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I forgot I was locked out from tumblr because the 2FA couldn't work and wouldn't let me log in wwww

TBH I wasn't able to do any game development for months because many irl stuffs I have to do; and I'm still busy right now, I may not be able to participate in Spooktober VN Game Jam this year. Unless I do it on a whim? on last minutes?👀 I do have a story idea that seemed doable to be worked in about a week but will I have time to make, and more importantly, finish it? Idk. So ... yeah! 🙃

I'll try to play the submission as much as I can on October just like last year, don't worry. But for now, me gonna sleep~!

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Devlog #51

I thought I could do more, but this week was a bit stressful (︶︹︺)

I decided to redraw the sprites and some of older CGs for "Angel in My House" because the inconsistency of my drawing is too obvious, I couldn't bear to see it together wwww After everything, I'm all back to draw again wwww I really love drawing, huh? (大草原)

I was thinking about adding text messaging and socmed imitation in the game to spice things up, but ... can I? Should I? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, because I don't really have any progress to be shown yet, please have this angel for the time being. Very excited to meet you indeed~

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Happy Halloween! 🎃🍬👻

Last year, the crew from "Xenofeli Detective Agency" got their spooky costumes. Halloween this year, Kaisei and his angel dressed up as Ao Andon and Grim Reaper!! 🥳🎉

Happy Halloween~!!! 🎃🍬👻

Extra:

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Thank you and Congrats!

Thank you for playing "Dream In/Dream Out" and rated it!

Thank you for submitting amazing work for Spooktober 2023, I had so much fun playing them!

Congratulation to winners and shortlists/honorable mentions!

All of you are the best!

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I'm back (≧∇≦)ﾉ

I got to attend so many weddings this month, I couldn't count how many times someone ask me when I will get married ಠ_ಠ

So, Spooktober officially announced the winners two days ago. Congratulations to all the winners and shortlists/honorable mentions! I played around 50 games (but I only managed to rate 47 of them before ran out of time /_ \) and I'm so happy to see many games I played won or got nominated! All of them are so good and super interesting, I'm so impressed! (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) I may play even more tomorrow.

"Dream In/Dream Out" didn't manage to get anything, I expected so after playing so many entries this year, but somehow it took 1st for overall category in public voting with only 9 votes wwww I don't know how or why, but from the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful to everyone who played and voted my game. Thank you so, so much! (❁´◡`❁)

Now that Spooktober ended, I can refocus myself to finish *drumroll* "Angel In My House"!!! ☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

You think I'm going to forget that?! NO! I will hold myself from joining Winter Jam and Once Upon A Time Jam or other jam to finish that wwww

Honestly, "Angel In My House" gained more attention than my submission for Spooktober, so ... that's a burden I'll get rid off as quickly as possible www And also, I really want that game to be finished this year because my stupid brain already has other idea for new one www "Dream In/Dream Out" will be worked on after "Angel In My House" completed, so it'll be (hopefully) completed next year.

There are sooooo many things I need to improve on, but reading many interesting and high-quality submissions this year, I gained one or two neat trick I stole from them, I want to put it somewhere in my game too ∠( ᐛ 」∠)_

This year was harsh for me, I lost many things I love dearly and will lose even more, but hopefully I can bring more joy and keep moving forward. See you soon in my (irregular and unorganized) devlog! (≧∇≦)ﾉ

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Dream In/Dream Out 1.0.1 Release!

I was so busy with work this week, but I finally updated Dream In/Dream Out!

Changelog 1.0.1:

Fixed music default volume.

Fixed images not displayed properly.

Changed battle part displayable: background, inventory frame positioning, button's hover pointer.

Nothing major as in change of the story or the battle part, it may be changed later alongside the release of chapter 2.

You can read more about it and download the game here:

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Ugh, now that I'm well rested and my brain is clearing up, I can see how much a mess my Spooktober submission is. It's just awful, super awful. The images are awful as I kept drawing low quality stuffs, and after that they aren't properly animated and the placing is kinda jumbled up (I still don't understand how to use Action Editor, it always feck up my images' position after I copy-paste-d the placing into my script).

My biggest pet peeve is the story pacing is too rushed. Usually I'm very particular about pacing; that's always my top priority during writing. And then the music volume is too low. Apparently I mistyped the config for default volume, so it's on 25% on default (╯︵╰,).

This is because I insisted to put the battle part and tried to make it work, I completely abandoned the story, the thing that's most important for this game. It never intended to be an RPG game, this is always a visual novel in my mind. And at first it's just, "oh, it would be cool if I have a battle system for this," but I got too stubborn and it became, "this definitely needs a battle system or it wouldn't work."

I feel sorry for anyone who had played it or is playing it right now, it must be very unbearable to play that mess. The urge to just delete and forget about it is so high right now, but you know, even though it's a mess, it's still what I worked hard for the past month, I just can't simply delete it. It's not something I'm proud of for sure (even a mistake like "Thirty-One" is better than this wwwww) but in the end, it's still what I created and that fact alone is a good enough reason for keeping this game.

I will try to update it to what my initial vision is, but not right now, my hand is tired and aching just from doing so much during crunch time haha

I learned a lot about my own management again and again through this jam, how messy and unreliable I am (I'm glad I did this alone, I couldn't ever imagine about dragging someone else into this), and I realized it's the best for me to do it all alone for now. For now, though, I still plan to work with other people one day www

Not only that I learned more about how to make a freaking complete battle system and managing the script straight (that's very interesting but definitely very complicated) I learned about what I can and can't do in Ren'Py. And never thought about too many call stacks can traps you in indefinite loops wwww I may or may not make another mini game for my other project. "Angel In My House" has one battle-like system, but it's simpler and bare minimum, almost like how I did in "RUN!" The inventory and skills system are the things I will learn more about, they're quite versatile to be used in many type of mini games.

Still, I can't use Action Editor right. One of my stubborn mistake is I must use that to make this game when I was completely clueless to properly use it. It's definitely very useful if I can do it right, but for now, my CG isn't placed in where it should wwww I think I'll use my usual method of inaccurately guessing image position manually while learning about the Action Editor somewhere wwww

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End of Spooktober 2023

I SURVIVED! I'M FREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I managed to finish my game! The last days of Spooktober I spent playtesting and troubleshooting. As expected, the battle part broke my game, it trapped them in endless loop even though the game ended wwww Too many call labels apparently wwww

But it's fine now! (I hope so 〒▽〒) I didn't take the battle part, so enjoy battling~!

You can download my submission here:

Dream In/Dream Out Chapter 1 by Ei Kitara (itch.io)

Now I'm going to sleep (_　_)。゜zｚＺ

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #9

I locked myself trying to make the battle part work www Spooktober is less than 5 days, it's time to panick! (っ °Д °;)っ

I can't make my own battle framework, not with this very short time, so I simply just use this battle engine.

It still uses the assets from the master and still in test mode, but I have made some changes in it, now I can put it inside my game and hope it won't cause any conflict with my existing scripts wwww

Still not done with CG and need to put music inside, but I'm fine! It's gonna be fine! IT'LL BE DONE! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #8

OMG! FINALLY I'M FREE FROM BACKGROUNDS!!!!!!!!! (Ｔ▽Ｔ)

Took me too long to draw them, all of this week I spent drawing I felt like I won't ever finish it. It's not colored and the perspective kinda skew but hear me out: I don't care anymore! I got a scary nightmare of my fingers fell one by one from my hands while drawing them wwww

Here some preview of the background. It's a mistake trying to make a stylish room, really.

You can call these monochromatic backgrounds as a choice of style but in reality I simply refuse to color them wwww

And I made some CGs too, so now I can introduce you the final major character of this game: the mysterious man.

Not only mysterious, his entire being is a big spoiler, not only for this game (yes, he'll also appear in my other game) so I can't really say anything about him right now. But one thing for sure, he is not as benevolent as you think. He is a *redacted* 👈(ﾟヮﾟ👈)

I still have some CGs to draw, mainly ones featured the Queen (her dress is a pain to draw), but I can cut it short or just not color it wwwww It's gonna be fun to program it hahahaha so fun ಠ⌣ಠ

It's the last week for Spooktober, so I'll do my best!🔥🔥🔥

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #7

I thought I posted yesterday, but apparently I didn't, and now I almost forgot to update again www

So, initially I only wanted to introduce two animals that have their own sprites (the other two would appear later, maybe in a CG), but today I made the other two's sprites too, so they're complete now. Although I will have to add things in the script so I can use the sprites I made wwww It's a good thing I like writing wwww

Let's introduce the animals! (((o(°▽°)o)))

First is Lala the Rabbit. She is Queen's closest friend. Very cheerful and brave, she won't hesitate to jump into a fight if someone she cares about is hurt. Don't be fooled with her cute appearance, she can send people to the hospital with her powerful punch. She is cute and she can kill you, literally …φ(。。*)

Next is, Mrs. Apple. Although she isn't married to anybody, she is still called with "Mrs." She is the mother-like figure to everyone in the kingdom. She loves gardening and baking sweets, her specialty is flower cake. It's very delicious and fragrant~ *yum*

Next is the Queen's personal assistant, Pia the Frog. He is very efficient and reliable, though he is prone to overthinking and easily worried about small, insignificant things. He always dresses nicely to be more "presentable" as Queen's assistant, but Lala thinks he is just overthinking too much about it. He is skilled in archery among other things.

And the last but not least, Mada the Pangolin. He is an apprentice in magic. Shy and introverted, he can be awkward at time, but because he is so polite and hardworking, he is always a good company to have around. He aims to be a healer so he can always help his friends.

They're the closest companions to the Queen and as I want to make this a hybrid game (visual novel with "mock" RPG), they'll fight alongside the Queen, I mean the hints are obviously up there wwwww

Still don't have backgrounds or any CGs, I plan to finish them this week and the last week will be focused on implementing the "mock" RPG. I will say it as "mock" as I might fail implementing the battle system and just make staged battle-like scene, but let's hope I can tackle it down.

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I took sudden work related trips for the past three days and no progress made on my Spooktober game. I got new idea when on trip for a fancier, cooler main menu, but idk if I can implement that because it's gonna use extensive animation and I can't really afford drawing that much wwww or maybe I should stick to the initial concept ... or draw a new one? Anyway my greatest desire rn is I want to rework my UI and it's not good because I haven't make any backgrounds and CGs yet and it's already the second week of Spooktober which is （╯°□°）╯

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #6

I thought everything slowing down, but actually it's my body that slowing down wwww Still felt feverish, but me gonna be fine ヾ(´▽｀*;)ゝ"

Unrelated to Spooktober, but last night I released ver 1.1 and posted postmortem for "Thirty-One". And related to Spooktober, finally I finished the key art for the game:

It's supposed to be animated, but for right now it's a still image.

Synopsis to my game:

Bullied in school, neglected at home, nothing seemed to make her life worth anything. Rage and hatred bottled up inside her, and slowly eating her up like inferno of madness. The only solace she can find is the magical world where she is the beloved queen inside her dream. After bumping into a man who promised to grant her deepest wish, she slayed various monsters—the people who wronged her all these time—that threatened her kingdom of blissful peace. She later realized her action could kill the actual person in real life too.

With her mighty Sword of Justice and reality-bending dream, the Queen took her revenge.

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #5

Tired coloring the bullies, so I move on drawing some sort of key art? Bonus art? Or maybe I'll just put it as page banner, idk. Everything felt slow lately beside the soul sucking stomachache, I think I need to take a break and read manga before I burn out early wwww

Here is some snippet of the script.

Told you it's gonna be intense. Girl doesn't want world peace, girl wants murder ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ wwww

It still needs second proofing though, so I'll let it ferment even more. I hope I can finally move on to staging the game next week (and start drawing CGs). (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #4

Stomach still hurts .... I managed to flat color the bullies last night.

Somehow, they're better than MC's sprite which irked me so much www Still not finish sketching bully 4 though, maybe later I can after doing something about this pain /aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/

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I got a very, very bad stomach ache and severe diarrhea since yesterday, so no progress made ((_　_*

It was my own fault though; I ate too much spicy stuff. I'm okay eating spicy, but not digesting it. My stomach literally burning 🔥 I felt like fainting and trembling and my soul was leaving my body through my fingertips, but I was toilet bound at moment sooooo lesson learned (though I'll still eat spicy food, just not as that spicy wwww)

I finished the lineart for Bully 1 (that's the literal name I'll use to describe her) before the mistake took place wwww But yeah, I'm going to color her and work on the other bullies now (*'▽'*)♪

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Spooktober 2023 Devlog #3

I finished all of the MC's expressions and poses, but got distracted halfway and started a new save in Sims 4 wwww

This is the Queen, disappointed by me, who still have so many things to do but abandoned them just to see my sims romancing every townies with WW mod on wwww Please forgive me 人´∀｀)

I'm going to draw the bullies next, there are 4 of them unfortunately, then I still have to make sprite for the animals too, and finally the mysterious man needs his own CGs ... I really have many things to do, huh? (Ｔ▽Ｔ)

On the other side, my script (only until the demo cut part, not the full script) is done fermenting, so I need to edit it soon. I can say it's pretty intense ... like, how emotionally draining "RUN!" is, but much more with anger and hate. I'll post snippet of it once I feel it's up to my actual vision.

Oh, right! Velox Fabula's vote result is up there! Congrats to the winner! (Winner, right? It's ranked after all www) Those games really incredibly sooooo good and polished on such short time, like really guys?! (ಠ⌣ಠ)

Well, "Thirty-One" definitely can't be compared to them at all www I mean it's wacky as hell! No prep, no second thought, just a whim I did to distract my excitement over Spooktober www Even how it made public was purely accidental (草原) It's just strange and "eh (◔ д◔)" even for me. But I promised to release the uncut bloody scene and I haven't made the emotional dumpster called post-mortem. Wait, aren't things I need to do increasing?! wwwww