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

[maldy]

I have to admit i am liking the new models so far but i do agree with the others about the hair as it doesn’t seem natural due to how shiny which doesn’t compliment the rest of the characters i am afraid, though it’s great to see Morgan once again my favorite of the cast it does sadden me she isn’t getting her own romance option/route like the others since how flushed out she is as a character herself.

Which does make me wonder a few things… Was morgan ever considered as a romance option at one point but for some reason (Most likely the coffee shop? i wouldn’t think so) you guys couldn’t figure how to write her or was she always considered a side character from the start.

Lastly i want to ask you one thing @Tron and i do not mean to intrude on development in anyway but with now the older design from the first demo now changed to the current how far did firefox get with those designs and if you want to show them to us please?

(Puppy dog eyes/only way of asking i could think of while doing my best to avoid breaking forum rules)

[Tron]

FoxFire’s out of town for a few more days, but hopefully we’ll have Hannah finished by the end of the weekend and the first lineup will be done! It’s been a Hannah-centric week, as I’ll be going back to typing her next scene after this. All in all, it’s taken about six weeks to sketch out the 31 portraits for everyone’s sequences, and color the first 5 + outfits. We’ll look into one last pass of changes as well.

@Skinny_guy Of course, criticism’s always allowed ! I think some of the perceived changes in detail/homogeneity come from shifting her facing from portrait to front. We’ve sketched out a CG with her from a portrait view, and thankfully there’s more distinction. FoxFire decided that front-facing would help him keep consistency, as well as improve expressions. The current demo’s portraits got hit hard for not being expressive enough, and so I’m going to twist his arm hard to express yo’self!

The expressions shown here are meant to be “neutral”. As with the old demo, we’re planning on happy, sad, frustrated, surprised, mischievous, and potentially a new “food coma” expression.

@cheddar Yes! We got a pile of feedback saying everyone’s hair looked like plastic hats, and wanted to fix that as best we could. One person said their hair looked “heavy”, as in unrealistically dense and pressed by an unseen force. That specific comment spurred FoxFire to make Alex’s hair thinner in the back. At the least, it actually looks like something that’d move in a breeze now!

Also, we did indeed up weights for most of them. For Alex and Morgan, it was done because we’d cut an early progression step, and we wanted Hannah to be a little chubbier.

@JellyIdol It certainly is a change for everyone, and one we were both looking forward to. The old demo’s portraits were sketched in ~January 2018. When we were able to get back to Forks a few months ago, SO MUCH had happened! FoxFire had been a silent workhorse the whole time, improving and expanding his skillset. When we revisited the old portraits, he no longer felt they reflected his present abilitiy and direction. We tried an old-style Alex and it just didn’t match; it wouldn’t have been fun to try and force it. When faced with Forks Mountain, you gotta’ love the climb!

These new portraits have been his favorite to do, and he’s getting comfortable with them far faster than the last set. I know seeing them suddenly like this (and in direct comparison to the old) is a swerve, but please give them some time and see if they grow on you. He’s his own harshest critic, and it’s been great to finally have a lineup he’s not only happy with, but also in the ballpark for what we both envisioned Forks would look like. If we were to take another hiatus, the style would probably change again, but hopefully that won’t happen and we can keep rolling!

@LeftHandManGary They’re all pretty hip-y because he loves 'dem hips, and I can’t stop an artist from doing what he loves ! Everyone gains differently though, and I guarantee they all have distinct shapes by the end. For most, it’s by the second step in their progression.

@burntmagic Thanks, I’m glad you liked it! That part of Alex’s hair does indeed seem to be the trouble spot, and we’ll see what we can do to adjust it. For Morgan, her auburn hair was actually unique to that set! In another, she had red highlights. Seriously glad you’re looking forward to more, it’s what keeps us going. We’re working hard to make the next demo even better!

@Maldy Hi, thanks for sticking around ! To answer your questions, Morgan is indeed not a romantic option. She’s at a different stage in life than Alex, and there’s too much of an experience gap for them to make that kind of connection. I’ve wanted to give Morgan a friendship route, but for now I want to focus on Forks’s core of Hannah/Grace/Rea. Morgan has her own story arcs and endings, but is also meshed into everyone else’s route. I did that because, with so many portraits for just 5 people (31 physically unique portraits with outfits and expressions is already more than a lot of VNs have for their entire cast), we weren’t sure how many others we could add with our time. Seriously snoopy players may’ve picked up on Mina, Naomi, and Amber, but Morgan + the cast may have to fill in each other’s gaps more than other VNs do.

The very last thing FoxFire did before we broke from burnout was Weber’s portrait. It needed major changes, and I don’t even have it readily accessible to post. As for what else was done, but didn’t make it into the game? Loads, too much to put together here, but I’ll show you some some early styles that we never went with for one reason or another. A few others should still be early in this thread.

As you can see, those reasons are self-explanatory Whew, I think that covers everything! I’d be happy to answer more questions from anyone, won’t have much else to show you guys for at least a few more days.

[Tron]

All right, little vacation and sickness later, and we’ve got an update! By process of elimination, it’s…

With the new Hannah, the lineup’s complete!

1. We wanted to push larger than we had previously, and show she still has a ways to go to reach her weight loss goal. Her new portrait isn’t actually much larger, but her pose no longer hides her size as it did before.
2. Hannah had often been drawn to have a hair clip, forgetting to add it sort of became part of her design
3. Many mentioned that Hannah in the previous demo had a blank look, with especially little emoting. We’ve designed New Hannah’s face to be a lot more flexible. Neutral face looks neutral as heck now because we want that neutrality!

On top of these portraits, we’ve also been stamping out outfits for everyone. The first six portraits of the game have 24 outfits between them and maaaaan that’s reason as any for why nobody’s tackled something like this

Slow and steady, just four more to go for this round!

On my end, I’ve finished the rough cut of the second third of the new scenes, for seven new in total so far:

That’s right, they finally leave campus, and it’s in the demo! And as for what they’ll do off-campus? That’s in the demo too! The goal was to finish writing the new scenes by the end of the year, and if I can pull off the last third like I did this one, then I think I’ll make it!

With no new spoiler-y portraits to show, updates might run a little thinner. Progress continues though, may show off the new and improved expressions once FoxFire’s done with everyone’s wardrobes.

[Tightfit]

Multiple outfits with multiple weight gain stages, for multiple characters? Bruh, that’s a lot of work!

[Tron]

It sure is a lot! It’s also why the first demo took so long

Uniforms were always off the table since everyone’s in college, time passes and seasons change (so you need day, night, warm and cold weather outfits), there’s recreation (gym and swimwear), and the odd special occasion (at some point, Grace will have a fancy dress). All that, without also factoring in that characters will be outgrowing their outfits and getting new ones.

It’s a major job, especially for one artist, so that’s why we probably won’t be moving anyone’s limbs/poses around when their expressions change. Poses will change between weights, but Alex won’t be raising her hands when she’s surprised. You’d have to redraw/color/shade the skin and clothing, and at some point you have to recognize what you can afford to cut so you can keep moving and scrape over the bar.

But outfits, we got 'em and I should preview some!

All that and a whole lot more! Don’t they look nice together?

Edit: That’s Alex’s gym outfit, Rea’s casual, Grace’s cold, and Morgan’s casual.

[burntmagic]

Those outfits are great! I think i’m coming around on alex’s hair, too, now that i’ve had some time to get used to it.

can’t wait for any and all future updates!

[AmyHuntr]

Anyone else’s first reaction to that have to do with the either how short Rea is or how tall Grace is?

Adore the outfits, though! Especially Rea’s.

[firesoul10]

Digging the new designs overall. That’s really all I have to add to the conversation, sorry. =P

[loljuicepwn]

I can see the quality has gone up and must have taken a lot of work, but something seems off. They look really young in the face. Think the very minimal noses or exagerated blush are the reason.

[Unk0wn1]

Really enjoyed the old demo and wasn’t entriely sold on the new designs as I was so used to the old ones, but for some reason seeing a couple of the girls together like that has really sold me on their new looks, they look so much better now! Plus how chunky they start out makes me excited to see how they end up!

[SlothBear]

im amazed how much foxfires art has changed so drastically in such a sort time its really cool how much he has improved also keep up the good work u two best of wishes

[Tron]

Thanks everyone! Yesterday FoxFire finished all 24 outfits for everyone’s Tier 1 portraits, as well as all 3 outfits for someone’s first progression step, and that person isn’t Alex~ There are two Tier 2 characters in the new demo, can you guess who the other might be? Once their outfits are done (about 3 more), we’ll move on to facial expressions.

Everyone’s Tier 2 won’t have as many outfits, as Spring is coming in the Forks world and nobody’ll need to bundle up for the cold. Setting the game in a seasonally chilly locale just stacked that much more onto our plate

But outfits, so many outfits! Enjoy some more, we’ve got plenty!

Alex’s cold, Hannah’s casual, Rea’s gym, and Grace’s casual.

[BeatBito]

Wow that was honestly way faster than I thought it was gonna be.

[LeftHandManGary]

Everything is really starting to look incredible. I can’t wait.

Two questions, if I may. First, and I apologize if this was stated higher up, has there been a new demo since the original, or am I misinterpreting the above statement?

And second, how large can we expect the girls to get, and do the weights vary depending on what you choose? Given Alex is the active feedee of the group, and the art work from way back when, we know she’ll undoubtedly get pretty damn big. Any chance of Alex or one of the other girls outdoing that drawing?

And don’t worry about answering any of the above if it would be too spoilery. Very stoked for this game.

[Tron]

@BeatBito Thanks, FoxFire was able to catch a break from work, and we’ve got so much to do that we almost have to keep this pace! Updates might slow down, but for now at least, things are always moving.

@LeftHandManGary Hey, always happy to answer what I can :

1. I should’ve clarified that the “new demo” is the one we’re currently working on. Haven’t been any public releases since the old demo linked in the first post. I’ll either update the first post or create a new thread for it once it’s ready. Believe me, you’ll know when it’s out!

2. Weights will vary depending on player choice, and there is no “canon” end size for anyone*. Alex’s max weight is still about what it was originally, just translated into the new art style. One girl can outdo that size.

*Weights are still tied to the narrative. For example, Alex currently starts everyone’s route at her Tier 2 weight. Early on, I tried setting weight strictly to a variable, letting Alex be anywhere from Tier 1-3, but there were way too many unknowns to make it read organically. Unfortunately, I only have so much time in the day to write

[LeftHandManGary]

@Tron

I should’ve clarified that the “new demo” is the one we’re currently working on. Haven’t been any public releases since the old demo linked in the first post. I’ll either update the first post or create a new thread for it once it’s ready. Believe me, you’ll know when it’s out!

Oh, I’m looking forward to it. Practically vibrating, in fact.

@Tron

One girl can outdo that size.

Oh. Oh yes. And my key goal has been decided.

[FluffRat]

Nothing useful to add at the moment, just wanted to say I’m still hyped for this to be a thing.

[LordOfGee]

Ok so, was playing around in the old demo and saw the achivements, I had all of them besideds the one TItled Outsider or something like that lol, anyone here have any idea why its there or how to get it?

[Tron]

Update time! I keep saying I’ll have to slow these down, yet somehow there’s always more to show

First up: expressions!

Everyone’s are finished, which means the portraits are 100% ready! It’s our first major feature redone for the new demo. Seven bases, 24 outfits, and 7 expressions for each portrait! That’s almost 200 displayable combinations of portrait-y goodness, just for the demo

With the portraits done, we’ve decided to move on to a new UI. The UI in the current demo was something I threw together in a day, and aside from being basic, doesn’t address the new issues caused by the larger portraits. FoxFire’s on the case to design something spiffy!

On the music side, Ars has finished his third new song, and is working on the fourth. The old demo effectively had 10 tracks, so we’re on course to give you at least 40% more music for the new one! It’s been a joy already to go back and give scenes more aural diversity, the old demo had a bit of a stacked list.

Writing side: I got sick again! I’m typing this update with chills, and haven’t been able to put in good, clearheaded writing since 11/19. Hoping to resume writing next week.

I’d estimate I’m about 20% finished with the last leg of new demo scenes. It’s another 3-way split, with Alex getting a pre-route scene with each girl.

That’s it for this update! Next one might be to show off a WIP of the new UI, stay tuned and thanks for the support !

@LordOfGee How indeed… That achievement started off as an experiment, but keep an eye out for it in the new demo

[Unk0wn1]

All of Alex’s expressions of are rally cute looking, let FoxFire know the new sprites are looking really good!

Seeing some of characters in a scene together they already looks pretty chunky so I’ll be interested in what max sizes you guys have in mind.

Hopefully you can beat that illness soon and feel a bit more clear headed!