#verloren game
May’s Featured Game: Verloren
DEVELOPER(S):Choko
ENGINE: RPG Maker VX Ace
GENRE: Horror, Adventure
WARNINGS: Flashing images, loud sounds, sudden sounds/images, full list (contains spoilers).
SUMMARY:Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
Download the demo here!
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself!
*Choko: Hello, I’m Choko! I’m the developer, artist, and writer for Verloren. I’ve been messing around with rpg maker since 2013 but finished my first finished game in 2016 which is Desolate Village. I’ve also made other games since then. Those being Demon Tea, Friend Hunt, and Star Detective. So Verloren isn’t my first rodeo in the whole game development stuff, but it is the biggest project I’ve ever work on so far.
Besides game dev stuff, I’m a huge rpg maker games, horror games, rhythm games, and just games with a interesting style to them.
What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially?
*Choko: Verloren is a horror adventure game that focuses on Chris Winter, a young boy who finds himself alone and far away from home because of this he won’t stop for anything to find a way home and learn why did he arrive here. During the course of the game Chris would meet others who have their own goals.
What inspired me to make Verloren is a bit hard to say from what I first started to work on it back in 2017, I was mostly trying to work on another project after finishing Desolate Village. It could have been something else but I really forgot.
But since I took a huge hiatus year break during 2018, I would personally say the time I actually initially started to work on Verloren was in February of 2019. Since everything was rework with a fresh outlook on everything, so the whole head space with Verloren is totally different from 2017-2018.
What inspired me when I went back to rebuild/fix the game was friends, since their support made me feel I could go back to work on the game. During 2018 I would say I wasn’t in the best mood while working on the game, so the support my friends gave me really helped a lot and encouraged me.
How long did you work on your project?
*Choko: I’ve been working on Verloren for three years now.
But will say 2019 to now is when actually development started/actually got going. 2018 I took the whole year off to cool down/chill. So the Verloren of 2017-2018 is very different from the Verloren of 2019 to now. If that makes sense….
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project?
*Choko: Oh boy, this section might be very long since there’s a lot of games and media which inspired/ influences Verloren, though for many different reasons.
Will say the two rpg maker games that inspire me a whole lot when it comes to everything they do is Mare and Akademia (I know it’s just a demo still at the time writing but it’s very good. Good demo, like the characters are great!! Everything is very nice!)
Other rpg maker games do inspire me, mainly friend stuff but Mare and Akademia are two games I really love and wish I can make Verloren a game which has characters which feel realistic in a way they do. Like please go play them.
Besides rpg maker games will say that NieR Automata, Okage: Shadow King, RE 1/RE 0, Deemo, Rule of Rose, Smile For Me, and the Kirby series are games that just really inspire me with Verloren, there’s just certain aspects of them which I hope I can capture in Verloren.
Other than video games, I do get a bunch of inspiration from artist I follow, comics/manga, and anime though if I mention all of them it would just lead me to ramble away, but will say Pandora Hearts and Death Parade are two series I really love and both. I just enjoy series that shows character interaction and bonds, because that’s a main part in Verloren.
I really just get inspire by character development if you couldn’t tell….. ^^;
*Choko: Besides the 2018 thing I mention earlier.
There has been tiny bits of challenges, like with creating maps, since it takes me a while to get into the mood to make them, but wouldn’t really call it a challenge. Since all the time I just have to take time away from the map to gain motivation to make them.
Another challenge I guess would be writing cut scenes which I love, though it’s a whole process of making sure the characters aren’t just rambling or going off-topic since when I write I tend to get in character, as in voice act the lines or try to think how they would. Though the process isn’t really a bad challenge since it just takes a while until I get it right.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept?
*Choko: There’s been soooooo many changes to this game. The biggest change I would say is the characters, they had a lot of design changes and personality/motivation changes.
But other than that, I would say the mood of the game change a lot, also how scenes play it, originally it just felt like stuff happen to happen. Now it makes a lot more sense and isn’t just some random thing I added. Sadly I can’t list everything that change because that’s spoilers but trust me everything change for the better.
What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone?
*Choko: At the beginning there wasn’t a team, since I wanted to do everything solo. I mostly enjoy doing art, writing, and eventing the game.
Though currently now there is a team, mostly with people I know, it’s more so just a critique/feedback team + voice actors. Currently there are only two VAs since I didn’t want to focus on voice acting before I had most of the game done, in the far future I may make a post about it.
But so far the whole team is more so just a chilling area then anything else and I enjoy all the fun talk that happen there.
What is the best part of developing a game?
*Choko: The best part of creating a game is to see the characters you created come to life. I just really enjoy seeing everything come together. Idk I just find it cool that when making a game all starts out as concepts/ ideas and then after days/weeks/months of work it becomes a actually thing you can look at and show others. Most cutscenes in Verloren I get super happy when I finish them up, because I can see them as a real thing rather than a bunch of ideas of “this is what I’m going to do”.
Also the joke/shitpost memes….they are also the best part of making a game.
Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing?
*Choko: Yep!!!
I play a lot of rpg maker games, I really enjoy seeing what other people do.
I just find it cool that anyone can pick up the engine and learn how to use it.
Also it’s a fun way to find inspiration, just seeing other rpg maker games and being like “>:O I didn’t know you can do that!!!”.
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?)
*Choko: This question is very hard, mainly because I relate to because a lot of characters in the game I relate to in tiny levels.
For my favorite character it’s Vladimir….I do like every other character in game. Chris is my second favorite I have to say (kinda a lie since ties with another character) but Vladimir number one, he’s just soo much fun to write. He’s maybe the one character who has a lot of scenes which gets a huge smile from me.
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently?
*Choko: Not really, mainly since I was lucky to be able to take a huge hiatus which help me in 2019 to rework everything. So every problem I had with the game I fixed.
Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is?
*Choko: I would just leave the game alone after I finish Verloren, it’s a game that doesn’t need any follow ups because I feel it would just take away from the impact when you get to the end.
There really isn’t anything I would need to explore, since Verloren is meant to be a single game and that’s it.
What do you most look forward to upon finishing the game?
*Choko: I look forward seeing how people react to the full game, I am low key shock on how people are reacting towards the demo and all the tiny predictions/speculations. Also the warm positive feedback towards Vladimir is shocking, since I thought no one would like him because of all those jokes/puns.
I hope the final game has the same positive reaction, also that other characters get a warm positive feedback towards them.
Was there something you were afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?
*Choko: The only thing that worries me is that if I mess up and people can’t understand reasons why x character did that. Since one of the main things with Verloren is that characters have their own way if viewing stuff.
Like morality is pretty gray because I don’t want to write a black and white story.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs?
*Choko: Main advice I’ll give out is placeholders are your friend.
Don’t spend time making assets for a system you didn’t test and you test it and it doesn’t work. Just have a placeholder graphic which helps you test it and when it’s done you can always slap on the asset.
Following up with this, create a debug room. It would come in handy to test systems/ events than having to play through your game to test it and learn you need to fix it.
Question from last month’s featured dev @cheesesteak-horror: Do you have creative processes you practice before starting development?
*Choko: No, not really. I often just jump right into development and go from there.
Most of my practice come from when I work on small stuff or just when I’m bored I often just mess around with things.
We mods would like to thank Choko for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!
Remember to check out Verloren if you haven’t already! See you next month!
- Mods Gold & Platinum
Post link
(forgot to put this over here…oops)
But anyways hey it’s been a while since I made any real post over here, this isn’t a comfirm that I’ll be back posting updates on a regular just thought I should slide in a bit of the things I’ve been doing. If you follow me on twitter you already saw all of this stuff, it’s just the same thing but tumblr version ey
So far I’ve just been trying to catch up in graphics since I’m still very behind. Like eventing stuff is away ahead of the graphics I have to make which means there’s nothing graphic wise I can show aka no new areas or things to post. (which is one reason I’ve been fully dead.) Though most of my time has been towards redoing areas and other graphics since pixel art skills changed a bit and the maps in the demo are old (also a lot of dull shading…making stuff look dull)
example of one of the reworks i’ve been doing
(finally trees…)
Since I mention eventing, I’ve been going back to fix up old events just so the gap with events and graphics don’t get way too big leading me to get very overwhelm with all the art I have to do.
(because….it’s a lot of art….)
So I just been cleaning up events to make them easier to understand or just easier for future me. As well as I’ve been fixing how certain event systems work, for a example the dialogue!
Left is the old version, while the right is how it looks now
Now when characters are talking, you will see two portraits if two characters are talking. Like this style a lot more since if Chris is like angry and it slides back to Vladimir, you can still see the angry Chris staring at him. (Idk think it’s neat for showing a character has a expression still on their face than swapping back and forth with the art not letting a expression hold as another person is talking…also I just like how it looks…..)
Besides the dialogue getting a makeover the menu screen has been getting special treatment as well. Originally I was going to event a menu though gave up since I was still very new at eventing menus and other stuff so I just sided with using the default menu screen rpg maker gave you but just slap scripts on it.
But now I went back to my original plan since I know how to use events….well I think I do…but what I’m saying is that now I feel confident that I can event the menu I wanted to event in the beginning. You can see the wip menu over here weeeeeeee
It’s a huge prototype still so all art and stuff is very rough, mostly since I’m just making sure it works. (making polish art and slapping it to a thing which isn’t done….isn’t smart…just a waste of graphics and time if you scrap the idea when you start coding it in and learn it doesn’t work) So far all the submenus work as they should I just need to fix the inventory which is a hot mess which is why I didn’t show it….because it’s very broken.
Maybe when I sand out all the problems I’ll show it off.
(Oh also I was testing something out hints the kazoo kid muffin sprite.)
But that’s been most of the stuff i’ve been working on, not all…since there are a few more stuff I’ve been fixing event wise but that’s just making stuff neater or a mini feature which I don’t want to show off yet… hopefully the next time I update won’t be like a year later….
It’s been a while since my last update post! So here’s a screenshot of a wip map that I’ve been working on. It might seem familiar for those that follow me on twitter, since I tend to post there more frequently.
But for this map, there isn’t much to say other than this area has a character who I enjoy writing for >:D.
Well I find them neat….
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May’s Featured Game: Verloren
DEVELOPER(S):Choko
ENGINE: RPG Maker VX Ace
GENRE: Horror, Adventure
WARNINGS: Flashing images, loud sounds, sudden sounds/images, full list (contains spoilers).
SUMMARY:Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
Download the demo here!
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
OvO/ Thank you to the folks at rpgmgames for contacting me for a interview.
It was pretty fun!
Post link
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✦SYNOPSIS✦
Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
✦DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE✦
(Itch.io)|(RMN)|(GameJolt)
✦ADDITIONAL INFO✦
This is only the demo of Verloren, which takes place in the intro of the game. The full game is still in development, because of this the demo shouldn’t be viewed as the final product. Things such as graphics, music, and/or scenes change from now to the full release may change.
Special Thanks To:
@zmakesgames
@meaka
For testing the demo.
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Update time, heck yeah ^^b
At the time I’m writing this Verloren’s demo is basically 100% done, the only two things I really have to do is add a few random npcs in one area of the game and to test to make sure everything is working before I send a build to my cool testers who are also the folks who been giving me feedback. I plan for the testing to take a month or two, maybe.
The demo with length isn’t long, maybe around 15 minutes at best (can be wrong).
Also one mini change to the demo I did last minute was remove the bust art, mostly since it’s going to get rework and had a hard time using the old one.
;v;b do hope that doesn’t bug anyone while playing it, the full game will have bust art. In a future I would slide a update maybe to add the bust art in game.
Because I don’t know how to end this post have a thing I made base off a comment a friend of mine made:
(* >ω<) Hello, just a little announcement that I’m taking a hiatus break from Verloren because of personal reasons and motivation. I’ll most likely be back working on the game later this year or early 2020. <:3cc but I’ll be working on one off stuff and random other stuff in the time being. I really want to take my time with Verloren and this 2nd hiatus would help the game out, better to take a bunch of breaks than rush a project.
Muffin has a special message for everyone, I wonder what it is.
This is just a little test, haven’t posted a video file here before (also shhh I’ll get the licence so you don’t go to see that water mark, this was just a test)
Edit: Verloren does have a switch to turn off voice sound effects stuff if you don’t want to hear any of it. ^^b since I know some people rather have none of it.
Welcome back to another Verloren update. It’s been a while since I did a proper update for this game. First I want to thank how kind you all been supporting me, I’m not the most active with updates but I’m really thankful you all stick by me. Really warms my heart.
On to update talk! I been working on character bust for the past while, most of their expressions are still sketches but for 4 characters I got their first expressions done which is a big thing for me since it took me months to finish them. Well 1 took me a few days since I got the style down and done and they were a simple character.
Cutscene art is also in wip, so far 1 out of 4 are done. The first area of the game just as 4 cutscene images, though taking my time so they look super polish. I do wonder what is wrong with Chris here?
OvO/ This is all I can really show since maps are wip, I do hope I can get more done. Really taking my time since I want Verloren to be a game that I’m proud of. Though I really do hope I can finish the first area and push a demo out. ;w; since that’s a mini goal of mine, so get people to know what Verloren will feel like. (;D also would allow me to do voice acting auditions, since the demo will give a great idea what type of game this will be and a low chance I’ll drop the game. This is future stuff though.)
Thank you for supporting me and I really do hope you all have an wonderful day. Make sure you all take it easy. And Until the next update, bye bye.
A promo for a new game called Kazoo Kid, I bet Chris and Vladimir like the game. Kazoo kid is inspired by NES games and arcade games.
The game has you playing as a Muffin the Kazoo Kid as he is trying to collect music notes to play his Kazoo. Could you help him get all the notes to play a magical melody? Kazoo Kid does have a demo available, it only has the first two maps so far. I really hope I can make this game super fun with unique maps.
(Kazoo Kid Demo Here) I would really love to hear feedback of the demo if you play it. OvO/ Thank you for reading, I will try to make more updates of this project and Verloren.
This map looks familiar?
Hello it’s been a while since the last real update of Verloren’s progress. I actually been doing a whole lot. For one Chris walking sprite sheet is done.
I’m so happy I finally got this done, but also Chris does have other sprite animations and face expressions dealing with his sprite. I wanted to make this game have live like sprites for every cut scene in game. I wish I could show them off but it would best to keep the hidden. OvO/ Since it’s best for you to see it in game.
It’s been super fun to finally get a sprite sheet done or finish a map. I’m hoping progress keeps going well for this game. So I could show more updates on the project. I hope this was a enjoyable short update.
But before I leave….
I wonder would this aid you on your journey or would it bring you deeper in the mad world leading you to be stuck in the madding Labyrinth.
i love seeing all the amazing rpg maker development blogs with their beautiful atmosphere, wonderfully detailed talk sprites and art, intricate storylines with lots of passion and sorrow
and im sitting over here with my garbage man in his garbage apartment, drawing him as danny devito
New rpg maker game development meme draw/photoshop your protagonist(s) as Danny DeVito
I’m sooo sorry but THIS IS MY CALLING!!! FOR REAL THIS FITS VLADIMIR SOOOO MUCH.
@pinkuboa@purple-game Thank you, you two.
It’s been a while since I actually really talk about Verloren. The progress has been happening though a lot of it is things I don’t want to show off just yet. Because spoilers and it’s mostly concept art (no one wants to see that).
The only thing I have to show is a map that I took out since it really didn’t fit the game. It would be sad not to show off the map.
The map replacing this map fits a lot better with the theme of the area and looks way better. Sadly, you won’t be seeing that map until a while. This map did help me to draw new things like pancakes and other things I normally don’t draw. This map even though it’s not going to be use did help me learn how to draw new things. Also, this was my first try at pancakes after a few maps in I got way better at drawing pancakes.
OvO)b I’m going to work super hard to get more content done with Verloren, and hopefully sometimes soon I can give a amazing announcement.
Also on April 31st Verloren turn officially one making this the first game I been working on since a year. Sadly I had no time to finish the picture for the day. Hopefully next year I can make a picture for the next time.
OvO/ I hope you all the a wonderful day/night, and I hope enjoy this update.
Also I put a doodle I made of Chris on this post since I thought it turn out nice. I hope no one minds me putting that doodle there.
;v; I’ve been a bit hesitant to say this but I feel brave today!
So if anyone ever has any questions dealing with Verloren’s development or anything else feel free to poke me. (;v; only if you want to btw)
Also since I posted this on my twitter the other day so I’ll slide it here.
It’s just a little screenshot of a map that I’ve been working on.
(wip journal, 2020)
(journal, 2018)
OvO/ Remember that improvements happens even if it doesn’t seem like it. You are bound to change how you do something. It might take weeks, months, and a few years but it’s alright. Just remember when working on game that it’s alright to leave something as is, if it service it’s uses. Since you can always go back and improve it in the future.
Heyo, it’s been a while since I made any type of updates here.
I’ve mostly bee quiet for a bit, because I just been focusing on getting all the major eventing for later parts of the game done and working on sprite art.
Maps, cutscene art, busts, other art have been taking a backseat for the most part. I’ve been touching them now and then, but my main focus has been on just eventing the game and sprite animations and other sprite related stuff.
Some mini wip of stuff I’ve been working on:
(These are still rough but just wip sprites of both Chris and Vlad )
(Started to redo the menu facesets, the demo would have the old ones. But been trying to make them less dull looking.)
(just cutscene art that I need to finish, it’s just a rough sketch for now)
That’s all this mini update, wanted to keep it short since try to avoid doing text walls.
I am sorry the random huge silents about progress for like a few months. (last time I made a post it was October).
^^b I’ll be sure to try to update more frequently, I do hope you all have a nice day.
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✦SYNOPSIS✦
Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
✦DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE✦
(Itch.io)|(RMN)|(GameJolt)✦ADDITIONAL INFO✦
This is only the demo of Verloren, which takes place in the intro of the game. The full game is still in development, because of this the demo shouldn’t be viewed as the final product. Things such as graphics, music, and/or scenes change from now to the full release may change.
Special Thanks To:
@zmakesgames
@meaka
For testing the demo.✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
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✦SYNOPSIS✦
Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
✦DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE✦
(Itch.io)|(RMN)|(GameJolt)✦ADDITIONAL INFO✦
This is only the demo of Verloren, which takes place in the intro of the game. The full game is still in development, because of this the demo shouldn’t be viewed as the final product. Things such as graphics, music, and/or scenes change from now to the full release may change.
Special Thanks To:
@zmakesgames
@meaka
For testing the demo.✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
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✦SYNOPSIS✦
Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
✦DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE✦
(Itch.io)|(RMN)|(GameJolt)✦ADDITIONAL INFO✦
This is only the demo of Verloren, which takes place in the intro of the game. The full game is still in development, because of this the demo shouldn’t be viewed as the final product. Things such as graphics, music, and/or scenes change from now to the full release may change.
Special Thanks To:
@zmakesgames
@meaka
For testing the demo.✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
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✦SYNOPSIS✦
Chris Winter, find himself alone and lost in a black void filled with nothing but coldness. The only warmth you feel comes from your breath. In this void the young boy sees a door filled with light, trying to reach the door only leads to the boy to fall deep into a world filled with nothing but nonsense.
Only when you find the key, then you’ll be able to leave.
✦DOWNLOAD DEMO HERE✦
(Itch.io)|(RMN)|(GameJolt)✦ADDITIONAL INFO✦
This is only the demo of Verloren, which takes place in the intro of the game. The full game is still in development, because of this the demo shouldn’t be viewed as the final product. Things such as graphics, music, and/or scenes change from now to the full release may change.
Special Thanks To:
@zmakesgames
@meaka
For testing the demo.✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦
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Old art, new art! (click on the caption to know more)
Second and third characters belong to @zmakesgamesand@choko-flan respectively ~
The latter one also has a recorded art process, which you can watch >HERE<!
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