#sc dev diary

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #22

Have some appetizer before the main course!

First of all, the new UI for NA+ is set up and ready to go! I'm so happy how it came out and the new tricks I tried out with HTML and CSS.

While I was at it, I also fixed that teeny-tiny detail with OTAD's UI that's been nagging me and encoded the rest of Chapter 3 to be released this May 27th on the new moon!

I've been spending the rest of the month re-constructing the assets — mainly BGM and SFX — I used for BTT back in 2015. Given the nature of Cloudnovel all of them were hosted to a third-party website which in hindsight isn't exactly ideal. You can still play the original export under the ko-fi membership tier, but the Ren'Py ported version will be far from the original, sadly. I'm actually looking forward to designing the new GUI for the revamp in the coming months.

Speaking of, I also began designing the GUI for the potential Short Circuit VN Jam submission. I'm not confident I'll be able to submit the full game on time, but I am enjoying working on the graphics for it.

I briefly mentioned it already, however while searching through old projects files, I decided to have some of the old visual novel prototypes be accessible for gameplay. They're my early foray into otome game development. They're cringe and a niche example of the early 2010s design direction of my earlier works.

Regarding ko-fi membership, I admit I'm a bit hesitant to go through with it. I've prepared all that I could, but I'm anxious of the results or lack thereof. I'm honestly scared to the point I might delay it a bit more *anxious screaming*

Take care!

— S.H.

PS. I almost forgot but Fracture's prototype is also up! I won't be releasing it until the script itself has reached a decent quality but it's part of the early access!

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #24

Some news on what I've been up to this June :)

Firstly, I had to set aside every other project this month while I ventured my way into Neo-Twiny Jam.

The CG sets for Part 1 of 3 is close to finish in part thanks to the low-effort style I opted to went for. The art style itself is based on a couple of sketches I made back in 2019 when I had a marker-to-gel pen phase because of my muji sketchbook. The paper quality was so smooth and good, the marker inks would glide down those papers in such a way that I would be in the zone while listening to music! I also had this favourite shade of pink gel-pen I bought from Miniso at that time, which I used to doodle and do messy sketches with until it ran out of ink (second favourite of mine was the lavender shade right after the pink).

I can't find it here in Europe, but when I get the chance I'll do a supply run next time I travel back in Asia.

As of this week, I have started to set up the base for Part 2 and Part 3. Both of which has their own sets of CGs I have to finish and encode everything before the deadline ends. Unluckily, the second week of June had to be spent on my recovery, but thankfully the last few days has seen me catching up on the things to be done for the game project.

The idea itself isn't new. It was a story I've wanted to explore since it came to me during lockdown. It's partially inspired by my own long-forgotten first childhood crush, while everything else is either based on something I read and watched over the years. In retrospect, I have to blame The Lake House (2006) for making me such a sap when it comes to romance stories. It's one of those media which altered my brain indefinitely since I watched it as a kid on TV the first time.

That and because I thought it was a laugh to have the main protagonists named off after the months of the year, haha... The heroine originally was supposed to be a young male named Donnie - Donnie short for Donald - but after revising it as time went on I settled for April.

To be perfectly honest, I have zero clue how I will have to write down the synopsis nor the appropriate content warning when my sole intention is to leave everything up to interpretation. Is April mad or had she imagined this person her whole life? How do you cope when you find yourself living in two different realities? Can you even?

When I was putting down the idea, I briefly entertained to have this character passed away, but it seemed too heartless. Either way, no matter what happens, I'm glad I made kinetic-novels again.

Stay safe,

S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #23

A reflection on Tyrano Builder so far and others...

Early this year I contemplated joining Short Circuit VN Jam but as the event period approached, and I juggled with which ideas to work on, nothing was working out. Flash forward to the end of May, Neo-Twiny Jam announcement pops-up. On a whim, I draft out a short story within its 500 words limit rule. Lo and behold, I managed to write something overnight, retrieving an old idea from sometime during lockdown.

When fellow devs informed me we can submit more than one projects -still within the 500 words limit - and I managed to write two more, I decide to drop out of Short Circuit VN Jam and join Neo-Twiny Jam instead. Something I have been meaning to do since I saw it years back, but was too insecure to do.

And since I've had Tyrano Builder around for so long without having used it at least once, I figured right now was the perfect chance to learn to master the tool. Something I already did early this year at The Worst Visual Novel Ever Challenge with "this is a trial game" where I finally played around with Tuesday JS Visual Novel Engine.

First impressions! Once you get past feeling overwhelmed by the interface, read through the basic tutorial and watched video tutorials, the steps become more intuitive. So far, I appreciate the convenience of dragging and dropping resources into Tyrano and manually placing custom images around the tool area. The downside with the latter however is the lack of alignment and distribution feature you'd commonly found in any editing software nowadays to automically align said images.

Another aspect I am not fond of is how reliant the engine could potentially be with Steam. In a hypothetical scenario Steam shuts down, does it mean the engine itself is lost?

TyranoBuilder can still be a decent tool for a beginner wanting to start making vns, and yet overall Ren'Py - despite its complexity - continues to be a reliable option in my opinion in terms of how well-documented it is with the amount of plug-ins and tutorials you can find online.

I've had to dig around online just to figure out how to even implement a hover effect in TyranoBuilder. Once I did, the result was satisfying! The in-tools at your disposal are still very limited, unless you know Japanese and have no problems reading through the JP tutorials (which I am not sadly *big sigh*), but again it's a good enough tool if you're just starting and want to handle the coding aspect to a minimum, same with Tuesday JS.

As of the time of this blog post, I have a working kinetic novel with as much customisation I could get away with. I like how it looks so far. Working on this is the most fun I've had since putting aside my inherent need for perfectionism.

This won't be the last dev diary for the month! Thank you for reading so far :D

– S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #18

Promising news!

The NW writer's block has finally been unblocked! Yesterday I slowly worked my way into the final entry and then to the set of endings! If all goes well, March 14 will mark the full release of Night Watch! Endings and all! The scene I was unsure whether it fit or not? Actually did! Yey!?! I might have to migrate everything back to Twine, seeing as long form of IF makes the current engine buggy for some reason? I will keep the theme to be used for those bonus scenes which I wanted to explore but has no room for the main storyline.

Even my favourite scene over at OTAD has been penned! 300+ words more to come to ramp up Chapter 3! Chapter 4 will be challenging while I try to tie up all loose ends related to the social branch and the consequences it follows.

As for the short story project, we have reached the penultimate story. It's a fun coincidence that the draft for the Valentine themed story is starting this week.

That's about it!

Until next time,

— S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #17

Some little update on what I've been up to...

I don't want to jinx anything, however, everything is going with the project! I've just about started the third chapter, right after drafting the previous one. It's thanks to Chapell Roan's [Good Luck, Babe!] that I finally understood why that ONE idea never worked from the get-go since its early concept!!!

It appears that letting these ideas and characters simmer for over a decade essentially allowed them space to grow and guide me to the directions they want to be written. I'll be sharing a more fully-fleshed post about this on the upcoming monthly blog post over at ko-fi, but I had to temporarily trim three other concepts out of the equation, either because they don't fit the overarching theme or they're too similar to another story already in it.

I'm still doing some behind-the-works before unleashing the membership tiers, but having two drafts to be shared for each month at the ready eases the process a lot! In the meantime, I have also been dabbling with a script draft for an upcoming game jam I may or may not join? The theme and historical timing is too good to pass up! I have written about 746 words for the intro/chapter 1(?) alone. I know which alternative time period I want it to take place, and the vibes I want it to have, I'm only worried if I do join the game jam this could get over my head like always.

I've essentially accepted I'm bad tackling long-term projects, hence the myriad other stuff I end up getting distracted with. But the jam schedule is appealing enough I could pull it off if I don't obsess over having a perfect version of it? And by imperfect, I mean rudimentary. Everything from the background art to the GUI to the art style. I want to have fun making it and not be miserable through the whole process, as any proper game dev should.

On a more positive note, I unblock the writer's block for OTAD. It's now back on my rotary list of scripts I get to procrastinate over. I had to move everything from Gooogle Doc to Ellipsus which I've been having a blast using for about half a year now. Before Doc, I used to dump everything on Evernote for about five-six years until they started embracing A II features that only hindered the use of the app, so I had to settle with Doc until I saw Ellipsus circulating on my Tumblr feed. I do hope the site takes off, specially now that I can't imagine using anything but.

Now, NW! I give up! I'm going to cough up the courage to write that unplanned scene, which has been lingering on my mind since it formed in my head one day. I don't know how I'm going to pull it off. Frankly, I'm afraid I'll have to rearrange and shift things IF it does work and fit with the flow. And if it won't, at least it would be a fun little bonus scene to add separately to the project page. I need Night Watch to be finished badly!

Please join my prayers to whatever Tech God or Universe has it out for me to spare me another disastrous electronic troubled summer. If I lose another half a year's work, I don't think I'd be able to cope this time. I might just crumple and give up for good with dev-ing.

Until next time,

— S. H.

PS. Would any of you be interested in a community section if there was one? Have you tried it out yet? What are your thoughts? Thanks :D

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #19

A pre-monthly post if you will...

Firstly, thank you very much to the new players finding OTAD through the Amare Game Festival! It is nice to know the game is finding its fellow gothic genre enthusiasts ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆

Chapter 4 of OTAD is ongoing! I'm excited to finally introduce a couple of Easter egg characters into the fray. Given how short, Chapter 3 may be without that sequence from the mystery path, I've just half in mind to annex bits of Chapter 4! Something to consider for now. I have a nagging suspicion it may be longer, what with the one-on-one time with the suitors pre-epilogue endings. I was hoping to keep the social path within a four-chapter limit plus epilogue. Whereas, the mystery path should be contained within five-chapters. The more I spend time with OTAD, the more I realise how this and Fracture are practically sister mirrors of each other.

About Night Watch, the secret variable is the only major issue which needs fixing. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any luck on that side of things. If I can avoid redoing the variables, that would be great! Otherwise, I'll have to start over with two unlockable endings.

The penultimate short story has me in a pinch, but I've slowly worked my way through rudimentary editing of the previous ones. If by April, nothing still stick, I'll skip right to the final story! I know SP features Valentine's Day and strawberry, I know what sort of closure I want, but how we get there never stops being a problem in my case. I've tried a bit of everything to swim with it but.... *big sigh*

Thank you for reading the pre-monthly entries.

Until next time,

— S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #14

Day 4 and Day 5 news!

Currently, the script stands at around 1k words, hedging to 2k.

At the start of the jam, I mentioned keeping the 1st POV format common to epistolary stories. But something about it wasn't working out for me. Anyway, on day 4 I gave into the urge to see what a change of the direction would look like, then voilà! It all clicked. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it makes sense.

In hindsight, the 1st POV would have been better were NW a short story or an episode for a TV series. Which, turns out, suit the idea better. Too late to change now. I will try my best to make it work.

Moving on, I might not be able to upload the full game in time. And that's okay. After the jam, I can polish and continue the rest without rush.

— S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #11

This was supposed to be a very micro post haha...

While I'm hanging on the blog for the poll duration, I'm happy to share that OTAD's drafts is moving still? I can't guarantee anything official, but an update is in the works? Maybe? Hopefully? Fingers-crossed. (Halloween update anyone?)

Besides some aspect I'm trying to figure out, the story structure is pretty solid that I just can pick up where I left off when I feel like writing gothic horror. Grammar and typos aside, OTAD is basically one of the most cherished story I can't seem to leave behind. I've always envisioned it as some sort of otome, the likes of which you used to find online back in the early 2010s within the indie space when fan translations were your safety boats. As is typical with time, ideas evolve and become a thing of their own.

Case in point, the Earl's character. I have no idea how he went from your typical flirt to chaotic. Yet, I've grown fond of him any way. Then, while re-reading the notes these past months, new minor characters spawned into existence in a story where I wanted to limit as possible MC's social circle. Will I be incorporating them anyway? Why yes, of course. Will it be an excuse to insert easter eggs related to past projects? Mayhaps.

As long as you come to enjoy the story as much as I do, that's all that matters to me.

Thank you for coming to my impromptu Ted Talk hahaha.... Remember to check out the poll. It would mean a lot <3

Take care,

~ S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #16

More dev diaries? Yes, apparently.

In the past weeks I have been revisiting and re-organizing early notes related to the conception of Strange Chemistry's world. Characters and ideas I placed on archives, either because the medium wasn't fit or the story itself wasn't haunting me enough to the point of obsession.

Lately, I started wanting to pick up some of these old ideas and share them in story format. Plain self-contained short stories if you will. The idea is to keep the anthology by theme, I originally conceptualised them on, back when I drew their early drafts as a shoujo manga. And since I am a recovering perfectionist, I'd love nothing more than have them edited if possible before compiling them in one single PDF file once they are complete and accessible to the public through the help of ko-fi donations.

That said, I wonder how many of you would even want to read them? I'll be holding a poll, and based on the final results I'll either start preparing for this and setting up a ko-fi plan or drop the matter altogether.

With that said, what TV show has you hooked the most this 2024? I finally finished Interview With The Vampire after a deliberate slow watch because I didn't want it to end. Now that I did, I'm an emotional wreck but also excited about The Vampire Lestat's arc!

Take care,

~ S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #15

Here is the update for Day 6 and Day 7 of the game jam!

The final two days had me reconsidering my priorities and start over the encoding process on Day 6. Saving the last two days for programming was the right choice. Originally I planned to use Twine, but the bug would have taken up too much of my time, so after some deliberation I had to start over with the programming process to inkle.

And because I got overly ambitious, I decided this was the right moment to try and see if the experimental gender and pronouns code I was planning to use on the previous two projects I lost in the hard drive debacle would work. Surprisingly, it actually did. Not satisfied enough, I searched if there was a way for players to be able to input their name. After playing around, this code finally did the trick!

All in all, I say Day 7 was literally me spending a 24-hour deep-dive into more complex Inkle programming. I don't know how I pulled it off, nor if I will ever retain the information I acquired in a single day after this week.

Ultimately, my greatest priority was to be able to submit Night Watch on time, hence why the final result only has the first two chapters out. Now that jam period is over, I'll be taking a break to gather my energy back. OTAD update is still scheduled for October 31st, along with important news related to its future.

As for Night Watch, I will polish and gradually release the full game post-jam.

Thank you very much for checking it out! You guys are the best <3

Until next time,

— S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #13

This update has both day 2 and day 3!

The game logo is finally done! After playing around with the visuals the final result is as good as it can get!

Yesterday and today I got around designing the graphics for NW which means the set-up for the game page is 85% done!

Polished more of the layout for the project until the things that were bugging me finally worked out! Safe to say, I can now spend the rest of the jam period focusing on the script, with the visuals out of the way.

I decided to save the final days specifically for encoding. Come what may, I can polish the script and everything else once the jam ends. The important thing is I submitted in time! Fair warning, be prepared for the grammar mistakes, misspellings, structural nonesense and what have you.

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary 12

Scream Jam started today! For the next 6 days, all jam progress will be shared here. On towards the juicy things!

Day 1 kicked off with the game logo design. I had a particular vision in mind, although the execution left much to be desired. Something about it isn't working as it should be. Hopefully, after tinkering here and there, the final result will be more acceptable.

With only a week to go by, I ultimately settled for Twine. I did flirt with the idea of pulling out Ren'Py or trying out a new engine, but had I gone the visual novel route, I would have contended with extra work that would be more complicated given the time frame. Knowing me, I would rather enjoy the process than agonise over the slow descent into frustration again. That said, I prepared the template, I am more than excited to try out!

Script-wise, I couldn't decide between the 1st person POV or 2nd. Which means I'm going by gut this time, mainly using the epistolary format. It makes sense, within the context of the story and if this was a short story, but makes for a tricky feature in a choice-based game, at least in my personal opinion. We'll see how it goes. Fingers-crossed. I am curious, though, how many of you would be willing to try out a story, just full-on story, without choices (ex. PAR313 but without the choice)? Or would you rather it be just a book in the end? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

Ultimately, my main focus during this jam period is to make it short, be as stress-free as possible, and accept the imperfections. The more I obsess on making projects flawless, the longer they are to be released based on my past experiences.

Cheers to embracing the flaws...

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #21

Pre-monthly dev diary!!!

Firstly, I successfully backed- up the back-up of the file projects! If any jump scare happens I am prepared this year! The next one should be scheduled before summer and after.

Nocturnal Affair's old script has been untangled, although I had to rearrange the order of the endings (8 to be exact!), the original didn't make sense organically years apart. In a previous post I mentioned wanting to do something special to celebrate NA reaching 12k views. The idea would be to either update the Twine version of the BL as follows:

New UI interface

Remove background music

Re-polish the full script (fix grammar and typos)

Add in a bonus scene featuring an AU or two

Or port it back to a VN engine to be played semi-kinetic novel style meaning something like this (i 100% recommend checking out Sonnet009's works, she's been an inspiration for me since I started making story-based games from back in 2013). In order words:

Kinetic novel/Interactive fiction hybrid game play (with only the background image appearing for visuals)

Background music stays

Re-polish the full script (fix grammar and typos)

Add in a bonus scene featuring an AU or two

Optional CG images for all 8 endings (something which was planned anyway when Yaoi Jam was ongoing)

Those are essentially what the poll features. Depending on which one is most voted, Nocturnal Affair+ will either be released on its anniversary date or scheduled for the same date but in 2026 (╯▽╰ )

Being on a break this month, I had to set aside the scripts to focus on the back-ups. But I should be back on it in preparation for the membership release late May. That being said, besides wrangling Short Circuit VN Jam, I'll be busy porting the original 2015 BTT project to a new engine then upload it to itchio (i have been cooking something in the works since last year hush hush).

There's this new story I've been drafting too which has been in limbo in terms of medium, although future ko-fi members should be able to play both iterations. I'd love to hear your feedbacks on it!

That's it for now. Monthly post as always will be out on the 26th this month!

Take care,

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #20

I'm on break for the month!!!

March was a rather productive year between the full release of NW and Worst VN Challenge. As soon as April swooped in, I was submerged back to lows. Hence, this month I'm minimising all dev related activities to recharge "the little grey cells" to quote my favourite private detective.

Presently, I'm saving up backups then saving a backup for the backups and doing digital spring-cleaning. If I make this a habit several times within the year, there will be fewer surprises to worry about in the long run.

After my lockdown partner dying on me last year (RIP pandemic memories) and losing almost every digital files 3 years ago on my hard drives, I'm not taking any more chances. I'm strictly sticking to SSDs for all PC needs from here on out.

While we're at it, I'm steadily and emotionally deleting old copies of defunct iterations of game projects from way back in the 2010s. If anyone wants to, I might upload the first version of the now cancelled otome vn I first released around 2013-2014. I've been considering revamping the whole project, what with it having a finished script, but eh... Probably something to consider for next year...

Everything's been overwhelming as of late, and the constant need to attach AI to everything and everywhere has been making online less pleasant for me. Paired with irl and mental health issues and well...

On the bright side, I am writing new stuff I will be sharing for future members. Yes, the release is still set for late spring. And should anyone wish to, I might even talk more of the world setting which I've been expanding more on, detail-wise. Fake travel brochures anyone?

What movies are you excited to watch this year? I'm open to be influenced :D

Take care,

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #06

Long time no see!

After much deliberation, I have decided to join the Amare Game Festival 2023. This is the perfect motivation to update one or two IF projects I have lying around.

If you're a monthly supporter at ko-fi then you already know I have been dipping my hands on another experimental project with ink, too. Suffice to say, it's an old short story I have repurposed to familiarize myself with the branching and variable features of the scripting language. You may have already seen the snippet of the draft here, too. Ideally, the intention would be to develop and publish this trial game during the festival run, but it isn't strictly the primary goal.

Alongside this, I will be running a discount sale on currently available commissions at ko-fi to fund the improved version of BTT. The discount code [CHERRY65] will be valid until midnight of May 1st. The first batch of commissions will be limited to three slots, then once those are out of the way I will re-open them again. In total, there will be 9 slot openings running until all commission requests will be done. It would certainly help me a lot.

I'm not confirming anything yet, but tentatively I should be able to get back into dev mode come 2024. When this happens, I will give the membership tier a try to see if it works for me.

Until next time,

– S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #09

A progress report for the week.

Happy to announce I finished Meadow's portrait last night! Once Flavian's sketch re-design is settled, I can hopefully finish his in time to implement it in-game before the festival ends. Programming wise, I am tempted to add the achievements I was saving for when "UP!" was fully completed.

I wrote down 506 words for "UP!" and 256 words for "UAR" in-between drawing sessions when the task at hand was starting to become a chore. Switching between writing and drawing, on my off days, is increasingly becoming my favourite remedy against moments when I want to work on something while also not wanting to work on anything.

I'm trying not to get too caught up with episode 2, because I know if I insist on working on one script only, this will be make me develop the desire to avoid it. So when I can, I switch it with the other drafts too. Also, I have days when a scene or dialogue from an old drafts forms in my mind that I need to write it down (yes, even L'Hiver!).

UAR progress wise, I finished the first chapter/prologue, so revisions and re-writes are in the works. I'm not a huge fan of the story's flow at the moment.

That's all for this week.

— S.H.