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. 👋

Dev Diary #02

Positive updates this week!

After a lot of trial and error, I found a gallery code which I can understand to a degree at last. Thanks to tofurocks, and her very handy GUI template, I managed to set up the gallery screen after so many months of headache. Obviously, there have been slight design changes which had to be done but I'm very satisfied with it.

Here's a quick work in progress preview! 

With all the UI coding out of the way, I can now fully concentrate on finishing the CG art. Ideally, the style should be as low-effort, but equally appealing, as possible in time for the game jam deadline. Already, I started sketching a couple few of them. Overall the game should contain 12 unlockable images.

( Sketch of  Her reading a book )

( Sketch of  Her smiling )

In terms of art style, I'm considering going for a watercolour vibe akin to Studio Ghibli's "Kaguya-hime no Monogatari" (2013) and a short film I stumbled upon at Gobelin's youtube channel titled "Un Diable San La Poche" (2019).

Should personal circumstances and my mood be alright over the course of the week, then hopefully, this experimental KN can be submitted even before the deadline. 🤞 That's all for this week's entry. Thank you very much for reading. 

As always stay safe and take care. 😊

Dev Diary #01

Hello readers, starting from this point on, all visual novel dev related posts will fall under "Dev Diary" for consistency's sake. 

Here's the progress I made so far this week!

Since the ongoing project was already around 60% complete by the time I put it aside for Nocturnal Affairs, I have finally placed the last missing background images and music. Having not received any response from the coding issue problem I was having with the game's UI history, I decided to ignore the problem completely rather than obsessed about it.

In any case, I am currently re-designing the UI gallery screen and figuring out how to code it without resulting in a massive headache (the gallery UI continues to intimidate me to this time after years 😥). Every now and then I might alternate between programming the gallery and drawing the CG art to possibly help avoid procrastination. 

In regards, to what will happen to my future endeavour as a developer, should I manage to successfully submit this visual novel before the deadline, I am considering stopping entirely to focus exclusively on my art, or, re-polish my earlier visual novel releases. Once I made up my mind, I will make sure to write a proper announcement on all my social media pages. That's all for now.

Thank you for reading this week's update. Take care! 💕

November News!

 Long time no see! How have you all been doing this far into what has been an insane year?

I'm excited to announce that I'll be joining a final 2020 game jam hosted by Terra called "Finish Your Visual Novel" over at itch.io. The jam essentially is, finishing your long-overdue project before the start of January 2021. 

Keep an eye out on this blog for, hopefully, weekly updates in the days to come. 

Take care, practice physical distancing and stay safe! 😉

Azure Is Out!

After much self-doubt and horrible anxiety attack I published it!

You can play it here!

Thank goodness I finally got this story out of my system! 

As you may all know I had finished writing its script before Yaoi Jam begun last summer. After which I left it to collect dust only to reprise it by the end of 2016. 

I don't know when Blanco - the second story- well be released but thankfully the script is done. Not yet proofread but done. 

Anyway in case you have questions you know where to find me. 

Have a nice evening folks!

Azure Progress

Here goes another abrupt update.

Azure is almost ready to be published! Only a few more works to be done and the game will be ready.

Sadly, at the moment the download option at Cloudnovel is being worked upon so I don't know when I can "actually"  download the game and share it.

I still have to ask the admin wither the content is mature or not though.

Anyways, I'm really looking forward for the game feedbacks!

White Book Progress

Azure is coming along fine. 

Yesterday night I added the backgrounds and started surfing online for free bgms. I will probably only use one or two tracks for this game since well it is pretty much short. Game play is roughly around 10 minutes, which makes it my shortest game ever followed by Bus Stop.

Without doubt many players will remain confused about it or ask for a continuation. Although this game is short I must admit I'm satisfied with Azure. It's certainly one of the very few projects I actually concluded lol.

Oh well, I should seriously start looking for a proof reader. Have a nice day!

Working on a KN 2

   I'm back again! I didn't expect to update this blog so soon.

   I used Ren'py a few days before to finally set up Azure but... it could be due to me being away from programming for so long or the new version complicated to look at ( mind you it took me years to get used to Ren'py ) in the end I eventually went for Cloudnovel. 

   

   With this I have no idea if I will be investing money for the download option ( they implemented one last year or so ) then re-upload it on itch.io or just leave the game free. 

   If I do however, you'd have to sign in to the site to play it. Due to Cloudnovel's game publishing regulation I have to put on mature filter. Which means signing in will be the only way to play it.  

   I'm more interested in having people download my game then play it rather than signing in first then playing it however.

   

    In other words I am considering paying for the download. I don't mind it really but I don't know if I stashed enough savings to afford me this process. 

    Regarding the second volume... Have to revise it again then find someone who can proofread it for free but also give me a feedback of the content.

    

  

 

Working on a KN

Hello! 

It's been so long since I last updated this blog. I myself can't believe it's 2017 already. I hope those who played Nocturnal Affair's demo enjoyed it. Unfortunately, as always, I haven't been working on the last half of the game script. 

This year has kind of been an emotional roller coaster for me both online and off, but I'm not going to ramble about it here. I did decided to separate my personal blog from my game development blog so I will at least keep my word on this.

Going on... as I did stated last summer before Yaoi Jam started, I had a short kinetic novel script proofread and ready to be worked on. 

This KN is supposed to be part of a trilogy series. However I will only publish two of them (if I ever feel like working on the second episode at all). 

The reason I will not be releasing the third episode is because I think I'll never feel satisfied with the draft version. Plus I think these two KN does give enough general idea of what the whole story is about. In case nobody get it well... just better ask me LOL.

Yesterday I tried working on it with Tyrano Builder but while using it I felt it lacked some functions I'm more used on having with Ren'Py. Which lead me to opt on using the latter instead. I guess I'll save it again for another time. 

That's all for now.  Have a nice day! 💓