In September 2023, the Ye Play team released the first episode of the visual novel “The Last Wish” on Steam and VK Play.
This is a mystical detective story in which the girl Kris tries to stop the cruel game of a mysterious stranger who fulfills all her wishes.
The characters in the visual novel “The Last Wish” are not just collections of characteristics and dialogue. These are not fairy-tale elves, but living people, with their own feelings, emotions and experiences. That’s why we make both the characters and the locations in an adult way, in 3D, and not in the 2D that is so common for visual novels.
At the first stage of creating the game, our screenwriters described in detail the character, habits and backstory of each character in the novel. For example, the description of the main character Kris looked like this:
Student, 20 years old. Smart, secretive. Sensual and vulnerable, but conveys coldness and sarcasticness to others. Stubborn. She can't stand hypocrisy, but she considers herself like that.
Rarely conflicts – passive-aggressive. She accumulates dissatisfaction in herself, but then she can break down and say too much - “an inconvenient truth.” She doesn’t admit it, but inside her, worries that she is in the shadow of her best friend Maya.
Then we were faced with a serious task - to turn text descriptions into full-fledged “living” heroes. So that players are immersed in the game as deeply as possible and can empathize with the characters. We solved this difficult problem in several stages.
First, the character artist hand-drew several variations of each character's appearance. This helped the team decide on the overall concept and choose the most suitable images.
This is a mystical detective story in which the girl Kris tries to stop the cruel game of a mysterious stranger who fulfills all her wishes.
The characters in the visual novel “The Last Wish” are not just collections of characteristics and dialogue. These are not fairy-tale elves, but living people, with their own feelings, emotions and experiences. That’s why we make both the characters and the locations in an adult way, in 3D, and not in the 2D that is so common for visual novels.
At the first stage of creating the game, our screenwriters described in detail the character, habits and backstory of each character in the novel. For example, the description of the main character Kris looked like this:
Student, 20 years old. Smart, secretive. Sensual and vulnerable, but conveys coldness and sarcasticness to others. Stubborn. She can't stand hypocrisy, but she considers herself like that.
Rarely conflicts – passive-aggressive. She accumulates dissatisfaction in herself, but then she can break down and say too much - “an inconvenient truth.” She doesn’t admit it, but inside her, worries that she is in the shadow of her best friend Maya.
Then we were faced with a serious task - to turn text descriptions into full-fledged “living” heroes. So that players are immersed in the game as deeply as possible and can empathize with the characters. We solved this difficult problem in several stages.
First, the character artist hand-drew several variations of each character's appearance. This helped the team decide on the overall concept and choose the most suitable images.
Next, to create more realistic and expressive portraits, we used the Midjourney neural network. This allowed us to quickly find a suitable image for each hero. Once the images were approved, the character artist created 3D models and textures for each of them.
We paid special attention to facial animations. To achieve a natural expression of emotions, we used a special program that analyzes the sound of the voice and simulates the work of the facial muscles. This program allowed us to create animations that accurately reflect the characters' emotions and dialogue.
The first episode of the visual novel "The Last Wish" is already in early access. The second episode will be released in February. Watch the trailer, download the game on Steam and VK Play. We welcome your feedback, questions and comments!
The first episode of the visual novel "The Last Wish" is already in early access. The second episode will be released in February. Watch the trailer, download the game on Steam and VK Play. We welcome your feedback, questions and comments!
