October Devlog: Substantial Progress and a New Vision

But first... FULL GAME TITLE AND POSTER REVEAL!!!

"Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee"

Episode 1 ~ Waltz coming Summer 2024.

This poster was made for Amadeus's new website: amadeus-game.com

I will gradually be adding information from the linktree to the new site, and including more and more visuals and other media. Keep an eye out over the coming weeks & months. If you'd like more immediate updates than the monthly devlogs here (such as knowing when the website has been updated with cool stuff), you can follow on Tumblr or join this Discord server.

As will be discussed in this devlog, creating this poster has influenced my vision for the game's art direction. I hope you find the imagery intriguing... I hope it poses questions that may or may not be answered in the debut episode....

Now, on to the development updates!

Devlog TL;DR

• New Mechanics: Significant progress has been made on implementing the desired new mechanics for the full game, discussed in last month's devlog. I am still, tentatively, on track to release an updated public demo showcasing these mechanics by the end of this year.
• Art Direction: Certain assets in the game will be inked and colored! This was inspired by the poster and will be a really interesting contrast to the penciled sepia. A screenshot of a scene with an inked talksprite is included in this section to illustrate the idea. Next month I will determine precisely which assets will be inked/colored and which won't, for the most effective outcome.
• New Music/Discussion of Artist Block: This section is not an update but more of a free-form discussion of the musical art block I have experienced since leaving grad school. It covers how I worked through it this month, and wrote new music (both for Amadeus and otherwise) that I'm proud of and excited about.
• Recreation: Media I engaged with this month for fun and inspiration!

New Mechanics

The mechanics I've been working on can be separated into 3 categories: text mechanics, interaction mechanics, and settings/UI. I'll briefly outline where I'm currently at with each.

Text mechanics:

• Backlog - IN PROGRESS. There is a readable, chronological backlog of recently-viewed text that can be referenced in case the player skimmed or forgot something. I have created the basic functionality. The next step is making it more elegant to scroll through by making the size of the textbox grow dynamically as text is added.
• Text fade-in - FINISHED. Text dynamically appears letter-by-letter, and a slider in the menu controls how quickly it appears. If the player presses space or the proceed button while text is still appearing, it will display the full text all at once.
• Auto text - FINISHED. Once the full text in a text box has been displayed, if this option is active, after a set amount of time it will automatically proceed to the next text box without any input. This is off by default but can be activated in the menu, with the ability to adjust the length of time before text proceeds.

Interaction mechanics:

This category overall is IN PROGRESS. I am currently getting feedback on the existing iteration of the new control scheme. It has a few known bugs, but is overall - I think - a good hybrid of point-and-click and keyboard controls. The major features of this control scheme are:

• Cursor icon changes when hovering over a point on the screen that can be interacted with. Different categories of interactions have a unique cursor icon for clarity: boots for a point Amadeus will walk to, eye for an item Amadeus will comment on from afar, hand for an item Amadeus will interact with. This also allows the player to click on and inspect items on the screen that are out of reach for Amadeus, which was not possible with the original control scheme.
• Hover + space bar can be used instead of a click. I want to avoid requiring constant clicks because of my own wrist problems, while also embracing the control scheme that makes the most sense for this genre. Hovering with the mouse and using the space bar to invoke click behavior seems to be a good hybrid solution for now. There is currently at least 1 known bug with this as-implemented that I hope to work out next month.

Settings/UI:

Forgive the default Unity UI assets - my first priority was getting this to work mechanically, and now that it does, I will iterate on a nice design for the menu. All of the following mechanics are FINISHED (or at least, working; numbers/details still need to be tweaked).

• Settings Menu: It is extremely important to be able to access the settings mid-text-event so no one gets stuck with text that's too slow or too fast in the middle of important dialogue. Therefore, this settings menu is effectively a pause menu that can be accessed at any time without being intrusive. It can currently be opened by a UI button or the Esc key; this may be changed in the future.
• Auto Text Toggle: Currently, a button toggles Auto Text on/off in this menu. I would like to also implement a hotkey that acts as the toggle and is easier to use, but with just the button the functionality is there and works as expected.
• Auto Text Delay & Text Appearance Rate: There are UI sliders that customize how quickly text appears letter-by-letter, and how long the text will be fully displayed before auto-progressing if Auto Text is toggled on. I've already received some feedback that my "fastest" setting needs to be faster, so the actual numbers of each range will be tweaked more. But the mechanic works!

There are many more settings to be included in this menu - mono vs stereo sound, discrete volume sliders for BGM/SFX, save and load, view controls - but none of these are implemented yet. I have already routed SFX and BGM to different audio buses so the discrete audio controls should be straightforward to code.

For next month, I want to create the remaining mechanics, fix bugs/respond to feedback in those that have already been implemented, and design a settings screen/UI that is more appealing and intuitive. By next devlog, I hope to have screenshots of a finished, functional, shiny new menu!

Art Direction

This is very exciting, and truthfully, a bit daunting. It would be more reasonable in terms of scope to just focus on finishing the game using the same pencil-sketch aesthetic I used for the demo, and until now, I thought I would be content with that.

But from creating the poster for this month, and getting out my nice inking pens again... I remembered just how much I love the sharp, decisive appearance of a well-inked work of art. In order to determine whether I should use inking in the game itself, I tested the waters by inking one of Amadeus's talksprites, scanning it, and doing  a quick pass at coloring it:

...and, unfortunately, I love this so much that I don't think I can convince myself to go back. Compared to the existing sprites:

It's just... SO effective. I asked for some external feedback on this as well, and received some good advice and a better sense of pros/cons of pivoting my art direction at this point... but once I saw this, I knew that I personally would not be satisfied if I left the art direction the way it has been so far.

It's almost certainly not feasible for me to ink and color every single asset in this game if I want to release it next summer, though, and I do. Taking my self-imposed deadlines seriously, and making concessions to do so, is the only reason the demo got released. Finishing the full game is an INCREDIBLY high priority to me-- I am only working part-time at the moment, specifically so that I can dedicate as much time and energy as possible to this game. I want to finish this, and that necessitates being realistic about what I can achieve, and having discipline in sticking to my deadlines.

So the question has become, not "do I ink the assets?" - but rather, "WHICH assets do I ink, and to what effect?"

Should I only ink the talksprites and perhaps UI items? Should I use the inked assets vs sketched assets to help distinguish which character is speaking, instead of using transparency? Should I use inked assets only in select scenes or circumstances to serve some narrative end?

I don't yet have an answer to these questions, because I only started experimenting with inking about a week ago. Possibly my most important assignment for next month is to make a concrete decision on this. By the end of next month, I will have updated my GDD's "Art Direction" section to reflect this, and to list out every single asset that will need to be inked so I am aware of how much work I'm creating for myself. And - this is essential - whatever I decide, I must stick to it, and not let myself try to keep adding more effort to every aspect of the game, lest it never get finished. This is getting added only because, as a visual novel, I believe the quality of the visuals is an essential and highly compelling part of the game, so I think in this case it is worth it.

(I've wanted since the beginning to better convey Amadeus's porcelain wrists in the game... color will be a very effective tool for that!)

New Music/Discussion of Artist Block

This section is not an objective progress update, but a discussion on my process as an artist, and how this process has changed now that I am no longer attending music school (and therefore no longer surrounded by other musicians, or given constant deadlines to study, analyze, and make music).

I graduated from a Master's program studying music technology and composition in May. The demo for Amadeus released in July. All of the music for the demo was finished when I was still in school; the two months between graduation and release were spent on mechanics, visuals, narrative, sound design, and polish. The first time I attempted to write new music for Amadeus on my own was in August... and it was slow going.

By reviewing notes from a course on 20th century Harmony, I was able to sketch about 8 measures of music. They were a promising 8 measures! However... they never turned into anything more than that. I couldn't figure out how to develop or extend them, I couldn't see a path forward, and I felt awful comparing this barely-started idea to all of the polished, finished works of music I made while in school. I was stuck for quite a while, not just on this piece but for other music projects outside of Amadeus. I felt unable to write any new, good, original music.

The good news is, as of the time of writing this, I feel that I have overcome that. I don't doubt the problem will resurface again, but I hope that the approaches I used this month to combat it will be of use to me again in the future. I have a finished, brand new composition for Solea's grove! It needs dynamics, finesse, orchestration, mixing, recordings, and lots of detail/love.... but the composition is complete, and it's one of my best. I also have a pianist friend who has agreed to record it for me once I prepare sheet music for her, so like many of my other pieces, this will be a collaboration with another musician. Those are always my strongest and favorite works.

Because I've made such progress, despite things feeling so bleak just a few weeks ago, I want to write a little about what helped me self-motivate and create an environment that is stimulating enough for me artistically to write new music that I'm proud of.

1. I asked a lot of people for advice. I messaged several of my friends from school about how I felt unable to write good music since I graduated, and asked if any of them felt the same way. And while all of them had a different relationship to the problem, ALL of them had similarly found it difficult to write music recently, and ALL of them had really unique, helpful, and personal insight when we talked about it. This also helped with the fact that I've been feeling isolated since I left school, by reconnecting with these friends.
2. I re-organized my workspace and catalogued my reference materials. I knew that my space didn't feel "right" for creating, so I removed an external monitor that I barely use and put a BIG box of books, notes, sheet music, handouts, magazines, and other resources related to music directly on my desk at eye level. And per the advice of a friend who works in a library: to avoid losing track of the contents of all of these notebooks, I made index cards listing the contents of each so I can easily reference them without opening them. The process of making these catalog cards also refreshes the information in my brain as I write it down, so I'm more aware of what I have on hand.
3. Myself and 2 school friends are starting monthly prompt challenges where we share a prompt at the start of the month and use it to force ourselves to Make Something. Crucially, these are low-stakes and it's ok if they suck a little bit. It's just an exercise to keep up with the craft. In school, we constantly worked on half-assed assignments in addition to select high-effort passion projects; those half-assed assignments really did help keep us in shape. So now we're self-assigning them! And also using this as an opportunity to give and receive critical feedback, which helps us continue to grow.
4. I'll be attending at least one live music show every month! One thing I really miss from school was constantly being exposed to all kinds of music, including that which isn't particularly to my taste. I learned so much from that kind of exposure. Now that I have the names and info of some great venues in my new area, I plan to go to shows at least monthly so I can continue to learn from other artists and remember the unique magic of live performance. And support other artists!

Truthfully, I don't know if any specific one of these steps really solved the problem, or if it was just a matter of the right combination of circumstances to get my brain to feel "right" to make music again. I really like to think that these concrete steps are helping. The wonderful thing about developing a game, though, is that even if I go 3 months being unable to write good music... there is SO MUCH else I can work on that I can still feel proud of myself. In this time, I've already accomplished so much toward my goal of a full episode 1 release next summer. And I think that helps motivate me, too.

Recreation

As always! I think it matters to talk about other art/media I've interacted with, both as direct inspiration for Amadeus and just as fun, enriching experiences for me as a person. This month I....

• Played a couple more Castlevania games: Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance. Neither quite hit the spot after Symphony of the Night was so uniquely appealing to me, but I have enjoyed both, and have found Harmony of Dissonance in particular really fun. Its soundtrack is deranged in a way I quite enjoy, and I love the stupid furniture collection mechanic.
• Listened, extensively and on repeat, to Professor Layton and Castlevania series music. Normally I wouldn't bother mentioning this here because you can generally assume that listening to melodic video game music on my MP3 player is my default state of being. This month, however, there were several days where I set aside hours specifically to listen to music from these two series as inspiration for some of my own music projects, including Amadeus; so they merit attention. I would like to make a special shout-out to "The Tragic Prince" (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), "Clockwork" (Castlevania: Circle of the Moon), and "Kodh" (Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy).
• Played Slide in the Woods (an itch.io game!) with a friend as a Halloween get-together activity. I was just searching for a Mac-compatible, short, free horror game, and this one came up. It was a really great example of solid, simple game design: it does a lot with just ONE mechanic. By making a game so focused on one thing, it really draws the player's attention to what changes, and is a fantastic reference for pacing and environmental storytelling. If you are interested in something simple and very creepy I recommend it.

That wraps it up for this month! Next devlog at the end of November, but as mentioned at the beginning, you can follow on Tumblr or join the Discord server for more frequent updates. The Discord server is also great if you're interested in playtesting as I continue building out more mechanics. And you'll be the first to know once more bells and whistles are added to the new website! All that and more here: https://linktr.ee/amadeusgame