In dev "Town" [18+] [PSYHOLOGICAL HORROR] [Fundraising] (Latest Update: Aug 19, 2024)

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Fan Art

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"They" short story

Edited May 2 by Ray-Out
grama

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"Tongue" short story

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Update 0.53



 

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Bread Crumbs

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Update 054

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Quick update:

- Game sprites have been replaced with new ones
- Fixed bugs with music and sounds
- New sounds inserted
- The main menu works even better than before
- Loading and saving got rid of recent problems
- The loading process has been changed, now instead of the original idea, it is combined with a calendar
- The editor has completed the third polish of the first act
- The editor began writing new sex scenes
- The programmer received pre-final edits to the prologue as well as the third portion of edits on the global system
- 5 new backgrounds were drawn
- Polished 8 old backgrounds
- The main sprites are being finalized
- Sound effects and music are being finalized
- Still no news from the singer

 I would like to talk about all these points in more detail, but it’s better some other time. There is almost no time, and I would like to write to you when the current batch of edits is completed. At the moment, everything written above can be called only half of the completed plan. Therefore, after the next test, which will be in about a month, we will tell you in more detail. In the meantime... for now we will send you posters with the presentation of the routes.
 Don't be idle and peace be with you!

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Update 56

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Update 0.56

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Update 58

Good news everyone!

Below I will write in more detail, but in short, the novel will most likely be released, but it is unlikely to come out before next year. A programmer was found.

 

So, anyone interested in the details... they will be in the format of a simple flood, after which I will describe the state of the novel at the moment.

Today I am the only one left on the development team. The person who did the script, game design, art, voice acting and almost everything else. After three years of working on the novel (which was done absolutely free), my team included more than a hundred voice actors, three editors, three singers, two programmers, two composers, two artists. This may not be a complete list, but I hope you get the gist.

If you failed to do this, then the essence of what was written above has always been the same for me. You should never leave things halfway. Especially if other people took part in it. In my work, I always try to give people the experience they need, and if they work well, they are rewarded after a while. This happened with past projects. However, past projects were simpler. The voice acting and translation of the Japanese game took no more than a year of work, regardless of the variability in the game itself. The role-playing game, which was translated and voiced by my team with over 60 hours of gameplay, took about three years. And now, I have “Town” VN in my hands.

 

Working on the novella became another new stage in my life, without any lies. This is a new experience that still continues to bear fruit. But even here I ran into the problem that most often appears in any team. This problem is called irresponsibility. Of all the people I've met, most activists quickly burn out without bringing their cause to fruition. I really hope that whoever reads this will draw the necessary conclusions. If you can't or don't want to finish what you started, don't start. This will only cause problems for those you work with.

Of course, when such a large number of people come and go, as a game designer I am already accustomed to saying goodbye to them and welcoming new ones. In the end, everyone has their own life. Some leave for good reasons, like an artist who is preparing to move to another country. Others for less significant reasons, but I am ready to give them gold for warning me about leaving. And others... others leave silently or with obscenities. But it is normal. However, we are not really here to talk about people.

 

Returning to the “Town” I would like to say the following. I spent the last 4 days looking for a programmer, and had almost given up when I found a kind person. This person works on a different engine, but is still ready to help our novel reach people.

In the near future we are switching to another engine, preparing the ground for a programmer’s work and hoping that “Town” will not lose anything in the process.

Now I would be terribly upset to stage this project, especially when everything for it is ready besides the software assembly.

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Well… it's time for another hot update.

 

 

 

People keep coming and going.

 

The main goal today is to find a programmer for Unity, since ours has been out for a long time due to a physical injury.

 

At the moment, there have been several reasons to abandon the project, but only weak and irresponsible people abandon things they have started, so we will continue working. We are ready to allocate at least several months to search for a programmer and possibly new staff. If it doesn't work out, then we will think about what to do next.

 

On the agenda is a kind of second, if not third wind. In fact, the novel itself is only waiting for the finalization of backgrounds, minor polishing and a programmer. It is kind of… ready, if you consider a bunch of music, pictures, text and so on as something ready. It needs only to be put together.

 

Abandoning the project, of course, is not relevant, considering how many people worked on it. Most even completed their tasks 100%, like editors.

 

We have an important issue with 18+ scenes, which we have returned to more than once, but it can wait. Adult scenes are like something cursed. Our scriptwriter wrote the entire script, items, folclore and one bed scene. Then an editor came and edited half the plot and wrote another bed scene. Then a second editor came, edited the entire script again and wrote another bed scene. Then a couple of actors voiced 18+ scenes for the demo version…

In other words, the script is completely edited, the arts for the adult scenes are ready, but out of the necessary 10+ scenes, there is a script for only 3. You can draw your own conclusions.

 

I would like to add just one more thing. Oddly enough… it looks like we will abandon the Japanese language, given the lack of resources, but at the same time we will return to the idea of voice acting in English (Surprisingly, there are not many programmers among the Americans, however, there are enough voice actors on enthusiasm).

The only problem is that not only has our work completely stopped because of the programmer, but we also need to prepare additional materials for this very voice-over. Just like we did for the Russian-speaking actors.

 

So, our studio has once again found itself in a rather difficult situation, where it is difficult to find responsible people. But that's okay. This is not the first and not the last time. If we have to postpone the release date for 5 years, we will do it, because we are not used to letting someone else's work go to waste. Today, we are not talking about us as a studio, but about those people who tried to give "Town" their voices, their songs, music, drawings, plot, atmosphere, and so on. It would be terribly selfish of us to close the project due to the loss of personnel.

 

In general, until a new Unity programmer is found, the work will slow down at least five times.

Edited July 31 by Ray-Out

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Town Promo 2024

Edited August 1 by Ray-Out

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Update 0.61 Big one

New info on dev. New programmer. New interface and other.

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Update 62

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Update 0.63

Today we will share with you our thoughts about how to eat your own tail.

This is more of a flood topic than anything else.

 

Oddly enough, we are still looking for a programmer. We met two more people, which brought the number of "was programmer" to "6". At this rate, the number of programmers that are left can even surpass the number of actors. It is the actors who most often abandon their work halfway. In particular, our voiceover is ready, and more than 20 people took part in it, but about the same number dropped out of the project for various reasons.

 

Before we move on to Ouroboros, who bites his tail in the person of our studio, let me openly list some of the problems that we had with programmers. Perhaps this information will be useful to young developers.

 

1) Our first programmer left in a very good spirit and even with a recommendation from the management. This young guy worked on the Renpay engine, but after a couple of days of work he admitted that he would not be able to implement what we had planned. Mainly due to lack of experience.

 

2) Our second programmer will receive the greatest honor. He worked on Unity, as we originally planned. We worked with him for more than a year, and it was this person who created the current alpha version. Unfortunately, it was not finished and took too long to make. The programmer left due to serious physical injuries.

 

3) The third programmer decided to take up the Renpay version again. Our studio is primarily interested in quality and giving people experience, so the engine itself is not so important to us. This was the first American we worked with. He himself offered his help, but a day later, after personal assembly instructions were written for him, he left. Oddly enough, both he and our management can be blamed for his departure. The man did not provide any results, but at the same time he managed to insult the administration. To make things less dirty here, we won't go into details. And the manuals that took us extra time for him will still be useful to us.

 

4) The fourth programmer left the most disgusting feeling behind. Whoever you work for and whoever you help, for money or for free, the worst thing you can do is leave your comrades in the dark. A certain "Thomas" who has been working on unity "for more than 20 years" took on the project, and even reported fixing one bug from the very beginning. We communicated with him for a week, and even tolerated his leisurely "work". However, in this week was his birthday aka minus three days, then our request to upload the project to Git and… the man simply disappeared. As a result, he did not do or give us anything. He still hasn't read the latest messages. It was terribly ugly jesture from his side. 

 Whatever happens, you need to have no respect for others and yourself, so as not to at least write "I will not do this". Communicate something to people, and then just remain silent, refusing to answer for your words. At best, this can only be forgiven for a woman. If you understand what I mean. A man, in my understanding, cannot allow himself such behavior. Running away from problems is low.

Whatever the reasons for his disappearance, it was somehow possible to warn us about it in advance.

 

5) Our fifth programmer promised to take on a project on Unity. The guy dreams of becoming a freelancer. Of course, we give a chance even to the most inexperienced people. This time it was a guy from India. We gave him a raw alpha version to test his abilities. Because of the way he communicated, it was clear in advance that the matter would not go far with him. But who knows? Maybe we were wrong. Instead of uploading the project to Git, the guy created a project on the Unity website itself and for two days could not upload the alpha even there (by the way, anyone can do this task, even without being a programmer). Then followed a long correspondence from the category

- Can you upload?

- I need pizza.

- Can you put the animation here?

- I need more time.

- Have you worked with GitHub?

- My name is Dickie.

And so on. This dialogue was more like mockery than work, I could hardly understand anything. I don't know why this person didn't find a job in his country or didn't learn the language properly, if he is looking for a job in it. In the end, we refused to work with him after a few days. The work had not even begun and it is impossible to communicate with such people.

 

6) And finally, our sixth programmer, he is just a kind 17-year-old guy who wanted to help, but refused when find out the scale of the work. We do not even have any complaints about him, let him gain experience and so on.

 

In the course of the above, I would like to write the following. Our studio has been working with people for more than five years now, but to this day we discover various… rather unusual and new things in this industry. The most important thing, of course, is the human factor. People want everything and for free. People do not like to work but want money. People do not like responsibility, but want to gain experience. People do not have knowledge, but take on overwhelming work. People are incompetent and ill-mannered. And, by the way, I am not saying this as something bad. It is rather natural.

 

If our studio were more competent, we would better filter out everyone who works with us. At the beginning of our work, we met many more such people, because the policy of "give everyone a chance" is more than humane. 

We DO want to believe in people, and even we were once in the place of those from whom experience or impossible tasks were required. We were also not once told, that people would not give us work without experience. But today we are a little different. 

Today, "Ray Out" gives everyone the opportunity to prove themselves. Even if it is difficult. 

 

This evening, I logged into Steam and once again emphasized… how ambitious our project is with this novel.

 

People are doing great things with a much smaller scope and a much larger team. In particular, I came across a great novel and read about what it has. It literally says that it has more than 10 characters, 5 variations of endings, more than 20 backgrounds and no voice acting. This is a popular new novel like game, from a small studio of 10 people. It is completely 2D and side-view. It has no animation except for the animation of walking from right to left.

Now let's take our novel. We have more than 20 characters, we have more than 20 endings, we have more than 100 backgrounds, we have voice acting for everything including folklore, we have animation in the form of videos and so on. We have a menu wallpaper and the interface changes depending on different things. We have… oh, guys, do you understand what I'm getting at?

This is more than 10 times more material, with three times fewer people working on it. This is… An unbearable, I would even say heroic burden.

What was I thinking when I was planning such a large-scale and long-term project, with such a small team?

So, here comes the snake biting its tail. In the end, almost everything is ready for the novel except for the software part (PROGRAAAMERS! Why are they so Hard on us?), but we don't even have a working demo version on our hands.

 

While we are looking for a programmer, I have to think carefully about what's what. Maybe we don't have a large fan base, but nevertheless… perhaps we should finish the demo version, freeze the project until better times and make something smaller, or at least cut the volume of everything that is there in half.

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Update 64 - Choices