Rorasuketo Dev Blog

If you haven't played a demo yet, head to rorasuketo.win and grab the latest. In this new demo, you can get a new job, shop for gifts to your teammates, and endure a short series of drills to join the roller derby team. It ends on a nice little cliffhanger that I think is appropriate for a demo. It's been so long since I put out the last demo (two years?) that I can't remember what other improvements I may have made. Presumably, though, there are a few!

I have spent the last day toiling away on graphical assets and officially pushed the "submit for review" button. We'll see what happens next. Here's the preview that I can see, at least: The Japanese in the subheader of the logo is a little treat for the manga fans and gives a little taste of that influence. I'm not putting the subheader in  all  of the promotional materials because the game is in English and I don't want to give the wrong impression. Previously, the subheader was all katakana, but I seem to have dialed in the right kanji. At least, Google Translate seems to think so. Phew. I also realized that in my own Steam store, I have filtered out the tag "Sports" (I played a little  Mutant League Football  when I was a kid, but even then, I was randomly selecting plays), so hopefully that will not do any harm in the scheme of the almighty algorithm. Prioritizing tags was very difficult, but in the end I listed the first five as: JRPG Skating*...

This post contains a mild spoiler. One of the things I try to do is give Rorasuketo a bit more of a Japanese flavor. I am not necessarily what I would call a "weeb," but I have played a lot of games from Japan, some with the occasional strange translation (spoony bard!). I have watched both Fullmetal Alchemists all the way through, and I collect Yotsuba and Black Jack manga. Of course I love me a Studio Ghibli film. But 90% of the time, if you ask me if I have heard of a manga/anime/band, I will probably say no. As someone with a lot of white guilt, who tries to be hyper aware of power dynamics, I wrestle a bit with the idea of injecting Japanese culture into the game - or at least my second- or third-hand interpretation of Japanese culture. In a way, I consider Rora's tongue-in-cheek references fair game due to the massive influx of such media into the west. My little game does not have the power of the Nintendo corporation. I am sure my translations in places are ro...

I have this dreadful personal flaw where I tend to operate under the assumption that other people know the things I know. I don't mean to be rude or confusing or annoying. I just spend so much time rummaging around in my own neurotic head that I forget other people's heads might work differently. So when I'm writing dialogue for seven skaters,  I  know the differences between them. But a cast of seven Affection-garnering NPCs is kind of a lot for a 4-hour game, especially when those NPCs are always gathered in the same physical location, all more feminine-leaning in gender, and all  wearing   uniforms. Maybe this is why no one's made a game like this. It's a fool's errand! All that to say: I'm adding a diary in Kady's apartment where you can look up your teammates' names, portraits, Affection level, what gifts they like, and what's happened on your dates (if any). You're welcome, player.   I remember playing video games in the '90s, like...

  These kinds of things are always subject to change, but I thought I'd share what it looks like about now. And what it looks like about now is... almost like a real game. I enjoy the cast, and having a more horizontal graphic was going to fit better than a full-length skater on the screen, so I thought I'd put our skaters front and center. Just kind of smash 'em all in there. Lots of color, lots of personality, lots of possibilities.

I'm happy to say I'm getting somewhere after fighting through the fog! Stats are aligning with some of the minigame mechanics in what will hopefully be a semi-balanced way. Gifts and Affection points are on the up-and-up. Previously, with one particular skater, a $5 gift gave 2 Affection points and a $15 gift garnered 3. Huh?! I think I know what I was trying  to do with that, but it's just tedious for a game of this (short) length. You can expect a dollar value and an Affection bonus to be at a fairly solid ratio in  Rorasuketo . I won't try to bamboozle or irritate anybody. I'm also inserting a Hunger mechanic. HP drains a little during the story and a lot during derby bouts. Similar to the Confidence mechanic, the game will contain certain checkpoints. You can let things slide sometimes, but if your statistics aren't taken care of at certain critical moments, the story suffers. This is my answer to lacking a classic JRPG system but still wanting food around. ...

I did a cool thing this weekend, which was to drop $100 USD on a Steamworks account. This means I can soon start developing a Steam page for Rorasuketo , and maybe this will light a little bit of a fire under my ass to get this thing done. Not sure when I'll actually publish the page - and whether it will exist as "coming soon" or only after it's ready for purchase - but I've at least put in an investment that goads me into putting something out there. Homework hasn't piled up yet, but I am still feeling a little worn out from the winter break work blitz, so I am meeting in the middle by doing what I'll call "nuts and bolts." You could also call it quasi-procrastination. Deciding where Achievements are going to go, making checklists to ensure I don't miss anything before exporting the final product, writing the walkthrough, deciding price points, that kind of thing. Dare I even say I networked a little bit with a Let's Player with about 5...