21/06/2021 Patreon Devlog

Hi everyone! Time for this week's patreon devlog. Sorry it's a day late. It's been a little crazy at my place.

My laptop isn't *dead* exactly but it randomly decided to become unusable. It blue screened five separate times on Friday so I put it in Time Out until the techs can come get it for a full RAM and HDD replacement. At this point I just want it *fixed*.

So I'm back on my tiny, slow, Windows surface for the time being. =w=;

Also, my state went on lockdown yesterday so there was a lot of getting ready for that...

Ultimately I completely forgot about the update. THAT IS THE GIST OF IT.

This Week's Summary:

• More sprites...
• Eric, Gina, Mark....and The Ultimate Bob (also known as TUB).

The Ramble:

So my laptop decided to be insufferable as I was working on THE LAST SPRITE. So that was annoying. I'm so close to being done with them and my computer decided to be like "Let's just stop."

So I finished the sprites for Eric, Gina, And Mark. All three are side characters who have big enough roles they need unique sprites.

The remaining characters are all "extras" - they either have very brief speaking parts or else they are someone's minion. They will all share the same sprite base but be outfitted with different hairstyles and outfits.

My plan is to create a single sprite base with multiple hairstyles and outfit components I can recolour and mix/match so I can quickly build a set of semi-unique ultra-minor characters. I'll probably also vary the face shading and facial features.

I was in the middle of doing this when my laptop decided to go on its BSOD bonanza.  On that topic, the repair technician is coming to pick it up on Wednesday. The plan is:

Replace the RAM (we are confident this is the main problem it is having) and are FINALLY able to schedule this repair).

Replace the HDD with a new SSD.

They'll be returning it to me on Thursday so I won't be without it for very long.

I know the RAM issue has created some errors on the harddrive that can't be fixed so I want to go ahead and just upgrade it while they have it. That way I won't potentially be right back in this spot a few months from now.

If not for the laptop issue destroying my work day on Friday, I'd have been done with sprites. But...alas. I still have the Bob template to finish at this point. But I am nearly there.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Unfortunately, I do not have any screen shots of the new sprites to show off. They're all on my laptop which is in time out. *glares at it*

With my next update I want to do a full cast line up with all the more important characters and side characters. OWO

Upcoming Week:

Honestly I don't know. I can technically try to code on this computer but it's a really, really slow machine and the screen is so tiny that coding is a pain in the butt.

So instead, I may go back to planning for Reuben, Quill, and Yuu (most likely Reuben).

I have much of Reuben's route planned out but I can probably finish up my full synopsis for him and maybe even work on the other two.

That's probably the easiest thing to work on when I'm on this little machine since it's all on google docs.

Guys...I'm so tired of this computer thing. It's been such a hassle to get it handled in a way that doesn't involve me shipping it to ANOTHER STATE for weeks on end.

I can't even begin to tell you the bad experiences I haven't had with that sort of thing. So I'm glad I can avoid that. But this whole thing has been a pain. I hate how people just ghost you and do not communicate and leave you hanging for a week or two like it's nothing....only to respond with a casual "Oh I didn't get your text..."

*angry gestures*

The good news is that it'll probably be over by the end of next week. And once I get it back I will definitely be trying to make up for lost time by finishing up TUB, getting these sprites in the game, then doing all the expression coding.

In the meantime I'm looking at options for a better back up machine. While I don't anticipate further laptop issues after replacing so much hardware this has definitely shown me that having a single work machine can definitely become problematic when it's having an issue. The "I can't be without my laptop for 2-3 weeks" has probably been the biggest factor in why it's dragged out for so long.

So getting some kind of little machine I can use in the absence of my normal computer might be a good idea.

Ugh. I'm so tired of having to ramble at you guys about my stupid computer too. I want to get back to normal updates so I can torment you all with silly glitches and screen caps. ;A;

And so I can start getting these routes coded so we can start BETA TESTING. I'm *so* looking forward to beta testing.

Anyway, that's all for now, I guess. Sorry I didn't have more to show off for you all this week.

I will see you again next week.

~Esh