08/05/2021 Patreon Devlog

Hi everyone! Time for this week's patreon devlog. This is another long list of a lot of small things that I got done this week. A lot of them were just one or two hours here and there so I was able to tackle many and get them out of the way.

This Week's Summary:

• Finished line editing and scripting Lance's route
• Made all the chapter cards for Jack, Lance, and Magnus
• Made all the ending cards for the bad endings
• Did the preliminary scoring for Jack, Lance, and Magnus
• Lots of code clean up
• Added in an "affectionate" choice style
• Worked on Jack sprite variations
  • His casual/sleeping clothes
  • His formal party clothes
  • An alternate shirt I lined but am not sure I'll ever use?? LoL
• Worked on a ton of BG variations
• Coded BGs into Jack's route
• Coded BGs into Magnus' route
• Coded BGs into Lance's route
• Spent an hour randomly giving everyone stubble/beards for no reason other than that…..I CAN. LoL.
• Solidified Yuu's base plot summary
• Solidified Reuben's base plot summary
• Stared at Quill's route and came to no solid conclusions. OwO;;; *sweats*

The Ramble:

First and foremost, I finished line editing and scripting Lance's route. So all of the original love interests are officially complete. And in the game code. Total final word count for the base game is 707,000 words. I wasn't sure I'd cross the 700,000 threshold. But...here we are!

Once that was done I went back and made all the chapter title pages for Jack, Lance, and Magnus and coded them in. This is kind of of a small, tedious thing but must be done. I also made the ending cards. I decided to show the ending title on the final screen. And I could have that with code but that requires me to look up how...and just putting the image together in PS did not require that. LoL

I did some small code 'clean up' as well - this was mostly stuff like checking all my variables to make sure they were actually functioning properly. For instance, when I call up a specific personality trait for a choice or variation, there's are three variables (trait_1, trait_2, trait_3) and each of those has two traits associated with it. So, trait_1 can be either confident or cautious, for example. I needed to make sure that the trait names matched the variable being called. For instance, I should never be calling something like

If trait_2 == "confident" because….trait_2 can never *be* "confident" and mixing these up would ensure that variable or choice never gets triggered. Essentially making sure the variable can actually be triggered is something I did.

I added in an additional choice type - "affectionate." Sometimes there are choices that don't really match the personality traits in any way. Usually I can kind of align everything to either the positive or negative aspects of the personality traits but occasionally you get choices that are like "Ask him how he's feeling" or "Walk away." *

These kinds of choices don't really align to a particular personality trait. I have a "neutral" choice but I disliked having to use neutral for both options in these situations. So now one can be "affectionate" and the other "neutral."

* (this is not actually a real choice anywhere)

I coded the backgrounds into Jack's route, Lance's route, and Magnus' route. This doesn't necessarily take a long time but it is kind of tedious so yeah...did that. I also worked on  a lot of BG variations/tweaks. I do this a lot when coding BGs although my usual strategy is actually to just make a note that I need a variation then use a placeholder. But sometimes I just pop into PS and play around - as I did this time.

A lot of times as I'm coding BGs I realise I need a different time of day or some kind of variation of the background that I don't already have. So that's when I need to go and make it. Some of the pens I did this time were pretty time consuming...yeah.

I also set up the preliminary scoring for Jack, Magnus, And Lance. It's possible I'll need to tweak this but I'll determine that when I actually play test the routes. For now, the scoring is set up and spreadsheets with the choice options, scoring, and location of all the stat checks are complete.

I worked on Jack's sprite variations and I think I'm done with him for the most part. He needs some smaller variations for injuries that he gets, but I'll probably set those up when I actually code the sprites into his route because I don't really remember all his injuries and sometimes it's easier to those on the fly/as I go.

But all his major stuff is done now.

My big question for Jack is when he goes back to his natural hair colour in his own route. It's fairly early on in Caissa's route, but in his own, it's hard to figure out when it should happen.  I feel like it has to be either while Morgan is unconscious at the start of the route or else in the last chapter. And I don't like either of those options. One is too soon and one is too late, but there's not another good time for it.

Finally, I spent a while solidifying the base plot summaries for Reuben and Yuu's routes. This will form the foundation for my larger synopsis, which will then form the basis for my expanded synopsis and outline.

Quill's route. Idk. I stared at it for a little. I still am undecided on the direction to take his route. So he's being a pain. That seems accurate for him.

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

Look at this amazing background I made. =D

THERE WAS ALSO THIS INCIDENT INVOLVING BEARDS! The story behind it is that I was playing around with giving some characters morning stubble - just for a fun variation. And it somehow devolved into me giving everyone a stubbly beard just to see what they looked like. LoL

I don't know which ones (if any) will appear in the game. But it was fun. LoL

Upcoming Week:

Um I'll probably be coding music and the like. I am still having issues with my laptop and strongly suspect, at this point, there's an issue with the RAM. I'm going to have to call in someone to repair it because it's making it difficult to work.

Sometimes it just does not want to boot up photoshop or CSP which is really irritating.

But with level 2 restrictions coming back into place in Sydney I'm not sure what getting a repair guy is going to look like. What I don't want to do is ship my laptop off somewhere for two weeks. =w=;

It's also making me hesitant to work for long periods because my computer will blue screen here and there and I just remember an incident with Changeling where my laptop blue screened while coding and it corrupted Corvin's entire route. So I'm feeling a touch paranoid.

I'm backing up my work daily anyway at this point but until I get my laptop fixed, progress may slow down a little.

So yeah, with that issue in mind I'll probably be...alternating between sprite work and coding.

I need to re-save a bunch of sprite things (mostly outfits) to update the main cast with their changes/updates. Then I need to start working on side characters. 

Coding-wise, I need to start working on additional asset coding like music and sprites. 

So those two areas are likely to be my main focus this week. Something else I need to do is play test Jack, Magnus and Lance and start setting up flowchart templates for all the routes. But I want to play test first because sometimes I change around branches as I test and realise things aren't flowing as well as I thought, etc.

So yeah. It'll be another busy week of doing all sorts of various things!

That is all for now! See you next week!