-September, 20, 2022 

TNT Tuesday

Current word count: 57,838!

Hyello everyone, it’s Joy! The creative director and writer for Tattoos and Tulips as well as the co-founder of “Meant to Bee Studios”. 

This week we did something I never planned on doing but knew it would add so much to the Tattoos and Tulips experience. Voice Acting!

We started a casting call on the 16th of this month, that’s running through October 2nd.

It’s an unpaid partial voice acting position. I’m not entirely sure if voice acting will be included in the demo, (January 1st) but 100% the full release in April.

I’d debated going through with it since I had no experience in voice acting or working with voice actors, but so far the experience has been very enlightening and exciting (also super nerve-wracking) I just want it to be of equal quality of the art, music, and ‘writing’ I guess… lol. 

However, we’ve gotten such a positive response by both our team and the potential voice actors. I am so excited for October 3rd to listen to them all and choose with my team who will get what role. I’m excited to also incorporate people on the TNTeam. 

I know that having voice acting can really enhance the experience. As well as give voice actors more opportunities to fill out their portfolio. 

I’m so blessed to have a fellow casting director, Rina. As well as someone who worked as casting director for her own project ‘Adopt a Boyfriend’- Olivia, help me whenever I have questions.

We’ve been very efficient as a team and I felt confident to add another thing to my plate. 

I’m sure it’s going to be difficult to pick the perfect person for the role- in 4 days we already have 20+ auditions, and we’ve still got another 13 days before it ends. 

We definitely have our work cut out for us. But, I am certain that we will work with some super talented individuals.

If you are a voice actor I’d highly encourage you to audition! We’ve got 8 roles- 4 Male/3 Female/1 Nonbinary role available. 

Click the link here for the casting call it has all the info you’ll need for auditioning, if you decide to. I look forward to hearing it!  TNT Casting Call

In addition to voice acting, we’ve been working on CG’s. Now, I cannot give you an exact number quite yet as to how many CG’s we will have in the final game or even the demo, however. They will be fully voice acted. 

Important Note:(Keep in mind these are NOT final CG designs. We had to rework some specifics, as well as the tattoos on Shay.)

This first CG concept sketch made Shay look a little too coy. Also no Chrys. I think it’s still adorable, but this scene is supposed to be flirty in nature, so we had to make some adjustments. ;)

This is closer to what we are planning on going for, in terms of the first CG. It also better captures the scene, and Chrys is sooooo cute ohmygoddd, also Shay is- woof!

There are still adjustments to make but making CG’s and planning them out to both fit with the voice acting and making it impactful and memorable.

This is Cat (our sprite artists’) first time working on CG’s, though I think she’s already doing an incredible job. She’s been working on getting sketches for the CG’s we will want. 

Lanae (our programmer, and cofounder for Meant to Bee Studios) and I have worked painstakingly to ensure we are picking the best possible places for CG’s. We spent hours working on just that.

I have to be very mindful of the fact that this is a 100% free project, all the art, music, programming, writing, marketing, voice acting, etc… was all volunteer work. I’ve been so incredibly fortunate to have so many talented people work on this project for free, and I want to make sure that their efforts are well placed. 

In a perfect world, there would be a CG for every little scene in the game, with full voice acting, and animation, etc… But, I do think we’ve got something amazing despite the budgetary restrictions. 

I have been trying to mark where every voice acted line is in the entire script, and make a document detailing every little thing to include in the CG’s for Cat. Along with helping everyone else on the team in anyway I can.

I will do anything possible to make everyone’s jobs as stress free as possible. This is a pure passion project from it’s conception, to the full project. 

I truly believe that whoever takes the time to play Tattoos and Tulips will be blown away by the quality of our game, and there’s no risk because it’s a free game!

The last thing worth talking about for this devlog is, marketing. 

Man, what a learning curve as well. I am under the impression that no one really knows what they are doing in regards to marketing, we are all just winging it.

There are so many strategies, avenues, and tricks that you can implement in regards to getting as many people to see your game as possible. 

I do believe that if the right people were able to just know Tattoos and Tulips exist it would capture many hearts.

What makes the stressful experience of marketing (something I never imagined I’d ever have to do) so much easier however, is how supportive the visual novel development community is!

I’m blown away by these studios, small teams, and solo devs who are always open to talking, answering questions, and interacting with a tweet.

It feels like everyone is so talented and kind! 

I’m so happy to be apart of this community and I want to one day, years from now, help a small studio like mine gain a following. 

I can’t wait to make my mark on the visual novel development scene.

That’s it for this week! But, before I go, we just opened our Discord to the public! Tattoos and Tulips demo release will be January 1st 2023!

So if you are interested in this project and want to meet my lovely teammates and myself we are always down to chat about all sorts of stuff. Most notably: queer and cute stuff!

Join the Meant to Bee Studios server here:  https://discord.gg/6242cSgmsV

Well, until next TNTuesday~!