Q&A Session - February 2020 (Patreon)

Game development

What do you use for character modeling and rendering?

The tools I use for game development are DAZ3D for all modeling/rendering, Photoshop/After effects and ffmpeg for post-processing.

Any chance we will ever see a girl with pierced nipples or is it too complicated?

Nipple piercings in animations are complicated, but I must admit I haven't tried it in a long time. I remember giving Rena a nipple piercing, but it was a real pain to work with. I'm sure it's easier to do it today, after learning more about DAZ3D, but currently none of the models in Being a DIK have it. I will keep nipple piercings in mind for future models, because I like the idea of trying to work with it again.

I love your amazing storytelling and was wondering if you had any advice on how to write better ?

I'm a novice at this. Being a DIK is the second story I have ever written, so I really don't know how to give tips on this. I write from the heart and I don't shy away from writing about touchy subjects and feelings. What helps me with the storytelling is the artwork, it lets me show what I want to say with words. I don't think I could write an actual novel and still have as many readers like it.

The best tip I can give is to not be afraid to show people your writing and listen to their feedback without taking it personally. Putting yourself out there is important to be able to improve.

How did you learn to improve the quality of your renders? Trial and error or did you have a learning source you kept referring back to? 

I have allotted time to try new things every week, just to see if I can discover new methods that can be used in game development. It doesn't have to be about rendering; it's applied to coding, writing, image processing etc.

When I try to improve my art in DAZ3D, I fiddle around with settings. I actively look for menues and functions that I have never used before and see what their purpose are. I have discovered and developed many new tricks this way. The most important thing is to dare try new things and to not be afraid of failing if it doesn't work. 

Lighting is the most important part to master. I'm not sure if I ever will master it, but I continue to see improvements in how I use it. If you find yourself using the same type of lighting all the time, your render quality will probably remain what it is. Try different light sources, fiddle with settings and don't be lazy and use pre-made lighting assets as a standard; that way you will never learn and improve.

Most patreon pages with this many patreons  don't work solo anymore. They have 3-8 people that work actively on the project. Do you still work alone or do you get any help from employee/friends? Anf if you do, in which field? (Music,design,story,rendering...) If not, are you planning to recruit people?

Yes, many creators team up to create games. Those creators truly amaze me, because I could never do that. I get help with proofreading and beta testing, which alleviates a lot before release. Everything else I do on my own and I love every single bit of game development! 

I'm not looking to recruit people for any parts of the game development. I will continue to do this gig solo until the day I stop doing it. I don't want to rely on someone else to match my workflow and high demands. I also fear that it could potentially ruin the vision I have for the game. Also, I wouldn't be a good boss, I would micro-manage way too much and that could actually end up hurting my productivity. I think the end-product would suffer if I brought more people on board, because this is a product of passion; what I'm doing right now I'm devoting the majority of my life to, for a foreseeable future.

It seems like you are pushing Ren'py to it's limits. Have you ever considered another game engine?

I love pushing engines to their limits. I constantly try to think of new things to add that the engine might not allow. I hit a limit with a plan for on-the-spot conditional animations recently and that sucked because I had some really neat ideas. But to switch engines just like that wouldn't do the game any good. First of all there's the whole learning process. Starting all over from square one with a new engine, or even an engine I would build from scratch, would take too much time.

What's great about Ren'Py is that Python code is stupid simple to read and write and it's perfectly designed for Visual novels. Players love this engine for it's simplicity and functionality. There aren't any great alternatives to Ren'Py when it comes to Visual novels, if such an engine came along I would definitely consider it, but it needs to offer something that Ren'Py doesn't for the switch to be worthwhile.

In a future after Being a DIK will you consider developing another game? And if that's the case will it still be based on our age and culture or will you try something that you've never done, like environments of past or the future and unknown stories?

When Acting Lessons was completed I went in a totally different direction with Being a DIK. Players had high expectations from me and I often read that I never could top what I did in Acting Lessons. I'm sure that I will hear the same about Being a DIK in the future.

I didn't want to write another Acting Lessons, because anything I write will always be compared to what I have previously written. I don't write to compete with myself or anyone else, I just want to tell engaging stories. That's why I love the idea of changing settings between games. I currently have 3 settings in mind that I could make future games of, but I can't disclose any of these ideas since there are a lot of copy cats in this world.

If I do another game after this long journey, that is Being a DIK, it will be something different and have a smaller cast. I prefer modern time settings and something you probably won't see from me ever are futuristic, science fiction and space settings; it's rare for me to enjoy any media in those genres.

What are your plans for the licensed music being added to the game; Do you plan on adding it in to the 1st seasons music, or just apply it to future seasons? Are you replacing the current tracks or just adding in more? Have you thought about the idea of character themes? I've noticed when I listen to certain tracks from the game, it reminds me of very specific charcters and moments.

My plan is to continue building on the soundtrack, this means that the game, even from episode 1, may have the new songs in the Music app. I'm not removing/replacing any songs or changing songs in past scenes, only adding more to future scenes. I've already purchased songs that will be added starting episode 5.

The topic of having a character theme is interesting. I've tried to match songs with characters already. The main character has acoustic guitar songs, Jill has piano themes, Quinn/Riona often get edgier soundtracks. But one specific theme song per character isn't really what I'm going for. I want to set the mood as good as possible for each scene in the game using music. And when/if something happens in the future, I may use songs from the past to bring back the same kind of emotions from before.
 

Steam

When season 2 is finished. Will it launch on Steam right away or will it take several of weeks or maybe even months?

Just like Season 1, I plan to release seasons on Steam roughly one month after the initial early access release on Patreon. Having a month after initial release helps me sort out bugs and it also makes it possible for patrons of the $5 tier to grab a copy of the game before it hits Steam.

Will Season 2 be automatically added to the existing base game or are you going to make Season 2 a separate thing from Season 1? 

This is explained on my Steam store page. New seasons will be released and sold separately as DLC. New content will be added to the Season 1 base game, meaning that there will only be one single executable file for the entire game.

I do have some news on this for Patreon versions as well, but this isn't a suitable post to explain this with. There will be an announcement on this later. Don't delete the Patreon version of Season 1, yet.

With the steam releases, will each season have to be bought separately or when the whole game is finished can I buy a version of the game which would have all the seasons packaged together for a higher price?

The problem I'm facing with seasonal DLC is that I don't have a set number of seasons for the game on paper yet. My plan is to sell each season separately until we reach the last season where I will release a bundle for the entire game. I will do my utmost to keep the pricing fair, both to those who purchase the DLC individually and for those who buy the full game when it's ready. If you're looking to buy everything on Steam at once, you will have to wait a long time.

Being a DIK

Is Being a DIK inspired by the American Pie movies? 

I love all American Pie movies, except for "The book of love". And it's for sure a source of inspiration together with many other college themed movies. My favorite college movie that still makes me laugh is "Sorority boys". It's a hidden gem and its humor is right up my alley.

Will the second season also consist of four episodes? And how many seasons will the game have?

Four episodes per season felt like a good number back when I thought that each season would be ~4GB. I think I will stick to an approximate amount of content rather than a fixed episode count. It will likely be 4 episodes per season, but it's not carved in stone.

The first time I mentioned anything about the total episode count I said 10-20 episodes. I know that this estimate can be improved, but it's hard to say an exact count because I have a very specific plan for the game that I can't reveal. The best estimate I can give you right now is that we're still early in the game and that I would be surprised if I release less than 4 seasons.

Are you planning to expand the content through the dating app and will Envy get more content?

I have more plans for the dating app, yes. I really enjoy making the content for it, since it requires a lot of code, which I love writing and the choices in the dialogues can go in so many more directions than pure story dialogue.

Envy/Nicole will get more content. As a rule of thumb, I won't remove characters from the game until it's clear that they have played their part, for whatever reason that may be.

After four chapters, are there any characters who have really surprised you and grown in a direction you hadn't really planned for at the start? Or has everything pretty much built up how you'd initially intended?

When it comes to characters surprising me it happens constantly. Writing dialogue to Being a DIK is often a smooth experience where I basically just have a conversation with myself as the characters I'm writing for. During this conversation, the characters get their own mind and they can sometimes say the weirdest things I didn't think they would say. I rarely correct them, I let them grow from that and it's something that's both scary and enjoyable when writing dialogue.

From day one they had their personalities, likes/dislikes, motivations and story arcs. They aren't deviating from these original ideas, but the journey is different from what I had imagined. The characters that have surprised me the most to this date are Maya and Jade. They have grown in a way I didn't predict day one and I absolutely love it.

Are there any characters in either of your games that you particularly like or dislike?

I can't answer who my favorite girl is, in Being a DIK, before the game is completed. I don't want to appear biased and make players think that I value certain characters more than others. But like all of us, I have my own tastes and indeed I have favorites in both terms of beauty and character. Some of my likes/dislikes would probably surprise you.

I have a rating for all characters that I update between episodes. I score them 1-5 cakes depending on how much I like/dislike them. The ratings change a lot with time, as I get to know the characters, but so far it's only been in the upwards direction, meaning that I only like characters more and more.

The characters I do enjoy writing for the most are, in no particular order: Derek, Quinn, Isabella and Jade. Derek is an outlet for my juvenile sense of humor, Quinn lets me be a manipulative puppet master and Isabella & Jade let me use a different kind of vocabulary.

Liam was my favorite character in Acting Lessons. For me, I valued the bromance more than the romance.

When it comes to disliking characters it's harder. I would say that I dislike how I chose to write certain characters and that I could have made a better effort in some character designs. The thing I dislike the most is how I didn't give the villains in Acting Lessons more depth and motivations. But these are lessons I learned the hard way and will bear with me as experience in the future.

When planning the game do you have the whole story mapped out, or just the main story beats and you wing it a little with the details? How do you keep track of so many moving parts, especially when it comes to dialogue; like a character references something someone else has done?

I have a flowchart that I update constantly. The main story was mapped out since day one and all the big events in the game are in it and they won't change. I have written scenarios/events that I want to write before the game is completed and I have placed these events along a timeline, which makes it easier to know what to write each episode and what pace to keep.

The dialogue is created on a per episode basis, with the exception of the biggest events where I have written some speeches already. It's hard to keep track of everything, especially when the cast features 50+ people living inside my head. I make notes, a LOT of notes and I constantly check past code for variables and choices I want to re-use to create impact on the story. Most choices I already know how they will affect the future when I write them. When you know what's to come, it's easier to plan the details.

Is there an ending already planned for this game or is it so far away you dont think about that yet?

Multiple endings are planned. I will not disclose the number of endings or give any more details, but expect variation and some joint shared events.

So far, in Season 1 of Being a DIK, the Relationship Points (RP) haven't played any role unlocking certain paths or closing others (only DIK/CHICK status), will they become more relevant in the near future (Season 2 or Season 3 if planned) 

I removed the visibility of the RP because I saw players playing the game to get as high of a score as possible with the girls. It became a hunt for stats and that was a big warning sign, since that's not at all what I wanted this game to be.

I want the game to be about choices and how a sum of choices, as well as key choices, can come together and affect the journey. The best example of this so far is in episode 3 where Isabella evaluates you and for the moment makes up her mind about you as a person. It wasn't a single choice that caused her to say that you're good or bad for Jill, it was a sum of your actions, where some of your choices mattered more than others.

The RP in the game so far have been used two times, during the visit to The Pink Rose in episode 3, where the RP with the DIKs alter Tommy's response and also in episode 3 how Maya's lewd scene is extended if she likes you.

I use and will use the RP to customize and give flavor to the journey and these points may be used in bigger forks along the road, but overall it's your personality and actions that will matter the most in the game. That's why I recommend everyone to have a main save where they follow their heart in their choices and don't get hung up on score hunting. Getting 100% RP with a girl may not matter depending on your other choices.

Thanks to everyone who asked questions! I will do another Q&A in the future when I notice that there's a need for one. Also, a warm welcome to all new patrons!

Cheers

Dr PinkCake