Posted May 14, 2024 by Chimériquement
Hi friends! What’s up since last month?
A lot happened for Waterlily on the Froth, and I’m excited to share!
First, I fully edited the game, and it is now being proofread! Yes, I’m excited to say that Chattercap offered to be a proofreader for WOTF, and her suggestions and revisions really are a perfect polish for the script (because it’s funny how, sometimes, you end up writing “I turned around to take a look at the man standing behind me” instead of “I looked back at him”)! Quite a funny coincidence considering the game uses Karamu, a visual novel of hers, for symbolism, but you’ll find out in the final script!
She also worked very fast, since, as I’m writing these lines, the only portion left to be proofread is the endings (so around 15k words out of ~50k). Which is great! I intend to start implementing the dialogues once we’re done with the proofreading in case I need to adjust some earlier scenes for the overall flow of the story! (For example, a detail of chapter 7 required some edits in chapter 2!)
On my end, after rewriting the final scene of ending 2, I decided to rewrite the final scene of ending 3. I did that too and I am most happy with it now! (And in case you're wondering, no, I do not intend to rewrite the last scene of ending 1 since it's certainly the most poetic scene in this game and I love it so much! (Me? Biased for ending 1? Completely. Not that it's better than the others, but I guess it's the most "chimcore" ending haha).
I also started producing the assets for the games: CGs and sprites! I started with minor characters and CGs not involving characters, and I can’t really show most of them because of spoilers. But I can show some if you guys are willing to:
(The CG concluding chapter 1…. Would have been quite the romantic one if it weren’t a kiss shared between a 17-yo boy and his 29-yo literature tutor)
(obligatory waterlily CG… won’t be giving any context though!)
So far, four CGs have been made.
For the sprites, I finished two characters as of now and sketched two of them. Gaëtana is one of them, but I’m highly dissatisfied with the sketch so I will start all over again, haha. I really don’t want to rush anything with this project, so I hope it is fine for me to take my time!
Regarding the sprite style, I eventually decided to put texture over them! I tested in-game with the Gaëtana headshot I posted in the last devlog, and it looked way better with the texture!
I also started working on the complementary book! My process is simple: one an asset is ready, I create the page(s) about it. A quick snippet, but it’s looking good so far (and as you can tell, I’m rather wordy haha)!
(without texture)
(with texture)
The difference is rather subtle, but I prefer the version with the texture!
I also wondered, in the last devlog, if I should offer the complementary book to those who commented AND rated the game (since the game is going to be offered to anyone who did either). In the end, I decided to offer the complementary book to those who rated the game, as I know some players want to be supportive but are too shy to comment, which I don’t want to penalise! However, if you only commented, you won’t receive it as I don’t think giving a rating costs that much. I hope it’s a fair way to thank you guys for the support!
And that’s it for this month! For the next month, I hope I manage to get Gaëtana and Chris’ sprites done, because it will allow me to actually code way more portions of the game. It would also be neat to finish the GUI at some point and to adapt it to mobile supports. I also would like to include a “content warning” page inside the game. It requires me to list the delicate content of Waterlily on the Froth (which, to be fair, I have already started writing). And hopefully, I’ll have scripted a good portion of the lines and dialogues (up to chapter 4 would be great)! Take care until next month, and thanks for following the development of Yandere Simulator Waterlily on the Froth!