It's been a year.

And seeing the stats of the game, I honestly think it's quite a flop even for someone who did everyone all by themselves; not that I know what the standard of a flop for this kind of game is, but nonetheless it's safe to say that it performed just as well as its quality is.

To be fair, this is more of a proof of concept whether it's possible for me to create a visual novel that I can try and pitch to people and for passive income. I planned this to be done in a month, making it as short as possible, then show it to someone who could maybe try and invest with my skill. Unfortunately, it seems that all ideas for that had been dropped even before the game is finished, but I still kept at it and finished this kind of passionate but rushed and rough nukige.

This is supposed to be a post-mortem blog post, but to be honest, I haven't really replayed the game with a critical mindset to actually learn anything significant from it; all I can tell is that I successfully (without flying colors) prove that I can make an extremely short VN all on my own. It didn't matter much if it's a good one, or even a decent one. I didn't fail on that regard... but looking back, I wish I aspired to do more.

Before I divulge into what I learned in the process of making the VN (to the best of my memory), I should emphasize something with a question: How did I end up thinking that I can make it in one month? This is a visual novel, with a lot of components and skills needed to make a decent one, surely it needs more than a month or three to make it with a team, let alone just by yourself.

Well... uh... two reasons.

1.  I played bad and good nukige. A lot of the bad ones are extremely short (and paid product too!), boosting confidence that I can surely make something within such quality. (more on this later)
2. I overestimated myself. Not the workload, but myself.

I need to lay down a bit of groundwork for the 2nd reason. TL;DR: I've been drawing for over 10 years with no formal training and I've come to a comfortable point where I think that being in a slow burn is just how I tackle improvement. 

At the same time, I think that my art is good enough for this project; due to personal stuff I've been critical of my own work, but I also blind myself a lot to just enjoy the process of drawing art just to get by the process of making one fast as possible. There's no critical viewing of my work until it's done. Admittedly, it's in some kind of veiled arrogance that I even managed to start and finish this project.

That's no longer the case this time.

To begin: What are the things I learned during the process of making the game? As much as I can remember:

1. Visual 
   1. Sprites take forever to set up if you're trying make use of layeredimage in Ren'Py, but honestly, it's better to just make sprites for each expression (within limits of course).
   2. CGs probably shouldn't take forever (more on this on the writing section).
2. Writing
   1. Get a lot of proofreaders, especially those who talk in English natively. I am ESL, even though I've been talking and writing in English for a long time, but natural conversation in fiction isn't something I haven't done, and a few of early feedback is that my writing is "stiff".
   2. Write the scenario well first before anything else. Plan out the CGs and expressions. And for the love of god, if you can draw the images, don't plan out 29 variants for a single CG. It's possible to streamline the process of reusing the other expressions in the variants, but it takes so much time just for a few lines in the scene. Don't do it alone (if otherwise, reconsider), and don't do it without a budget. This is the part where I really overestimated myself.
   3. This is a visual novel, so if you can portray something without making use of words (sprites jumping, shaking, grayscale backgrounds, etc), do so and write that in the script.
3. Sound - Kevin Mcleod/incompetech is what I used for the sounds, as well as attribute 0 stuff.  I would've checked Dova Syndrome too.
4. Wrapping it all up together
   1. My workflow is pretty much as follows: 
      1. Write the script
      2. Decide how many assets to make
      3. Make prototype assets
      4. Set the script in Ren'Py
      5. Try to complete a section with complete assets— kind of a vertical slice.
      6. Flesh out the vertical slice and proceed to the next sections of the script, making assets along the way. I try to focus on one aspect of the section because I don't really have anyone else to rely on, so some days are making sound assets, some are about making CGs, etc.
      7. Complete the Ui and then the rest.

I may have forgotten a lot of the other details because it's been a year, and this project isn't something I'm very fond of. 

I did, however, tried to make a snippet of something I want to create after playing some of the good visual nukige I played: I really wanted Nami to feel alive, I wanted her to resonate with the reader and feel like she's someone more than just the receiving end of a dick in the lewd CG.

And that's why I'll be taking time to assess and find out what I did right and wrong through the project, then update it as necessary.