#hlioh

[badchalk]

Here’s the leading lady! About time I made a decent illustration of her.

[badchalk]

I got hired by Blizzard what whaaaat

I’m doing Compatibility QA there, and while it’s my dream company and super amazing and all that, it does mean development on Hermina Lumen is Only Human will slow down quite a bit.

I’m feeling really good about HLIOH though! Progress in the past few months has been awesome, and I’m learning tons. I’m almost done with all the maps in the game and working on character animations right now. It’s still pretty patchwork, but hopefully I’ll have some cool stuff to share soon. :o)

I’m also working on the Steam trading cards assets for CCD&B! Here’s the art for Hermina’s card.

Oh yeah and I’m obligated to say that all views/content posted here are my own and have no association with Blizzard whatsoever! (Obviously.)

[badchalk]

Here’s a little sneakpeak at the gardening!

There are nine different types of plants to raise, and they sparkle when they’re fully grown  (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

[badchalk]

Announcing my new in-progress project, Hermina Lumen is Only Human!

It’s a story-rich adventure game about Hermina, a human in a family of witches. After years away, she returns home to attend her father’s funeral... only to find out she’s the one who has to put it all together. A story about acceptance, the joys and the pains of being part of a family, and plenty of supernatural shenanigans. Featuring:

Funeral planning adventures: Raise the money to put together your father’s funeral before time runs out.

Gardening: 9 different types of flowers and herbs to grow in the greenhouse.

Baking: Find all the recipes hidden in the game and bake treats to sell or to eat.

Potion brewing: With the help of your more magically-inclined sister, brew up 9 different types of potions that can be sold on the Black Market for hella cash.

Romance: Butt into Hermina’s love life and help her woo one of three bachelorettes. Stay tuned for more details on them!

Multiple endings: Your decisions throughout the game will affect which ending you get, so make your choices carefully!

Follow the development on tumblr and twitter, or follow bad chalk on Facebook for major updates only (Steam Greenlight campaign, release date)!

[badchalk]

Thoughts on the new project

It’s very different in tone from CCD&B (not quite so saccharine, I think). If CCD&B is day, HLIOH is night.

Corinne’s not in this one anywhere; it’s a 30 year prequel, so she’s not even alive yet. I know some people wanted a sequel of CCD&B, but I liked the way it ended and didn’t feel it needed exploring.

You don’t need to have played CCD&B to play HLIOH.

Last adventure game I plan on making for a while (I have a thousand games I need to make so I kind of have an idea of the next 2-3 games I want to work on)

Why another adventure game? The idea of improving on the foundation of my first game and really “getting it right” appealed to me, especially since I’m learning the ropes with a new engine. I can do a lot of things better this time around (1920x1080 resolution, more gameplay mechanics/options, better controls, etc.).

REALLY enjoying Unity. Very liberating after using RPG Maker for so long. Having a stupid amount of fun with particle effects.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

[badchalk]

Finally finished all the character speaking portraits!

It took a long time... Hermina’s game has a lot more characters than Corinne’s ^_^;

[badchalk]

Here’s a peek at how the character portraits will look! This is Eun-ju and she’s one of the more 80′s-looking characters. B-)

I spent a lot of time deliberating how I wanted to do the portraits. I ended up going with something simpler than CCD&B’s hand-painted look in order to match the style of the game and to hopefully finish the portraits some time this century.

[badchalk]

Here’s a look at where development’s currently at! Still a looong way to go.

This chart kind of makes me look like I’m farther along than I actually am... implementation and portrait illustration is very time-consuming.

I’m also still working on the writing; the main story is figured out, but there are a lot of scenes that need to be actually written out. Didn’t include it here because it’s not easily quantified.

Okay, time to get back to it!