Because the demo is complete and no further bugfixes needed, we took a little break.
However we can now announce the overall progress of the game, so that you can objectively understand how many things still need to be done before Nebel is released.
I am Nebel's translator and proofreader, Yuhan, who is meeting for the first time.
Please forgive me for borrowing BBQ's cien for a very sudden promotion, but there are some things I want to tell you.
I am also responsible for the Japanese localization of the horizontal action role-playing game "Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune" has recently unlocked the trial version on Steam platform.
The game is made by only four people, an independent game.
Ah ~ but, however, the game is not R18 (so no things like combat H).
The game is about a domineering lady Elsa and a loli style Hjana's adventure.
In addition, the female lead voice actress is Miss Itō Shizuka.
If you have registered on steam, you can download the demo version until Tuesday, June 21!
If you are interested, you can also watch the live of the game~
After the second patch the demo is finally stabilized, you can go directly to Dlsite to download the complete latest demo, no need to install patches one by one from previous articles.
However, before fully sink myself into the development, it is still necessary to answer some of the questions often asked recently by a Q & A, such as developing speed, sponsored trial version, progress, etc.
Q: The main demo content has not changed much from previous demo, there is just a little new CG new plot. Are you really working?
A: In fact, a lot of good content is not put into the demo, the vast majority of the game's CG content, most of the text content and gameplay-related design has already been completed, but in order to ensure that players in the official version won’t tired by contents already in the demo, we didn’t give much contents to the demo. It’s…. just a demo.
When it comes to the development problem, the main force of BBQ club is still students, who are not only busy with their studies, but also do not have enough expertise in game development, so they cannot achieve the same level of project management and development efficiency as a professional team.
And the bigger difficulty comes from the structure design. The main logic of a normal Hentai game, including the last one, is actually very simple, as long as we keep player’s track in check and do event logic around it.
But this work innovatively (or unknowingly?) tries to simulate the reasonable actions of characters outside the player (although there are still many places that rely on randomness) without enough technical capacity, so the event structure and logical interactions are several times more complicated than the general Hentai-game which also limits the development speed.
Q: Ah? Is it so troublesome? I see that the development of other female-protagonist game is not so difficult?
A: This involves a huge difference in the main perspective of the player. As I just said, in a typical heroine game, the core of the whole game is controlled by the player, and all the scenes are built for the heroine and the player to explore, a static system.
But since we choose the hidden sex specialized male protagonist perspective NTR game, it is inevitable to create things that the player does not necessarily see in order to create the tension needed for the hidden sex. In other words, the logic of events revolves around the female NPC, but it is the player-controlled male protagonist who watches the events. But this alone is not enough, the player also has to have the means to interfere with the logic of the events taking place to protect the heroine, which leads to a high level of complexity in the underlying logic, we need to ensure all elements are working before we add something new.
BBQ No. 2: So why did we want to make a male protagonist perspective NTR game at first?
BBQ No. 1: Because somebody was stubborn as a donkey (
Well, but at least judging from the demo and the response, although not as good as the initial idea, the final result is okay.
Q: I understand the reasoning, should we release some paid trial version? We have new contents to play, you have more funds.
A: I would like to answer this question in three ways.
The native RPG Maker MV does not support in-game language switching, unless it is like terunon (https://ci-en.net/creator/4694) AbsentedAge: アブセンテッドエイジ uses very powerful technical capacity to overcome this problem. Otherwise, we would have had to make each language version of the game separately, as we did.
The process is roughly as follows
Make version A → Output A1 → Translate the output version A1 into other languages → Generate T1 that stores the translated text
When I need to make a demo version
Make the latest version B → output B1 → put the text of T1 into B1 and turn it into B2.
Delete B1 and B2 and turn them into demo version C1 and C2.
Add some contents to C1 and C2, and turn them into paid demo version D1 and D2.
So far, C1, C2, D1, D2 are the 4 trial versions needed for public at one time.
Then if I find a bug, I need to modify each of the 4 versions once, which is 5 times the workload (the original version also needs to be modified once).
So you should be able to understand from the workload why I do not want to make too many trial versions.
The problem of development cost and development cycle
The paid demo is indeed a good way to keep the project running and get more money to improve the quality of the final product when the development funds are not enough, but BBQ's current funds are enough to finish Nebel with quality and quantity, and even if additional funds are added, it is difficult to efficiently translate it into the quality of the final product with our current project management level and game structure. So instead of prolonging the overall development cycle for the sake of making a paid demo version, we should focus on making the finished product available for sale directly.
Personal understanding of sponsorship
I still think that the original intention of sites like Ci-en and Patreon should be that the author show his efforts to everyone, and then everyone is free to judge the author's potential and efforts, and finally use some money to help the author finish his work.
In other words, my ideal author-backer relationship should be built on trust and appreciation, not just priced commodity. Why else would I read every comment and basically reply to every comment? (It’s not anymore the time back when I only had 100 fans, hundreds of comments everytime)
Although it only took 2 days to get the first place in the preview chart, but we did not have time to celebrate.
There were a lot of bugs in the demo, so I've been busy fixing them over the past few days.
Also apologize to everyone who had a bad experience with the game.
The following is the content of this fix.
fixed the daytime spirit removal early leaving will inevitably lead to Lawrence take vacation.
The white mist of the hot springs can disappear normally
Afternoon exploration of abandoned house will no longer stuck player again, the “can’t save” state is removed too.
The Japanese part that was not translated is now added (we missed in the previous check)
back mountain scene correction, and can’t be entered again after 17:00
Removed the stamina related status changes (now it will not reduce the attack and defense power because of work over time in night)
now the electrocardiogram in H scenes will be more intuitive
fixed the problem of HD camera will be tainted.
fixed the problem of stuck in hospital when weekend
Fixed the problem of going to the park in the morning, bypassing Lawrence to go out in the morning and many other problems
fixed the problem that the dialogue text of the cafe part-time job is not normal
Adjusted the hot-spring events and facilities opening hours, etc., now the player can normally trigger the spa H scene.
fixed in the daytime ghostbust, player occasionally can not be get out normally when 17:00
Fixed the problem that after 23:30 at night, player may fall into a dead loop
Removed the missing test mode switch, etc.
Other miscellaneous small bugs
Some special notes.
1 Although Lawrence will go out for party at weekend, his return time is not fixed, so it’s normal to see him join your daytime ghostbust mid-way.
Of course, the official version will further optimize the relevant logic and text instructions, while providing players with more ways to interact with Lawrence.
2 Many players have triggered the bug that go out with Kana from the other side of the town or go to date in the morning, which will trigger a very serious follow-up bugs, and very difficult to repair. So after using the fix patch and reload the game, the player will be asked to start a new game+, you can choose to inherit any important data, so that the previous efforts will not be in vain. If you do not encounter serious problems in the last demo, you could also choose to continue.
In addition, because it is a temporary supplement to do the new game+ function, there may not be a convenient way to skip the repeated plot, which will be improved in the official version.
3 About the status screen and HD camera
The fourth and fifth pages of the status screen require props that can only be obtained through subsequent plot development and challenges, which is impossible in demo version.
Similarly, the HD camera in the demo has no more means of acquisition, after all, it is only a demo, and the camera can be dismantled and reused.
In addition, the official version will optimize the implementation of the status page, so that the status page in different language versions will only show the corresponding language.
Finally, finally, Nebel is officially announced on DLsite!
We don't provide demo version in this page, please go to the link above to try it out, and I hope you can click favorite on that page, which is very important for the promotion of our game!
(I want to be on the DLsite rank list for once!)
Guess how many additional recordings were made this time?
More than a hundred!
Well, but it's basically the daily voice, the H part has been recorded before.
Now when you start to enter the game interface, you can hear BBQ daisuki and the title of the game.
It feels more formal, and the additional voiceover will make the performance of the pure love event more immersive.
The main direction of work in the last week is to design more H events and CG.
But it's a shame that we can't show them to you at this stage.
(But we are really working hard!
