ACT Patreon Active [Anon42] Crisis Point: Extinction

[Anon42]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Woah damn, lots of conversation since my last post! That's what I like to see

sex scenes comprise a startling proportion of my (and i assume most others') opinion on a game.

i'm sure this has been already been thought out by some other economic-minded person, but have you weighed the potential sales increases against hiring an artist to churn out a bunch of additional h-animations? the resounding answer seems to be "absolutely not", but... i dunno. i just can't imagine there aren't piles of clearly-talented-but-art-is-generally-a-shakey-career-path-so-they-work-at-starbucks-right-now artists lurking on deviantart or wherever, that would love an opportunity to grind out some animations for additional income.

i don't even know on what i'm basing that feeling, since i have no presence in the art community and am not an artist.

All things considered, it's not really that startling, lol. The only thing separating an H-game from a normal game is the H, so it makes sense that you'd judge them thusly. Animating H is fun, anyway. I just need to decide exactly how I want to handle it.

As far as hiring someone else to do H-animations, my opinion on it pretty much echoes everybody else here. I can animate, and I'd like to think I'm decently good at it, so hiring someone else to do that when I'm not even earning that much money myself is iffy. Add on to that the small amount of people who would be willing to animate an H-game and the whole idea kind of falls apart. I'd probably pay a premium for the content, as well, considering how much harder it would be to find someone to animate porn specifically.
Still, though, I appreciate the suggestion all the same, it's just not something I'm very likely to think about doing. If anything, I could see Crisis Point going the Parasite in the City route, and getting extra content after release if the game does well enough financially.

@MrMe - Nope, just a male. With a penis.

@Foxhound - I agree with you, that's why I'm more focused on the game side of things right now. H-animations are great, and I like animating them and adding them in, but the gameplay and content is where I'm focused.

@YummyTiger - Exactly. That's why I tried to go the Patreon route. It helps take care of the financial needs in my life while I work on Crisis Point, so I don't have to try and make small games right now. With the funding I get from the campaign, I can make Crisis Point a truly exceptional game with plenty of content, and hopefully it will be able to fund development of the next game, and those two games will fund the next game, so on and so forth.

@Vinceras - Brutal. I wouldn't count on anything unnecessarily painful like that making its way into the game, but I'll certainly make a note that you guys want doggystyle with this guy.

@AltairPL - Strange.. No matter how hard I try, I'm not able to see this guy as a woman. It will probably help when he pulls his dick out, but still. The small frame is intentional, I didn't want him to look super bulky like the blue enemies, but I didn't mean to make him look feminine.
As far as the green parts go, I refuse to make any comments confirming or denying speculation. That's half of the fun in a Metroidvania.

 

[textbook703]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

[powerful, hallowed wisdom gifted upon undeserving ears]

All things considered, it's not really that startling, lol. The only thing separating an H-game from a normal game is the H, so it makes sense that you'd judge them thusly. Animating H is fun, anyway. I just need to decide exactly how I want to handle it.

You like animating the h-content? From what other artists seem to say, I was under the impression that, while fun to design, drawing 20 frames to describe the same brief interaction gets tedious quickly. Moreover, I thought that grinding through all the actual sprite work was the vast majority of the workload when creating games like these, and thus the most common point at which developers get stuck.

Could you describe (briefly, since I know this is a question that could easily take pages to answer) the loose proportion of the entire workload that is comprised by each area of development? In other words, can you verbally describe a basic pie graph of the big tasks that go into making the game (eg. sprite work, creating the environment, creating the lore).

@AltairPL - Strange.. No matter how hard I try, I'm not able to see this guy as a woman. It will probably help when he pulls his dick out, but still. The small frame is intentional, I didn't want him to look super bulky like the blue enemies, but I didn't mean to make him look feminine.

It's the green tube(?) coming out the back of his head. It is positioned in exactly the same way a ponytail would be positioned. Granted, a ponytail is pretty much exactly that -- a tube coming out the back of your head -- so I don't really know how you'd go about changing that.

Maybe by making him fuck the heroine doggystyle?

 

[Anon42]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

You like animating the h-content? From what other artists seem to say, I was under the impression that, while fun to design, drawing 20 frames to describe the same brief interaction gets tedious quickly. Moreover, I thought that grinding through all the actual sprite work was the vast majority of the workload when creating games like these, and thus the most common point at which developers get stuck.

Could you describe (briefly, since I know this is a question that could easily take pages to answer) the loose proportion of the entire workload that is comprised by each area of development? In other words, can you verbally describe a basic pie graph of the big tasks that go into making the game (eg. sprite work, creating the environment, creating the lore).



It's the green tube(?) coming out the back of his head. It is positioned in exactly the same way a ponytail would be positioned. Granted, a ponytail is pretty much exactly that -- a tube coming out the back of your head -- so I don't really know how you'd go about changing that.

Maybe by making him fuck the heroine doggystyle?

Cheeky bastard. I like you.


Let's see.. Developing a game from scratch has a crazy amount of components, as I'm sure you know. Let's just see if I can get a basic list going..

-Spriting, animation, art design
-Programming
-Game design
-Environment design
-Encounter design and enemy design
-Storyline (writing, brainstorming, creating lore)
-Sound work (music composition, creating/finding sound effects)

Those are very basic descriptions, obviously, but you get an idea of how many different elements go into it. As far as how much time each one takes..

Spriting and animation, as you said, is one of the biggest consumers of time. I'd say it comprises at least 30-35% of development, easily - likely even more. Art design is an ongoing process, for me at least, so it's a bit hard to gauge how much time it takes.

Programming, at least on my end, hasn't taken much of my time so far. Maybe 15%? It largely depends on if you ever run in to serious issues. Coding the slime's AI caused me a lot of trouble - I spent about 3 days straight doing nothing but trying to fix the myriad problems they were causing when I first implemented them. For the most part though, programming is smooth and relaxing.

Game design is similar to art design in that it's an ongoing process, so it's a bit harder to gauge. It's always a smart idea to make sure you have a well-designed framework before making any assets, so it takes up a large chunk of the early work - overall, maybe around 10% of development time. It's something that you never really stop doing, but it's not that time consuming in and of itself. One of the best ideas to use is what I refer to as 'core pillars'. Essentially, your design needs to be balanced on around 3 different core ideals. Describing them should be simple; one or two words is all that's needed, and the pillars should never overlap. For a popular example, the Elder Scrolls series rests heavily on the pillar of 'freedom'. This covers a wide range of what makes the Elder Scrolls so popular; freedom of character build, freedom of exploration, freedom of mods to change the game to your whim. The idea of the pillars is, whenever you're making a game design decision, you take your idea and weigh it against your pillars. If it contradicts those pillars, the idea either needs to be reworked or scrapped. It's essential for creating a tight, focused experience.

..I got a bit ramble-y there, sorry about that. I love game design, if you couldn't tell.

Environment design is another one that takes up a big chunk of time, especially in a Metroidvania. About as much time as spriting. You essentially have to create an interesting environment to explore that provides natural challenge without being a chore to wander in, and also allows you to effectively use the enemies you have designed without needing complicated AI. In addition, there needs to be a natural flow to the environment to subtly push the player in the right direction, otherwise it's very easy for them to get lost. That, along with tiling an area, can take up quite a while.

Encounter and enemy design is a favorite of mine, probably takes up a good 10% of my time working. Enemy design is creating enemies with interesting attack patterns that don't require tons of effort to create. Encounter design is finding ways to make enemies naturally cooperate in battle, and setting them up in situations where they complement each other and create new challenges for the player without any additional programming/animating effort. It's a solid way to make gameplay more engaging. Classic Megaman games had this in spades.

Storyline so far has been a very small part of my work. I tend to start with a general idea of what the plot is going to be, and gradually develop it as time goes by, rather than trying to plan every last detail down at once. It's easy to say "oh it's an H-game, doesn't need a story," but games like MGQ prove that a solid story can make H-content better. Regardless of whether it's an H-game or not, simplicity is key; if a story can't possibly be summed up in a sentence, it's too complex.

..That's a total blanket statement, so let me elaborate. Crisis Point's plot summary is "Girl goes on quest to save human race from extinction." This is an extremely simplified version of it that removes all of the intrigue, such as the virus that mysteriously attacks only the Y chromosome, but that's the point of it. A story should always be able to boil down to a base form like that. It makes the story relateable, and gives the protagonist an obvious, overarching goal to work towards. Of course, the time this element takes all depends on the kind of game you're making.

Lastly, sound work. I haven't actually done any music composition (tried a bit, wasn't happy with how it was turning out), but sound effects have taken a lot of time already. I don't have any recording software, so it ends up being a scavenger hunt for royalty-free sounds over the internet, which I then take into audacity and play with. Sometimes I add reverb, sometimes I shift the pitch, often times I end up layering a couple different sounds together to create what I want out of it. The legal mumbo-jumbo is what really makes it a hassle. Since I don't have the equipment to make my own sounds, I have to find sounds that I'm legally allowed to use in a commercial product. Fun stuff. Fun, time consuming stuff.


..This probably isn't what you meant by a "brief" description, is it? Eh. Oh well. I wasn't doing anything important anyway. Hopefully it satisfies your curiosity anyway.

TL;DR:
Artwork, 30-35%.
Programming, 10-15%.
Game design, ongoing and hard to gauge. Also encompasses practically every other element.
Environment design, 20-25%.
Encounter + enemy design, 10%.
Storyline, 5-10%.
Sounds and music, 10-15%.

 

[AltairPL]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

(...)
It will probably help when he pulls his dick out, but still.

I was asking for answer like that, didn't I?

(...)
It's the green tube(?) coming out the back of his head. It is positioned in exactly the same way a ponytail would be positioned. Granted, a ponytail is pretty much exactly that -- a tube coming out the back of your head -- so I don't really know how you'd go about changing that.

Maybe by making him fuck the heroine doggystyle?

Tube was my first pick as well, but it's purpose is bugging me. Open type helmet, so using it for air supply would be bad idea. Maybe cables for goggles' HUD or something, like targeting system improving eye-hand coordination. Who knows? For now I'll stick to alien parasite controlling him... time will tell, sooner or later, time will tell...

 

[FoxhoundOH]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Never gave much stock in stories in video games. I feel that it's the tar pit most up and coming developers sink into when creating a game. I'd give it a 1% tops.

Most of the heavy lifting comes before the first line of code is written or the first asset created. Deciding the scope of the project is the most important element. Afterwards it becomes a priority issue, focusing on one element or the other. Coding those things is unfortunately beyond my skill set at the moment so I'm afraid I can't comment on the specifics. On the art side any action or environment that can be encountered must be created. This takes a significant amount of manpower to do. Which leads us back to the twin bugbears of development. Doing these things solo has significant consequences on development time and resources. So, for the curious I break it up as design and planning as 50%, art 35% and coding 15%. Everything else falls into one of those 3 categories.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Never gave much stock in stories in video games. I feel that it's the tar pit most up and coming developers sink into when creating a game. I'd give it a 1% tops.

I strongly disagree with this statement, but recognize it as an opinion. Mine is just different.

My favorite games all had a story behind them (Virgin Island, Ariadne, Sangeki, Arms Devicer). In fact, I quickly realized that the games without some form of a coherent, decent story I play an hour and then lose interest, choosing instead to simply browse the folder and look at the pictures. I mean, without a story, it might as well be a slideshow.

This does not mean the story should overshadow the H content, it is a h-game after all, but the story gives h-scenes so much more context. That context propels mediocre to great in my book. But, again, that is just opinion. Of course, judging by the desire for story translations and which games are often discussed the most, I do not feel I am alone. On the other hand, Artificial Academy and similar games sell like hotcakes, so monetarily, 1% on the story might be the wiser path. I just simply won't be one of the customers.

 

[FoxhoundOH]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

@YummyTiger

That's a great counter argument for stories in games. Certainly there are games with fantastic stories that I enjoy playing very much. I feel that often times there is so much emphasis put on a story during development, that the bigger picture gets lost. So when I speak of not giving stories more thought I mean from a purely developmental standpoint.

The appeal that I've seen from games like Artificial Academy is that it is very much a 'choose your own adventure' kind of game with an impressive character builder. Could it use more context and dialog? Absolutely. I was disappointed to see that there is no context in the game other than to 'score.' My ideal AA game would be something akin to Persona 4. Something to write down in the ol' idea book.

 

[thswherizat]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

If we're talking about the story making the game, my favorite for that has always been Monster Girl Quest (duh.) By the later chapters I would have played it without any H just because the world was a cool design, I wanted to kick Illias' ass, and see the story progress.

I'm not sure HOW they would have made it keep working without H, but that's not the point.

 

[iamnuff]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

If we're talking about the story making the game, my favorite for that has always been Monster Girl Quest (duh.) By the later chapters I would have played it without any H just because the world was a cool design, I wanted to kick Illias' ass, and see the story progress.

I'm not sure HOW they would have made it keep working without H, but that's not the point.

Frankly I skipped most of the sex scenes in MGQ.

Not really a fan of shota, half the designs of the monsters were utterly grotesque, and the Femdom was too much.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that the gross monsters was deliberate, but it still killed my boner deader than a dodo.

And I don't usually have a problem with femdom, but the fact that it was the only thing in the game...

it's pretty telling that my favourite sex scenes were with Alice some of the less cartoonist succubi, the elves and Sana(?) the human girl who ends up turning into a monster.

All of these characters look mostly human. Some of the more humanoid plant-girls, couple of Slimes and the Catgirls were pretty much my limit.

Gross slug girls, centipedes, corpses, squid things and other such nasties got completely skipped through. Including most of the angels.

Especially some of the angels.

i remember running into one of the boss-angels, who I was really looking forward to, because she looked like a traditional angel, then we got to her and her first act before the fight started, was to mutate into a horrible flesh-garden type thing.

ugh.

So yeah, i literally played it for the plot. crazy huh?

 

[thswherizat]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Especially some of the angels.

i remember running into one of the boss-angels, who I was really looking forward to, because she looked like a traditional angel, then we got to her and her first act before the fight started, was to mutate into a horrible flesh-garden type thing.

ugh.

So yeah, i literally played it for the plot. crazy huh?

I know what you mean. Some of the angel designs earlier on I found a bit odd, but they had Valkyrie and Cupid so I thought "Oh good, this will be good afterall." Then they instead had the chimeras and those anti-spirit things, and then the higher order angels just kept transforming.

The mermaids were pretty good as well, though!

 

[Deleted member 194301]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Didn't various artists contribute to MGQ? I mean, I really liked some of them such as, say, the harpies, but there was at least one artist whose style was horrendous and they seemed to be the one that did more of the "grotesque" monsters, as you'd call them. I don't even mean that in terms of content, but actual drawing quality. The difference was jarring.

This is all my opinion, of course, and forgive me for wandering off topic.

 

[dartred]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

just tried out the demo. was pretty fun for what i played. man are those slimes hard to shoot.

will you happen to be adding dogs as enemies?

 

[Anon42]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

just tried out the demo. was pretty fun for what i played. man are those slimes hard to shoot.

will you happen to be adding dogs as enemies?

The force shot upgrade makes quick work of those slimes. There are also some planned upgrades that will make hitting small guys easier in general. Glad you had fun!

As far as dog enemies go.. Mmaaaaaaaybeeeeee

 

[dartred]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

aww come on, dont tease me like that bro lol

 

[Sythis_Sythes]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

for your new patron update, to answer that question, i'd say yes, tentacles can have semen.

I'd prefer it to be blue instead of white or some such, just cause that'd feel 'alien-ish.' Just a smaller preference, since white semen is commonly thought of as the kind to impregnate more often then some blue liquids would, but i digress.

Personally, would be hotter to have it a strange color.

...shoulda just said that to start with. 9.9

 

[Anon42]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

for your new patron update, to answer that question, i'd say yes, tentacles can have semen.

I'd prefer it to be blue instead of white or some such, just cause that'd feel 'alien-ish.' Just a smaller preference, since white semen is commonly thought of as the kind to impregnate more often then some blue liquids would, but i digress.

Personally, would be hotter to have it a strange color.

...shoulda just said that to start with. 9.9

I'll take the input into consideration, thanks. It is anal though, so impregnation isn't much of a concern lol.

Again, though, I'd like to ask that we don't discuss the current Patreon update outside of Patreon itself - at least not until I post about it here. Currently, the only real thing $1 patrons get is early info about development, and I don't want to be unfair to them by discussing everything here anyway.

 

[Chouun90]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Went trough and read all the 30 pages (so much stuff going).
Gotta say this is looking great,love the dedication and quality (so far)
I hope you got plans for a quadrupedal/canine enemy for the future
Would love to see her nicely pounded in all fours >_<
Same with insects locking her arms from behind while standing,that would be double amazing

Anyways keep up the good work Anon42

 

[Anon42]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Went trough and read all the 30 pages (so much stuff going).
Gotta say this is looking great,love the dedication and quality (so far)
I hope you got plans for a quadrupedal/canine enemy for the future
Would love to see her nicely pounded in all fours >_<
Same with insects locking her arms from behind while standing,that would be double amazing

Anyways keep up the good work Anon42

Thanks! I don't want to spoil the enemy plans I have, but I'm confident you won't be disappointed. I don't want to rip off Parasite in the City with the insect animation like that, but eh.. Not like there's a law against similar animations. The pose is definitely hot.

 

[Tea Leaf]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Buona fortuna you glorious craftsman.

 

[textbook703]

Re: Crisis Point: Extinction - Metroidvania H-game - NEW PUBLIC UPDATE! (Oct. 25th)

Thanks! I don't want to spoil the enemy plans I have, but I'm confident you won't be disappointed. I don't want to rip off Parasite in the City with the insect animation like that, but eh.. Not like there's a law against similar animations. The pose is definitely hot.

There aren't actually that many ways that you can put a weiner in a vagoogly.

Pretty sure you can't copyright "standing rear-entry penetration".