Hi there! This is the last full week of development for HIS LAST MACHINATION; I'm having a great time, but, candidly, I'm also tired to the point where I think my approach for this week will be "Paste in the contents of my 'devlog asset dump' notes nigh-1:1, then clean them up later when I have slightly more mental bandwidth."

That being said: really wonderful progress was made this week! The major sub-project that's being worked on right now is syncing in-game text with their corresponding lines of dialogue, though a lot of UI implementation and general aesthetic improvement of the game also took place this week. In terms of deliverables, everything is on track for release on May 1st, and the game's looking really cool.

April 19th

• UI tinkering, discovery about weird text box fades/stutter
• Text retiming was done for scenes 1.5 and 2.2, specifically to test retimes for scenes containing flashback sequences
• Rumi is working on new UI bits!
• Initial selections for a bloopers video were made today.

April 20th

• Implemented menu, main menu, confirmation (Yes/No choice) box elements; changed text colors on menus—most notably the save menu—for legibility reasons
• Dialogue retiming has been locked for scenes 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4
• The bloopers were assembled and paired with music, meaning that work on their video component can now also start.

April 21st

• Previously-retimed scenes were sanity-checked/minor adjustments were made where needed.
• Pietro and Valeria's reverb dialogue was processed today (for scenes 1.1, 1.5, and 2.2).
• More progress was made on Day 2 text retiming, including during the second of its two flashabcks.
• Two more complete CGs were received from Ves!
• A giant bundle of SFX and ambience came in from Kylie!
• A confirmation box for if the player tries to skip Petra's song was built out and works as intended (so that the CG scene is not ended prematurely unless the player opts into it).

April 22nd

• Text retiming up to the end of scene 2.2 is now complete.
• A custom credits screen was added to the menu of the game and populated with data.
• All sound effects delivered from Kylie have been declared within the code, and either merged into or declared as replacements for certain existing declarations.
• The final backing/accompaniment track was received from Rose, thus allowing for the vocal performance component of the piece to be fully mixed and implemented.
• The ending credits video was finalized and exported.

April 23rd

• The opening video for the game was created; fundamentally, this entailed doing the text animation by itself, syncing that with the corresponding voice files, compiling the video together in Resolve, and then converting it to WEBM for Ren'Py compatibility reasons.
• Both the opening movie and end credits video were implemented in-game.
• A teaser trailer for the game was created and posted; this will eventually also live on its itch.io page.
• Post-processing on the deliberately muffled dialogue in scenes 1.2 and Ending 2 was completed today.
• A mild instance of piano shenanigans featuring a certain tune very familiar to the dev team took place, just for fun...

April 24th

• Dialogue text retiming for scenes 2.3, 2.4B, and Ending 2 were completed; for scene 2.4A, only up until halfway through the flashback sequence is currently done.
• Text size on menus was adjusted for legibility.
• Missing SFX were implemented!
• Formatting on the credits screen was adjusted slightly.
• A final version of the game logo was received from Rumi!
• Actor role announcement graphics (for posting after release) were finalized.
• An IMDb page for the game was created.
• A cover image for the game's itch page was created.
• Updates began being implemented for the itch page, though most have been belayed until the 25th.

April 25th

• The itch page was more robustly built out; it is still in draft mode/firmly a WIP, in part because it does not display properly on mobile yet, but the sheer amount of HTML sans all CSS involved was...quite a bit more than I'd contended with since university. (It may be worth emailing the itch.io admin team and asking for CSS privileges after all...)
• Dialogue retiming for 2.4A was fully completed and locked.
• Conditionals for scene 3.1 were "unbroken," meaning that those checks now work as intended.
• Final versions of the melancholy and tense tracks were received from Rose, meaning that all music now has coverage!
• Three final backgrounds were received from Elina!
• A nighttime matrixcolor transform/filter was implemented for use in scenes 2.4A, 2.4B, and Ending 2.
• A final version of the bloopers video was exported and shared with the cast. This can be shared later/post-release!

(Courtesy of the night filter: area man has a chat in his kitchen in the dark—as you do.)