VirtualNovel

Campus Exploration Build

Hey Everyone, 

We have a build release to explore the world of Virtual Novel, all the buildings have their full architecture in place. Some of the enviros are more populated than others, so please forgive empty rooms and bare school grounds - the whole place will be full of detail soon enough. 

Here's a2018-05-23 02:34:47 +0000 UTC View Post

A few more teaser screens of enviro!

Thought I'd also throw these up here because they are kawaii desu ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ 

2018-05-12 20:54:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Upcoming Build Preview

Hey everyone,

Super brief update on progress and next build. We're still on track for a mid month build of the entire school campus + dorms. Don't have much to show that you guys haven't already seen, since we're working mostly on improvements and technical stuff, but here's a couple of preview screenies of the upcoming build.  2018-05-12 19:33:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Level Streaming + Hair Update

Sup!

We have some progress to share, and a plan for next build date :D

We've been working on Virtual Novel's level streaming system, to allow for open world exploration in a seamless manner, while being able to have a high amount of detail in all of the sub-enviros and interiors. We've talked about the concept before, but now we have it imp...

Progress Update

Hey everyone,

A quick update on progress and some news about development direction. The next demo build will contain the entirety of the enviros (aside from Fitting Room) in a single explorable map. 

We're currently working on polis...

Dorm Enviro Build: Headpat Ver

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay, we were hoping to get this out the first week of April but ran into some performance issues. Everything seems to be stable for now!

There is nothing new in this build except for the 2Ds: they are using the new emotion system which we've been showing off the past month, have some interaction abilities, and ...

Emotions + Navigation update

Hey guys.

We've been making some really great progress with our emotions system, thought we'd outline how it works behind the scenes, and how it's gonna be used in Virtual Novel!

We're using a series of Blendshapes to create variations of eyes, mouths, and eyebrows which can be combined to fine-tune faces for specific ...

Quick update :>

Hey guys,

Just a quick progress update. 

We've been continuing with work on the face system, working to be able to make the 2D's able to do pretty much any (or at least 99%) of faces and reactions that you might see in anime. We want Virtual Novel's characters to be able to create very legitimate and emoti...

Progress update :>

Hey, just a small update since last week.

We've been working some more on the hand holding system, to allow for more natural arm and shoulder movement while you're manipulating a 2D's hands. 

As part of our AI / interaction systems this month, we've also begun working on a Follow system, which allow the player to lead an NPC around. 2018-03-17 22:31:06 +0000 UTC View Post

March Roadmap

Hey everyone.

We're working on 2D improvements this month. Thought we'd outline some of the stuff that we'll be looking at doing and what will (hopefully) be in the next demo.

__________________________________

The 2D characters of Virtual Novel currently have very basic look-at AI, and can only change thei...

Dorm Playtest 2 Soon

Hey guys,

Dorm env build 2 will be up later in the day! Probably around 2pm PST. We were hoping  to get it out by the end of Feb but ran into some issues with performance. It is hopefully stable now, but please let us know if you run into performance issues.

Dorm now contains some more finished sub-envs and a few 2Ds to talk to. To beg...

Dorm Progress Update

Sup

We've been working on bathroom stuff for the past week! With the kitchens, bathrooms and dorm rooms almost completed, we have the laundry and rec room to go. Still on track for a new build this month, where you guys an check out all these new rooms.

Surprisingly don't have much to talk about regarding toilets and bathrooms, so here's ju...

Dorm Env progress + some other stuff!

Hi!

We've been making some progress with dorms, adding detail and furniture etc. The Dormitory buildings contain a bunch of sub-environments, you guys who played the test build at the start of the month probably noticed all the rooms were empty ;_; But we're going to tackle these one by one, and hopefully we'll have a new updated test build this ...

Dorm early preview + ADV Test #2

Hey everyone,

We’ve been working on the School’s Dormitory enviro this month, so we thought we’d set the latest VR-ADV test#2  there, just to make things a bit more interesting, and to give people a teaser of what’s to come in the full game.

...

Playable Environment + ADV (end of month, hopefully!)

Hey everyone, 

We've been working on a new (and one of the final) environments - the Student Dormitories. This is where you will live during your stay at Takayama, as well as some of your classmates, and we imagine a bunch of fun scenes will take place here ;           )

2018-01-27 16:15:27 +0000 UTC View Post

New ADV Build this month + Plans for early 2018

Hey everyone,

Kind of a boring post here, but stuff should get more exciting again soon.

Happy new year and thanks for supporting the project! We've been working on improving the ADV after you guys' feedback through email and the Discord, there will be a new build nearing the end of Jan which will hopefully represent the final and completed...

VR-ADV Test Build up in a little while :)

Hey there,

Thanks for being patient while we've prepared this build, it took us longer than anticipated. This test build doesn't contain any enviros or anything much fun D: But it's an important test for us, since we're finalizing our Dialog System (which we will refer to as the VR-ADV). 

The VR-ADV is probably one of the most importan...

ADV Progress update + new Build date (kind of)

Hey there,

Thought we'd do an update on how the ADV is going, we've now incorporated a settings menu for changing colors and all the other editable settings that it will have. 

We thought we'd have a test build out by now but we've had some delays in development - we are really sorry ;_; But there will be a test build ...

VR-ADV Progress and Upcoming Feedback-test-build

Hey Patrons!

We've been working some more on the Dialog System. We've updated the design and are close to finalizing some of the features of the system.

One of the main features we've been working on in preparation for getting to work on story cont...

A little status update :)

Hey everyone, we've been quiet this month since the Halloween update, but we've been busy as usual. We've been working on two things mainly, in prep for getting some demo story content out -

First is a face overhaul, where we're creating an extensive emotion system using blend-shapes, exactly the way MMD models do it. It's difficult to show witho...

Fitting Room Halloween

Hey guys,

Fitting Room Halloween play-test build will be up shortly. 

Thanks to all the new Patrons we got recently! Please enjoy Fitting Room, unfortunately there's no real tutorials or instructions to get started yet, so if you guys have any issues, please post or join the Discord to ask.

2017-10-30 01:15:55 +0000 UTC View Post

Halloween Update - Out Tomorrow

Hey everyone, happy Halloween!

We're doing final touches to Fitting Room for tomorrow's release, hopefully all goes well :>

Here's a couple pics of the new outfits that will be in the build, with a full list below -

2017-10-28 21:48:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Halloween Update Teaser

Hey sup,

Thanks everyone for helping us to squeeze past the $500 milestone, we'll put up a new goal soon after doing some budgeting ^^

We're aiming to release the Halloween update to Fitting Room hopefully no later than the 29th of October. As well as a bunch of outfits which have been shown off as WIPs in some of the recen...

Fitting Room - Halloween Teaser

Hey!

We've been making some progress with costumes and new outfits for Fitting Room and Virtual Novel, in preparation for the end of the month Halloween themed Fitting Room update. Here's a small teaser of the first three outfits -

2017-10-10 07:58:23 +0000 UTC View Post

Surprise Campus Test Build! - Old School Building :3

Hey Patrons,

In keeping with spooky October feels, we've updated the school campus to include the Old School environment. 

There are a few bug-fixes and improvements in this build since the Diner build right at the end of September, thanks to everyone who submitted feedback and bug reports -

• Overall performance h...
  2017-10-10 07:34:17 +0000 UTC View Post

Fitting Room Halloween Update + Some other things

Hey!

We're doing a Halloween and Cosplay themed Fitting Room update for the end of the month, which will include new outfits, accessories, and other fun stuff. If you have any ideas for accessories, we'll hear your suggestions over at the Virtual Novel Discord, and it may make it into the update ^-^

We've had some feedback about the latest ...

Future Builds will have limited support for non-VR!

Hey everyone,

Thanks to all you guys supporting the project, but especially to those who don't yet have VR systems who don't get a chance to play the build releases. The latest build at the end of last month / beginning of this month included an experimental feature which auto detects which VR system you're running, and if you don't have one...

Diner Playtest Build

The private link to the Diner build will be up after this post! We're doing something a bit new with builds from now on, and are deprecating the HMD Select system in favor of an automatic system which should detect if you're running a Rift or a Vive. 

This is experimental so please let us know if you have problems, we've tested it...

Takayami Diner Env Build Soon

Hey people, thanks for your patience! We'll be releasing the explorable Diner Level build soon for Patrons - either tonight or tomorrow - which also contains the explorable Gymnasium Level from the previous build, along with the un-explorable exteriors of the other campus buildings to give you guys an idea of the overall campus and building sizes.&...

Progress Update + Next Build Plans

Hey everyone,

Apologies for lack of progress updates first of all ): We get swamped occasionally and have to put Social on the backburner, but we've been working hard on completing more of the school campus in preparation for the whole school campus build.

Next up is Takayami Diner, a family style restaurant / school cafeteria combination t...