Posted November 17, 2023 by Carrot
HELLO ALL I THOUGHT I SHOULD MAKE A DEVLOG MAYBE???
Mostly because at least on the itch front I've been a bit quiet and also because I thought maybe perhaps potentially I should at least write a quick little something up so people have a better idea of what even the heck I'm doing right now with this side game (that you'll know about if you've been following my socials but that I haven't talked about anywhere else and also I've only given random small visual updates for EL OH EL).
Picture unrelated I just think it's cute.
ACTUALLY REALIZING THIS IS VERY RELEVANT I DREW THIS EVEN BEFORE THE IDEA FOR THE GAME BUT IT FITS SO WELL KDJFAKDFJA
So yes if you follow me on itch but not on any of my socials this may come as a small surprise BUT I AM WORKING ON A SMALL SIDE GAME. Why, you ask??? Well, let me get into it...
*****$%($*%@$%@$(%*@$)%****** (magical time travel dust)
The year is 2023... and I have just finished launching part 5.15 of the weird off-kilter ridiculous what-even-the-heck-is-this horror visual novel Our Wonderland...
Actual Carrot quote: "Wow, I feel like crappity doody! I am so tired and depressed and demotivated I wanna jump into a well!" [actual quote may vary]
My brain: "You should just working, that'll fix everything!"
Actual Carrot quote: "I don't think that's true..."
And in fact it was not true. I did try to get started right away with some more writing but it just wasn't working. Also September was a ridiculously busy and anxious month for me. My sister visited at the beginning of the month, I had a family 2-week-ish trip in the middle of the month, then went to my friend's wedding in France at the end of the month. All three of these things caused me some anxiety because I am an anxious wreck, so I spent most of September feeling incredibly harried and on-off five seconds from a breakdown and just wishing I could rest for 5.1 million years.
October rolls around and though I'm less swamped with stuff I still haven't really refound my creative spark. Perhaps because despite taking a forced production break in September I hadn't actually rested at all and mostly just felt even more haggard than before LOL I continued to draw some occasional self-indulgent art and also ran a fanwork contest which was a ton of fun and people were drawing so much cute stuff I was literally in awe. But when it came to actual production work I just found it basically impossible. Maybe because I've been working on this game for over 2 years straight??? Huh??? Possibly???
Enter a random silly idea.
I made individual playlists for the chars!! To this day I'm not quite sure what inspired it. Maybe because I already had a few ideas for songs I felt like they'd each like. And then because I was feeling quirkly I decided to take it a step further and make entire lists. And then when those lists got kinda fun and I was enjoying them a lot, I wondered if others might like them too. So I polished them up and even made some silly little icons for them:
Carrot goes off the rails step 1.
WELL.
SOMEHOW THIS THEN UNLEASHED A FLOOD OF OTHER IDEAS???
Because all the little nuggets of ideas I'd been keeping bouncing around in the noggin started to pop out of my brain like popcorn:
And that's pretty much how it went LOL
Initial mockup...
...to the eventual screen!
And so that pretty much brings us up to now, where I'm mostly just chugging away at this little self-indulgent creativity-refinding side game while also finishing up other art commitments (the remaining 12 headshots for the fanwork contest, the two raffle prizes for the fanwork contest, my vn dev secret santa gift, etc.)
I realize this weird side game might not be everyone's cup of tea as it's quite a different vibe from my normal stuff... but even if you don't wanna play it I hope you'll at least forgive me for taking the time to make it and do a little something for myself to get some of my spark back after I felt like I had lost it.
BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS GAME EVEN ANYWAY???? I say to myself when I realize I haven't actually given that many details so far despite sharing lots of random little snippets on my socials. WELL. Let me tell you.
So this game will be called Our Cinderella, and it's a combination stat management sim / texting sim / winter-themed fairy tale parody of (obviously) Cinderella. It stars Iggy (also obviously), and your job is to help him make it to Bucks's Christmas party on December 24th. Of course, this is a tall order for our socially anxious recluse, so it won't be easy!!! (Actually it probably will be fairly easy my goal is not to make this a difficult game alsdkjfasd)
The shoujo-esque title screen.
The main gameplay will revolve around passing days (it starts on December 1st and the party is on December 24th) where you need to decide Iggy's schedule. He can work, which will make him a random amount of money. He can text one of his friends, which will help him build affection for those friends. He can play games, which will restore his social battery (which he loses every time he texts someone). And he can also shop online (using the money he's made to buy the pieces of his party outfit or to buy fun stuff to increase his social battery). Of course, you may also run into some bumps along the way, mainly that some days Iggy will be too anxious to do anything...
BUT. If you can make it to December 24th having bought Iggy's entire outfit and having gotten one of his friends up to a red heart, then Iggy will get to attend the party!
OF COURSE, THE GAME DOESN'T JUST END THERE. But I also don't want to spoil everything that will happen afterwards. But just know that there will be more silly Cinderella references and also some heart-breaking moments and also also some funny moments and also also also a sweet ending that may or may not take place on New Year's Eve. Everything that happens starting at the party will also be customized towards whichever LI you get to invite Iggy, so all three of them will have their own sweet ending huehuehue~
The status screen, where you can keep track of Iggy's progress towards making it to the party.
It's not a particularly enlightening or show-stopping game by any means, but I feel that it's turning out pretty cute at least, so I hope that people won't mind a silly sweet short little game to warm up their winter season teehee. I'M WRITING TONS OF TEXT CONVOS??? My idea is to have a "bank" of possible text conversations you can have with each LI, and aside from the first time you text them, it will choose randomly from that bank. And I'm writing enough different convos so that you couldn't even get all of them for a specific person in one playthrough if you tried, so that you can replay it multiple times and still get different fun convos. Also the convos themselves are literally turning out 50 shades of absolutely ridiculous for the most part, so I hope they'll be entertaining and enjoyable.
My current word counts for each route's text convos along with all the common and scene text. Genzou currently has 16 possible convos, which is probably about where I'm gonna aim for each of them. I have a few more to write for Orlam. Then a good chunk more for Gidget (I only started work on theirs last week so it's the least furthest along).
Oh yeah and I'm even drawing photos for some of the convos!
I've been learning a whole lot while making this game, too, which I consider quite a plus. I've never set up screens like this before or had any kind of day system or shop system or anything like that, so I've had to do a lot of experimenting and trial-and-error LOL This is also the most extensive GUI and set of menus I've ever set up, too. With every game I release, I learn a little more and get a little better at all the various aspects of game dev, which I think is really cool. For some reason I always get really excited when I get to mess around in the code and try out new things and problem-solve how the heck to make it work like I've envisioned in my head lakdjfasd (I was the same way with T2A2G I just got so randomly excited about trying to make a new system and then desperately problem-solving how I could make it work through the code.) Though I'm still far from being able to code anything super complex, I am slowly reaching higher heights in what I'm able to do in-game. WHAT KIND OF SHENANIGANS WILL I GET UP TO NEXT??? HOHOHOHO who can say
At any rate, that's about it I think! Hopefully everyone has a better idea what this game is actually about now and/or for those that didn't even know I was making this, now you know!! LOL My goal is to release the game before the holidays so people will be able to enjoy it while The Snow Is Hot so to speak. I don't have an exact date yet but am potentially eyeing December 22nd. I'll also be back in the states visiting fam at that time, so I hope to get the majority of the game done before the 14th so I only have to worry about testing it and finishing up last bits with the game page etc leading up to that. MY FINGERS ARE CROSSED. I think I should be able to make it though. I'm taking a kind of gradual MVP approach where I'm focusing first on things I absolutely need to get finished and then saving potential extra ideas to add in only if I have time at the end.
Ok I'm gonna stop rambling now or I'll never stop. BUT I REALLY HOPE PEOPLE WILL LIKE THE GAME. I again apologize for those who don't care about this type of stuff and only want to see my main vibe games LOL but working on this has really been such a godsend for me creativity and motivation wise, so I hope you'll forgive me. And for those who will play the game I hope it'll be a fun and cute little thing to give you some warm cozy feels for the winter months teehee.
LOVE YOU ALL.
CARROT, OUT.
Ending this ramble with something cute LAKDJFADS