Ask Me Anything; LoF, music, and what comes after LoF. (Patreon)

Thank you for the questions. I've tried answering them to the best of my abilities, but if I botched something, just nod and smile like I'm doing great. :)

I've skipped a few questions, as they were similar to other questions where I've included the answer to both when answering.

What is the scene you're most proud of..and is there one you would redo?
- tonymack21

Looking at LoF as a whole, I can't really pinpoint a single scene I'm the most proud of. When I release a chapter I always want it to have (a) scene(s) that stands out in some way. Mostly, these scenes spawn from me having a brainstorming moment, and two weeks later when I put it together and watch the result I sit there thinking "did I just use two weeks making this scene which lasts 1,5 minutes?" But I think these scenes are worth it and add to the more kinetic way of telling a story with images and text, and I take more pride in putting these in than being able to select one of them. But when I sat there in Daz Studio, with the MC in the bunny slippers, bopping his toes up and down to the music playing in the background, giggling to myself, I just thought "fuck it, I'm doing it". And I'm glad I did. Your reaction to it helped me realize I should just lower my shoulders and do stuff like that more often.

There's not a particular moment I'd like to redo visually. LoF also tells the story of me having downloaded Daz studio and started this right away to where I'm now. Sure, there are some facial expressions that can be improved here and there, the Kira and Robin path could have done with a rework, and maybe some images that could have been improved with better lighting or higher quality textures, but all in all I'm happy with it. If I were to redo it, I would do a complete overhaul and release it again in the Unreal or Unity engine in a 3d environment. That, to me, is a redo. Not small changes to images.

What will you try to do differently to make sure that this music issue doesn't happen for the next game?
- Michael Arias

I have already found a site offering music that are cleared adult content games. Of course, there's a higher chance that you've heard the song before in another game, but that's the downside of it I'm afraid. I'm also contacting musicians directly to get perpetual licenses with no adult restrictions. Other than that, there's not much I can do.

Will the music make its way back to the game ?
- carlos eduardo pereira titão

It's hard to answer because it depends on several things. When I got the ok from Artlist back in 2020, I decided to make full use of their huge library, as I could make music an integral part of the game. After the removal from Steam, I have contacted several of the musicians used in the original score, and many of them have been positive to sell me licenses of their music for Leap of Faith - even considering it's an adult game. Though, it will cost around $100,000 to reinsert all the music in its (close to) original form.

Sadly, that kind of investment is not worth it if the game continues to be removed from Steam, as it will put me into the red for a game I have worked on intensively for more than two years, where I will have no market to sell it on, and the customer base (you guys) already have the full music version downloaded and will get to keep forever.

On the flip side, if the game gets reinstated into the Steam store, it will at least generate some form of income that can be used to refill the music, even if it takes away the profit - which I have no problem with.

Lastly, some of the newer players that only have played the silent version of LoF and don't know any other version, come to me saying it's a great game even as a silent game.

Do you feel up to sharing a little bit about your inspiration for Cece? Please don't feel like you have to.
-M M

When I started diving into developing Cece's character I was picking up my son at school. So as I sat in my car waiting, I saw a girl exciting the school walking down the street. A bit later she walked into a light pole because she was too busy looking at her phone. She then gave the light pole a slight kick, saw me, waved, then continued on her way.

My main point is, you pick up something here and something there without pinpointing any direct source of inspiration. That's just one of many different situations that helped create Cece (or any of the other characters in LoF). I wanted a character that was socially awkward, a bit childish in her views of life, with struggles I'd seen up close.

So, even if a real person inspired the story of Leap of Faith, there's no real-life equivalent to Cece. She is a fictional character like all the other characters in Leap of Faith. But I had a very strong vision of how I wanted Cece to be, and when I saw the model, I instantly knew "that's Cece". The only reference to real life is the main story and my daughter's favorite color was purple, which is why Cece's character's name is purple, she has purple stripes in her hair, and her eyes sometimes flash purple. The name Cece is related to my daughter's friend, who survived the jump.

Will the next game be an entirely new one with new characters or will some characters make a return?
- Michael Arias

My next story is a completely new story. I've been working on the storyline for more than a year, and I looking forward to starting it. Even though it has a 'path' that is similar to Leap of Faith, it's not Leap of Faith 2, which is both exciting and terrifying. But I think you will enjoy it still.

There has already been several references in LoF to a location that is central to the new game. Furthermore, Christine (or Sea as you might be more familiar with) will be a love interest in that one, so it's not unthinkable that there will be references to LoF characters, or you'll hear Lexi on the radio somewhere. The chance that you'll actually see the characters from LoF is not very likely (although you never know with me).

What will the next game be about, and is it going to be sci-fi, vampire, medievil? Is it a female mc, or a male mc? what "tags" will be in the game? will patrons be mentioned in this game and the next? and what tiers if so? Do we get any say in the next game? Like you pose a girl with 3 different dress or color, and we get to vote?
- Johnni Schrøder

I've decided against giving out any information about my next game other than the occasional references that already exist in LoF. I've seen comments like "I'll play anything Drifty makes, except [insert random genre/tag here]". I honestly just want to release a game that I think you'll enjoy diving into, and can enjoy for what it is. Obviously, with the already in-game references, you can exclude some genres and make some assumptions. Other than that, I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and see. :)

The game is designed slightly differently, with me wanting to give you a lot of say in character customization for the next game, and you'll get options to vote for clothing sets and in some cases scenes. At some point, I'll also launch a character customization poll where you get to decide on how one of the love interests looks - but all in due time.

Several patrons are already referenced or mentioned in LoF, among them all of the original Leap of Faith tier holders. The current Leap of Faith tier will also get a special reference in the ending scenes of their favorite character as Leap of Faith is concluded. I'm a huge fan of these references and will keep doing them for my next game.

I'm really curious to learn about how you have learnt to construct a story so well, and how you conclude that a character (probably from your personal experience) is worth putting into your game.
- HUN

Creating the characters' personalities is a lot of fun. I ask myself random questions like "what does she like, what's her biggest fear, does she have any quirks, what does she hate, what's her biggest secret... all kinds of questions. Sometimes the answer even surprises me. Then when the visuals are ready and load them into Daz, I ask the character the same questions and see them answering them. What do they answer, are they comfortable answering, do they look down, smile, feel you're intruding their private space etc. Sometimes what they "answered" also surprised me.

So if I were to ask them a random question: "What's your stance on Sex"
Kira (looks you dead in the eye): I love it.
Robin (looks at Kira): I love it.
Steph (unfazed): I didn't even think about it until I met the right guy.
Linda (smiles): If you'd just notice me, I'd show you!
Cece (looks down to the right): I don't know...
Lexi (big smile, a bit uncertain): Haven't you seen my videos? They are sexy, right? ...I think they are.
Kevin (raising one eyebrow): I'm happily married.
Chris (looks at you sideways): Dude, stop. You're acting all weird.

Things like that makes me feel that I know the characters, so when I load them into a scene I know how they will react to whatever mischief I (or they) come up with. The same goes for poses, where I use different pose packs as bases when posing the different characters throughout the story. Helps add character to the characters.

Did you already have a background in programming and/or rendering work before you decided to make this game? And if not, how hard was it to learn, particularly the rendering work? (which I assume was done with DAZ 3D/IRAY)
- Wesley

I was fumbling around in Daz Studio in the beginning when I tried to get comfortable with the controls, so the first two days were a huge struggle. This was also when I used about 6 hours posing the MC on the bed for when he woke up at the beginning of the story. Other than that, it's not a very complicated program to learn, once you get past the basics of learning your eyes what to look for.

For the programming/Renpy parts, I was lucky to have been using "classic ASP" a lot of years back, which is similar to Python - used in Renpy. I'd say anybody can learn how to use Renpy as it's easy to learn, but the programming experience I had from way back helped me design things such as the in-game phone and some other events.

But both Daz Studio and Renpy are very forgiving, and you can do a lot with a minimum amount of pre-knowledge. As with all popular programs, the first 80% is easy to learn. The last 20 takes a bit of effort.

How much time do you devote (roughly) to writing? Do you come up with the entire story before starting the programming side of the story? Or is it more of as you work though a chapter, if another idea comes up, do you change right away? Or stick to the original to see how much it would change/affect the next chapter(s)?
- Shade Ducharme

I create the whole story from beginning to end in a very rough draft. I feel this is very important, as since I know what's going to happen 4 chapters from the one I'm working on, I can foreshadow future events, or give hints or pointers. Then I start thinking about small pieces of dialogue, background art, or places that have some kind of meaning which the reader is not going to know at the time of reading it the first time.

By then I should know roughly how long I want the story to be and can start dividing it into chapters that are of equal length. I also want the chapters to have some kind of ending that reveals or foreshadows something so it's more than just another standard scene. At this point, the chapters are just very rough reference points, where I know generally what will happen, but without much details.

From this point on, it's about adding events to the chapters. Mainly, what are they going to do, what assets are needed, how much work it is to create that scene I would like, or if the scenes are even doable with the assets available. I also work on character or relationship progression and the general idea of how dialogue is going to be.

That's all I know before I start the actual work on the chapters. For the actual scenes, I load everything, look around for different things I can toy around with, camera angles, how to place the characters, if I can make something of them arriving or leaving and so forth. I make up the dialogue in my head and render the different images portraying that.

Then about 1000 renders in when making the chapters, I start the actual Renpy work where I piece everything together and dot down the final dialogue. This is by far the quickest part of making this, because I already have all the visuals. When I see the renders I've done, I remember the dialogue, and all that remains is to get it 'down on paper'.

What is with the MC commenting on her [Lexi's] hair for some of the responses?
- Skep

Lexi's hair asset is called "Cafe Curls", and it's horrible to work with. I told myself I would never ever use it, because of just that. Lexi even had Kira's hair at one point when I was making her. So when I did some tests in the bar where you meet her for the first time I put on those Cafe Curls as a test, because I had no other hair available at the time.

When I saw the test render I just knew that was Lexi and silently cursed because I knew I had to struggle with that hair for thousands of renders until the end of LoF.

So the "horrible hair" reference that's going on between the mc and Lexi is more of a dev joke that other devs who have used that hair will know so very, very well.

what does the "option missed" mean for each character at the end of the chapter?
- Skep

When seeing discussions about other VNs I often see references to "oh, you didn't see that scene?" because of something the player did or didn't do in the game. The 'options missed' are things that could potentially lead to missing (or already missed) scenes, and I'm letting you know about it.

Have you settled on a name for the next game?
- TheExoticTitan

Yes, I have. The art is even prepared. I won't reveal it just yet, but you might want to wait for the inevitable "avengers ending" at the last screen of the last chapter of LoF.

Thank you again for the diverse questions. I'll be back with the normal dev diary next Friday.

Have a nice weekend, and stay safe out there.

// Drifty