allqrcoded

[allqrcoded]

Congratulations to my game-jam-game-turned-major-project (which marks my 3rd major project entry here. It's a long story) getting released! After toiling for a year or so, it finally escaped mid-development purgatory. Thank you, once again, to my friends who supported this venture & expressed their enthusiasm regarding the story with every step I took.

Welcome to Eat Your Heart Out!, a visual novel with mystery and fantasy elements, where both humans and Pernaturals co-exist. It talks about its world's underbelly & how such co-existence can happen, trust and what one would do when faced with reflections. In other words, would you like what's on the platter?

It's completely free to play on itch.io; more details on its page.

[allqrcoded]

We know what the 'R' stands for in R&A Target Practice Coaching, but who's 'A'? Well, not someone with a name who starts with it, at least.

"Hey, what's up. I'm Holland, one of the guys who run this joint. Ahh, so you got redirected here by Zane, didn't you? Makes sense, makes sense. He actually brings half of our clients in here, really. I gather you've figured out what we're really dishing out here, no? At first, I suggested ice cream related codewords, but Zane said that it'll be too hard to decipher. Isn't that the point of codewords, though? He confuses me. Anyway, you're in luck! You're just a day away from availing our services. If I assume correctly, he also told you to wait for 3/12, yeah? He did? Of course, he did. Well, I'm waiting for it, too for different reasons, ha! Looking forward to meeting you!"

[allqrcoded]

Who exactly is RUBY GEM EXTRACTION SERVICES? Well, not that it matters. That website is defunct now. But, I'll let the man answer that question himself.

"It's me, Zane, the aforementioned 'man' above. Was being Ruby lucrative? Definitely, yeah. Why else would I still continue doing so for so long? But, what exactly am I doing with target practice coaching, you ask? It's a code word, as you may already assume by looking at my site; I'm not really honing gems nor extracting them. If I say that I'm selling info, that would be too obvious, wouldn't it? Either way, the 'A' in the website name is a friend of mine. Both of us are still finishing up with a client, so if you want to reach out, maybe wait for... two more days? Yeah, two days -- 3/12; what a nice combination. Anyhow, catch you later."

[allqrcoded]

Why don't you come on down to Blush Bar, where you can meet one of our prestigious staff members, Rosalie?

"Oh, but do note that my service hours are a bit cut for this month! At least, until the situation dies down... You haven't heard of it yet? It's all over the local news! It's practically unmissable, unfortunately. But, you do want to book, right? Hm... I see. Well, you're in luck! I have a vacant spot just for you on 3/12! Isn't that great? Just fill out the form in the website, and I'll be your girl!"

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 12: Is your heart running? - Love month coloring & GFX

What a busy month! For me, at least. The entirety of February felt so jampacked with things going on -- both panic & joy inducing. Knowing that, I'm glad to report that as the month closes, we're ending on quite a joyful week, as I've gotten a handful of work done on this project. This devlog entails the current state of the CGs, the new main menu (along with a revamped logo) & possibly more. As always, more is below the cut.

(Quite unrelated, but the rando Japanese text is from Milkyway's One Night Love -- a bit fitting knowing February's holiday).

Finished CGs

I'm glad to say that we have a lucky number for this game's total CG count: 27! Thankfully, I managed to pull off one of my goals for this month regarding this game's development (& that's finish coloring/rendering all of the CGs that I've previously lined the month prior. As for my opinion on the CG style this game adopted, I'm quite a fan of how they look like, even if their style deviates greatly from my usual rendering style. I owe my better skill on being able to line things better to this game, really.

Below are some snippets of the finished CGs from the early game (because the rest of them are quite literally heavy spoilers, whoops).

New Main Menu/Logo

While I do like the old logo, after getting some skill regarding GFX from a YouTube video I watched, I wanted to give the logo a face lift of sorts.

Very clean, very thorough (past me would be shocked, as I didn't like working with text-based GFX mostly because I didn't know how). I like to think it conveys the ideas that this game puts out from the title alone. For me, I really like how I integrated the heart platter & the arrow this time around. Speaking of conveying ideas that the title puts out, I finally removed a title screen placeholder & settled on something a little more polished for once, now that the game (I feel) has almost run its course, development wise.

(While the option buttons look like that here, they won't do so in the actual build, as this is a reference where I should position the actual option buttons, coding-wise).

Of course, this wasn't the first draft I thought of when thinking of title screens. As shown below, I've went through some drafts on how I should go on about making it. At first, I wanted to include the trio in it, as it's been a pattern of mine to draw the titular characters in my games in the main menu itself. However, after drawing and coloring the trio way too much, I fear, I wanted a break from doing so. & so, I settled on making a banquet-esque scene that greets you upon booting up the game itself.

Albeit, the velvet table cover was supposed to be gingham, but I ditched the idea, as I didn't want to deal with making the pattern + it would be a bit unfitting, knowing that the game isn't cozy or gives you the impression of a picnic. I also decided on the table cover to call back on one of my EYHO! illusts featuring Holland & Zane. While that wasn't the original intention, the scene ended up being similar to said illust, which was very fitting.

What's next?

Now that we’re here (alongside the fact that playtesting closes the next day as I’m writing this), the only logical conclusion is that the prospect of releasing this. Knowing myself, I probably can’t endure a month’s worth of waiting for a project of mine to get published for the public’s viewing, so this will most likely be released in March or April — at least, after I get the publicity materials done and dusted (like the Itch.io cover, for instance). Either way, this will most likely be the last devlog for this game’s development, and while its journey might seem short on the surface, logically for me, this was at least a year’s worth of venturing & putting it in the back burner, so hooray for me! As always, thank you for your time & see you soon :-)

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 11: Aesthetics, playtesting & more

Happy new year & merry holidays every one :-) December has quite been a busy month regarding this project's development, especially with its aesthetics such as GUI and even CGs. As of right now, I've tackled on drafting up a bit of a placeholder GUI for the different menus. Moreover, I surprisingly got a lot done with the CGs. As always, more details are under the cut.

1st GUI drafts

Honestly, I forgot that I tackled this during December or so, the moment I started working on the previous devlog (because I've been busy with getting the CGs done...), but, yes, there has been work on the GUI side of things! A part of me feels unsatisfied with it, but what matters is that it definitely is better than whatever I was working with before December -- it also adds a bit of a unique flare to the game. I have also made a logo for this game to give it a try.

It's based on Red Velvet's Russian Roulette album cover, and as a first venture into GFX, it's definitely passable, but I definitely have much more to learn about.

CG placeholders

And so, we've reached the CG drafting stage. Albeit, I underestimated my ability to make so many sketches for them (yes, sketches and not composition drafts) for the whole of December, but either way, I got a lot done by the end of it. A majority of them are still stuck in the "still needs lineart" phase, but in the handful of days before the new year, I've managed to color in and add some needed polish to the CGs that did have lineart done. For me, I'm quite satisfied with the way they look right now :-). Though the process is a bit more painful now that I have other elements to take into account, such as pen pressure because for once, since I'm not doing pixel art for a game.

For January, I'm definitely prioritizing getting all those sketches lined, but with the limited time in that month for pouring my efforts (IRL matters again...), I'll still be satisfied even if I managed to do so halfway. EYHO! doesn't have a set release date quite yet, since I don't think about that until it's polishing time + the thing I'm only waiting for is the feedback from my playtesters. Speaking of which, the project's gotten to the point I managed to release a working build to my usual group of playtesters!

1/30/25 edit: I have successfully lined all 27 CGs (excluding variations I need to make) for this month! Good job on my end for managing to meet my set deadline! Yay!

Playtesting

As of right now, I have gotten back one editing log from one of my playtesters. To be honest, I'm quite surprised at the sheer lack of major bugs in the log itself (only minor bugs/visual errors, such as text going off the box and so on), which is quite a change of pace from what I've experienced in my past projects. As you know, this stage is where I spend most of my time on regarding polishing, but for once, that might not be the case with EYHO!, and I'll just have to prioritize dusting off the aesthetics along with CG works.

Coding a visual novel in Renpy, much like making a game in RPGmaker, requires a ton of patience. Though, a notable difference with Renpy games is that you need to have a good tolerance for inputting repetitive code for sprites and so on within Visual Studio; the rest of the hard work mostly relies on the script. As my second visual novel game that's lengthier than is&d, I'm quite a fan of the support for the large text copy-pasting, as RPGmaker still requires you to input all the dialogue manually.

Knowing that, it definitely levied a lot of difficulty from me, when I had to backtrack and add more to the script to give more depth to both the world and the characters after getting feedback. Said feedback was especially useful, as before it, I felt like there was something missing from the game, but never pinpointed the thing that irked me, already too blinded by the fact that this project, in a way, already irked me in general because how long it was taking me (whoops). Anyhow, I definitely feel like the writing has more impact to it after that brief intervention, so I'm very grateful about it.

What's next?

After knowing that I'm done with lining all the CGs for this month, the logical conclusion for the next month's goal is to, obviously, get all of them colored and shaded. This game's finally going somewhere after a brief (?) period of purgatory! As usual, there is no set release date yet, but to play it safe knowing that I still have to work with the main menu GUI along with the pubmats for this game, it would probably be released in the latter half of March or early April. As always, thank you for your time and see you in the next devlog.

[allqrcoded]

Old background drafts. Rendered style was when I was aiming for a quicker way to do them; using Pixabay pictures, adjusting the colors & painting over them, like sundark's BGs.

Sketches were the earliest drafts when I messed around w/ the perspective until I resorted to having 1 consistent POV for them (after reading a tip on Reddit about them & how to avoid sprites looking odd affixed them).

[allqrcoded]

Mockups/Aesthetic tests

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 10: Where has the time been????! + Timelining this is impossible, really

Hello, everyone. It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these ever since DT-Z’s release, no? At first, I’ve debated ever logging down the progress of this specific project because of, well... Production issues along with it having such a messy process (it’ll be a long story) that I don’t even know where to begin with it. I’ve even made a joke with myself that this one’s been cursed to taking me at least 10 decades to complete or so because of said process, but if I already started my work regarding it, I feel as if it’s a waste to throw all that away. I’ll admit it — this was supposed to be for a game jam — two game jams, actually, knowing that the process lengthened itself, but in the end, it became a “miniature” (with heavy quotes on that one) project of mine instead for the year to fill in the void dt-z has left me in regards to the gamedevving process. It’s my firm belief that with every developer, there lives a masochist within them *shot*

Ok, in all seriousness, let me introduce to you my mini-game-jam-project-turned-Actual-Project: Eat Your Heart Out! With a supernatural twist on the modern setting, it focuses on two characters, (from left to right) Zane and Holland's assassin agency, and the mission their mutual friend, Rosalie gave them, leading to more things being uncovered from the perspective of Holland. It'll detail secrets that are probably best kept safe, and centers around the theme of trust.

The 1st bloomings in December

So, what started this whole affair in the first place? Let me direct your attention towards the Yandere Game Jam, in which I stumbled upon around, as the heading suggests, late December. At first, the project was initially going to have a campy atmosphere to it -- a bit of a spin on the concept of turning the tables, and accidental mutual interest with the other. The fact that Zane and Holland were working together wasn't even the original idea; in fact, they were the complete opposite. The reason for the change? Perhaps it was the fact that my mind wasn't in the right headspace to write something lighthearted at the time. Although, that statement is a bit contradictory, especially knowing my mini-fandom fic side projects' general tone, I had a feeling in me that felt compelled to delve a bit deeper in the messaging/implication of everything the campy draft presented.

Don't get me wrong, I did have a sort of fondness for the EYHO's first draft, even kept the original text that I wrote up until the ending branches, however, it was maybe the endings' sudden shift in tone that led me to rethink where I wanted to steer the project towards. Regarding the spoiler-free aspects of the draft I can discuss here, within it, I already established the whole supernatural/modern world fusion of it, although the supernatural aspect held a bit more stigma with, let's say, humans in the world, in contrast to my current draft, where they're already well accepted. Rosalie wasn't even a character back then before I mulled over to myself on what to do with the feeling of stuck-ness I had.

Now that I mentioned, Rosalie's creation in the 2nd draft, I feel like this is a good time to introduce the various evolutions these three had every time I felt unsure about something/felt compelled to do so. Design wise, Holland is probably the one that got the most work out of the three -- flip-flopping from his rough draft I made on a whim on a Picrew I found to my various interpretations of "wolf", fashion-wise.

Yes, Holland used to be blonde -- it surprised me too. In fact, he wasn't even named Holland, rather, he was named Dustin, until I went to my friends to name him based on his aura because I felt like that didn't scream (or howl, rather) "wolf", at all. A bit off-topic, but it's my devlog, so I can do whatever, but I owe it a lot to my friends for helping me brainstorm a lot of the aspects of this project -- especially the endings. Either way, I feel like I've given The Fur Jacket to so many OCs these past few years, it's starting to become a pattern, and as I joke about this, there will be more instances of said Fur Jacket within my designs.

As mentioned before, Zane and Holland's designs were drafted with the help of Picrew -- Zane's draft being the one that I mostly stuck with because I was a fan of his overall aesthetic/the fact that he had a category of hair that I haven't drawn on an OC before.

In contrast to these two, Rosalie's design was conjured up by yours truly without the help of any Picrew. She was originally going to have a Frankenstein's monster theme (along with being a dude), however, I ended up making her have a Snow White theme (hence, the very shaped hair). She was also going to have a very big bow rather than her flower headband, though I changed it along the way as I contemplated which supernatural creature she should be. Her name (and nickname) came from a 77ke song. Yes, the lyrics are unrelated, but it was stuck in my head.

Regarding personality/character changes Zane and Holland went through before they became the men they are now, Zane was the one with the most drastic changes. The nonchalance/thick sarcasm was already a part of him in the 1st draft, though that's where his character ended. As such, this led to problems I mentioned before (lol). So, I ended up writing more depth to him by keeping that sarcasm and mixing in a bit of a hidden side to him one wouldn't expect when you just take him in face value. In that sense, he's a bit similar to Rex in terms of writing, and knowing I have a penchant for characters like those, I couldn't help it.

Holland, on the other hand, was mostly the same, with his playboy façade masking his actual busybody nature. Though, I did add more depth to him knowing the core theme of trust I now centered the project on in the 2nd draft, making it a point to purposely write out parallels between these two, and essentially make them mirrors of each other for the sake of honing in one of the conflicts one of them faces.

Wanting something new?

When this project idea came to me, it was when I was still developing Dt-Z. At first, I wanted to use the time frame the game jam gave me to dabble into another engine other than RPGMaker. While I give credit to RPGMaker for introducing me into game development, and teaching me the basic values that I should keep in mind when I develop a project that has a larger scale, I didn't want to limit my games to solely fit into that engine's limitations. If I solely stuck to that engine for the basis in which I told my stories, then I would be, in turn, stunting my ability to tell stories. RPGMaker, to me, is an engine that's good for beginners and doesn't require that much labor regarding coding. And knowing my tendencies to pick up hobbies that have a learning curve before I truly got good (or at least, good enough to satisfy my creative standards) at it, it was about time this crossroad would arrive.

Renpy was the first game engine that came to mind when drafting this concept, however, at some point, I had also dabbled with a bit of Gamemaker's engine (very strange, I'm aware), during the script's remaking stage.

During the very brief Gamemaker phase, I was inspired by Ace Attorney Investigations' top-down aesthetic, and pondered on the possibility of EYHO! having a more puzzle-centric approach, if not, something similar to angel care. This was during the summer before the localization released, but in the end, I had decided to make EYHO! a VN instead, using Renpy as its main engine.

Tone change?

Now that the slightly messy production of the 1st draft had been detailed, it's around time for me to expand more on the 2nd draft (AKA the project we're on right now) and the tone shifts. As mentioned before, I wanted to make something more lighthearted in contrast to my previous projects that hinged on horror as a main driving force to the story. Though, I wrote out most of the story with a campy tone in mind, conflicts arose, which, now that I think about it, was mainly the cause of the vagueness in message I wanted to put out there with the game.

Some of the highlights from the old script that I find amusing. You could still see when I was still writing it out and referred to Holland as Dustin.

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that projects such as these aren't obliged to have a sort of deepness to them every time -- it's just that, I find it difficult with personal original projects in particular to just put my time and energy into something that has my reason muddied; my reason in creating it, more specifically. You could argue that I wanted to make EYHO! (at least, in the beginning) for the sake of a game jam (YanJam & YaoiJam respectively), but to me, that alone isn't enough, especially once both of them are done and I'm left with something that's just so close to the finish line, only waiting for me to pick it up and polish its edges; I believe that's my relationship with EYHO! right now -- something that I could see potential in, and have already done most of the work, only burdened by the fact that my attention's split between various factors in my life.

It's quite a strange phenomenon, as with Dt-Z and AC, when I've developed them alongside academics, I never had difficulty in making weekly progress, despite my business. Though, with EYHO!, it's understandable, knowing that my life's a bit more busier and newer, in a sense. I'm unsure how I'll ever balance the usual along with this on the side, but as my past self had done so, time and time again, I'll probably do so.

Current progress

Now that all's been said and done, let's get to the actual devlog (whoops). As the main script has been completed ages ago, all that was left for me to do was import it into Renpy, and code in all the things that make visual novels, have their title. So far, I've been able to code in a rough draft of the game's entirety -- main sprites, audio, and choice branches included. You could claim that I'm almost done at this point, but you're wrong -- in fact, I'm only in the beginnings of the polishing stage. I have still yet to code in the placeholders for the CGs, so I'd have an easier time implementing them once they were done; making sure the CG goes away once the scene was finished and so on.

Since I mentioned that I already have a rough draft on what the final game looks like, here are screenshots from it that get a gist of what's going on:

Yes, the quick menu's position still needs a bit of adjusting, but no matter. In the first screenshot, you could see I've had a bit of fun including an OC Easter egg in the background (hi, Akashi!), which begs the question of my OCs lives possibly coinciding with one another, a la multiverse.

What's next?

I said it myself: I'm in the beginnings of the polishing stage. Other than the things that I mentioned before that I have yet to adjust, currently, I'm putting a priority on especially adjusting the GUI. As I'm unfamiliar with messing around Renpy's GUI settings, progress on that aspect has been slower than I'd like it to be. However, despite this, I try to not let that fact deter me -- I'm making some form of progress, after all, even if I cringe a bit at the GUI's current state and all of its short-comings. I'm also working on drafting up what the CGs would look like during this month (written during 12/6). Regarding BGM, I've been chipping away on replacing the ones that I've noted that needed a change, knowing the scene, or including it during scenes that lacked it. However, despite this, the GUI work has been a priority.

Reflections

Now that we're all caught up on where this project is (and was), I'd like to take a bit of time reflecting on my thoughts on the matter. Am I a bit disappointed that this took longer than my my older projects, knowing that I completed them in less than a year? Of course. And because of that fact, I feel as if I'm rushing myself to put EYHO! out, nice packaging and everything, since it's already been in so much stages that stagnated its development. Despite this, a part of me knows that while I share a part of the blame regarding the project's slow development (ie. losing interest, simply not giving enough pressure on myself to complete a feature by a deadline, etc.), that blame doesn't change the fact that I am a person, after all; I have a life outside this project -- responsibilities I need to fulfill, and so on.

Save for my friends that help with playtesting and giving feedback, making games has mostly been a one-man hobby for me -- a hobby that scratches the storyteller itch in me like no other medium could've before. Lately, whenever I've been developing EYHO!, I tend to forget the fact that making games has been, to me, a hobby first and foremost. And lately, the reason why I took up such a passion regarding storytelling has been escaping me as well; why exactly don't I want to let this project go? Has it not been delayed time and time again? Wouldn't it be better to end it rather than continue it? It's a project that I have fluctuating feelings about, after all. To those rhetorical questions I asked myself, the answer is quite simple. In fact, I already answered them in one of the devlogs I've written, when I was still developing Angel Care:

it has been quite an experience and though my love for this project often fluctuated whenever it felt like it, i still managed to get here. i’m taking the time i have right now to remember that i made this game as a letter to myself & as an ode to anyone who feels similar. i said that once and i’m repeating it again because it’s true.

[allqrcoded]

Rex sprite/s early stages

[allqrcoded]

The handful of original tracks I composed for dt-z. Liner notes below.

The original tracks I composed for this game are considerably lower than my previous projects due to, of course, circumstances. However, thankfully, I didn’t have a specific audio vision in mind (save for me wanting to include shoegaze tracks) unlike sundark & angel care, so the royalty free tracks I found among the web helped a lot. Just like before, I used the technique of gluing together samples from freesound.org to make something new. In actuality, I composed a couple more tracks for this game, but they never made it to the final cut due to another track being more suitable than it because of the scene’s specifics.

Perhaps I could showcase the ending vocal tracks in a video? I’m definitely a fan of what I’ve gathered in freemusicarchive, and there were a bunch of tracks that were contenders for the end credits, but never made it.

[allqrcoded]

And so, my 2nd major game project has now released! I'm still surprised at myself for being able to put this up despite life being busier during the majority of the game's production, but alas, here we are. Special thanks to everyone who supported me during this time -- especially to the ones who gave their feedback regarding story and such. If you're looking for a similar gameplay flow to ZENO's remake, then this might be up your alley.

Let me introduce to you Descent to Negative Zero, a puzzle adventure horror game involving secrets, road trips and getting to know someone again. Friendship is essential here. Will you go or stay?

As usual, it's completely free to play on itch.io. For more details regarding it, feel free to visit its page!

[allqrcoded]

Campus Tours: Issue #4, p. 15: Classmate Appreciation Day

What I can say to describe him? Well, he's a wildcard, enthusiastic about pretty much anything that comes his way, even if it's intimidating, and always there cheer you up. I've known him since we were little, and he always managed to keep that fire in him going. That's Rex De Los Santos for you. He makes real good mixtapes too! Three days until we go? Well, we're living in pretty much the same area, right? So, it's not a big deal if we don't see each other everyday in campus. I hope he has fun this summer! I don't think you could ever find another one like him.

[allqrcoded]

Campus Tours: Issue #4, p. 15: Classmate Appreciation Day

Dependable, always on track, a pretty good skater (yeah!) and approachable. That's how I'd describe him. My bestest friend in the whole wide world: Josh Lorenzo. I'll miss him... Not like he's dead, though. I'm just getting sentimental about everything, haha. Just a week before the school year ends, huh? Feels weird. What I'll be doing for summer vacation? Oh, just some road trip to my hometown. Some day, I'll take him there, for sure! But, for now... Family first.

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 9: End of the line

Hi, everyone and welcome to, I think, the final devlog regarding this game. I haven't actually been blogging my progress throughout April since it's just me going around to polish things off and making more CGs. Either way, for something short and sweet about the game's current whereabouts, stick around.

Cg work/end credits

This element in the game is pretty much finished as of now :) I currently need to take care of one final cg that'll appear in the true end, and after that, I'm done with those. Technically, I have 4 more to go, but those are for end credits. Speaking of which, I've also come up with an idea on how to fill the dead air that comes after the name and roles have been revealed. It will take a bit of extra work, yes, but I feel like it'll be worth it in the end. (And also some more drawings for the promo and the main menu screen..)

For previews, here are some I'm particularly proud of:

A bit less CG work compared to angel care, which is obvious considering this game's focus, but thank god honestly. I didn't include a section about bugs here because, you know. But the gist is that it's pretty polished now.

What's next?

I think, for me, I'll need to step back from the polishing stage a bit for some rest because... I've noticed in myself that I kind of got frustrated at the game despite it being practically done at this point. While, yes, there's still work to do, I think I need to give myself a break because I've accomplished a lot already. For morale purposes and to make me feel less jaded about the experience lol. But, either way, it's at that stage where I just need to tie some loose ends together. See you later this month =)

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 8: The thing they say about being slow and steady

And so, we're getting there: asset hell part 2, CGs edition. This March a LOT has been accomplished. As of recently, I feel like I've taken care most of the bugs regarding variable counts and while more manwork is still needed within the game (ie. asset/CG work, etc.), I'm glad to say that the game is functional -- no softlocks and all. As always, more detail below the cut. Surprisingly, this devlog was longer than I anticipated. This time, with more screenshots because I was too lazy to do so last month.

Bug fixing 2/3/playtesters

Around the midway point of March, I've finally done my second round of bug fixing for any loose strands I didn't notice the first time around after getting enough free time to do so. Unlike angel care, I wasn't dealing with fixing past me's code because I had more experience on my belt and thankfully, it went smoother than last time. While there were some variable issues I (and my playtesters) ran into, those were easily taken care of. Luckily, it was just one instance and the bug wasn't that far into the game, so less text skipping for them! It also gives them the assurance that the latter portions of the game will go much more smoothly because those portions don't have as much problems with them. Albeit, I wasn't that aware of how long I take to gamedev in the weekends, but recently, I found out that I roughly take around 5 hours per session just bug fixing. Suffice to say, maybe I should be scared of myself.

Regarding the 3rd bug testing label -- yes you're not seeing things. That was done recently, actually. By recently I mean this afternoon, so I assure you that I'm not bluffing on how bug-free the late game section is for Dt-z. With this game, I've gotten more friends to playtest so there's this sort of pressure imposed on myself, by myself, to give them the best experience of the game (even though that at its state, it isn't quite polished in my mind to call it finished; placeholders and all).

Though, other than that self-imposed standard after releasing Dt-z's build to them, it's honestly pretty rewarding to see their reactions to Rexosh's shenanigans and to the game currently despite it not reaching my standard set for it. Quite a refresher. When you work on a game too hard and look at it too much, you start to see it from a lens that's too critical of its flaws and slowly forget of the things you are proud of. Makes me think about the things I feel about gamedevving as a whole; it's hard as hell and you *will* lose your mind a bit, but it's worth it in the end.

All things asset (UI, BGM, etc.)

With the implication of me sending out Dt-z's build to people other than me comes with the information that, indeed, I've finished making most (as in, the ones that the player will stumble onto without collecting certain items, etc.) of the maps' overlay lighting! It was tedious, a bit boring, but it was done; currently sitting at 98 files in the graphic's folder itself. And yes, that also includes the fancy sprites. While I did have to wrestle a bit with VX Ace's placement of them on the map itself (since on the editor itself, the event placement lies to you), I imported them on the editor and got most of the basic and fancy cutscene directing checked off my list. Got to say, me not using any overlay plugins for angel care's lighting made that part easier because with pictures, they do not go under the filter and stick out like a sore thumb. While it's the easier method, the visual dissonance doesn't stick to me.

Speaking of, the CGs are also on their way being polished. While I focused a lot this month on the core gameplay itself, this part will probably take up most of my time in April. Despite having one CG I liked in game, I have a feeling I'd have to resize the canvas a bit because I don't like how the other CG looks in-game. Anyway, here are previews of some of them in the early game:

Very small, but rest assured, they'll be resized once everything's set with them. I also realized along the way that VX Ace's screen size was just not compatible with how I tend to do my CG work now (small canvas, then resize) because the resizing percent isn't a whole number, so I've started to come up with a compromise to not ruin the pixels I placed down. A couple of special face portraits/in-world sprites have also been completed this month.

Thankfully, I figured out how to remove the status bars along with the face portrait elements whenever you pull up the menu to save/what have you this month, so the save screen looks less ugly than it was months ago. UI sounds have also been implemented within the game.

Anyway, suffice to say, I think this month marks the end of my BGM hunt. Now the game has a whole lot of atmosphere to it. Got to say, I really love Japanese sites for getting creative commons music. While Dt-z doesn't really have that much original tracks like angel care, I'll still upload them on here for the sake of archiving things.

Lore/puzzles

I think I forgot to say this last devlog because I was too focused on documenting my asset making, but, yes, there were some lore changes for the story to have more impact + the element of parallelism to be more evident. Thanks to talking through with this with my friend in vague terms (a very useful tactic), we figured out a way to deal with something that was bugging me in the story itself. Puzzles to get certain items for endings have been adjusted and coded in too.

For the old lore, I was thinking of including it in an artbook or a retrospective blog entry on here because I love talking about drafts + to compromise with making Dt-z free to play w/o any donations due to the license of some tracks used there.

What now?

Okay, so. From what we have here, these are the tell-tale signs of us reaching the latter half of asset making hell -- just a couple more fancy sprites and the rest of the CGs to go. April will be a veeery busy month for me both IRL and regarding this project. It'll be difficult because I have (of course) my wrist to worry about and my mental state regarding dealing with a handful people (lol). But, yes. At the latest, I could see May being the month where this releases, but realistically speaking, it could be June instead. I am... Both very excited and scared of those months for completely different reasons; I'd be closing a chapter in my life and beginning a new one. Looking back at where I was during AC/Dt-z now, it's kinda jarring and makes me feel sentimental in an odd way. But, for now, I'll be beating the heat and resting for a bit.

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 7: ASSET NEVER ENDS

Hi everyone, happy love month. As usual, the polishing stage begins & so does 90% of the work I need to get done for these sorts of projects (angel care, while occasionally pain in the ass to work with, has served me well).

In the light of things regarding polish, we'll be talking about the usual like bug fixing, more maps I've done and the like. This devlog is a bit on the short side since it's just updates on the two things I mentioned last devlog (along with me not having that much time during the week), but it's a lot of progress!

Bug fix update

On the lighter side of things, the first round of bug fixing concluded this month! While I haven't touched directing cutscenes per se along with fancy character sprites/what not during it, things like soft locks have been resolved. Though, I feel like that's still the tip of the ice berg because there are still a multitude of aesthetic issues I have with some of the UI choices I made along with struggling with how to remove the gauge bar in the pause menu, but that's for another day. 2nd round will probabably get started after I do some placeholder assets along with directing the rest of the cutscenes if any of the movement routes bring any softlocks.

More lighting

Thankfully, I've managed to find a more convenient way to name my overlay assets in order to transport them into the game itself without many issues. While making the lighting effects themselves does feel a bit repetitive, the moment lasts quicker than expected. Placeholder maps have been imported into VX Ace for the ones that show up for one time and is ending specific. Right now, a ridiculous amount of that sort of work got done during the weekend, so I'm sure that it'll be done sooner or later.

What next?

Ok, I haven't actually been finding fitting music for Dt-Z yet and that aspect of it has been in the backburner for too long. Though, I did download a free to use survival horror pack I found when I was developing angel care, so tracks from there would be useful (saves more time rummaging around every corner in the internet, too!)

Fancy CG work is also on hold in order to prioritize the game's functionality this month, but hopefully that aspect would have some progress on it in around April, maybe? Unlike angel care, Dt-Z really isn't CG heavy, so there probably wouldn't be that much images in that category. Next month, after bugs and what not have been squashed, I could get started on importing music... Maybe make some original tunes, too, if I feel as if a scene needs a certain type of sound that I can't find anywhere else.

Regarding next month's agenda, I'm actually a bit split on what to do in March lol. I mean, sure, directing CGs is (in my mind) probably more important than CG work and music.. etc. But still. I kinda hate making those fancy sprites, haha. I made a bit of progress regarding that this month, however, so let's see. Definitely basic movement routes are the priority. I've listed down a bunch of things I need to get done for that part, however, so that'll definitely aid me because I have a tendency to forget what I was originally gonna do when I boot up VX ACE.