TheLifeofMe

Behind-the-scenes: How it began

Added 2023-12-18 12:49:58 +0000 UTC

I had decided I wanted to make a visual novel. With a lose idea of what I wanted out of the plot and the characters, I just needed a way to put it all together.

Easier said than done, I learned.

During my research, I settled on using Ren'py as the engine and rendering the art through Daz3d. Now I just needed to ... learn how to code, and how to render images. Google would be my friend!

In the first draft of the story I had planned on focusing more on Oliver and Jamie, therefore giving a little bit more background from when they were kids. I put the figures in Daz, posistioned them until I was satisfied and hit render.

The results where... well, meet the oompa-loompa that was supposed to be Oliver.

I practiced and praciced, until I just came to the conclusion that I needed to learn with something simpler. Scrapping the whole background story for now, I instead made a little game called "Introduction".

It was a small little game meant to introduce the characters to the player, and was perfect for me to learn Ren'py and make rendered characters that didn't look too bad. It was fun to make.

Here's a little snippet from it:

With that done, I felt I was ready for the main game.

I made character sheets, a storyboard, a simple flowchat and began to map out the functions I wanted. And here we are; the intro released and out in the world!

So thank you for following along, and I hope that The Life of Me will live up to the expectations.

- Thonduil