♥ Week 7 Devlog ♥

Hi Everyone! 

We're all through Week 7, with  just under 2 weeks to go!

I'm happy to say I met all of the goals for this week! As a refresher, these are what they were:

• - Add in Nala's expressions to the script entirely
• - Finish up the GUI entirely
• - Finish up the Backgrounds entirely
• - Continue working on the script, pass it onto other people for thourough review

- Expressions are now complete! - 

Nala's expressions have been added to the script! I completed it pretty much the first day the new week. Riding that final stretch motivation high!

The majority of the work for her was making it so her eyes flick between Arley and Hayden depending on who's talking- there's probably a smart way to code it, but I'm just using show statements for now.

(Half of the fun is just watching her flick between them.)

Also patched the sketchy expressions into complete .pngs. All expressions are complete now!

+1 to Nala's eyebrow game.

Hayden  can now look down, too. (Though I have yet to add this into the script anywhere):

I'd like to make Arley have the same ability,  and both of them  raise their eyebrows. But currently the expressions  already present match well enough, There's no urgency to change it.

- Gooey updates - 

The GUI was tackled next, some tweaks to the textbox made and the calendar finished. It's currently in that "totally clean and useable, could pass for a finished GUI, but I'm not happy with it just yet" stage.

Here's a side by side comparison: 

(Old)

(New)

Some care was given to the Main Menu, too:

(The .gif really doesn't do it justice)

I'll have to check if this image of them is allowed to stay,  or needs switching out for the Jam release- it's part of the artwork I did while waiting for the Jam to start (A literal hour before) , not during the Jam itself.  However,  it's only part, and I'd like to clean it up and make further tweaks so it's Main Menu Presentable (It's currently too sketchy for my liking).  I'm hoping it'll fall under recycling rules.  

EDIT: I checked with one of the hosts and everything's fine! The current image stays.

Speaking of GUI- I decided to give my renpy launcher a JKHA skin using the chibi image I drew last week:

I'm enjoying opening up the Launcher just that little bit more now.

- Word flux - 

I went through and skimmed down the word count, looking for unnessicary words/wordings- I lost about 500 words from the script! 

We then ramped it back up to Just over 20k in total- I still have some scenes to finish up.

Good progress on the script, too.  The TODO list is now almost empty:

I'm still completing the script...I'm a little surprised this is the thing that'll take until the end of the game, but, so be it! I have plenty of time to work on it, with very little remaining.

- Backgrounds are finished! - 

All 4 backgrounds are now complete! I might want to tweak a couple more details later on, but I'm happy with what I have for the Jam.

Here's a comparison with where the BGs started, and where they are now:

(Old)

(New!)

This has been my first time using 3D for any real background work. I normally just draw everything by hand, but this has been a huge time-saver. I'll see how I can incorperate the process moving forward, for sure.

- Mixing up the positions- 

Speaking of backgounds- I was a little self-councious about how throught the game, my characters don't move at all.  In some places, it looks like the background just swaps out where they're standing still. 

To remedy this, I've added a little variation into their positions using renpy's "choice" function. It's pretty simple, but keeps things a little fresher:

The original position I'd initially defined stays as the first choice, in case I change my mind about this feature. I like it so far, though! One of those "I didn't think it'd be this easy" moments- Always nice to have those.

- We're basically all done! - 

And that's it for this week! Another great one, and the game's really starting to feel complete.

Week 8 will be about polishing , sorting out music, and hopefully having the writing finished completely- Knowing how I work though, I'll be tinkering right until the end. 

Thanks for reading, and see you next week! ♥