09-10-2021 Patreon Devlog

10/02/2021

Hallo everyone! Time for the DEVLOG. *dramatic music.

This Week's Summary:

• Finished Magnus flowchart images
• Started coding Magnus flowcharts
• Added the actual last major character sprite (forgot about this character the last time I said I added the last major character. LoL)
• As usual, there were a few sprite updates/additions
  • Rory outfit
  • Brenin outfit
  • Jack variations/additions
• Needed to make some additional BG variations
  • Including some minor animations. Huzzah
• Finished Jack's route expressions. FINALLY. *ded*

The Ramble:

So this week I finally...FINALLY...finished coding sprite expressions. For 6000+ expressions per route (on average) that means the base game has in excess of 36,000 expressions coded into it. @_@

I also coded in and created multiple new sprite and BG variations (such as some injuries a few characters acquire at various points, etc.)

I could get away without doing a lot of the variations I add in. I just think they're a nice touch, though.

I've mentioned before that Ch. 13 is usually the worst one in every route and I have to say that Jack's Ch. 13 was the worst one across ALL THE ROUTES.

There are exactly 10 characters who cycle in and out of the chapter at various points - many of those during one very chaotic fight scene in the street. It was so tedious and annoying to just keep track of who was where and when.

But it's done.

With sprite expressions done, my asset coding is more or less done (sans CGs). There will always be opportunities to tweak, add more variations, play around with things. But it's complete in terms of "All the stuff is in there."

The other thing I worked on this week was Magnus' flowcharts. I have all of Magnus' flowchart images done and have started coding them into the game.

I will get this done and make corrections to Caleb's route, then release the next phase of beta testing.

After this, I need to create and code Lance's flowcharts.

Then template, create, and code Jack and Caissa's flowcharts. Not looking forward to either of these because both routes have some weird branching or else just a lot of variations.

Fun fact, I was talking to someone on Discord about the routes and realised that most of them have really similar pacing in terms of when the romance starts solidifying and, weirdly, when the first kiss happens. There's more variation on when the first love scene occurs with the earliest being chapter 8 and the latest being chapter 12.

But I thought it was interesting that, unintentionally, I have all the first kisses in chapter 8 or 9 for each LI. LoL

ANYWAY.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Rory returns!

Upcoming Week:

Flowcharts.

I think I want to try to get flowcharts completely done before I dive into doing CGs. Then I kind of have to decide how I want to tackle CGs.

Each route has sort set CG moments:

-First kiss

-First love scene

-One bad ending

-Best ending

-Some kind of solo-CG for the LI

This isn't *as* formulaic as it seems since, for instance, Lance doesn't get an introductory CG in the common route. So this appears in his first chapter. Which means his solo-CG occurs a bit later than some of the others (many of them appear early in the route).

Meanwhile, one character's first kiss and first love scene happen at the same time. So there will only be one CG for the love scene and the "first kiss" CG will be shifted to a different scene so we don't have two CGs happening at essentially the same time.

The point is that I could potentially do the CGs by category (all the first kisses, all the love scenes, etc.) or by route.

I know it probably seems like a decision that doesn't matter but there are implications both ways and I have to think about what is going to work best development-wise.

But that's for after the flowcharts are done. Which I hoping to be done with those by the end of the week. Flowcharts don't really take THAT much time compared to other things.

I have to template Jack and Caissa, then format Jack, Caissa, and Lance, then code Jack, Caissa, Lance, and Magnus.
(But not in that order. LoL

I expect to release Magnus' route for beta testing in the upcoming week which also means making the corrections needed to Caleb's route first.

So yeah, that's my plan for this week! I will see you all next week.

(Side note: My progress spread sheet is now up to 87.14% Woo hoo!