Heya folks.
It's a good moment to combine answer some questions to questions you had, and questions you didn't ask but still deserve and need.
As such, we would like to present the honest truth for Act 3 as a get go, before moving on to the Q&A.
As it stands right now, we're posed with a genuine problem we're not in a position to resolve. As you might know and understand, Her Last Piece is quite heavy on the art division, and Her Last Piece has simply not been quite the financial success we have obviously all hoped for.
This is fine, this is not inherently the problem. The problem is what comes after. Our artist has sadly come in a position where he needs to dedicate time to other projects to be able to afford a daily life, something we had not anticipated for when starting this project, but life... well, life happens.
As it stands, the entire script is written, edited and proofread, and on the coding front we should not need a lot of time, I'd argue roughly a month, maybe two, considering most of the surrounding code has been finished already.
The problem is the art is so substantial, we're potentially looking at a year's time to get Act 3 done. We've looked at a lot of other options, but they either require resources or skills we lack. Hiring another artist is something we simply cannot consider, for example.
The only option we believe we have left is one we want to offer as an option to you, the player. We know it's immensely disappointing to have to wait a year, and it truly bothers us a lot too, but we'd like to look into changing the workflow a little to release Act 3 in parts.
This would mean the artist would finish a part, before moving to the next. These would be several scenes, culminating in about a third of the chapter per part.
In such case, the parts could likely release every 2-4 months or so, or faster if the financial situation lets up enough to shift the work schedule.
Additionally, we could release parts in phases as well, where we initially release a part only illustrated, with no animations except for those already created in earlier acts, and then the next update is focused on animating that part.
A release schedule as such would look like this, in that case:
Part 1:
1A - Illustrated
1B - Animated
Part 2:
2A - Illustrated
2B - Animated
Part 3:
3A - Illustrated
3B - Animated
It's of course hard to say how long every part/phase combination would take but we could offer you updates a lot more frequent, even if we can't offer you the full game.
Please feel free to let us know your thoughts on the matter. We're not perfect people, so perhaps you might have an idea that could resolve the situation in better ways which we haven't thought about, either.
We sincerely apologize for this letdown, but we want to stress that we will continue to finish Her Last Piece, even if it takes a year indeed.
Thank you.
Moving on to the Q&A:
L: Lostraven (Writer)
A: AuxiliaryOut (Artist)
P: Pasix (Programmer, editor)
Q: Where did you get your inspirations or ideas for Her Last Piece? Is this your first project?
- L: Inspirational writing. I drew Arvenia from a lot of classic gothic horror. I wanted to keep the scope small and very intimidating intentionally. There's an old saying about how all you need to do is throw a bunch of interesting people in a room and let them talk and you'll have something interesting at the end. So, between all that gothic horror was probably a little bit of the breakfast club haha...
- P: This is not the first project we've worked on, but this is definitely the first project for all of us we've commandeered from beginning to end. It's a significantly different experience to work on, and arguably vastly more fun, at least to me.
Q: What was the hardest aspect of developing Her Last Piece?
- L: For me, as the writer, the hardest challenge was probably staying within that scope and keeping it interesting.
- A: All the skills to learn to make it possible. Audio editing, dubbing, the Ren'py integration side. It's alot to learn and a lot to manage.
- P: Adding to both of those sets of words, the challenge also lied in Ren'py itself. It's a great engine especially for visual novels, but it absolutely serves a specific route of VN'ing that can easily be broken by more 'advanced' - by lack of better phrasing - techniques such as for example full Live2D integration. Some things which you'd figure should be easily implementable can actually keep you stuck for hours, which was really quite a surprise.
Q: When creating the design for Arvenia, what were the factors in her design or what influenced her design?
- L: I kinda envisioned a mixture of Del Toro's work visually when it came to Arvenia, but to me, she was always this lonesome, almost Nosferatu-like figure sulking around her castle.
- A: When designing Arvenia, I thought it would be interesting to challenge the conventional demoness design and approach it a biiit differently. The biggest influence - and a character who I felt embodied that - was Kiss-shot Acerola-Orion. I’m not sure if I achieved that, but to summarize what I’m feeling when working on Arvenia: sincerity between the lies.
Q: Will there be additional information or context on the wider in-universe lore (regarding other countries, other background info of the world, more expansion on what happened before the game and after the game, etc) either within the game or possibly in a future sequel of Her Last Piece?
- P: As it is currently planned, no. Part of the setting for Her Last Piece was and is because setting the scope and keeping within that scope is made easier if you're not trying to introduce a vast world around it. Of course you cannot entirely avoid references to the outside world, but your world is Arvenia now, you needn't concern yourself about anything else.
Q: As the developers of Her Last Piece, what were your favorite parts in the game (either game content or the development process)?
- A: For me personally it's when Arvenia is asking the player to come to bed. I knew I could crank the uwu up to 11 in that scene, and BOY, do I love UWU! The most fun to see take shape, is easily the chibi stage show.
- P: Doubling down on the chibi stage show, this is actually a really code-heavy sequence. Although almost everywhere else in the game, movement is done directly through Live2D with sparse additions of Ren'py's ATL for movement, the chibi scene is nigh-exclusively ATL, and a LOT of it. This is effectively the one scene where visually (barring the actual art of course) I had the vast majority of creative control, and I've definitely bullied aux into adding a bit more art so I could realize it in the form it is now.
- L: Specifically writing Arvenia whenever she was losing it or going full yandere was quite enjoyable.
Q: With the introduction of Fhaust as a new love interest, will her scenes / story be introduced in one sudden motion or will it be in addition to the developing story with Arvenia? Such as when the next act releases should we expect to be seeing a huge shift to Fhaust-focused content with Arvenia on the backburner, or will we be eased into the content? I'd personally love to see some tension-building here, as the name of the game is "Her Last Piece", I'd hope she'd be protective over what we can assume to be her last piece rather than let Fhaust plunder her love haha
- P: You're on the right path in terms of thinking, but as much as I'd like to spoil it, you'll just have to find out in Act 3. Rest assured we have kept balance in mind and I'm very confident you'll come to enjoy what we've come up with.
Q: I might be overthinking, but it seems as though a lot of the tension and intrigue surrounding the first scenes of the game withered away by the end of what is currently playable. Such as "She lies" made it seem like she was the aggressor, but as the story unfolded it seemed like she was more of a victim. Now before I ask this I definitely want it to be clear that this is a game to be played one handed (at least for my end), so that being said, in the next act will there be some expansion on this aspect of the story or is it being approached more mildly to make way for adult content?
- P: Story has - in my opinion - always been the main focus point for Her Last Piece, and with some honest brutality, I think we wouldn't even be here if it weren't for the impact of the story. Find comfort in ignorance, my child, and you shall find salvation.
Q: How many acts total are planned for HLP in order for this specific project to be counted as complete? If the number of acts for HLP ends up going past a certain amount, say if you planned for 5 but end up enjoying it so much and getting carried away and you make 8 or 10 acts, will there be a price increase to the game to reflect the added effort, or is there security in the current price of the game and anything additional would be added as paid DLC content?
- P: Both happily and sadly, Act 3 is going to be the last act we make for this game at least. This has everything to do with scope and of course also the price tag. We've always wanted the game to have a low price tag, but for a low price tag you also need low production costs, and sadly they're kind of really high. If we do end up expanding the world with sidestories or prologues or such, they'll be woven into the current acts as they exist, and will not cost anything extra. We do not feel good about hiding canon content behind a paywall, as such. That said, if we do more 'skit'-esque sidestories that is considered non-canon, such as alternate universes with Fhaust and Arvenia in feudal Japan or something silly like that, we'd likely add it as DLC.
Q: Will there be any additional features to look forward to, either big or small, in future updates? Personally, I'd like to be able to name my saves. Small thing, but helps me keep track of which route I'm going for.
- P: On gameplay fronts, not something huge we've in the pipeline as is. We'll likely continue to shave on the project in terms of quality of life features if and when we encounter them, and likely more features you're used to in other VNs, such as an audio player when you've bought the OST pack. Additionally, we'll be looking into expanding the gallery with 'story nodes' rather than just the NSFW nodes, as we've had a few requests for such, which seems interesting to work on.
Q: What inspired the creation of Faust and the design of their plushie form?
- L: Fhaust's inception came from logical necessity. Dracula has his Igor, Arvenia had her Fhaust to do her bidding. From there, of course, the character was then heavily expanded. One thing I did want was to make sure Fhaust didn't talk verbally, given Arvenia's character, it would defeat the purpose a bit of just how psychologically isolated she is if she did have someone to talk to all these years.
- A: The idea for Fhaust started out as sort of a voodoo doll concept. But then I thought, hey, I really like cute stuff. And what's cute? That's right a big, teddy bear plushie uwu. As for specific details, I knew I just wanted big button eyes like the characters in Caroline.
Q: Were there any other VNs used as inspiration when creating Her Last Piece? What are each of the developers' favorite VNs if any?
- P: It's a bit of a non-answer from the coding department, but personally I really look up to Katawa Shoujo as an older example of a VN that just did everything right, but more in the same line of work, I believe Eternum from Caribdis and Vaygren from Cyberframe Studios have an immense focus on quality, and something I genuinely strive to meet in par.
- A: Not really anything from the get-go. Although Vaygren became a genuine source of inspiration, I only discovered them after Her Last Piece was already conceptualized.
- L: Not really any VNs specifically, though I drew a lot of inspiration from gothic novels.
Q: Will you include a true end for this story?
- P: Yes, there will be a variety of endings based both on choices you've made in Acts 1 and 2, and of course the path you choose to take in Act 3. Although none will be really considered 'false' endings, there's definitely an ending we could like to consider canon.
Q: Will you continue doing visual novels? If you continue doing visual novels are you planning to expand this universe with prequels or sequels? Or are you more interested in making new stories?
- P: I absolutely have something in the pipeline - sadly knowing that Her Last Piece is going to take a while, it'll open me up for other projects, after all - which will 100% be a VN, and it will have a romance component, but it will not have any NSFW content, or at least it won't be the main focus area. (Katawa Shoujo is a big hint)
Q: Does Arvenia like rough or submissive?:
L: Yes.
Thanks for your curiosity, patience and ongoing support~
- Spicemerchantsgames