Hello, everyone! It’s been… well, it’s been a bit, hasn’t it?
That’s my fault, I suppose- which is really silly to say now that I’ve said it, considering- I mean, whose else would it be?
I digress. I kept putting off the next update, wanting to do it when I had something really great ready, wanting it to be for when I had the next major update to The Alien of the Occult Club all set and ready to go… and before I knew it, the end of December was fast approaching.
Time sure flies, huh? One year’s at an end, and the next is revving up its engines and getting ready to take off.
2018 has been a year with a lot ups and downs for Rose Garden Games- I mean, there was no Rose Garden Games at the beginning of 2018! Not outside (what I thought) were my wildest dreams, anyway.
So let’s look back, and then look ahead while we’re at it.
Chances are, you have no idea who you’re looking at right now, but she’s actually an important part of Rose Garden Game’s history!
Meet Toby. Before TAOTOC, I entered a Game Jam in the hopes of getting some practice developing in, and Toby was going to be its leading lady. So what happened to that game?
Well, I got so caught up in making Toby, then trying to make her better on top of that, that the deadline for the Game Jam flew past me and then some.
In the end, much as I had come to like the character that I’d by then put months into drawing and writing for, Toby’s game was put on the shelf. It seemed like if I was going to be going at it alone, I’d need to up my art game… or perhaps… find an alternative…?
After some more stumbling around the art idea, I was shown the Mannequin portrait generator by another developer. With this, though my assets might not be the most custom, I now had all of the tools I needed to get to development of a visual novel proper.
Of course, I wouldn’t be able to go wild, not even a little, given that I was using assets not of my own creation- that I was not able to make assets of my own. This, however, proved to be something of a positive in a way: By having the limitations of the assets I did have access to, I was able to build a story around them without letting myself get lost in the “oh, what if I…”s that I might have if I’d worried about the assets I didn’t have access to.
The Alien of the Occult Club started forming itself in my mind not long after I got to experimenting with Mannequin. The original idea, at its most bare, wasn’t that different from how the game is shaping up now, though as I’ve discussed in previous updates, one tremendous change that’s taken the idea that it would be an early “twist” who the alien (Ichiko, the protagonist) was.
Other than that, it was still about an alien girl transferring to a school for fostering creativity; a story about a girl who would go on to make friends and even a movie of her very own. That much is just as true now as it was then.
For everything that’s stayed the same, a lot more has changed- heck, a lot has changed just since the last update of the game!
The first version of The Alien of the Occult Club featured a lot of internal monologues from Ichiko and not nearly enough… well… anything otherwise.
The current version of The Alien of the Occult Club is definitely much better about that… but it also wears the fact that it’s the first (of hopefully many!) Rose Garden Games game on its sleeve at times.
Much as I felt I had been working within my limits, I’d also been letting myself get a little carried away with certain aspects of TAOTOC- namely, in just how much I was starting to let it branch out and how early on I was doing it.
As far as both visual novel and game development goes, ideally, I want to be able to provide players with games that they can feel are their own- experiences that they feel were unique to them. I don’t care so much if players miss things, and I don’t want to make games that encourage (or worse, force) replays players don’t want-
Rather, I’ve always wanted to make something that a player can say they enjoyed- something that they’ll just want to pick up again, something that, when they do, might provide them with something completely different the next time around.
Now, this is all fine and dandy, and with an unlimited amount of time (or at least focus and energy), I probably could make a visual novel like this without any issues- but The Alien of the Occult Club is not supposed to be the ultimate visual novel.
I may want to make it the best I can make it, much as I have every intention of making it the best I can make it, I still can’t lose sight of what I am actually capable of making at all, either.
So let’s talk about the future.
Over the past few days, I’ve been working on making an outline for TAOTOC. I’d had something of one before, but nothing as clear cut as what I’m working on now.
Up to this, I’ve largely been working on the game with a vague “I’m going to make it this way, and if I do it and I can keep going, maybe I will keep going!” mindset- in other words, the mindset of a dreamer that probably won’t ever finish anything.
I’ve also looked over all of the plans I’d had for branching paths, characters, routes, and so on. Could I have implemented it all? I think I could… but I don’t think I should. I don’t think it would be realistic of me to, either, given where I am with the game now.
This in mind, as I go about making this outline of mine, I’ve been making a lot of adjustments to my plans.
While the outline isn’t quite done, it is much more so than it ever was before- and with it, TAOTOC as a whole looks like it’s got a real, proper direction. More importantly, with that direction, I can do a lot of things differently moving forward into 2019. With that direction, I can do things better.
Artist: Twitter, DeviantArt, KoFi
When 2018 began, making visual novels, much less anything beyond YouTube videos, seemed like a far off dream.
As 2018 draws to a close, I sit here with a fully playable (albeit incomplete) game you can download right this second.
It’s a game that’s seen a lot so far, too. It’s been put up to the public eye, received feedback and criticism, scrapped, then put out once again and been in a state of updating and editing since.
I’ve learned a lot- and I mean a lot this past year. I’ve learned what I can do, as well as what I can’t. I’ve been taught a lot, and reminded of things I’d already known, but forgotten, as well.
How bright does 2019 look for Rose Garden Games?
Well, I leave the answer to that question in your hands, citizens! I only ask for you to hold off on answering until I answer this question:
What is in the cards for Rose Garden Games in 2019? Just to list a couple of things off that I want to do as possible, for starters, I want to…
- Post more updates more frequently both here and on itch.io. I won’t update just for the sake of updating or if I’ve nothing to say, but I think there’s a lot I could talk about that I haven’t been, not to mention there’s going to be a lot of things to talk about in the months to come.
- Make the actual direction of The Alien of the Occult Club more clear so players have a solid grasp of what the heck TAOTOC even is. For example, here’s something I’ve never really addressed as explicitly as I’m about to now: Will there be romance? Yes (if you choose to pursue it). Given the fact that with one exception, TAOTOC has an all female cast, this means the romance is g/g or yuri.
- Spread the word of Ichiko, aka The Alien of the Occult Club! I’d like to try to get more people playing the game, not only because, well, it’d be an honor, but because I just can’t stress enough how much both this game and myself have been able to grow through feedback.
- Make more videos showing off (and/or playing with) the game on the Rose Garden Games YouTube channel, like I did previously with the “Help Me, Miss Hino!” video which I’d originally intended to kick off a series.
… and that’s just the beginning!
For now, though, it is also the end.
2018 is wrapping up, but as you can see, I’ve got a lot I hope to share with you soon. Once I’m done (or, well, more done) finishing up my outline, expect to see and hear much, much more from Rose Garden Games!
Until then, though, I’m afraid that this is going to have to be…
FAREWELL!
Rose Garden Games 