Soulgasm Captain's Log #2 (Patreon)

Ahoy, me hearties! And welcome to the second Soulgasm Devlog! So many things happened last month that, somehow, this Cap'n missed the first one entirely! Yet it is already public, and you can access it Right Here!!

As we previously decided together, we are now decidedly sharing Soulgasm’s core devlogs here for you to stay in the loop with the latest news of our very first game!! And I am excited to say we have so much to update you about its development!! I shall try keeping it concise and straightforward so we keep it as far as it gets from feeling like spam ;)

Ready for the update? Then let’s buckle up! (A TL:DR version is available at the end of the text!)

🔧 Technical update:

   We have all the artwork, story, and UX streams ready to be worked on. Most of our game design tasks are also done - there's a lot to code though, so you won't see any visual progress for a bit. All placeholder code will be replaced with the real deal!

Testing the important bits 🔼

   ►Yay! We already finished the splash screen, wrote the draft of the menu, and added a modular cutscenes player.

   ►We have made real progress with level design and map navigation. More to come on that later this month!

   ►We set up the conversation engine, which includes some really fun text effects 👀

   ►We created a system that allows us to seamlessly combine gameplay, conversations, and cutscenes. Our engine now has a timeline, which means we can animate scenes with dialogue, have basic camera moves, and modify scene sequences to fit the narrative.

🐙 Moar hands on deck!

   And last but not least, Johny, the Programming Magician, is our newest Team member! He is a ruthless bug slayer and feature coder. And when it comes to coding wizardry, he’s a real Gandalf.

   Now we are ready to work with sketches of the intro and dialogue together! Can't wait to see what other wonders our great new wizard has in his repertoire of tricks! 👀

📝 Writing

   In Soulgasm, we plan to have a rich plot full of intersecting stories, so we had to think carefully about which bits we wanted to show off on the Game Demo. After agreeing on some key story beats, we moved to design the very beginning of the story. The Prologue is what will define your experience: It introduces you to the world where the story develops, and it reveals the main character’s motivations and reasons.

   Besides, it was just exciting to start our work on the intro cinematic. The shooting script is ready; now it’s time for storyboard magic!

The writer gently telling us not to touch. What wonders may it hold inside! 🔼

🎨 Art

   The first Soulgasm character chosen to enter Unity was Farah. She took the right pill and leaped through the mirror.

   She became alive in code. Last month you saw her portraits and the feeble first steps. Soon you’ll be able to meet the true, animated version of her.

In the meantime, we are moving on to the next character design :3

Farah begging us for some more expressions 🔼

   We also took a bit of time to work out the levels and design the Palace. We've done large cycles of iteration until we could make it a base for our game map. This was super important for us to define the general game style, look and feel. It’s still a work in progress, but it's coming along well!

How it started 🔽

How it's going🔽

Against all odds, we are stepping strong!

   Being this the second month officially working on Soulgasm, we had a few concerns and worries that every team just getting started would have. From an organizational point of view to simple human concerns such as 'are we all aiming in the same direction?'. And, to our great relief, it went much better and smoother than we could have predicted.

   We wouldn't be able to make any of this if it wasn't for the gorgeous Seekers that decided to trust us and support the game development. This new journey has so far been the result of your participation and belief in us, and we are extremely thankful for that.

   Thank you for being a crucial part of this dream coming to life. It is finally happening, and we are SO excited about all what is yet to come!

With great enthusiasm and gratitude,

Devlog Summary (TL;DR):

• Unity Developer joined the Team!
• Dialogue system up and running,
• Map navigation system in progress,
• Timeline is up and running,
• Technical bits and bobs are now ready to start incorporating game art,
• Game Demo scope closed,
• Game intro writing completed,
• Character art in progress,
• Level design in progress,
• Storyboarding started!