Development Update 03/04/2025

Welcome back! Another development for this development hell. This time, I bring you some updates on the progress of the development and some expectations I have. After that, I'll discuss some more technical stuff of the development. Please prepare for another long yap session.

Progress:

Since the last development update, I've racked up another 468 renders, so now we're totalling at 1,362 renders. Unfortunately speaking, there are still multiple scenes I need to go through, but we're not far off from completion. However, I am going to get a lot busier on the up coming months, which leaves me less time on the development. Now! This is not a promise, but just an expectation: I'm hoping that by the next development update, I will be finished with the renders and move on to the coding and editing. It's not entirely impossible if I were to lock in and dish out renders at robot pace. So, let's do a recap on the work that I still have do for this release.

• Proof-reading script

• Re-render some scenes in chapter 1

• Gather new music and sound effects

• Make a phone system (Depend on development progression)

• Remake choice menu (Depend on development progression)

• Fix some visual bugs in the Android version

These are the more important stuff I need to get my hands on as soon as possible. There are some more trivial changes I want to make on the game but that really depends on how the development goes. Because let's be honest, the development for this single chapter has gone on for way too long. Somehow I need to just come to a compromise by trading off features for a faster release. Of course, core features need to be added and maintained for a quality release; I just need to realise that I can't get every little detail as perfect as I want them to be. Especially when this is my first visual novel and only the second chapter. How many years will it take to finish this story if I go at it at this pace? But again, I don't do this full-time, and I can't afford to do this full-time. We'll see how it goes.

Difficulty In Portraying Action:

A major problem I've encountered in rendering the action scenes in chapter 2 is that, depicting action in a visual novel format does not always give the look that I want. Unlike a video, where action can unfold fluidly without confusing perspectives (with the right direction), static images cannot always capture the motion you're trying to depict. Now this would be less of a problem if it were in the hands of a skilled 2D artist, as there are already a variety of methods to draw action, evident in the majority of comic books that depicts action. But for me, who uses 3D renders to tell an action scene, things get a little tricky. Here are the 2 main challenges I'm facing when rendering an action scene: illustration of speed and sequencing.

Illustration of speed:

The first challenge is the presentation of motion itself. A video doesn't need to make something looks as if it was moving, because the motion is already being played out. But for static images, we need something to captures that velocity the motion has. One of the ways to achieve this is by adding special effects. For example, in manga, when the artist want to draw... let's say a punch, they may add some motion blur on the arm or add a series of speed lines to illustrate the direction and speed of the punch. I can also do this with 3D renders, but that require some post-processing. Motion blur in 3D renders is kind of a 50/50 of it looking good or looking ok. I can never seem to find a consistent solution to make every motion blur look the way I want it to. There are 2 ways I add motion blur to a render: 1, adding motion blur on body parts, and 2, adding motion blur to the background. I try not to mix them together, because if I blur the body part as well as the background, they sort of blend together and confuses the action. Generally, I motion blur the background when the action involves the movement of a larger object instead of a small part of the object. For instance, I motion blur the background when a character is running, or when a vehicle is moving. On the other hand, I will motion blur only a small part of the object when it is the only part that is moving in a render: when a character is throwing a punch or a kick. However, in some renders, which you may find when chapter 2 is released, I didn't have any motion blur on the punch or kick because the motion blur may ruin the presentation of it. Anyway, so far, I haven't yet found a way to consistently make motion blur look good in a 3D render. Maybe I will in the future, who knows. Speed lines though... yeah... don't think I'll ever add speed lines to a 3D render. It's just weird.

Sequencing:

The second challenge is sequencing. In my experience, there are three things to consider when writing a fight sequence: execution, impact and reaction. Execution is when a character initiate an attack; this will show how exactly is the attack executed. Impact is the connection that the attack makes with either a character or an object; this will show the immediate effects inflicted on a character or an object affected by the attack. Reaction is the aftermath of the attack; this will show how a character react after an attack, or how an object is affected by the attack or the consequence that it causes. Now, here's what I'm having trouble with each of these 3 aspects.

• Execution

  • Execution of a technique can often come in a series of action. From the simplest of telegraphing a punch, to executing a series of movement for a jiu-jitsu technique. But! How exactly should we sequence this?.

    •  -Option 1: We can use 1 render for preparing a jab, and 1 render for throwing the jab. That means, the player will have to click 3 times for landing a single jab. Clicking once for preparing the jab, clicking once for throwing the jab, clicking once for landing the jab.

    •  Option 2: We can use only 1 render for an already thrown jab, and the next render will be the impact. That means, the play will have to click 2 times. Clicking once for throwing the jab, clicking once for landing the jab.

    •  Option 3: We can use 1 render for preparing the jab, and the next render immediately goes to impact. Player will have to click 2 times, same as above.

    •  Option 4: We combine the execution and the impact, to make only 1 render. That means, the player will only have to click once to land the jab.

  • All of the above options are viable, but the real challenge is using them accordingly. The thing with putting concept into pictures is that it helps immediately visualise the current action, leaving little to imagination. So naturally, you want the audience to think as little as possible. If we move the scene too fast by using option 4 constantly, the audience will need to do more "Fill in the blanks". They need to imagine how an attack happen before it lands. This might work if we're just talking about strikes since they're pretty straight forward, but when we're talking about grappling, it's a different story. Grappling involves a series of movement on a technique and thus, require multiple renders before the impact. So, what am I yapping about? Where's the challenge? The challenge about sequencing an execution of attack, is the flow of how these attacks are stringed together and the consistency of it. If I take 2 renders for the first attack, how many renders should I take for the second attack? Let's not make it too complicated. The question I'm trying to raise is, in what situation should we keep or disrupt the consistency of how many renders each attack takes. Should each execution have the same number of renders, or should the execution have different number of render at each individual attack. If we have 3 attacks that consist of 2 renders in a roll, should we continue taking 2 renders on every attack along the line? What if the next attack requires more than 2 renders, otherwise it would be confusing to the audience? Either way, there's just so many ways a fight sequence can unfold depending on each individual attack. Finding the perfect execution sequence will remain a challenge to me for at least a while.

• Impact

  • Showing the impact of an attack is pretty straight-forward. There are a few things to keep in mind, though. 1, where the connection is, 2, the immediate reaction of the character, 3, camera placement. Here are some challenges I'm having:

    • The connection between the strike and the body requires some amount of detail to accurately illustrate the force of the impact. This may includes some form of deformation on the body, the direction at which the body travels at the point of impact, and the pose of the character being hit. The challenge here is not that it is difficult to do, but the time it takes to do them. I can perfect these detail all I want but it would take a significant amount of time to complete them. So far, I have done a lot of impact renders and I regret to say not all of them are as good as I want them to be.

    • The immediate reaction of the character plays a major role in showing the impact. The pain reflected through their expression, as well as the how their body moves as the attack lands, shows the audience what they need to know about the impact. Again, I don't want the players to have to think too much when they're looking at the fight scene. They should see exactly what I want them to see right away, and that is the force of the impact. If the impact is light, there will be less movement on the body and a softer expression on the face. If the force of the impact is heavy, the body will react more violently, meaning more jerk, more movement or a more painful expression. This one isn't really hard to do but after writing this, I realise I've been skimping on this detail too often. I'll pay more attention to it in the future.

    • Camera placement is a very important aspect in presenting a convincing attack. It directly affects what you want the audience to know what you're trying show them. If you want them to feel the force of a punch, place the camera close to where the punch is landing. If you want them to see the technique of an attack, place the camera on the visible side of the technique where the camera captures all the essential part of the execution. If you want to emphasis how the character feels from taking a hit, include their facial expression in the frame. Using the right camera angle is generally not a difficult thing to do, but sometimes I do get lazy and stop considering what I want to show the player.

• Reaction

  • Only by giving characters and objects the appropriate reaction after suffering a blow, can we show exactly how severe an attack is. In simpler terms, this reaction means the consequence of an attack. If the character is being kicked in the head, he's not going to just take the kick, shrug it off and regain his composure. I want to point this out because this is exactly a mistake a made in chapter during the fight scene between MC and Ajax. The consequence needs to be appropriate to the severity of a strike. If it's a clean head kick, the victim needs to be at least dazed for a moment before regaining his composure. Better yet, he'll be dropped to the ground, and we'll continue from there. Now, I know, I know, can't make everything too realistic. If the fight scenes in movies follow the same logic as in real life, every fight will end like: Guy takes clean right hook to the chin, end of fight; guy takes clean head kick to the head, end of fight; guy takes clean elbow to the head, end of fight. So, the ultimate goal is, make the consequence of an attack look reasonable. This can be presented through giving the characters an appropriate facial expression, how the character holds their body after suffering from a blow, what's their psychological reaction to the damage done to their body, and how they deal with this psychological reaction. Let's give an example:

    • A character is being hit by a liver punch. The punch so devastating that the character immediately dropped to the ground on his knees, holding his hand against the impacted area, trying to sooth the pain. All the while, he gives out an angry expression, reflecting the irritation he feels being helplessly dropped by a stronger opponent. But in the end, he gets over the pain and immediately stood back up and face his opponent once again.

  • These are the details that make a fight scene realistic and entertaining. See it this way, fight scenes exist even in the form of text. Who would want to read a fight scene that reads: Dude A hit Dude B with a punch, Dude B dodged and countered with a kick, Dude A is hurt, so on. The only thing different in a Visual Novel is that we have to show it in images. So? Show them in the images! We want the audience to feel exactly how the characters feels at the moment. Being able to show them in images is already an advantage, and we don't want to leave this advantage in the dust. Saying this to myself, take good use of this advantage and pay attention to the above details.

Acknowledgement

That's it for this month's yap session, I hope you're not too disappointed with how the development is going. I want to thank my patrons again for sticking with me even though I haven't had a release in months. I want to thank my fellow devs for helping me in all sorts of way during my development. I want to thank all the players that contributed to making the game better by giving quality feedback and suggestions. And, I want to thank all the people who have played my game and actually liked it. You are the ones that keep me going, and believe me, no one wants the next chapter out as much as I do. Please comment below to let me know whatever opinion you have on the game, and I'll carefully review all of them. As always, thanks for bearing with me, I'll see you all in the next update. Later!