Writing
Hopefully these estimates provide a sense of how large the heroine routes are in relation to the common route a.k.a. Inciting Incident, which has already been released.
Inciting Incident
Total: 230,318 words
Reading estimate: 12 hours
Airi's Route
Total: 106,549 words
Reading estimate: 6 hours
Akira's Route
Total: 37,327 words
Reading estimate: 2 hours
Elizabeth's Route
Total: 146,635 words
Reading estimate: 8 hours
Misaki's Route
Total: 35,329 words
Reading estimate: 2 hours
All Heroine Routes
Total: 325,840 words
Reading estimate: 18 hours
Art
Each character has their own list of expressions, 2-3 poses, and 2-3 sets of clothing, as well as different shades of lighting to reflect the time of day; morning, sunset, and night.
In the photo above, Masato is wearing his 'default clothes', with an 'intense expression', and has his hand raised in a fist, which we call his 'active pose'. All of these combinations make one "sprite". In Inciting Incident alone, Masato had 12 total sprites. In level of difficulty, expressions are the easiest to draw, with poses and clothing being more time consuming. And so references are chosen carefully to reflect the characters' personalities and significance in the story.
All of the designs for the main cast have been completed, with the exception of a few other characters that need to be drawn. Currently, this is where progress stands, some of the art already being present in the heroine prologues that were released just recently.
Yama (1 base sprite)
Airi (1 base sprite + casual outfit + 7 expressions)
Akira (1 base sprite + casual outfit + 2 poses)
Elizabeth (1 base sprite + casual outfit)
Misaki (1 base sprite + casual outfit)
Yahiko (1 default pose + 13 expressions, 1 vulnerable pose + 6 expressions, 1 active pose + 3 expressions)
Masato (1 default pose + 8 expressions, 1 active pose + 4 expressions)
Katsu (3 outfits, 1 default pose + 9 expressions)
Natsuki (1 default pose)
Izumi (1 default pose + 10 expressions, 1 active pose + 8 expressions)
Hisao (1 default pose + 8 expressions, 1 active pose + 8 expressions, glasses on and off)
Shigure (1 base sprite)
While there will be CGs and other special backgrounds, these are currently lower on the priority list and will be drawn when the writing has been finished, since they are heavily reliant on the length and importance of a scene.
Music
All of the completed tracks with the exception of 1 or 2 can be found at our Soundcloud.
Objectives and Priorities
Thankfully, this is no longer an issue. Elizabeth and Airi's routes are very close to completion, with the latter only needing about 3 or 4 remaining scenes left—each being 2,000 words on average. As mentioned in a previous post, we will be releasing these two routes as soon as they are finished, with Akira and Misaki's coming at a later date.
Our current list of objectives are as follow (in order of importance):
Writing
1. Complete scripts for heroine routes
2. Revision process
3. Editing phase
Art
4. Complete character sprites
5. Complete remaining backgrounds
6. Complete CGs
Music
7. Complete music tracks
8. Find SFX
Closing Statement
- David A. "CardioPen"