Dev Diary #05

Happy to announce the release of  "White Book Complete Volume", now available for download just in time before the end of 2020! 

DOWNLOAD HERE

The artistic process behind this recent project has been a very interesting experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity and texture I managed to achieve to render the CGs similar to storybook illustrations.

Regardless of how long the process behind the script was, creating the history or lore behind the existence of the enigmatic book was fun. Similarly to how Azure was brought to life, the rest of the stories have been purposely made to feel unfinished or abrupt. Even the fate of the characters depends solely on the players' interpretation. I can't wait to hear your personal thoughts on the matter.

Especially, because of how close and emotionally cathartic "White Book" has been for me.

Happy New Year! :)

Dev Diary #04

Happy weekend!

Can you believe we're two weeks into finally finishing 2020? It's been one hazy rollercoaster ride. Here's some excellent news this week!

Last weekend I finally unveiled "White Book: Complete Volume" page at itch.io and shared a timelapse process of one of the CGs thanks to Clip Studio Paint's latest update! With that in mind, I may or may not be inclined to share the rest of the videos I recorded over at ko-fi after publishing the full game. 

Speaking of, the first six sets of CGs are done with the minor ATL coding included! It's nothing exceptional, but it does add dynamic to the kinetic format. 

(A snippet of the ATL code in-script.)

In the meantime, I am focusing the last stretch of these endeavours on the remaining CG art. Hopefully, "White Book" will be done and available for download before the end of December 2020 (*fingers crossed*) just in time for the "Finish Your Visual Novel" game jam deadline. 😊

(Top to Bottom: CG work-in-progress sketches)

Now, regarding my first post at the start of November, I haven't exactly decided yet what to do despite announcing my 2021 projects over at Twitter last week. However, I am indeed excited to work on Bus Stop's revamp should I ever decide to go for it next year! In fact, this week I tried re-writing the script using the original - cringe-y as it is through my 2020 eyes - as a guideline. Plus, months ago I finished writing another one for a potential kinetic novel project that will be focusing primarily on the illustrations.

Nothing is set in stone, and I would prefer avoiding making any grand announcement before having something concrete for the goodness of my well-being, compared to my past self.

As always, I promise to keep you informed when I will reach a decision at last. Probably, by the start of 2021 if possible. 

In the meantime, that's is all for this week's post. Stay safe, take care and wear a mask! 

 

Dev Diary #03

 Here's to another week of updates.

Hello, how have you all been? The project is coming along nicely. I've been mostly concentrating on finishing the CGs hence why the lack of update last week. The art is at a good point and is slowly being coded into the script as I go. Fortunately, everything is working as they should be, even the gallery! 

What I would like to hype about, is my last-minute decision to try applying ATL on said CGs to add movements to the kinetic novel. It will mostly be a low-key sort of animation, nothing extravagant since I have little experience in that area. But what little code I managed to found and apply for works divinamente! I shared a behind-the-scenes preview of it a few days ago on fleet. 

I cropped the area I wanted the animation to focused on using the local photo editor, copied the height and width on the image's detail info then used Ren'Py's developer tool to locate the position where I wanted the movement to start, changing manually as I go. All in all, I didn't have to rely on photoshop for this. 😀

With the progress I'm making so far, I'm confident I'll be able to submit White Book before the end of the month. After which, I plan to release the timelapse process of some of the CGs over at my ko-fi account. So keep an eye on it should any of you be interested! 

That's all the news for this week. Thank you for stopping by and stay safe. 👋