition, some of my sprites have animations, so being able to test how those animations flow between different sprites is really easy now. I built it to be relatively future-proof, so that if I add other functions (like shaking and sprite barks), with a few tweaks this will help me test those too.

Making this tool took me less than an hour, and is going to save orders of magnitude more time and effort in the long run when I'm writing scenes and matching dialogue to expressions.

Next Major Benchmark: New Demo This Winter

To avoid getting hopes up: my current plan for this is to have effectively the same demo in terms of narrative, but with improved mechanics that will be the norm for the full game. There is a lot more narrative that is going to be in the full Episode 1 release than there is in the demo, but it does not make sense to start building the scenes for the rest of the narrative until I go back and thoroughly fix/implement all of the gameplay changes I want for the complete game. My hope is that anyone playing it will feel that, even though the narrative is the same, the game itself will feel much more polished and cohesive. This demo will be my proof to myself, and to you, that the full game is coming, and it will feel good.

(Famous last words: "if I have time," I hope to add a little extra content too, to entice those of you who already played the demo. I just want to be clear that the focus will be fixing and adding mechanics, including a Settings menu and better controls, first and foremost.)

Do you have thoughts for what you would like to see added/improved for this demo? The askbox on the Amadeus Game tumblr blog, as well as the Discord server, are both great places to provide feedback if you'd like to see any changes implemented in the full game. Check the linktree for links to those resources. I do already have a to-do list, from playtester feedback as well as my own experience/preference; but I am always seeking additional feedback!

Project Management: Making a New GDD to Actually Ship The Full Game

Making a Game Design Document (GDD) in class for the prototype that would eventually become Amadeus was simultaneously the hardest and most important thing I ever did for it. I struggle with breaking down tasks, but it is specifically because I struggle with it that forcing myself to do it is invaluable. Once I broke down the task of "make an entire game prototype" into all of its discrete pieces, and organized them into a calendar of deadlines (complicated ones first!), I could visualize how much work it was and prioritize, downsize, and get to work.

It also really helps fight against the part of me that constantly wants to add new shiny things. "Oh it won't be that hard if I just add this here and that there" - this is the Devil speaking. Once I can see a massive list of Everything That Needs to Be Done from breaking it down, it becomes clear that I don't even have enough time for the current vision, let alone one with extra bells and whistles! And then the question becomes "how do I prioritize just the essentials, and set new expectations for something achievable?" Start there. Always start there.

Unfortunately, when it came time to do one of the tasks I set myself for this month ("update the GDD"), I realized that task in itself needed to be broken down. I have an old GDD for a demo that was about 5-10 minutes long , has working but janky mechanics, and a laundry list of "will get to this later" items.  Transforming THAT into a GDD that would keep me on task to ship a complete Episode 1 is, let's face it, basically making a new one from scratch. The time I allotted to this task was not proportionate to how important and time-consuming it was going to be.

What I DID do, is sit down and make a plan to actually make this happen.

First of all, I need to make new paper prototypes, and get feedback on them. I am planning major enough changes to gameplay/UI that I need to prototype them on paper, see what makes the most sense, and use that to build the changes. I can't update the part of my document that talks about new mechanics to implement until I decide, concretely, what those mechanics should look like! I have some thumbnails I sketched already, which is a start. Next is to "build" and test them.

I also found that the biggest roadblock is that I had still not finalized the full narrative arc for Episode 1. I cannot make a list of needed assets until I have a total number of scenes/locations in mind, which I cannot have until I know exactly where Episode 1 begins, goes, and ends. I have a lot of overall ideas, and I know some basic major plot beats for each episode, but I was putting off more specific narrative work until later... because, well, it's hard work! And, like the GDD, the fact that it's hard means that is exactly why it needs to happen first. It's absolutely critical to the entire form of the game, and how I must direct my time and energy during development.

Now that I understand this - that I need to start over with paper prototypes, sit down and FULLY outline my Episode 1 narrative, and use that to create a new GDD that truly tracks every step between now and release - I have a game plan.

So, next month is going to be critical. This past month was a lot of me figuring things out and identifying what wasn't working. This doesn't really sound like an accomplishment, but it is one. Now, I know how to actually approach this, and I can get to work. I hope that, this same time next month, I'll be writing a devlog that inspires confidence that this game is really and truly going to launch. Because I'll have finished the hardest part of the whole process: planning it, breaking it down, and organizing it.

Recreation: Cool Media That Inspired Me This Month

Seriously, rest and recreation are so important! It's important to take breaks, it's important to have fun, and it's important to engage with other media when creating media yourself. This month was really full of inspiration for me. I....

• Played The House in Fata Morgana, an absolutely incredible gothic horror visual novel. It was SO inspiring for me, in terms of mechanics, narrative, and aesthetics. In fact there were several ideas developed in this story that I had already planned on engaging with in Amadeus, so seeing another interpretation of those ideas was a fascinating reference. Unfortunately, as with most visual novels, I cannot elaborate further without spoiling the entirety of both narratives. You should play it though.
• Watched a lot of werewolf movies. Even though Amadeus belongs more to the mystery and fantasy genres than the "werewolf" genre, the fact that the main character is a werewolf is a kind of extremely important driving force in the story. And I felt like I should do my due diligence and engage with a lot of werewolf stories before writing my own, because no one wants to be that guy who writes a story on very well-trodden ground and thinks they're doing it Special and like No One Else Ever Has. ...Also, full disclosure: I just wanted to watch a bunch of werewolf movies. So I checked out:
  • (Rewatch) American Werewolf in London
  • (Rewatch) Silver Bullet
  • (Rewatch) Bad Moon
  • (First Time) Ginger Snaps
  • (First Time) Wer
  I filled up about 2 pages of scribbled notes on different ideas, topics, images, conflicts, and themes that I want to engage with from each of these. I found that some of them asked questions that I am also asking in Amadeus, and gave me inspiration for how I might answer them. Since I know that narrative is the first thing I need to iron out, having a few brainstorming sessions while watching werewolf movies helped me get a more concrete idea of what, specifically, I want to say and do in my narrative.

If you haven't seen any of the movies on that list, by the way, I very strongly recommend American Werewolf in London, Silver Bullet, and Ginger Snaps.

That's all for this month! There should be another devlog at the end of September - look forward to that one. In the meantime, you can always bookmark the Linktree and check back for new resources.