Dev Diary #06

 It's officially 2021, here are my plans for the year.

For starters, I still intend to work on the revamp of either/both Bus Stop and Before the Tale. Once those two are out of the way, I have decided to stop developing visual novels entirely, although I wish I could have shared more of Strange Chemistry's universe. 

Not many of you probably know of this but from the moment S❤C was created, it has been my intention to create VNs and stories set in the fictional archipelago of Lunar Isle (a mixture of Japanese and Western-influenced country on the same geographical location of  Japan, how original I know). Bus Stop and Conspiracy, for example, are set in the fictional capital city of Moonville. Whereas No Thanks, Eros! and Nocturnal Affair are equally located in Upper Heights Hill, the major hub for entertainment and commercial industries. There was even a new city I recently created last fall situated in the Northern region, where the belief of the Archaic Gods and supernatural persists in modern times, called Caligo Hills (a must place to visit and live in for horror aficionados). 

Anyway, although I will stop developing visual novels, you may still find me occasionally making interactive stories, maybe with Twine or something else we'll have to see. Art-wise, I plan to offer my services as a sprite artist for short projects and/or games jams. Given my past experience, I don't think long-term ones are suitable for me.

In the meantime, I will be working on the GUI design for Before the Tale since the original script is finished anyway. Expect updates here once it reaches around 80% progress. I will be sharing snippets of works at Twitter (@strng_notes) and ko-fi as often as I can without burning out.

Visual novels have become such a huge part of my life, which makes it all sadder that I have fallen out of love with it. On the plus side, at least I will be able to finally play them again after all these years.

Stay safe and may this new year bring positive things in your lives. :)

General Projects Update

Conspiracy

This otome will be put on hold for now. So far I'm reviewing the points system and copy/pasting the script while trying to organize its label.

Yaoi Jam

Starting this Friday I will commence working on the BL project's art assets. The game jam will begin on 1st June so until then, I won't be coding any of the UI nor sprites.

I have also prepared initial sketches for the characters' sprite but wanted to confront a 3rd party's opinion in terms of character design and I'll be opening the thread pretty soon on LemmaSoft so you guys should check us out! 

Short KN

A few weeks ago I mentioned I finish writing this short script for a really short KN. I received the proof-read just yesterday and it's 100% ready to be worked on. Depending on its feedback I might make a 2nd chapter for the story. I will be working on this after Yaoi Jam, alongside Conspiracy.

That's all for today's post! In addition, as of next week I'm finished with the school year! (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

Sorry!

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the lack of update! 

I'm very busy at school with my my final exams for this year and all piling up. I'm still working on Conspiracy whenever I can though. In fact I'm proud to say Riko's new base sprite version is finally reaching its finishing touches with the coloring.
I've already prepared Yuu's flat colors as well while Katsuo's on standby, ready for the lineart. I admit I kind of neglected copying the proof-read script. I'm too focused on my personal problems too.

I'll make up for the game art after school ends as I await my ill fate. There's a 50.5% chance that I may stop being a VN creator or player around next year for personal reasons. I won't be posting the details about it here though since this is now solely a game development blog. In addition, I love my privacy.

Changing topic, I might partecipate at Yaoi Jam this year! There's this dark short game which has been bugging me since last year. It could even be a 16+ game for its possible contents. No nsfw scenes although there could be some allusion to it but I won't be putting those. I'm thinking of giving more importance to the psychological aspect of the game rather than the characters' physical relationship. Plus, I'm still not good with drawing nor writing those scenes despite my deep love for BL manga, literature and games.

As for that short KN I finished writing, turns out I will be using Cloud Novel for it. It will have only one soundtrack and some CGs. No sprite though. Depending on the feedback I might make a second part or episode for it which more or less explains the story. The latter will be difficult for neither I myself understand what that story is all about. I'm so ashamed of myself.

This is the longest post I've written after a long time.

Take care everyone!

≈Silver

Conspiracy: Update

Can't believe it's already May! I've been so busy with personal problems I hardly even managed to work on Conspiracy.

On the other hand, a few days ago I finished a game script for a short KN (again) which title is yet to be decided. Getting back on Conspiracy, I'm happy Yuu's new sprite version looks more decent than my earlier works! I guess I did improve on my sprite making design, but there's more space for further improvement, especially the coloring part.

I kept his original hair style

I do admit his hair came a bit off but oh well... In the meantime after applying his base colors I'll move on to Katsuo.

My goal is still to publish this game within 2016. Also, regarding the game's CG I don't think I honestly can pull off all that work. Thus, this brought me to consider looking for a CG artist, although I honestly wanted to work on them myself to make both sprite and CG coherent to the game's art style. But this and that, this and that...

I plan to start asking around once I get every characters' default sprite done. 

That's all for today's update! Have a nice day!

Conspiracy Cosplay Poll Results

Good day everyone! 

Thank you for your time in answering the poll for Riko and Jin's cross-dress cosplay! 

Here are the results!

Riko: Butler/Waiter Cosplay  ⇒ 54%

Jin: Western Cosplay  ⇒  63%

Moving Blogs + Add News

I'm writing it here just to make it "official" or something. 

I will no longer be using Daydreams and Clouds as of this month. My second blog is still under construction but I'll share the link on my "About Me" page here once I get it done.

 

Moreover I will advance the date for "Conspiracy's Poll" release. Which means sometime before the end of the month. I couldn't work much on the game either due to personal reasons but I occasionally transcript the proofread script whenever I had the chance. For certain, I will be fully active again around mid-June. *crosses fingers* 

Bye for now!

Conspiracy Poll + VN Update

Hi everyone! 

ー( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

I'm extending the poll until the 23rd April due to Jin's tied results and will either work on Katsuo or Yuu's sprite at the meantime. Just recently I also edited the game's thread on LSF and soon remove all character profiles until I replace them with the new ones.  

Aside from Conspiracy, I might start working on another short KN as a side project. It has horror elements (?) and is a way for me to practice on my writing skill as well as try out Tyrano Builder ( another visual novel engine ). 

That's all for now, have a nice day!

Conspiracy Update!

First of all, Happy Easter to Everyone!

Yesterday, I finally started to work on Riko's sprite and now I'm in the middle of preparing her hair and clothing lineart. It would be great if you answer this short poll I made so I can also settle for Jin's cosplay. Their costumes will be important specially for the CG part of the game. 

You can do the poll here or go to the Poll section on the homepage. 

Thank you very much!

Conspiracy: UI Update 4

After finding the code for an input frame I managed to code its length (maximum 15 letter name). 

I'm proud of making baby-steps as a programmer, although at the moment I'm still a complete novice! 

In two days time I will have spring break. During that period I want to get the Help Section done and copy at least the proofread intro. 

That's all for today's update!

Conspiracy: UI Update 3

Finished coding the Yes/No screen! 

Yes, there's a Riko chibi version.

Since most of my initial GUIs had the characters' chibi in them, I decided to keep that concept by putting two chibi characters: one on  the Yes/No screen and  another one on the Gallery's main screen. 

Additionally last night I had the default cursor changed to a new one. Differently from the initial cursor this latter is more simple and minimal. Which means, no animation of any sort. Although I'll probably have one on my other projects. 

Since I hate the idea of deleting it and considering it's my first cursor pixel animation, I'll be adding it on my free resources page on this blog alongside the file code. 

Now all's that left for me to work on are the characters' galleries. At the moment it will contain only the lock images for I have yet to work on the CGs. 

That's all for today's update!

Conspiracy: UI Update 2

Here's an update for the Extra screen which I worked on yesterday!

At the moment I'm working on the Yes/No screen design, and will try coding it sometime around tomorrow if I have time. The "Help Section" will contain further instructions regarding how the game works etc. Hoping I actually manage to make the scroll screen work. *crosses fingers*

That's all for now! 

Conspiracy: UI Update

I got the Save/Load screen done! And... it actually works! 

Yeeees!!!

I have two screens left to work on and possibly, I'll soon add these previews on the game thread. The coding took me an entire afternoon until nighttime. I'm truly thankful for the tutorials! I got it functioning despite initially having bugs and I am proud to say I can now understand more or less Ren'py's custom UI designs.

Now for the CG gallery and Yes/No screen I go!!! (゜▽゜;)

New UI

Received the proof-read script yesterday! The feedback was positive, thankfully. At least a three year two months work paid-off. *phew*

While I'm at it, I worked on the game's coding last night and successfully changed the preferences screen.

Notice how much it changed! ^^

I think I'm getting the hang of programming or at least understanding it more in terms of customization. The real deal will be changing the Save/Load screen UI and the CG gallery, specially since I had trouble working the thumbs and all. 

This was where I left the gallery a few years back.

Perhaps, now that the script is fully done I can take my time and concentrate more on the UI. That's all for today's update!

Update: Conspiracy

I can't believe it's March already. This year has been pretty fast and busy, at least for me. 

So last year during summer I sketched Conspiracy's characters' new sprites on paper, scanned it and worked on it digitally. Thankfully, this method is making things easy for me right now that I'm working on their sprite. 

Just this afternoon I've finished Mizuno sprite ver.4, after which I'll start coloring her then pass on the other characters (probably by random).

Do not use, re-upload, or share without my permission.

I'm glad her hands came out decently since I really suck at drawing them. Also, I believe there has been a huge improvement between this sprite and my earlier works for Conspiracy. 2016 could finally be the year I'll release this game! After all isn't everything possible in 2016? 

Also, I sometimes post other work in progress and art previews on my personal blog. Be warned though, I repost BL stuff there as well.

Have a nice weekday!

Conspiracy: WiP

Tried to find time to write something about Conspiracy! So here's goes!

This a preview of what I ended up working on last week. The extra screen will be the game's gallery, I decided to scrap the ending list. The colored tabs on the right represent each character, I still have not counted how many CGs in total the game will have.

For now I'm planning on changing Conspiracy's thread at LemmaSoft, finish all character sprites' default version then remake ( for the 4th time) their profiles.

Below is what each episode ending will be like. Right now I can't decided between the Japanese writing and the Western one. Overall, playing Conspiracy will be like watching episodes (???) with TMGS (if you played them) game pace.

Conspiracy: Update

Found a proofreader and I just sent the game script a few minutes ago. Now all I have to do is wait and see.
In the meantime I will start working on all characters sprite since I've left them aside in order to concentrate my attention to the script. This is the 4th time they will be redrawn though I decided to keep their recent designs and limit Riko and Jin's cosplay to only one (european cosplay).

That's all for today! 

Conspiracy Script Update

I'm proud to officially announce that after 3 years and 2 months, Conspiracy's game script is 100% complete! My next plan is to have it proof-read then reorganize it more cleanly by someone more knowledgeable in codes than me. 

Now I will be shifting my energy back to art department: sprites, UI and whatnot. I want to have my options open so I will keep my switching to different works going on. 

I will make sure Conspiracy is released before the end of the year! 

Conspiracy: Update

After much considerations I have decided to reduce Conspiracy's ending to 7 instead of 8 differently from my original planning. I already wrote some explanations here.

I already started rewriting the script yesterday night. Although I was anxious for changing the plot scheme, I felt some minor sense of relief and satisfaction. This 3 year project must come to an end after years of delay. 

I'm confident I may be able to actually finish the script this month. In the meantime I will start looking around for a proof reader and coder just in case. I want to absolutely release Conspiracy this year, in case I fail to do so I will have to abandon this project permanently.

Here's the current script statistic for now:

The game contains 2,912 dialogue blocks, containing 21,632 words and 113,239 characters, for an average of 7.4 words and 39 characters per block.

That's all for now. Thank you for reading!

Conspiracy: Script Update

Only 2 endings left and script will be fully complete! I can't believe I reached 21,000+ words. ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃) After I reorganize it all I will start looking around for proof-readers and coders. Wish me luck.

Statistics:

The game contains 2,847 dialogue blocks, containing 21,032 words and 110,260 characters, for an average of 7.4 words and 39 characters per block.

Contemplating....14

With the termination of my short second visual novel I am currently at loss.
I know I should stop playing around the bush with Conspiracy's script and work on it yet at the same time I can't bring myself to write with the same mood I used to be in when I started this otome project. Not to mention my currently undergoing problem with the art programs. Sigh...
Despite all these I want to bring life to all my archived ideas and projects so people who enjoy VNs like I do may play it.
Honestly if it weren't for the VN world I don't think I would be facing each day like I am doing now. It saved me from further sinking in the void and partially filled my empty heart. - whoops serious mode on - 
Anyway, I think I'll start with finishing the script and move further on art side for a "possibly" new work in progress visual novel project which will run alongside Conspiracy. Once the script is done I'll start opening a thread, I'm still undecided whether to use Cloudnovel or Ren'py for it though.
Right now I'm at a point in my life where I'm starting to be surrounded by real life dilemmas and I can't seem to avoid my responsibilities anymore. Becoming an adult sure is tough... That's all for today's post. (•‿•)