Behind the scenes: Engine work #1 (Patreon)

This will be a little behind the scenes, more news in a sense kind of post as much of the actual engine work is kind of different to share visually.

Anyways! Writing has come to an end for May. With it, I am now fully working on engine work for the upcoming update. Which includes the massive fixing of file size, adjustments, file compression and reworking to make sure the previous content visually and gameplay wise is still all working as intended from being fixed up with the compressing of images, etc.

Then there is the new content being added, days 16 & 17 which will be added a bit later.

Right now for the next couple of days, it'll mainly be a huge focus on fixing up everything before moving on.

I have already begun compressing the new expressions for sprites and testing them in the engine, making sure they aren't losing any real visuals by being compressed. Which luckily so far I have compared uncompressed vs compressed sprites in the engine and have no been able to pick out anything at all in difference. It looks exactly the same, but 1/3rd of the actual file size! ^^

With this, each character sprite now has a set 20-24 expressions that are new. This is compared to how I was handling them, where for example. Miki had 200+ expressions between different outfits, but mainly it was very very subtle expression changes being done in real time to make each day/section feel much more handcrafted. This of course back fired on me as the file size continued to grow to unstable levels for the engine.

So the good news is, number one: new sprite expressions and it cuts down the massive amount of expressions that many of which were so very subtle or used once overall. That it just isn't worth doing that. Number two: compressing of said sprite expressions seem to be working and show no real visual down grade at all, while being 1/3rd of the normal size per file.


The plan moving forward today for the next few days is to begin with days 1-4. Start by replacing character expressions (old) with the (new), make adjustments to dialogue/text to fit with the new visuals in mind. Replace the (old) with the (new) completely day/section by day/section.

So three main things are happening: (1) dialogue, text adjustments that fix typos and placed around the new expressions to match things up. (2) New expressions added to replace the old, which include new effects when characters change into new clothing, out of clothing, etc. (3) cg scene and bg images possibly being replaced with new compressed versions if needed, will aim to keep quality very very very close to how it shows currently.

This sort of thing will continue for the next few days, shooting to hopefully be able to do days 1-4 today. Saturday 5-8. Sunday 9-12. Monday 13-15. So that all existing content is completely done and that hopefully if all done right. I am hoping to see the file size of update 0.11 come down from >1GB down to 150-200MB max. With each new update not adding 50-100+ MB each time either, the only reason it would be 150-200MB is due to how many images are in the game currently and counting outfits, but only what is being used will be in the game until actually used. (if Miki has a sad expression and isn't used yet for gym outfit, it will not be added to the game until that very outfit/expression is actually needed.)

I don't want to really go into what will happen after I fix the major bulk stuff for the engine above, but the rest is mainly some adjusting to fix some crashing issues, 2 decent sized changes to day 5 and day 10. Then that should wrap up the major bulk engine stuff, moving onto new content adding day 16 & 17, testing, polish, ready for release. ^^

That's it for now, I figure as things die down on behind the scenes for writing and major new art previews are also a bit quiet for right now. I would try my best to keep everyone updated on progress for the engine work process. (not so exciting >.< but hope it gives an idea what is being done)