10/07/16 (Early afternoon)

Hi everyone!

This is my first time here, and also my first attempt to make a game in over six years. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited.

Now, I'm making more of an interactive comic than a game as I'm more of an artist than a coder, but it counts, right? I'm using Twine to do so, and all the art will be made using traditional watercolor.

The idea for the game came from taking the Muses and placing them as guides to the main characters, who are thrown into a competition of great danger. However, in their world, there is a myth pertaining to it: should one of the competitors pass the challenge, they would be acclaimed into the Muses' domain and become part of them themselves. The challenge is long and arduous, though. There is a reason why there are still only nine Muses after countless competitions.

Yesterday, I decided the setting and finalized the Muses' designs, along with their champions.

https://gyazo.com/592f2bcebba242a6235540107b5d0fea Here are a few roughs for the Muses with the main colors filled in. I do have a lot more done in graphite, though.

Today, my goal is to at least script the events in a single timeline, make some concept pages for the setting, and compose a theme. It's going to be real fun to work on this.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone involved in this jam!

Bravemule has made two Twine games with comic art and story, so it's a interactive comic story. They were really interesting, based off folklore, so I look forward to what you're doing here. Twine can get pretty stale sometimes.

11/07/16 (Late morning)

I really wanted to update last night, but I got a huge headache and had to go to bed as soon as possible. I feel a lot better now, though.

So yesterday, I finally started using Twine. It's the first serious project I've attempted with this.

https://gyazo.com/a441ed2e5a829edf62c63874868713c9 (btw google boomslang right now. It's the COOLEST snake and its venom has some really gross effects)

The story starts, you're given some exposition as to what to do and why you're in this challenge, and then, you pick your character out of eight champions, who have codenames for now (I have yet to pick a theme for their actual names). Each of them have their own Muse who guides them and gives advice throughout the adventure. The Muses are also responsible for giving each of them different powers, which yield advantages and disadvantages, depending on who you are and how you use them.

The contestants' objective during this is to fight monsters called Liners (again, working title). Each one they kill leaves behind a set amount of Blood Jewels, which they have to collect to meet a certain quota. If they reach it, they stay in the game.

https://gyazo.com/8feb15e2d3c3ac5fa646dcc120af91cc Here's a concept for a Liner (they're pretty much all unique, but this is one of the first to pop up). I consider myself a beginner at watercolour and character design, so if you have any critique, let loose. I want to hear it.

Also, since this will be an interactive comic, most of what I write won't be seen in the final stages. This results in some special lines:

https://gyazo.com/cfaea2079d9d6595830f842044a7de6a

https://gyazo.com/fbc1f199d2cceec6d2340d820bc53eea

... Stellar.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I was going to compose some music for this. While I haven't incorporated different instruments into it yet, I have the melody and accompaniment for the main theme. As I say this, I'm not sure if I'll make a score for the whole thing. It's another task to complete that'll take some time away from working on something else, so I won't do any more unless I feel I have enough time to cover it.

As for progress for the storyline...

https://gyazo.com/852ac967b5a1d962b4f71d2153116fde

It may not look like much, but I realized something at one point. At first, the plan was to follow a contestant, and if they lose, you choose another to follow, and so on. And since there are 8 contestants at the start...

https://gyazo.com/abc91aff43be7471fe18b59e4203d694 ... Yeah. No.

So I fiddled around with some story elements so if a certain amount of conditions are met, the ending will always be the same. For example, if Vine quits at any point, it'll set off a chain of events that lead to Boomslang winning. If you choose to leave that one Liner alone, three off-screen contestants end up losing. There's even one contestant whose story won't even be an option (that would be Dandelion). She'll just be the NPC that just maybe will help you. Lemon will be able to be followed, but only after a certain point in one timeline. This greatly reduced the amount of endings necessary, let me tell you.

One thing I have to mention is that the Muses are there more for symbolism than mythology. Most of them were made design first, and there won't be more ancient Greek deities than them. However, they are all named after an actual muse, and that name bears significance (though if it doesn't show in the design at first, the story will link it). I'll list them off here (the file in the 10/07/16 devlog has them all very roughly coloured):

Magenta: Calliope

Pale unsaturated blue: Euterpe

Purple: Thalia

Green: Polhymnia

Orange: Terpsichore

Cream: Erato

Deep red: Urania

Blue: Melpomene

Khaki: Clio

My plan for today is make some concepts pages for the setting (kind of forgot about that one), work on the champions' designs, and complete the longest timeline, which leads to the better ending for the characters.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

(And thanks for the support, XianXian)

12/07/16

Things I did yesterday that I was supposed to:

- Defined the setting and drew out several important locations (such as a lemon tree, the top of a mountain, a cliff, and a cottage)

-Worked on the champions' designs (all their outfits and overall physical appearance are ready except for their colors). I also made another Liner while I was there (this one's a feathered snake).

-While I didn't complete the longest timeline, I did go a long way into setting up its requirements. Those timelines are getting complicating, but I love working on them. There are three different endings so far.

Tasks for today: Make actual colored concept pages for some characters and the setting. I want to make absolutely sure the colors work together if I am to do this the whole way through. Next up, character design, writing-wise. There are two of the champions who stick out as being waaay underdeveloped compared to everyone else, so I want to change that.

Now back into the blanket cocoon, so I can put on the Madoka Magica music and figure this out :P.