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Art for TLS: Thoughts and Questions
🕑 Added 2019-04-06 01:42:22 +0000 UTCAlright, everybody, this is the post where we talk about art and TLS. It involves some pretty major decisions, so this would be a great time to give your input. I'll reference it again, but see above for another scene from Annikath, this time directly from the game.
Core Questions
Do we want TLS to have art? Though a vocal minority answers in the negative, the response from the last art post was largely positive, so the general plan is to move forward. To those who prefer to imagine the scenes themselves, rest assured that you'll have an option in the menu to disable all images.
Another major question is what kind of art. The previous picture Annikath did was in a painterly style, whereas the above is soft-shaded. We think that's the style that would probably work best for the whole game, but feel free to chime in on this. At this stage we can still change direction easily.
One substantial question is how many variants each scene would have. The end of the spectrum where every action is displayed is not possible for this project - the orgy scenes would utterly sink such an effort. The other end of the spectrum is each scene having only a single scene that captures the overall feel of it. Points in between are also possible - see the bottom of the post for examples in this case.
Finally, there's the question of how to go about the task of drawing such a massive number of scenes. On this one I have a fairly strong opinion: I think we should first do all the scenes for Chapter 1 first (~16 core scenes), then try to do a scene for each major character, then go back and start filling in other scenes. Though I think this would give the start of the game a more finished feel and hopefully get new players hooked on the characters, I'm open to reconsidering this if people have other thoughts.
Cosmetic Questions
This section is very open to everyone's opinions, so please speak up! Basically, we need to make some decisions about visual details that didn't matter before now. If there's anything you think should be addressed that isn't here, feel free to bring that up too.
1) How do people feel about body hair on the women? You'll notice I just don't talk about this in the text scenes, because I've found people have strong opinions. While it seems weird to me to imagine Aka or Hilstara taking time out to shave their legs, I know this issue tilts a lot of people. (Regardless, succubi are naturally hairless.)
2) Extension of the above: pubic hair, same question and same reasons. I think we can and should have some variety here, but still feel free to give opinions.
3) Likewise, body hair on Simon? I'm partial to the look seen in the above image, but I suspect this one will not be very controversial.
4) Trickier question: how many scars should Simon have? While it makes sense that he'd have many, they also increase the difficulty of drawing him repeatedly. Thoughts on this?
5) Should we have Simon's body de-age in the beginning of the game? Canonically this occurs, but it isn't reflected in his faceset and I doubt too many people want to see an old dude in a bunch of scenes.
6) Changing gears entirely, there's a question of how we should approach the prologue scenes. While I am still very fond of the idea of surprising people with the prologue twist... it seems like pretty much everyone who continues playing already had people tell them about it. To that end, I am strongly considering having the prologue scenes be done in a caricatured style, with crude drawings showing the Chosen's own view of himself. If the game is promoted with the real CGs hopefully this will convince people to play past the prologue, but in any case thoughts are welcome.
Procedure Questions
Assuming we move forward with this large endeavor, there are also various secondary artistic projects. Annikath is committed to the project, but she only has so much time. Therefore, speak up about how important you feel the following are, as uses of our time.
1) How much time should be spent on SFW scenes? It wouldn't be as if huge numbers of scenes would be illustrated with SFW art, but I think some would be appropriate. Please state your general feelings on devoting time to this sort of thing.
2) Should we spend time on character references for all the main cast? I've already devoted a large block of time to making profiles for everyone so that the characters stay consistent (like Hilstara having a muscular body). Doing references for everyone would help consistency, but be a large timesuck at the very beginning.
3) Should we put effort into redrawing facesets? The extreme end of this would be to redraw many of them to make the cast look more unique, but obviously that's a ton of work, plus I suspect people are attached to the current faces. Opinions welcome in any case.
4) What about unique enemy art? There are some cases where the enemy battlers don't exactly match the facesets/sprites, and we could make those more consistent. This one would definitely not be a huge project - most of the battlers are fine, we just have the option of making some of them unique to the game.
Variations
Here is an example of variations showing the emotional arc of the scene:
There are some slight shading differences, but that is entirely on me because I didn't notice them. Ignoring that, feel free to comment on how much or little such variations add to scenes for you. It's more work, but if it doesn't involve redrawing bodies it's not massive amounts of work.
All in all, this is something I wasn't sure would ever happen, but we're seriously discussing it now. ^-^ Since we need to lay a solid foundation for the rest of the game, please be open about any and all opinions!
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Comments
Sierra Lee
Thanks for your thoughts! I hope to start with some basic NSFW images for everyone and then advance from there.
Sierra Lee
Thanks for your thoughts! A method of making it optional is certain.
Pheebor
My quick 2c is that scene variations, the sorts you mentioned previously without much redrawing, can have a powerful subliminal effect. Ok, that was 1c, so I suppose here is the other. Big moments and establishing shots, one each for the major characters at least, one each for the major locations, and one image (or one variation set) for the major plot set pieces. I believe that these would give the greatest bang/buck. Some NSFW would be appreciated of course but I wouldn't go overboard; I believe that TLS has long ceased to be a mere porn game, if ever it could have been called that. So it would be great to have a SWF and NSFW portrait of each of the major characters, but if budget and time is limited, I'd say the SFW one is more important. With that said, there are NSFW scenes of tremendous plot importance and impact, such as the scene with Aka, above, and what happens to Altina and Varia, and I'd say the first time with Robin is a pretty big moment.
Jordan Frank
I definitely think that more art for TLS is an undeniable positive, but I also think that making it non-optional would be a serious change from what the game is currently. I really appreciate being able to play the game wherever I like, and to discreetly breeze through the text-only sex scenes when I'm more excited to advance the story! I suppose you could count me firmly in the optional art camp.
