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In contrast to KINDRED [Subject 6244], KINDRED [SnowBound] is a longer, less linear dark romance with even more endings that maintained a concise, visually striking atmosphere and a coherent story that left the player wanting more. The art, music-making, and writing processes were all improved to make for faster turn-around time, and better final products. The entire project would still be developed by me, with outside help only for playtesting and translation.
What Did I Do?
I was once again responsible for every facet of this game's development but this time, I strived to improve my process. I exercised my familiarity with the style I was working in to become more efficient and allow more rendering time for each illustration, creating more "finished" and "pretty" panels for the visual novel. I was able to use more professional tools for music-making, and took into account player feedback to create longer, more atmospheric tracks, as well as include moments of pure ambience in the game that players say they appreciate. Once more, to appease Kindred [Subject 6244] players, I ensured this game was longer to create a more immersive experience that sucked the player in for a longer amount of time.
With more endings to choose from and more content to make, as well as a much more strict timeline, this was one of the most challenging developments I have ever had. Despite this, it was still a pleasurable experience working on Kindred [Snowbound], and I can safely say I learned a lot about my own limitations and abilities.
From the visuals, to the music, to the sound effects, to the code, I built this game from scratch using Twine as a prototyping tool and Renpy as the engine, and used friends, family, and strangers to help playtest and mold the experience to be as enjoyable as possible for fans of horror and the SCP universe.
What Did I Learn?
I learned how to be even more self-sufficient, and to cut every corner I had to in order to finish the game on time. Despite allowing myself to take more care with every panel, every piece of music, every sentence, and each line of code that I wrote, I continued to ensure I did not fall into the trap of perfectionism. I continued to incorporate constructive criticism while not allowing blatantly harmful remarks to keep me down, and really solidified my own process for making a game from start to finish.
Despite this, I understand that the deadline I set for myself was unrealistic, and unhealthy. I forced myself to nearly cut all contact with close friends and family in order to ensure that my project was completed on time, and therefore negatively damaged my personal life. To prevent this from happening in the future, I have sworn to follow proper deadlines that take into account the work required to reach them without overworking myself.
Similarly to the previous project, I continued to improve my coding abilities by incorporating a few new, smaller mechanics, exercise my music-making capabilities by creating longer tracks with familiar motifs that relate to other tracks, as well as many art tricks and shortcuts that I was unaware of previously. I plan to continue making technological, visual, writing, and audio advancements in my next projects. However, the greatest change I plan to make in the next project is the story structure itself: It will be MUCH less linear, and have a ton of extra replayability compared to my first two games.
Software/Engines
Programming: Renpy Enging 8.2.1, VSCode
Language: Python
2D Art Software: Photoshop
Editing Software: Davinci Resolve
Music Software: Audacity
SFX: Audacity
Writing: Twine, Google Docs
Resources: Freesound.org, DeepL, Google Forms, Google Docs
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