Blog Post: Current State of Missing Stars

[keviniskool]

It's a no holds barred discussion of our development status. You can check it out here.

You can also ask us questions below, and we'll try to get to them.

[Al Capwned]

So I guess I'll ask the first question. Given that the team is in dire needs of an artists, how close is the project close to falling through? (I may be able to spread the word to some locals that I know, provided that the project is in critical condition, and their schedule allow)

[MagmaBeatles]

I'd help out, but I'm 98% sure that drawing random shapes in MS Paint doesn't count as "art."

[keviniskool]

So I guess I'll ask the first question. Given that the team is in dire needs of an artists, how close is the project close to falling through? (I may be able to spread the word to some locals that I know, provided that the project is in critical condition, and their schedule allow)

Honestly? Really close to falling through. Everything has moved along except art for about the past year. Part of the reason we never showed anything in the past is that we couldn't show a complete image of progress due to a lack of art assets. We would always get new artists, they would do one of our special holiday blog posts, then leave. Looking back, it was largely due to mismanagement of the art workflow and never putting down our feet and saying "this is what Missing Stars should look like". We would let artists try their own look, we would say "that looks nice", then just idle until they went away since no one wanted to say "that won't fit in with anything else, regardless of how good it looks."

We decided we aren't doing that anymore, since it clearly doesn't get usable results. We have a style now, and we're sticking with it. Rather than go with the KS model of having each girl drawn by a different person, we now have artists assigned to various stages of the drawing process so each character looks more consistent. Now instead of having 5-6 artists try to match everyone else's style in terms of proportions, coloring, and everything else, we only require artists match each other in their own part of the drawing process. With this model we would have quite a few line artists, a few colorists, and some CG drawers, rather than a "Katja artist", a "Holm twins" artist, etc.

In short, if you have friends, we would love to have them, because we really are that close to falling through.

[TonyTwoFingers]

"Falling through" of course being industry lingo for "taking lots more time than estimated on art."

[sky]

"Falling through" of course being industry lingo for "taking lots more time than estimated on art."

Thank you for clarifying that right away, I almost suffered a panic attack.

[keviniskool]

What can I say, Al Capwned wanted "critical condition", we want artists.

[Al Capwned]

So I guess I'll ask the first question. Given that the team is in dire needs of an artists, how close is the project close to falling through? (I may be able to spread the word to some locals that I know, provided that the project is in critical condition, and their schedule allow)

Honestly? Really close to falling through. Everything has moved along except art for about the past year. Part of the reason we never showed anything in the past is that we couldn't show a complete image of progress due to a lack of art assets. We would always get new artists, they would do one of our special holiday blog posts, then leave. Looking back, it was largely due to mismanagement of the art workflow and never putting down our feet and saying "this is what Missing Stars should look like". We would let artists try their own look, we would say "that looks nice", then just idle until they went away since no one wanted to say "that won't fit in with anything else, regardless of how good it looks."

We decided we aren't doing that anymore, since it clearly doesn't get usable results. We have a style now, and we're sticking with it. Rather than go with the KS model of having each girl drawn by a different person, we now have artists assigned to various stages of the drawing process so each character looks more consistent. Now instead of having 5-6 artists try to match everyone else's style in terms of proportions, coloring, and everything else, we only require artists match each other in their own part of the drawing process. With this model we would have quite a few line artists, a few colorists, and some CG drawers, rather than a "Katja artist", a "Holm twins" artist, etc.

In short, if you have friends, we would love to have them, because we really are that close to falling through.

Okay, I'll let them know. I can't guarantee that they will be able to help. But artist know other artist, right?

[sky]

What can I say, Al Capwned wanted "critical condition", we want artists.

[Likhos]

Well, nice to see some activity at last.

[Blossomforth]

Aw, I was hoping we were relatively close to a demo release. Like before December. Oh well.. I should be happy the project even made it this far. Few tend to.

[Mr Immortal]

I'm just glad to hear the project is still alive and kicking. Even if you think you are falling behind, well done for everything you have done so far

[EasternCitrus]

Yay! News!
Any way, while everyone is distracted by the need for artists, can I ask about the programming? You say you're having problems with it, but the programming behind a visual novel seems rather basic, or is there something I'm missing?

[raithfyre]

There aren't any specific problems with programming yet. It's just sorta a given that there will be some, even if they're simple to fix. Ren'Py is notoriously buggy, plus there's operator-error, etc.