24/10 Patreon Devlog

Hey everyone! Popping in to write up this week's devlog and update you on the goings on for Gilded Shadows! 

Summary:

• Finished Jack chapter
• Started new chapter
• Worked on some sprite expressions
• One new BG
• Two new BG sketches
• Worked on some new transitions

The Ramble:

So mostly working on writing this week - just had a few other little things I worked on here and there. Jack's chapter is a little over half complete.

I've been noticing that Rory's presence (or not) has caused Jack's route to have a higher amount of branching that the other routes and it's possible his route is going to end up with a higher overall word count than even Caleb's. But I'm going to try to keep his linear word count (word count without the branching) similar.

I only expected his presence to affect a few big scenes but, of course, do things ever go according to plan? No. LoL

For the remaining half of the route, I may try to get the entire potato draft of these chapters done before I go back and edit them. Usually I do a potato draft of a chapter, the edit it, then move to the next chapter). Sometimes, if I feel I'm falling behind, I'll just focus on getting the route completed, even if it's mostly potato. That way I can tick it off the list as done and work on editing.

It just helps alleviate the feeling of treading water.

Anyway. I also worked on a few other things this week - Brenin's expressions, minor sprite adjustments. And I worked some new transitions into the game which I think I did...last weekend? I don't remember.

So when I say "transition", what I'm referring to is the effect applied to the screen during scene switches. Sometimes I just use a simple dissolve between BGs because there's no need for a big transition. If I want to indicate some time has actually passed, I usually use the "blinds" or "fade" transition. Blinds replaces the old scene with a vertical, well...blinds...effect. Fade causes a fade to black before bringing the new BG into view.

I found a set of transitions, some of which actually look a little art deco-y and some of which look sort of futuristic. I thought it would be fun to play around with something a little more interesting than the default transitions renpy comes with. So I've been playing around with those to see which ones I like and how I want to use them.

I'm still playing around with them - there were around 10 I felt were usable for GS so I'm looking forward to finding ways to integrate them. Some of them are really cool. I love that there was one I could use for teleporting moments to transition between BGs in a more interesting way. 

(You can see these below in the attachments. There are three really short videos)

I'm also working on setting one up that I can use for moments when Morgan is waking up or losing consciousness since that does happen a bit in the game as well.

Anyway, this is kind of a short ramble because this week was really more writing oriented and I expect my weekend is going to mostly be focusing on writing as well ( I may even get to write the first kiss scene of the route!). 

I may take some time out to work on the Caleb wallpaper I owe patrons too though! OwO Mwa ha ha!

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

This was a BG we had done by someone else originally, but I just really felt it did not match up in quality to the others. So I had Vui Huynh re-do it. And I love how this turned out. This is the greenhouse that Deimos set up and cared for before his death and is now one of the few things Caissa has left of his brother.

Keres comes down late at night as well though he doesn't let Caissa know about it and pretends to be indifferent to the garden's existence. (There's a day time version but I just think the night version is super pretty!)

We also got some new BG sketches! A cave area in the Twilight Wastes (Also by Vui.)

And Reuben's bedroom, by Son Huynh.

Our composer is doing a recap of some of the tracks he made for Gilded Shadows - this will be a series of videos he's uploading to instagram over the next couple of weeks. But if you guys want a sneak peek of those videos, this is a youtube playlist he sent me!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLodKnJmy13HhGe3Xub7eZvKmUSl8pK7Lc

Upcoming Week:

W R I T I N G.

Basically. LoL