PAN★TZU - a pixelart style Visual Novel

[BulletEye]

To there and back…

I know posted anything here for a long time, but I got my excuses all ready:
Firstly, my studies and, mainly, my Master’s Thesis got started for real and I’ve had to redo and rethink, research and write a lot of stuff. And as this isn’t a devlog for the Thesis, I haven’t had much to add here.
Secondly… I’ve got good news. The thesis isn’t the only thing I’ve been writing. In fact, I’ve prepared a pre-alpha demo of my game… as to what is a ‘pre-alpha’ of a visual novel, put simply it is a gamebook (also known as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book). However, gamebooks aren’t really UE related so I didn’t bother posting anything about them either.

For the project and the thesis I’ve written the first chapter of the story in 3 different ways, utilizing different mechanics to create interactivity. The three version would be a static version, which is a traditional linear novel; a branching path version, which similar to a common visual novel; and one dubbed the adventure version, which is like the branching path one but with die rolls included.
For those so inclined, you can find the the different novels or ‘pre-alpha’ versions here
There is also a questionnaire I would hope everyone who reads at least one of them to answer, so I can gather some data for my thesis.

The adventure version also gave me an idea, what if there were choices in the actual visual novel that were decided by luck (or a random number), and the reader would know anything about this (kind of like procedurally branching the story at certain points), of course these would have an major impact on the routes certain events would happen a bit differently. If anyone reading this has an opinion on this kind of a feature, please, do leave a comment.

Now, as I’ll wait for results from the first part of my Master’s project, I’ll start working on the second part of it, which is actually the visual novel part (and as anyone who has read even just the previous post will realize I already more than half of the work done). And since that is more UE and game related, I’ll try to update this more often again.

[BulletEye]

…and back again…

So I’ve been working on the digital game versions of the novel. These are all basically direct continuations of the pdf novels, wherein the most interactive version is the exact same as the least interactive version in the game. The game, though, gets rid of many of the trivialities present in the pdfs, offering an experience similar to reading the static version (I know that might not make much sense).

The sound novel-esque version with a full screen text box (the least interactive version):

The interesting thing I’ve noticed is that the textbox looks better when it’s not as wide as the screen. Maybe square is the way to go… or is it just me?
I’ve also nerfed or degraded some of the things I have for my visual novel. Simply because it would take too much time to bring everyone one of the systems up to the same level, making it easier to degrade one to make all fit. I also build my visual novel base from the ground up myself just to make it simpler and easier to use (at least for me).

Also, while the systems (that I’ve previously shown) are all done, I’m left with the trivial effort of editing the story to fit the systems… and I’m a bit behind schedule as far as that goes.
I’ve also found yet another way to make a text-adventure game and have been kind of slowly building that up. All the while struggling with procrastination over what I’m actually supposed to be doing.

Who knows maybe after I get my master’s thesis done, I’ll make some kind of an interactive novel asset that anyone can use to make these kinds of games/novels without needing any extra plugins and stuff, or then I’ll make like a tutorial on how I made the systems (I won’t claim these are the best ways to do this)… but who knows, it all depends on whether I can activate myself enough for that.
If anyone is interested just say so and try to activate myself harder.

[BulletEye]

…and again…

So for the past couple weeks I’ve been busy with mainly two things, editing the story for the systems and the text-adventure system.
Last week I finished editing the novel for the interactive adventure system, (I also ended up re-editing the story for the visual novel, so it would be more consistent with the other systems) and here are the results for that:

For those who might not know the concept: interactive adventure novels are basically either, “Look/Talk/Move” -style visual novels (like Snatcher) or Point-and-Click style visual novels (like the original version YU-NO). For me it was considerably easier to go with the Snatcher-style than with point-and-click mechanics.

And after looking through my previous attempt at text-adventures I decided to switch to my reworked version of the system which is still under work, but I should be ready with the minimum required functions for my Master’s Project by the end of the week (hopefully). And then I can get back to… text-editing… -_-

Well anywho, after I’m done with that I can release the demo with all the different systems, focus on writing the my Thesis for a little while, and then FINALLY get back to working on the actual game… or at least that’s the dream.

[BulletEye]

…once more…

Finally finished my text-adventure system for the demo, was may more work then I had expected! (More on that on another thread.)

All that’s left is a typo check and testing for all the other systems and then I can finally release the demo / second part of my Master’s project.
I hope to get that all done by the end of the month (but knowing me, I won’t promise anything, even if the deadline for my Master’s thesis is on the line here).

[BulletEye]

Hahaa, finally!

So now I’ve done finished the mechanics, the testing and the first demo is finally here.

PAN★TZU by BulletEyeGames

You can go and try it.

When it comes to the visual novel side of things, I had to nerf it quite a bit as I was not able to bring the other versions up to the same standards in the time I had (still ended up missing the deadline).

But that effectively takes care of my Master’s Project requirements, and now I can finally get back to making the actual game instead just running around it.
Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking about the minigames, that I was planning to add, and thanks a few side things I’ve been doing, I have a bunch of pretty good ideas and a couple of semi ready prototypes. I just need to finish them and polish them… and add them to the game. Then I could release like an actual demo of what the game is supposed to be like. I’ll also post some clips of them here when I get workable prototypes. (but as usual, don’t expect regular, scheduled updating)

Of course the writing process keeps going on, and after rewriting the same chapter 10 times, I really don’t feel like returning it that soon as I really want to keep moving forward with the story.

[BulletEye]

And back to updates about the game!

So as I mentioned previously, I’ve been thinking about minigames to go with enhancing the feelings of anxiety, frustration, panic, etc, that the MC feels throughout the game due her shy, introverted nature.
To that end I started making prototypes/demos of old games:

And out of these old games, I so far have two potential ideas for minigames:

The so called Orbit Invaders, which I would work well in the beginning of the first chapter, where the player would be protecting the MC from bad thoughts, instead of protecting the planet from aliens. I think it’s a pretty good display of anxiousness, as there are lots of bad thoughts coming to crush any hope of positivity fast and keeping them all away is hard.

The other would be BreakOut Invaders:

Which I think would work well in the self-introduction part of the first chapter. The block/enemy walls would keep closing in, slowing crushing the bouncing heart in the middle and the player would have to do their best to free the heart. I feel it’s kind of chaotic enough to properly display the emotion of panic, as the player would have to control both ships with one mouse and dodge bullets from the enemy ships at the same time.

In the beginning of the story I would want the minigames to be near impossible to beat to properly show that the social anxiousness felt by the MC is no joke, and as the story goes on the familiar games become easier in similar situations as the MC learns to handle the situations better and can remain calmer.

I’m also working on an idea for the game to be developed by the characters in the game, the game within a game. I don’t want to reveal it yet, because I’m not quite sure how I want to implement it yet, or if I can even make it work in the first place.

But while I work on those, I’ll keep building demos and prototypes of older games in order to get more minigame inspirations and better minigame ideas. I’ll also try to get more presentative demos of the minigames done by next update… unless I get some really inspired idea I want to post before then…