DevLog Update (Patreon)

Hey all,

It's time for another one of those walls of text. The last Devlog was kinda chaotic because I was in a tight spot and I almost did another log a few days later to let everyone know I was out of the woods. Sometimes I write these status updates to the community and I feel like I'm opening a garage door into my shop and everyone is outside and they look inside and the garage is a complete mess and it's on fire; and there I am in the middle waving my arms and shouting "I know this looks bad, but I promise you it'll get better, just come back tomorrow! I just wanted you to know I'm out here working!" 

Organizing this update has been one of the more challenging feats during the revamp thus far and it took a little longer than I had liked. However, there's good news out of that. In the process of organizing this update, I ended up looking at the chapter as a whole so now I have a decent outline for v0.07 (the update after this one) already pretty mapped out. So that should either 1) make that next update go quicker, or 2) leave me more time to work on something else in the next update (I really want an animation for it) but we'll get into all that after this update is done. But yeah... basically I outlined v0.06 and v0.07 together this time around.

So here we go...

Writing

So let's talk about the unusual part first. As of right now, I have update v0.06 mostly written all the way to the end. However, I've included some various day-to-day options in the story (i.e bathroom, skip class, go to class, etc.) to sorta mimic the old version of the game and give the player some options to wander around and explore to personalize the experience just a little more than you used to. This gives you choices on how your day plays out but it also spreads out the story a bit and creates a lot of areas where I have to pull things back together again. That "pulling" part either requires writing, images, or both. 

For example, after school, Zack normally ends up walking back into the dorm room and Braden comes in later. But if he skipped class, he's already in the dorm room and then Braden comes in. It's little things like that but I have a few loose ends that need pulled together. Some I know about and others I just need to play the update and see where they are because I know I've already forgotten a few of them. It shouldn't be a lot of work. But it's something that needs done and will likely take me a day or two depending on how much of a mess it is.

Images

So let's piggyback off the writing part and talk about images. Right now I have 292 new images rendered for this update and they are coded in and the game officially booted for the first time yesterday, but I haven't actually played any of it yet. Like the writing, I may need some extra images to join some of those scene transitions together but they shouldn't be that complex (crosses fingers and wishes upon a fucking star). I've also been working on an animation that I got a decent prototype done of yesterday. It's very short (but will loop) like the previous ones you've seen but all of these subtle animations are good practice for the bigger stuff later. That being said, I'm strongly considering doing a second short animation as well. For whatever reason, I've found some interesting enjoyment out of animating very subtle things that probably don't require animation. Maybe it's a creative phase for me but a lot of this story is dialogue and just hanging out with your friends and talking about bullshit. So I guess it's not a massive jump to assume that my eye is drawn to everyday kinda things like Braden's facial expressions... or this upcoming update has a scene where Braden jumps onto his bed and I spent a little bit of time showing how he actually does that. In the early updates, Braden sits backwards in the desk chair. In the original game, Ash always sits in chairs with his legs criss-crossed. They're small details but for whatever reason they each had a story to  me and I think that makes the world feel more alive. People move and have mannerisms specific to themselves and it's both challenging and fun to capture that. I'm not great at this animation stuff yet but I'm trying and I think each one teaches me something new.

I haven't started on the second animation yet, but I do plan to tinker with it and see if I'm feeling it or not. I have scrapped animation attempts before if they're not working.  These probably aren't required but they're practice and are allowing me to learn new techniques. Ideally, I'll work on it over the next few days then I can test the update while the animations are actually rendering (yay, for multitasking).

But images look good. If you haven't seen the teaser posts, there's quite a few that are posted here on the Patreon page including static images here and here as well as the video discussion here and here if you're interested in those previews or extras. Images look good and while the overall number of images included so far isn't a huge number, keep in  mind that I'm able to reuse images from previous updates and some of that will help speed up production in the future. But the new ones are good including some underwater shots that I'm obsessed with. Lot of new facial expressions, positions, and things should feel fresh like you've come to expect from the revamp. 

There's also a lot more skin in this update than I anticipated so have fun with that  :)

Revamp Translations

So if you missed the post about translations, you can check it out here. Within a few minutes of the announcement, I already had tons of people offering to chip in and help with various languages for the Revamp translation. We've already greenlit Team Spanish (name pending) and I'm probably going to greenlight a German translation as well. We also have several people with experience in French and Portuguese. I really wanted to only do a max of 3 but I'm really leaning close to greenlighting all four. However, I'm trying to work out some early kinks and kinda get an idea based on early experiences with Team Spanish so I don't waste anyone else's time.

I also don't know how much work this is going to be and I don't want it to slow down current development. Getting the translated copies of the game out is not my first priority: the game is still my focus. However, the community has been willing to help with this so I'm hoping it can mostly work in the background while I push forward with the revamp.

If you have a knack for translating and you're interested in helping, check out that post for more details as well as the Discord link. All of the translating is happening in a private little nook of the Discord where everyone can chat and interact and bounce ideas of each other.

And while all of that isn't related specifically to the next update, it's still an update on the game and the overall process of building this thing and trying to make it better with your support.

Music/Sounds

Since music and sounds are a big part of the revamp, I wanted a heading here but there's really nothing to report on this yet. The way I do music/sounds is I need all images in the game and it needs to be bug free. Then I go through the update and try to feel out the music and sounds from there. I can't plan the music ahead of time. I gotta actually see the scene and read it to feel what I think it needs. This usually ends up with me sitting here with headphones on for several days listening to various tracks, doing research, or purchasing tracks that I think will fit. There's a reason that games/movies have an entire department for sound and music because it's suuuuuper involved. I've hunted for days for one track and I'm sure that's actually not that long compared to what professionals do. But sound and music is one of the last things I do. On average, I'd say it takes me 4 or 5 days to run through  the update for music/sounds.

v0.06 Things Left:

Initial Bug testing/Read through/Fix broken shit so I can concentrate

Focus on linking scenes together that are broken and missing writing/images

2 potential animations

Sounds/Music

Then full readthrough and polishing

Image corrections in Photoshop

Release Date

Ugh... I'm not sure and I won't know until I see how much scene linking I need to do first. I may do a quick post on my Twitter saying Yes or No for this month if I get a closer idea. In a beautifully perfect world, I'd have it out this month but it'll be close. Things are going well but there's a lot left to do still that could either go very quickly or stump me. 

As always, I appreciate you. All of you. Thank you from the bottom of my caffeinated heart. It means the world to me that you're on this journey with me. 

-Aaryn