Conviction Chronicles blog post #5 - Free time events added

 This covers a bit, but I've decided to hide certain spoilers in these blogposts. Mainly so I don't spoil it for others when talking about certain aspects. I'm also writing this before it's fully complete and adding to this over time, mainly so it's faster.

Day transition change

The old day transition was very ugly and mostly a placeholder. I went with something more interesting where it has a randomized chapter name for each day, says who the player is playing as, and the date. Has an animation of a blue background and black lines moving in a pattern into place before everything fades to black. I think it conveys more information. I might change it in the future too, not sure what though. For now it's better, but if I come up with a better idea then I'll implement it.

Lily rewrites and new model

Lily was given a new model since the old one was pretty meh. This one is much more refined. I also set up the 6 personalities

Silent

Insecure 

Formal

Dominant 

Secretive 

Thinker

She has the Black Room, a place where she can speak to personalities and choose one. Every day her personality randomly switches and it costs energy to switch personality in the Black Room. 

Dialogue Structure

Dialogue follows the 6 personality types. Mainly so Lily can be forced to make selections based on her current personality, but also to limit a couple of other characters from being too OCC.

Every character has some sort of mix of the 6 personalities. Aishia is more shy, so she is more insecure and silent than dominant. Victor can only do Secretive dialogue options. Other characters can do all of them, or are only able to do 2-3. This changes how the player thinks about playing each character as they cannot deviate too much from who they are deep down.

This also has the consequence of making it where certain characters are naturally not going to get along as easily as others, which stays true to the cast members.

I also did it this way instead of rewriting everything for every protag. Not every free time event uses the 6 personalities for questions. Mainly since it takes a lot of effort for it to go well, and a good amount of time too.

Free time structure

The player gets to be 1 on 1 with someone else and everybody has 6 ranks. Compared to other games, the protag can be the player or a NPC to talk to depending on the protag choice. So I wanted to have a way for the player's selection to matter. This leads to the current system

- Player and Ai side -

The player first responds to the AI they are talking to. This is the first half of the rank. Then the player talks to the AI about themselves for their rank. So if the player is Agatha and they are talking to Cross, they will do their rank 2 and the player will do Agatha's rank 2 in a way where they are the one talking and thinking. This makes the talking more dynamic as the player choice always matters. It also makes the conversation feel more dynamic and realistic, as both sides have things to talk about to the other person instead of it being one sided. I went with this system when thinking of how to fix the problem in many games where conversations for free time events are one sided for the character you are speaking to. They can be explained in those games by the MC wanting to hide information from the other character or it being implied they talk elsewhere. But the characters are different in this game, some are more reserved and some are more open. Choosing to do this doubled the amount of time it takes to do everything, but in practice it's worth it. I could do more refining in the future to add certain text when certain events happen. But I'll do that much later as a separate thing as an add-on to the main text through functions instead of doing it directly in the main functions.

I might use this system in the future if people like it enough to give it more depth. 

The player is showcased with a graphic in the corner and the AI being spoken to is a 3D model in the middle of the screen. This allows the player's reaction to be taken into consideration along with showing what the AI sees the player react to it.

The only problem that could happen is the dialogue when the player is saying things might need more dynamic text, as it's said every time when at a certain rank with anybody. So the first player rank is mostly the same when doing everybody else's first rank for example. 

The links themselves

I'll skim over what they are about with some smaller details. So minor spoilers. Each of them as a unique theme played when the player is talking to them. Each character as a unique theme too to match them.

Agatha

Agatha uses her advice as bribery for payments once outside of the prison. Turns into how she has trust issues due to problems with her family, and how she always gets screwed over eventually.

She has a special ability to imply someone else is acting fishy and reporting it to the player. The player can do this with AIs and it slightly impacts their relationship. This adds an extra level of manipulation.

Aishia

Aishia's free time is about how she used to be living in a village controlled by Kurdistan rebels, before a new group took over and slaughtered most of the village that resisted. Then she is sent to the mountain, a place to experiment on captured humans for a biological weapon that she has inside of her.

Alexis

She is mostly insecure about her cheerful attitude, questioning herself if she really is happy. but then decides that it's better to make others happy with a smile and that will make her happy.

Cross

Cross was a super spy before discovering something in a mountain he was called in for that made him rebel and he was forced into a blacksight where he was unable to hear any more information about the outside world after that. He vows to take whoever is responsible down, and he believes who was responsible for the mountain is behind the current situation.

Edgar

Edgar is a TV show host who eventually created the YY syndicate which became one of the more powerful political groups. I added some occult based stuff with him saying he is a reincarnated druid. Makes him feel like everything is off, since the water and plants are artificial. 

Emma

I focused more on the gabling part than certain other aspects of her to showcase how secretive she is. Her first 2 ranks sets up a test on rank 3, which failing means she will actively think of you as a pawn and will actively distance herself from you so she can use you as a scape goat or to kill you. 

Jack

Jack is more aggressive in thinking he's the only good person there as an undercover cop. He lies the most in his events about what he is. He never develops a real bond with anybody, as his last rank is an implication about him wanting to kill everybody anyways. I'd consider him a minor antagonist as he's going to be aggressive with his desires. He can be viewed as the main hero as well.

Lily

Lily's ranks are all the same, but it's random what you get based on what is the current active personality. It's like a Venus flytrap, all you are learning is that it's a trap and her mind is truly broken.

Jade

She is the only one who doesn't have inner thoughts when she is the protag with her events. She's a robot that doesn't fully understand all human emotions, mostly with familial partnership. She downloaded most ideas for thoughts and emotions, but she doesn't understand anything deeply personal. I wanted to do a twist on the idea of "robot finds humanity" where most things are understood by the robot instead of learning everything from scratch.

Crow

Crow is the most tragic and blames herself for many events that happened to her. Her theme is also the most sad. She is forced to keep her pain internalized as she is blamed for what happened, even if it isn't her fault that lead to the deaths of many. Survivor's guilt in a sense.

Nova

Might be too similar to other characters in media at face value, but I tried to do a spin on it with her being a clone that her mind is transferred into. This turned her into being mostly calculated/logical instead of emotional to stop herself from being rebooted into a new clone. There are extra layers to this as well.

Shanks

With shanks I ended up going with a mobster approach along with a father/daughter dynamic. Mainly for a reason to make him different than Jack and to make him stand out on his own. At face value Jack and Shanks share many elements, but they differ in many different ways. His forcefulness makes his disliked by the player and others when not playing as him, but he has good intentions with reasonings why he is the way he is.

Stripey

Stripey is set up to be the most supportive character, part of this is his mascot like design. But also his personality. He was a senator before being kidnapped and forced into the suit after being injured, becoming a beacon for many people. Stripey at the start, is an obvious red heiring. Since he is the only one you can directly imply to be hiding who they truly are due to the suit they wear. Then everything is set up to make the player trust and respect them. 

Tina

Tina's events are more direct, mainly since she remembers information after each playthrough. She's in a different cycle than the player, meaning she knows more than them, and treats the game as a game. A character that thinks they are the main character, and they use a bunch of board game terms and jokes. Originally I planned her to be an occultic fangirl deep down to explain away how she knows so much, but it made her too much like Edgar where I wanted Tina to have her own identity. Her theme incorporates this with having two main instruments conflicting with each other, with one being more hidden. She has a true theme that will be used for a different set of events that I'll make later on, that are different from the normal 1 on 1 events.

Victor

The shortest of all of them, it's made to be as mysterious as possible while getting an idea of the character behind them. The idea with them was to make a character that seems off that you cannot fully trust.

Bianca

I haven't done her events yet, but I've decided to make it where the mastermind/mole selection gives an extra event at the start of the game as a 1 on 1 event with her and something exclusive at the end of the game. Mainly to have more events with Bianca directly, due to certain characters, but also to give her more depth in some way to reward players doing certain routes. So when I do that, I'll add it there.

Luma's Identity

Luma is the true main antagonist of the game, and their identity is hidden but there are a lot of smaller details in the game for who they are. I really don't want to go into how many details are in the game already and added into the free time events as it would spoil who it is, but there is a lot of effort being put in so the player isn't obviously going to guess them right away and that they can discover it once they realize what they should be looking for. Basically a lot of smaller foreshadowing that will go over most player's heads until they realize certain details when looking back. 

There are some red herrings and light misdirection as well, some more purposeful than others. This is so who it is isn't obvious instantly. Depending on certain actions, it might seem like one character is Luma or one isn't. 

The player can figure it out some certain details alone. Like I said, once the player knows what to look for, they can find out very easily.

Luma's Design

I wanted to do something off that is different from everyone, with details from every character slightly. This was to make them harder to tell who they are directly when encountering them without certain details in mind. 

I still have to make the 3D model version which might bring some new changes. Some concepts made it too obvious who it was due to the inspirations used, but I believe the current concept makes it where if you know what to look for, you will figure it out, but otherwise isn't obvious. 

Secret Codes

Right now only Nova gives out a secret code, but I made a system that generates secret codes that are saved across saves and used for certain purposes. Mainly to force players to do certain things to see all of the content instead of sprinting to it right away.

Ai giving the player items

The AI has the ability to check it's inventory and to give the player an item as a gift. They can give bad gifts like bloody weapons and evidence so they can actively blame you later. I allowed the AI to give those items since I thought it would be funny if after a trial, a character would give you the murder weapon after they got away with it. Adds more interaction with the character and the player.

Secret Alliances

These are for partnerships for alliances where two characters can partner up, where one can betray the other without knowing when alone with someone else for a new alliance. These only impact the trials. But they will gives special options when certain events happen to someone you are partnered with. 

That was a lot. Overall for this alone has 215 different functions, each rank is a different function for every character, along with some other things, but that is a lot with making things as simple as possible for the backend and front end for the player. 

---Anything else?---

As I would like to do the AI next, there are a bunch of smaller scenes and details I should get out of the way before doing any of that.

I might as well list things that needs to be done before anything major in the backend.

An actual intro to the game

The alpha I released before has a very shitty intro, basically I want a tutorial that showcases who the characters are and some backstory to each character with the general idea of the game. 

Basically this means:

1. Scene with the character alone to define them from their backstory.

2. Showing a small batch of characters before everybody is revealed.

3. Showing everybody with small hints before going into the game for real. 

This is going to take a while. So out of this bunch, this will be the last thing.

A better title screen

I want something more dynamic and modern instead of only the logo and some text. Something extremely welcoming yet setting the tone. I have thought about a couple of ideas taking inspiration from Persona and Max Anarchy where it shows the characters doing something.

This really matters for presentation along with the intro, so I do want to get it done right.

Video intro the game

I want a video intro to really engross the player before they even see the title screen and as a short teaser for what's to come. Adding a video as the game starts would be very beneficial.

A couple of secret scenes

I kind of want to get it out of the way, but I have some hidden scenes ideas that can be found that showcases some new information. One of these uses the secret codes that Nova gives out. 

Bianca mastermind scenes

A scene to add onto the intro if the player is the mastermind and who as the mastermind. Also I had to make changes to the mastermind/mole to force a reason to make the player want to survive or kill off other players to suspect them being the mastermind.

If the mastermind lives at the end of the 100 days, everyone else dies. but everyone else lives if they kill them off beforehand. 

Adds tension for the player to try to figure out who it is and if they are removed or not. This idea also adds more to the player and Bianca's dynamics as she's allowed to be explored more in a 1 on 1 environment with it working. 

Romance Scenes

I haven't added these in yet, since the 1 on 1 events already too so much time. I might give Bianca the ability to be romanced. It's mostly that one of the characters is directly related to them and I plan to reveal it early on when playing as that character. There are people bound to be very interested in seeing it happen, so I'm not exactly sure how to handle it. 

Tutorial section

I'm not sure if I should stick with the tutorial popups the player can turn off, or to have an option mechanical playthrough of certain mechanics at the start of the game. I think the option for the latter would be good and easy to make. 

Adding onto certain mechanics

Stuff like the medical bed having a separate scene with some other stuff so it works fully mechanically so it's easy to automatically work when the AI is added.

Also the recreation areas needs more interactions with everybody else in the room at the time, mostly to make it more alive feeling. So reading in the library might have a book club discussion about a book or something like that. Mostly to make the individual stuff feel more whole so the focus can be elsewhere afterwards.

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After that, then I'll make the AI. Once the AI is done, it should be good to go for a Steam Page to start promoting the game more, since the demo will be in a very good shape. Once that is done, then I will do the flashbacks, some smaller stuff tied to them I don't want in the demo, and the trials. Then I can focus on the endings and adding on with unique scenes before the game goes through editing and then it can release. 

More tangents 

Depending on the wishlists and how long it takes for the engine I'm using to get porting to Unity support, I might consider figuring out a console release for something like switch. I would also have to figure out localization with the engine as well, since I have to pay 20 dollars on patreon for the beta version of the tool, which is prone to screwing things up. I would also have to form an LLC and get an Xbox one to port something to it, like Azarias rebirth, so it I have console experience for Nintendo to consider selling me a dev kit for 400 dollars.  It's a lot to think about.

This game is already jam packed with content, for the final price tag, I am leaning in to it being closer to 25-30 dollars than 20. It depends on many factors when the game is in a more finished state. This doesn't even factor ideas like executions, which I have no idea how I'm going to do them well. Unreal doesn't really like Vroid models, and I have to convert them to FBX using blender before importing before being able to use them. Doing it in the current game engine is fine too, but it's much more limiting to what can be done with the camera system without making more cameras than in Unreal.  Either way it's going to be recorded as a video file and played back to the player when an execution happens. There might be a lot of stuff needed to be done in video editing for it to look good too. Umbra Fields and Throne Requiem have a lot in the background for mechanics and actual code, but compared to this, it's almost nothing. There is just so many different functions already, I'm expecting the function count to be at least 1k before the game is finished. There are a lot of reasons why I'm looking at the 30 dollar price tag when it's all said and done.

Overall there is still so much left to do and think about, but so far it's going very well, and the performance update to the engine has drastically increased performance for exporting games with it. I do think the game will turn out extremely well, but it doesn't support well for a sequel. Everything with this game is being made to be more open and shut, where I'm not exactly sure how I would even make a sequel due to how the character names are integral for many strings working and such. It would take a long time. But I shouldn't even be thinking of that right now, and more of making this game the best it can become.