🔧 Devlog 28 - A big conversation, Changes and on art updates (Patreon)

It's been a long time since I sent a devlog, so this will be huge. But here we go!

First of all, I'm really grateful for the feedback you've been giving me - the good, the great, but also what you think is not so great. All of that contributes in one way or another to this game growing.

Overall, I was really happy with your reception of this patch. For me, it was the best one I've made so far and I'm very glad you kinda feel the same. I hope to keep this quality of writting in future patches, but I'm also aware that not only does a cooldown phase need to come now where things calm down a bit in the story and you'll have more chill moments, but also updates to older content.

But before I continue talking about what I've been doing or not, I need to give you an update on my personal life.

My life is going to change.

I was already kind of expecting this, in fact, I think I had already mentioned it to you guys. The place where I work had a recent shift in focus and my workload has been decreasing month after month. Which means that nowadays I can dedicate 6-8 hours daily to TrueClash, bringing more and better content. However, most likely next month, I'll cease my duties and come home…

Alex and I talked and during the next year I'm going to invest in TrueClash and try to make it at least sustain me. During this year, the money I earn from it will go towards investing in it, not in me, not in anyone else. After this year, if I have enough income, maybe I'll dedicate myself entirely to it. If I don't, well… I'll have to look for a job and either stop this or effectively have to greatly reduce the amount of content produced.

But I'm confident. I'm confident in what we have here and that not only will I have enough to sustain myself but I'll be able to sustain more people with the project. It's a challenge, let's go for it.

New content made so far

Without giving spoilers to those who still haven't played 0.7, let's just say I'm in the phase of writing content about a conversation you still need to have with one of the characters… And well… I'm currently at 9k words written (see what being almost unemployed does, huh? xD) to the point that I have to cut content from these conversations and leave it for later. A big part of this content is due to dialogue variations as well, because you can have romance with this character, be friends, or not even know each other. And that requires more writing than more linear scenes require. Still, I'm being careful not to make it too long, especially because after this you guys will finally get your dates with some of the characters - you need to have things to talk about with them right? I can't give it all in one big conversation!

I'm still thinking about whether or not to make this another starting point for romance with this character as well. This has some challenges for me. It has to make sense, just like the character's reaction has to make sense. I won't be able to do this for all characters and it's still a case study. Whether it will be implemented or not will depend on how I feel and if it makes sense.

A difficult subject but one we need to talk about.

I've been searching for a while now, I've talked to several artists and studios. But unfortunately, I still haven't found someone to help me in that department for various reasons. Without wanting to go on too long because I don't want to turn this into a report of my misfortunes. But between styles totally different from what they had initially proposed, characters that don't look like themselves, and temporary ghosting where I had to keep messaging people asking what was going on regularly… It hasn't been a pleasant process at all.

We're 1 month and a half away from starting to work on the new season, and I expect that in that patch we would already need a new sprite for a new character on top of updating the old ones. I don't think we'll find someone in that time frame - and it's going to fall on my shoulders xD.

In fact, I confess that this week I kinda went into hyperfocus to try to figure a way to do it… Trying to see if I could update the characters for now. I went into madman mode and in the last few days… I didn't do anything else. I didn't even write and I confess that writing at least the devlog feels good xD. But yeah, I've been trying to find a way to update consistently, to look like the same style, to find and produce I style I like and feels like us, and most of all to see if I can make the characters look like themselves… In short, a madness.

Art Update:

I’m going to be updating our character art and posting the results here. I’m aiming for a few key points, though I know I might not hit all of them perfectly every time:

Preserving the character’s essence: This is my top priority. The character needs to feel like 'them,' just through a different visual medium. I’ve been working on this, and I think I’ve found a solid method. We’ll see how it goes!

Being physical identical: This is the harder part due to many factors. Changing style, changes a bit of how they look and feel. I’ve been managing to pull it off in my latest attempts, but do expect a bit of differences and updates to a few characters (some intended).

Visual consistency: I’m torn on this one. Part of me wants a uniform style for everyone, but another part feels like certain styles just convey a character’s vibe or message better. To pull off different styles, I’ll need to keep other elements very consistent. But I think I can make it work.

It’s going to be a slow, time-consuming process, especially while I’m still fine-tuning the art style and this has to be the final style (I don't want to have to update all character art again). There’s one style I absolutely love, but to show it to you, I’d have to reveal a character that isn’t coming out for months, and I don't know if you guys deserve that yet <.< (Plus, I don’t want to spoil something that isn't ready for a full reveal :P).

Comments of the week(s)

Male and Female Ren

When I started making the game, I did in fact start with only the male option and not the female one. But I believe that even in version 0.1 (the first one released), the female version already existed because it was something I kept thinking about.

Both on a personal and professional level, I don't see much difference in the ingredients needed for a good interpersonal and romantic relationship. In fact, they're the same. The people I've known or experienced, whether gay, straight, or anything else, look for quite similar things and yet so different at the same time. I swear one of the things I enjoy most is realizing that there are tastes for everything imaginable, and that although the vast majority want someone to love and experience life together with, they always look for someone different from each other—and sometimes, funnily enough, they end up feeling complete with someone they never would have thought of and who falls totally outside the patterns they liked. Like someone who used to say things like liking tall redheaded guys and ends up with a short brunette and says they can't live without him xDDD

But anyway, where I'm going with this is that apart from the gender roles that different societies assign us and physical characteristics, the differences aren't that many. And so I decided to write something that would please me—an interactive story where you could romance the guys in the game, whether you're a guy or a girl.

However, I know there are different things. Some expectations may change, some words, some ways of acting. Not only did I rely on my professional experience, which often allows me to approach these topics at a depth generally not accessible, but also on Viv's help when something escapes me that should be changed to adjust better. The only part where I might have more difficulty is the NSFW. But even there I have some experience because… well… professional area, right? xD

But I know I have Viv to help me on that point :3

Nowadays, I don't consider TrueClash a gay visual novel or otome. But rather an interactive story that allows players to romance men they find interesting or even play through the game without approaching those topics.

Bad romance

I want TrueClash to be a safe place to experience romances and stories that would be a bit dangerous in real life or less… advisable, let's say (don't go poisoning someone like Adrian did, okay?). That doesn't mean they'll all go well - no, no. I like some of them to go badly (yes, call me evil).

Now I know some of you like characters who are more "evil," rough, lost, or broken (whatever you want to call them) - whether for the adrenaline associated with them, because you like romances that end up helping someone get off the wrong path, or for whatever reason that makes you tick. I know I haven't written anything in depth about that yet, but those are stories I also find interesting, so count on it. But I must warn you, there are characters that also, no matter what, won't change or who will actually hurt you. Because that not only adds realism to the game, adrenaline from things actually going wrong, but also because there are also people like that in the real world.

Harry and the bar

On Harry and being able to resolve the bar situation in other ways and still be friends with him... I've been working on and reviewing the content for this, but that's for the next devlog. I just wanted to say that not only am I reviewing the keys so this is possible (it should have been already, it was a bug) but I'm also adding another way to do it while updating the content and presentation at the bar. We'll talk about this later! :P

On being slowburn and the type of story I like

I think when I talk about slowburn, I'm saying that in most cases sex only comes when there's an emotional and genuine connection with the characters. But more than that, I like things with logic and that are believable.

This doesn't mean I'm perfect, but generally if a character behaves a certain way, reacts a certain way, or says something… there's a reason behind it. When I create characters, I write their backstory, motives, thoughts, goals, etc. And then I "play" a bit with that when I write - it's almost like roleplaying different characters. I then delight myself by reading your comments where you make theories because I know in fact what will happen or why a character reacts in a specific way and it's awesome seeing you getting close to that reason and also awesome seeing when you guys are far from it hehehe.

But in short, that's it. I want a story with emotions, emotional connections, and where things make sense within the world of TrueClash. And I hope to continue doing that, even though I'm aware that sometimes I might fail.

Once again, thank you for your feedback, company, and motivation. On my part, I'll keep trying to do the best I can.