Music Mondays?

It was either that or Soundy Saturdays. 

One new thing I am doing this year to tackle the beast that is Transfigure is to divide up the biggest jobs into manageable tasks. I’ve learned a lot over the years including how to manage myself and my style. What I’ve found is by volume I produce the most and what I consider to be the best content when I am creatively free to do whatever I want. This leads to a build up of raw unfinished or near finished content which is awesome long term but sucks in the meantime.

During the first five years I made a very consistent monthly deadline, hoping to build up enough of a following that I could sustainably develop games. If I am generous I could say I partly succeeded. I had enough success that I was better off than most hobby projects and we could limp on at a slow pace. I am grateful to have any funding at all but the money doesn't fully justify the stress.

Solo game developer is the most absurd job I’ve ever had (low pay, max stress, max responsibility, many diverse skill requirements) but I keep doing it for a lot of reasons. The primary one being that I strongly believe that if I make a good enough game then people will buy it and then I will be able to make my other ideas into reality. It is also stimulating and frequently fun. Although not an expert, I have grown enough as a game dev that I can do the basics of every aspect of development. For the first time in my life I feel like I have the tools to do everything necessary to make a cool game completely by myself. Will every aspect be amazing, of course not, but I do really enjoy the creative control.

It has taken a long time to get to this point but it opens up the potential for me to build out a big catalogue of story driven games and media! Perhaps more importantly, is that the games and things I can make are getting closer to what I initially imagined. With a big team, it would be hard to realize the creative vision of a single person. But with a solo studio powered with modern software and a few AI tools paired with developer with a desire to learn different skills is a really unique combination. This is effectively the dawn of what I think of as "true gaming". Before this time I don't think it is possible without a massive budget to create something even close to what a lot of people can imagine.

Those that believe the golden age of gaming has come and gone are wrong. The barrier to entry will drop to zero and the creative people with the most dedication and talent will prosper. When anyone can easily make a game the average quality may drop but the quality of the games in general will continue to increase with the exception of those at the very top of the charts that have achieved a level of ascendant stagnation. Every person on Earth is having their creative power increased and it is an absolutely fascinating time to be alive!

When I started Tango Fiction I was going to be the writer and I intended to rely heavily on another artist to finish the project without any voice acting. Now I am putting everything together by myself and it is almost surreal. I have a big block of ideas. A huge archive of content. I have the code. I have the software. I have the assets. I have the hardware. I have detailed plans and organizational work. I have the basic skills and the determination to finish the project. What blows my mind is the game is starting to look better than I was hoping it would. I am so excited to show off the remaining third of Transfigure this year!  

I am fine with the max responsibility rating as low as I can reduce the burden of the other two aspects (stress and compensation). But those aspects are linked. More compensation would mean less stress and more resources to hire and contract others to help do the things that I am not great at.

So that somewhat obvious and circular path leads us back to a clear answer: finish the damn game and sell it. But make sure it doesn’t suck or I will be trampled by a horde of wildebeests. 

I’m not complaining but I need to recognize and combat some of the negative aspects of development. One way I am doing that is to try and rebuild some structure while still retaining enough creative freedom to avoid burnout. This led to Music Monday! I made Monday a dedicated day for music, sound, VA etc. So for almost a full day last week, I wrote lyrics and voice lines, I sorted SFX, I organized and edited music, and I composed a few new songs and it was fun. As long as I can check that fun box then I can tolerate a lot of stress and ramen. 

I believe sound elevates a visual novel significantly vs a purely text driven narrative that’s more like reading a book so I want to put in some serious effort here. I think VNs are special because they overlap with many other media forms and they can be pushed or pulled in various directions. For example, some are more like reading a book, or an illustrated comic, or watching a TV show that you click vs playing a truly interactive gaming experience. This also means they are easy to convert as well. A TV show to VN is fairly simple or novel to VN or manga to VN, VN to alternate game, etc whereas a straight adaptation of novel to game is more interpretive especially since the original creator is often not involved in the secondary adaptations.  It is really awesome that I can this rare privilege to make exactly what I want. (So, as always, thanks to all you patrons that made this possible!)

Productivity has been good the past few days. I’ve redesigned some banners and I am trying to make an expanded roster photo showing off the most popular cast members. It has turned into a very vram intensive class picture. It was at this point I realized Transfigure has a lot of characters 😀 If I add any more characters to it I will have to render it in stages. I may have to do a poll for which characters show up on certain promo images too. Currently I sorted them ranked by the amount of content in their sections but it is looking more likely they will be arranged more by size.

I am going through and adding a lot of additional sfx in the TF demo. I am trying to make it so if the text references a sound generally the player will hear it. I might omit a few sighs here and there if they aren’t in the dialogue itself to prevent audio balance issues but I am happy with this direction.

I tried to make a couple songs for Scarface Rocket Zombies on the Evan and Drew paths. These need a bit more time in the oven. Maybe you will see them next week. I'm trying for a more rock vibe, plus Evan’s karaoke rendition. 

More interestingly, here is a song for Goddess Connection that tickled my brain. I wrote it last Monday as an experiment to introduce and fill out the backstory behind the main character, Hart, amid the backdrop of morale conundrums plaguing the isolated Cradle Kingdom.

Gcon is a story about sacrifice, redemption, and self exploration. The song inspired a pretty cool scene where Hart’s father, a hero of the kingdom, resolves to fight at humanity’s last chance battle. Believing the act to be an extreme long-shot, the Cradle refuses to mobilize its main army to help the other nations fight off the impending threat. Both young Hart and the Kingdom’s leaders urge Hart’s father to stay and defend the homeland at the expense of all else but he decides to honor the alliance with the other kingdoms and to fight for a slim hope of victory in order to prevent the King of Death from conquering the main continent and becoming unstoppable. 

Hart's father and the human army, despite their heroic efforts, come up an inch short of killing the King of Death. This result forces the Cradle Kingdom to abandon the world. Hart and many of the kingdom’s people have difficulty understanding the hero’s decision to “abandon his child and kingdom at the expense of outsiders” while ignoring their own lack of action. The bloody battle buys the Kingdom enough leeway to stave off the end of the world for a few years longer.

Hart resents his father, wondering for years why he would leave his family and kingdom to die in a foreign war far from home. It soon becomes clear that letting the Death King rule the world will result in the end of everyone residing within the Cradle. Hart is ashamed as he comes to the realization that his father’s decision was heroic and done for his sake. In order to save his family and give his people one final shot at redemption, Hart finds himself in a similar place as his father. The fight must be taken to the Death King’s throne and beyond into the depths of hell if necessary!

Maybe it is possible to save everyone but there will be a high price. Will it be paid by the deserving, by hero’s blood or innocent blood? Without the pursuit of power and the blessings of the goddesses, the world is sure to enter a new dark age… but maybe it will arrive there anyway.

Redemption of the Sacrificial Heart

The world burns but here in our Cradle Kingdom,

nestled in the mountains, 

surrounded by peaks and waves,

we live at peace. 

We turned our backs.

We sealed our gates.

Until the world fell.

Conquered by the armies of hell.

They descend upon our homes.

So now we must fight!

I will protect what I love.

While praying to the goddesses above.

Never will I yield.

Because I am my family’s shield!

I will sacrifice what I may.

And through the long, winding road,

I will find my way!

Change me, transform me, uplift me.

Remake me in your image.

So that in the moment of need,

we will sow a victory seed!

I will sacrifice what I may.

To find the strength to fight another day!

For kingdom and compass.

To hold back the black morass.

For temple and goddess.

To redeem the selfish ones like myself.