Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Now, I know we’ve all heard this before… but, I’m in the process of working on a kind of dating sim game, based on BCB, due to the apparent demand for such a game over the forums.

“What makes this project different to the others on here?” you ask?

Well for starters, I already have stuff done on it, rather than using this thread for speculative purposes.

You play as Paulo, in the days before the gang met Tess (who may or may not make an appearance later on in the game). The aim is, of course, to win the affection of one (or more) girl(s).

The game will feature full graphics, voices, and musical accompaniment, and we aim to provide a minimum of two hours play time in the first release (after release I might update occasionally, adding different character perspectives, or expanding on content to further into the BCB timeline).

And now, since your all eager to know exactly what I’ve done so far:

Dialogue Options: 5%
Background Art: 10%
Character Art: 2%
Voices: ~5%
Music: 20%

Overall: 8%
I expect to be able to release a beta version of a demo mid-November.

Now, naturally, there is still a lot of work to be done, but considering I started… Saturday, not too shabby. However, just because I’m getting along fine doesn’t mean I’m not interested in anyone helping - I welcome all ideas, opinions, or offers of help (of particular interest is character art and voices). If anyone wants to say anything regarding the project, please, feel free to grab me in the IRC - I go by the same name there as I do here.
The current team is:

Ubertoast - Coding, Artist, Voices, etc. etc…
Cloud - Beta Tester, Guy-Who-Nags-Me-About-Spelling

Expect screenshots soon - as soon as I get some of the character art done, you can expect a few.

In the meantime, feel free to leave any suggestions etc. here, I’d like to know what you guys want so I can try and work it into the game (as far as I can with it still being believable). Likewise, any questions, feel free to ask them here, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

wow. A bcb dating sim! Cant wait to play it!

I’ll help with Alpha and Beta testing. :3

Thanks for the support guys

Forgot to mention - whenever significant progress has been made, a build will be posted publically for testing - after all, better to have 20 testers than 3

do you need voice actors still? i’ve been told I have a good voice

Trev - Absolutely! Send me an e-mail at ubertoast@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll get back to you in a couple of hours (3am and on laptop, slowest internet ever)

NO.

PAULO.

NO.

Don’t worry Susan it’s just to start off with… I’m working on an addon script that’ll let you choose who you play as (Mike, Paulo or… David, why not)

May or may not happen, depending on how gamebreaking it turns out to be.

Might i suggest an easter egg somewhere in the game to play as (dare i say it) mccain?

All I’m going to say on the subject of Easter eggs is…

Must….. resist………













pauloxpaulo

Could I be a tester? I LOVEEEE~ BCB and it would be an honor if I may. I didn’t know if I should of e-mailed or posted, so I just posted. :S

EASTER EGGS!

Wasn’t someone already making one of these?

Anyways, glad you’re posting your actual progress. That way we can see you’re actually working on it.

I would be willing to help you on your project, but I kinda have some projects of my own, and the part I’m really good at isn’t really needed in your game’s genre haha (game designer).

If I do find some time though… I think I might help with some interface design. Possibly I can do music as well, but I’m not yet confident about my ability to compose… so yeah.

P.S. By the way Ubertoast, do you know C++? I’m currently looking for a programmer. We could even work on both projects maybe and help each other.

@ Zoe. Im actually going to start C++ programming courses in the spring

It’s it a long time until spring?

unfortunately yea. just wanted to throw that out there as a future reference

Good thing that finding a programmer isn’t critical for the moment. I will be needing an artist soon though.

yea im useless to you there. Im a great writer though

I already have a writer though. He’s really good.

Zoe - I’m in the process of learning C++ at the minute, so sure, I’d be willing to help.

In other news, I think I have the support for the ability to choose player characters down. They won’t all be available on release - only Paulo (and limited Mike) will - but lucky for us, I can patch the files in after release as I get it sorted. Just letting you know

easter egg to play as Lucy? Lucyxsue would make smiles for eternity

Trev - There was a short discussion in the IRC earlier about playing as the girls… I’m considering it as a possibility, but it won’t be for a while. Writing wouldn’t be realistic enough if it was just me (/sucks at writing from female standpoint)

Although, there are still the easter eggs…

Hey Ubertoast, is that email the one you use for msn as well?

if you need a female perspective i could try to help. yea im a guy but ive lived with my mother my whole life. Ive learned alot and i consider myself sensative to femanine matters…..so yea if you need input lemme know.

Sent you an email btw

fff is going to love controling this

Zoe - Indeed it is, I’m usually on all day weekends, and from 6pm GMT onwards (this week excluded, time off FTW)

Trev - Got your e-mail, will take a look shortly

Small update - Just coding in a money system. Extremely basic, but should add support for later on in the game when relationships are established. Also, support for video has been fully added (there are plans for use of this), and also the framework for animated talking is down, pending character art. Progress tastes like coffee

Could you give us a simple example of graphics in this program? I might be able to help some.

Can’t give you a screenshot at the minute (mainly due to there being no images to screenshot yet), but all it is really is a background image, with the character overlayed in front. Simple speech animation is supported using time markers in speech, and character mood is handled in the same way - just a simple “show” command.

In other news, I’ve gotten test character art done, awaiting scan for tomorrow. It’s 1 am right now, will be around for another 30 minutes… and then tomorrow, you get your first screenshots.

woo!

Oh, Trev - I just remembered about your e-mail. Check for a response in a few minutes

kk

Team Paulo, get your engines started.

I’m going to be the pervert here and just ask: Will there be /h/?

Also, I’m curious as to what style of gameplay you’ll be going for. Will you be playing in a Free Roam world with several areas including the school, the forest, the suburbs, etc., or will you be a potentially non-moving sprite that changes area by clicking on an arrow with an area’s name and interacts with other characters via point, click, and select answer? The latter would be easier, but the Free Roam would be immensely popular if you could pull it off, I’m sure.
Other questions I have are things like, will it have somewhat of a storyline that goes along with the story or goes off of the story? Like, you’d have certain events triggered if you get to a certain “relationship level” with a certain person. Is there a limit to the number of days you have? How will the factors work out, meaning what factors will you be using to determine “likability” for certain character? Will it be changeable by the player, or will one character’s base “likability” be higher than another’s? If you’re not going to use a sort of “likability” factors, are your relationships with the other characters going to be changed based off of what reply selections you make?

One last question: Will you be able to play as Abbey and maybe even Augustus? (at least as an Easter Egg?)

There’s a lot of questions to be asked when making a game.

Dating sims as a genre (or at least the ones I’ve played) don’t include free roaming or any kind of way to go to any place you desire. The place you go to is driven completely by the decisions you make (when you are given a choice). I think you’re mistaking this with a visual novel.

Just so you get an idea of what I’m talking about, I can suggest something like “Tsukihime”. Not really a dating sim as its not the entire focus of the story, but in playability, its pretty much the same.

Also, adding “playing as” characters would require a completely different script to be made for each one, so if they are included, they will have to be a full feature and not an easter egg… unless you can stand it being very sloppy.

Baelox - Some pretty good questions there, let me see if I can answer them:

By default, the engine I’m using makes it so that you have to go with the story to different locations. However, there is an add-on library available that for the engine that allows for RPG-esque stuff, including roaming. I’m looking at getting that implemented as an optional add-on after release. However, I can’t really make any guarantees on it, though it’s definitely something I’d want to do.
A storyline will definitely be included in the game - I have my trusty note-pad detailing a good quarter of a year for characters right now.
A relationship level system is in effect which is different for each character - for example, when playing as Mike, Lucy and Sandy’s affection level for you is already quite high - whereas when playing as Paulo, Sandy’s affection level is 0 (since they’ve never met) and Lucy’s affection level is lower than Mike’s. Other characters have affection levels too, and we’re working on events that change that.
As for a limit of “days”… in the initial release, for the sake of me not programing until Christmas 2012, there will be 31 days - however, due to the nature of the engine, it is extremely easy for me to release updates, meaning that for extra content, all you have to do is download the add-on installer when released. Eventually, I hope to have a year for each playable character.
As for how relationships are factored - primarily based on options through dialogue combined with the base stats for a character. In add-ons, this might change as I get more experience with the engine, but for now, keeping it simple.
On the topic of playing as other characters - it’s actually fairly easy to do once I have the writing done - Initially, you’ll play as Paulo or Mike. As you progress, there will be an event in each path of the game that may unlock extras (i.e. characters). The game won’t tell you when you’ve done this - but I will say that the extras are different depending on which character you’re playing. For example, playing as Mike may unlock McCain, but playing as Paulo might unlock Abbey, etc. etc. The options are all there in the code - but I’ve set them to be locked until a) I release the character scripts for them and b) You’ve met the criteria to play them
As for /h/… possibly as an add-on after release. If I can find a good artist who doesn’t mind the work.

Hope this answered your questions, feel free to let me know if you have any more.

O.o Seem like i’m too late for the show…


But i think these stuff should be added…. (sorry if someone already posted like this)

- Achievements : As (almost) every new games that realesed have it why don’t you add this system into the game.
Like…. [Achievement : crazy spender] paulo need to buy 80% of everything that sold in BCB game
or [ Achievement : Heart Breaker ] Paulo need to gain 100% relationship with all (Female) characters…

- Some funny stuff : Offically no one want to play Date sim just for work>buying things>Date and then kiss….. (that’s awkward&hellip what about…. Some strange things like After The party at school.. Everyone Decided to Stay at school (Due to Curfew&hellip, and in the middle of night Paulo came out to toilet… but there’s mistaken that when Paulo back to his room his sleep on the Wrong bed with Mike…. (Imagine what’ll happened if someone see this) or Making stuff like Paulo meet some Beautiful ghost During Night….

- An Undecidable Choice… : ….when you are almost complete you target (Relation 100%) Suddenly Someone who came out from no where Told Paulo that You have to choose the only 1 girlfriend who’ll live with you forever… now it’s Difficult one…. Because you have to think about other too…. Such as If you choose Lucy… you’ll have to deal with her childhood friend (Mike) to find out who she’ll decide…. I think This’s difficult to do…

- Secret Character : After you completed Paulo story and you think it’s the End….. Then instantly there another mode available and when you click it…. you found out you’re playing as one of the BCB’s Girl and now the story is switched…. you have and different objectives on each character….(The truth is i want Lucy’s Relationship back with Mike&hellip

- Minigames : 50% of Date sim is about Date. 10% Is about shopping and save… what about remaining 40%? It’s minigames! where you could play it for relation (or money) as many as possible (and it’s fun too)

That’s all of Opinions that i could think out….

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P.S. About /h/….
Officallly i have no idea about this…. but by the way…. Why don’t you have a look at some /h/ flash game….. (Newground i recommend) or /G+H/ (guro+H) games from Black Cyc for some Ideas…


P.S.2. I have no Offense to anyone

Taeshi - I know that somehow you won’t like the idea about /h/ but These are the Opinion that i had found during Surfing underground web. Hope you forgive me about that…

Ubertoast - You Idea are rock!!! I don’t even thought Before…. (the most of fan-stuff i thought is mario-like style) But by the way…. it seem like you’d missed some additional information about BCB (like some minor events)… and about /h/… Why don’t you Make it came out as NSFW Ver. but by the way…. don’t make things too Intensive or you’ll got into Big troubles… (Offically In my country Doesn’t accept Nudity and /h/ even you are 18+ on almost of entertainment type but they didn’t even Blocked any contents in Soap Opera… Damn&hellip

So are you programming the game engine or are you using a pre-built engine?
If you are programming your own, what language are you using?

JHawk - Using a pre-built engine, but I heavily modified some of the source code to add-in some features I wanted. The language for the scripting is what I like to call “bastardized Python”, since it’s based on Python… just bastardized.

@Bloodyspare - Achievements are unlikely, unfortunately, due to the massive amount of extra work it’d take to code a system like that into the engine. Not to mention having to trawl through the entire script and add in instances to go with the ones that need multiple conditions…

As for the minigames / playing as girls, it’s being worked on - minigames are a definite, especially once you’re past the first quarter of the game… as for playing as girls, it’s been discussed in the IRC, but I’m gonna have to get a little extra help in for the writing part of that, but otherwise… definitely going to be added eventually.

On the /h/ suggestion - the game will have a switch that either enables or disables the adult content if I add it in - therefore, would be completely optional. On the “one choice” option, that was planned to be an in-game event - i.e. if relationship levels with 2 or more girls are very high, 75% chance the game would cause them to find out and you’d have to choose… yadayada.

As for humorous stuff - well yeah, ouldn’t be BCB without it

Hello, it’s kinda too late to say it but…
Wouldn’t it be better for this not to have voice acting? I mean, I would really love to be a voice actor too, and I hope I don’t get in anyone’s way, but…
If the game has voice acting, the voices will have a great impact on the characters, and that COULD be somewhat off to what Taeshi would like.

I only say this out of concern, I hope this project succeeds (actually, I am a computer science student, and if I can help in any way, except for arts, I’d be delighted).
Aaaand… if after consideration, the game still features voice acting… I’d like to be a tryout too. =3
I shall wait for an answer to this mindful post.

Lycus- definitely a good point you raise there, which if I’m honest I didn’t think of. The original idea behind voices was to give the characters a little more depth - ie make the game a litle more involving to the player. I’m trying to pick voice actors I feel fit the parts, but obviously I might fail miserably so… I think I’ll release it with voices and make an optional pack to mure the characters. Thanks for he heads up though.

Sorry for any spelling errors, on iPod.

@Ubertoast I think that this is a great idea! Just one thing, can you make this game Wii friendly?

i leik meh sum /h/

@TheLightorTheDark: I don’t know much about programming but, if he is using a modified engine I doubt he will be able to port the game to the Wii, unless the engine already supports that.

Still, I would wait for Ubertoast’s response, but that seems the most likely.

LightorDark - The engine I’m using has Mac, Windows, and Linux support - adding Wii support would take me months (plus I dont know anything about how the Wii works, so even if I did it’d be as buggy as hell ). In addition - the technical specs are’nt in our favour - the Wii only has 88MB of RAM, but the game in it’s basic state requires a minimum of 128MB.

Plus I don’t have a Wii so I can’t test it. Sorry.

I might be a bit late on this, but if you need someone else to help with coding I know python and I’ll help anyway I can.

Hey Havok - Thanks very much for the offer, I might take you up on that soon, much appreciated

And now, a quick question: To avoid issues with fan characters that constantly appear, I’m doing my best to not use any (bar McCain, who is critical to the plot) so I don’t have to go permission hunting all over the place. This leads me to a quick question - are Sue and Amaya fan characters? I know they aren’t mains which led me to believe they might be, but it would add tons of extra content to the game if they aren’t. I have a feeling they’re not, but I just want to make sure.

They are not fan characters

Excellent. Thanks for clearing that up