itch.io

Devlog 9: More background art experiments and general updates

Heya all, and welcome to another SPIRIT devlog! Today I want to just give some general updates and showcase some experimentation with various kinds of background art. As you know, I'm making a point-and-click game that takes place at a real university and in a real city, and so I've been able to simply go around wherever I want the game to take place and take photos to use as scene backgrounds. The thing is, though, I want to do somethin more with them since I think that simply using photos ingame would detract from immersion. Earlier I've been experimenting with photo filters, which I still might end up using, but lately I've asked ChatGPT to make me some pixel art renditions. 

Without further ado, let's look at some examples experimenting with various art styles:

Social Sciences library

Outside the Social Sciences buildings, night:

Fantoft Student City light rail stop, night:

At least the spelling is consistent :p Skuteviken (Hanna's neighbourhood), fall:

So obviously, this technology isn't perfect. ChatGPT lets me tinker with prompts and whatnot, but it still makes some changes to each shot, it tends to carry over artifacts like noise from a night-time photo, and it obviously can get spelling wrong. Also, it can be tricky to make the art style consistent, which is obviously a hindrance when making a video game. Either way I'm planning to just use Midjourney when I can afford it again since it seems to be the best image generator around. Or maybe I'll just use some kind of pixelating filter. At the same time, though, I'm not sure if 'old-school' pixel art is fitting for a contemporary slice-of-life game depicting the lives of young adults in the 2020's. We'll see where it ends up going. If anyone has suggestions for art direction, feel free to drop a reply.

As for updates, I've now got a working game flow from main menu through opening sequence, content warning, save mode selection (free saving or ironwoman), a screen that lets you allocate skill points, and an intro video. The next step is implementing Pixel Crushers' dialogue system, and a good system for handling and transitioning between scenes.

Love this so much. Both the trailer and demo were top-notch. Definitely getting this when it comes out.

I'm writing a narrative RPG and articy:draft is a godsend. Makes it easy to write branching Disco Elysium-style dialogue and stories, and between that and being able to export directly to Unity/Unreal (and even doing some basic scripting in articy), I don't know if I could've made my game without this program.

Yeah, this seems to be someone trying to recreate BiY to learn, and to have fun. They also credit the original designer.

Ugh. I couldn't imagine giving this to a kid, they spend enough time on screens already and the last thing I want is to move their physical toys onto screens, too ;p.

Love the idea, though, kinda like Tiny Glade or whatever that game is called. Probably really chill.

Can you encourage your recruits to do blanket parties if the useless private smuggles a donut into the barracks?

That's pretty much how I think I'll make my (point and click game) background images, too. I take photos of the city the game is set in, then I'm experimenting with using AI to give them more of a video game-ish look, like making them look like pixel art or drawings or something. For character portraits and whanot I'm using AI 100%, but I have a long-term goal/dream of using Kickstarter or something to raise money to commission human artists when the game is out.

Also, as Austin McConnell pointed out in his vid, in many cases you don't have a choice between human or AI art --I can't afford to hire human artists in the first place, so it's not as if human artists are losing work because of me. And as I said, AI is part of what makes lots of us indie and hobbyist devs these days able to make games in the first place.

Love this.

"That might even lead to concerned publishers contacting support that the nsfw setting does not work for their game, since they can see it right there among the regular horror games..."

Again, trivially easy to add a note explaining that you'll always be able to see your own games.

Also, again, a shadowban is a punishment where a. the admin/moderators of a site decides that no one sees a user's content, and b. it happens without them being informed of this decision. Neither a nor b is even close to what we're talking about here --other users who choose to not show NSFW content will not see my game, exactly like before, and I know of the decision because I made the informed decision to label my game as NSFW, knowing full well that this filter exists and how it works because, well, I'm turning on the filter myself.

Again, I have no idea how you managed to read that into what I said.

I stand corrected. Still maintain it should be possible to filter out NSFW games for everyone, though.

You seem (again) to be applying that definition to something completely different from what I said, because it doesn't fit what I proposed in any way. Also Wikipedia isn't a dictionary.

I have a game that covers some mature topics, so I labelled it NSFW. There's no logic in deciding that since I have a game that tackles themes that aren't suitable for kids, I should have to risk seeing literal pornography whenever I log on to Itch, which in turn means I basically can't do so on a laptop in public.

The excuse is that "oh, but otherwise you wouldn't see your own game", as if it wouldn't be trivially easy to show users their own games even though they were still blocking other NSFW content. I pointed this out to a moderator and was told that if I saw my own game, but not other peoples' NSFW games, that would be... Shadowbanning, somehow. Hope that's not the official position of the Itch.io admins.

Thanks for the advice. This is a feature that makes absolutely no sense.

Devlog 8: Unity integration

So after a hiatus, I've finally taken the plunge and started developing various scenes in Unity for real. So far I've worked on the main menu, intro sequence, and skill point distribution screen. Once I have this done, I expect the next step will be to start to really tackle the actual point-and-click system --you know, the actual gameplay. Either way, it's such an amazing feeling to see content I've only seen in articy:draft finally play out in Unity.

I created a short little teaser-trailer to show you the progress:

Thank you so much!

Oh goodie, a game about driving a car, this'll probably be a cosy, wholesome relaxation game like Keep Driving I can't wai--

Okay. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that because to me that makes no sense.

I'm confused. I'm not talking about blocking or shadowbanning users, I'm talking about hiding games that contain NSFW content. Or does one mean you also can't see users who uploaded those games?

First of all, I finally have my laptop repaired and it's great to be back in the saddle and be able to work on this project again. Hopefully I'll get some work done during Easter even though we've started working in earnest on our bachelor's theses. Either way, without further ado, here's the seventh devlog.

Today I'm going to talk about an idea I'm wondering if I should add to the gameplay loop. SPIRIT will be a scene-by-scene point-and-click game, but I'm also wondering if I could add some points where you choose what to do with your day and you get quick narration and some stat changes or something, like in games like I Was  a Teenage Exocolonist.

For SPIRIT, I'm considering having each day, outside of the narrated story which will still make up most of the game, have a certain number of time slots, which you can fill however you want. For example, you could catch up on curriculum at the study lab, borrow a friend's dog, or have a movie night with your girlfriends, each with some narration and semi-random outcomes, and changes to various stats, as well as possibly  future conversations and changes in the actual narrated plot. The game would also 'roll dice' to determine one of several possible outcomes, each with a few sentences of narration. So for example, catching up on assigned reading could have you roll dice and receive XP or a bonus to future Hippocampus checks, but also cost you a Sanity point if the study session goes badly. A café trip with a friend could cost a handful of money but restore some Sanity. 

Oh, and this also gives the player more of a reason to put points into Butterfly, which I've kinda been wondering what to do with, because right now she's mostly just a clown who distracts you from studying. In addition to that she'll also add to the number of activities you can pick at a time —so the more points you put into Butterfly, the more initiative you'll have to get out the door and do things. Of course, you'll have to balance the benefits of a rich social life with the need to do well during lectures, group projects, and so on, and Butterfly will be sure to get in the way there.

Either way, here is an example event:

Cafe Visit
You order coffee lattes and buns and take your seats by the window. The atmosphere in the café is extra cosy today and before long you're completely lost in conversation. You relax at your table and talk about everything and nothing as it gets steadily darker outside.

-83 Crowns +2 Sanity Activity unexpectedly takes up two time slots.

As a game dev, it lets me put in  all sorts of little moments that will hopefully add to players' immersion while also getting some characterization and worldbuilding in. I also hope it'll add to replayability. Oh, and I'll probably have a slew of other examples to give you in a future diary.

Either way, again, it's fantastic to be back at this. Looking forward to getting some more work in and hopefully making some progress on Unity integration.

Have a nice Easter!

Sorry, but if that's it,  that's just not a good reason. It should be trivial for coders to make an exception for games the user has uploaded themselves.

I get OP was apparently a troll, but the way Itch.io handles adult content is indeed really weird. Both that it lumps porn games and games that happen to have adult themes or graphic content (like horror, war, abuse, violence, trauma, non-sexual nudity, etc.) into one group, and how if you upload an NSFW game, you can't turn on the NSFW filter and have to risk seeing pornography whenever you log on Itch.io. I literally can't think of a single good reason for this.

Love this game, incredibly fun even though it's fiendishly difficult and requires extensive studying of wikis and guides to really get it. Probably could've done with culling some of the biome modifiers and perks, though, a lot of them feel pretty random and not really good for immersion or gameplay.

Yeah, it's a weird bug-like feature and makes me wonder why there even is a worm crystal in the first place, but good luck getting the fanboys to acknowledge that. Would've been a far better solution to have the holy mountains be safe from spiders and worms and then give players the choice to shatter the worm crystal in return for some benefit or another.

Typically when this is brought up you'll have fanboys insist they don't see the problem because with 12489 hours put into the game they can kill Steve easily, but it's ruined many a beginner player's run.

So I had this idea the other day while listening to the FTL soundtrack. What about an X-Com game where the UFO intercept part is basically the FTL combat system (with gunships large enough for multiple crewmembers who can walk around in their ships)? 

I think the two systems would synergize really well. Take enemy systems --on the one hand, you can weaken UFOs by destroying their systems (weapons, shield gens, etc.), but on the other hand, any system you destroy you won't be able to salvage after you've recovered the crashed UFO.

Also, it'd add a reason to engage the UFO up closer if only some weapons could target specific rooms/systems. Using UFO Defense as an example, Avalanche missiles could be safe standoff weapons, but short-range missiles and guns would allow you to target out aliens or specific systems.

Also, the same way your ship in FTL gets more and more damaged over time, your gunships in this X-Com game could repair very slowly, so that they'd get more and more damaged with subsequent UFO dogfights. You'd have to prioritize what to repair (hit points or various systems), and you'd have to make decisions as to when to intercept and when you have to let your gunships wait and repair.

You could also play around with FTL-like gameplay systems by having the player unlock scanners that allow you to look inside UFOs so you know what to target, better engines for higher evasion percentage, etc. Maybe instead of unlocking just unlocking new ships, you research and unlock new components and whatnot for your gunships.

Also, since anyone on the ship can get injured during a fight, you could give players the option of putting soldiers on the same ships that shot down UFOs, you could risk putting soldiers on the same ship you use to shoot down UFOs, knowing any of them might get killed during an aerial dogfight.

So is there any X-Com game that has played around with this particular system? If not, feel free to toy around with the idea --I'm busy with my current game and I doubt I have the experience and skill to make a full-fledged X-Com game anytime soon anyway :P .

What a CRAZY idea!

I don't know you, but I hope you get your life back in motion. Best of luck to you!

Forgot to reply: That was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much! Good to know I'm not the only one exploring this topic.

Yeah, that's an incredibly clunky solution if that's the reason. Would've been much better to just show the uploader's game by default anyway, and then just hide every other upload. So weird.

Okay, so one of the games I'm making has some mature themes it discusses like domestic/sexual abuse, so I labelled it NSFW. Not sure if that's how the tag is supposed to be used, but I digress. But then I notice I see 'adult' (p0rn) games even though I remember turning that off. When I go to check, well, see the title.

I'm not sure how it makes sense that if someone makes a game that's not for kids due to heavy themes, that means they have to see adult content when they go to the site. Especially since I often use the laptop in public and some of those thumbnails are really NSFW.

Really loved this, Night in the Woods-esque but still doing its own thing, and set in Norway to boot.

I guess the best advice I can give you is watch and read fantasy. Pick up what works, look up words that you don't understand. You'll discover what works and what doesn't, and as you write you'll develop your own style :) .

Also, "writers write". Just make your game, maybe don't worry so much about language, you can always come back to edit what you write later.

Hope that was helpful.

This one will sit with me for a while. Thank you for making this. Edit: Got a lot of thoughts but I think that if I try to share them it'll just end up being a wall of text, so I'll just say: Thank you for making this. I was inherently opposed to sex work before this due to knowing how many people who do it are SA survivors and this didn't exactly make me more positively inclined towards it.

Thanks, that looks really interesting, will give it a try for sure!

Hmm! First thought that occurs to me is, depending on your language you might want to simply write the game in your first language? If it's a big language like Spanish, you'll probably still have a lot of people interested in playing it. If it's a smaller language, you'll probably find people who appreciate playing a game in their own language.

In a pinch, I suppose you could write it in your own language first and then use AI or something to translate it, but that sounds risky, AI sometimes makes mistakes and translates things in a really 'direct' way.

Also, maybe don't worry about using specific words or 'big' words. Often the way you write naturally is more than good enough!

Either way, good luck!

Really interesting! Not quite what I was looking for, but thanks for the reply!
edit: btw, really interesting premise for a game!

Since you're asking for input --I love slice-of-life RPGs that are set in some real location and not only have a plot in themselves, but which also tell the story of that location. Games like Embracelet, Norco, and Night in the Woods. Admittedly, two of those are in fictional towns, but they still tell the story of real places, if only indirectly. So many peoples' and places' stories could be explored this way.

Honestly, though, if you're creating a game, the best choice should probably be what you're the most inspired to make yourself :) .

Oh my god I loved this so much, you really nailed the atmosphere and beating it really felt like an achievement! Again, loved it so much!

It clearly means generative AI like Midjourney and ChatGPT. 

So, I may or may not be working on a game where one of the main characters is a sexual assault survivor and dealing with its after-effects, and I'm just wondering if you know of other games that touch upon this topic? Like, not just by having a character who happens to be a survivor, but where the story actually describes and explores what it's like to be dealing with SA trauma. I know Life is Strange has a subplot where one of the characters (not naming names so as not to spoil anything) confides she has been drugged at a party and taken advantage of, and I think Silent Hill 2 has a sequence that heavily implies that what one of the characters is dealing was caused by her being abused as a child, but that's the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I know there are games that deal more generally with trauma, like Celeste, but do people know of games dealing more specifically with the after-effects of sexual assault?

As a side question, anyone remember the name of that RPG Maker (?) game where you go into a haunted house because you left your scarf there (at least that's how I remember it), and it has these reassuring messages in green text like "You couldn't have known" and "It wasn't your fault"? It was really popular when it came out but now I can't remember what it was called.

Note: I guess this is obvious, but just in case, I'm not after gross 'adult' games or edgy games making fun of SA/survivors.

Edit: Just came across https://itch.io/t/11699/mental-health-in-games-resource-list cataloguing games and resources about mental health, so I'll just drop the link here.