The Doll Movement (WIP)

Hello, user!

My name is Michael Shaw (FFVD Games is my studio), I'm a high school sophomore, and I'm (obviously) an indie game developer. I entered the Unity scene last year through a course given at my school. Since then, I have created one game, Project TOY, have two of my own games in development (one of them is the topic of this thread), and collaborating with S Advanced Technologies on a third game. I've even been in contact with someone from House of Moves, which is insane!

As is the topic of this thread, I am currently creating a series of games called "The Doll Movement". I know what you must be thinking; "What the hell is this guy doing? He's only made one game so far, so why a whole series?" Allow me to explain.

Project TOY is kind of a PT of The Doll Movement, and I've been planning this series out for years now. I had previously tried to use a DSi Ware game call Petit Computer, but BASIC couldn't do what I wanted it to do. Fortunately, I discovered my school's Unity course last year, and now I'm here. I'm alive. I'm ready to make new games. I'm really hungry, but that's besides the point.

This thread will kind of be used to send out ideas for my game, and how selected ideas have been implemented. It will also be used to quickly get answers on certain problems I encounter that Unity Answers hasn't already answered. All you have to do is provide feedback on all of the above.

If you have any questions about this, please email me at ffvdbusiness@gmail.com.

Thank you for your time!
--
-Michael Shaw, self-employed founder at Flippin' Fun Video Games

 

If you would like to download Project TOY, click here or here. It is for Mac and Windows (sorry, Linux users...).

 

Friday, September 30, 2016
Entry #1
Friday update

Development is coming along smoothly. Just finished recording some voice-acting lines. I Drew a plan for the overall story line, devised a plan for a "save" game, brainstormed ideas for different hubworlds, brainstormed ideas on how to get money to work with House of Moves for cutscene animations, and cleaned up parts of Project TOY that went unnoticed. Overall, a solid week, minus the fact that school is being a pain in my butt right now, which is shortening overall development time.

On a side note, comments are welcome here. Just don't turn this into a chat full of poop jokes and mostly irrelevant topics.

Thank you for your time and (hopefully) cooperation!
--
-Michael Shaw, self-employed founder at Flippin' Fun Video Games

 

Saturday, October 15, 2016
Entry #2
Saturday Update

Development has come to a halt... Surprise? Yay? Praise Jesus? Hallelujah?

The reason for this is that I have PSATs (practice standardized test) coming up and I'm also a principle in my school's Nutcracker performance. I'm also going to move soon... Hooray for me that I get to not do anything related to my games.

Thank you for your understanding.

 

Friday, November 4, 2016
Entry #4
Friday Update

I have an artist now! Huzzah!

This means that, once I either learn how to use Blender or have someone else do the models for me, I can actually make some progress! Also, I've been in contact with a certain someone from House of Moves about motion capture stuff, who may or may not be the CEO of that joint...

 

Monday, November 21, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Entry #5 and #6
Important Updates from Main Website

I have some bad news...

Development for The Doll Movement and When Rain Ceases are both on hiatus currently. My family is moving to Washington state this summer, so we're rushing to get our house ready for an open house in the spring, then leaving Utah on a 12-hour drive to wherever we end up moving in Washington. I also need to focus on school and skating more, especially since I'm trying to get into the Age-Group Nationals in Short Track Speed Skating this year and I'm going to the OAKE National Choir Conference in March. The point is that my life is too busy currently to develop full-time, and I doubt I'll even get to develop part-time for a while...
--
But I have an idea currently in-motion.

I have now acquired an artist for The Doll Movement. She is an old friend of mine, and she does wonderful artwork. I have also created a page for both The Doll Movement and FFVD Games on YUNOÏA so I can find more people to help me out with what I want to do with this series. I have also come into contact with a mo-cap (motion-capture) studio in California called House of Moves, so there may or may not be some cool stuff coming into the game...

Edited on Dec 6, 2016, 8:13:15 am

 

Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Entry #7
Update from TDM Website

I've been publishing new parts of The Doll Movement: Lighting the Way on Wattpad, and I want to know something; what do you guys think of it so far? What would you improve in general? What parts stood out to you as something important? What questions do you have about the story? What questions do you want to ask me in general, even?

If you guys are wondering, I do have an upload schedule now, and it is as follows:

1 chapter every Friday at 3:00 pm (15:00). If it's late, then it will go up at 3:20 pm (15:20).

Please either comment on this post (if I remember to enable comments) or directly email me.

 

Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Entry #8
Status Update

The Doll Movement and When Rain Ceases are both back into full development. When Rain Ceases is still on track to release during the holidays this year. Sketches are starting to come in for characters in The Doll Movement. I plan to start recording voice lines starting next month

 

Monday, January 9, 2017
Entry #9
Book Update

I have recently finished writing The Doll Movement: Lighting the Way. If you would like to read the book, you can find it on Wattpad. I update the book every Friday at around 3:00 pm MT. For those of you who have never heard of it, this book explains the missing pieces of the lore from the game series. It does repeat some things from the series, but they're from a different perspective.

I will set up a poll right now to ask you guys a few things. They are as follows:

Should I self publish my book? If not, which publisher would most likely not cause any issues?
What is a good price range for a book that spans 61 pages of content on Letter paper?

Poll (really a survey): https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VDPNS3D

Thanks for your help!