Bad Faith
Bad Faith - The Postmortem
Heyo - Mado here!
A long time ago, I promised that I'd make a postmortem for Bad Faith.
I wanted to write it as soon as the game came out, but I never got around to doing it…
…until now.
In this postmortem, I'll talk about what I did well, what I could've improved on, and what I learned for future projects. I'll also discuss my feelings on Bad Faith, one year on.
So - let's hop right to it!
(This postmortem contains major spoilers for Bad Faith. If you haven’t played the game, you can play the first act for free, or purchase the game below.)
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
What I did well
- I completed and released my first commercial game.
As of writing, Bad Faith is still the biggest project I’ve ever worked on by myself. I spent nine months developing the game from start to finish, and completed it by the end of 2021.
Actually, I wanted to release Bad Faith by September 2021, so I created most of the assets between May and August. But when the month arrived, the game wasn't in a releasable state. Because of that, I continued Bad Faith's development to the end of the year. Better to delay a game for polishing than to rush it out for an early release.
Anyways, I felt incredibly satisfied when I published a complete, commercial game. That’s an achievement on its own!
- Apart from the music and SFX, I did everything by myself.
I solo-developed my other games, but they were half-hour experiences made for game jams. In contrast, Bad Faith was a 3-hour long game. For a visual novel, that’s still quite short - but I’m impressed that I could create something like this on my own.
Back when I was developing Bad Faith, my goal was to push my skills to their limits; from my artwork to my storytelling. On my own, I could only go so far, so I wanted to make Bad Faith’s story fairly straightforward. The story's simplicity made the game much easier to develop, but I added nuances to leave an impression on players.
One example of Bad Faith's nuance is with Cerise's character writing. To "insane" members of the Haven, Cerise is a violent, caustic bully. She's especially cruel to Magda, Bad Faith’s protagonist.
However, Cerise also cares deeply for Grace; Magda’s quiet, hardworking best friend. In Act 2, I wanted to complicate readers’ feelings for Cerise by showing her vulnerability and her concern for Grace’s wellbeing.
I wrote this nuance because real bullies behave like this. They’re cruel to the people they want to have power over, but they’re kind to the people they love. It’s why many bullies aren’t held accountable for their actions. If their friends say they’re a good, kind person, and their community encourages them to ostracize “undesirables”, why should they be punished?
- A lot of people enjoyed my game.
On the whole, Bad Faith was received positively, and I'm happy about that! I don’t usually talk about stats, but seeing people buy and enjoy my game gave me a lot of confidence as a storyteller and artist.
Between Itch.io and Steam, the full game received nearly 1,000 downloads. Since this was my first commercial release, I was pleased with this number. The DEMO received even more - with an INCREDIBLE 10,000 downloads across both platforms!
With the reviews themselves, Bad Faith received 80+ 5* reviews on Itch.io, 35/38 positive reviews on Steam and several positive recommendations on Reddit and Twitter.
I also appreciate the praise for Bad Faith’s accessibility options. With features such as text-to-speech reading and image captions, I'm happy my visual novel could be read by as many people as possible.
Oh yes, and a lot of lovely art was made after the game's release. Here are a few samples!
This gorgeous piece of Nils is by Yawnty, who was a big fan of them!
This adorable Magda is by Reishii04, one of my lovely beta testers!
A massive thank you to everyone who took the time to write reviews, draw fan art, and recommend my game. I love seeing your passion, and it inspires me to work even harder for my future projects!
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
What I could've done better
- Bad Faith’s writing needs work.
When I first released Bad Faith, I was proud of how much I wrote and how different it was from my previous stories. But a year on, I gave some scenes a reread... and there was a lot of jank.
Looking back on it, I wish someone had edited my story right before release. Tense switches, inappropriate tones and introductions, typos… I’m annoyed they flew over my head, but I guess this is a sign that I've grown as a writer? Ah, well…
One of the biggest criticisms was that the latter part of the game felt rushed and emotionally underwhelming. To an extent, I agree.
Back when Bad Faith was in development, I reached a “ceiling” with its story, so I didn't want to write anymore. I felt like the story had achieved its central goal: to show Magda’s negative character arc, as well as her unsatisfying revenge against the people who hurt her. But in the back of my mind, I felt like I could’ve made Bad Faith's horror and tragedy more impactful for readers.
For example, Bad Faith's events take place over a couple of days. Because the timeline is so short, some of the events felt implausible.
I tried to address that implausibility by giving Magda a negative reputation within the Haven. If I put her in that position at the start of the story, I thought that events like Grace’s betrayal and Eve’s/Cerise’s abuse would feel less jarring. This reputation, plus Magda's secret desires, would also make her more susceptible to Nils’ deathbed manipulations. However, I don’t think I established those parts of the story as well as I could've.
If I made Bad Faith today, I would’ve made Act 2 longer. This would draw out Magda’s negative character arc and build her relationship with Nils. I’d also flesh out the timeskip between Act 2 and Act 3, Nils’ final confrontation with Lady Amaris, and Lilia's destruction of the Haven.
For those who’re wondering about Bad Faith’s unsatisfying ending and the lack of worldbuilding: the ending was 100% intentional, and I wanted Bad Faith’s world to be vague and self-contained. I'll talk about this later (specifically, when I talk about my creative decisions for the game).
- The art (especially the sprites)
Back when I made Bad Faith, I was proud of the game's sprites and CGs. Compared to those in my previous games, they were dynamic and expressive. Now, I still like them, but I think I'd approach them differently.
For the game's CGs, I didn’t use many photo references. Consequently, some of the characters' poses felt stiff and awkward. I also used a different coloring technique; one that didn't allow for eye-catching color combinations or values.
...And then, there was the sprites.
Doesn't Cerise remind you of Komaeda?
Bad Faith's sprites weren't coded very well.
For the sprites, I used a series of LayeredImage statements. With them, I could build my characters' expressions in the game engine, instead of exporting memory-hungry .pngs from Clip Studio.
However, they were tedious to implement. To see what I mean, here's some code from Act 2 Part 2, which featured a lot of expression switches for Cerise.
WHY did I think this was a good idea?
Here was my mistake: I made Cerise’s head tilt a LayeredImage toggle instead of its own LayeredImage sprite. Because I did the former, I had to switch between all of Cerise's straight and tilted expression toggles every time she tilted or straightened her head.
This also applied to her outfit changes, by the way. Ouch!
If you're interested in how I'd make my sprites now, I’m hosting a panel on my sprite-building process for the 2023 Visual;Conference!
(Click the link above for more info.)
- The UI was uneven.
I have a lot of complex feelings about Bad Faith’s UI. There are some aspects I really like, such as the in-game quick menu, the text boxes, and the main menu.
But I don’t love the other menus. Sure, they do their job, but I could’ve made them look better. Right now, they're too similar to the generic Ren’Py menus found in new projects.
Bad Faith's main navigation menu...
...and the generic Ren'Py navigation menu found in the Ren'Py tutorial game. As you can see, they're not all that different from each other.
I'm also not a fan of the squished, slapdash layout of the game’s accessibility menus; such as the one shown on startup, or the one in the main menu.
If I made proper mockups of these menus, I think I could've solved these issues. I made mockups for the main menu, the quick menu and the text boxes, which is why they turned out as well as they did. If I had done the same for the other menus, I think Bad Faith's UI would've looked even better.
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
What did I learn from making Bad Faith?
- I learned how to develop a long-term project.
Really, this was my main takeaway from Bad Faith!
Before writing Bad Faith, I only developed visual novels for game jams. Usually, these visual novels were made over the span of one month, and I had to place limitations on my production process to get them finished on time.
Bad Faith was made over nine months. I wanted it to be proof that I could work on something big on my own. As well as this, Bad Faith served as my "capstone" project, since I was rejected from my university's Senior Thesis program.
Because I was the game's sole developer, I had to do a lot of things to keep myself in check. I made a Trello board to measure my progress on various aspects of the game.
Here's a few screenshots of my Trello board.
An overview of all of the boards I used for Bad Faith.
Bad Faith's writing board; tracking the game's scenes from first draft to implementation.
Bad Faith's UI board.
Bad Faith's web design/graphics board; for promotional assets.
Note that these boards aren't up-to-date... so some stuff that was finished in the final release weren't listed as "done" here.
I also used a Google Drive to back up all of my game's assets. I've heard horror stories about people losing their games to freak computing accidents, so I didn't want to take any chances. Every time I updated something within Bad Faith, I uploaded the updated files to my drive folder.
When developing Bad Faith, I needed to take a marathon approach. There were many, many times where I grew frustrated with the game; whether it was encountering a frustrating bug, or a writer's/artist's block.
If that happened, I'd switch from one task to another. If I grew fed up with the code, I'd switch to drawing. If I felt my art looked weird, I switched to the writing, If I was tired of writing, I'd switch to making promotional materials for the game. And so forth.
The important thing was that I was still working on the game. Every time I grew frustrated, I reminded myself that even the smallest amount of progress was still progress.
Of course, there were other, smaller lessons I learned while developing Bad Faith, but these were the most important ones.
- I learned that not everyone enjoyed my creative decisions - and that's okay.
When I started writing Bad Faith, I was worried about how people would receive it. Prior to Bad Faith, I was known for twee, fluffy visual novels about cute monsters and magical girls. Bad Faith was a different beast; a raw, cynical work that stemmed from unresolved grief and anger. I was scared of putting such a personal work out in the open.
After I released the game, a lot of people enjoyed the game, and a lot of people critiqued it. To be honest, these criticisms really motivated me! They told me that with time, I could get even better as a storyteller.
That said, I did stick with some of my creative decisions for Bad Faith.
One of the most common criticisms was directed at Bad Faith's ending - that it felt unfulfilling and empty. While I do think I ran out of steam for the ending, I never intended for Magda’s revenge to feel good. (At least, not after the very first draft.)
When Magda started her revenge as Lilia, I wanted her to be excited and fulfilled by acts that she had once repressed. However, once she faced Grace, the weight of her actions would begin to sink in. After that, she'd become frightened of herself and her violent capabilities. (There’s also the whole “Nils lowers her moral inhibitions” thing.)
Magda's feelings mirrored my own back in 2020. After I was bullied, I was tempted to lash out violently at the people who hurt me. However, when I thought of the realistic, lasting consequences, a bitter taste was left in my mouth. For my own sake, I didn't want people to remember me as someone who was motivated by a petty grudge from years ago.
I don't expect this explanation to satisfy everyone. I'm sure some would've found more catharsis seeing Magda and Nils massacre everyone and leave the Haven for a better future. In fact, when I wrote Bad Faith's very first draft, that was the ending. But I still stand by my decision to give the story an uncomfortable, dissatisfying conclusion.
By the way, Bad Faith had very little worldbuilding because I wanted to keep the scope of my game small and manageable for myself. I actually love worldbuilding - my next project has a lot more. But for Bad Faith’s, its purpose as a visual novel was to be a character study above all else.
- I learned that I’d probably need a team for future projects.
I'm very happy that I made Bad Faith all by myself. However, it was a lot of work.
My future projects are much bigger and much more ambitious than Bad Faith. With them, I want to reach the heights of what's possible for visual novels, especially OELVNS (Original English-language Visual Novels). But I realized that I couldn't reach those heights on my own.
For me, this was a very uncomfortable revelation. I've prided myself on my solo dev efforts for a long time. I wanted to be seen in the same way that other solo developers were seen; as a person who was talented enough to work on an entire project on their own.
Then, I reminded myself that many solo developers had outside help. A classic example is Toby Fox. Yes, he worked on most of Undertale by himself, but Temmie Chang and his other friends helped him with aspects he struggled with (such as the detailed spritework, or the double textbox used for Bratty’s and Catty's shop screen).
Now, I think I'm at a point where I want other people to help me with my future projects.
I'm nervous about this next step, because running a team is a huge responsibility. I'm scared of losing my artistic voice, or making management missteps. But if I play my cards right, I think I can make bigger, better stories with passionate collaborators; all without sacrificing what makes them mine.
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
My thoughts on Bad Faith - one year later.
And so, Bad Faith's postmortem comes to a close. As I said in the intro, I really can't believe it's been a year since I released this game. It still feels so fresh and new in my mind, but that's just how time flies.
In the end, I'm proud of Bad Faith. Now, I'd approach some things differently - but I'm happy with what I do have. It's an important milestone for me as a storyteller and game developer.
I’m also glad that Bad Faith exists because it’s one of the most personal works I’ve ever made.
Those who know me know that 2020 was one of the worst years of my life. Making Bad Faith helped me process what happened and allowed me to express my feelings to the world, even when those feelings weren't fully resolved. Now, I’m in a much better place than I used to be. I enjoy life, making new things, and being with my friends and family.
Aside from the planned translation updates and the other 1st anniversary goodies, Bad Faith will not have any future content. From the very beginning, it was always intended to be a self-contained work.
That said, I am slowly building the foundations for my next visual novel project. Currently, I’m writing worldbuilding/setting notes for it, but I don’t know when they’ll be done. Maybe I’ll say more when I know what I want to do with its story, but it's probably a while away.
Though, if you want a hint on what it's about... I'll say that you’ve seen the characters from this project before.
On a final note, I want to show my gratitude to those who talked about Bad Faith’s impact on them. Those who connected with the game’s message, and Magda’s experiences. They remind me why I continue to tell stories to this day. Thank you.
And thank you, everyone, for reading this postmortem of Bad Faith itself. I hope that you enjoyed playing my game as much as I enjoyed making it, and that you’ll look forward the stories I want to tell in the future.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
While it left me empty inside (which I believe was the intended reaction), I found interesting about Bad Faith's latter part and ending is the juxtaposition between Magda/Lilia and Nils's revenge arcs - how the former comes to regret it and how the latter never stops reveling in it... and how, in my opinion at least, neither of those perspectives are more valid than the other.
As a former victim of bullying, I've tried a few times to write stories about characters with bullying-related backstories, and in almost every time I've tackled the question, "Will revenge make them genuinely happy?". Initially I thought there could only be one answer to this: either revenge is always a good thing, or it's always a bad thing long-term.
But after a few attempts of failing, and re-trying, and kind of succeeding in a different way than I intended entirely... I feel like there's no good and/or sole answer to that question. Someone may find peace in getting back at the people who hurt them. Someone may grow from moving on. We all have different ways of coping and finding peace for ourselves.
Nils sought joy from a (admittedly, well-deserved) revenge spree. Magda/Lilia did not, in the long term. Within the confines of the story, there's no telling which of them is better than the other.
They are still stuck to each other, though.
Thanks for developing this game and congratulations on your first commercial release! Here's to more successful games.
Thank you for the incredibly insightful and kind comments on Bad Faith's story - and I apologize for the late reply! ^^; I'll give my thoughts below.
It's interesting, huh? How both Magda and Nils had violent revenge against the people who treated them poorly - but they both processed it differently.
Nils gained catharsis from violently destroying the Haven because their body was harvested for energy and food against their own will - and they nearly died from Lady Amaris' cruel treatment. Consequently, they have no attachment to the island and the people who live on it.
On the other hand, Bad Faith is told from Magda's POV. Because Magda isn't a violent person, we, the reader, see her and Nils' revenge as unsettling and dissatisfying. Bad Faith's ending is also dissatisfying because Magda didn't find peace in a way that suited her. (In addition, Magda has a personal attachment to the Haven, so seeing her home destroyed will leave her with difficult feelings anyways.)
I feel like I'm writing a long stream-of-consciousness post here, but I hope what I said makes sense! ^^; Again, thank you for the incredibly kind words - and I hope I can make even more awesome commercial works in the future...
I feel like Bad Faith should have been controversial, but instead people I've seen bully others or lay groundwork for bullying seemed to like it, or even appear in the credits.
It should have made people question themselves, ask "are we the baddies?", or think about times they expelled people from their communities. For art crimes, fiction crimes, or other things that make a person too Problematic to treat as a full person anymore.
As near as I can tell, it didn't do that, and I can't tell how much is because of the fantasy setting and how much is because bullies are not prone to self-reflection. Also because having those realizations would put the person who had them in danger.
I hope it's at least helped some people realize the injustice that was done to them. I'm glad it's helped you.
Thanks for your feedback on Bad Faith! It’s given me a lot to think about, and I’ll take what you said into consideration for my future works.
first: thanks for writing this! always cool to read about other dev's processes. it sounds like you did a lot of tedious work (in regards to coding the expressions especially) so it just makes it even more impressive that you were able to finish it all. it's amazing that you could make a game this long in only 9 months imo, and i think whether you team up with others in the future or keep trying as a mostly-solo dev, i look forward to more games!!
second: i'm really honestly surprised that there were people who thought the ending was unsatifying? it's been like 8 months since i played (according to itchio) so i don't remember all the details, but i came away with the impression that like... haven was a really fucked up place and basically reaped what it sowed. grace was the one person there who actually seemed like she truly cared for others and tried to follow what's right, rather than everyone else there who was basically just posturing and using their righteousness as a weapon against others. magda and nils escaped permanently altered and there's no guarantee their future will be a happy one, but i like that it's left open like that. they don't know what their life will be like now, and neither do we. it's good shit!!!
idk i hope i'm not misremembering anything major, but that's how i felt when i reached the end! i thought it was really great and raw and visceral and cathartic in a very tragic way. very inspiring to me, kinda actually gives me the confidence to go darker with my own writing knowing that there are people it will definitely click with. thank you again for making this game!
Thank you for reading my postmortem! I've been a fan of your games for a while (I recently played through Starry Flowers and I enjoyed it a lot).
Indeed, the expressions were probably the most tedious part of working on Bad Faith. (Well, that or the speech bubble sequences - but at least the speech bubble parameters could be copy-pasted...) It taught me a big lesson for how I'll deal with my sprites in future projects.
For my larger projects, I'd probably need to recruit a small team since they're greater in scope and ambition. I also want to focus on the aspects that I'd execute best. I may test out team direction in a future game jam... NaNoReNo 2023 is coming up and I have an idea I want to use for it - but we'll see what's in store for me by then. A lot can happen in two months!
I think some people found the ending unsatisfying because Magda's revenge didn't make her feel good, and also because her (and Nils') future is very uncertain... But you're right on the mark with what I intended for the story. The Haven was a really screwed-up place that fostered self-righteous, cruel behavior towards others. Even Grace - who is the kindest character in Bad Faith - isn't immune to it, since she was responsible for getting Magda expelled from the community.
Anyhoo, I'm really happy Bad Faith left a strong impact on you, and I look forward to making even cooler works in the future! I feel the same way with your stories (they're beautifully presented and very tender)... I'd be really interested to see a darker Nami work. ;w;
Thank you!
That was very much the intent of the postmortem - to provide inspiration and motivation for any aspiring VN devs.
And thank you for the kind words on the worldbuilding too - I'm glad you feel that way about the setting I created with the Haven. :>
Let's hope for even bigger and better projects in the future!