10/07/2020 Patreon Devlog (Patreon)

I'm BACK.

I mean, I never left. But I was able to work properly this week. 

It felt so nice. OWO And this week's update doesn't feel like a depressing chore. LoL

This Week's Summary:

• Imported all the sprites for Ari's route (meaning I transferred their image files into the game.)
• Made some corrections/additions to various sprites as well
• Got back to coding sprite expressions
• Coded Morgan's expressions up to chapter 11
• Coded in the character entrances/exits up to chapter 11

The Ramble:

So I am back into the tedious grind of expression coding! (But I'm glad to be able to actually work on it again).

The first thing I did this week was save and import all the sprite files needed for Ari's route. Since a lot of the sprites appear in other routes (all but three of them do, I think) this means some routes already have their full cast imported, thanks to Ari.

This process took a little longer than anticipated because a couple of times I realised I needed a variation I'd forgotten or else I opened the sprite file and enough time had elapsed between that moment and when I'd originally drawn the sprite that I no longer liked it - so I ended up making corrections and tweaks to several sprites.

Either way, I got all the necessary sprites into the game and have gotten back into coding expressions.

I decided to revert back to my original strategy of coding all Morgan's expressions into the route while also coding everyone else's entrances and exits (but leaving their expressions out for the time being.)

Choreographing the sprite positions can be a little time consuming in group scenes where people are leaving and entering frequently since it means a lot of showing and hiding and sometimes re-positioning.

For instance, if I have one character on the screen and a second character comes in, I usually don't want to just stick them on the side and leave the previous character in the centre,  since that looks unbalanced.

Usually I'll move the centre character over slightly so both characters are positioned in a balanced way. So instead of just showing the new character, I have show the new character at a specific position, then move the other character to a new position.

If a third character shows up, I have to now shift both existing characters to new positions to make room for the third one.

Then as characters leave, I have to go through the same process of repositioning sprites to keep it balanced.

It's just a bit tedious is all. It sometimes take some planning and double checking as well. So I like to get it out of the way before I code in everyone's expressions as well.

After I get all Morgan's expressions coded, I'll go back to get everyone else's expressions done since they'll already be placed in the scenes as needed. They'll just need to have their actual reactions and such coded. THAT SAID...I do code at least some character expressions as I go. Sometimes I just get caught up in a scene or sometimes I leave notes for myself on specific expressions I want people to make at specific times. So I usually code those in as I go. LoL

Still, I like do the MC first just because MC has the most expression changes. Right now Morgan has around 1800 times I call her sprite (by 'call' I mean I'm specifically telling her sprite to do something - appear, disappear, change expression, change outfit, etc). And I still have three chapters to go.

None of the other characters will come close to this many since Morgan is just on-screen more than anyone else.. So it's nice to get Morgan out of the way first.

So yeah, first half of the week was making sprite tweaks and saving files, then importing them.

Second half was coding expressions! 

Sneak Peeks and Previews:

I've been saying I would give you a line-up of the full cast and here it is.........almost.

I could actually do another row (and then some) of minor characters and "Bobs".

But these are all the important characters (and a few relatively minor ones). A few of these sprites are still likely to get tweaked between now and when they get imported to the game. But this is everyone for the time being!

Upcoming Week:

Coding sprite expressions will probably be taking up most of my time until Ari's route is finished in that regard.

Once I finish Ari's route, I'll start importing sprite images for Caissa's route and following the same process. Hopefully that will be this upcoming week.

I also have to finally (FINALLY!) start thinking about beta-testing again. Looking forward to that. Usually I do test the sprites as I code them in but to be honest...

it can be difficult to test it all since there are branches dependent on personality or score and the like so testing everything is tricky for one person. Looking forward to handing the route off to be tested by others. Hopefully....SOONISH.

And that is all for this week.

See you next time.