We were lucky enough to be invited to the wonderful FujoCon 2021! A big thanks to everyone that made the con such a success.
We held a Q&A with fan submitted questions, which we’ve gathered below for those that couldn’t attend! We’re always happy to answer further questions at any time, so feel free to get in contact with us.
Mod ProfHotMess
Hello! And welcome to our live Q and A on discord with #2halfstudios!
We got lots of wonderful questions and we will try to get to get to at least one question from each person who submitted as time allows
First question is from C.L:
“How do you balance public expectations and desires for your game while staying true to making exactly the game you want it to be?”
Gabby
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for having me and submitting questions! I’m super excited to be here. Let’s get stuck into our first question.
There’s definitely a tricky balance in making the game YOU want to make vs making a game for an audience. Once you start thinking commercially, then of course you need to keep in mind your consumers wants to not let down their expectations. There’s no real way around this – games are expensive to make, and you need to try to make your money back (and then some!).
I do a lot of research of games in similar genres, read reviews from fans (I tend to not pay too much attention to review sites, as they really do depend on being overly critical to attract readers), and conduct market research, all to see what people expect out of a game that costs similar to mine. I then weigh this against what I want to make – my vision, the game I would want to play.
I find that a lot of the time there’s quite a lot of overlap. I’ve tried to cultivate an audience who, in general, like what I like… that is, story-heavy BL games with interesting characters. I think that once you start working on your first game, you’re likely to attract people with similar interests to you. Not exactly the same, mind you, but enough so that you can stay true to the game you’re trying to create.
Especially if you’re making your first game, or you’re just a hobby dev, I would seriously suggest not giving up on the exact game you want to make. Experiment with it, see what works and what doesn’t work, and you’ll definitely come out the other side stronger and ready for your second game.
Do your research, and work that into your dream game!
Mod ProfHotMess
What a wonderful, well thought answer!
Our next question is from Blue Devil and is about inspiration.
Gabby
Oooh, looking forward to it! Thanks C.L for that wonderful question, too!
Mod ProfHotMess
They wanted to know what was your main plot inspiration for The Divine Speaker.
And some of your inspirations for characters like Cyne and Fawn.
We actually got a few questions specifically about Fawn’s inspirations and how they were designed!
Gabby
Ooh, great question!
I definitely get a lot of inspiration from my favourite games and books. The Divine Speaker was at first inspired by Lamento – one of my favourite games! I absolutely adore anything and everything fantasy, and I think Lamento was exactly what I wanted in a game – which is how TDS starts out in a small town, and a boy with a curse. The settings and plot ended up very different, but I like to think that was what inspired me in the first place.
Other games like Disco Elysium, Nier, FFXIV (which has a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime) have also inspired my writing a lot.
Now, onto the character section…
Fawn was supposed to full the role of the “best friend” type. The character that would stick by your side no matter what, no matter where you went. At first, I imagined him as more of a “living in a junk yard” type, which is where his characteristic for hoarding came from.
Cyne we originally imagined as a princely type… but a rebellious princely type! Someone that didn’t want what he had, that had a wish to be free. He wasn’t inspired by any character in particular, but I think he ended up filling that role and more!
Mod ProfHotMess
Both are wonderful characters that clearly resonate with the fans!
Next question is from Apollo: What are you most excited for people to learn more about once the full game of The Divine Speaker releases? The world lore, more of the characters, the story etc?
Gabby
Great question! Of course, definitely all of the above, but I’m particularly excited to see what people think about the world lore. I can’t talk too much about it without spoiling developments from further in the game, but some of the characters aren’t exactly what they seem… whether they like it or not, and seeing how they tie into the worlds lore is very exciting for me.
Something I’m really pleased about is that the world is large, and there’s still lots of stories left to tell in it. We’ve set the lore up so that, with enough interest, we can possibly spend time with other characters (both new and old) in further projects.
Mod ProfHotMess
So much to look forward too!
Speaking of which – Crun asks if any plans to release the secret 4th route in the future?
As DLC since it wasn’t reached as a goal.
Gabby
Oooh, great question… I’m not sure if it was answered or not in our Kickstarter to who our fourth route would have been, but the idea was that it would be Nox, who you all would have met in the extended demo. Our plans for him have actually changed and adapted quite a lot since his route wasn’t reached… and in all honesty, I think the way it is now is much better than it would have been. I don’t want to make any promises, but possibly… maybe… there’s a story I want to tell between the fourth route character and someone else in another project, set after the end of TDS. We’ll see.
Mod ProfHotMess
Oooh, very good to know, and sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways to get us all the story we deserve
Speaking of stories- Grandpa Kyle asks “How do you get from idea to story to script and what are the easiest/hardest parts of that journey?”
Gabby
Thanks so much!
I think the idea begins from a simple theme. Usually for me this might be one sentence, or a general idea of a plotline. From there, I adapt it into a rough outline and start developing the characters, what I want them to go through, how I want them to change throughout the story.
I take the idea and turn it into a story in my full outline – this includes everything I want to happen through the game, including even some specifics like certain conversations. I think my outlines are overly detailed, honestly, but I find it easiest to write out everything I’m thinking, then go back through for a fresh read and edit after.
From there, I begin the script! I like to have at least one route fully outlined before beginning writing. A lot of the time I’ll go off outline, too, but I think that’s one of the joys of writing… being able to just tell sometimes that something else should happen here or there.
As for the hardest part… I find planning the middles of stories the most difficult. I know where they start, I know where I want them to end up, but filling in the middle can be tricky, sometimes!
The easiest for me has always been character dialogue in script writing. I find it really fun to throw a bunch of characters into a scene and work out how they would bounce off of each other.
Mod ProfHotMess
Ooh- sounds like quite the process!
We have a somewhat related question about the process from BL_P: -how do you make choices that matter? that is, choices that aren’t trivial but have an effect on the story?
I think they are referring to setting choices in the game.
Gabby
I think it’s important to have a mix of choices that matter and choices that, at the end of the day, are just flavour. When I’m outlining my script, I usually note down where I want choices to be and what they’ll do in the story. Sometimes this is raise a flag for a further event to happen, sometimes it’s just a few lines of different dialogue, and other times they lead to completely different scenes.
If you’ve played The Divine Speaker, you would have noticed that there’s quite a few choices in the beginning of the game where you choose between Leos or Fawn that lead to completely different scenes. I think that’s one way to make a player feel as though their choices matter, and it will also really promote replaying your game if even in the common route you can get very different scenes.
In general, I think you want to make sure that at the very least, your choices lead to a small amount of different dialogue. Players want to feel like their choices matter. I would recommend looking at some of the different structures of game writing to see how you can plan your choices wisely. At the end of the day, though, I think players to tend to think that more choices = a better game, but just don’t put in so many it becomes impossible to manage!
Mod ProfHotMess
What wonderful advice- for both games and life, your choices really do matter!
Luckily, it seems we have some time so we can actually answer a few extra questions from our earlier submissions who were so excited they submitted many questions lol!
Here’s one: “You had amazing success for a first time KS, what went into your preparation for that and what do you recommend for anyone planning a KS from what went well for you or what you would do differently”
From fan C.L.
Gabby
Thanks for submitting even more questions!
Honestly, back when we planned the TDS Kickstarter felt like a different time… it really has been a while!
The most important thing is to be realistic about your timeline, and always estimate a little over your costs rather than under. You can use extra funds easy enough in game development, but whether you can make up the costs if you didn’t ask enough is a different matter.
I think our goals went well, and I was very pleased with the rewards we had on offer – I suggest researching similar games and looking at what they offered and the prices of those tiers. I think you need to be careful about offering too many physical rewards, because I think anyone with an online store can attest to how long it really takes to ship 10s or 100s of international packages.
What I wish I had known at the time… hmm.. I would say the actual costs of some things I hadn’t known enough about, like voice acting. I was new to game development, and assumed we’d be able to voice act the entire game for our goal, which of course wasn’t quite right as TDS is over 250,000 words long. Definitely do your research as much as possible, and make sure you consult someone you can trust.
Mod ProfHotMess
Thanks for the honest advice! Speaking of advice, Apollo asks: What advice would you give to an aspiring visual novelist looking to get into game development?
We have a secondary advice question from BL_P as well- what advice do you have for one who is struggling with dialogue?
Gabby
My advice would be to just throw yourself into it. You’ll definitely run into problems occasionally but I think it’s all part of the learning process.
A lot of people suggest starting out with a small game, or joining a game jam (like the upcoming YaoiJam, which I’m cohosting!). I think this is wonderful advice, as you’ll get the full experience from conception to releasing your own game, as well as getting the chance to work in a team.
Another thing worth noting is to look at your own strengths. What parts of development are you interested in? The writing, programming, planning, art? If all of the above, just know that it’ll take a lot longer for your game to be completed, which there’s nothing wrong with, but try not to get too burnt out.
I write in length about beginners getting into visual novel development on my blog, too, which I would shamelessly plug here for a more “step by step” guide!
Let me jump into the second question.
My advice would be to take your characters out of the story you’re writing for a moment and really study what makes them tick. What do they like, what do they dislike, how do they get along with your other characters? Write some a few one shots to get a feel for what your characters are really like. Use this time to plan how x would react to y!
My other suggestion is to spend some time researching and reading other stories that are very character centric and see how the author crafts their dialogue. I think knowing your writing style is key to knowing your characters.
Mod ProfHotMess
More wonderful advice! Now it’s time for a fun question tho- If you were to take one character out on a date, who would you choose, and why?
Got a couple versions of that question actually and it’s the one I want to know personally
Gabby
Hahaha.. oh gosh, let me think… Raen is a little too dumb for me, Fawn is a little too sweet (I’m sorry my lovely…), Cyne is too much of a flirt.. I think I’d have the most fun teasing Leos!
The mercenary part aside…
Mod ProfHotMess
Another fun question from Crun: Will there be chances within the game to flirt with the bird guy?
Gabby
Oooh, Illran, one of our backer characters… Raen is most definitely not his type, unfortunately. Illran probably thinks of him as nothing more than annoying twerp most of the time. However, this doesn’t mean there won’t be the chance for ANOTHER character to flirt with him…
Mod ProfHotMess
Oooh! Good to keep in mind
I think we may have time for a couple more questions- CL asks “Do you plan in advance how you will set out your choices and point system or do you decide what to do when you got certain story points? How do you make sure everything is equally balanced?”
Gabby
I used to actually wing it quite a lot… which lead to some problems in The Divine Speaker because Cyne is introduced to the game much, much later than Leos and Fawn, and going back to work out how many points each of his choices should be worth was a little bit of a headache.
These days, I plan the points in my outline and keep track of the totals to make sure each route is as easy to obtain as the others. Some people use decision trees, but I keep it pretty simple in word and excel documents. If all of your characters are introduced at the same point, it shouldn’t be so hard to keep track of, luckily!
Mod ProfHotMess
It’s important to plan! Speaking of planning- we have several questions about planning a budget
How do you budget for a game? How do you decide how much a game will cost? What’s a ballpark figure for an average game?
Think this will be our last question!
Gabby
Great question!
I budget by first noting down everything I will need to complete the game – how many CGs, how many backgrounds, how many character sprites, UI, voice acting, amount of music tracks.. the list goes on and on, but I would start with the art and music. Once you’ve found a musician and artist to work with, get their specific prices for each piece you will need to create, then estimate a little more for wiggle room.
Length of game comes into the art count a lot, so I would first plan for something small to average sized. From here, I recommend looking for other games around the same length as yours and checking their price points. Compare this to how much you estimate the game to cost, and see how many copies you would have to sell to make the money back.
A ballpoint average is a little difficult… expect anywhere from $50-$250 for sprites, $100-$300 for CGs, music anywhere from $50-$200 a track.. it really depends on who you work with and the agreements you can come to. You can definitely make a game on a budget, which I do recommend. I don’t think I need to go into how much TDS was to create… expect anywhere from $1000 or so for a very small game, to anywhere in the tends of thousands for something larger!
Thank you so much to FujoCon for reaching out to us with an invite. I’ve had a great time answering your questions! If you have any further ones, you can find a link to our Discord server on our Twitter. Thank you all!
Mod ProfHotMess
Thank you so much for answering our questions today!
Gabby
And thank you for facilitating!
And that’s the end of our FujoCon 2021 Q&A! I had so much fun answering your questions and I hope you enjoyed the panel (and the rest of the convention).
Hopefully we can attend again next year!