♥ O2A2 Awaits! ♥

Hi Everyone! ♥

Just a post announcing that I'm jumping into the O2A2 Visual Novel Jam this year!

The jam starts in the evening today! ( for my timezone at the time of writing this, at least.)

 - - - - - -♥  O2A2 awaits! ♥ - - - - - -

I'm extremely excited!! This is my favourite game jam (at least from a player standpoint) and I've wanted to participate for so long... 

This'll be my first time jumping into it officially, but it's a huge inspiration to me as someone who loves tiny, interesting projects. Let's see how it feels participating it in it officially!

It's been the inspiration for a couple of my VNs, Sherbert in a Bottle, and an upcoming PC-98 inspired title!:

(both of which have grown past the scope of the o2a2 ruleset, but I think it's a great mindset to start with!)

The Jam is 10 days long, so I'll post a devlog a week into things, and then another when it's over! 

 - - - - - -♥ Plans! ♥ - - - - - -

I'd like to try and do something self-indulgent- This is gonna be a simple story with the intent of 1k words towards my favourite type of character (I love white hair + morally questionable characters haha)......... everything else is secondary.

I've had the OC I plan to use for this for about a month at the time of writing this-- His name is Xael!

(Repurposes the thumbnail since I don't have a ton of finished art of him rn)

I got so excited towards the end of June that O2A2 was getting close I started daydreaming about what I could make. IT WAS SO DIFFICULT NOT TO START ; ______ ; But as a result I have a lot of my project planned and ready to go!!

Without talking too much about the planned story, Xael's landed himself in jail after some...events. There's also a couple of other characters- You'll play as the Pink haired girl (my second favourite type of chara) , with a brief BRIEF mention of the red haired chara!:

I think I designed more than I'll fit into the O2A2 story- but that's fine, I'll just make another VN with them later down the line LOL.

I'll also be releasing an artbook some time shortly after the Jam! (I obviously have to make the game assets to put into the book first!) with the doodles + lore + some extra artworks by @RaspberryBell!

 - - - - - -♥  Renpy can draw things????? ♥ - - - - - -

Before the start of the Jam,I was concerned about the viability of my idea (Character in jail), so I asked the hosts if it would work (as the Jail bars would have to be a different bg asset, and the jam is all about Only One of Any Asset.) 

I figured it was a push of the rules (and that potentially I'd get told no) but since I'm very stubborn I gave a go at seeing if Ren'Py could generate the top layer IN ENGINE, meaning it did not count towards the asset total... and it worked?!! 

This'll work for me!

Turns out Ren'Py has a couple of drawing tools built in! I've been messing with a lot of them lately:

No idea what I'll use these for just yet, but I find it really really cool...

I'll upload an example script.rpy later on if anyone's interested in using these for...something. (I have yet to see many people do much with them, but of ALL game jams, O2A2'd probably be the one this would come in handy for.)

That's all for now- See you in a week's time for progress the game itself! ♥