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[DevBlog] Please tell me I love you - Completed!

A topic by A G Moody created Jan 06, 2016 Views: 974 Replies: 21
Viewing posts 1 to 15
Submitted (6 edits) (+16)

1/19/2016, COMPLETED! Check it out!


Alright, I'm gonna make a Dev log thread like the cool kids! So many people are diving into gamemaker/Unity/frickin' hardmode code, I feel a bit intimidated! I'm keeping my game as simple as possible. I have a full-time job, a hellish commute and freelance work- so my main goal is to finish a game, and move onto something else feeling that much more accomplished!

My game's a little Twine Interactive Novel about two monsters on a couch discussing their relationship.

The writing portion of the game is going to be the biggest challenge- I haven't written anything except generic corporate copy in years.

Writing Goals:

  • relatable inner dialog for the player character
  • believable casual dialogue for two '20 somethings'
  • Word count isn't to much of a big deal for me- I adore the 'bit size' passages many twine games have. But I'd like to hit 2.5k or so!
  • Avoid Male/Female coding

The last one is one I'm not sure I can fully achieve as a novice writer- but all of us have a tendency to 'write what we know' so I wanted

to throw one challenge at myself to keep my brain from getting too comfortable.

The visuals will be super loose .gifs. Likely even looser than this.


Goals:

  • roughs for every Twine Node
  • 20 loose .gifs!
  • Try to have at least 5 have some 'complex' movement


Aaaa I love just casual talking games about relationships. If you want, I can find a few to link you if you want to look at some good examples!

Also the character designs are so cute. I just want to pet them both on the head.

Submitted (1 edit)

I will admit- I was kinda uhh...self congratulatory (that's not the best word can't think of it right now- it's late) for jumping in blind, but now I'm seeing that's not the best of plans lol. I'd love a link to any games you think would be good inspiration!

and thanks! I love cuddly moomin-monsters, so I figured I could have some fun with this :D

http://ncase.itch.io/coming-out-simulator-2014 This is the main game example that comes to mind! It's really conversation focused and hopefully it can give you some inspiration and ideas for how to handle your games!

And yeah, I feel you! I also jumped in blind and there's SO MUCH I don't know. As someone who's already a couple days into this, though, you'll be surprised at how much you pick stuff up!!!!

Moomin is honestly such a good inspiration to get monster designs from. Good choice > : ]

Submitted

I've been working on this from the beginning- I'm just sloooow.

And thank you for that link! It was great inspiration! I love the bookend player/creator dialogue.

Submitted(+2)


My probubly still too long game-outline. I wanted 3 endings - a mutual break-up, a make it work, and a ignore it (arguably the only bad ending).

I have a few variables and if/else checks that can kick you to a new branch.

Tommorow's goal is to hammer out a lot of the script. I have some 'txt doc' word dump placeholder in there, but it needs some work.

a LOT of work.

This sounds excellent and fun and yay for another monster game in Twine!! <3 I can't wait to see the animations and development process. Good luck to you!

Submitted

That art is so cute! I love rough/sketchy drawings like that, I think it'll complement the tone of your game well. Look forward to playing it!

HostSubmitted

this is a really nice concept for a twine game!! i can't wait to see how this turns out!

Submitted

Thanks! I can't either lol! It will be so nice to actualy finish a personal project for once!

Submitted(+1)

IT GREW. I fleshed out a lot more of the 'make it work' path and added dialogue that would kick you to the breakup path.

I have a few 'decision trees' that I'm probubly doing in a stupid way.

(now that I look at it, I should add some that kick you to the 'do nothing' path)

Submitted

AH I LOVE THIS IDEA. I'm excited to see this develop!! Especially the idea of using gifs instead of static images

Submitted

I'm always surprised when twine games don't use 'em. they fit twine's 'modern retro' feel so well

Submitted(+3)

Last night's achievement was this super inelegant code for a random Terrible Neflix show. Technically super-low prority, but I felt a little burnt out on writing so I compromised with this silly thing. I wanted it to sit in it's own passage to be called up later, but I couldn't figure out how to make the strings it returns static (each time I used <<display>> it gave me a different show. I have it loading in start passage now-but now I have cluuutter : (

Some 'Best of'. I can't look at the second one and not laugh.

Today's daytime goal is to knock out the breakup path, Nightime to start working on placeholder rough art assets.

Submitted

I know it feels inelegant but putting it into startup is the best way I can think of to pull off what you wanted :/ Putting the code in its own passage to display when you need it means the code will rerun every time the passage is <<display>>ed.

But I like the idea of a new random show every time you start a new game, and am intrigued by Anthony Bourdain's Murder Children lmao

Submitted

<<display>> turned Mike Tyson's Crazy pets into Mega Mystery Mansions, so it gets points for unexpected commedy

HostSubmitted

hehe sometimes the main stuff becomes a drag, and it's really fun to work really hard on something small. it's rly funny also laffs

Submitted(+1)

1/7- I was a bad dev and wrote a program to pick my NFL playoff bracket* for me as a joke during work time rather than write. Since neither of these are what I was supposed to be doing (working lol) I'm not gonna worry to much.

I DID finish a rough draft for the full game, tightened up some variables and added some hidden stat triggers than add additional lines to the break-up and 'do nothing' endings, as well as trigger a super-cute super-good ending.

So today will hopefully be tightening up my copy to pass to an editor I just recruited over the weekend! I'm also toying with recruiting an actual editor with food truck BBQ.

All in all, not making as good a time as I wanted (I wanted roughs by friday) by the game has grown to a larger more robust size, and the writing is what I REALY wanted to challenge myself with, so I'm rollin' with it.


*The RNG gods picked a New England v Minnesota Superbowl with Minnesota winning and an an insane total of 74 points.

Submitted(+1)

WHOOOO! Somehow (with the help of my boyfriend) I knocked out all the game writing on Saturday! Mind you, it's a short little game. But it did take some time to run through all the potential paths and variable triggers. We also made the 'shitty do nothing' ending even SHITTIER.

All n' all I feel pretty proud of myself for even getting this far. I'm not going to win any awards for my writing, but I've been making my test readers sad, so there's that!

things to do still:

  1. Fix a few code issues. I just didn't get a chance over the weekend because I decided it would be a good idea to drink a bottle and a half of wine.
  2. roughs for eeeeeeveeerrything
  3. at least one completed animation
I have a bunch of stuff to do this week, so I'm re-dong my goals to just be roughs. Bit of a bummer, but I know I can't even do the original 20 gifs at this point.
Submitted

I understand the struggle of trying to do the Han while working full time. It seems like your game is coming along really well, though! I think it's a fun concept. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Submitted

Guys I did it! THERE'S A PLAYABLE DEMO!

It's a mess, I still have more assets to add (they're done but I LEFT THEM ON MY WORK COMP).

So I've...called it quits for this weekend. I'll resume on Monday (and likely finish then too, the art is preety far along) and write a better 'final thoughts' post but for now, enjoy exactly what I was able to complete in two weeks.

Submitted

And I finished! Two days after the jam ended, but I need my friday to cuddle my boyfriend. And Saturday turned into me scrubbing my counter with baking soda and toothbrush for 5 hours .Not even joking- I'm Trying to remove a burn mark. I've moved on to 220 grit sandpaper ><

In short, I didn't finish on time. I uploaded a sloppy build that was only marginally playable. But MLK day saved the day, and I was able to crank out all the assets today!

A short 'wrap up'

  • I think I met my writing goals, everyone whose played it describes it as being a 'cute sad game'. Which was exactly what I was aiming for! it's super short, but that's how I like my twine games- bite sized.
  • the game ended up longer and a bit more complex than I originally wanted, so i had to do more art assets than I expected, and didn't do any character animation.
  • I did finish all planned gifs!

things I learned

  • I think I made the gifs to big in both dinemsions and filesize
  • itch.io's little iwindow has a weirdass dimension, I didn't think to take that into acocunt
  • I ran into issues with planning and organizing my art assets in twine, inthe future I think I'll write my games in more of a true 'script' format that call for visuals, so I can better plan my filenames/what I can reuse.
  • I love the 'wiggly line' look TO DEATH. but damn it was tiring to trace all that over and over. Next time AFTEREFFECTS +GIFGUN!
  • I still need to learn so much CSS
  • The biggest takeaway from this jam is that I burn out FAST on the artwork. I can stay motivated during the code part easily, the writing takes a bit to get through, but the art is an absolute SLOG to get my motivation back. My guess is I pick easy fast styles I loose interest in fast, I need to find a balance between something I can fish as a one-man dev team, and something that holds my interest (so that I can finsih and not burn out)

I had a ton of fun making this game. Couldn't be happier I joined on a whim after seeing someone's Retweet. I thought finishing a project would be a great way to start of 2016- the year I've decided will be one full of personal projects n' cool stuff.

And well, 2016 is off to a great start. I already have a draft of a second twine game ^_^