TAKKA TAKKA INTENSIFIES

Anyway, another good ol' writing day. Finished the script/code for day two and got started on day three. I could try to finish it before I go to bed tonight, but I've been having an awful headache today ever since I got back from work so it might be best to call it a night @_@ I really, really want to get all the writing done, though.

I'm getting the hang of menus and if/else statements. It's enough for the stuff I have planned, but in the future it might be fun to experiment with more complicated stuff like some of that tricky python coding (i think the encyclopaedia uses a lot of python code, but I just copied and pasted it so I don't think that really counts for me learning it :P)

I think yesterday or the day before, I tried experimenting with trying something new for the final art style of what everything would look like. I started with the cloud mage since she's the main character, so why not let her set the tone?

(I gave up on the 2nd one halfway through lol) Confession: I don't really like either of them, though the first one is a little closer to what I want to go for. I think I'll try and fall back on a style I'm more familiar with, something like this or this/this. (linked art is all by me)

Hey, another encyclopaedia entry!

And I'll leave this here:

;^)

Oh my god this looks so cute. I love your art style, I'm really looking forward to seeing finished shots!

*TAKKA TAKKA INTENSIFIES AND VIBRATES INTO ORBIT*

I finished writing to the end of day 4 of my game! There's a day 5 planned, but I'm going to leave that on the backburner for now, I may not even finish day 5 in time for the jam tbh. I feel a bit of coding/writing burnout at this point... so! I'm going to work on art assets now!

I dropped my script.rpy file into a wordcount tool to see how many words I'd written, and....

WOW, I had not realized I'd written so dang much.... Almost 1k of those words were part of the encyclopaedia code I copied and pasted, but the rest is pretty much all writing/coding by me. This is officially longer than the fanfiction oneshots I used to write, lol.

So far I've learned a lot about coding in renpy. Most useful of all are probably the True/False/None and if/else statements. I've gotten a pretty good handle on them as well as menu wrangling.

This might look confusing, but basically I've worked out a system to have the player choose an ingredient, get a snippet of the characters talking, and then be taken to a screen where you're asked if you're sure you want to choose that ingredient. You can say no, go back to the first menu, choose another ingredient, see the convo attached to the new ingredient, and then be asked again to confirm. If you change your mind again and go back to the first ingredient, you don't have to sit through the convo again.

I haven't actually implemented this yet, this is just a quick test I did to see if my system of true/false statements and menus would work, and it did! So I'll implement that at a later time.

I get a little nervous bc, being a text-based game, people's enjoyment of it will depend on whether or not they like my writing since that's what the game basically is... BUUUUUT it'll probably be okay... *noncommittal hand gestures*

And, as per tradition, here's another encyclopaedia entry to end the post ;3

Dumping some drawings I did today!

Redid the gryphon rider. I've learned my lesson: DON'T MIX COWBOY ACCESSORIES WITH JUMPSUITS.........

convo with a friend:

me: i'm going to draw a catboy for my game. what if he wore a really tiny shirt
friend: do it
me: okay, but, what if it's like, really tiny, like underboob tiny
friend: do it
friend: wait what if he wears alice's shirt, from VLR

me: WE TOOK IT TOO FAR

Catboy is pretty ridiculous, please forgive me (also i forgot his tail but I'll remember it for the roughs/final pic)

There's three more characters and some other misc stuff to conceptualize, I'll post them later when I finish them \o/

HI!! It's been a couple of days. I have some stuff to show, I guess.

Drew this concept for the merserker warrior (yes i shamelessly mashed the mer- prefix with berserker). I didn't really like it though, so I ditched the robes/cloak and beige colours bc it didn't feel right.

She's pretty buff. I'm much happier with these! I think they could still use work but tbh, time's a ticking. Idk how much of the art I'll be able to finish, but let's give it a shot. Hope the last few jam days are treating everyone well!

Aaaaah, I love the merserker!!! Both in concept and execution.

this is SO COOL!!! i love the diff kinds of plants!! the pussywillows are esp so cute!!!! the chunky sweater is also SO GOOD!!!

The roughs look great!

your art and these designs are sooo charming! (the merserker is... gosh... wow...)

I did it!! It's not quite as finished as I planned, but it's here, and it's playable \o/

Post-Jam checklist:

Art to finish
- Gryphon Gunner
- Cat Thief
- Merserker
- Plant Tamer
- Plants
- Catalysts
- Sweets

Background Art to finish
- brush up start screen
- home bg
- night bg
- spell stages
- cottage bg

Writing/Coding to finish
- code clean-up
- script revisions
- 5th day/secret bonus ending

See everyone around, the jam was a real blast \o/