The first month of 2024 is over! Time for another monthly report!
For the VLOG report, click below!
January was a very active month as we picked up where we left off in December. Only this time, going all out with activity in Unity where we've been deeply involved in Naninovel.
The best way to describe the difference between Tyrano and Naninovel is comparing a common automatic car like a Honda or Toyota to a Semi Truck. Tyrano has a much better and easier to use experience but, the engine is Javascript based and limited in what it can do. It doesn't have a big game engine backing it.
So, like a semi, you can figure out what makes Naninovel go but it's a different beast entirely and takes time to learn. Which is our current phase of development.
Naninovel, brings in Unity and a very healthy ecosystem with it. There are other VN plugins on Unity but we've chosen Nani as our testing target because it's a western developer behind it. Meaning, the support issues we had with Tyrano are a thing of the past.
After a month of digging into it, we certainly found some benefits that are worth looking into more. Some are aspects of being able to utilize a full game engine which Tyrano simply can't do. Of course, we're not done. We need time to access it better.
However, it has been promising. So much so that we're definitely seeing it as a potential must have for all VN projects going forward. In fact, we're mulling over holding off Raven's Prayer and just remaking Dust and Air in Naninovel.
What about Renpy? Our evaluation of it has also been positive but, there are blockers which we're still accessing. Mostly this involves the future of titles on it. Unity is overkill but we're looking at ease of porting, DLC implementation, and adding translations. There is also the fact that Naninovel script is a lot quicker than Renpy.
To be able to make a script converter from our ks files to Naniscript is something we're definitely looking into.
That said about our engine work. Art on Project 2 progressed well into the month of January. We actually decided to do some additional models so Ingrid has been busy on them.
Model work on Project 2 is expected to wrap up in February and then shift into expressions. Key image production is following but is likely within a few months away of wrapping up.
Work on Dust and Air continued but we aren't able to show it as they detail parts of the story that we can't reveal yet. So this is a light month on content for this post.
If we do port Dust and Air over to Unity, we'll be looking at ways to transfer your saves over. That is definitely a top priority for us as we look deeper into Naninovel moving forward.
We apologize for the delay in decision to stay or go from Tyrano. We really tried to exhaust all options and do as much research as possible before reaching this point.
As we go into 2024 we'll have more updates on our progress with Unity. There is a shred of hope Strikeworks might pull off something amazing and win us back but, given that dev's lack of interest in the western market and his outright lies to support it, we think parting ways may be in our best interest.
Alright, that's it for January! Thanks for joining and we'll see you in the skies!