What is Black Diary?
The idea for the original Black Diary that I made for SuNoFes17 actually came from a story I was writing 10+ years ago of the same name. The idea came to me when I was playing the MMORPG Flyff, and everyone just disappeared. It really freaked me out. (I probably was having server issues, but didn't know at the time.)
That inspired me to write Black Diary, a story about a girl named Shihan (the original name) who explores a ghost town, gaining a few male allies on the way.
Never did finish that story.
But I have finished this one. This chapter, at least.
What makes this one different from the game jam entry from 2017?
A lot. The story, while following some of the same beats as the original, is now much more coherent and believable. Shannon (the name of the 2017 version of the MC) did not act like a believable character. She was very nonchalant and accepting of her situation. She never tried to escape. She was very naïve.
Natalia Soto (the new version of the MC) is basically her opposite. I won't get into too much detail. If you want, play both versions and you will see.
Character art has changed drastically as well. I had just gotten back into art around that time and it was very lacking. I had stopped due to being in the military from 2011-2018. I was stressed and didn't have much time to study the basics again.
The character herself, while having a different name and appearance throughout the years, still remained a young Latina woman.
2017 ^^^^ (weird hodgepodge of images)
2018 ^^^^
2020-2021 ^^^^
Background changes are pretty self explanatory. 2017 I was both drawing and using filtered images. 2018 I was using SketchUp with no rendering, and then finally I used most of those models, as well as assets from Epic Games and combined everything in Unreal Engine 4.
What did you learn?
I feel like I learned a lot on this journey. While it ranged from 2018 (when I first wanted a remake) till 2021, I didn't hit the ground running on this one until 2021. You could really say that I started in June and finished in October. 2018 and 2019 were not very productive years. 2020 was productive, but I still ended up scrapping art and story from then.
I learned more about myself and how I work. I work pretty good for a few hours at night, as long as I have the motivation and music to put me in the zone.
I have always been pretty good at writing from random prompts that I give myself. And that was basically what my Roadmap was. Prompts and story beats to follow, but nothing in detail. So this whole story is kind of spontaneous in the sense that I didn't give myself a full outline or brainstorm.
Stuff like Day 1, she goes to the hospital. stuff happens. Is what I wrote for myself.
Rewriting this story, especially at the end (you'll know why if you play) was actually really fun for me.
What comes next?
Chapter Two....
But I have yet to actually plan for Chapter Two. I have a vague idea of what I would like to happen. The game engine is going to change once again as well. (Originally went from TyranoBuilder to Ren'py.) I like the idea of making Chapter Two more of an RPG, so Unity, Unreal or RPG Maker, but leaning more towards Unity since I have more experience making games in it. Although, I like the idea of my first Unreal Engine game being this. I have experience with UE4 because of my Level design class I took last year, and I've been putting that knowledge to use for Black Diary's backgrounds, but I have never made an actual game. I like 2D/3D hybrids (2D character, 3D environment), or 2.5D so that's what I'd like to work on in the future.
I'd also like to have a small team for this one. I'd definitely need a programmer, as that is not one of my strong suits and it'll probably take me another 3 years to make a one hour game, haha.
With this all said, I'm really proud of myself. I worked really hard to finally finish this part. Completing projects is not one of my strong suits. Completing anything, honestly. So I'm glad I pushed myself to work on this almost everyday, even if it was for a little bit.
That's it for me!
I hope you enjoy my story!
Much love,
Lehxra