Conviction Chronicles blog post #13 - Flashbacks

 I'm going to keep from saying spoilers, but I'll go into certain ideas I tried to express with each one. I will say I did try to keep certain characters a certain way and to have certain shared elements in each flashback group of scenes as something subtle. Each character has 3 each and they happen when ending the game either by victory or by death.

Agatha - This one is more technical than some other flashbacks and shows her more over time as a teenager to as an adult with her personal growth.

Aishia - Mostly focused on the bigger parts of her life which allows the most details to be shown for the game's plot. I added some details for foreshadowing and more here.

Cross - This one is more mysterious and I intentionally withheld certain information. This is because some characters have information about them in other character's flashbacks where their selves are more impactful there. Showing certain things with him would spoil the mystery in other flashbacks and concepts/ideas for the game. Not showing all of him, like the scenes where he helped saved Aishia he mentions in his 1 on 1 events isn't shown in a flashback. It's made to make everything around him questionable to fit his in game personality where he uses misdirection. It's part of who he is and what his job is. I didn't feel it was right to showcase everything directly with him either because of this.

Alexis - More straight forward. I could have done more with her relationship with Emma here, but the relationship I did focus on here with Alexis is more impactful and important for her character development. 

Emma - This is mostly reintroducing concepts from the original concept of Emma back into her instead of focusing on her relationship with Alexis as Sam. It also adds more to other characters. It gives Emma much more depth and supplies information for her and Alexis's relationship instead of being direct about it. It also calls into question what is Sam and what is Emma.

Edgar/Stripey - I merged the two, where Edgar's events have to be done first before doing Stripey's due to how intertwined they are. The very nature of the flashbacks are subtlety put into question here and it does give a bunch of info about the world at large. Only certain things are shown, which makes other aspects more mysterious and unknown like Edgar/Stripey are in game. Everything doesn't need to be revealed about them.

Jack - I figure most people are going to do Jack and Tina's events first since they have the most impact in the prologue. These flashbacks add a bunch of information the player might not know exactly what they are actually about until later. It comes with the idea of reveals happening in game and for the player at different times, where they can find their own way to discover certain secrets.

Crow - I think it was right to fully commit to a certain relationship with her. Normally games don't go and say "this girl has a canon relationship with someone" but I feel not committing to it would be much worse. Like most other flashbacks, it only showcases a smaller time frame and only certain information is showcased. But it's also important with showing how certain things are done in game for the mechanics of how it works. Not sure how to say it without making it sound weird or too spoilery, but it's made to help showcase certain aspects.

Jade - Most of this is shown when she is a machine only without any eyes, which was a choice to do. Mainly since it's faster to make but it goes to the core ideas of what makes Jade, Jade. It's mostly minor but it does help with Agatha's flashbacks and information there. I had many different ideas of what to showcase here, but either it was too much like other character's flashbacks or it didn't give enough relevant information. The flashbacks I want to have some information showcased for the main character being played as but information on other characters and the world at large in relation to the game. Other things could better be shown off in the game endings for ideas I have as well.

Lily - Lily has always had the feeling of being a "Junko-clone" when analyzing her and how the player would view her as of recent. I felt I had to do something to make her have more depth with her characterization to stand out. The original idea of the flashbacks with her was more dark/sinister but it didn't fit with the ideas of making her stand on her own. This does make her more of a tragic character as her actions are being based on being misguided than intentionally malicious/evil. This, along with changing concepts based around her father and how she developed the multiple personalities adds more interactions for the cast for the trials and the Luma reveal. It does add to the "I can fix her" mentality as well. I think it adds enough to truly make her stand on her own more.

Nova - I don't expect many people to do Nova's flashbacks first, since one of the secrets with her you have to do her whole 1 on 1 events to get the code to begin finding it. It has the biggest lore implications for the background elements going on. It also fuels the player to find her secret more. Like I said many times, there are multiple paths to discovering certain details, and I made it where the player can discover things naturally on their own and to push them to find certain things out as micro-goals for the greater narrative. 

Shanks - Shanks needed some backstory and his events are more connected to other events than what I first realized, which makes sense since he is an important character and defined as one right at the start. I could have gone in multiple different directions, but I went with a more personal one for him which connects things better and this does leave many things on the table to be explored in certain endings.

Tina - For obvious reasons, like her being a focus in the prologue, she doesn't need much more. But I gave her some personal moments and doing her events will reveal a certain idea behind her quickly if they have done other flashback events. By the point the player does these flashbacks, they will have experienced many things and evidence for certain ideas and connections where it becomes "Is there something here?" into "How does this work?" There is enough to figure out things with her on a face value, but it's made to be as natural of a conclusion as possible.

Victor - This one is special since it has a password lock AND has only one event, that one event is extended with extra text. I don't think many people will play as Victor as often, and his whole design and characterization is meant to give him some mystery. To follow with this, the password to unlock it is going to be hidden in the trials for some dialogue. It's meant to explain most things with him, but by that point the player will have done many other character's flashbacks, which subtly expand on his character at certain points. 

Small updates/demo update

Some smaller edits was made to the demo and some fixes, one of the bigger things has to deal with adding a layout that shows the controls, but hides/shows itself based on the player's movement. If the player isn't moving after some time, it auto hides. Purely so it won't get in the way of cutscenes. it's also auto disabled on certain cutscene only maps to never show up and mess with things.

Anything else?

The engine released an official localization tool which is going to make things so much easier with localization. Before it was heavily buggy and now it just works. I'm doing German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Korean, and Spanish translations. The problem is the excel file breaks when not separating grouped/same objects which turns the DEMO's text content into over 90,000 lines. I wish I was joking, it turns everything into 101,140 lines once ungrouped. This is only the DEMO and it's like this due to how items are referenced in code with strings. I've learned that Google Sheets can automatically translate everything, but that leads to a new problem: It would take over 200 days to translate everything without paying for google workspace due to quotas, for the demo alone. I might have to end up paying for a year of Workspace just for translation which turns it from 200 days to 50, which is going to be needed for the main release.

What remains is:

1. One secret that's already set up needs a cutscene for it.

1.5. Making small edits to things already existing to get it out of the way now. This may come in the form of changing parts of the prologue. Sort of with ideas like the Music titles being showcased correctly.

2. Ending logic and anything tied to the endings. (Lots of text, this is going to take a couple of months on it's own for each character, their special scenes, alliance and romance dialogue, and more.)

3. Evidence gathering logic, which is going to be using lots of strings. I might have to limit the evidence the player and other characters can get before a trial to 4-5, mostly for my own sanity for the backend and to refine the trial logic better when the time comes. This requires lots of testing to make sure it's going to come out right before starting the trials. Mainly since the trials are going to be reacting to these strings for a majority of the logic for how trials are going to go with presenting evidence, making use of evidence, and then showcasing a verdict. Shouldn't take too long, but it has to be done right above all else.

4. The trials themselves, lots of fun with layouts and trying to find ways for making minigames if even possible. I can record information for where the mouse is easily with randomizing locations for objects. Which means it may be possible. It's going to be hell, but it should be possible. No idea if that has support for controllers, which I have to keep in mind. The recent updates to layouts for bakin has made it more than possible for having a scrollbar which is most likely going to have to be used. Many graphics might have to be made for this too for certain layouts, like showcasing evidence. It's going to take a long time to do this and to make sure it flows well.

4.5. Trial bug fixing and editing.

5. Execution animations, still no idea what I'm going to do here. I'll figure it out when I have to.

6. Automatic Translation while execution animations are happening.

6.5. Editing and bug fixing of the automatic translations.

7. Steam Fest with a new, professional, trailer showcasing the execution animations. 

8. Release.

It's going to take what seems like another year to get everything done and ready to ship all thing considered, even if the last 3-4 things might not be under my control to do much with. it's going to be worth it in the end.