Another month, another update! We’re getting close to the finish line, but we must keep going forward! Despite all obstacles, adversities, and so on. Oddly uncanny how this motivational train of thought relates so much to my core subject at hand—approaching girls. In all realms of life, we must persevere if we wish to succeed. 

While I am marketing the game as some sort of “self-help” simulator, I’d like to clarify some of my intentions with the overall theme of the game. Approaching girls, talking to them, yes, does allow you to get closer to them. However, like most things in life, it is not that easy. There is not one clear answer. You cannot “fix” one simple thing about yourself and instantly find yourself chock-full of results. Life is very nuanced, and you can generally only improve yourself from experience—over many years and trials. This advice is unlike the type of “click-bait” advice that intends to hook you, sell you on an idea, and leave you with unrealistic goals. 

As I have alluded to in the past, the “ebook” theme has many inspirations from my personal life and getting “burned” with the advice that was present there. When it comes to Zeta Wolf and the “techniques” presented, it’s more of a ploy to garner enhanced understanding from the reader, one thing I believe is paramount to any success—your knowledge of how the world works. Whether or not you agree with the contents of this visual novel, whether the techniques work or not, you can still enjoy the game and perhaps become enlightened by a few things. These are just some of the things that will be present in how I present my game to an audience and Kickstarter/the media at large. 

Speaking of, let’s highlight the overall progress for the month! If this were an anime, this would be one of those “filler” episodes where there’s a lot of talking, but not much happens. Same here, as far as the project goes, more or less. 

Kickstarter Progress 

Man, these campaigns take a long time to construct! The page is still not complete, I don’t have a trailer yet and all the sections need additional work. Seem hopeless? Not quite. More realistically, everything is just progressing as intended. Having greater deadlines often helps refine and polish content to a degree greater than otherwise. While I have commissioned some promotional art, it is still not done yet. Outside of this, I’ve had to fill in the gaps and create some of my own to flesh out the page. Something I hate doing! Nonetheless, as is the case in most indie projects, it is necessary to dip your toes in everywhere (though you’ll never find me picking up a pencil or stylus to draw). GIFs are a powerful marketing tool, I just hate making them. As such, I’ll have to spend probably 10x the time of a more competent person just to create something appealing. 

A Note Regarding Work Efficiency 

One thing many indie devs struggle with is asset production, and the fallout from the lack of funding (not having the resources available to accomplish all your goals). From my own experience, I have become demotivated (often I become mildly depressed even now, during short phases) on many occasions which have caused me to almost entirely shelf this project. The timeline for the production of assets simply becomes extended due to not having the money available upfront for whatever asset. The same thing is true here and has been the case for most of the pre-Kickstarter life of this project. 

It’s not like I want things to take “forever”, or longer than necessary, but things just happen that way. This is largely due to the financial holdups that I just alluded to. Currently, I have 1 more background to finish, and it’s put in limbo. Since that’s not done, the trailer construction phase gets extended, the Kickstarter page can’t be finished, and so on. 

I’ll be frank. I have been in pretty dire straights financially since over a decade ago. This is largely due to my mistakes and inexperience at the time. Things eventually snowballed into loans and credit card debt. Flash forward to today, and the overall state of things is more or less the same. I have debt (like most people) and have to prioritize other commitments first. Between food on the table and the completion of the next asset—well you get the idea. 

Audition Results  

Our voice acting auditions for Maikah, Crescia, Ravia, Alphi, and Rika ended last month! The good news is that we finally have talent cast for these roles! The bad news is that I cannot reveal them yet, due to needing this thing called “ammunition” leading up to the Kickstarter. Just like how having a plan for the completion of this game is necessary, the same is true for marketing it. The plan is to perform daily “info dumps” about 2 weeks before the Kickstarter launch, countdown style. Crafty, isn’t it? Sorry, everyone, but some things are just necessary for hype and all that. Trust me, I do find myself getting internally jealous when other devs (even big-name ones) knock it out of the park during marketing. I cannot say what level of success I will have (much like during the actual Kickstarter), I can only put my best foot forward. 

Clarification on Steam Release 

I previously mentioned my uncertainty regarding an initial steam presence last month. I want to clarify that “I hope” to put up a coming soon page on steam so that everyone can wishlist the game. As far as I’m aware, this can be completed without a build of the game being uploaded. Marketing materials are still needed to fill out the page, however. Naturally, wishlisting games on steam have become invaluable for many developers due to people’s retention on that platform. You’ll eventually know when the game finally releases, can track progress, and so on. 

Converse Events Update

One of the few things I can show you this month is a small change to the GUI during converse events. These events are similar to other RPGs where you walk around talking to townsfolk and so on. Only there’s no walking around on the player's part. I had contemplated the idea of having a map with hotspots and choosing where to go, but I don’t believe this will come to fruition. 

In any event, the new GUI now accurately shows conversation progress, and any unlockables (not shown here, but appears once all conversations have been accessed). 

August Workload

For August, I’ll be working on much of the same things as last month. Programming is nearly complete as far as text insertion goes. There’s some polish here and there that will be ongoing until next year. Same with the Kickstarter page, something I’ll easily be giving the once-over before we go live. One of the major events happening this month will be sending voice scripts out to the actors. This will likely be the biggest priority of the month, as the trailer work cannot be started without the final voiceover work. 

Some miscellaneous things I started in July (that I forget to mention) happened to be some discord channel work (exclusive reward) and an outline for post-Kickstarter progress. As I was constructing the page, I figured it would be helpful to cement a timeline for work in the event we’re funded. While a “general deadline” is required, I neglected to think about the actual process of everything until now. It will help to also keep myself organized for when we get there. What if we’re not funded you say? Hehe, I’ve thought of that also (literally I have planned for all possible outcomes). The good news is that the game will be released, Kickstarter success or not. The game will unfortunately be stripped down heavily, if we don’t meet our goals, however. Hopefully, with everyone’s help, we can get there. 

Now what I haven’t considered is a Kickstarter failure into another crowdfunding relaunch, but it seems like I’m on the all-or-nothing train. The goal I have scoped out seems realistically achievable, at least on data and observations so far. 

That's the scoop for now. One more month of summer hell! September can't come soon enough (though to be fair, my state doesn't cool off until October). Enjoy the rest of your summer, (or hate the rest of it) everyone! 

Until next month.