Steamberry Studio

Word Counts, Percentages, and Stuff!

Helloooo everyone!

Inspired by a voice chat yesterday with a friend, I have decided to ramble at you about one particular part of the writing and planning process when it comes to visual novels - and Gilded Shadows in particularly.

I could probably do an entire TEDtalk on word count  - and I actually have considered it because it's such a weird point of contention in the indie dev world. 

I know it seems like it shouldn't be, but a lot of times when a newer develop...

Mag CG - full image

These are the full versions of the Magnus CG.

Often, I don't work in exact 16:9 format because, for whatever reason, it's just easier to work in some kind of other dimensions and crop the CG down as needed.

As you can see, the full version of the image has a bit more of Magnus' body in it, but it gets cropped in a bit closer for the game version.

I kind of debated whether I should add his beauty mark. I feel like it would actually be covered by that one little curl of hair. ...

Mag CG - teaser

Just posting a quick teaser for Magnus' CG, which will appear in the first extension of the demo. I wrote this scene in the last couple of days. I may still go back and refine the CG a little but...there you have it.

Uh...yes, he's holding a tangerine. For reasons.

Love Interest Introductions in game - Weigh in

Hey everyone! 

I have been contemplating various ways to introduce Caissa and Magnus into the story a bit earlier and I wanted to try to get some feedback from you guys!

First, how important is it to you to be able to interact with an LI prior to choosing (or being placed into) a route? Important enough that I should work out a way to do it if at all possible?

There is really no way to intro Lance but I don't have much of an issue with that as his route will be locked a...

Milestones and popularity

 Well, we have our teaser. We have our demo released. That milestone is now under our belt. I wanted to do a post talking about where development for Gilded Shadows goes from here and what you guys can expect with your front row seats to the process! 

October, November, and about half of December are going to be writing-focused. In some ways this means there's not going to be that much interesting content to share outside of snippets of content because I'm going to be heav...

Alpha Demo - keys sent

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone who hasn't noticed yet know that I did send out keys to download the alpha demo on itch.io.

There is still one BG missing as it didn't come in before the weekend (I imagine it'll come in this upcoming week). 

There are also a few traceback errors that have been found I'll be rolling a fix out soon though I don't think either error breaks the game completely.

If you do find other bugs/glitches. Please feel free to post them on th...

Customised Sprite Tutorial

Hey everyone! 

Here is a tutorial on how to do customised sprites in renpy. 

This will eventually be made public (next month) but you guys are getting a first look at it - so if there are things you don't understand, please feel free to point it out and I can try to expand on those things and make them clearer.

That said, this is ...

Alpha Demo - Update

Hey everyone! I just wanted to post something quickly to let you know that we're currently waiting on one background for the alpha demo to be completely finished. And I am hoping to get it by tomorrow (if it's not tomorrow, it'll be next week as the artist does not send things over weekends).

That said, I may go ahead and update with corrections and send out early access to everyone this weekend even with the one missing BG.

So yeah...

That's the announcement. By late Friday...

Common - Chapter Two (clip)

Hey everyone! just wanted to share a short clip from the common route, chapter two. This will be a later demo expansion, but it's already partially coded.

This is where Morgan meets Reuben Kelner - who is not currently a love interest (but maybe a stretch goal if enough people are interested in him.

There's no music or anything in this clip - just visuals for now! 

Alpha Demo download links

Hey everyone! If you're in one of our top two tiers, you got a link to the alpha demo just a bit ago. 

There is nothing on the page but the downloads since this is basically our beta testing page. 

As far as what to expect for those who haven't played it:

-placeholder music

-some WIP backgrounds

-a couple of WIP CGs

-unlinked glossary entries

-no credits

This is all stuff we'll be fixing before the actual demo release. So yeah - not qu...

Gilded Shadows - short clip

Hello everyone! Just wanted to share a short clip of GS with you guys. This is moment from near the beginning of the game.

I'm not sure how much longer it'll be until we have all the BGs for the demo so until then you get some short clips! OwO (Just remember these are placeholder tracks for the time being and this music will not be in the final product.)

Meeting Rory

He's a bit...scraggly to start out with, for sure. And he might be mumbling some nutty things....

and playing in a city fountain...

But he's cute, right? Right??

Glossary - Clip

A short clip showing off the glossary in Gilded Shadows! As I mentioned on our tumblr update, I'm not sure how much of this I want accessible in the demo since there are spoilers for sure....

And should I add the spoiler warning on every page? Currently it's just on the index page, but since you can link-hop quite extensively, I've been thinking I may want to put it on every page...

CG Process - Jack

Just a quick peek at one of the character intro CGs in Chapter One.

1. Sketch. This isn't actually his first sketch. My sketches start out very messy, but I often don't save the first versions because they just clutter up files. Even though this is cleaned up, can see I still have a lot of various guidelines to help me with sketching in other things, or doing shading.

I sometimes block in some shading as well - particularly on hands - to help me envision them as 3D shapes as I ske...

In case you noticed...

That the front page looks different...

As in, all the images are missing...

I basically was trying to do a small update (Just removing the Changeling trailer) and an extension I have on Firefox for editing purpose obliterated the "About section" in a truly terrible way.

I managed to salvage most of the text and get it back up there but I need to find more images to put up. Those will go up at some point within the next week. 

So yeah, just wanted to let everyone k...

Favorite Character so far?

Just curious who everyone's favorite Love Interest might be so far? I know you don't know much about them - but just based on appearance and what you know of personality, who are you drawn to?

Side Character sneak-peeks

Just in your patreon...posting some sneak peeks. Don't mind me.

Character One: Rory Martin

Introduced: Chapter one (Common)

Age: 20 (I think?)

Other info: 

He was previously studying to be a teacher. There were...interruptions. The plan is to bring him back as a side character in one of the other routes, depending on the choices the player makes in their ...

Profiles and Glossary

Just wanted to show some additional sneak peaks involving a few of the new features I've been working on in the last few weeks.

First....Character profiles! So these are accessible from the main menu - because the love interests get introduced much later in game play than Changeling, I wanted to just give the player a chance to read up on the characters a little before meeting them.

&nbs...

More Options for Customisation?

So I've been contemplating our character customisation page....

Specifically, I've been contemplating more options.

Here is what we have so far:

Now I know what you guys are going to say - because you always say it. That it's fine the way it is, that I shouldn't make more work for myself...etc.

But I'm not asking about the workload. It's my job to manage that - and...

Gilded Shadows Demo - discussion and questions

Hey everyone! 

I have been hard at work on the demo for Gilded Shadows and I've been contemplating SOME THINGS. I figured - who better to ask than all our lovely patrons?

So here we go!

Okay, so my initial plan was to release Chapters One and Two of the common route as the official Gilded Shadows demo. 

But I've kind of been having second thoughts about doing it this way. Instead, I'm weighing the possibility of releasing only Chapter One at first. My main re...

First Ari Meeting - Rough Draft

Annnnd finally, the rough draft of Morgan's first meeting with Ari. All of these meetings can happen right after the same event (which people have probably picked up on by now) so they all involve the LI walking Morgan home.

---

Morgan: "Thank you..."

"I didn't even know what I was thanking him for. Scaring off the other man? Shielding me? All of the above? I took his hand and pulled myself to my feet."

Unknown Man: "Are you alright? You fell..."

Morgan: "I'm alr...

Caleb First Meeting - Rough Draft

The rough draft of a portion of Morgan's first interaction with Caleb. Again, roughs tend to be...well...rough. But here you go.

---

Morgan: "Why not? I need to get home. I can't exactly hide in the alley forever. Even if you're standing sentry for me. Which, by the way, I don't think you can do that forever either."

Morgan: "Though I appreciate the sentiment."

"The scowl softened into a slightly less annoyed look. It was kind of nice to know he had at least two modes ...

Jack Meeting - rough draft

Hallo! Just sharing a sneak peek of part of Morgan's first meeting with Jack.  Rough drafts are always a little dry since a lot of the characterisation tends to get added in later on. I feel like he needs to be a touch more flirty through here. But I'm sure I'll spruce it up during a later revision.

Just prior to this moment, the MC noticed that Jack has a faint accent and there's a player choice about whether or not to bring it up.

---

"I decided to just keep that obse...

MC Personality Traits

Hey everyone! We wanted to give a sneak peek at what we're planning for the MC's personality in Gilded Shadows.

The MC will, of course, have to have a base personality of some sort. We can't make her entire personality customizable or writing this thing will be an utter nightmare. For the base personality, we're trying to have her be witty, but also optimistic and mostly easy-going. We don't want her to be like Nora V.2

She probably will be a little snarky sometimes - but not in t...

WSMS - Sprite changes, fixes, evolution

Hey everyone! I wanted to do a post showing off some of the evolution of a few sprites that have gone through changes since I did their initial designs. And I just wanted to show off some of the expressions I've done for a few of them! 

Ari

Ari's sprite has kind of a fun back story. Originally he was a brunette and when I started work on his sprite...it somehow turned into Caleb. So I currently have two files named "Ari Sprite" but one is Caleb and one is the...

WSMS - Sprite Outfit Variations

I just wanted to show off some of the outfit and hairstyle variations we're planning for the sprites in Endgame. I don't have all the sprites done by any stretch, nor do I have all the variations done. This is just to show off some of what we're planning. 

I don't know yet if we're going to have any pose variations - if we do, like in Changeling, it'll be restricted to arm movements most likely. They're the easiest to work in later on. 

How many outfit variations each ch...

Monthly Dev Talks

Take two. Because I already tried to type this once and somehow hitting my "s" key took me to another page which politely erased my post.

*rages quietly*

AHEM.

To reiterate everything I already typed up once.

-We've not been doing these calls because I just wasn't in the habit of doing them for a long time. All the people at the red and black tea tiers were people I spoke to frequently, or who didn't voice chat. So there wasn't much reason to do them. That has obviousl...

Quick Sprite Test

Just a quick sprite test showing some sprite work I've been doing. Renpy completely switched up how sprites work, so I've had to relearn how to make them work (thank you to Windchimes for helping me out. @_@ )

Anyway just a quick test - that's all. Thought you guys might like to see it.

Just a cut (semi-risque Elliot short)

Not a shower scene this time. It's more of a 'fade to black' and implied sort of thing but anyway...here it is:

***

They were cooking together in his little kitchenette because Elliot had wanted to make a special dinner for their six month anniversary and Nora had decided to help him. 

He'd somewhat protested, but she told him cooking together was always fun, too - which he couldn't deny. But he had requested that she please...please...not cut herself this time. Or burn...

William Shower Scene (slightly risque)

Another shower scene - this time involving William. It's slightly inspired by a scene that was cut from Elliot's route, actually. Ha ha. Anyway, also slightly risque since it does involve people taking a shower together. LoL

***

Nora was...desperately grateful she had the house to herself for the weekend.

 Not because she needed the quiet (although she did). But because when she and William tumbled in through the laundry room door dripping mud, bog ooze, and peat on th...