Banana Ranch initial version release and what’s next

With the completion of Cotton’s route, Banana Ranch initial version has been released to all buyers. In this version, you’ll be able to romance four guys: Moocha, Finn, Cotton, and Yolkie.

It honestly took a longer than it should… due to various reasons, but mainly because I had a major creative burnout (which has probably been accumulating for a long time)

Anyway, now that the short-term goal has been achieved, what are the plan next?

Next love interest routes for Banana Ranch

The next love interest routes are always in progress. Considering how long it takes to complete each one, I might reduce the number of CGs (computer graphics) and scenes for future love interests. The exact number isn't determined yet, as I don't want to cut too much content, but I also don't want the game to take forever to finish. I'll do my best to find the right balance!

Banana Ranch After Stories

It’s been like 6 years (yes I was amazed typing this!) since I started Seiyuu Danshi After Stories, and there has been so many episodes that I’ve kinda run out of stuff to write. I’m thinking of making Banana Ranch After Stories since there are still so many characters to write about (the gods, the NPCs, the monsters, the ranch employees etc). I’m planning to alternative between the two for a while so that I won’t run out of stuff to write about!

Baradise Escape

You may have noticed the lack of updates on Baradise Escape, and that’s because, aside from being busy with finishing up Cotton’s route, I also encountered a dilemma that led me down a rabbit hole.

When I tried making the island map again (this time with the chunking system), I found that the island map wasn’t very fun to explore nor good looking to look at, so I looked at alternative ways to fix that. I contemplated a lot between these decisions:

• Turning the game 2.5D (3D maps, 2D characters) ala Octopath in Godot.

• All 3D in Unreal engine

• Staying 2D in Godot

My mind keeps alternating between those three options these few months and I spent a lot of time exploring each option… which made the actual game progress in a limbo. Yes, I spent like a month trying to learn Unreal because there was a mature survival plugin there which made me interested, but I soon gave up on the idea because I found it hard to add additional gameplay features and had to resort to plugins for each feature. I also spent some time learning a bunch of 3D making softwares.

My most recent progress is, I tried out Godot’s 3D functionality and unexpectedly it’s not too bad? I’m leaning towards this option the most because I only have to redo the 3D graphics part.  The inventory system, UI, save system, dialogue system, quest etc etc are all still usable. I’m also much more experienced with Godot vs learning a whole new engine in Unreal (my game also won’t be AAA quality so Unreal is honestly overkill).

Still, I’m also a bit unsure because… Baradise Escape has been remade like… 3 times already by now. First in Renpy as prototype, then in Godot 3.5 as I stumbled while learning the engine, then Godot 4 to take advantage of all the improvements in Godot (and because the game was fundamentally very messy due to my stupidity), and now messing with 3D? I kinda feel stupid for going around in circles so many times. On the other hand, I can’t continue working on the game that I don’t truly believe in. I also don’t think these remakes are a total waste of time as the game quality is improved each time (and I also learn a lot from each mistake)

Overall, I feel like these are the pros of going 3D:

• Once you’ve made the model, animating the characters in 3D is very easy. One problem I had when making the party system (love interest can fight alongside you) was that animating the combat even in simplistic pixel art style took a lot of time. And the end result is also much better in 3D. There are a lot of combat animations that have been made that I can simply reuse.

• I can make the characters do sex animation in 3D lol. I feel like adding a mini game where you take pictures of NPCs having sex with each other in 3D would be fun. 

• 3D has a lot of prop models already made. Just by adjusting the textures and materials, I could use them in the game. In comparison, 2D requires very specific tileset pack and I was limited by the amount of 

• Game just looks better. Exploring island in 3D feels a lot better.

• There has also never been 3D adult gay game made before (as far as I know). Making one seems cool… At the end of the day, I do game dev as a passion and I still have that inner idealist dreamer inside… 

However, the cons are also obvious…

• I’m probably wasting a lot of time remaking stuff that I’ve already made in 3D…

• I’m still a noob at 3D

• The game will be more costly in performance, which is less accessible to players (I don’t think it’s that heavy but definitely heavier than the previous 2D)

• While the model can be reused indefinitely, making a good looking 3D model is hard! Commissioning is an option, but I still need to know enough to edit them at the very least!

So, what is the end decision? 

I’m... probably going for 3D in Godot. It might be a waste of time, but I still kinda want to do it.. I can still enjoy the 3D graphics without redoing so many things. Even if I stay with 2D, I still have to make the island map which I always got stuck at because it ended up looking bad while taking so much time and I didn't want to continue lol… and I also haven’t made combat animation for Mads / Ragnar / Citali and the gang.

Anyway, sorry for the rambles. These are my thoughts and I’ve really been contemplating a lot before coming to this decision. I might regret or I might not. Who knows X"D

I'll be posting SD After Stories episode soon! (next month, I'll go with Banana Ranch one!)