Post Chapter 2 Q&A
Originally shared: 2020 January 14
Disclosure: Obselete questions have been removed due to the Definitive version providing an updated canon.
More character ramblings for inquisitive minds! I thoroughly enjoy working on Lapse so it tickles me when others are just as interested, as evidenced by these questions! Here’s the first set of Q&A, if you missed it. Here we go again!
Who was your favorite character to design? Sei by far was my favorite to design from concept to illustrating. She has an interesting complexity and I have a soft spot for characters that have an eye covered by hair... I've disrespected her and completely messed up drawing her industrial ear piercing, though. For reference, she has an industrial, four helix and a lobe piercing- all solid black. Who is your favorite character in general? I genuinely love all my characters!! But Pandora... she's a cinnamon roll... of course. Who is the hardest to draw/write? The easiest? The hardest to write so far has been Forte. I gave him a particularly Romantic set of ‘rose-colored glasses’ that I don’t think I’ve conveyed well enough but I didn’t want him to be too hammy? He’s tough. The easiest was definitely Art, haha. I relate to his issues a lot which was also kind of why I gave him such little screen time- my personal game that I have cooking touches on the internal struggles of an existential, emotionally conflicted creator… That’s a story for another time! To start, Lyle was the hardest to draw (as evidenced by the awkward sprites in Ch1 that I ultimately wiped from existence in Ch2 lol) but I got used to shaping that weird purple head of his after scribbling in my notebook a thousand times. Ashley has consistently been the easiest to draw just because I’ve had her in my OC muscle memory the longest, haha. What's your general writing process / how do you go about brainstorming? I create an overall outline with a theme/motif I absolutely require myself to follow and stick to it. There are some deaths that I've gone back and forth on SEVERAL times, but ultimately told myself to follow since I needed the impact of their deaths to move the story. For writing & brainstorming I just write every thought that pops in my head first- emotions, actions, etc. I start a filtering process of whether or not certain ideas are important to the mood I’m trying to create and write accordingly. I’m a bit uptight about dialogue so I try to make every line relevant (save for exclamation and reactions), therefore cutting a lot of extraneous chatter, often at the expense of natural conversation... And glue it all together! The chapters so far have been insufferably sad because of this theme I’m trying to pull off so I want to believe the end theme will justify it (or not?! It’ll be up to interpretation, the artist is dead, etc). For such a big project, how do you stay motivated? Or is there anything in particular that really motivated/made you want to do this project? Oooh, it’s tough, really. I’ve always been a self-starter and an autodidact so I’m not even sure myself? I just like the characters and I like making stuff. I also hate my day job so coming home and doodling my characters all over my sketchbooks makes me happy. And answering questions about my game and process helps motivate me as well, since it’s cool to see that people are this interested! But! The main purpose of Lapse going in was to learn something (Ren’py and writing). Late last year (some time after I made my other two first VNs) I made a “short-term goals in my grand scheme of art” list which was to create this fan game, learn from the experience, and take that knowledge into making my personal game. And draw lllustrations on the side in the interim, per my usual! How difficult is coding on ren'py? I was thinking about making a fanganronpa as well but I don't really know how to code... Not difficult at all!! I mean, I made it hard for myself by adding extraneous stuff like those trial cut-ins but to get a story moving and going is really a matter of plugging in a story script and adding pictures! All the flashy stuff can come after! Unless you like the flashy animated-ness of DR, then a video format is better for that feat. Thiiiiiiis is an excellent opportunity to advertise a game jam that will be starting soon! Please check out My First Game Jam, a game jam to get started on YOUR first game! I can't stress enough what a valuable experience the game jam was for me back in 2017, and again in 2019! My first two games were extremely small but the experience in learning the processes and struggles as an individual were monumental! You can participate as an individual like I did, or look for a team and contribute your specific talents on the itch forums! The game jam page provides mountains of resources for people of all skill levels who want to learn something new!!! I can’t offer proper advice about how to code since I’m completely self-taught but I CAN give insight and advice about starting a project as a whole! The hardest aspect working on Lapse for me is writing this bizzare, sad story. The programming, despite my limited knowledge, is quite fun once I got the gist of it! It’s so easy to get overeager and lose sight of the end goal but if you pace yourself and keep your strengths and wits about you, creating something like Lapse (or more????) is absolutely possible. It’s just about knowing what you do and don’t need. For example, I focus much more on the story and characters of Lapse rather than the interactivity/gameplay of it, since it’s not within my realm of abilities to put words flying all over the screen during trials if I don’t need to. It’s not in my interest for the story to allow the players to run around the mansion like in an RPG so I declined using RPGmaker (plus I’m too stingy to pay for it). I declined using Unity since it wasn’t in my capabilities to create full 3D environments, despite having some proficiency in Blender. To then learn how to manipulate the camera during trials is another can of worms I was not ready to wrestle. I made the decision to use Ren’py after contemplating my resources but also because I wanted to learn it more. I didn’t care to replicate the DR art style since I hate lineart so I stuck with my scratchy, messy sketch style and stuck with it (it builds character, after all haha). Whichever medium you use to tell your story is ultimately unimportant- as long as you find a way that expresses everything you want it to, the project is already halfway there! There aren’t any hard and fast rules to starting a project, but as an individual who works full time and is practicing my storytelling with Lapse, these were the constraints I had to work around while still maintaining it as something I wanted to invest my time and interest in. Working with a team definitely lightens the load as well if you would like to employ other talents to bring a vision to light! I realize Lapse really isn’t a looker by any means but I knew going into it that it was never going to be a grand production. It’s a starting point for me as I plan out my bigger original projects- getting what was important to me into the game was first priority. Phew, that was a lot of text. Hopefully this insight helps! I honestly get such a feeling of enrichment when people say my creations gets them inspired to start theirs! Thanks again for the questions! I really enjoy talking about these dang(anronpa) kids and I hope you enjoy reading the insurmountable amount of text I tend to blather on about in during these Q&As!