It's already September. Time flew so quickly that without noticing, we have already been developing One Last Crane for 6 months. There are still a few months until the game's release. I hope you guys can patiently wait for it!
We are currently preparing the release of the Ren'py version of the demo on Steam. The process is taking a rather long time because our programmer, besides coding the user interface, is also handling another responsibility to code many of the scenes so he still can follow the scriptwriting progress.
In this update, we also have something for you. Our main artist, Judo ユフォリア, had an opportunity to record his work in making a CG. You can see some of the processes involved in the speedpaint video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csu8TPMWpEw&t=1s
It's just... We're sorry that the process was incomplete. The video only shows the process from scratch until half of the lining. It was because, in the process of making the CG scene, our main artist was hospitalized for a few days, and access to recording equipment was limited. He just came home today and is still recovering.
We might give you another full speedpaint video later. But for now, this is the only thing we can share with you. See you in the next update, and have a great day!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
Development Update #07 - Programming and Artwork
"I was afraid, Yuuki... I thought I would lose you," said Mary.
Hello everyone,
Welcome back to our regular development update!
Today, we're going to bring you some news from the programming and artwork section.
A few weeks ago, we changed our programmer. We faced some difficulties when we tried to find the replacement because most of the candidates were working on another project. But fortunately, after looking for the replacement for a whole week, we finally got him.
Feeling that much time was lost for the recruitment process, we tried to catch up. We are grateful that our new programmer can understand this situation and work overtime. As a result of this, the common route, which has a duration of 6–7 hours, has been coded!
Meanwhile, for the heroine route, we need approximately 1.5 months for each character. Hopefully, we can finish it in December.
Here's another update from the artwork section. We promised you that we'd show you the CG illustration from each heroine, right? We've shown you Asuka and Chihiro in the previous update. Now, it's time to show you Mary Murakami.
Mary was so worried and cried a lot when Yuuki, her dying brother, got hurt while searching for his missing childhood friend.
Looking for Saki is difficult, indeed, but Yuuki can face all the troubles thanks to Mary. How fortunate he is to have a dependable sister like her. :brokenheart:
That's all we can share with you this time. Please stay tuned for further updates. Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
Development Update #06 - New Character and Scenario Update
Hello everyone,
In this update, we also have a new character to be introduced. His name is Kashiwagi Toyohisa, created by Gilbert. Let's give him a warm welcome!
Kashiwagi Toyohisa is one of Yuuki’s classmates. Although Yuuki met him in the class, they rarely talked until Yuuki spoke to him while he was sitting alone in the schoolyard. Toyohisa usually puts others before himself regardless of his own personal safety or how well he knows the other person. People actually find this habit a bit weird and excessive even though Toyohisa is safe from bullying due to his high family status. He kept his hair long due to his mother's compliments about it.
We also have an update from the scenario writing section. An unexpected thing happened when we realized that the content was much longer than we anticipated. As an example, we initially planned to finish the common route in ~40k words, but the reality is it became ~60k words. This situation has two effects. On one hand, this might mean that we'll require more development time, but on the other hand, you'll have more content to enjoy, as we fully intend to polish this game as much as possible. We'll try to find a way to keep the development time right on schedule. As of today, we only have one writer on our team. We have a plan to recruit another writer for each heroine's route. If this happens, the recruitment process must be done very carefully, because every writer has their own style of writing.
The last thing we want to share with you is a sample from another great soundtrack created by our composer, Takahashi. Enjoy your day by listening to this relaxing music!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
Development Update #05 - Latest Progress
Hello everyone!
We can finally give an update after there wasn't any news in the last three weeks! This was because we were off during the national holiday in here, and we just started to work again this week. Here is the report of what we've done so far.
During the extended campaign via PayPal, there have been 10 backers, providing $216 in total. That's so amazing! We're really grateful for your kindness and support! This brings us closer to the first stretch goal to make more artwork for One Last Crane!
And here it is. We promised you we'd post another illustration for the heroine. This time, we are showing you a scene when Yuuki sleeps on Asuka's lap after the club activity is over.
Does it mean that the queen has accepted Yuuki? Hmm... we will leave this to your imagination.
Next, we want to show you the overall progress of the development.
We've made significant progress in all sectors, except for the backgrounds.
There is a small issue between us and the artist. We made a deal while he was busy with some jobs, so we've been placed in quite a long queue. Even if this is normal, we still need some quick models for our CG artist to draw CGs based on them, and currently, the background artist can't produce these models in time. But don't worry about it. We've found a way to settle this matter, and hopefully, we can manage to complete all the resources in time!
That's all from the report from us! Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day, everyone!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
One Last Crane Development Update #04
Hello everyone!
Welcome back to our regular update. We want to talk about music and programming. Are you interested? Then enjoy reading!
We got a lot of feedback from the players during our campaign, saying that they really enjoyed the tracks from the demo. Our freelance composer, Shiro Takahashi, felt so grateful and confident to deliver his best for One Last Crane! We've also uploaded one of his works here. Let us know what you think about it.
Talking about the procedure on how we request the music from scratch is actually quite simple. From the text scenario, we mapped the general atmosphere of each scene, such as whether it feels fun, happy, sad, and so on. Next, we described these in more detail, searching for more references, and finally sent our analysis to the composer to be produced. In some cases, there are tracks that are really unique and can only be used for certain scenes. We must be careful before we make requests so that we don't run over budget.
Moving onto the programming side, the most fundamental thing is to use the proper engine. At first, we considered using Ren'Py, which we're already familiar with. But then a brand new engine called Visual Novel Maker (VNMaker) came out right before the pre-production of OLC started. As a developer, we were super curious and wanted to give it a try. We were hooked by the ease in which we were able to make scenes and customizations, not to mention its integration with Live2D, an animation software. Then, we decided to use it for the entire project.
However, nothing is perfect. As a new engine, we have to say that the VNMaker system isn't stable yet, and we faced quite a lot of bugs during the testing phase, although we got a great amount of support from the developers themselves. Thus, after releasing the demo, we chose to go back to our original plan. So, we changed back to Ren'Py as the main engine.
In order to ensure that our efforts were not wasted, we managed to create a program to convert our work from VNMaker to Ren'Py. Yay! And the funny thing is, we are still using VNMaker to make the scenes up to now, because we already love how VNMaker's scene editor works, and somehow it makes our work get done more quickly.
And that's some of what happens behind the scenes during the development process. Hope you like this update, and have a nice day!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
One Last Crane Development Update #03
Hello everyone. It's already the end of May, which means we've been developing One Last Crane for about two months! Time goes so quickly, right? Here we come with the latest update on the development progress.
Here is the screenshot of the game. It's a lovely scene where Chihiro finished practicing martial arts after school and had a conversation with Yuuki about something.
We're happy to tell you that the final chapter of the common route is being written right now. The writer, Stefani, needs another 3–4 weeks to complete it. Hope she can manage it well!
For your information, the image above isn't a representation of the final product. Even all the scripts here haven't been edited yet, because some spots need to be revised later. But I know you already missed her, right? For the following weeks, we'll try to give you sneak-peek images of all the heroines without you having to worry about spoilers.
There's another detail we'd like to mention about the character design. It's indeed unfortunate that we couldn't add animations to the game, so we are creating additional poses for all the main characters in order to make the flow of the story feel more alive than before! You can take a look at the process from the rough sketch below.
We plan to complete all of them alternately with the creation of the CGs. We only have one artist to do all the work here (except backgrounds), and there is a lot of artwork waiting in the queue. Thus, for the backers who will get illustrations as a reward, please be patient :)
Next week, we'll highlight the music and programming side. Hope you've enjoyed this update, and have a nice day!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
One Last Crane Development Update #02
Below, Mary will show you a summary of the progress we’ve made up to now.
It’s another development update! Here is the report on what we’ve done so far.
Let's begin with the writing division. The overall progress is going very well, almost reaching 25% of total completion, though we’re still in the common route (a part of the story before you focus on a certain character). At this stage, we'll finally be able to start producing the music by the end of this week. We’re so excited about it!
Moving to the background, we’re starting to make rough models for all the images first before going into any details later. This will allow us to make scenes from various locations consistent with one another. Some brief descriptions and references have been submitted, so let’s wait for the artist to complete their work.
Besides the progress report, we also have another piece of great news for you. There is a new character whom we'd like to introduce. It’s a girl, and her name is Marceline Pretre. Are you curious? Then, please give a warm welcome to her!
Marceline is a first-year French foreign-exchange student at Shimizu High School. Due to her parents’ jobs, she travels around the world, never remaining in one country for more than a year or two. As a result, she prefers burying herself in books rather than making friends she’s unlikely to keep.
Her aloof and sarcastic personality also does her no favors socially. However, Marceline adores romantic literature, and the idea of knights in shining armor sweeping her off her feet is something she always dreams of. Marceline also respects Asuka, and joined the Literature Club because of her invitation.
That's the brief description about Marceline Pretre, created by Hammerpriest. You'll come to know her better while playing the game later.
Thank you, and have a nice day! See you in the next update!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
One Last Crane - Extra Scene Update
Hello dear fans!
Do you still remember the Extra Scene that was used to introduce the characters in One Last Crane during the campaign? Yes, we have released the next video! Now, it's featuring Chihiro Nagata, our heroine who is strong and energetic. Want to know her better? Then enjoy this video!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
One Last Crane Development Update #01
This is the first development update following the end of our campaign. We are very excited to show the progress of what we’ve done this past week!
The core of a visual novel is its story and its writing. The progress of the story can have a great influence on the progress of other aspects of a visual novel, even though the outline has been described in great detail. The journey of Yuuki in his search for Saki continues in the next chapter. By the end of today, up to 18,000 words had been written, bringing the story to 14% total completion.
To give a simple overview, we’ve prepared an illustration that shows the progress of all sectors. Please take a look at the picture above.
As you can see, the background is still at 0%. This is because the artist is still busy with his current job from the previous client. Worry not, however! This is normal, and everything is still on track.
As for the music, we’ll begin composing after the writing has progressed to around 25%. This will allow us to make sure that the music will suit the scenes and the settings that have been built.
Everything else is running smoothly without any problems. I hope things can remain this way until development has been fully completed.
I think that’s all for now. Every week, we’ll be posting regularly with development updates. We’ll also include some tips and highlight a specific area of interest in our project. We still have plenty of things to talk about in the upcoming updates! See ya, and have a great day!
Useful links:
Pledge One Last Crane with PayPal: https://digitalez.cc/olc/
DigitalEZ's Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalezstudio
DigitalEZ's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Digitalez.game.studio/
Indiegogo campaign One Last Crane on Kickstarter
