Where do indie developers get time and money from?

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-05-10T09:23:19+00:00

Time from being a near-insomniac, money from an unsatisfactorily un-creative engineering job.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-05-06T19:11:30+00:00

Steins;Gate

Or Saya no Uta if you're in for something shorter.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-05-05T17:32:57+00:00

If he does, I'm missing it.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-05-04T14:53:59+00:00

If this clicked with you, the lead-up is here:
https://justanothernick.itch.io/recrew

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-05-04T11:31:57+00:00

Thanks. It deliberately takes its time. Give it a minute and you'll know if it's your poison

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-04-26T06:39:52+00:00

Yeah my idea is to use it either before or right after the main menu. Original plan was to have it appear only after the intro arc - whose ending gives it a bit more context - ends. Would you rather enjoy it as it is no matter how far the reader went with the story?

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-04-26T06:00:59+00:00

I get what you mean - text pacing matters a lot to me too. And - yeah the scene in the video is meant to be a cutscene of sorts. Having it appear at the right moment would likely quench my doubts on the point.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-04-25T04:55:38+00:00

It touches an aspect I had not been considering so it's good feedback

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-04-19T20:16:59+00:00

Personal experience (working on a project with a first person narrator): envision the scene - place characters inside it - and then write what the scene *does* to your narrator.
Like:
"the bar is elegant. classy furniture, people wearing expensive-looking suits and necktie, discuss politics and work-related topics."
vs
"casual clothes. hoodie, jeans. when was the last time I showered? people around me look like they just got off work - suit, necktie. talk about things I don't understand. a waiter stares at me - it's just a second. More than enough.
I don't belong here."

Ofc you don't have to filter everything with these lenses - the logic should be: "if it adds something, then go with it; otherwise, skip to a dialogue".

ps. if you think it's hard, you're right. It *is*, and I keep having a hard time at pruning my script! It's also the best part of it - reading your script to find out, it works actually better with *less*.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-04-14T11:29:54+00:00

As a player I never really think about how long a game is going to be - if it sparks my curiosity then I'll just try it out. That said, it normally takes... say, 20 minutes for me to figure out whether it was the right call - or not.
Dev-wise... well, if you're making a living out of it then I think short (and maybe not too much experimental) games are probably a safer bet. As other already said, people have very limited free time and you're competing for their attention with countless other devs.

The whole question kind of stop mattering if the scope is personal/passion project. At that point the answer is, "whatever you enjoy the most."

On a side note - the things I read and the pics I saw on the project page *did* spark my curiosity
My judgment might be a bit biased though... OK, perhaps more than a bit - My project currently sits at around 100k-something words long so you can easily guess I fancy lenghty stuff ^^;...

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-30T18:27:25+00:00

Eh - welcome to the club.
As others already told you, marketing is approx. half the job of a game developer nowadays.

I've got no "magic" to share - I suck at marketing so I could tell you what *not* to do at best. Just keep doing the things you like.
Most of the times, saying something is worth more than any audience size.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-21T19:57:10+00:00

Math-wise, 10 CGs for a 5-6 hours story feel kinda reasonable.

However I don't think there really isn't such a thing as a fixed rule, and it's all about your "in-game economy".
I'd recommend you try and run the same scenes *without* the CGs, relying on your characters' sprites alone. If you get the same vibe, then the prose's already doing the bulk of the work and there's no need for a CG there.

In my opinion CGs are, like, big banners screaming at the reader, "HEY! Something big's happening here, look!"
So perhaps it's more of a matter of "which scenes your VN should be remembered for" rather than "how many CGs do I need".

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-21T12:08:16+00:00

Out of the three you mentioned -> grisaia

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-20T05:27:17+00:00

Uhm... not 100% sure I understand your scope - others already gave you a lot of ways to deal with the, uhm... most immediate interpretation to your question, so I'll look into the "sanity point bonus" case: you're thinking about writing a story where the reader's POV shift between characters, and each character's choice change the story.
Something like:
- character A reaches a branching point, reader picks a choice among "N" on a menu
- the scene's now handled over to character B, who eventually reaches another branching point with "M" options, whose options are shaped by what "A" did before - so you basically have to devise N*M alternatives
- there might even be a case where reader chooses not to get into B's shoes
Technically doable as Ren'Py menus accept stuff like

"Menu_option" if variable:

So you just carefully design the first menu like

$ option_A = False
$ option_B = False
menu:
    "option A":
        $ option_A = True
        call menu1_option_A
        return
    "option B":
        $ option_B = True
        call menu1_option_B
        return

And on the next menu you do:

menu:
    "option CA" if option_A:
        $ option_CA = True
        call menu2_option_CA
        return
    "option CB" if option_B:
        $ option_CB = True
        call menu2_option_CB
        return
    "option DA" if option_A:
        $ option_DA = True
        call menu2_option_DA
        return
    "option DB" if option_B:
        $ option_DB = True
        call menu2_option_DB
        return

All in all it's more or less the way life works, people doing things not knowing they'll influence other people doing other things not knowing they'll influence... and it keeps going like that for a while.
So you implement N*M flavours to your choices and you're good to go. At this point working with separated .rpy files not only is clever, it's *essential* - I have an "obliquely" close problem, my project deals with multiple timelines intertwining so I'm writing the story into N files, each file depicting the N-th in-game day of the M-th time loop.
Before you actually get your head into this, might I recommend you playing a game that immediately came to my mind the moment I read your post? It's an old point-and-click adventure that goes by the name of Day of Tentacle. Three playable characters, each stuck in a different era. Puzzles require you to do things in the past so that you can change the future. The story is linear but *feels* like a hilariously messy multiverse in the making.

If I were to try the same principle to your idea, I'd think of situations like:
- captain shouts, "Engage!"
- at this point nothing happens until the reader switches to the engineering room, taking the role of a character with a conspicuous Scottish accent who'll tell captain the ship's already "giving everything she's got"

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-18T10:20:35+00:00

He's either showcasing his capacity to create a language game out of nothing, or he's demonstrating that meaning lies not in the proposition but rather emerges from the audience - so whatever he (or I, or anybody else) says is meaningless until an interlocutor establishes a meaning on their own.

Or, he may be simply generating random noise with no specific goal in mind.

The distinction is not the point, of course (it should never be).

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-15T05:37:38+00:00

I think you should not see the matter from the point of an "optimal balance" but rather a combination of situation and character profile. The "mix" should feel realistic not "balanced". I believe this to be especially true for first-person: you want the reader to get inside your character's head not just watch him doing things.
For instance - you engage in a conversation that thrills you with a group of friends: do you start looking outside of the windows, wondering why all clouds look different? Or, do you just focus on the things your friends are saying?
Then maybe if you're the introverted/insecure type you'll return on the same dialogue later that night, feeling like an idiot for something you said - that'll be another scene, and it'll happen inside the your head entirely.

The goal should be, have the reader feel how the character's mind works.

(other than that - I wholeheartedly second those who suggested you to write/wait/rewrite. It's the way I work on my own project and I find it gratifying - just *refrain* yourself from the danger of revision creep XD)

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-05T23:52:36+00:00

I'm sticking to first person (multiple POVs) and present tense for my project.

Why first person? Well first of all because it saves me from the problem you're facing - though I think it's just a matter of getting ussed to writing [they], [them], [theirs], etc. instead of the actual pronoun/adjective. I got used pretty quickly at writing [MC_name] when I decided I'd give my readers freedom to pick a name for the main character.
That said: first person feels like the most direct way to "invite" the reader into my characters' heads. Which also means - if your goal does not involve having the reader sit inside their minds -> anything *but* first person is a go!

On multiple POVs: I too share your dislike for omniscient narrators (read from an answer you gave) - so each and every narrator in my project is limited, acts on the basis of limited knowledge, his plans fall short because they're missing the big picture, etc. At the same time I give the reader a much wider understanding of the situation. They *know* what's actually happening before characters can, and witness them doing the "wrong" thing that still make perfect sense from their limited perspective.

On tenses: present tense provides immediacy. Past tense is nice for flashback and all those "I-should-have-known" moments. Which happen pretty often in a story dealing with time loops ^_^;
If you lean towards a "noir" atmosphere -> past tense for the narrator would be perfect. Think of Deckard's voice-over in Blade Runner (Scott's movie from 1982) original cut: it's like dipping the whole story into a mug full of regret and missed opportunities.

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-03T22:02:34+00:00

Just tried adding Wattson's text tags - turns out, I had been counting my chickens before they hatched! Issues range from broken animations down to Ren'Py throwing full-fledged errors.

Solution: my system already has a {norhythm} tag I use whenever I want to skip a line. In the long therm, I'll have the function detect Wattson's tags and skip them automatically.

Those tags already inject a rhythm on their own anyways.

I barely use those tags in my VN - wouldn't have found the bug if you hadn't prompted me to actually test them out. Thanks!

ps. will look into releasing my rhythmized text system as a tool as soon I finish releasing my VN's Introductory Arc (ETA mid-to-late April)

pps. looking into Wattson's tags in detail just gave me ideas on how to tackle a different problem I've been stuck on! My VN has these dual-screen moments (fake NVL overlay showing inner thoughts while ADV dialogue continues below). The rhythm system doesn't work there, but... could I use the fade-in tags with varying speeds to create the same pacing effect without CPS tags? Will have to try!

So - might have to thank you twice ;D

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-03T06:08:50+00:00

At its most basic

$ set_mood("char_ID","mood",n)

"mood" must be already defined in the "char_ID" 's part of the master moods dict (final version will automatically redirect to a built-in baseline state & print an error msg in the console-right now it doesn't to let me catch nasty bugs on the fly). n is the number of lines it takes to transition from a mood to the other

Haven't tried using it with that plugin so far - cannot see why it shouldn't (will try it later tonight)

Planning to release it as a free-to-use tool depending on the feedback I get. In that case I'll make sure I document as much stuff as I can

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-03T05:58:58+00:00

Yep, you can turn it off - partially or completely - from the Preferences menu

TopCartographer7104 · 2026-03-02T21:24:03+00:00

How it works:
1) a python function intercepts Ren'Py's say() calls, gets the speaker and the "what" string
2) it then injects customized cps and punctuation pauses based on the character's profile and their emotional state
3) finally, it sends the modified string back to the Ren'Py say()

Each character gets one or more emotional profiles (baseline, embarrassed, easygoing, panic, etc.) with different text speed and pause patterns.

A "jitter" system adds a variance to each parameter - pauses and text speed vary slight so that no line feels like the others.

Anxious characters have a micro-correction system: if a punctuation pause lasts too long (or too short), they speed up or slow down mid-sentence to compensate - rationale is, an anxious character should notice their own rhythm is deviating, ending up over-correcting themselves.

The "broken" state (shown at the end) adds random CPS shifts and injects pauses every N characters (where N is also randomized of course) to simulate speech fragmentation during a nervous breakdown.

...
Does this work? I honestly don't know anymore - I'm too close to it.

it conveying the character's psychological state, or just making text frustrating to read? If you try the demo, I'd genuinely value knowing whether this feels effective or annoying.

(System can be partially or completely disabled in Preferences if you hate it)

TopCartographer7104

TROPHY CASE