This game is very important to me. It wasn't exactly a passion project or anything, but it meant so much because it's based on a group of my closest friends that I met in a specific server and it's my favourite place to be. I really wanted to do something fun to honour them and encapsulate how fun and enjoyable the wild times we have are. There are 4 main topics to discuss with this project

• Originally an RPG maker project
• Frustrations with RPG maker
• The discovery of RPG developer b akin!
• completion!

Let's touch all the points!

Original RPG maker project

I first had the idea for the game years ago, way before bakin ever existed. It was going to be an rpg maker proejct, and so, i did all the art for all the locations myself in a grid-friendly manner. Here are what the original locations looked like

House exterior

I had always heard of 'parallax mapping' in rpg maker, but I really had to study and learn how to do it in order to make this game work. For my comprehension only, I highlight elements of the map that were meant to be 'above' the player in blue (so that the player could appear to be behind the trees if you walked behind them and such). and I highlighted interactable events in red.

Living room/first floor

once again, highlighted interactable events in red (only visible in the art program. it was purely for my own comprehension)

I was really proud of that spider web and tv for some reason

second floor.

I can't remember if I intended to keep the letters over the door  in the game? Maybe it was just for my own comprehension while doing the art. In the final bakin version, there's no indication of which door belongs to which cow, and i think that uncertainty makes it interesting.

Originally, you were meant to reach the roof by interacting with the toilet. a torrent of piss would shoot you up to the roof tor something. I can't remember why I didn't go with it, but I think it's a little more interesting that our "house" (discord server) is so unhinged and dysfunctional, that the only way to access the roof is to travel all the way outside bounce ur way inside through the damaged opening, lol.

The basement

I'm very grateful that bakin works easily with 2d assets. i was able to keep some of the art i did and use it in the final version. I think for certain the camera tripod and dog food were ported over into the bakin version as billboards? as well as the toilet drawing from above maybe?

What's missing from bakin version, unfortunately, is the countless tally marks along the wall. The girl in the basement has been a visitor for a very long time. Altho the atmosphere in the bakin version could be enhanced in other ways- such as dust particles, ambient sounds.. and it just looks "better" due to the graphics.

The items on the table are a reference to specific 'bang dream! girls band party' fanfiction i read... and THAT fanfiction was based on some my little pony fanfiction... i think it was called 'cupcakes' or something?

Megans room

Megan was originally intended to have her own room in the game! when i worked on the bakin version, i started learning about only creating what is necessary to ensure that a project would see completion. there's really no point or reason to come to megans room. theres no gameplay incentive (unlike with nyoppi) and it's just not interesting. 

When working on the bakin version, megan's location kinda shifted a lot actually. At first she was intended to be found on the roof, then i changed it to the basement (so she could tend to the girl). i can't remember why i changed it from basement tho. I think i changed it bc megan feels more like a free spirit who would actually be outside touching grass lol.

The roof

Megan was originally meant to be located on the roof, because for her quest, you were meant to go on a date with her and impress her LOL

Well, it was called a date, but it would've consisted of megan  sitting front row while the player tried to do a one-woman show and perform correctly in order to impress her. I think i ended up scrapping it beause i couldn't think of a way to make it interesting or fun. Plus it lowkey felt weird that her quest was to "date" her when... i've got my own bearfriend <3 so....

The office quest is much more interesting, a lot more involved, and fits in more with her personality-what with megan being an actual manager to her vtuber friend 

Faix' room

Kisa's room!

I'm so glad I got to reuse so many assets. The giant bear kinda bothers me sometimes bc i start to think it looks more like an otter or something if i stare too long...

Frustrations with RPG maker

Eventually, i came to feel as though i hit a wall with trying to work in the rpg maker engine. My main frustrations stemmed from the fact that the player character, a cow, had unusual dimensions.

You usually don't have to worry about strange collisions with a player character in rpg maker if your character is a normal, upright human.

My characters in this game are personified as cows. They are more horizontal, which resulted in a lot of awkward image layering.

1. the human can stand next to the tree fine and u wont notice the strange overlapping bc of how rpg maker works on grid system. The cow will always overlap strangely, even when right next to the tree.
2. I tried to get around this by giving the trees a wide berth, meaning, I tried to make it so that the player wouldn't be able to travel within a grid or two next to trees to prevent the overlap. but that just ended up making it so that there were a lot of invisible walls in the world and it felt frustrating and awkward to play around. Why can't I walk next to this tree??
3. I tried making it so that the entire tree leaves would be above the character, but ofc that felt silly too. even if u were standing directly in front of the tree, the leaves would overlap u and it was weird

This wasn't the case for JUST trees btw, it was for for nearly ANY tall buildings, items, etc. It's possible that there's a simple workaround and I was unaware because i was newly learning parallax mapping, but i never found a solution.  it frustrated me to no end. why wasnt there a simple way to handle this in rpg maker? it's meant to be a simple, no-coding engine! why isn't something like this innate??

Because of this setback, the project entered a kind of purgatory state. i really wanted to bring this project to life because It meant so much to me to crate something based on me and my friends that i loved so much, but i also had no desire to work on it because i was at a complete loss at how to resolve this strange image layering issue.

The discovery of RPG developer bakin!

I discovered bakin thanks to the youtuber, @LvLUpDesign. Ironically, his latest, and final video on the channel is a video titled "I can't keep making RPG Developer Bakin Videos" LOL! 

He made 5 short tutorial videos that introduced bakin to his viewerbase and explained how to accomplish certain things in the engine. In his final video, however, he explains in an exasperated tone that he can't keep making videos regarding bakin bc he feels that the engine is nowhere near capable on making projects to a satisfactory standard (at that point in time at least.)

I disagree with that strongly. I was, and still am, so grateful to him introducing me to bakin. Of course it wasn't perfect early on, but i think it was more than enough to accomplish a multitude of projects at that early state. it's still in early access and it's only gotten better! I've made so many projects in the short time bakin has existed than i've ever made in my years and yeaaaaaaaars of fiddling with rpg maker. Something just clicked with me when it came to bakin. it blew me away and it still does!

The strange, horizontal size of the player still presented me with some challenges in bakin, but it was nowhere near as frustrating to deal with as in rpg maker. in rpg maker, the player's dimensions made it awkward for the player to exist in the scenery. in bakin, the player's dimension made it awkward to properly collide with certain events (pushing blocks in the tappi/umi quest. that was remedied by changing the player's collision type one they entered/exited the forest)

Completion!

It was almost surreal to finally complete the game. All of my friends contributed in some way (whether that was voluntary or not is irrelevant).

I, of course, would have liked to have gotten the game out sooner, years sooner. but in a way, it was a bit of a blessing to have finished the project when i did. I was able to utilize certain assets and ideas that i never would have been able to implement if i didnt realize it when i did. things such as:

• The piano music that plays in kisa's room is a recording she made of an actual piano song she created herself!
  
• the "MURDER!" sfx that plays when people are defeated comes from a clip of me reading/streaming the game 'misericorde' to my friends!
• I obtained this really bizarre music track from an asset bundle "Naysayer" by sidetrax. It is so fucking insane because vibe and mood of the track is very chill and relaxed... but it's accompanied by a weird flute-like instrument? maybe i'm uncultured, but it sounds like it's out of tune and it doesn't really complement the track well. it reminds me of those purposefully bad recorder covers, like 'titanic theme' played on a recorder. at first, i was extremely thrown off by the track, but i showed it to my friends and we died from the enjoyment. i kind of unironically like it now? and i was able to share this masterpiece of a song in the game!
• i'm glad i was also able to implement the gartic phone drawings into the menu screen, since the idea for the game really did come about in a round of gartic phone. all of my friends really contributed

I know there's more but i'm tired right now. I would've liked to end the post on a few comparison pictures between the rpg maker art and the current state of the game, but im really sleepy now. how about you do it yourself? go take a virtual walk and look at how the rpg maker screenshots hold up to the final project in bakin!

thank you for reading. i had a lot of fun making this project and i learned so much about game development in general!