So I just learned that if anyone had downloaded the previous Twine version, the itch app doesn't auto update to the newer renpy version.
rip. Oh well.
I also just realized I haven't made a devlog on everything that's happened since the last post, and also since the deadline.
So basically I finally got music in the game from my friend Lillian, who you can find here: https://soundcloud.com/lillianwy. She's super awesome so be sure to follow her on there :)
I also spent a shit ton of time just working on tweaking the sprites and proportions for all of the characters, though mostly Hallie. First draft, the proportions on everyone was super wonky. Second thing I did was attempt to work on backgrounds, including two different versions of the bathroom; I wound up going with this one:
I'm relatively fond of it. It was a lot of work Dx. But I ran out of time for the remaining backgrounds and wound up both taking photos and taking google image search results and doing a bunch of manipulation.
I also wound up spending two entire days working on Sam's sidesprite. I don't know if it honestly contributes much to the experience of the game because you see so little of her through the whole thing (she only appears during dialogue), but the thought of making her more persistent may be worth considering in a future update once I figure out how in the hell to customize the dialogue box.
There's certainly enough art of her :/ Photoshop literally lags because of all the layers. I honestly didn't plan the layers and folders very well, but its something I have to live with.
This whole process of working on this game, from inception to semi-completion, has been both incredible and awakening. Planning the story out in Twine, hammering out the kinks along the way, dealing with the difficulty of learning two scripting languages (with a shit ton of help along the way), successfully implementing ideas of what I want, and putting in all the hard work for what I need out of the story and characters to convey emotion has been really something. Its working literally day-in, day-out, getting a few things accomplished, seeing the growth of the game and watching it come together... yeah.
I just don't know if people like the game or not, or how it stacks up. I don't know where I need growth as a storyteller, what's weak, what didn't work.
There are already places where I've come to understand through feedback that people really like certain characters or they want to see the secondary characters talk more. Its something I'll have to consider. The game was meant as a short story, and both Julia and Emily talk much more depending on which path you take. I wonder if I should expand the scripts laterally just a tiny bit more. Or if I should just move onto the next thing I need to work on (which there's been a lot stacking up, including commissions and my comic).
Also, people really, *really*, like Katey. People who both play the game and read Time Fiddler like Katey a lot, lol. It's given me something to think about.
Finishing and uploading the "deadline" build, and then going around and doing a shit ton of promotion on all of my feeds, has left me coming to this mental space where I feel like I'm desperately grasping in the darkness for the next thing to do. Working on the game had very clear steps and goals for things I needed to learn and implement on a weekly/daily basis. Now that I've "finished" the game, I'm left having to guide myself back to normalcy and other priorities in my life that I need to deal with.
Its been weird.