Devlog #48 - Our first video devlog, Brassica progress + new project!

Hello!

Today we released our first video devlog with info about the current status here at BL+ and what we've been up to since our last written devlog. So without further ado, here it is!

Transcript

Rohan: [in German] I think it's also starting to get darker now

R: [in German] We're working against time now

Felix: [in German] Ugh, that's um—

R: [in German] Oh no, did you not record the audio?


R: Hi there

F: Hello, and welcome to our first video devlog

R: We are Boys Laugh + and we are indie game— indie game developers, making narrative games and mostly wholesome visual novels at the moment

F: I'm Felix, I co-write our stories, and I'm also the main writer and I do programming and handle most of the UI and audio work

R: And I'm Rohan, also known as Pectin online, and as Felix said, I'm also working on the story. I'm also responsible for the visual development of our projects, and I'm therefore also the concept artist and Illustrator, and do a little bit of management for the both of us

about the format

R: Okay, so what is this? As Felix said before, this is a devlog and it's our first devlog in a video format. We've written devlogs in the past but we are transitioning to video devlogs to keep it more interesting for you

R: And we are still experimenting with this format and there's a lot of— [pauses] And there's still a lot to learn for us

F: In these devlogs we will summarize what we are working on and what has happened since our last devlog. For accessibility reasons we will also provide transcripts and we'll also add German subtitles so people here [in Germany] who don't know English can also watch this

R: Yeah, because we're German, [in German] and this is for you!

F: Yeah, we will release these devlogs about every two months depending on how busy we are working on our projects

topics for today

R: Topics for today: We wanted to tell you about this new format, so check, that's done already! We wanted to look back on what happened since our last written devlog by the end of February of this year, before the lockdown happened. And we started a new project in that time, it's called EGOLOGIC, and we wanted to tell you a little bit about that too. What changed for us as a team during lockdown. Then there was the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, to which we have submitted Brassica - A Marry Tale. And then we wanted to tell you a little bit about our progress on Brassica as well and what we're currently doing and our plans for the near future

recap!

F: So, let's start the recap. In March, we decided to take part in NaNoRenO which is a month-long game jam for visual novels. But originally, we wanted only— we wanted to only take part for a week or two, uh…

R: This always happens to us. It's like, "Oh, let's take part for a week," and then we do like, a month [EGOLOGIC logo appears], a year [Brassica logo appears], two years [//TODO: today logo appears]

F: Yeah, uh, so we managed to finish a demo in time for the extended deadline, the deadline was extended to mid-April because of the pandemic, but we're still working on finishing the whole game.

F: So, what is EGOLOGIC? It's a mystery visual novel with some horror in there. It's about a young adult who moves out from home and into a practically deserted apartment building in the forest

R: What could go wrong there?

F: Exactly, and uh… So he will run into some supernatural occurrences there and has to get through the situation

R: Yeah, we don't want to spoil anything. But unlike our other game projects, our other visual novels, there isn't exactly romance involved in this story. But, uh [laughs] a really awkward tension between our three main characters. So, that's what to look forward to!

F: Right now most of the art is already done. We still plan to include some more special illustrations, but the sprites and backgrounds are already there. I'm still working on the— on writing the endings and doing some revisions for the rest of the story that's already there, and we also still need— we still need a finished UI for some of the menus and audio and music

home office

R: So our progress got slowed down too as well on this project because it was during that time that we moved to home office, because our office which is on the campus we also graduated from, closed down by the end of March. So we realized we are more flexible at home because we have more control over our daily routines and self-management and such. We also don't have to get ready to go to work and then manage to get home early enough to cook dinner and go to bed early enough. So it's like just eating in front of your computer while you work, so that works too ["management is my passion" is written next to him]

R: So you might have noticed that the distance between us isn't at least one meter and 50 centimeters. That's because we are actually living in the same apartment, with others. And like, we're still not like, working in person together because we don't have a living room. So, we're holding our meetings online on Discord, like many other people as well. It also meant for us that we're more free to shift our balances between our work we do for BL+ and our other work

itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality

F: As mentioned earlier, we took part in itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality which you may have heard of because it turned out to be a lot bigger than most people expected. So last month [June] they reached out to the developers and said that basically anyone who wants to contribute can make their project available for this and then people can buy it for a minimum of five dollars and everything gets donated to the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and community bail funds to support the Black Lives Matter movement

R: Pretty cool

F: And yeah, we decided to take part with Brassica along with over 1300 other creators who made a total of more than 1700 projects available, all for a minimum of five dollars, and in the end they raised 8 million dollars over just 10 days

R: Which is incredible, really, it's like— we've already tweeted about this but this is really a huge community effort and, thank everyone who bought the bundle during that time

R: So we submitted Brassica and for us we experienced unexpected high rates of downloads for the game. We had around 300 downloads in total for the game

F: Before the bundle started

R: Before the bundle started, yeah, and during the bundle we had around 1000 each day for 10 days going, and thank you for downloading and playing the game

Patreon & Discord

R: During that time a real nice person found out that we had a Patreon, we hadn't announced it anywhere by that time, but yeah, so we have a Patreon, and, which is also connected to a Discord, but you don't have to be a patron to join our Discord. And we'll link that probably down in the description of the video or, yeah, post about it later

current work

F: Okay, uh, our current work. So, I'm— as I said, I'm still working on writing the endings of EGOLOGIC and doing some revisions for the other writing that I already did. And along with that I'm also still implementing the graphics that are already there and do some behind the scenes stuff to make my work easier, like defining transforms and fun stuff like that. Other than that I also currently work as a freelance composer which I have to split my time between that and BL+ work

R: And yeah, I finished most of the artwork for EGOLOGIC already, there's still some illustrations I have to do when the script is done, and I've started working on Brassica again, and yeah, due to the pandemic I lost one of my part-time jobs so to make due I've started going— like, I started my freelance career a couple weeks ago. So that's keeping me busy as well, and I've also gotten into streaming to share my work and I'm also posting about that, so yeah

what's next

R: So about streaming, we've also planned to stream the work we do for Boys Laugh + as well. I think for now it's just me streaming my own work but we're planning to show more of our work and share it with you

F: So, uh, our current plans for the near future are that we want to finish EGOLOGIC by the end of Summer. And then focus on Brassica again and finish Act 3 in— some time in Autumn


R: That was it for the news for this devlog

F: Yeah, but before we end this video we want to say thank you to our patrons: Dźmitry,

R: corruptedhelios! Thank you so much for supporting us

F: Yeah, thank you

R: And yeah, thank you for watching or listening to us and, uh— or reading about us. Hopefully see you in the next devlog, and now we can say this: like and subscribe! And yeah, if you want to stay up to date with us, you can follow us on Twitter, we are most active on Twitter. And we also got a Tumblr and an Instagram and an abandoned Facebook which we don't use anymore, so if you stumble upon that, it's old. And, um, because I'm responsible for Tumblr and Instagram, we are not too active there as well, and Instagram is rather like, trash posts about our games, so if you're interested in that you can follow I guess. Yeah, well thanks again for being with us and bye!

F: Bye!

BLOOPERS

#1

R: [in German] Did we make it? We did it!
F: [in German] I think so, yeah. That was…
R: [in German] That was better
R: *sigh of relief*

#2

R: This is a devlog and it's our first devlog in a written format
F: [quietly] In a video format
R: [simultaneously] Noo! It's a video, okay

#3

R: [in German ]Maybe we could say something at the end like: "This is the first time that we show our faces online"
F: [in German] Technically the second time
R: [in German] The… the second time?
F: [in German] We took that Pride Month photo last— last year
R: [in German] Yeah, but I mean… I think it didn't show us clearly? Or at least not me
F: [in German] Dunno, I—
R: [in German] But I mean I looked like this anyway [grimaces]
F: [in German] I think both of us looked pretty beat

#4

F: [in German] Then there's also a red dot in the corner of the display
R: [in German I see
F: [in German] And it—
R: [in German] And it’s glowing
F: [in German] Yes
R: [in German] Isn’t that a neat way to tell [if it’s on]. Oh, I'm so smart!

#5

F: [in German] Well, we can cut it all out
R: [in German] Or leave it all in

PECTIN + eZombo

The core team of BL+

devlog, brassica, egologic