Hello, Habr! In this article I will talk about the results of the publication of one visual novel and tell about the second, during the development of which I tried to take into account the experience gained ...
Before intensive development of a small game (aka hackathon) it is important to decide what you want: to program, have fun or create a finished product? I have a friend who really wants to make a game, but over and over again he starts by creating a graphics engine based on libgdx. Perhaps this path leads to masterpieces like {$ TitleCoolIndieGame}. In my opinion, he just wants to program. So, Reader, if you really want to make a game, it is better not to start from absolute zero or read this article, but to start a specific job! Moreover, under the cut is not a success story, but the coordination of the models of a half-naked girl, vacuum muffins in a horse, crazy work on the translation of dubious humor and even more dubious references, a description of an abnormal development solo, and a bit of programming to fit the theme.
Under the cut dozen megabytes of graphics and more than ten pages of text.


In the meantime, we are still under a beautiful girl from a promo picture, I thank Lertmind , veshurik , lain8dono , PapaBubaDiop , jehy , kekekeks , SamVimes and everyone else who took their time to provide me with good advice, criticism and comments. (Besides the guy who called me a schoolboy in the Habr public) By the way, you still have a chance to read MrNixon ’s serious material about developing a kinetic short story , and not my fuss.

As promised, first I will talk about the results of the launch of the last game. You can read about it here .

Chan Simulator Launch Results

According to my estimates, a hundred installations per day were the limit for such a game, but the game started better than I expected!

Apparently, it affected the fact that I left a link to the game in many VK groups and sites ...
At first, I focused only on publics about the development of games and visual novels. Then he added to the list of anime communities and groups about indie development. But a surprise for me was that after the “creep” of the published posts (published about every fifteenth post; everyone wants money for “advertising”), the main source of traffic was the organics of the market!

However, this also played a joke with me. The audience I invited (men aged 20-40 years) was “prepared” for an unexpected outcome and rated the game at 4.8: in the description of the link I always indicated that this application was a joke and a joke. The description of the application in the market was compiled without this nuance ... Organic traffic (women aged 16-20 years) lowered the score to 3.5. Especially, foreign users reacted sharply to the rough endings of the game. In their understanding, this would be justified only if there was a hidden good ending, which I did not have. The low percentage of "organic" installations only confirms my suspicions.
But you know, all this fades compared to the fact that a foreign YouTube blogger recorded the passage of my game. And left a pretty good review! This is really cool ... I saw that the man had fun: I managed to convey emotions!

Fact break

And Google blocked the game due to the accomplishment of a maid covering her breasts with her hands in the screenshot. And then he apologized, unban, but asked to remove his chest.

Tie

The game consistently brought 2-3 muffins per day. That was enough for me to think about developing another novel. You need to prove that I'm not a sexist! But how to do it better than by creating a game about a strong, but naive heroine? Moreover, organic traffic would obviously be delighted with the otome (visual novel with flirting for girls) in Russian. But what is Fake Novella if it is a regular dating simulator for girls? It was necessary to decide on the fake element, and for this, select the setting and outline the plot ... I watched the passage of more than a dozen otomes on Youtube, almost irrevocably ruining my list of recommended videos, but decided on the plot: monsters. Vampires, werewolves, and other evil spirits that should succumb to the charm of the human race! But in my game, monsters will be monsters: they will eat the heroine. In a sense, this is even an educational element: there is nothing to stir up novels with those who can eat you. It remains to figure out how to combine such different characters in one story, but the answer was already around me. A place that unites Afro-French, Chinese, Belarusians and Kazakhs: a hostel!
Launch the credits ... Here is the story of the development of the game “Fake Novella: Hell Dormitory”.

Fact break

The most popular girl was "Sister". The maid took the second place, and the third was divided by Yandere and Zundera. An interesting coincidence was that the character’s chest size was directly proportional to his popularity.

Introduction

Of course, for development I again chose the familiar Unity3D instead of RenPy, which is a kind of standard in the field. Using my own engine to play with a couple of phrases was justified, but this time I wanted to add more actions to the denouement. And the wrong architecture, even within the framework of a small game, generated various errors. Fortunately lertmindtold me about Fungus, a framework containing many tools for creating visual short stories. At first I doubted: I had a great desire to write code, and Fungus seemed very casual. Nevertheless, suppressing my pride, I studied the documentation and did not regret it: it contained everything that I wanted. The only negative was the lack of an integrated serialization system for saving / loading. (promised in new versions) Having tested it on cats, I started developing a new Fake Novella.

Fact break

An analysis of the feedback from foreign users showed me that women's logic is international and the question I raised is relevant in many countries of the world.

Concept

“Lion King 1” walked along the plot outline of Hamlet; “The Lion King 2” based the story of Romeo and Juliet; “The Lion King: The Lion Squad” is some kind of superhero story. I am far from Disney, therefore, the plot of my story was “Little Red Riding Hood”. A young (but adult) girl brings pies to her beloved grandmother. She carries them through the dark forest late at night (after all, everyone loves to eat after six) in bright red shoes. (so as not to be ashamed of the search engines) This is where my creative genius ended and Deus ex Machina of the screenwriter - bummer follows: the eagles “unknown magic figoten” takes the heroine to the main scene.

To describe the current disposition, the character “Commander of the Dormitory” was included in the game, she has several endings of her own (including the secret one) and at the same time a male character is selected through it.

I made the very communication with the male character rather banal: the monster shows its true essence and the player is given a choice: an attempt to tame the monster or escape. Any attempt at taming, of course, fails, and the escape leads to a small brawl.

After the battle, the player must choose the path to escape. Then I also decided not to philosophize: jump into the window or escape through the exit. Escape through the window will lead to death several times in a row: the girl does not have enough strength to knock him out and eat her. By the way, one of the secret endings is connected with the window: if you try to break it in several walkthroughs, then in the end, the attempt will succeed. About this I give a hint of gaming means.

Well, the escape through the entrance will lead to a good ending: the commandant sees a girl running through the territory and sends her home.

Fact break

Initially, I wanted to give the girl the name of one of the heroines of The Path , but then I decided that it was too much to make a reference to such a fantastic game in my three-ruble note. On reflection, I named her in honor of Princess Sissy, and the hostel was named after her ancestral castle.

Plot

In a slightly failed podcast on the development of visual short stories , it says that the screenwriter should be the author of the plays rather than just a writer. I completely agree with this point of view.
To develop the plot, I used Google Docs. In moments of inspiration, I described key scenes: dialogs and dispositions of characters, and then transferred them to the game engine, connecting with filler transitions. Despite the fact that screenwriting is not taught at the pop dance institute , I can pour water.

Additional mechanics

From the very beginning, I would like to add to the game something other than choosing an answer. This “something” was the protection from the monster made in the style of clicking fighting game.
The mechanics of click-fighting were inspired by Sakura Clicker .

Fact break

In general, I did this game while the artists drew graphics for my version of this game. (clicker) I wanted to make a large-scale dungeon adventure and duels with monster girls ... And here Sakura themselves took and announced a full copy of my idea! Not cool in general (

Costume Design

On Google Play, screenshots should be acceptable for a 3+ age rating. Indeed, children are already excommunicated and seeing them is now a strict taboo.
I make a game with an undisguised fan service ( etti / software erotica) and this leads to problems with outfits. After multiple interlocks, censorship has become a sore spot for me and I am very paranoid in some matters. For example, here is the initial sketch of Lady Commandant's costume.

Although the costume is closed, the buttock is open and it may seem that the priest is completely naked. As a result, using Paint I created a costume design that goes through my internal censorship! The final view of the character can be seen below.

In addition to changing the basic elements, a badge was added as a uniform element.

Summary

There is such a thing as a summary. This is a process in which all characters are placed on one large canvas to compare proportions and style. The earlier this process occurs, the less likely it is that the dwarf in the game will be more than a giant. I thought about this and asked the artist to monitor the size of the characters; she followed. Moreover, the background was also scaled relative to them. Only now ...

Because of my impatience, I didn’t embed the demos of major versions sent by documents into the demo version, but cut out the characters directly from the screenshots of the graphics editor. This led to the fact that the sizes of the characters with whom I tested the game were one and a half to two times the size of the characters prepared by the artist.

This led to the fact that in some places, the interface elements covered important elements of the characters. I shifted the interface, but the scale of the backgrounds flew into tartrara as it was located taking into account different resolution relationships and did not correlate with the scale of the characters ... The

demon also contributed to the rest of the characters because of the extra long horns . Damn complexes about the size of the horns! I had to cut off a part of the guy’s legs and the very edge of the horns in order to achieve an acceptable scale, but alas his head all the same seems too small.

The scale of the backgrounds was saved by the fact that the artist asked me why this highest character does not occupy the whole place in height. But really, why? This was due to the mechanics of Fungus: it uses the Unity UI to display graphics. Character images have an activated aspect ratio option. But since the width was less than the height, the picture was compressed. By increasing the width allotted to the character, I achieved the desired result.

Locations

Of course, my scale is not very large: I managed with five locations: a dark forest, a dormitory hall, guys' rooms. For some variety, window and door sprites have been added.
The werewolf’s room shows that he is such a big dog who loves his parents and does not disdain humanity.

In the abode of the vampire, of course, there is a coffin, a blood supply and a plush bat.
Everything is littered with books in the demon, and work disorder reigns in the room as a whole. So that everything is not so boring, he has a candle that generates smoke with the style of teleportation magic.

But of course, the devil is in the details: whether it is a plush bat, a leg in a bowl or a floor lamp in the shape of a skull ... In addition, it is important to choose such colors so that all the characters that can appear there are clearly visible on the locations.

Name selection

Of course, there were no questions with the first part of the title; this is “Fake Novella.” But what is the sub-name? It was supposed to be intriguing, use slang and not scare guys away; and of course, at least a little characterize the game itself.
I decided to concentrate on the scene: the hostel of demons. Initially, I settled on the “Demonic Hostel”. But this name was too long and not expressive enough. In the end, I settled on “Fake Novella: Hell's Hostel”; Well, in the translation of “Fake Novel: Infernal Dormitory”. Although I thought for a very long time whether to reduce “Dormitory” to “Dorm” in order to make it more slang, I decided to stop in full form.

Description development

The description should contain a maximum of keywords (but so as not to be banned) and a little description. Why a little? Because most users (not to be confused with users) do not read descriptions.
Let's look at the description of the game that I wrote:

I marked in red a memo for you know what . Meme marked in orange: what description without a meme? I marked the plot and features of the game in blue, and the keywords are highlighted in green.
In general, try to push the maximum functionality into the minimum text.

Localization

Perhaps this is the largest work for me in terms of translation is a bunch of stupid jokes, references, and even speaking names. It’s scary to think what would happen if I made a full-fledged short story for many thousands of words ...
Due to the fact that Alconost still does not accept muffins as the main means of payment, I asked for help in translating my friend into English , and at the service of my beloved firms resorted only in difficult cases, such as adapting names. Who likes name translation? It’s enough to watch one video to understand the extent of the problem ...

English translation

The first difficult moment was the translation of the phrase “And traveled and saved the pie!”. It was necessary to convey subtle rural humor and not fall into the ban of Google Play ... Thanks to the help of the hall, when translating into English, the pie turned into a cherry, but despite such an innocent decision, I removed this moment from the final version.
Many options have been proposed for the translation of the name “Azazayushka” (Azazel + Azazaz + Zayushka). In English localization, he turned into “Lucipal”. (Lucifer + bro)
It seems that there shouldn’t be any problems with the translation of the werewolf’s name: choose a popular nickname for a dog, let’s rejoice ... But for example, which “Friend” of the one who eats a person? As a result, the intolerant “Friend” became the active “Ball”, then the neutral “Bobik” and, in translation, turned into “Spikey”.

How not to mention the name of the main character? In the Russian version, it is a reference to Elizabeth of Bavaria. (Empress of Austria) It is also possible to notice the similarity of her name with some physiological signs. (I, as the author of the concept, declare this is only a strange coincidence) In addition, the name of the hostel “Possenhofen Castle” indicates the Duchess of Bavaria. (her ancestral castle) In the translation of the version, Sissy suggests itself - a slang description of the heroine's psychotype!
A huge amount of blood drank the translation of the appeal "Madam." The fact is that in the initial version there were two Mistresses: Madame Commandant (referring to the dominatrix) and “Madame Sissy” - Azazayushka’s appeal to GG. In the translation, this led to ambiguity. The Wikipedia article stated that in order to maintain a dubious reference, the term “Mistress” must be used to transfer the status of Commandant. But the English language did not agree ...
When "mistress" is an influential citizen or mistress of a house / office / doghouse - it is miss if not married, and missis / mrs if she is married (or was).
When the "mistress" is someone else's mistress, this is a "mistress". Therefore, when Azazayushka turns to GG, he can only call her “mistress”. But both appeals are suitable for the commandant. The exclusion method says that the commandant should become “miss,” but then the reference is lost. Unfortunately, this problem could not be solved ... In the English version, two “mistress” remained. In the Russian text, GG became “Mistress”, although this word did not quite fit the plot, but it became the best analogue.

Ahead still remained references to Harry Potter, Zveropolis, Gravity Falls and even Louis de Pont du Lac. Due to the fact that the translator was pulled out of another cultural context (Camus, Lovecraft, David Bowie ...), lines with such content were provided with small notes and links to various Wikis. Fortunately, the Fungus csv scheme has a note box by default.

Fact break

Do you know how dogs bark in English? To find out the truth, just ask Google!

Seriously, sometimes simple queries really help to select phrases for translation.

Spanish translation

Spanish is the third language on the Internet and at the same time one of the “cheapest” among non-CIS countries. But I decided to translate it rather because I have a Spanish visual short story with ten thousand installations in my “similar” ones. So I'm impulsive ... By the way, there is Spanish (Mexico), but we are talking about Spanish (Spain).
When translating into Spanish, it is worth remembering that the language uses peculiar punctuation marks and non-Latin characters. It is important to make sure that the font supports them.
With the preparation of texts is also not so simple. For example, it’s worth pointing out the context using “you.” Otherwise, it might be awkward .
It just so happened that I know English terribly (This is by no means the fault of my beloved and oldest electrotechnical university in Europe), but for a year now I have been compiling assignments for translators. Wikipedia was the best help for me: it’s very convenient to refer to it in the presence of some terms. (Although there is a special Wiktionary)
Unfortunately, the Spanish Wikipedia is smaller than English. I had to look for some words in a more well-known context. For example, the word "Plan" has an article - a description in English . The value I need is not translated into Spanish. But, there is a page about D&D on which the Planescape supplement is indicated, material about which contains the term I need: "planos de existencia".
English and Spanish are very similar languages. But they are similar in the same way as Russian with Czech. For example, when translating into English for "Dormitory", the word "Dormitory" was chosen. In Spanish, there is its counterpart, which even offers Google Translate - "Dormitorio". But in fact, the Spanish word will mean "bedroom". In such cases, just enter a word into Google. Pictures and study the result.
For me, Che Guevara has always been a “commandant”, and “commandant” meant purely guardians of the hostel. Only when working with Spanish did I learn that the word "commandant" does not exist! Cruel world.
A very big problem is that some links with a beautiful translation will be lost. For example, the phrase “I can’t appreciate this artifact” can be logically translated as “I can’t understand what this artifact does.” According to the translator, everything is OK, but the reference to the " Rating " spell from D&D is lost .
I have already written more than once how important it is to indicate any jokes and references. Even the most obvious in your opinion ... For example, I forgot to indicate the context for the word "rolls" in the phrase with "rolls hanging around." So, as the heroine went with a basket of pies, the word “empanadas” was chosen, although the word “bollos” would be more suitable for my taste. (Don't look what it means; just take my word for it)
To be honest, I was very worried about the Spanish version. At first I searched for a translator for a very long time in thematic communities, but all attempts were in vain, and then I gave up and turned to the usual group of translators. Although Eugene was not familiar with some of the references, she really tried hard not to miss them, and I got a great experience working with Spanish. Although the results of our labors are of course judged by the players.

Fact break

The word “commandant” can be translated as “pilot”. So the Spaniards will play with the lady pilot ...

Audio support

I absolutely do not understand music. Therefore, it would be logical to ask for help from someone who understands and even makes their own tracks: from a girl, translator, sister or neighbors of postal lectures. But what's the point of always doing the right thing?
I approached this question with the same plan as in the previous times; I searched on opengameart for music with emotion that I wanted to convey in tags; having picked up several options, consulted with those who understood. There was a man who offered his services as a music producer, but did not work out.
It was harder with sound effects. I do not always correctly put my idea in Russian. what can I say about English with which I have obvious problems? It is one thing when you are looking for “magic teleport”, and another when you are looking for “male groan”. Why not pour onfreesound ... brr ...

Icon Development

From the depths of the session, the author of the previous icon was called by me! This time she worked not just according to the verbal description, but the reference (compiled by me) with detailed comments.

Oh it was something! In a few hours, together we made the icon of my dream ... Of course, there were enough intermediate sketches, but this time there were fewer.

Quite an interesting experience: I listened to a lecture on entering a magistracy and at the same time tried to understand how to correct the chest line. (I didn’t understand) It can be noted that the characters are not very synchronized with each other and with the environment in terms of lighting and shadows, but this sharpness only attracted the eye on the demo pages.

The icon was launched in production without changes in such a dissonant form.

Promotion

This time I already have a database of publishers who published information about the previous game. Now, they will be the first in line to publish "announcements." In addition, I will create topics in communities dedicated specifically to visual novels, and not limited to VK and GameDev sites.

User interaction

The page on Google Play is certainly good, but I wanted a bit more interaction with the players. Therefore, I decided to have Twitter for English-speaking players and a VK page for Russian-speaking.
To manage traffic, I decided to make a small site. Or something similar to a site. (Well, we all know jokes about design from techies ...) Of course, I had basic knowledge in layout and in developing landing pages (thanks to my native Eltech), but this is definitely not my specialty. Nevertheless, in a couple of days I managed to build something working on the good old Wordpress. It turns out that under CMS it’s really easy to make topics, and all the questions were easily googled. I decided to get around the single-column page on Bootstrap; Layout does not always behave perfectly, but it suits me.
A couple of days, a trio of plugins (JS optimization, page caching, localization) and a simple site is ready.

To make the site look more fun, he even came up with a small legend for him, but for complete fun he added broadcast news from social networks. Probably, I chose the engine longer and selected the domain than developed the site itself ... I think that many people are familiar with this.

Fungus

I could not help but write a little about the framework ... It is very convenient in terms of interfaces and APIs, but unfortunately, the implementation is lame. Window with Flowchart kills me all the RAM in a few hours; accelerated movement of characters works inappropriately (with jerks); normal movement works through alpha ...

This project made me think about developing my own bike or customizing the Fungus to my needs on a more complex level than developing custom teams.

[CommandInfo("Social", "Report Achievement", "Full open Achievement")]
public class ReportAchievement : Command
{
    public string Achievement_ID;
    public override void OnEnter()
    {
        if (Achievement_ID != null) { 
            OpenAchievement();
        }
        Continue();
    }
    public void OpenAchievement()
    {
        AchievementsController ac = AchievementsController.GetInstance();
        ac.AddAchievement(Achievement_ID);
    }
}

P.S

Well, my next article has ended. I had fun releasing the game and relaxed by writing this material. I hope that I was able to show that the development of any game is worth a lot of work.
Ahead of me are waiting for answers to inadequate reviews, calculation of losses ... But most importantly, I can better understand the result of the popularity (above average) of the previous short story. I’m not sure what became the main source of traffic for “visual novel in Russian” or “girls simulator” ...
Thank you for taking your time to me. I will be happy to answer any of your comments. I hope that my publication did not offend anyone with the presence of somewhat dubious humor. Moreover, I am afraid that I have lost my style in comparison with the previous material and, in a sense, “wrote out”.

PS All graduates with diplomas and certificates!
PPS Imagine this time the game went to the market the first time!