29/05/2021

Hi everyone! Time for this week's patreon devlog. 

This Week's Summary:

• Finished coding all the music into the routes.
• Started coding sprites into Ari's route (through chapter six)
• I paused for one day to work on some sprite related things.

The Ramble:

So it is a much shorter list this week but only because sprite expressions take a while to do. It's not difficult really - though setting up multi-character scenes can be a little tricky since there's limited screen space.

But ultimately it's just a tedious process. I generally change a character's expression every 1 - 10 lines. It sort of depends on the scene and what's happening. But it basically means just going line through line and thinking about what expression they should make, when they shift, and considering what expressions others have so I don't end up with everyone making the exact same expression.

One day I paused coding to set up some sprite images.

Some of you may remember a while back I made a lot of sprite updates - including finishing some outfit variations for some characters as well as making some small adjustments to them (such as changing colours or giving the clothes an update).

I never actually saved most of those or put them in the game so they would be ready for scripting. Which meant I had to stop and do that. This was especially needed for Morgan who has several different outfits she wears in Ari's route.

So anyway, I got all those set up.

Worked on some new "backer extras" characters. They are minor characters that appear in Ari's route. Usually once I encounter a character in the script, I feel much more motivated to get their sprite completed so I can code them. I didn't do much beyond sketch them out so there's really nothing interesting to show off unless you want to see bald, naked, lines. LoL

Side characters don't take too much effort because I can re-use poses (which I tend to do anyway, to be honest. There are only so many poses that look natural when it comes to someone just standing there so I can't always come up with something interesting for people to do with their hands. Rofl) and most of them don't require many (if any) outfit variations.

Ari has more side characters than any other route but most of them are recurring characters that will appear in other routes as well, so once they're complete, it decreases the number of sprites needed for the other routes too. Ari has something like 11 side characters but all but 3 of them appear in other routes.

And for some routes, all the side characters are characters that also appear in Ari's route. So, for instance, when I complete all of Ari's side characters, all the side characters for Caleb will also be complete.

Mara, for example, appears in 4 or 5 other routes for sure. So when she's done I get to cross her off 5 different sprite lists.

I think I may spend my weekend trying to complete a few of the side character sprites if only so I have them ticked off the list. Like I said, getting them done for Ari's route means they're already done for other routes as well.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Some screen caps this week! Starting SPRITE adventures.

This is why we code...then test.

Also this:

And Magnus being both smug and fancy in his new outfit, which I finally got coded for him.

Upcoming Week:

Laptop is still functioning okay. So that's a yay!

I'll be doing more of the same stuff in the upcoming week. Coding sprites. Drawing sprites.

That's about it! I'll be in SPRITE EXPRESSION PURGATORY for at least a little while.  It's just something that is a time sink.

Everything has to be scripted, then tested. Then more scripting. Then more testing.

I've been dithering for a while on whether or not to send out alpha versions of the remaining routes or if to just wait until beta versions are ready. I'm still undecided on this but I'll let everyone know when I make up my mind!

That's all for this week. I'm hoping to be done spriting Ari's route by the next update. And I don't know if I'll embark on Caissa's route or someone else. 

I also don't know if I'll update a beta version of Ari's route the moment his sprites are coded or if I'll wait. But again, I'll let you all know when we reach that point! 

Esh