I Just Want to be Single!! - Anti-Dating Sim Visual Novel

The First Stretch Goal Girl Reveal???
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 14, 2023 at 06:27:21 AM

it's me m!

tl;dr - the first stretch goal girl is revealed at the end of the update! more reveals in future updates

Alright. It's November. Just a little bit before the holidays and a brand new year. We'll be talking about reflections of the past year in the next update, but today I do want to address something.

I just want to thank you guys for being vocal with expressing your opinions last month, as the previous update had more comments on it than the last 8 updates combined!!

That's when you know it was a really important subject that people couldn't just ignore. I hope that you guys continue to express your honest opinions and give feedback, I really appreciate it.

Last update I mentioned about a particularly big decision that was weighing on my shoulders about adding a gameplay mechanic to the game. Not surprisingly, many of you told me that this was a bad idea and that I should save it for another game. Good news, I will listen to your feedback and continue focusing on the game as-is without adding anything extra or big.

Hopefully that will be a relief for those of you that are against the idea and have been patiently waiting for a game that was promised in the original campaign.

All that being said I do want to quickly touch upon something that is related to the subject.

Yesterday I was looking at a tweet from Dan Salvato (creator of DDLC) about the process they underwent through to making the new cover for DDLC+.

This post really reminded me just how important "dumb ideas" are. Ideas where you KNOW it is stupid, it sounds stupid, and it is not normally advisable to do. IJWTBS as a whole started as a "dumb idea." It literally came from a joke I made about "what if there was a dating sim but the goal is to not date anyone?"

While it initially began as literally a shitpost and nothing more, it was evident that people really enjoyed the idea. And that was becoming very clear, very fast.

While I did let it cook in my brain for almost another year, it never stopped cooking from that point. And I believe that just like with IJWTBS, that "dumb ideas" are actually a lot of the time really good ideas, but the only thing stopping them from being good ideas is ambition, effort and a sense of humor.

A lot of my ideas for IJWTBS are "dumb ideas" put together into a single package. In fact you could say it is my design philosophy. While most (reasonable) indie devs try to design through subtraction, I want to design IJWTBS through excess. I want to add the things everyone asks for, but never gets. I want to add that obscure feature that is joked about on twitter.

I want this game to be somebody's dream game. And I really believe in that. Because it's MY dream game.

Of course I know my limits. Not EVERY single dumb idea is a good idea in disguise. Sometimes dumb ideas just need to die. Entertained for only a few minutes and nothing more. That's why feedback, vision, and experience is really important for these sorts of things. You could end up making an MMORPG for 12 years with a total development budget of $12 starting from high school and spend half your life doing something that you could have spend doing something else.

But at the end of the day, my point is, you'll never know if your "dumb idea" is really a dumb idea that should be just an idea, or its actually a cool idea that someone should make a reality until you talk about it, until you express it, until you sound it out in front of an audience at the risk of appearing stupid.

I think it's important to have dumb ideas and tell them to people. That's how you get good ideas.

Aaannnyyyyway, with that done - 

Although game dev progress wise we really don't have much to show this month, we've got a really important announcement today:

Starting from today we will be revealing the new Stretch Goal girls designs every monthly update!!

We've worked really hard on these designs, and we've been working harder at not revealing them up until now. And today, we'll be revealing - Mika the Gyaru.

---- space for spacing ----

And there you have it! Let us know your impressions of Mika, we're really excited to hear what you think of her.

Next month we will be revealing Chloe, and in January we will be revealing the true face of Random Girl.

See you next month!

We're Cooking (Mama)
over 2 years ago – Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 12:15:33 PM

 im m.

 tl;dr of this update - some minor spoilers, but we're cooking

 Hey everybody, hope you're having a good Autumn/Fall and enjoying your pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween candy. The weather has finally cooled down a bit and in a month or two we'll be complaining that it's too cold instead of complaining it's too hot.

Let's get right into the update.

You'll probably remember from last month's update that we were working on this page.

Here's the full page, inked and finished. The dialogue/context has been removed to avoid spoilers but I think it would be fun for you guys to try and guess what they're saying.

 While we're at it, I've decided I'm going to show you ONE of the many ending CGs the game has planned.

 Think of that iconic UI coming up in Dark Souls "YOU DIED" in bold red color appearing whenever you, of course, die. This is exactly what happens when you fail to platonically friendship or fail to reject someone's advances in the game, and for almost each scenario you will get a unique game-over screen that constitutes as an ending in the game. There are MANY MANY endings like this.

And that's where a CG like the one above, coupled with voice acted narration explaining what happened to you will be shown in the game. (Can you guess what happens in this ending?)

You can tell this CG was completed quite some time ago as at the time of making this CG, Aya's design, specifically the color of their hairband hadn't changed yet.

This complicated looking thing is actually a in-engine tool that allows me to quickly scan and check compatible sprites to add and code scenes in the game. It's a tool built by our programmer Feniks who is also the programmer for the very popular free otome game, Our Life (they just so happen to be having a VERY successful Kickstarter for the sequel live right now!)

Lately I've been really thinking about this idea of adding a section where you can explore the school. This was never planned to be in the game and it's only recently that I've came up with the idea. I've been really excited about the idea of having the ability to move around and seeing random events occur with characters in the game. 

This sort of 'exploration/roaming' type of gameplay is common in some dating sim games such as Tokimeki Memorial, and even something like Monster Prom has the ability to choose where to go. Would you guys be interested in that sort of thing if it was part of the main game?

Speaking of gameplay, I want to talk to you guys about something that's been on my mind for a while now.

I've been having a really long winded and never ending debate with myself about adding more gameplay focused elements to the game. Well, what do I mean by that?

I basically feel like the game should have more gameplay elements other than simple dialogue choices or narrative decisions. Yes we have minigames, but there is no real "core gameplay loop" IJWTBS has. For this reason, I classify it as more of a Visual Novel than a traditional Video Game, although those are mutually exclusive terms. 

I've been wondering for a really long time that I feel like I want more game'play' in the game, and something that people actually do. I've consulted with and asked many people and most people seem to say this is a bad idea. I mean, it's already kind of a year too late to be having an identity crisis mid-development, but it's also because people tell me that it's a bad idea to hard pivot from expectations.

Just because I want more gameplay feel doesn't make it a good reason to alienate to current fanbase/group of people looking forward to the game. I've already built up a lot of expectations.

At the same time, I just can't help but feel there's something missing whenever I think about IJWTBS as a whole. My perfectionist attitude always drives me to do better and make the best experience possible for people who will eventually play the game, but this is a topic that leaves me pretty much feeling lost no matter the outcome.

I might feel like I'm losing people by going through with my personal preferences, or that I'm making a mistake by not listening to my gut.

What do you guys think about this? Should I add a main 'gameplay loop' to the game? Or leave it as it is, focusing on the story and and narrative choices. I might not do anything but it's still important for me to hear people's opinions on the matter.

Honestly this has been the most difficult month of game development, and personal life stuff for me in the past year and half.

Lots of things have been happening and it's been challenging keeping up with everything and working on the game at the same time. With job/life stuff being rough and all the bad news out there, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate each and every one of you, you guys/gals who are looking forward to the game and support us. I really wanna say thank you, and that it's thanks to you that I keep going.

Incredible things are happening and you don't even know it yet
over 2 years ago – Sun, Sep 17, 2023 at 06:48:17 PM

tl;dr - some new art and a little bit of how we do comic panels

NOBODY CARES WHO I AM JUST LISTEN TO THIS SONG:

Isn't that so good? Thanks Nes (and ruby) for doing this fan song for the game. You're so cool!

Speaking of songs, you know how I always put a song in my updates? It's funny because I 100% spend more time looking for a suitable song to put in the update than actually writing the update. 

It's September (do you remember the 21st night), and things are finally cooling down a bit, at least where I live. Just a little bit.

ANYWAY ENOUGH STALLING HERE'S SOME PROGRESS I'M GONNA DO A LIGHTNING ROUND LIKE BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG AND DO A DRIVE BY SHOOTING YOU WILL BE DEAD DIED DED

Our in-game OS is getting slow and steady improvements. What else can you do in this mode? I won't tell you lol

I haven't mentioned this but every time we do a comic with BigYoshi, I almost always usually do a revision round and change up things to see if the flow of the scene could be better, so sometimes first draft sketches (like this one you're looking at right now) often are very different from what is actually finalized and ends up in the game.

For example, here's a revision mockup I did for BigYoshi on the first page of the cutscene.

It's purposefully made in a way so it flows with tension and builds suspense for what is going to be the reveal in page 2 of this scene.

And here is the revision BigYoshi did after my mockup. I gave the approval and now he's currently finalizing the rest of the pages.

And here's the final inked version of the first few panels. The rest of the page, as well as the second page also underwent a similar process but we're not showing that here because of spoilers. From here, once the page is fully done, we add the dialogue, and finally we put it into the game engine and I animate each panel and add sound effects, voice acting, and music for the full cutscene.

And that's the full process of making a cutscene in IJWTBS!

In terms of sprites, we've been making good progress on the new style. Here you can see expression comparisons between new and old Aya. The old style admittedly has it's charm and we've been working hard to preserve that character in the poses and expressions.

Tsun has also went ahead and redrawn all the hats for Aya to fit the new style. You'll be able to toggle these on for Aya to wear in the game!

Why does Aya have a big burrito on her head? I don't know don't ask me I don't make the rules (I literally made the rules)

Anyway, here's a song preview from the soundtrack we've been working on. This track is for Aya's bedroom, have a listen.

Next few months are going to be really important for IJWTBS. We're going to be making some pretty big decisions that will impact development a lot. 

We are currently in talks with certain people in order to set a partnership deal which will definitely help us in the long run if we ever want to do things like ports and localization, but I can't go too much into detail at the moment.

Another thing that I'm toying with the idea of is a new game mechanic for IJWTBS, but it might turn out to not turn into anything, so I'll talk about it if anything interesting comes out of it.

For now, that's all for this update, hope you have a nice day.

oh my god is that  is that r

This kind of looks like a game now?
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 08:17:20 PM

M DAYO

tl;dr of update: Progress is rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling

It's August which means either right now you are IN HELL BURNING IN MISERY OF FLESH or you're chilling somewhere with AC and I hope your situation is the latter. Are you guys having a nice summer? I've been kinda busy this month with moving (Still not settled yet)

Here's some stuff we did in the past month.

Yeah I know, I know. I said I'd stop talking about the BGs but - I did find a way to make the BGs blend in a little bit more and have that nice manga backdrop feel. While it may not be THAT noticable, it certainly makes a big difference if it wasn't there. You can right click open the image for a more detailed comparison.

I think the new filter gives it that nice blend with the sprites and gives it a nice wallpaper-y vibe.

 A lot of the menu are starting to become functional along with new UI designs. A big point for a lot of visual novels is having that Gallery function, and in ours you can filter by character for images! (still WIP)

Here's a preview of the route select menu, although it will probably change a bit in terms of design in the future.

Tsun is getting pretty good progress done with the new style sprites. I feel like it wasn't as obvious before but the expressiveness is a lot better in the new versions. Wouldn't you say so?

Another thing is that Tsun is also working on the new 3 girls that haven't been revealed yet as well and is giving them all a new sprites as well. 

On my side I'm still adding and experimenting with 3d stuff and camera stuff for making better scenes.

We're still working on the running track minigame. Still not finished yet but, it looks pretty good so far if I say so myself. (those background characters are not from the game, just mockups)

BigYoshi is still hard at work on the comics. Here's a preview! (with updated character designs)

Did you know that BigYoshi is actually TWO people?

Yes, it's more of a team/studio that shares a single name. The BigYoshi half that you know mostly works on the comics and CGs, but the other half works on design elements, such as the Love Love All Girls High School emblem above. Well, these are the initial drafts.

And here's the final version! The school now officially has it's own emblem.

Sometimes we get emails through our contact email. This person asked about the new 3 girls. This was my reply:

If you played the demo, you might know about the silhouette character Random Girl. 

The pink one is Random Girl. She's an obnoxious and entitled jerk girl who is very smug and rude.
She doesn't take no for an answer. In the full game she won't be a silhouette anymore.
The Cyan girl is a Robot girl called Chloe. She is very nice and cute and likes plants
The gyaru is called Mika. She likes fashion and is a bit of a tsundere.

I know you guys are looking forward to the character reveals, and they'll come I promise. Although the reveal date will be closer to the game's launch. Believe me, we want to reveal them as much as you want to see them.

In general there's a ton of stuff that I don't show in these updates because I have to play this balancing act between showing progress for the development and not ruining stuff for you by spoiling cool stuff. But hey,, it is what it is.

Aaaaannndd that's it for this update! Kinda feels like a short update but it is what it is, hope you guys are having a nice vacation!

A short update, bursting with flavor
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 12:58:57 PM

やあ、僕だよ、m.だ。

tl;dr of update:  A new artstyle? New ui? New MINIGAMES?

What's up gamers?

It's July AND ITS SO FRICKIN HOT OUTSIDE OH MY GAWW

Listen, I'll be real with u and just get into the update cause theres not much to show this month.

First of all, we've finally finished retouching all the characters design and the overall sprite style. You can see the new style here! I've also added the old one for comparison.

Woah, they pop off the screen so much more now, don't you think? Although, I did rush to get these into the game, so coloring might change ever so slightly next time you see them.

And, although we haven't finished them yet, we promise that all the different poses and expressions for each character has been drastically improved and made more dynamic (not these ones though, they're the default idle poses.)

One thing that I've probably forgotten to mention is that, another big reason why we chose to redo all the sprites was because it was hard for Tsun to draw new outfits for each character since we didn't draw each character in their nude base. So Tsun would have to actually re-draw each sprite from scratch anyway any time we wanted to add new outfits. This gives a lot more flexibility, although we should have done this from the start. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

Okay, enough about sprites. Let's talk about something else.

If you haven't read the last update I made, here's some news for you: we're working on the minigames!

There's quite a few different minigames with very different gameplay planned. It's still VERY early to talk about them but I just wanted to show you a sneak peak of what it kind of might look like.

There's still a ways to go in terms of progress, but hey: all you backers out there who got the playtester reward? The wait will be worth it 100%. Just remember to join our discord to get real time updates on when you get to play!

Anyway, time to round the update off with something a little more boring.

I've been experimenting a lot with the UI and gameplay of the input system a lot in the past month. While it's nothing awe inspiring, it is kind of game changing.

You may have seen a glimpse from the last update but we've added a new dynamic dialogue UI system that changes position based on who is talking on screen. Much more elegant than the stuff we did before. As well a narration dialogue style that is a bit like anime subtitles.

Along with the new dynamic speech bubbles dialog boxes, I've also been making an effort to make the input system more flexible and fun for players to use. Specifically, the problem before was that a lot of people would be disappointed whenever they couldn't say something in the input system. The game would tell you "no, you can't say that" and that was really frustrating for players.

Now, I'm making a big effort into making it so that you CAN say anything (well... with a few exceptions) in the game. The game now allows you to say something funny. ESPECIALLY if it is funny. And hopefully the story will just run with it and work!

I'm sure there'll be some problems down the road but, why not have some fun with it? That's what games are for!

And that's it for this update, it was pretty short but hopefully it invigorated you for this hot summer. If you have any opinions to share please feel free in the comments! 

Stay safe and hydrated! m. out