19/06/2021 Patreon Devlog

Hi everyone! Time for this week's patreon devlog. I'll spare you the laptop rant since I'm sure you're all getting tired of it! LoL

This Week's Summary:

• More sprites!
• Completed: Vireo, Finch, Carrie, Lin, 
• In-Progress: Eric, Gina, Mark, in-progress
• New Variations/Additions: Brenin, Keres, Sylvia

The Ramble:

Okay, I'm still working on sprites. Which.......THERE ARE JUST A LOT OF SPRITES. LoL

So when I first started veering off onto the sprites rabbit trail, I was about 30% done with all the sprites needed for the base game. I'm currently about 70% done with them. I've nearly completed all the named side characters which will leave only the unnamed 'Extras' (The "Bobs" as I call them).

It's honestly starting to blur together which ones I've completed each week but basing it on the ones I listed last week... The sprites I've completed since my last post are:

Vireo, Finch, and Lin - all side characters in Lance's route.

Carrie - a side character in Jack and Caissa's routes.

Eric, Gina, and Mark - all sprites that are currently in-progress. Eric is from Jack/Caissa while Gina and Mark appear in Ari's route.

I also worked on Sylvia, Brenin, and Keres. These characters all had sprites already but were missing components. Sylvia needed an additional outfit and pose. While Brenin needed an additional outfit. Keres (like many others) needed his expressions.

Expressions are actually relatively quick to do so I often don't complete those at the same time I do the base, hair, and outfits. The latter three things all take much more time. While expressions are probably half an hour of work. Also, while I give a full range of expressions to most characters just because it's easier than thinking about what they actually need....some characters appear very briefly and really do not need the full range of expressions. 

Or else, like Keres, they're not really characters who like....smile and laugh. So I know I can leave expressions out.

So rather than just dumping in the full range of expressions I leave it off for a time when I can really focus on what I need for them.

I've also got in the habit of sketching out multiple sprite bases at once, then going back to refine them later. So I'll end up with multiple sprites in WIP status rather than just having the one person I'm working to complete.

So that's why I have three sprites currently in progress. All of them have fully shaded sprite bases but need clothes, hair, and FACES. 

Fortunately, Gina and Mark are minor characters that only need one outfit each. So their sprites should be relatively quick to finish. Mark has his face sketched out, and both hair and clothes lined and flatted. So he really just needs shading all around and for his eyes to be finished.

I'll probably get them done by the end of the weekend. Gina, on the other hand, is a naked, hairless, faceless sprite base. OxO;

Eric is also naked and faceless, and hairless. He requires two outfits, one of which is a suit. So his sprite will take a little longer just because he has complicated clothing. I may leave his jacket off and just go with a shirt/vest combination though. Suit jackets are so annoying to draw. =w=;

ANYWAY.

After I get these three completed, I have a selection of "Bobs" - all of which are largely going to share the same base. (For the new comers, I have jokingly named all unnamed extras "Bob" - Bob1, Bob2, etc. They will all largely share the same base but with different colours, hair, outfits, etc. )

Well, I say that. But some will also have the same outfit because they are "goon/grunt" types that either wear a specific uniform or wear suits or something. So I probably will not re-draw their clothes. Just recolour/change some details.

ANYWAY. The point of that whole rambly bit is that....I think I'll be able to finish the Bobs fairly quickly. There are a lot of them but if I'm just recolouring sprites or changing up hairstyles, I don't think it should take too long. So I'm HOPING I can be done with sprites by the end of next week. O.O

Also, I haven't mentioned it in a while but I am still keeping track of my overall game progress on my Spreadsheet of DOOM.

And I'm at 79.66% complete for the total project. So basically 80% 

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

The Nomos aesthetic pulls a lot more inspiration from typical solarpunk designs with loose, flowing clothes and brighter colours. I really wanted them to look and feel different from the rest of the characters in the game.

Here we have Vireo, Lin, and Finch.

Vireo is Lin's father and Finch is a family friend (his sprite doesn't have highlights on it because apparently I forgot??? LoL I need to fix that. He's looking a little flat.) who is a sort of escapee from Erebos - the place where Androids are exiled too.

He's the first full android people get to meet in the game - though his part is fairly small. But he's a sweetie. Don't you just want to floof that hair??

Edan is the other side character that appears as part of their group. They're actually a group of researchers who study various things out in the Wastes. They're part of a larger group with varied fields of study, but this crew are all historians and archaeologists so they show up after Morgan finds an interesting site they want to explore.

As I said, I worked on some other sprites like Keres and Brenin but I've already shown them off and there's not much interesting to show for them.

I think I'll wait and show Carrie off with Eric and the others next week. (Carrie and Eric show up together since they're both Morgan's bodyguards in Caissa's route. So it feels right to show them as a pair. LoL!)

Upcoming Week:

Basically I'm hoping to finish up the last of the sprites this week. There are still quite a few to finish though so I'm not 100% certain I can complete them all. But I will try.

The base game has around 50 sprites/characters that show up. When I started working on them, I had something like 15 or 16 of them done.

In the last couple of weeks, I've gotten that up to about 40 of them complete. So I am definitely nearing the end of the sprite work. Then it will be back to coding.

On my STILL NOT FIXED laptop. I don't even know what I'm going to do about this stupid computer situation. The repair guys are officially on my last nerve because they keep just leaving me hanging and I'm in this limbo of not knowing if I should find someone else or if they've ordered parts and will eventually be expecting me to schedule them to do a RAM upgrade...

I hate, hate, HATE when people don't communicate and leave me unsure of the status of things.

So this upcoming week, I may have to introduce them to Angry Esh.

(I said I wasn't going to rant but the rant slipped out.) OxO;

ANYWAY. That is it for now. I'm really excited that the project has nearly hit 80% completion. Based on the way the weighted figures are set up in the spreadsheet, getting the sprites completed will push me to about 85%. 

So hopefully that's what I'll be reporting next week.

Once we get that out of the way I'm really hoping we can start testing routes again in a couple of weeks. Routes that actually have SPRITES. And MUSIC. 

(No CGs yet for the most part though. I'll probably code in the ones I have done but that is not very many. LoL YET.)

That's all for now. I think over this next week I will set up a roadmap that lays out the remaining work for the base game and what the next few months of development will look like. So I can share that all with you then.

I will see you then!