Dev Update #3: Beyond the Next Fest

A huuuuge thank you to everyone that wishlisted Bonding, Now or played the demo during the Steam Next Fest! It means a lot to me, really. I have mentioned this already in my previous post, but this is exactly why I started Bonding, Now: to share my works and fantasies with others.

There is a lot of competition on the eroge and visual novel landscape right now. There's a lot of talented artists, great storytellers and the emerging AI technologies certainly open up a lot of new possibilities. But I still think some people will appreciate this slightly amateur feel in Bonding, Now. I also don't think there's many games with lineart 2-bit aesthetics that I have.
There are three reasons why the game's artwork looks as it looks. The first one is skill. Throughout the years I tried working with color, shading, highlights; maybe it's a matter of tooling (I'm using GIMP for all of my drawing), but I think I'd need much more practice before I'd get to a level that would make me feel satisfied. Second reason is of course time. Adding color, shading, lightening - all of this requires a lot of time, which means who-knows-when I would be able to release my work. The final reason, and the most important one, is that I actually like working with lineart. I think a lot of depth can be presented through line thickness and well-thought shapes. I really like these aesthetics. There's still a lot for me to learn, but I can already see improvements over the years. And I hope you like them too.


Development continues. Seeing gamers whishlist Bonding, Now gave me the additional motivation boost that I needed. I think I have most of the code ready, at least for the main stories that are currently in development, so I can concentrate on drawing and story-boarding. Short term, my main goal would be to finish up Story #4 as it's very close to completion. I am quite fond of that one, really, and I'd like to maybe write about it a little bit.

The stories in my game are all about the atmosphere, the vibe. I don't know if you, the players, will be able to feel the same things that I do, but there are certain 'feels' I have about each moment of the game. Story #4 was inspired by the four of us: me, my partner and two other friends, ditching a bigger party just to relax in our own company elsewhere. This vibe of us just having fun, drinking, talking, playing tabletop, this is something I wanted to recreate here. There was this slight sexual tension in the air - but in a healthy, friendly way. I hope you had moments like these as well, and that you'll enjoy playing through those once again. Maybe with a sexually satisfying ending, perhaps?
Another special thing about Story #4 is that it has a separate story within the main story. But that's as much as I will say to avoid unnecessary spoilers!


There's so many things I'd love to write about, but I think I wrote enough already! Just maybe on a final note: give the demo a try if you have a moment! You can find it on the Bonding, Now steam page. It's far from perfect, but I think it gives some insight into how the final product will look like. If you like it, please wishlist! Oh, and if you manage to finish the demo, check out the Steam Discussions post about the character popularity poll. It's all preliminary as really there's not enough content to properly get to know all the characters and make an informed decision, but it is a data point. I have a lot of story ideas, and polls like this will help me understand which one I should prioritize next. I'm also interested in everyone's preferences. Interested how those align with my personal ones..!

Thank you and see you next time!