Development Log (DevLog) for "I Summoned a Boy", a Comedy Dating Sim - Introduction
I initially did not consider making a DevLog while coming up with the concept and off-the-cuff humor of a visual novel I decided to make called “I Summoned a Boy”, a comedy dating sim where the main character (with the name and select pronouns of the player’s choice) decides to use their grandfather’s old esoteric books to find a way to combat the loneliness felt from a lonely reality. I have big plans for the story, such as letting the player have the choice of either ending the world or choosing to play the game as a traditional dating simulator. But instead of focusing on those details, only a few of which I have implemented and might refine later, I want to focus on the bigger questions of why I’m bothering with making such a game in the first place and how you could do the same in order to have fun while potentially padding out your resume.
Motivation to learn coding
I will be honest, I went to university because I had the idea for the longest time that I wanted to be a professor or researcher. The more time I have spent in university, the more I was surprised to learn that many professors don’t particularly recommend this career path - as a primary or additional source of income. Education jobs worldwide have been endangered and on decline, especially in the United States as more potential students are interested in autodidactic (or self-taught) learning and are pushing for education of lower cost.
For anyone, the biggest common factor in learning any given field or skill is primarily interest. Interest is the main reason I not only have gone to university, but also acquired such skills as digital drawing. As a child, I was allowed to use a student copy of Photoshop (back when you could buy the software, as opposed to renting the service via the cloud). I eventually transitioned to the software Krita - which is free and offers many of the same artistic tools as Photoshop plus additional conveniences for animation, while also supporting both raster (Photoshop) and vector (Illustrate) creations. Tools that are considered industry standard are typically costly and are not accessible for hobbyist, beginner freelancers or even startup companies. Considering that freeware and free services are able to more flexibly offer learning opportunities, this gives some jobs in the content creation sphere a lower barrier of entry and an opportunity to turn a hobby into a side income, or a passion into a dream project that you could sell if you wanted to, regardless if you decide to publish the game as a sole proprietor or a media company.
My switch to Krita is motivated by the same reasons I started to learn how to make video games earnestly and code in Python by learning how to make a visual novel in Ren’Py; using a game engine, especially an open-source freeware engine such as Ren’Py (especially one with a rather impressive list of games under its belt - including the infamous Doki Doki Literature Club!) offers an impressive set of tools for the layman to learn how to code and think about the backend of game development at their own pace, while also offering more opportunity for others to teach and help absolute beginners in the field.
The low barrier to entry, only requiring computer access and occasionally the internet (a necessity as basic as food for much of the industrial cultures of the world currently) also allows for the community around the program itself to be developed. The community not only contributes to a positive work ethic through shared experiences (through frustrations of code, and inside memes like Eileen) and exchange of information, but also offers a motivation in and of itself for some people to continue their started project or learn more coding. Even with games made using proprietary game engines like the Hylics series (the first game being made in RPG Maker, the second being made in Unity), we see this progression in game developers making more polished and ambitious projects through lower entry points.
And now to get to the interesting parts….
My personal history with visual novels
I will be frank, I’m a visual novel fangirl. I have played at least 30 visual novels both on the computer and the phone - some better than others, and at least 5 of these I have played multiple times. VIsual novels as a medium are a unique mode of storytelling in that the work required to make one is the same as other video games, but many visual novels also hold true to the “novel” aspect of the name in that the player is mostly reading the story through the linguistic and visual cues. Many visual novels only offer player choices to the extent of gameplay, offering the same level of enjoyment as the retro “Choose Your Own Adventure” book where you are instructed to turn to specific pages to read out your choice, except the visual novel does that automatically with added visual elements.
Needless to say, it only seems natural the first game I put considerable effort into to develop would be a visual novel. It also helps that I have coded before; a Java class in high school, a required HTML assignment in community college, and some passing interest in learning Python before I even touched Ren’Py. I Summoned a Boy wasn’t even the first attempt I had to learn Ren’Py or Python, but the recent updates with Ren’Py to version 8 in order to support the most recent Python 3 made both of these much more intuitive to do things more complex than sticking to the normal Ren’Py statements and asset swapping.
Ultimately, learning to code would be a big advantage for me in the workplace, especially if I get a job in the future where I must organize data or figure out how to apply data in the context of computer science. But it also comes from a place of being a video game player, visual novel lover and inclined writer. Also, who doesn’t think it would be absolutely funny to have a movie date with Nyarlathotep? I think that’s a funny thought, so I’m making a game with that idea in it. I’m taking my learning seriously, even though the writing in my visual novel is absolutely crazy.
Closing thoughts; Monetization, Workload and Content Creation
Media will always be a growing industry as people desire to attempt new iterations of old ideas, bring fresh concepts to established genres and push the boundaries in computer-human interactions. Content is simply a given in the ear of the internet, and video games show that many humans have a strong motivation to put in a lot of work into something to make a unique piece of content and learn skills that can be applied to other jobs and industries.
Making an enjoyable video game is a demanding, long and harsh process, even for the simplest visual novel made in an accessible program like Ren’Py. But it’s also probably one of the few things I’ve done on my own terms that is rewarding to the point where I look forward to seeing where I go next with it. Ultimately, this is why I’ve decided to learn how to code on top of everything else going on with my life. Even if this particular project turns out to be something that only I am proud of, I think it’s worth every keystroke because it is one of the few things that I could apply while learning at my own pace. And I’m learning and applying so much so far.
Note From Publisher: Eight Buffalo Media is pleased to support other creators in publishing and advertising their works. Hosting this Dev Log is just one example of our commitment to the larger community, and we hope to continue doing more of this in the future.
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