The Verla Problem

There's really no other way to put this — Rainshade, or as it was named at the time, Once More, was announced too early. Perhaps almost a year too early, but with Puro being put aside to work on it, I couldn't exactly go completely silent for like 8 months. The scope of the project (primarily in terms of length) grew. Characters changed, the story changed, roles changed. Even the umbrella, which the game is now essentially named after, was only added to solve a core gameplay issue about 7 months in, and subsequently radically changed how the entire game played. It wasn't a short little story game anymore. It was a full game, with gameplay I was genuinely proud of. 

But, unfortunately, some aspects struggled to change with it, and Verla was the worst case of this.

Verla, despite being the most prominent named character in the entire game, didn't have much depth. She had her arc, but she was little more than friendly, yet insecure. As her role grew, her personality would clash with it, and as that changed, her design would clash with THAT. Plus, people had gotten really attached to parts of her design that probably needed to be removed. And I didn't know who she was anymore.  

Thus, her design was reiterated. A lot. Over and over again. Fumbling in the dark, desperately trying to find some way to maintain a look similar to the one people were familiar with, but worked better with her essentially undecided personality. Worse, some personalities that were fun to write were completely incompatible with the gameplay. How do you implement, for example, a companion character who is eccentric and truculent into a game where you can't attack directly?

I nearly started over a couple times. At one point considered throwing another major character out entirely and giving Verla their role. Tried to design her as if her design didn't exist, to find what her core essence was, and eventually, I think I found it. Everything has nearly fit together, and if I can make it work as a sprite, she'll be complete, after over a year and a half of development. I absolutely adore what she's become, and I hope those of you who liked her before can learn to do so again.