Forks: A Weight Gain Visual Novel (Cancelled, all assets posted for everyone)

GRACE Best painter GURL

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My goodness these past few updates look incredible to see even if their not much to go by on right now.

As for the new demo now underway i can’t wait to play it soon enough to see how far forks has come along since its last demo i would of liked to addded crash bandditcoot joke about the 4th game being announced but a bit on the nose in how i would of worded it.

though i have been wondering with all these question (i also missed about a month or 2 of comments at the moment) have their been any ideas that you or firefox wanted to do for the game but was either too complicated, didn’t work with something about the novel or was just plain stupid despite it being a interesting idea non-the less?

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Wow, that is way more outfits than i thought there would be. Super exciting! I can’t wait for the eventual release, i get more hyped with each progress update!

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You’ve blown me away once again my friend. Every update gets me more and more excited! Hope you’ve been getting some rest in during all this hard work you’ve been doing

Hey again! Posting a quick update; outfit work has started and it’s looking promising!
Just so you know where we are:
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That’s after roughly a day and a half of drawing time. We’re pushing ahead with everyone outgrowing their outfits over time, eventually buying new clothes and starting the process again. Here’s a WIP of what that looks like for the first few Alex stages:

There was a time when this would’ve been pretty spoiler-y, but now this really isn’t showing much :wink:
After this, Alex gets a new outfit, and that applies to every outfit in her wardrobe. Gym, swimwear, jackets- if the story puts her in an outfit, she’ll outgrow it, replace it, and replace it with a new style. This applies to everyone. Forks does not feature magical outfits that grow with the characters; when it’s time to size-up, they’ll have to get totally new clothes. It would’ve been quicker and easier to put everyone in uniforms or inexplicably similar outfits, but as it’s already taken this long to get the demo out, I figure we can go on a little longer :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I estimate that the outfits will take about 3 months, but that could easily shorten as FoxFire optimizes his production line. Regardless, that still leaves this year wide open for the demo release.

@maldy Thanks! There have been a few things that we’ve had to cut along the way. Long ago, we thought about animating everyone’s portraits using Live2D. At the time, Ren’Py didn’t support Live2D, and we didn’t have a grasp on exactly how long giving everyone a size-appropriate animation would take either. Thin characters would’ve been quicker and moved a little differently than their larger selves, with especially doughy portraits having a bit of a waddle. Though Ren’Py has since added Live2D, it would still be a huge undertaking. We’d have to hire an animator (or clear FoxFire’s multiple work platters), and there’s more important features that we need to finish first anyway. Maybe we’ll add them someday, but for now they’re off the table.

@burntmagic, @Magz Thanks! Hopefully soon I can stop posting hype and instead let you all finally play something :sweat_smile:

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Good job thus far and to be quite Frank you demo was great
My (most likely unneeded) advice is simply set up your foundation then polish but most of all
Make it so the process is enjoyable for you so do it at your pace and most importantly do it how you want to
I’ve seen way too many creators stop due to not getting any joy out of their work anymore

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One thing I think would be a welcome addition, would be an unlockable sprite viewer, to preview the outfits (and their growth stages) as we go through the VN, complete with eyes, mouth, outfits, poses, maybe (dunno if they’re all limited to one pose per girl) and naturally, growth stages.
Just a suggestion from a fan, if I may.

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it’s possible with Ren’py but i’m not sure if it has to be coded manually or not i’ve seen it done with another VN game on the TFgames site with StudentTransfer but i am sure it involves alot of hard coding.

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I am sure it involves a lot of hard-coding

you would be correct. there’s really no way to automatically pull all the right images, in the right order, so I’d have to define it manually. pain in the ass, but not world-endingly so.

I am very happy about this project, I am waiting for the release. I would like to see Russian localization in the game

@Zemp4ira Hi, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the project! While I don’t currently have any plans to localize Forks in other languages, it is something I’d like to do after release. Several people have asked for a Russian localization, so that would be high on the list.

@maldy Indeed, like @e123b said, that was a roadblock for me in older versions of Ren’Py. Now it’s very possible, but still a pain.

@cerberus Thanks! That’s always good advice, sometimes I’ll spend all my energy trying to write myself out of a corner, only to realize said corner never existed. It’s important to pace yourself!

@ThisAnon We have plans for something like that. Time will tell how thorough it is, but some sort of portrait viewer is on the docket.

Ah, and while I’m here:
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FoxFire/Toroboro continues to be a tablet hero!

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The man is a machine. Hope Toroboro doesn’t burn himself out.

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Yeah, honestly. Toroboro is putting in so much freakin work here. Send him my kudos.

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Hi Tron, sorry if this isn’t the place or is not allowed, but do you allow to pay for this game? I really liked it and can’t wait to see more? Sorry I tried to google for more, thank you it was fun and I Liked the characters

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This is very intriguing… I hope to see more soon.

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Whew, almost went four weeks this time! Wanted to wait for a specific milestone, and as of a few hours ago, it’s here: Alex’s outfits are done!
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And that’s a milestone because it means Alex is done! :partying_face:
The first conceived character and by far the biggest to tackle, Toroboros and I went back and forth for months at a time on concepts, edits, art styles, approvals, so many revisions, and suddenly… it’s all over? It’s a little surreal, we won’t ever see another Alex portrait again; her job’s in CG World from here on out. Check out some stats:

  • 6 facial expressions
  • 11 weight steps over 3.5 in-game years
  • 50 outfits (41 new + 9 previously complete) that change with weight and story route.

All single-handedly drawn with Toro’s iron-fisted will. Day in and out, he always delivers, with energy to spare and a positive attitude. The man’s diligence incarnate, and we could all learn from him :sun_with_face:

While we cut a few redundant outfits, it’s still a while yet with 98 more on the list, but Alex was the biggest hurdle. Hannah’s next, so with luck the next update will have a little more on her. Until then, here’s a random new Alex portrait:


A dress? Fancy, I wonder what it’s for!

@ThisAnon, @Urudif We learned a lot from burnout after the first demo. As much as there is left to do, taking the time to face it with a clear head at his own pace makes all the difference. When he asks for a break, I do. Not. Hesitate :stuck_out_tongue:

@lookingabout Hi! I’m glad you liked it, hope you’ll enjoy new demo even more :blush:. There isn’t currently a way to pay for anything, but we will open a Forks Patreon once the new demo’s out. We do this in our spare time, and so there’s always the possibility that life throws the project out. However, if we get demo 2.0 done, then we’ll have an open road for the rest of development. Nobody’s paying a cent until we’re confident the full game will eventually release.

@Mysterious We’ll try to keep everyone updated every few weeks!

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Fantastic art and perseverance! Of course, I could have left it at art since your guys’ perseverance itself is an art-form, but just trying to be clear: I don’t know how you do it. I’m looking forward to this next demo like it’s a theatrical release!

If you end up making a full, paid version of this, it really interests me how much you’d turn in profit. How profitable is developing a game for a hardcore niche community like this? I want to say that, demographic-wise, Forks has a marketing advantage over The Pirate’s Fate for not restricting itself to a subset of furries, another niche.

I’m no businessman, though. I hope that, if or when you sell it and/or get your well-deserved Patreon monies, you guys get your investment back and more. Best wishes!

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This is going to be a very well made game indeed.

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So who do I make out this blank cheque to…?

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Thank you tron for blessing us with this most holy of updates amen image

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