Lord of Lies Devlog #11

November, 18th

Hey guys it’s Joy! It’s been a busy week for me, but a good one! I am almost done with the main story! I know initially I said I wanted to finish the main story in October but there was NO way that was going to happen. And I have learned that now.

Turns out, writing in RPG Maker is a lot lengthier of a process than just writing a script for a visual novel. Keep in mind I also have a lot of experience with RPG Maker so I don’t make a lot of easy mistakes and playtesting can be time consuming but I have found ways to make it quicker however, even the most seasoned RPG Maker a single cutscene, at the shortest can take 15 minutes to make where the longest is an hour to 3. Something I learned that significantly sped up the process was basically building the layout of a cutscene and having it function but not making it good. Basically, do the sketch and move on. Then come back later and line and color it.

What I did initially was make a fully functional and pretty cutscene and I could maybe get one done a day. With 60 cutscenes that would take 2 months to do, just the main story nothing else. Not mapping, combat, making items, npc’s, you name it. There was no way I could keep that up. 

Luckily, I found a really good workflow and learned it was better and quicker to just make a bunch of rough ass cutscenes and fix em later. Which was smarter as well, because some would have to be moved to another map, changed, or even cut depending on how it flowed in playthroughs.

Now that the story is nearly completed I could see where certain cutscenes were not worth keeping, making them easier to cut since they were never fully finished in the first place. Which is great, because nothing can be worse than throwing away hours of work.

Speaking of hours I almost have 1,000 hours total in RPG Maker MV wooohooo (not counting VXAce or MZ) we’re currently sitting at 991.5 hours.

I am grateful that I not only had many hours in RPG Maker before taking on this project so that I didn’t spend too much time figuring out basic shit, cause easily 400 hours of RPG Maker was me just learning and having to redo lots of stuff cause it was either crowded code, or I overcomplicated simple things. Etc…

I have learned so much! I really do think I am capable of making lots of RPG’s in the future and avoid a lot of the stress this particular one gave me but it really could have been worse. Thank the lord for me being a quick learner.

Basically, keep shit simple when you’re learning and if you have time later complicate it. Don’t do the reverse, please for me.

General Progress

Story

(Be careful not to read this image too closely as some titles contain major spoilers, I tried to keep it small enough it counts as a blur but 🤷) 

What you see above is every major cutscene in the game, a total of 60 though the number may fluctuate a tad but it will be 60-ish. Not counting optional cutscenes, campsite dialogue,  or party dialogue.  

There’s no question this is just as much a visual novel as it is an RPG at this point, the story is big. However it is kinetic and linear. No branching paths or choices, just a wild ride from start to finish.

The story is divided into Prologue, ACT 1-3.  You’ll know how far in the total game you are with indicators such as these in the game itself.

Prologue- 13 cutscenes. The prologue ended up being a bit longer than I was planning it to, but the cutscenes are relatively short, just lots of short cutscenes. 

ACT 1- 8 cutscenes (making it the shortest section of the game, I sort of consider prologue and ACT 1 to be two halves of one whole regardless. But separate them based off of when they take place.) Making a total of 21 cutscenes.

ACT 2- 26 cutscenes, however this one is the most susceptible to having more than this, and has the most amount of optional content, party dialogue, campsite dialogue (as the campsite is introduced in ACT 2) ACT 2 is the meat of the game with varying length of cutscenes. 

ACT 3- 10 cutscenes ACT 3 isn’t much longer than ACT 1, and ideally I’d like it to be the shortest story wise, but probably has the most time spent gameplay wise as the fights are at their hardest, your party is fully, and of course the final boss!

Counting out the cutscenes was never planned, which I realize now wasn’t my best move. I had outlined the story in it’s entirety several times. However, there were many cutscenes that needed to be added to improve the flow of the story. For example, when you enter certain towns/locations a cutscene was needed to properly transition.

There are also tutorial style cutscenes which explain specific gameplay mechanics, which are not necessarily story relevant but need to be placed at a particular spot in the story. 

I will say that if you play just the main story you can get a good grip on the entire story and won’t be confused however, you will lose party dynamics, character moments, and most importantly an organic feeling romantic development. This is why I strongly encourage in the game itself, and in these devlogs to fully engage with the game. Speak to NPC’s, explore, and please for the love of God, visit your campsite after major story beats.

Otherwise the story will feel boneless. 

Properly pacing a story in a video game is very tough in comparison to a novel or visual novel. Lots of the story is dependent on the player. Luckily, this particular game has more visual novel in it than regular video games, but it is still reliant on player’s interacting with all they have access to.

My biggest fear currently is that the romance will fall short since most of the main line cutscenes are focused on the plot, and not interacting with Gala enough will make the story come off as insta lovey. In my canon, Lawrence and Gala’s romance is realistic in the sense that all their huge strides in developing feelings for each other is through spending time and conversation.

If you don’t speak to her, the romance will progress in a way that doesn’t feel earned. 

It was important to me to have characters and their interactions feel organic and natural, since we are on a one way train ride with many twists and turns and doesn’t give the characters many moments to speak to each other about mundanities without completely derailing the plot moments.

This also extends to party members as a lot of their emotional/character arcs play out within these conversations over time and can be entirely skipped and missed. Leaving a pretty hollow character cast in it’s place.

Zahir suffers from this the most due to the fact he’s not a traveling party member, so he can’t even speak to you during your adventures. So coming to him regularly is essential.

I want to also reiterate that the side content is also important to not just the story but to gameplay. You gain extra xp, weapons, items, armors, etc… from interacting with all your party members. So you’ll be rewarded. 

The game becomes more difficult as a result of skipping side content. You’ve been warned lol. There is a nasty surprise in the end game if you decide to opt out 😘

Art

Credit as always to the oh so wonderful Gisselle or WolfOfArtBlock 

(I also got a set of additional expressions for the entire cast!)

All art is completed and added into the game engine!

The story is in fact pretty different than I imagined, but thus is the nature of story telling. However, what I am left with is something I am happy with and ultimately that’s what matters.

Music

The biggest shoutout https://twitter.com/ejtanmusic for their hard work on the original soundtrack which is already PHENOMENAL! 

I never planned to have original music for Lord of Lies due to it being a free jam game meant for mostly me. A way for me to conquer this story that has haunted me for years lol. 

So I am incredibly thankful for all their time.

I’ve worked with Eric on ‘Cassie’ earlier this year in the Summer of 2023.

Next Week’s Devlog Sneak Peak

Next week I will have the entire finished! (it’ll be rough) but I have an additional week after to tidy it up before I send it to my playtesters! Then December will be spent decorating basically. Adding the music, sound effects, animations, combat, puzzles, extra mechanics, fun party dialogue, and optional content!

I think this will be very fun for me! I want to include Easter eggs, and content from my friends and followers to inject into the game if possible!

Despite technically being a month behind my original schedule I don’t feel behind at all! I think I took as much time as I needed to with the story and it’s paid off. The rest of the content will be simple in comparison starting out and hopefully December will give me enough time to inject as much love as I can into it before it’s due.

Regardless it’ll be done. Can’t fix what doesn’t exist. Thank you for reading and I’ll talk your ear off next week!