12/13 Devlog

Hey Everyone! 

Here is yet another patreon dev log to let you know what we've been up to this week.

Writing:

So this week I finished Caissa's first chapter. This is the revised version of the chapter so I am moving on to chapter two now. (I've gotten started on Chapter Two but haven't made it very far in yet.)

It feels nice to be working on a new route and making good progress on it (to be fair, though, Caissa's first chapter was one of the chapters I had a full, detailed outline of - not just a scene by scene synopsis. I think I may actually have the first few chapters of his route outlined so that may help the first few chapters go by really fast (even though I'm obviously straying from the plan as I always do).

I wasn't going to be focusing much on writing this month but with the issues I've been having with my hand, I've ended up trying to take long breaks from drawing to avoid exacerbating the issue...

Which means writing. So here we are.

Art:

Having said that, my hand is mostly back to normal - there is still a little residual soreness when I grip things, so I'm trying to be really careful about overdoing it when it comes to artwork.

I was able to finish Lance's special wallpaper, which now leaves only Magnus. I don't think I'm going to preemptively do Reuben or Sasaki. But if it looks like we're going to meet their stretch goals, then I may end up doing them during the Kickstarter.

I also started working on some of Ari's CGs - specifically, the first CG that will appear in his route. It was suggested to me that maybe I could consider streaming art sometimes….

Streaming makes me nervous - doing any kind of high concentration task with an audience bothers me a lot (ask me how many times I scold my spouse for standing and watching me cook. LoL) But I am willing to stream if people are interested in it. 

The other issue is that sometimes it can be difficult to stream art for a visual novel because visual content tends to be spoilery. So I can't always stream what I'm working on anyway. But in order to test out Discord's streaming function, I decided to work on one of Ari's CGs - the first one in his route isn't particularly spoilery as far as content goes - and I've actually posted the snippet from this scene to the server before.

So, yeah. I discovered my laptop handles streaming fine. I'm not sure how often I'll do it but I have considered doing patreon only streams as well.

(THAT SAID. The other big roadblock to streaming is just...time zones. I don't know if I can stream at times when it is even worthwhile.)

I realised at some point that there is a sprite I need for the next part of the demo (I had forgotten about her.) So I started working on her as well. 

Fortunately I don't think I'll have to do a full expression set for her (at this time) because she spends her time attacking the main characters - and she wears a partial mask. So I think I can get away with a single angry expression for her (at least for now).

Coding: 

I actually did spend a lot of time working on coding Common Chapter Three. As I want to release this just before our Kickstarter, I want to make sure I have it ready a few weeks in advance to release to patrons.

So I've been working in the sprites and backgrounds for chapter three slowly but surely. 

I think I have all the BGs set up and have Morgan's sprite coded through much of the chapter. She does spend some time buy herself in this chapter, so that means there's a little less complexity in sprite coding in this chapter than some of the others.

Upcoming Week:

I think my main focus for now will be getting Trina's sprite done. I had completely forgotten about it and it's a critical sprite for the next part of the demo which I do want to release for testing in a few weeks. 

So my first order of business will probably be to get that completed. And then I'll probably finish Magnus' special wallpaper.

After that I need to go back and finish the bases for the second YCH artwork.

So, yeah. Lots of art to focus on. 

I'm hoping my hand can hold out.

I have a lot of stuff going in real life too, so there are a lot of distractions. But I'm going to try to make sure that doesn't slow me down.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll see you guys next time. *waves*