WIP 08/18/2025

Good morning everyone,
these past two weeks have felt really long, and I couldn’t wait to give you some updates.

Today’s topics:

1. Goblin scene:
   I’ve finished 4 more story illustrations for the goblin introduction and the player character’s arrival in the fantasy world.
   I might need 3 or 4 more, and then I’ll move on to the animations.

2. My first impressions on generative AIs:
   It’s been over a month now that I’ve been experimenting with ComfyUI, and in terms of image generation I’m getting more and more skilled—but it’s still not quite there.

   As you can see, I still haven’t managed to reproduce the distinctive style of my drawings, so I’ve had to do some extra post-production work.

   I plan to continue studying AI, and soon I’ll get into the audio/video side of things. As I mentioned before, once I have enough artwork for training, I’ll try to train my first Lora.

   We’ll talk more about the audio/video part later, since there’s still a lot to figure out.

   I’m super excited to be an active part of this AI revolution, but at the same time I’m glad my artistic skills were forged before it arrived.

3. Combat system:
   In my humble opinion, to create a combat system worth noting, you need at least 3-frame animations for the following actions:

   • Guard – Attack – Taking a hit
     

   The first battle will already be available in the next release and will involve 5 characters:
   Roy/Kim, Talia vs Goblin 1, Goblin 2, Goblin 3.

   In one week I’ve drawn all 5 characters’ bodies in their guard stance.
   These drawings can be manipulated to also create the attack and hit animations.
   

   Of course, alongside the visual part, code is also required—but don’t worry, there won’t be long waiting times.
   I already have the code for a working combat system. I didn’t write it myself, but I didn’t need to—it’s clear that this game doesn’t require a legendary, groundbreaking combat system.
   What mattered was having a solid base.
   So, the code is there.
   My task now is to understand it (and I’ve already done that partly) and adapt it to my needs.

4. Movement system and map:
   I’ve been looking around, and some absolute geniuses are working on a 2D movement system that can be applied to Ren’Py.
   Obviously this caught my attention, since I’ve always been passionate about side-scrolling platformers.
   In short—it’s amazing, but I still have to decide whether to integrate it.
   I’ll keep you posted.
   

Big hug to you all,

Alek