Game Launch & Postmortem

Hi world, I've just launched God is Dead and I feel a massive weight off my chest! 

This project has been in the making for the past 1.5 years. It started out as a silly project. I wanted to write an otome visual novel that was slapstick and was inspired by games like Hatofu. 

But as I wrote it got a little serious along the way... and it is what it is now. A tale of depression under the guise of a murder mystery. 

Original Concept Art

My own verdict: The Story

The story is simple, and definitely not literature. I wrote it for fun and was dissatisfied after writing about 10k words. I ended up re-writing it to fit the more serious narrative. But since it was based of the scaffolding of the slapstick version, it felt rather strange. 

My original idea was to have 3 guys perform quirky things to the protagonist, and she'll have to defend herself against their attacks. Tiana was meant to be a guy called Tarya, who would pester the player with dance moves and rap battles. 

To be honest as a literature student, I'm not proud of my story. I had to resign to it's lukewarm fate after I realized that I had to pick up drawing again - and art could take months.

Draft 1: Tarya laying on his moves!

My own verdict: The Art

The art isn't spectacular either. Limited by my own skills, I had to find the best way to draw backgrounds and character sprites. After months of dappling in acrylic paint, I decided to stick to digital simple-lined-backgrounds with a colour overlay. 

Character sprites on the other hand really took me by surprise! I did not know I had it in me to draw such characters. These characters have gone through at least 3 iterations before they are the way they appear. 

Xenia progress over the months

My own verdict: The Code

The code wasn't a fun experience for me. I was familiar with basic scripting tools, but ren'py was challenging even for the most basic things. I ended up consulting a programmer for help. 

Things that I struggle with for days, would be solved in no time by him. Simple mistakes were often the cause for my frustration. 

A simple mistake like this took me hours to figure.

The Things I'm Grateful For...

Even though it was a tough experience, I'm glad I did it. Making a visual novel was on my bucket list, and I can check that off now. 

Picking up art again was probably the best result of this experience. I finally dusted off my ancient wacom and let the magic happen. 

I've learnt so much about drawing in a short time span and I don't intend to give up again. I've even started my own public IG account for my art adventures (@ary_doodles). 

Concept art for top down background of Dining Hall

The Things I wish I knew...

Creating your own game requires a lot of self discipline and forward planning. I wish I knew that I would be working on this mostly solo without the help of an artist. 

I was too idealistic I suppose. When it comes to effort and passion, you can only count on yourself to deliver. 

Another important thing was finding an art style, it was something I wish I had figured out early on. I spent months trying to figure out the best way to draw characters and backgrounds. 

I considered painting everything once. Left: Xenia, Right: Dining Hall

I also considered doing chibi art. Left: Xenia, Right: Eros

I considered top down acrylic painting perspective of background and line art for characters. (Character: Eros)

Moving Forward...

My next side project will probably not be a game. Making God is Dead felt like I was forced to be a jack of all trades, master of none. I was stressed out and didn't have enough time to fully invest in either story or art. 

I have ideas to write my own novel, but that would have to wait. For now, I'm going to enjoy my free time and finally play some games!