DrPinkCake
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Q&A Session - 2025 - Part 2/2
🕑 Added 2025-04-16 09:56:26 +0000 UTCHere's the second part of this year's Q&A.
In this part, I'll answer your questions about game development.
If you missed the first part, where I answered questions about Being a DIK, you can find it here.
Enjoy the read, and thanks for your questions!
Game development
In my country the steam store page for the game is blocked due to the adult content. It'd be nice if there were ways to get an activation key besides the steam store. So my question is if you could provide steam activation keys through patreon or maybe other keysellers.
I cannot circumvent any laws or rules set by Steam/GOG and the countries issuing these bans. Patreon is the only option that I can provide for the countries affected by these laws. I hope that Steam will find a proper way to verify users' ages in the future, but sadly, it's out of my hands. To get a change, I think players need to be more vocal about this to Steam.
Can you make the download/unzip/install process easier for future installments? It took me several hours and a lot of frustration to get episode 11 running (with the kind help of a few other members). We non-geeks would appreciate either an easier process (like Steam) or a very detailed list of instructions that assumes we know nothing about computers.
I'll try my best to improve the instructions for next time, maybe with a video or similar. I loved the way I could distribute v0.11.0, and I will continue using this method in the future. It made my job a lot easier, and the servers could handle the number of users downloading the game very well. There were no download speed complaints during the release weekend, and that's the first time that this has happened during a big release. And there were no extra costs for patrons to download the game either, which is great. Everything you do for the first time is always tricky. I'm sure you will feel more comfortable unzipping the game next time. Thanks for your input.
You mentioned the release of ep. 11 was the smoothest of your career. On the other side, there were a lot of people having trouble with the divided zip files (at least it seemed like that regarding the complaints in the comments). Can you explain what makes you see this as the smoothest release?
Sure! I was comparing it to all my previous releases and the amount of work that a release usually entails. In the past, I usually had to work 20-hour shifts, with four hours of sleep per night max, due to installation issues or bugs. With this release, I could sleep 6-8 hours and not wake up to many issues.
With every release, I get many questions about installation and crashes. How do I install the game? How do I patch my game? Why doesn't my game work? Etc. It's nothing new to get a lot of messages like this, especially not with 20,000 patrons.
And while from the outside, it could look like a lot of people were struggling, it wasn't a lot for me or my team to deal with compared to previous releases.
Even if we were to help 200 patrons with installation issues (and it was far less than that), less than 1% of patrons would have issues installing the game. And to me, that's successful.
In addition, I didn't have to manage external server hosts and any errors that followed. Patreon servers were stable even during peak hours, and patrons weren't complaining about download speed, which is usually a common complaint.
So, collectively, it was the smoothest release of my career so far. And I hope that the next one fares even better. I don't say this to belittle any issues that you or others may have had with the installation process. Not everyone knows how to handle a computer, and that's fine – that's what support is meant for. I think that it will be easier for everyone next time, now that you know what to expect from the release. And I will try to improve my documentation on how to do it.
I have been wondering for a long time now. what do you use for the animations. Is it done in blender or in an other game engine IW unity. I ask as DAZ is not very good for animations. Many thanks
I only use DAZ3D for my animations. Indeed, it's not as good as Maya or Blender with animations, but it's also better than people give it credit for. I think some are too quick to dismiss it without fully exploring what it's capable of. You can get creative with a lot of parameters and tools, and I've established a pretty robust workflow. Animating has become somewhat of a routine. And still, after these 7 years of working with it, I find new things to fiddle with and tweak.
How long does it normally take to complete an animation? More specifically, from concept to final render?
It varies. The parameters that affect how long it takes are:
1) Creating the environment and lighting.
2) Preparing the characters.
3) Posing the characters in their initial poses.
4) Creating the animation keyframes.
5) Adding detailed movement and special tricks to improve the animation.
6) Camera work.
7) Adding proper settings for the animation.
8) Rendering the animation.
9) Post-processing the individual frames of the animation.
10) Putting the frames together to create the final animation.
11) Any extra steps needed with post-processing to improve the final animation.
Render time is the bottleneck for animations. It is affected by the number of characters in the scene. More characters take longer and use more resources, which affects all previous steps.
It's easier to make the second animation within a scene than it is to make the first animation. With the second animation, you can start at step 3. Steps 1 and 2 are time consuming.
To give some ballpark numbers... Anything between 1-8 hours for posing, depending on the complexity of the scene, and 3-4 days of render time for a standard animation at 60 fps, using one PC render rig. The longest animation render time, so far, is well over a month using one PC.
Animated scenes are one of the best parts of BAD however they seem to take the longest to produce as they are always the last parts of the episode to be finished. I've seen some members get upset at the end of the development cycle because of the wait on these wonderful assets. Can you break down what goes into creating a short, medium, and long animated scene as a developer including how long they take to be completed by your computers? Also, once they are done rendering how do you edit and touch them up if needed before adding them to the game?
To continue my answer to the previous question...
Animations require both demanding manual work and longer waiting times compared to static renders. All the work that goes into creating one static render is the mere start of making an animation. When I create an animation, I start creating the first frame. Models, poses, lighting, camera, and all parameters are initially set up before I can start on any other work. After this, I create the keyframes needed to move things around in the scene. This process of creating keyframes is the main work of animating. It can take several hours, depending on the complexity of the animation. I start with the bigger movements and then work with finer details and tweak everything until I'm done. A 4-second animation at 60 fps (frames per second) is the same as 240 static renders. This means that the animation will take 240 times as long as a static render with the same settings. And that's why I need many computers and GPUs to render this as fast as possible.
In episode 11, 31 minutes and 21 seconds worth of animations were produced – almost all of the animations were 60 fps. This means that almost 113,000 frames (equal to 113,000 images) were rendered during the time episode 11 was in development. You can compare that number to the static render count for the episode, which was 7113. An estimated 200-350 animation frames were rendered daily.
After the images are rendered, they need post-production work to match the render quality of the static renders. As you can imagine, manually processing 113,000 frames in Photoshop or similar software is unfeasible, and I have to use scripts that I wrote for this purpose. I put the frames in a folder and start the script that automatically post-processes the frames into the quality that I desire. So, every day, I wake up and pull the rendered frames from my PC slaves to my main PC and run my script. After that, I run yet another script to create a .webm file – and then the animation is complete. But there are times when I'm not happy with the result. I may have to use additional video editing software to correct it, or in the worst-case scenario, rework the animation in DAZ and re-render it from scratch.
It's a lot of work to create these animations, but I wouldn't want to remove or reduce the amount because animating is one of my favorite things, and it brings immense value to the final product. It's also hard to make this process any faster. Every step that can be automated is automated by now. It's not a big difference in manual work to create a short, medium, or long animation; it depends on what's being animated. The render time, however, scales with the frame count.
Would you ever consider doing a road map for updates? I know your hard at work all the time but as a patreon it would be nice to see how long it will be between updates.
I can't do that because I don't know how to create an accurate road map. It would be a waste of time trying to predict something I can't. I'd be posting untrue assumptions, which would cause extra stress and impatience when I fail to deliver on deadlines. I've chosen to work on a no-deadline basis to reduce stress and put out the best episodes that I can create. This way works well for me. During development, I report the progress on a weekly basis. You get to learn everything I know and think in those updates.
How do you go about creating the guide? Do you already take notes during the development cycle, or do you skip through the code at the end of it?
It's a methodical process, and I usually do it after the episode has been released. I read the code, write about what the player is faced with, and consider what I can write about and how much information I can share without spoiling future content. It takes quite a bit of effort to write the guide, but it also gives me another look at the variables I put in the game. Often, I spot mistakes or bugs when writing the guide. It's a useful and straightforward process.
What reasons/methods would you attribute to your unmatched levels of quality & design in this genre? From my perspective, every other dev in the genre struggles to even come close to the standard you set.
I don't know. I rarely play other games in this genre, and I don't measure myself against others. I only compete with myself. My secret is that I genuinely care about every aspect of my game. I don't care about pandering, what fans want, what other developers are doing, or even about making money. I do my own thing, and luck seems to follow. Almost every day of the year, I work on the game in some way. PCs are always rendering, and I plan my schedule around work. I respect the process of creating the game, and I want to feel proud of whatever I release. I think if developers are passionate about the game they create, players will be passionate about it, too.
How do you keep track of the huge number of ramifications?! Do you still use the same method, and how has it changed over time?
Most of it I know by heart, and it's fast and easy for me to look anything up. I have a master document with story events that are yet to come, and I have spreadsheets that I use to map out the story flow. I think most would be surprised by the lack of structure in these documents. Everything is written as bullet-point ideas, not in terms of variables and decision trees. This method works well because I work alone, but it wouldn't work at all with a team. As episodes are released, everything in the game acts as a track record that can be used to complement the documentation I have for future releases. And now, as we're closing in on the end of the game, the documents I use to plan future content are getting shorter with every scene that I create. I have used this method for the better part of the game development.
I don't know if this question has been asked before. I find it impressive how you manage the countless decisions and paths of the main character. I would roughly estimate that we are at around 500 decisions (???) here. New paths are constantly being created, some of which then have to be "merged" again by subsequent decisions in order to keep the overview and development time within limits. What tools do you use to keep an overview here? I assume that you are using software here. An A0 sheet with a decision tree will certainly no longer be enough ;-)
I mostly rely on my brain. I don't make decision trees with the variables. I can look up every variable fast and easily in the code, and then think about how to use them. It is a lot to keep track of, and sometimes, I make mistakes that get patched. But I have never felt a need to use any software for this process. I think it would look worse than it does in my head if I could see the cluster of choices and how they affect each other.
I think I saw someone else asking this. You have mentioned you keep track of all the different routes. The players plating so many choice based routes, are having trouble keeping track, I know I am sometimes, maybe an idea of creating a route map of sort to help us track those?
Thanks
It's not a bad idea to have a route map, but it's something hard to design at this stage. Maybe it's something I could think of adding post-game, to see how you reached your ending. I like how Detroit: Become Human did it, but I'm not sure if it works when you have a lot more choices to account for. I think it would be messy trying to visualize all the choices.
Q: As a writer, I'm fascinated to know if you have any sort of method in how detailed you write out story beats and plot points.
My way of doing it is pretty simple, and I think that's why it works well. Let's say you wanted to write a story like this, just like with a good whodunnit, start at the end and build backward. That way, you can shape the events to fit the ending, and you get free foreshadowing.
As an example:
1. Write a plot twist or resolution you want to achieve.
2. Decide what is known at the start of the story. What the characters are like, etc.
3. Decide on a few major events that would help you shape the story toward the ending.
4. Flesh it out by adding more layers to it. Maybe another story? Maybe something that intertwines with the story you're writing?
That's how I planned the stories for the game. What people say is clever writing is actually just good, simple planning. It sounds less impressive when you break it down into those core parts, but when the story is read by someone without the knowledge of those steps, it works well.
If you would print out your flow charts, decision trees or whatever you are using to keep track of all the possible decision paths... how many sheets of A4 paper would be needed (given the fact, one can still read the content)? You do need to calculate that :-D I am just curious, how much that would be. Any other comparison to something, I can imagine would be also nice.
It's scary, but I keep a lot of content in my head. I also have a master document full of ideas that I use. However, I always delete the content I use from it, so about now – after 11 episodes - it's down to roughly 80 pages of a Word document. It might sound like a lot, but it's not.
Then, I have about 30 flowcharts with different content, some old and used and some for the future. I often create one flowchart per episode to map out the flow of scenes. Occasionally, I map out the trickier free-roam events with flowcharts, too.
I also have several files with dialogue and code for future episodes. Sometimes, I write important scenes ahead of time to ensure their accuracy.
While Being a Dik offers plenty of fun and comedic elements and deeply emphasizes on erotism and romance, you have explored a lot of mature and important topics like abusive parenting, grief, regrets, the lack of communication between partners or family members, sickness. Obviously, a lot of scenes have directly hit the fans in their feelings. As a Quinn Fan, I have particularly appreciated your take on self-hatred and unconscious self-sabotage in the latter episode. As a writer, do you find it compelling or challenging to switch between such different tones ?
It's compelling to write about those topics, but it's a big challenge, too. For example, in episode 11, I was concerned about how to handle the heavy-hitting drama while later being able to switch and keep the episode fun. I ended up putting the drama on both ends of the episode while keeping the middle part a bit lighter. How do you go from something horrible to something fun without removing the impact of the drama? How do you insert a lewd scene and make it enjoyable when the drama is too intense? It's a big challenge to nail the flow of scenes and change in tone, but it's also something the story needs because no one wants to be bummed out all the time. I can't describe how I do it, but I'm definitely deliberate in how I switch the tone of the game. When I play the episode and feel that something is off with the flow, I analyze it and move scenes around to make it fit better.
How do you fill out branches w scenes? Can you give an example?
In each episode, I think about the story I want to tell for each branch. I plan the branch, turn ideas into scenes, and pace them throughout the episode. Each episode often has some theme, and I try to make the branched content elevate that. As has been the case so far, I plan for at least one lewd scene for each branch and think about how/when/where, etc. The hardest part is balancing the content between the different branches. I don't want one branch to feel short while another feels long, but if that happens, I try to compensate for it in the next episode. It's a very fluid process that hinges on the story I want to tell as a whole for that branch.
One thing I've always appreciated about your writing is that every single character in the story has their own unique personality, which I've found lacking in some books, tv shows, movies etc. So I'm curious, when you're writing what's your process of being able to keep track of all the different personalities and making sure all their dialogue fits into the personas you've developed over the years?
It is a lot of characters to keep track of, but I don't find it very difficult to step into their mind. When I write for a character, I put myself in their shoes and try to think like them. All the while remembering that they have their own free will and motivations. The rule I follow is that they shouldn't shape their personalities and actions based on what some other character wants without a proper reason for it. The writing shouldn't be too convenient if that makes sense.
One of the lessons that stuck with me when studying how to write better is to have characters disagree a lot. A lot more interesting dialogue falls out of two characters with different motivations than those in complete sync.
I think extra about the vocabulary I use for every character, too. How would they talk? What kind of words would they use? Is grammar important to them? Can I change the sentence somehow to make it sound more them? I rewrite a lot of dialogue during development, and I find it best to write without overthinking whenever I write a scene from scratch. The cleaning-up process and tweaking the dialogue can come after if needed.
How do you decide between using proper grammar in dialogue vs grammatical inaccuracies/colloquialisms that many people, especially young, often use?
It's hard, but I try not to overthink this. When the episode is complete, and it's time to polish the game in alpha and beta testing, grammar usually gets an overhaul when needed. Before that, I write with the character in mind and try to choose words depending on how I want them to be perceived. Smarter characters often get smarter words and vice versa. I could probably take it a lot further with slang and bad grammar, but I've decided to keep it at a level that doesn't make the player focus too much on grammar issues and focus more on what's being said.
Is there any issues with making content relatable to US/Euro/Asian markets? I know from info in the game that its set in the US, but some of the set pieces feel very European/Asian
I don't think a lot about it, and I wouldn't even call it an issue. I obviously write about what I know, and the mix of Europe and America shows in the game. I can't speak about what you find Asian in the game, but I'm happy you could relate to that. I think as long as the people in the game are relatable, the rest doesn't matter as much. I never really thought about what is the target demographic of the game. But apparently, it sells all over the world even so.
Given that you work BaD on a very nearly daily basis, has there ever been a point you felt like you hit a dead end storywise and didn't know which way to go? If so can you name some examples and how you managed to re-inspire yourself.
There haven't been any dead ends because I planned the stories well. A dead end would be the result of writing something on the fly without knowing how it would be resolved, and I don't work that way. However, there have been times when I felt like the dialogue wasn't coming to me. I knew what the scene would be, but the words I wrote came out as garbage. When that happens, I put that scene on hold and work on something else. That usually helps. Some issues need to be marinated for a while before a solution comes to mind. I find it easier to solve issues early in the morning with a fresh mind, and knowing that, it's easier to postpone those issues to another day when I encounter them.
I was curious would you ever do a behind the scenes on how your process works?
Not in its entirety. I wouldn't feel comfortable showing everyone how I work, what tools I use, etc. I'd be happy to talk about some of the tools I use and share the general process, but I would avoid getting into details. I think of it as keeping company secrets and preserving personal integrity. Last year, I had an art day on my Discord server where I showed the process of creating art and some of the steps involved. It was very fun, and I felt the community appreciated it.
I was thinking about this while I was playing through. I believe I remember you saying that you know the general direction the story is going to go in and how the branches will play out, but do you ever scrap an idea on the fly or do something different than your original plan while developing an episode that may change the trajectory of the overall story in the long run? And if so do you have any examples of what was changed?
Sometimes, I pre-emptive plot points, and sometimes they get delayed. One example I've given in the past is the DIK's Hell Week that ended up taking the entire Season 1 and spilling into Season 2. That was not supposed to happen. It was supposed to be dealt with within 1-2 episodes tops. As a result, the pace of Season 1-2 was slower, which made the entire game longer. I didn't think we would be here in episode 12 and the game wouldn't be finished. I thought I could finish this game in 5 years or so. That's what happens when you make such changes to the story flow, introduce more and more plot, and keep building upon it.
I've also said this in a past Q&A: I'm not against changing the stories if I find out that the planned endings/resolutions don't work or if something else comes up along the way that I didn't anticipate. But so far, I haven't changed anything major.
Also, while having recap of a season or chapter have you thought of implementing a quick selection of choices to ease replayability during reruns?
No, it wouldn't work well with this game. The game has too many variables that you, as a player, create while making all kinds of choices. To simulate that, you lose callbacks and nuances that I meticulously placed to tailor the experience to your playthrough. I think it would cheapen the experience, and I didn't want to create a game that was quick to play – I wanted a long adventure that respected your choices. The drawback with that kind of game is that it takes a long time to play, but I feel the reward of the tailored story is worth it.
My question is about a mechanism to review the choices made in an episode. The game has massive content and by the same nature of the episodic release of the content sometimes a long time has elapsed between the time when an episode has been played and the continuation of the story.
Do you think that it would be technically possible to implement some kind of mechanism to review all the choices made in an episode (and this is besides the overview of main choices and the bio resume for each character, already implemented and useful as they are, of course)?
And if such mechanism were technologically possible, do you think you could find the time and means to implement it for the next (and in an ideal world, for the previous) chapters? (I envision some kind of video replay of the whole of an episode, but of course any way to have a full review of the choices in an episode, if at all possible, would be welcome.)
You make a lot of choices in each episode. The variables in the game are in the thousands by now. While technically possible, implementing such a system would require a lot of work, and not all of the choices you make are tracked. The Bios app has the most important events and choices listed, and that's how things will stay. I understand that it's an issue remembering what you did if you have many save files to keep track of. But the Bios app and episode recaps should be sufficient to find out what you need.
I love the addition of the dialogue tracker in season 3! Really appeals to completionist tendencies in me. I was wondering if you could describe how that works a bit? I've noticed that it's global across saves, and it appears that single line dialogue changes move the ticker about .02% per frame. But how does it calculate the percentage? Is based on the total game script? Does it account for scenes from season 1&2 as well, or is it only tracking dialogue from season 3, even if that dialogue is a consequence from the earlier episodes? Will there be a system in the future to track or hint towards which scenes still haven't been viewed? I'm sitting at 92% and while I love the game, I'm hitting the point where I just don't have the time to start new games for half a percent if I don't know where it'll come from.
I'm happy that it appeals to the completionist in you. I don't think many—if any—will see 100% completion. The purpose of adding the tracker was to give players a sense of how much content they might be missing. There's a lot more to the game and its branches than finding all the lewd scenes and renders, and seeing how much you have missed out on might inspire you to play again.
The tracker is actually a native RenPy function that I subclassed. It compares how many "say statements" you've seen to the total number of say statements in the game. A say statement is any time dialogue is shown at the bottom of the screen. The phone content and mini-games normally don't count. For now, it only tracks Season 3, which was included as a test to see if it was fun for players. I will consider adding it to earlier seasons in the future.
With how it's designed, it's impossible to say which scenes or variations of scenes you are missing. The only way of knowing if you found a new piece of dialogue is by skipping through the dialogue with either CTRL or TAB and having "Skip seen text" set to disabled in preferences. That way, the game will stop skipping when you hit a new piece of dialogue.
To give you an estimate of how much you're actually missing, in the current version of the game (v0.11.1), 4% is roughly equal to all the dialogue found in the Interlude. So, that means you're missing two Interludes worth of dialogue, with 92% of the dialogue seen. The downside about the seen dialogue tracker is that every typo or irreversible change in the code during a patch to a newer version will reduce the tracker percentage.
My question is one of gameplay I am curious I know nothing would happen like this would happen until development of the entire game is complete any plans on adding prior chat history and rooster clucks to the new cell phone which is activated at the start of episode 7. rather than starting over with a new history as it is right now.
My second question is along similar lines but I thought the dialogue tracker was a nice touch will that be implemented game wide down the road
The old phone code structure was (and is) a mess. It was cleaner and easier not to have any of the code from it when the change to the new phone happened. Also, the number of Rooster posts by episode 8 made the Rooster app harder to navigate, as the scrollbar decreased in size further with every new entry. Those are some of the reasons why I didn't carry over the old posts to the new phone.
Back when the new phone was introduced, RenPy started behaving weirdly, and I experienced performance issues with the game. I was unsure of the reasons behind it and figured that the phone might be a performance hog. That also factored into this design.
Yes, the dialogue tracker would be added to Seasons 1 and 2 in a remaster. It's a nice way of visualizing how much of the game you have experienced.
One of the reasons I feel comfortable playing your game is because from the get-go you have managed to tell a story of love and conflicts based on personalities, while incorporating people of different ethnicities and sexual orientations. To me it is important that the games I play were created by decent people, and your writing gives me that peace of mind.
I have wondered a few times whether - with recent years having shown such a growth of a toxic attitude towards people who are "different" - you might have had to deal with people hating on the game for that, and whether patreon is supportive to creators in such cases (when the hate is coming from patreon users).
Thank you. That makes me happy to hear. I try to be a decent person, and when I write, I always try to respect the character I'm writing for. Sure, there are a lot of edgy and mean jokes in the game, but they are just jokes. I always try to balance that so that there's a good back-and-forth. I don't try to pander to any group of people. I believe there are good and bad people regardless of ethnicity, religious beliefs, political views, sexual orientation, etc. It's all human nature, and that's what I want to write about.
The Internet isn't a real place. Give a person a sense of anonymity and a keyboard, and it can reveal some nasty sides. The general tone online these days is very hateful. And, like many, I get to deal with that daily. And because of having to deal with that daily, you get used to it. It's very easy for me to brush it off and not engage. I don't take the things people say about me personally - they don't even know me; why would I take offense? And the person writing nasty things might be going through some hard times in life themselves.
In the end, I'm just making entertainment. If someone is mad at me for trying to entertain... I don't know what to say. It's just a game. You don't have to play it if you don't like it.
I have the tools I need to deal with moderation, and Patreon has never been against using the tools the way I have. I think they are very supportive as long as creators ask for the help they need. In general, I think my community is very supportive, and I receive a lot of love, too.
After the release of an episode, do you take time to review your processes to see if there are ways to speed up or improve it? If so, is there something you're aiming to improving during the development of episode 12?
I always do that, and not just when an episode is released; that happens during development as well. I always evaluate render speed and methods used, but there comes a point where you find yourself at max capacity, and something will always be the bottleneck. I hope to upgrade my PCs during the next development cycle, but there are several big hurdles in doing so, since the 5090 generation has introduced issues in how I use my software. Sadly, this next-gen introduced problems to my workflow and isn't just a quick plug-and-play operation. So, we'll see what happens in this area. I will take it slow and not make any rash decisions until I know more.
With the success of Being a Dik and the expanded render time seeming to be the choke point in the development do you have any plans to build more machines to do renders to speed up the release cycle? And at this time how many rigs do you have doing renders?
I hope that I can upgrade my systems to the latest and greatest generation of GPUs, but some issues prevent me from doing so. First, there's the availability. GPUs continue to be in short supply. But even if I had all the 5090 GPUs that I would want today, I couldn't even use them because the software I use hasn't been upgraded to support them.
I currently have a double-digit number of 4090s, and I'm at full capacity when it comes to power grid management. We'll see what I can do in the future, and I will evaluate and try to improve whenever there's a chance.
New brawler is awsome but I find the new direction fonts very confusing because of the both sides are sharp. Sometimes just because I see the Sharp edge I press right instead of left. Is it possible to make "Use Legacy Fonts" or "Use New Fonts" kinra selection screen?
I'm unsure if you mean fonts or the arrow design. I think the fonts are legible enough, but it took me some time to get accustomed to the new arrow design in the updated version of Brawler, too. I'm not planning on offering a choice in how Brawler looks. There's a lot more to it than just swapping a font or graphical element. For instance, you need to check the alignment of GUI elements when you make a change in design. I hope you, with some practice, will get used to the new look of Brawler.
Do you use any type of AI tool to help you code like ChatGPT/Claude/CoPilot?
No. I haven't touched a single AI tool, privately or professionally. I don't like the idea of using AI in writing or creating art.
Do you have any plans to add an AI/Human voice dub for the story of the past seasons? This game is so good that I can only think of this improvement.
I answered the AI part in the previous question, but real voice acting is a different question. I did consider having it early on. Players who discovered the game back in 2019 got to hear Jill and Bella being voiced in Episode 1. It was a test that I scrapped because it would require way too much work. I didn't have the budget for it back then, either. Today, adding voice acting to this game is a daunting task, and it will take a long time to add. Also, finding voice actors/actresses for it would be a pain. I'm fairly sure I won't add it to this game, but I'm not opposed to adding it to another game.
Any chance for Spotify music update? The soundtrack was offline for quite a while
I'm not uploading anything to Spotify. Anything that gets put on Spotify and claims it's a soundtrack of the game or similar is being done through piracy – unless it comes from the artists themselves. You can't put soundtracks on Spotify without the artists' consent. I haven't uploaded anything on Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere else, for that matter. I respect the licenses I purchase and acquire. If you're consuming the songs from the game in that way, you're contributing to copyright infringement and theft from the real artists. That's all I will say on this matter.
What's 2 +2
A fun time.
Do you wear wigs?
Only at Halloween. And boy, do I rock those.
What part of interacting with your community do like most and least?
The parts I enjoy the most are joking around and trying to make people laugh. The least? Uhhh... Probably when people come at you from nowhere with a bad attitude. I don't mind helping players with issues, but there's no need to be angry or rude when making that first contact.
What have you been playing recently? Be it other AVNs or other types of games in general.
"Super Mario party Jamboree" and "Ship of Fools" with friends, and "Balatro" alone. I fucking love Balatro.
People refer to you as DPC, Doc, Pink and a few other names. Do you prefer any of those when mentioned or talked to?
I like Pink the most, but it doesn't matter what you call me.
I wonder, how do you find all these extremely good songs and fit them in at the right scenes? There's so much variation.
It's hard to describe something that I take for granted. I've always loved music, and I rarely limit the genre to which I listen. I love songs that speak with a melody, and that's what I look for when deciding on songs or when I create them myself. And I never slap a song on a scene without considering if it fits first. I've answered this question in greater detail in a past Q&A. It all boils down to acknowledging the power that music can have in elevating a scene.
If you had unlimited resources and unlimited time (in some kind of Room of Spirit and Time kind of situation), what kind of game would you make?
Interesting question... Hm... I'd probably turn Being A DIK into a non-VN type of game. Similar graphics, but in a 3D world that you'd walk around in and forward the stories on a day-to-day basis. Like a weird mix of games like Bully, Yakuza, and Persona. The theme and feel should be the same as in the VN version, but transferred into this 3D world where you walk around and interact more. It would be fully voiced and animated, and I would be able to purchase music licenses that aren't royalty-free.
With my very limited programming knowledge, I assume that deciding if a specific scene plays or not is a combined statement of if/else statements. If that's how it works, what was the longest/most complex scene so far?
Yes, you can reduce it to that, and often, it's a nest of expressions that determine if a scene will happen or not. There are many complex scenes in the game where the branching within them requires lots of afterthought and thorough planning. Off the top of my head, I'd say that the Halloween free roam event was the trickiest to get right. The best costume scene required some careful planning of how characters would appear in images and such. The choice of girl and branch in episode 8 was also complex. An analysis of the MC's entire dating history is required to determine which choices were presented to the player. On-screen, you only see up to five different choices: Josy & Maya, Jill, Sage, Isabella, and Others, but in the backend code, there are 18 different combinations of outcomes of what is presented. Some dialogue is also tricky to write because of many variables. Most recently, Jade has been trickier to write than normal because of Sage and what you've done with Jade and/or Sage in the past. I enjoy writing and coding complex scenes, but there's always a fear that I forget to add a scenario. The complexity will only get worse from here on out until the end.
When you are creating mini games, where do you get those inspirations from?
Inspiration comes from a lot of places: board games, other games, and core mechanics. I enjoy resource management games and strategy. I believe that's why the two most popular mini-games are the mansion restoration mini-game and the party planning mini-game. I also had the most fun creating both of those; I think that shines through. For the classes, I thought about what mini-game would be appropriate for each class. The English class was inspired by Rockstar's Bully. IQ tests inspired the early Math class. The Gender studies class was humor-inspired. I laughed at the sheer thought that I would make players remember useless drivel to be able to pass the class. (And I still laugh at that thought.) I try to come at every new mini-game from a different angle to keep it fresh and fun.
Do you come up with mini game mechanics and then find a way to implement it into the game or do you have areas where you want to have a game and then brainstorm ideas? For example the painting mini game, did the mechanics for the game or the need for it to exist come first?
The mechanics of the painting mini-game were derived from the drinking mini-game. It was an easy way to create a mini-game with a spin in a short time. However, it's probably the mini-game I like the least. The best mini-games come from a place where I sit down and plan them meticulously beforehand. I usually sit down with a notepad and doodle until I have a good idea. Then, I improve my notes before I start writing code. The art for the mini-game is usually placeholders at first, meaning I don't put a lot of effort into them early. After a while, I see if the mini-game will be good or bad, and then I decide to continue improving it or scrap it.
These are two of my doodles for something that should be familiar to you.
Why did you decide on ren'py over engines like Unity or Unreal?
Ease of use, really. When I started making games, I checked what everyone else was working with, and RenPy seemed like the simplest way to create a game quickly. It has its limitations, and I sometimes wish I could work with Unity instead, but I'm not making the switch midgame. Same with rendering tools, I'm getting more interested in Blender, but I don't want to delay or mess up my development by fiddling with it. I think RenPy is the best VN engine, but if you want to make another type of game or implement mini-games, I wouldn't go with RenPy. And that's why I've been eyeing other engines. RenPy doesn't handle real-time events very well. I tried making a guitar rhythm mini-game. I got it working perfectly on my PC. I tested it on a few other PCs, and the delay caused by hardware and lag made it fail. The rhythm was off, and I couldn't find a way to fix it to have the fidelity I desired. It's a real shame because it came out good, other than the lag.
I had to shelf the guitar mini-game because of performance issues using RenPy. The video in the attachments below shows how it plays on a PC without lag.
How do you stay motivated when working on long-term projects?
I look at smaller parts of the project at the time. I don't zoom out and try to look at all of it at once; that could be demotivational. I focus on that smaller part of the project. Complete it. Then, I'm on to the next task. And before you know it, you're going places. I can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm working on episode 12 now. What motivates me now is to see it through to the end and to keep my promise of doing that. There are days when I wake up and feel like I don't have the energy to work, but I always work on what seems fun, and that's also progress.
What keeps you motivated between releases? I mean, what helps you tackle an extremely tough render or write such amazing dialogue?
My wife, pets, family, friends, working out, playing board games, going to dinner parties, watching hockey, reading, playing games, nature, hiking, taking breaks, movies, TV shows... The list goes on, but it's all about enjoying life and catching small breaks here and there. Since working with the game is a lot of fun, that helps with motivation, too.
The best way for me to handle something tricky is to do it early in the morning. Somehow, that's often when I solve tricky issues.
You've been working on this from what I can tell almost non stop. How are you able to avoid burning out? Some of these backstories you have written for these girls are very powerful and gut-wrenching! Thank you for all that you do!
I think that's just how I'm built. I love what I do, and I'm quite stress-resilient. To love what you do for a living is a blessing. But yes, sometimes too much of a good thing could result in burnout, too. But so far, I haven't felt any of it. I always laugh when this question is asked - and it is asked yearly. It seems like many of you expect me to burn out. Am I sending some signals or something?
Would you ever try to do a small horror genre project?
I would love to write horror, but I'm not sure if I ever will. I love horror movies, especially the ones that make you feel uneasy. I'm not so much for jump scares and gore. If I ever wrote a horror piece, it would be a realistic horror story with a mystery element.
It was fun writing the short horror stories during the Halloween episode, and I quickly realized how hard it was to make it scary in this format. I did write another horror story for that segment, but that didn't make it into the game. It was based on a true event that an old ex-girlfriend's mom told me had happened to her friend. Her friend was doing her laundry one day. She lived in an apartment complex, and the laundry room was in the basement of another building. When she got into the basement and walked the hallway toward the laundry room, she saw a man standing in the corridor just staring into the wall. She greeted him, but he didn't respond. She did her laundry and went back to her apartment. She was making dinner and felt a bit stressed once she realized that her laundry was done. She left the apartment in a hurry, without locking the door, and put the wet clothes in the dryer. She enjoyed dinner, watched a movie, and returned to pick up her dry clothes. And later that night, she went to bed. By her bed, she had a big beautiful mirror. Before she fell asleep, she glanced at the mirror and saw something underneath her bed. A man was lying there, holding a knife. It was the man from the basement. She froze and panicked but quickly realized the danger. She muttered something loudly about the laundry, like "Oh, no. I forgot the clothes in the dryer". She left the bed and went outside to call the police. That probably saved her life and taught her always to lock the door.
That story always sent shivers down my spine when she told it, but I didn't put a version of it in the game. I'm happy I got to share it now, though. Here is a fun bit of trivia: the woman who told me that story also suffered from sleep paralysis, and that story made it into the game.
Is it ever difficult for you to hold back and not engage in a discussion to protect the audience from spoilers?
Haha! Yes, at times, I have to walk away from the monitor. I wouldn't spoil things, so it's not that hard. But it's a fine line between getting involved in a discussion and saying something that will lead the discussion the "right way". Especially when I see someone being adamant about being right when they are completely wrong – that's when I have to bite my tongue. Most of what I say when I interact with people are jokes, trolling, or helping them with their game issues. I wish I could partake in the discussions more, but it's fulfilling watching them unfold, too.
If you had a choice between being aline with. Freddy Kruegor , Michael Myers, Jason or IT which would you pick?
Now, this is a good question... Hm... Let's analyze this for a bit, shall we?
Freddy Krueger is overpowered, isn't he? I mean, he can haunt you in your dreams and shape the nightmare into something terrifying... That's something I wouldn't want to experience at all. So, that's a big fat no to Freddy.
Both Michael Myers and Jason have a very high kill count. Michael Myers, having the highest, would make him the deadlier of the two. Based on that, Myers isn't the option I'd go with.
And that leaves IT.
And the IT department usually employs some gruesome nerds who don't want to help you with your computer problems or when the network is being a clown.
I'd go with Jason.
This was asked last yr but I would like to know if there's an updated answer. What are your plans after completing Being a DIK?
Immediately upon completion, and managing bugs, releases, patches, etc. Basically, when things calm down and everything is done, I will take a break and plan what's next. This lifestyle that I've been living comes with negatives. A lot of my real life has gotten put on hold. I'm not going to jump on a new project immediately after I'm done with this game. I do have a story in my head that is worthy of another game, but I can't promise that I'll keep making games after I'm done with Being A DIK. I have to think about the people in my life and put their best interests first after this project. I owe them that. But knowing me, I'll probably get bored real quick doing nothing... So, I guess time will tell. Starting a new project is a huge commitment, though, and I don't like doing things half-assed. I can see myself spending time remastering and remaking my already published content, too.
Once Being a Dik is complete (However long it takes), do you think your next game/project will be bigger or smaller than BaD and if it's on the bigger side, would you consider starting a team to delegate certain tasks to become more efficient?
If I create another game, it would be smaller. I don't want to work with a team. It's not for me. I'm more of a lone wolf when it comes to game development. I set too high expectations for myself, and that would create a bad environment with any team members failing to live up to the standard I'd want.
As your own boss, do you ever struggle with motivation to create? It would be easy to take a day or two off if you're the one approving leave
Motivational dips happen, but never to the extent that I don't want to work on the game. I change what I'm working on to get the motivation back. For me, it's the opposite of what you're describing. I feel guilty whenever I take a day off, and I rarely want to do it. When I think about my past jobs, I can definitely relate to what you're saying. But it's different when you love what you do for work; I can't get enough of work. But to stay motivated and healthy, I know that breaks are needed, and I'm better at taking them these days.
Hi DPC. In a previous Q&A you mentioned how you were working two full-time jobs in the beginning to get this whole project started. Today, I imagine since you are more established and have a fan base, you are able to manage work-life balance a lot better but during that two full-time jobs period, I am very interested in knowing; how did you manage your time? With two full-time jobs and basic necessities like sleeping a requirement, it’s hard for me to imagine how to improve time management. And this is excluding “nice to have” like a social life for example. Are you able to give a breakdown of your day to day schedule from back then? Thank you!
Ugh... Thinking about it makes me a bit sick, to be honest.
Back then, I slept for 4-6 hours, woke up, and got to my primary work before 6 a.m. I worked efficiently, and during every break, minor or major, I wrote dialogue for the game on my phone. Even during bathroom breaks, I worked on the game. At any given chance, I would cut down on my lunch break and use that time to leave work earlier. I got home and worked on the game until past midnight. Rinse repeat.
My social life and relationship with my wife took a big hit. I knew that I had something big going on with this opportunity, though, so we persevered through the rough initial years together.
It wasn't a good life back then. I was annoyed a lot, neglected family and friends to work on the game, and kept thinking about the game anytime that I had to spend time with family or friends (yes, "had to spend"—not "wanted to spend"—that's how I felt). If that had continued for much longer, I fear it would have ended game development, as it would have jeopardized my relationships.
I set a goal for myself and the business. I had a great job, with job security, at the time, but all I wanted to do was work with the game. So, if I reached that goal I set, I would resign and work full-time on the game.
When I released the first episode of Being a DIK, my popularity skyrocketed. I waited a few months extra after summer to make sure it wasn't just a short trend, and then I pulled the trigger. It was scary as hell to resign from safe work with great pay, but the moment I did, it felt like all the weight had come off my shoulders. Life after that has been amazing! I could work on the game and get to spend time with family and friends without stressing about the game. My relationships improved dramatically after this point.
I kept the extreme work hours for years to follow, but I got increasingly better at taking breaks from work. I still work seven days a week, but I put family and friends first whenever we want to do something together—family comes first, after all. It's been a hell of a journey, and in the end, the hard work paid off and was worth it.
Thanks for reading! That's it for this year's Q&A, I hope you have enjoyed it.
Love
Dr PinkCake
Comments
Scott
By the time Quinn makes the call Riona has already had a bad night.
Thrall
Hi! Is there a chance you would add content to existing episodes? I would love to see a path where we can answer Quin's call and save Riona even if it meant the game ending soon after for continuity purposes. I understand her absence in the next episode would mean a whole lot of revisiting and work for little payoff so its not very realistic but I just love that cute goth and want her to be safe and happy ;-; >_< xD
Ignacius
Fellow hockey fan! Who's your favorite team? (any league!)
roman kulik
Thanks Pink again for such insight. I read through q&a and cant find if somebody asked but what guitar do you use? Everybody ask about about coding and rendering but what interests me is you music so if you can say what specific guitar you use in your music would be nice
Charles S
This was great. Thanks so much ... as far as decisions and consequences, maybe I'm wrong but I've always found it interesting that there's no route to Jill if you reject one specific "opportunity", but someone like Sage is infinitely more "forgiving". It's just one reason I feel closer to Sage than Jill, she isn't as naive and childish. Hope I'm being vague enough so as not to spoil anything for anyone new to the game.
brawlercable
Absolute legend! Great read. I’m drying to know what’s behind that door. Bella is my girl but I’m getting major Norman Bates vibes from her now since the end of season 11
