Winter's Love beta release and Jam reflections

Well it's done! Or, not quite. 

The unfinished beta version of Winter's Love for the Winter VN Jam is done, but I'm not quite happy with it yet. I wanted to have something playable by the final submission date for the jam, and to that end I succeeded, but I'll be taking another month or two to work on the art and GUI for the game, and maybe make some tweaks to the script too if necessary.

Originally I took on this project as an opportunity to improve my art and character design skills, but after a busy December, the deadline started catching up with me just as I had decided I wasn't happy with my original sprites. For a moment, I considered dropping out of the jam entirely, or creating a game without any sprites, but both of those would have been an admission of defeat. Luckily, I managed to discover the programme Mannequin, which gave me a quick and easy way to produce temporary sprites as needed. It's no understatement to say that Mannequin saved this project, as it gave me the space to complete a working game before the deadline, and a reason to continue. As helpful as it was, I still want to go back and redesign and redraw my own original sprites for the game, as well as adding CGs at a couple of key moments. I'm hoping this'll bring the game a bit more to life and make it a little more personal than it is in its current form.

Another major fix that I'm aware needs doing is the GUI. As helpful as it was to find and use the pre-built Snowfall GUI, it doesn't completely suit the game and it often causes some readability issues throughout. By the time I got around to the GUI I had already spent so much time on the script and the unused sprites that I wasn't able to give it proper attention. Graphic design is not a strong point of mine, so it is possible that I will either use another premade GUI or enlist a friend to help for the final product, but right now I just didn't have any more time to dedicate to that. If there's one thing I've learned from this jam, it's to never underestimate the importance of good GUI.

The music is possibly the part that went most smoothly, and is definitely one of my favourite parts of the game. Of course it is also something I didn't do myself. My friend Saber composed a number of great tracks for this VN that suited exactly the style and mood I was going for, some of which I didn't even have space to include! A huge thanks to them, and I can't wait to work on more VN projects with them in the future. In terms of sound effects, I will probably add them in the final version, I again simply ran out of time.

Writing the script went quite well, originally I had something a little longer in mind, but I'm happy I managed to work it out and get something completed. I may expand on the story a little but depending on the feedback I get on this beta, but for the moment I feel happy enough with its short length. I wrote this story from a personal place, and I hope that I was able to convey my feelings in a way that people will relate to. I'm already gearing up to write more VNs in the future, I think it's a great medium of expression.

Finally, there was the programming. Ren'Py is a wonderful engine, it is so simple to use and I was quick enough getting the hang of it. I hadn't written a line of code in about 5 years, but I found Ren'Py easy to understand and actually found myself enjoying working with it quite a lot. I can tell it's quite a powerful programme when used well, and I'm looking forward to exploring its capabilities across future releases.

Overall, I think participating in this jam and working on this project was extremely fun and very beneficial to me. Please keep your eye out for the full release of Winter's Love, and plenty more visual novels from me in future!!

nyancy ^.^

Studio Uafás