SOFIA – July News Update + Current Situation

Hey everyone!

It’s been a long while since the last update, and while I can fault that to life things going on, the plain truth is I could’ve delivered some small updates every now and then.

Everyone has their own lives to manage, but I’m especially awful at maintaining correspondence under stress. Communication has always been my greatest shortcoming… I’m slowly taking responsibility and learning to change those habits.

For now, I’d like to talk about the present, then, and beyond.

Demo Status?

If I were some visitor with a passing interest in these SOFIA, then I’d want to know about the game first and foremost. There’s good news and “meh” news regarding the game’s progress:

The Good News – We made a ~10 minute demo with 20 more minutes in production

This demo is my attempt at capturing the type of atmosphere, more specifically the overall feeling I want to convey throughout the game. I learned a lot in this build’s assembly.

There’s something simultaneously frustrating (at some points maddening) and fulfilling about tweaking and tinkering little bits of code to draw out specific kinds of expression. Especially for a slice-of-life story, where those little subtleties garner more attention… And even more so in this visual novel style format. It feels similar to illustration in a way, except efficiency probably has a higher emphasis overall.

I honestly feel way too underqualified to tackle this stuff!

But thankfully, there are tons of resources and references we can use to stumble the way through.

I think the best kinds of stories are those that can arouse a person’s mind to the creator’s perspective and brings out its messages without any shame. To put it simply, good stories have good themes that impart timeless lessons. If this niche little thing can create that impression, I’ll be wholly content…

To hope so is saccharine – to expect so is at worst, arrogance – so I’ll try not to tunnel into that ambition too much.
The game’s gotta be good, above all.

The second half of this build are mostly mapped out. What’s left is to refine the writing, create the necessary assets, and make it into a nice little package. This is the next set of tasks.

(It feels weird to constantly mention my insecurities/vulnerabilities, but perhaps that’s just my way of trying to assume responsibility. Like a constant reminder that it won’t be easy, but I can pave the roads forward.)

The “Meh” News – It won’t be released until that remaining 20 minutes is complete, which will take a while…

This part boils down to being busy with life things, so I won’t delve into it very much. Essentially, man-child has to become an adult.

There’s a lot of adulting that needs to be taken care of before I can continue working on SOFIA which is what will use most of time in the forthcoming months. I have no ETA on when I can give my full attention to the remaining demo, but it would be great if it’s before 2022 passing.

The Team – “Farewell”

Due to the culmination of various factors (much of it harping back to life things), I decided to dissolve the team’s group activities for good.

I’ve already shared the struggles observed throughout our time together, so again, I won’t touch on much.

(I hope) There are no hard feelings involved. Circumstances simply changed and I couldn’t keep up with the bare minimum for a leader for our activities.

Our previous writing system was very flawed… I’m still a bit surprised no one called me out on it – especially when I grieved about my inexperience. I suppose it’s a mistake I had to make some time.

Going forward, I can assure that I won’t be alone in development. We aren’t exactly parting ways, by the way! I just want to be serious with managing time commitments by working on a commission basis and less overall vagueness.

Sneak Peaks + Voice Acting?

There remains foundational aspects of the game that I haven’t formally decided on. There will be changes that you can expect in further, polished builds.

I’ll try to explain some of the images and the thought processes behind them, if needed.

title screen.

As basic is it comes. Thankfully the key illust looks really nice here, but to fit everything in, a floating menu in the top left empty space would be nice. Accompanied by a nice somber tune and some kind of accenting effect. A waltz of falling leaves? A scrolling animation of things related to each character? Dust particles floating up and away into the sky? I wonder what would fit the best.

Also something that’s too advanced for me, but perhaps having each characters as a “button” for the extra things such as a music box, gallery, and other goodies.

Just some self-indulgent thoughts.

from the intro.

This sort of cinematic and focused screen space is something I’m mulling over for the game – my main inspiration being Narcissu.

Among its pros, I believe this style of presentation could better invite readers to focus on the details of the art. Similar to manga, what you need to see is clearly defined between the text (speech bubbles) and artwork (panels). A lot of time and effort is saved in the art side. If needed, the black bars could simply be expanded to reveal more vast scenes. Overall, a “less is more” approach for SOFIA.

In a way, it’d allow for more varied art expressions. Maybe we could try a pseudo NVL style and have the black borders display vertically? Or something thematic where depending on the character’s current mental state, there’s a more “tunnel” vision versus an open-minded, receptive view. It sounds cool, but I wonder if the effort would be worth it…

Then, among its cons, sound design and voice acting seem imperative to this type of experience. I feel like the lack of eye-candy and almost solemnity of this style needs to be accommodated. That’s something I’m not at all ready for with our current music/sound libraries and zero voice casting experience.

Also, allowing everyone’s voice to rest in the reader’s imagination would be my ideal. However, I’ve never been against the inclusion of voice acting. I already have a list of VA’s that I’m interested in on my Twitter lists.

This is a big tangent where I’ll briefly list how I imagine our main heroines’ voices… I’ll avoid mentioning any specific voice actors/seiyuu for now. If this information ever transitions into a casting call, I think I’d prefer an originally developed, natural interpretation of everyone’s voices over copying the reference. If it helps, I’ll have that on the backburner.

Aria

“Soft-spoken and terse—she has a voice with the clarity of pure water, but rarely uses it, so it pours out like dew drops. This is not due to timidness or even sleepiness like many would believe. Rather, a lackadaisical, deliberate inflection she’s cultivated for “efficient” conversations. Although that’s what she wants to believe, it can end up with others struggling to connect the dots if they’re not attentive.”

– Terse
– Naturally soft-spoken
– Whispery/breathy, asmr quality almost
– Ever-present, subtle lilting
– Soothing humming tone
– Female Young Adult

Ninian

“Ninian has a very direct and prompt style of speaking. She prefers not to dawdle over her words and delivers quick and honest replies with an effortless confidence. At first people would recognize it as her being “blunt” but slowly changed their understanding to it being more “professional”. Her matter-of-fact demeanor makes it difficult to carry casual conversation.”

– Deadpan
– Direct
– Overall cute,
– but has an “old soul” vibe
– Sounds slightly older than she looks
– Female Young Adult

Amelie

“Genki, energetic, bubbly, loud, peppy – just about half of the words that people use to describe Amelie’s voice. All her greetings are bright and cheery with her favorite phrase being “Your ‘Mel’ is here~!” She adores using a flurry of adjectives to express her excitement. At times she can be overbearing, but she’s quick to catch on to moods and tone herself down.

– Bubbly
– Down to earth and honest
– Genki in a controlled way
– Big sister feeling
– Occasionally sassy in a lighthearted way
– A voice and personality that feels extremely casual and easy to converse with
– Female Mid Adult

Runa

“Matching her soothing demeanor is a floating, comforting style of speech… At times it becomes too flowery to understand, but she admittedly does so for her own entertainment. Her speech is also noted to be “proper” by common standards, similar to an attendant or nurse. It’s rare for her to fumble on words, but she’ll take the time to deliberate on the right words and phrases when needed – this has the effect of tensing up the mood for how long it takes, however. Likes using quotes from the literature she’s consumed.”

– Comforting
– Sultry
– More mature/deeper side, but can be high pitched as long as there’s a kind of “pressure” behind the voice
– Compared to Aria smoothness, Runa’s is viscous like honey, almost
– Female Mid Adult

Back to teaser shots…

Chapter Card/ Screen

Simple-ish artwork that denote the beginning of a new arc.
I think it’d just be nice for the reader to have a sense of their progression with these. It can give them a rough idea of how long arcs are, a teaser for what to look forward to in relation to whatever the illustration is, as well as a “security” in their time allotment.

An ending card where something changes from the original chapter card could be a cool accent. Like maybe for this sample, the sprout grows stronger and a bunch of redder maple leaves surround its base. A tangible passing of time.

Black borders + sprite in front? Featuring June, our protagonist!

This goes back to my first ramble about screen space.

Why do I have the ADV text box here? I don’t really know myself. There’s a feeling that I can still use it. I’ve been told having June as a sprite would be strange, as she’s the MC.

Instead, she can have the ADV box all to herself? With a little box for her expressions similar to the “Tales of” skits. The box itself can serve as a separation between narration, active, and passive thoughts. Technically all of these can fall under narration?

I think it’d be cool to make the distinction though. Very similarly to Final Fantasy X, when Tidus goes into his thoughts. There’s his narration talking about the turn of events replaying it in his head, his “in-scene” inner monologue and thoughts, then the “in-game” inner thoughts usually made up through text solely.

I’m explaining it in a very convoluted way, hah. Essentially, I want three Junes: narrator, in-action June, and an ‘observer’ diary-writing June who acts like a commentator(?) Like an angel and devil persona on each shoulder?

I’m just making it more complicated than it is, but it feels necessary for how I want to tell this story.

when June is actively noticing things, the black borders go woosh
ft. Ming Ming, the friendly neighborhood cat!

I hope I can find a way to freely manipulate the GUI for my own experiments. I feel the most limited by programming right now. At the very least, I can mock up things in my painting program, but I won’t be able to really grasp it feels to play.

That’s all folks

A lot of this really is just self-indulgence. I love to dream big and flaunt my idealism and ambition, but I’ve always been slow at taking the first steps. To continue development, I gotta see things objectively.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my rambling.

If you came from Twitter, I hope you guys like the art I shared! Until next time~

[SOFIA] September Dev Diary

A lot has happened and couldn’t happen over the course of September. By changing our approach to writing, progress stalled for about a week, then I spent the rest of that month making up for it.

Writing Progress

While our first raw draft was projected to be completed at this time, we unfortunately couldn’t make it.

I decided to disband the writing team and take up all the writing of the demo, solo. The different styles/voices in narration and character writing of each writer became much too apparent as we worked up to a over half of the script. Combined with our scene assignment system, the writing-editing workflow was too convoluted due to the how many passes were done over each piece of writing.

Of course, we made efforts to bring everyone’s writing closer to the vision I have for SOFIA. It’s just, as mentioned earlier, the passes could only do so much. We’ve brought it closer, but it wasn’t enough for me. I assume full responsibility for my incapability to convey my ideas and vision with clarity. I’ll try to explain what that is in the next section.

Currently, I have two scenes left to rewrite. Finishing these would put us back on track to completing the first draft and moving things forward to Ren’Py implementation. Starting in November is when I’d like to see this – no matter where our writing is.

Progress:
– 7/17 scenes written.
– “Arc 2” rewriting is halfway done.

The estimated average reading time for each scene is from 15 to 20 minutes long. The scope of the project and what will actually be included in the demo is still being discussed, so don’t expect a 4hr+ demo just yet!

So, how should SOFIA be written?

I don’t think I can give a short answer to that. There are a lot of themes, lessons, and perspectives I want to encapsulate, and countless possibilities for how to express those messages. I also don’t want to get overwhelmed in those possibilities, in striving to make something “unique.” Delivering a down-to-earth, hopeful, and ultimately relaxing experience is my goal with this game.

Now, with that said, I feel like I’ve encompassed more of the “what” side over “how.”

Something we can zero in on is what SOFIA is inspired by: Iyashikei or “healing type” media. The genre’s intent to heal is something I admire and have experienced myself. What heals means different things for different people, but I believe there are aspects of the human condition that are nearly universal, and at least, very relevant to our current society.

Some of these themes are:

1) Concepts of belonging, isolation, and the associated anxiety,
2) Identifying with shame and failure – Avoidant Personalities,
3) Duty versus passion,
4) Cultivating hope,
5) Importance of Rest,
6) Having innate value,
7) Awkwardness in family/friend relationships
8) “Just existing” instead of living life, and more

I plan to approach SOFIA’s characters by using these aspects as a foundation for each character’s story. I think the biggest challenge will be achieving a harmony that expresses different perspectives and conclusions (not always resolutions) towards these themes, while keeping everything within the framework of Iyashikei.

Iyashikei Framework? What differs Iyashikei from Slice of Life.

What is that? Well, it’s hard to say, because the criteria for what is considered Iyashikei is very “feels-based” due to that assumed healing intent of the genre’s name. All Iyashikei can fit under the “Slice of Life” umbrella, but I believe there are elements separating it from your average good, wholesome vibes show. Why have the classification in the first place if there wasn’t’? I’ll try to explain what traits an Iyashikei anime/manga/game should have in the next section.

Above all, I believe capturing the atmosphere/ambience, or 雰囲気 (fuinki) of a scene is vital to Iyashikei writing. Great care and attention is given to crafting a nearly unbreakable, incubator that is generally 1) Warm and Welcoming, 2) Promotes safe exploration of feelings, and 3) Cathartic, with minimal conflict. Of course, there are exceptions to this. They tend to be series that you wouldn’t expect at first, but have later revelations that they can be classified under this sub-genre. SOFIA will be more of a traditional attempt.

Yuru Camp

The former “unbreakable” part about our incubator comes from my observation that nothing truly interrupts or drastically shifts the atmosphere, such as comedy, romance, or drama – three genres that are often packaged into slice of life media. “Joyful without ego, solemn without sadness,” is a saying that I feel fits Iyashikei wonderfully. Of course, I also don’t believe a story should be written so totalitarian in its delivery. It just wouldn’t be human that way.

“Mood regulation” and related techniques that concentrate – and often fixate – on appealing to the senses, is something I’ve encountered often in Iyashikei.

This usually begins with the setting – the environment acts as both the vehicle to the plot and an ever-present entity constantly interacting with the characters and vice versa. Causality is the driver in most cases, instead of conflict. Things happen as our characters go through their day, and their actions may or may not propel the plot. We’re set into a familiar pace of their daily lives learning about the world, unhurried.

In SOFIA, even though our main character, June, has plenty of internal struggles, the plot doesn’t always move in a way that pushes them to work through them. Heck, I’m sure we’ll have scenes that don’t touch on those kind of themes at all.

ARIA the Animation
Akari experiences Acqua Alta, a phenomenon familiar to Venice, Italy, where the tides cause flooding within many of the cities buildings. This force of nature is viewed as a holiday for some.

Mundanity. Iyashikei are typically slow-paced and episodic. Episodic, in that our scope is usually within self-contained stories, and slow-paced as the byproduct of telling daily life. Microcosms of the human experience captured in a character’s life, and where life is happening, takes precedent over completing an overarching, grand plot. The characterization and development of the “where” is just as important as the “who.”

An appreciation for life’s simple and small joys is nurtured in this way.

June being an observant person is one sort of “proxy” to help readers notice things. In visual novels especially, which don’t entirely rely on visual cues, I have a feeling this is trait is required. Streamlining the plot is something quite common among all the OELVN’s I’ve played, so I think a leisurely style will be interesting. Hopefully not in the sense of a “slow burn” and instead like a tending a garden. Each part given the proper time, care, and attention to detail.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
“I think I’ll continue watching this twilight world, for as long as time flows.”

With the focus on our environment, beautiful scenes of nature are a huge feature of Iyashikei.

Common moods associated with the genre are pensive, wistful, thoughtful, meditative, heartfelt, and ambivalent. Have you ever felt a sense of longing, maybe some loneliness looking up the moon in the night sky? Or that comfy, peaceful space created by rain tapping your windowsill? It can even be something as simple as a cool evening wind after a hot day. Feelings that may be too difficult to convey with words, and the right scenery to help you feel them – in my opinion, the most attractive quality of Iyashikei. Often, it’s the most simple words and phrases that contain the most feeling.

This aspect of Iyashikei might be the most difficult to capture in writing. I think words leave so much to be desired – so many ways for interpretation these two sort of extremes mean that a good deal of finesse is required. And of course, this shouldn’t be tackled independently. Balancing writing, art, and sound to land the best possible emotional beats will be key. I haven’t really figured out how the anatomy of this will look like, but I hope to find better clues once we start assembling things into Ren’py! Right now I can just do my best ww

Tanoshii Moomin Ikka
“Just a minute… It’s so exciting… Things which you have no control over… You can see a storm coming towards you and you can’t do anything about it.“

More Concept Art and Conclusion

Those are all my thoughts I have for September. The pace should be picking up towards the end of this month, so look forward to that! If you chose to read through all of that, thanks! And if not, don’t worry about it~ Here are some more concept art doodles that I drew for the heroines.

[SOFIA] August Dev Diary

It’s a little over a month since I posted a recruitment tweet for SOFIA.

It’s only been a month, but I believe this is the most active my brain’s ever been in years. Tiring to say the least, but every step of the way there’s joy. There’s more I want to talk about with that, so maybe in another post. For now, let’s start off with a recap, then I’ll share general updates.

Recruiting Process

While I knew the kind of story I wanted to tell, I’m aware that my storytelling ability severely lacks. So when I began recruiting members for the project, I had my eyes specifically on potential writers and editors. The recruitment doc listed other positions which weren’t advertised, but welcome to those interested. In total, I received 21 unique applications – a huge surprise and confidence booster – considering the work would be uncompensated. (just for the demo btw!)

(In case someone were interested in where I posted: Twitter(@comfy_cal), r/vndevs, r/visualnovels, and a few VNdev discords.)

With all these emails, I figured I needed some time to carefully choose team members, along with allowing those without a resume to return with writing/editing samples. I had the pleasure of reading many different styles. This sort of “backfired” in the sense that I intended to collaborate with a very small team, and now have 10 people on board.

“Rainarium” consists of the director (hi), three writers, four editors, a composer, programmer, and an SMS manager.

Going in Blind

Not knowing exactly what each of us would do, I believe we had a bumpy first couple weeks. All the positions sound self-explanatory, right? Not quite. I even had my expectations listed in the recruitment itself, but it was apparent that my understanding was/is surface-level.

I’ve no directing experience and have never made a game before, but above all, communication is one of my worst features. It was honestly terrifying at the start. Trying to give the direction your team deserves while creating content is taxing. Most of this month encompassed setting up the foundation for writing and editing.

It’s been a great learning experience with everyone’s help and insight, so I’m full of gratitude for the time spent so far.

(Something that helped ease my anxiety and stress, was defining my “Ayuverdic Model” which opens your mind to recognizing and understanding your type of workflow, motivations, pitfalls, and mindset. I follow Dr. K’s talks on this)

Current Progress

I was the most unprepared with giving proper direction and delegating tasks, so those were our main topics of discussion. After collecting time availabilities, weekly meetings were set up, which served as checkpoints for creating organization _{(thanks Ian!)} Here’s what we’ve been working on so far:

• Script Direction – In hindsight, this should have been something set up before I started recruiting. My earlier project notes and outlines included something similar _(thankfully) so all I had to do was format and make my thoughts presentable. It took longer than intended to finish, which was due to the demo’s ending arcs being unclear at the time.

There are 4 “Arcs” and 17 scenes, making a total playtime estimate of 4+ hours. This would be a very meaty demo, doubling my initial projection for the demo’s max length. We’ll see how that comes along.

Our first drafts are 50% done with the first pass of editing in-progress. I assigned the remaining scenes earlier this Monday which we’ll hopefully see within the next 2 weeks.

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• Character Reference Sheets – Another big part of my notes that required sifting through multiple documents, from google docs and phone notes, to my oldest concept arts and past character iterations.

So far, I’ve only written ref sheets for our Main Character and the Main Heroines. That’s 5 out of 10 sheets made. I believe after we finish our first overall draft, I can work more on the rest, while adding extra fun stuff to the existing sheets.

This template was inspired by Hirohiko Araki’s character template (which I discovered from his manga theory book) and Genshin Impact’s character story profiles.

Here’s a link to Araki’s character template: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oR4lvft0jU5ujYyRn2owjOreGyH7SZme/view

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• Art – Unfortunately, I don’t have anything current to show right now, as we’ve been focusing solely on the script. That doesn’t mean nothing is happening for the art department – it’s just that I’d prefer to release any WIP’s in batches to better mark and record that progress.

Keeping everything iterative, also allows for an open mind. I repeat these words in my mind a lot to overcome the apprehension I have with drawing. While I do love my character designs as shown in the banner, there’s always something that could be improved! Even when I’m not drawing, I’m finding inspiration in styles, techniques, fashion, and moods everyday through social media.

I have two main folders for art references called “Art Style Refs” and “Outfit Refs.” The latter folder’s contents are obvious, while the former is a mishmash of color, posing/anatomy, atmospheres, composition, and facial expression references. Keeping an ever-expanding visual library has been vital for improvement. From an amateur to fellow amateurs: observation is absolutely key, and at times more important than drawing itself! I guarantee that “learning how to see” will prove fruitful to your art improvement.

Having so much inspiration makes me want to go crazy with art assets. I’ll try to save those ideas for the full game.

For now, have more early concept art!

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Image 1: Chibi mock-ups of the main heroines. 1st “official” iteration. I referred to each one as G1, G2, G3, and G4 in my oldest notes.
Image 2: A block sketch of my OC’s from back in the day. Each has a personality that’s shown clearly through their facial expressions. One basis for developing the personalities of SOFIA’s heroines.
Image 3: A drawing meant to be a “one-time OC” for horny reasons. I’m using this as the framework for an important side character.

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• Programming – Ren’Py will be our engine of choice, so we’ve been writing our scenes in a way that makes it easier to script in. Other than the absolute basics, some features the SOFIA demo may include are a music box, overlay weather effects, and the “Relic” which is essentially a cellphone.

Not much is moving with programming in general, but that should change as soon as the first draft is written!

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• Music/Sound – I’ve always been suuuper picky when it comes to music. I know for SOFIA, tying the sounds and BGM into its themes would be paramount for the experience, and as a genre, Iyashikei typically have strong OST’s and/or vocal songs. With sound, a lot of natural ambient backing and domestic SFX will be used.

Concerning most OELVN’s I’ve played, the music for scenes were sufficient, but largely forgettable. I desperately want to avoid that, but felt it’d be near impossible without a budget. I’ve always thought, “Why do so many devs settle for the minimum for one of the most distinguishing features of the medium?” It’s one of the biggest advantages VNs have over manga and traditional literature, so those decisions have always perplexed me with polished products.

Regarding music composition, I have zero experience, so I’m relying on my “pretty good” taste for music direction. I believe good creators are generally “good” consumers as well. Fortunately, my confidence in music choice isn’t entirely baseless thanks to my side hobby as a curator. _{(if you know, then you know)} I often loop songs to figure out if it becomes tiring/irritating after a while, which they typically do, but there’s always a satisfying/memorable melody or chord progression that makes it worth coming back to.

It was initially planned to use solely commercial-free music, but to my great surprise, the project’s been blessed with a couple music samples! I never considered the possibility of original music, at least before a demo and Kickstarter, but after listening to the possibilities, I’m craving more.

Here’s a snippet that I absolutely adore! https://twitter.com/rainarium/status/1431391072064655363

Keep in mind that this is a sample, and the final product is bound to change.

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In Conclusion

Everything’s going well! We’ve begun to take things a bit slower moving past summer, but we’re still gunning for a release before the end of the year. I’m having a lovely time developing SOFIA! Look forward to more art and visual updates in the future.

Pleased to Meetcha! + a bit of history

This is our first week recording the development of SOFIA.

I started brainstorming the game about a month after Doki Doki Literature Club’s release (DDLC) in 2017. Something about a visual novel breaking into the mainstream stirred something within me, even more so in the Western sphere of media. I looked into the creator’s interviews about development of the game, its characters, themes, music and ideas. What struck me the most was how intertwined every aspect of the game was and the effectiveness in delivering its themes and story with impact.

At the same time, I browsed 4chan and posted in the infrequent “ITT: Write an Anime Plot” threads for fun. SOFIA’s first iteration was born in one of those threads, with its theming, goals, and characters transformed from an amorphous state into something more tangible.

(fun fact: the original story was a slice-of-life about animal-themed cafes)

Other inspirations include the development of Katawa Shoujo, videos about Stardew Valley’s solo dev journey, and various blogs/updates of VN solo devs. A lot of the cases that I enjoy feel like miracles.

(fun fact 2: Katawa Shoujo was my first VN but I skipped through it for the eroge scenes… It’s been almost 9 years, but I am planning to play it properly! I played semi-seriously and got Emi’s route on my first try. Don’t remember much ;_;)

In 2018-2019, I came across various anime and manga under the “iyashikei” (healing type) genre. This is where the project began to take a more serious turn and now features a lots of influence from. I absolutely adore ARIA, YKK, and Haibane Renmei.

That’s all for now~ Seeya at next week’s post for a better idea of where the project is now! The image attached is the earliest concept art for Aria, Ninian, and Amelie (left to right)

(fun fact 3: Aria is the only character whose name wasn’t changed since her conception. You can probably imagine why)