Redlolly
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Let's talk about some changes.
🕑 Added 2021-11-21 01:47:06 +0000 UTCHey guys, too long without writing here and I have many things to tell you, so I already warn you that this is going to be a long post.
First of all, I want to apologize for being so missing and not meeting the delivery deadline for the C5. It is not a subject that I want to give many details about, but at the end of October the doctors detected a cyst in my mother's mouth and had to operate on her urgently, so all my energy has been dedicated to that. The operation was delicate, but for now she is recovering quite well and we are waiting for the cyst to be analyzed.
I am sorry that you have to wait longer for the chapter and that you have worried about not having news of me in so long, but for me the family comes first and at this moment they needed me, I hope you can understand it.
But don't worry! Chapter 5 is progressing slowly, we continue to work hard on LC.
And speaking of LC, I think it's time to explain the new changes that are going to happen after the C5 is released.
Chapter 5 will be the last in which Javier works as an artist for RedLolly. In July, after working on chapter 4, Javier told me something that we had already realized while working on the rest of the chapters: the more explicit scenes he drew, the more uncomfortable he felt. Obviously this was something that he did not imagine when starting the project, but the truth is that this discomfort has resulted in a deficit of erotic illustrations, as many of you have told me.
So, in July, when Javier informed me of his decision to leave the project, I could only think of one thing: "holy crap!" (Also let's not forget that that was the month my dental nightmare started).
For me, Javier leaving the project meant problems, and big ones. But that was his decision, and if it meant he was going to be happier, I was kind of happy for him in a way.
But let's get back to the "holy crap" thing. At that time I had several options: I could close the LC project, leave it unfinished, and close RedLolly; or close the LC project, find another artist and start a new project within RedLolly; or continue LC with another artist and deal with the problems it would pose.
The simple answer would have been to close the project and finish all this. That would have meant taking 0 risks. But LC has been my life for the last year and for nothing in the world was I going to allow this to die without fighting for it with all my might. So I decided to find a new artist and continue with LC.
- What will this mean for the video game?
After C5, all the sprites and LC illustrations will be changed and LC will start again from C1, three months later we will publish the reissue of C2, and so on with all the chapters.
- Is LC going to lose the artistic quality it had until now?
Every artist is different, so it is impossible for art to be the same. I know that Javier's art is incredible, I have been fortunate to be able to work with an exceptional artist, but even if the style changes a little, it will continue to have the same intention of being high quality art with aesthetic taste. We have also considered finding a compromise between quality and being able to produce more images per chapter, which I think is something that was lacking in LC until now. Although, that you will have to value when you see it.
- Does that mean we're going to have to wait half a year or more to see the C1 reissue?
No, you won't have to wait that long. I asked Javier to work together on a final chapter (C5), to take advantage of those months to find a new artist and have time to redesign the entire video game. That has meant combining the work involved in making a new chapter with interviewing the artists, and directing all of LC's art change. Besides, of course, since August I have been paying two artists: Javier for the art of the C5, and the new artist for the redesign of the C1, with me running out of benefits these months.
Are you getting the idea that it has not been a very fun few months, right? I can promise you that they have been anything but calm.
The good part is that right now the new style is already settled and almost all the sprites are redesigned, so much of the work involved in redoing LC is already done.
- So we're going to have to replay LC with new art and that's it?
No, in the process of redesigning the chapters we will also incorporate new scenes and characters, so that you can enjoy the game without making it tedious. This is the time for you to share what scenes you have missed or what characters you would like to incorporate! Inside the bad, at least I want to see the positive side of all this and make you participate in the changes. I have made a new google questionnaire so that you can send all your suggestions (https://forms.gle/7g8EScXUxaHqVaoT6).
- What a pain in the ass, I don't want to play the same chapters again!
I'm really sorry, but it's the only possible option right now. This is not how I would have liked LC to progress, but sometimes when you're a small developer, there aren't many other options. I'm going to work hard to make the best version of LC, but I understand that some of you don't want to accompany me in the process and these things take time. Hopefully, if you come back to play LC in a year, you'll be able to enjoy it again with the new art.
Any question you have about this you can leave it in the comments and I will answer it as soon as I can,
This is a post that has been making me afraid to write for a long time, because I know that it is news that many of you will not like. The only thing I can do is try to face this new challenge with a curious look to see how it will be solved and what I can learn from all this, and not with a look that judges it as a failure. Hopefully you can do the same.
I can promise you that after getting through all of this, hell will seem easy to me.
Thanks for your support and I hope you like the decisions I can make in the reissue.
PS: What a long post… If you have read this far, leave a Rilke in the comments.😺
Comments
Hi Patty! I understand your point of view, and it is something that I have raised strongly. I am also afraid of the comparisons that may exist between Javier and the new artist, since as you say, Javier leaves the level of art very high. The complete redesign of LC is given by two factors: -The first, that Javier's economic requests if he continues to use his art are something that I cannot afford as a small project right now. It sounds harsh, but as a small developer, I can't pay 20% or 30% of each month's earnings to keep the art from chapters 1-5, and also pay the new artist every month for the art from the new chapters, indefinitely. It has already been very difficult for me to be paying both artists these months, if that lasted until the end of the project, I very much doubt that I could. -The second, that by giving so much importance to art it would frustrate me a lot to have a "piecemeal" project, a kind of "Frankenstein" art. And keeping Javier's art next to that of the new artist would cause all the people who discovered LC to compare one with the other again. As all art is new, new players will not find that artistic change. But you are right, the redesign is a huge effort and a great risk of having invested time and money in something that may not work for the players. It is a risk that I have decided to take. Regarding what you say that there is nothing to gain, there I cannot agree with you. The reissue will allow me to do the story totally in my own way, without the limits that Javier put in terms of erotic material, include characters with whom he did not agree so much, and more time to be able to improve the depth of characters, add scenes that I have not been able to implement but that I would have liked and to be able to design the following chapters better. I think that inside the bad, from here a time I will be able to look at this moment and see it as something positive. I hope the effort is worth it and the result makes you feel that the wait was worth it. I hope that now you can better understand the situation, also thank you for your advice!
Dashole
This . . . is actually a good idea!
Dennis
Just some funny idea how to sell the new graphics: Why not make Javier do one more scene for the beginning of chapter 6: Alice goes shopping for new glasses, puts them on in ego-view: 1. the "old" view and look, the new glasses in her hand 2. she raises the glasses, the world through the part of the pictures which goes through the glasses is the new look 3. The glasses are filling her view completely - new look established! On goes the 6th chapter with the new look. :D
Patty74
First things first: My best wishes to your mother and you! What i do not get though is why you plan to do a complete restart. This kills games. Like, near always. The content drought story wise aside (which will be massive) there will always be a direct comparison between version 1 and version 2 which will make the job of the person filling Javiers shoes so much more difficult. Why not go for the obvious approach to call Chapters1-5 the first episode and start the next episode with new art from a save? If importing a save is too complex: There should not be that much stats, so you can just do a quick questionnaire at the beginning of episode 2 to set them right. Some quite successful games here on patreon use this episodic format. It also helps to keep download sizes low. I love what you have done up to now and i would hate to see it die slowly like so many before. Please rethink your choice to start over from the beginning. There is nothing to gain and a lot to lose.
