Q&A: Answering your questions!

Hello everyone!!!

I hope you're all doing great! 🤩

I'm back with the continuation of the Q&A! You guys turned out to be very curious minds and asked way more questions than I expected... BUT! Fear not, I’m still determined to answer them ALL 😎

To keep things from turning into a novel, I'll keep my answers as short and to the point as I can and I'll split the post into 2 parts (one now and a part 2 next month with the rest of the questions. No one wants 0.8 to be delayed because of this, I'm sure ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

If 2 questions were almost the same, I merged them into a single question, but other than that, I’m answering them all! If you don’t see your question here, it’ll be in part 2!

So that said... let's dive in! I hope you enjoy reading it!

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• Do you have any tips to future devs (like me teehee)

  Don't get discouraged if the initial reception isn’t as big as you expected. When I first released "Once in a Lifetime" (my first game), I got very little engagement, and the few opinions I did receive were, at best, discouraging.

  But I kept going because I love what I do, and I knew I had stories to tell. After several updates and months of work, I started seeing people who were actually waiting for the next update with excitement, which made me so happy. The best way to improve is to keep working on your game, listen to feedback (but without trying to please everyone), and never stop striving to get better!

My first renders were terrifyingly atrocious

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• Do you have any intentions to port your games to Steam?

  As far as I know, I can’t publish the game on Steam at the moment due to licensing issues with the software I’m using (though there’s no clear info about it, so who knows if that might change in the future).

  Obviously, this means I don’t have access to Steam’s massive player base and revenue, but thanks to all of you, I can rely on Patreon and SubscribeStar to keep the game going 🥹

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• Two questions: 1. How long does it take you to make a render on average? 2. How many updates do you believe will be enough for you to tell the whole story and finish the game?

  That really varies a lot, it depends on the number of characters on screen, the complexity of the poses, items, and backgrounds, the amount of post-production required (like fixing clipping issues or jarring shadows), and a long etc. On average, I’d say I can get around... 4-5 renders per hour on a good day (very approximate). I take longer to make a render now because the level of polishing I try to apply to every render has also increased a lot since the 0.1 version.

  I’m not 100% sure of how many updates the game will have, but I’m currently planning for around 13 main updates, which means there will be 6 more updates to come! After that, there might be some extra minor patches while I’m also working on the next game. (Because OF COURSE, there's a new game already planned after Eternum 🤩)

  AND YES, I HAVE CLIFFHANGERS PLANNED FOR ALL OF THE REMAINING UPDATES 😈

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• Disney's got this animated film called Brave. Why does it always seem like Nova is just like its main character? Was it inspired by her? It looks like her hairstyle is also showing a change in her personality bit by bit. But to me, her curly hair is more Nova. Will we see her with curly hair in normal and sexy scenes in the future?

  Haha, she was! Her character obviously has many other completely different layers, but she was definitely one of my inspirations when I created her (her favorite animal being a brown bear is no coincidence). And yes, we'll see her with her messy, curly hair again! You know I love constantly changing hairstyles for all the girls.

FACT: Dione can canonically turn into a bow

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• Are you open to collaborating with another dev in the future to develop a game?

  I wouldn’t have a problem with it, though realistically, it’s quite difficult to make it work. My style, including camera placements, facial expressions, posing, and other minor touches, would make collaboration with another developer difficult, since everyone has their own particular style. And of course the same goes for writing.

  However, if I could find someone who could utopically replicate my style, I wouldn’t mind at all! Less work, more updates!

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• Are your characters inspired by anyone or anything? Do you have the entire story fleshed out already or just creating it as you go? What inspired you to create visual novels?

  I wouldn’t say any character is fully inspired by someone specific, though I often incorporate traits and mannerisms from people I’ve known in real life (or from other pieces of media, like in the previous example).

  While I’ve had the main plot points planned from the beginning, I create the smaller adventures and scenes for each arc on the go, yep! (usually at the start of each update, when I prepare some sort of outline).

  As for the inspiration, it’s pretty simple: I enjoyed playing visual novels and often imagined how my perfect novel would be. One day, I decided, “Why not give it a go? It could be fun!” And well, five years later... here we are😆

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• Probably been asked before, but what made you put your considerable talent towards writing AVNs instead of novels, short stories etc?

  I honestly don't think my writing skills are good enough to write a classic novel, and I also believe I can tell a lot through visuals (like facial expressions and body language) just by accompanying the dialogues.

  Also, AVNs > non-adult VNs because, well, sexy gals ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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• Have you ever thought about sharing guides/tips on Honey Select showcasing how you made your characters and making scenes in studio neo? Maybe even share your modlist?

  I have some "Behind the scenes" videos already posted, you can check out the last one here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/behind-scenes-2-57272734 

  It's been a while since the last one, though, so I'll try to make a new one soonish!

  About the modlist, all the main mods can already be found in the BetterRepack, although I also use a lot of custom ones that I made or commissioned myself!

StudioNeo is where I pose the characters and create all the scenes

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• How did you settle on the archetypes of girls you wanted to put in your game and how did you further their development into such memorable characters?

  I wanted to mix up the personalities of the girls you meet in the game, so you’ve got everything from shy types to confident ones or even tsunderes. However, once you get into the game, you get to see they’re more than just simple stereotypes. Each one has their own interests and fears, and they grow into characters that don’t fit into just one mold.

  I also try to showcase how they evolve throughout the game, from Alex learning to trust others more, to Luna overcoming her social awkwardness (to mention a couple). By the end of the game, the girls will definitely react differently compared to how they would have reacted to the same situation at the start, but always staying true to their unique personalities.

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• Do you keep a big old document of everyone who has donated or subbed to you in the past and how much? I've switched between the Patreon and here, so I am curious how you are tracking that. Also, would you be willing to drop the names of your top 5 or 10 supporters so far? Just to give them extra recognition? Maybe your top 5 LONGEST supporters too. Most months subscribed, earliest subs, etc. Would be curious to see who has been around since the forever ago. Lol

  Yes! I can track the lifetime support of all members on both Patreon and Subscribestar. For the credits of the final update of Eternum, I plan to list my top 100 (or maybe top 300) all-time supporters, instead of just the currently active ones like I do for every update. Since it’ll be the final 1.0 version, it feels like the most fitting option.

  My current top 5 all-time supporters are Jasticus, Kainan, Calaadia, Meiki, and Axr110. If you're reading this, you guys are the MVPs 💗🥰

  Special shoutout to Max Nordlund too, my longest supporter ever, who’s been a patron since September 2019, accumulating a total of 59 months! 🤩 You're also the MVP! (Though unfortunately, he won't see this since his tier doesn’t have access to this post 😆)

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• What is your favorite Eternum server? And why? ^.^

  I’ve gotta go with Ekabar 😌 I’m a huge fan of medieval fantasy (my favorite movie is The Lord of the Rings, and like 80% of books I've read are from this genre), so if Eternum was real, I’d probably spend most of my time in that server! (Special mention to The Red Herring, as I’m also a big horror fan!)

  I wouldn’t rule out making a game fully set in a medieval fantasy world someday…

  

  Dalia has a good taste

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• For events like a pregnancy reveal, when do you decide on the specifics? When you are writing the script for the whole patch or during the development cycle itself when you get to that part of the game? Are you writing, then rendering, and coding on a daily basis or how do you break it up?

  I usually decide when and how to approach those kinds of scenes while outlining each update at the beginning of development. However, I already have a general idea of when and how to write some of the most important scenes that will appear in future versions.

  I render first, and then I write the dialogue and code for those renders (I know most devs do it the other way around). For me, facial expressions are very important, so I might tweak a line of dialogue depending on how the render turned out or how the music fits the scene. Typically, I render a full scene (around 40-80 renders), then write all the dialogue and code. Afterward, I go back to rendering and repeat!

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• What is your top 3 anime? Are you over 18 when you created "Once in a lifetime"? Do you have any plans to let some of your fans help you developing your game? As I can see, there are a few of them who enjoy working on this project or working with you. This may reduce your workload a little bit so you can focus on other important things and make the update larger.

  Nice try, FBI 😌 But seriously, yes, I was already over 18 when I started developing Once in a Lifetime 😆 I feel like I already have all the help I can get—from proofreading to music and coding—not to mention all the times fans have supported the project with things like mods, translations, or simply spotting continuity errors. However, as I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to get help with rendering or writing (which is what would really speed up updates) because I have my own style, and I think it’s very difficult to find someone who can match it perfectly.

  As for my top 3 anime... that's hard to say, I have so many that I really loved. If you ask me another time, my answer might change, but for now, I’ll go with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Attack on Titan (despite the ending), and... Psycho-Pass, the 1st season (to avoid picking another super popular one 😆)

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• Can there be a Yu-Gi-Oh reference with Nova or would Konami or whoever owns the rights of it come after you if you put a reference in Caribdis?

  I highly doubt Konami or any other company would care about a simple reference in a game like mine. I’m not a fan of using generic terms like "Webflix" to allude to popular brands either.

  As you’ve probably noticed by now, I’m passionate about my games, movies, animes, and series, so you can expect more references from them in my work! The key to a good reference is that it should blend seamlessly into the game. If players don’t recognize the source, it shouldn’t feel out of place 😎

References ftw

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• What other AVN devs would you want to collaborate with? What would you want to collaborate on?

  Well, I’ve met a lot of devs with similar styles to mine who are also wonderful people, like Niichan, Kentyrr, Katana, Jestur, Horn nii-san, Hexatail, N2TheFire, WilsonWonka, Hanamura, Eggrik... Some of them have been around even longer than me, while others have just started their projects. But as talented as they are, and as I explained earlier, at the end of the day everyone has their own style, and it’s very hard to collaborate on a project between two (or more) people unless that’s been the setup from the very beginning.

  But hey, never say never!

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• As many others have noted the music choices are amazing and fit the mood so well. How much of your time is spent just searching for and listening to new music? Do you have a rough idea how many you have listened to that did not make the cut?

  I can’t even begin to count how much time I've spent searching for the right songs for the game. That’s why it means a lot when someone compliments the music or sound design, even though I can't add popular copyrighted songs as I'd like to sometimes. Honestly, I think the game would be a completely different experience without the soundtrack and SFX.

  I usually don’t listen to the entire tracks - if the beginning doesn’t grab me, I just skip it. I have no idea how many songs I’ve gone through by now, but... it’s definitely in the hundreds!

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• Imagine if the boat Caribdis has received a comment like: "I LOVE YOUR GAMES, DUDE! KEEP IT UP!" How do you think he would react, besides being confused? :D

  Hahah I think his reaction would simply be 99% confusion 😆

  Context for those who don't understand this question: My Patreon site is "patreon.com/onceinalifetime" because when I created the page, the "patreon.com/caribdis" domain was already taken by someone else—a guy who apparently creates "sailboat repair videos" but has never posted anything. This led to a running joke in the Discord community, and people made memes about it.

  You can check the link yourself, but please don't message him or anything. I'm sure he's a busy man, so let's not bother him!

  

  The OG Caribdis—Absolute legend in my books

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• Maybe is foolish to ask is the story gonna be divided in like seasons and things like that? In terms of % how much is done of the story and how much you think is left?

  There won’t be seasons for this project. As mentioned before, at the moment of writing this post, I’m planning for a total of 13 updates, labeled 0.8, 0.9, 0.10, 0.11, 0.12, and 0.13 (though this isn't set in stone yet). Based on these numbers and my personal notes, I'd say Eternum’s story is about 60% complete!

  But don’t be sad! Once I wrap up Eternum, I’ll dive into developing my next game. I’ve already got a few pages of notes, and trust me—it’s going to be AWESOME. Expect a new and engaging story, packed with romance, adventure, and plenty of even sexier girls!

  But Caribdis, sexier girls? Impossible! 

  Just wait and see 🤩

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Aaaaand that's all for now! :D

I'll be back next month with the rest of the questions you asked in the previous post!

I hope you enjoyed reading this little fun post as much as I did writing it 🥰

Stay tuned for more info about 0.8 very soon!
New devlog by the end of the month! Don't miss it!

Thank you so much for all your support, guys, really 🥹

Love you all and take care💗

Caribdis