Hello everyone!
Finally, Honey makes her long overdue appearance on IndieDB! If you've seen or followed the project elsewhere: welcome back! If you stumble upon this for the first time: simply welcome!
To recap, Honey Rose: UFE is a life-management simulation, presented as a visual novel, with hints of beat'em all for added flavor and spiciness. Confused? Take a look at the trailer to get a better idea of how it all works!
Where is the project at today? I'm currently about 70% done, all of the core systems are in place, and I'm working on the remaining needed assets and script, before finishing with the system overlays (menus, full gamepad support and the like). I'm aiming for a late 2016 release, and you'll be kept up to date as to the exact release date here, along with every other devlog/site about Honey.
The game is being developed using Construct 2 by myself, along with the help of Morusque for the soundtrack and sound effects!
Want more information about the game? Then check out the game's site here, or the presskit here for a condensed version! Still have questions? Maybe the FAQ will hold the answers! Want to support the project? You're the best! You can do so here, or simply share the project and its news to your friends and lovers! And if you want to go back to the beginning and follow the project from its roots, you can do so on tumblr or TIGSource.
I think that about covers it for now. If you have any questions or comments, I'll do my best to be available to you all here, on Twitter, or... well, just about anywhere I post about Honey!
Hope you like what you see!
--Pehesse
Wow I love the handdrawn look of this game :O
Thanks a lot! It's the chief reason why the game's taking so long to come out, but it should be worth it in the end... I think :-D
very much :) noticing that this kind of art style is really rare,... imo it would stand out easier
btw I tracked too :3
Yeah, it's quite rare - though if you ask me, after this prod', I can totally understand why, it's not very economical to make at all (not to mention time consuming), so I get why the flash/tween/skeletak animation have become an increasingly common aesthetic! Not that I'll go that way, if Honey works, I intend to keep developing this style and push it further :-D
And indeed, many thanks for the tracking! Not sure how frequent the updates will be here, since posting text updates seems to need to have plenty of new material to show alongside, but rest assured the game is coming along just fine - I'm currently working on the script, which makes for less than exciting screenshots to share, but cool content to experience... or at least, that's the plan!
For a person whos animating on photoshop using pixel art and gifs, these animations look nice! I love it. maybe you guys should specialize on this :) btw do you guys have any previous titles that I can check out? I'm really interested
ah I see, is it part of the programming, I assume? imo take your time and post solid content when its done :)
Actually, I'm the only dev working full time on this project, Morusque is helping for the soundtrack/sounds but everything else is from me, explaining the long dev time :-D
I'm using Photoshop to animate, too, by simulating hand drawn animation techniques - layers work as cels, and I use little to no automation tools or techniques! I'd work just the same on paper (in fact, I did!), I'd just have to scan things, and my scanner has been out of order for a long time now(plus using so much paper gets *very* expensive *very* fast :-D). So indeed, I'm looking to specialize and do more games using this style, but that's getting ahead a bit, Honey needs to come out first, and needs to do well :-D
I don't have any other solo projects to show, however, unfortunately, as it is my first indie project - I have participated in others, but none with a similar aesthetic approach (which is one of the main reasons I did this :v). One of the most recent projects I've helped is Splitmind, a point and click for which I was a background artist - the game isn't out yet, I think it's planned for the coming months. Can't speak to the whole game, since I've never seen it in action myself, but if you like what you see in Honey, you should at least like the backgrounds in Splitmind :-D
HOLY ****?!?! are you seriously kidding meeeeee OAO That is so fricking awesome!!! Don't you consider on adding team members or something like that ?
This is so awesome hearing from devs like you :) such dedicated people to their work. You might want to share your dev story to the members at indiedb/social media. It's nice to know how games are made and what happens behind the screen :)
Its crazy how you animate these on photoshop too! You'll have to make them frame by frame and omg oAo that'll be really frustrating to do,... and I'm only making on pixel art ! Thats waaaaaaaay easier than this imo..... my laptop would prolly die too if i were to make this style :P heheh
ah I see, i'll keep a heads up to that game too :) I appreciate the share of story though, very interesting to hear
Gee, thanks :-D
Adding team members: actually, I found that I work better alone... working in teams certainly has advantages, but for this specific project, I wanted to do the maximum I could by myself without relying on other's help. I still had to ask for sound design and composition, though, and I'm loving what Morusque brought to the project! Though someday, I'd love to try doing *everything* by myself. Gonna take even more time, but it should be interesting :v I'll also surely go back to working with others for other projects, too, eventually, there's interesting experiences to be had there, just not what I was looking for right now :-D
Photoshop: eh, it's all relative! You say pixel art, I'm in awe of that, I couldn't do pixel art to save my hide :-D It all comes down to how much practice you have with any given aesthetic...
If you have some more "behind the scenes" questions or stuff you'd like to know, feel free to ask! I'm not always sure what's interesting or relevant, so having questions to answer makes for far easier guidelines to follow :-D
I tried contacting a few media outlets already, but most didn't get back to me - the game probably didn't catch their eye. I'll wait until the greenlight campaign/I'm closer to release to try again, we'll see what happens this time. I'm hoping with exposure from big sites like here, and the support from people like you, it'll eventually get some more cool coverage!
Splintmind: I'll be as curious as you to try it out when it's out, to be honest! After all, I worked on the thing, and I don't even really know how its story plays out, or even what the game really looks and plays like now :-D
Ah thats an astonishing decision to make. A whole game that you made by yourself :P Considering i'm only viable as an Artist (definitely not a programmer! I'd have my eyes gauged if i see a wall of horrific code ;-;). Sometimes having some team members can be a hassle and can be annoying especially if your team is an online team that isnt payed q-q (like my team back then). But after some downs, it left me with just this one other dude in my team, the programmer. I'm just saying that having a partner makes things less lonely and more interesting xD Thats just my opinion :P
I just learnt pixel art in less than a year ago o-o I'm quite of a newbie in comparison with all these other great artists in indiedb ;w;
Whats interesting to me is how people work to make games. How you plan everything, how the development is executed xD But hey thats really biased since I am also developing a game :P Maybe other people would prefer just hearing from the game itself hahaha
BTW! I found something that might come in handy :) Pixelprospector.com I present to you.... the most complete epic-est guide to marketing your indie game :3 I hope this helps you by a lot, since you're already in that stage,.. my game isnt even revealed yet xD hahahah
srsly?! You dont know how it plays ;o you should be like 'yo i worked fo dis, u better gimme sumtin' xD
You should definitely look into Game Maker or Construct 2, possibly Stencyl too! I find their visual approach to scripting easy enough to understand to allow for even us drawing types to make something that works :-D I had plenty of projects started in duo with programmers, but most got off course/abandoned, because of the difficulty of respecting a schedule when multiple people are involved.. I actually find that more impressive than working alone. In my situation, since I control everything regarding the production, I can only blame myself if work doesn't get done :-D
If you're looking into the production details for Honey, I've kept a log on TIGsource here: Forums.tigsource.com It's very GIF heavy so watch out (depending on your connection), but you'll see plenty of WIP stuff in there, along with how the game looked a few months/year ago! :-D
Thanks for the pixelprospector link! I already had it as a bookmark, but the information within can never be shared enough :-D
And yeah... tell me about it :v At least, the game is coming out eventually!
sry it took long to reply! Oh maybe ;o maybe so, I'm still quite new to this whole, making a game so I think I'm going to stick with learning as much as I can. I havent even reached university .____. so you can say I'm a super newb
Ah thats interesting ;o well yea I've learnt first hand that an online team is definitely a no-no if you're aiming for like 4-5 people in the group.... it's horrific ;-; I'd rather be in a tiny group with 2-3 peeps
Mah God,.. my internet sucks xD I mean sucks as in 150kbs sucks,... hahahahah, but yea I skimmed through it and it seems that you got a lot of stuff going on over there ;o It's quite amazing on how you can come up in just a year
That pixelprospector PDF is the most useful thing I have found on the internet ;w; It's so,.... precious.... shiny... ... OqO
Hey, we all start somewhere! I worked on my first "indie" projects wayy back in the day, when I was like 7 or 8 years old, using the household x86 - and that's after having spent some time designing games on paper even before that, so... it's never too early to start :-D It's all about practice, so the earlier you start and the more work you put in, the better it'll be eventually! That reminds me, another soft you might want to look into is RPGMaker - I absolutely loved it when I was in high school (was using the 2003 ver. at the time, but the newer ones are even better, like XV Ace). I'd like to make a complete game using that sometime! (Had one started before Honey actually, but decided to work on Honey instead :-D)
Internet groups and online work: yeah, you need to find what works for you, and that comes through experience. It's no good to only do solo work, or only do teamwork. I think you have to try a little of everything, see what works and what doesn't, so you can eventually develop into your own style and get a sense of your comfort zone - that way, you can both use it (comfortable progress!) and transgress it (because constraints are usually a, if not the, fuel to creativity)!
Limited internet, oops! You're in luck though, I'm considering re-posting some of the most article worthy stuff I've posted on TIGsource/tumblr back here, reformatted, reworded and relinked, for archival's sake, so it'll be easier to access that way and shouldn't require a monster connection anymore!
And yeah, pixelprospector PDF FTW :-D
I was so little back then q-q I must be really young compared to you hahaha I wasnt even doing much when I was 7-8 years old :P its still me and the good 'ol PS1,... Game development had not come into my mind not until around 2 years ago. I'm not kiding oAo before that I didn't know what to do in life and I was like,.... wait ,... I can make games?! That hit me hard and I began searching for a job online and stuff :P Because of my game dev career (bleh not rly xD its all voluntary so far) I learnt how to make pixel art xD
Oh and thanks for the references of the softwares :P I only know so few that you can even count em by hand
I actually want to broaden my scope of animation to a further point. So in this case, I'll probably keep on making games with someone else however try animations for movies,.. not just games. But hey thats still a long way to go for me xD
Yes, slo internet, much wow. And yayy :D I get to see cool gifs :D I wish i had faster internet though ;w; one day,... one day...
We're probably not that far apart, I'm only 28 (or is that too old already by today's standards? :-D)! Either way, the industry landscape changes so much on a yearly basis, even the best laid plans can be thrown away by just a few months shift, so don't worry about when you start!
To learn animation, I'd indeed recommend trying to work in the animation industry as well as in games - even stuff like working as an intervalist can potentially teach you lots if you find the right team/studio. Of course, I'm saying that, but I never could manage to get one myself, so I'm basically self taught animation wise (still went through art school for the fundamentals - fundamentals are key! Don't neglect them!)
For software references I'm running short right now, only other suggestion would be GraphicsGale for pixel art work, but I have limited experience with pixel art, so you probably know more than I do about this field! :-D
Anyway, yeah! It won't be right now, but I'll re-post some articles here about stuff I wrote for the TIGsource devlog, including some of my animation workflow and techniques, so you'll have that to look forward to at some point :-D
*whispers* I'm 18,.. so thats kinda alot :P Ah yes xD I'm not too worried because I'm kinda early in doing this,.. in comparison with my other classmates (and considering its about game dev,.. i dont think anyone in my school is doing it o-o). Game dev is kinda.... rare in my country so yea,.. :P
Yea I'm taking animation for my major next year (so exciteeed) and I'll surely learn more about things like flash and maybe those other 3D animation stuff ;o so far its just me and photoshop. But hey atleast i know the basics of frames and such xD !
Nahhh, I dont know that much xD I mean i just rely on my fine arts instincts when I do pixel art,.. if it looks right,.. it should be okay,.. but not perfect yet. So i usually go back to my older works and see what can be improved :)
I'll be waiting :3 Don't post the stuff just yet! I think you should wait,. maybe a week or a few days xD I mean this post is still new so yea....
Man, way to make me feel old! Kidding, good luck with your studies, animation should be a great field :-) It's mostly the same than with every other art related practices - there are fundamentals to understand (motion arcs, acceleration/deceleration, rhythm, deformation, etc), and then it's up to you to pick which tool fits the best your production schedule and your chosen aesthetic, not necessarily in that order!
And yeah, it'll be at least a few weeks before the next article/post, since the game itself is not due before at least the end of the year, so I need to spread them apart and find interesting stuff to talk about :-D Still, it'll come... eventually!
nah 28 isnt that old xD imo,.... 58 would be :P about that art part,.. yea thats basically it in every art form that one would wish to study
i'll be waiting for the next post! See ya next time xD !