It has been many a year… but I’ve finally launched a website! It’s not much and pretty simplistic, but I like the design and hope to get a lot of use out of it. 🙂 The main purpose of the website will to serve as a blog and post semi-frequent updates on what I’m getting up to, as well as more detailed devlogs for my visual novel projects. I do have a Tumblr that I was going to put devlogs on it, but honestly, it made me too nervous, especially considering Tumblr’s policy on adult content. I feel much more comfortable in a curated space of my own undoing, even if it gets less views.
I found this WordPress theme on booth.pm and I really like it! It’s specifically made with creators in mind with display options for writing/illustration projects. It is all in Japanese, but nothing a little Google Translate and coding can’t fix. If you’re interested, you can see the theme here — it’s completely free, although you can buy the child theme for 500 yen on booth, which is a steal!
Who cares, now what?
Now… I work on stuff! Currently, I’m focusing my attention on working on DYSGENESIS, which is my most recent brain worm that is consuming my life. It’s primarily a horror VN with some M/M and M/NB romance sprinkled on top for flavor.
My current progress as of last month,
- Finished rough outline of Act 1, 2 and 3 for Father Abel and Jace’s routes
- Planned (but not outlined) Levi’s route
- Finished zero draft for Act 1
- Sent zero draft for Act 1 to several friends for beta-reading
- Job listing for artist
Now, I am currently working on the zero draft for Act 2, which is going… slowly! It doesn’t occupy my attention as much as Act 1 and Act 3 so it drags a little more than I’d like, but it plays an important role in the story so it needs to be done.
A small sneakpeek of DYSGENESIS Act 1, currently undergoing beta-reading. It is meant to be illegible but you might be able to see a word here or there.
Artist applications for this project recently closed and I’ve gotten way more applicants than I expected! I’ve got a total of 43 applications to work through, but I’m hoping to choose a final applicant and send out a job offer by end of next week so we can start work on character design. I’ve gotten a lot of stellar applicants, so it’s a difficult choice, but exciting stuff!
My plans for March are:
- Finish Act 2 zero draft
- Start Act 3 zero draft
- Finish rough outline for Levi’s route
- Write (and release) a devlog
I would love to finish Act 3’s zero draft too, but it’s going to be very long so I’m not going to stress myself out too much about it. I am, however, aiming to get the plot beats planned out for Levi’s route this month. Levi’s route is a bit more challenging since unlike Father Abel and Jace, it follows a different plot structure. I’ve been calling it an “alternate POV” to what I consider the main story, which will be fun to explore narratively but has some more complex logistics to it. I’ll basically be rewriting the entire story through his route, so it’s going to require some extra elbow grease and time.
As for the devlog, I’ve already started writing it, but it’s going to cover narrative and character development. If you’re interested in keeping up with development, I encourage you to sign up for my newsletter! It’ll be released monthly at the beginning of each month and will include development logs, recent news and other fun stuff. You can sign up here.
And other stuff!
Additionally I’m making a small game for But They Fuck Jam! I’m making a Nosferatu fangame based on the 1922 film about Count Orlok going house-hunting (and finding a house-husband.) I haven’t worked on the story much, but I’ve been playing around with the UI and design and it’s been a lot of fun.
A title menu mock-up for Nosferatu Goes House Hunting.
I’m planning to use TyranoScript and I’ve been messing around with some of the built-in tools and one of them is blinking/mouth flapping, which I had a little too much fun with. Not sure yet if I’ll bother using it in the final game, but the effect is arguably hilarious and I’m kind of in love with it.
A blinking, talking Count Orlok.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading.
— Gaara