#and I'm gonna need sprites and CGs

[jq37]

Hey Y'all! I'm planning on working on a visual novel for Winter Visual Novel Jam being hosted on itch.io this year. The writing and coding I have handled but I'm gonna need art as well so if you're an artist looking to join a game jam team, hit me up!

[ame-to-ame]

something something more self indulgent doodles!!!!

[eternal-auditor]

😡 I saw the mention of the WHB wiki situation and wanted to grumble about that 😡

First of all, the person who was building and contributing to the wiki were doing that all on their own and that's a very big of a deal, because filling up a wiki takes time and effort and assets extraction seems like a pain in the ass for me and now all of it is gone? But also no one knows what happened for sure? And their blog is down too?? Like are they okay???

Idk if PB themselves have anything to do with it, but if that's the case then I don't see what's the problem even. I've never seen any fandom wiki being dismantled like that for no reason, it's not like posting this content breaks any law or smth

Also as an artist this made me very frustrated, because there are barely any references to use in the open

PB don't even post full body sprites in their announcements and some just stay in the game where you can see only half of the body. How am I suppose to draw the rest then? Play the guessing game it seems which I'm gonna do with one of my wips

For certain details you'll need to grind the likability comics anyway, and if you need the loading screen comics you're gonna constantly reload them to find the specific one, not to mention they were all in good quality and now we don't have it

Also if you don't play from the start you won't have some of the event CGs in the album

I hope the situation will resolve somehow, but right now I feel confused and angry, because I'm very meticulous person, so I always try to draw fanart as close to the original design as I can and now I'm gonna have hard time doing that

I don't blame the contributor though, they must have had reasons to take images down, I'm just letting my frustration out on how sometimes there is not enough easily accessible material to use from the devs, but If someone has info on the situation or will get an update can you guys inform me?

[evony256]

SPOILERS FOR DRDT CHAPTER 2 EPISODE 13

TW: SUICIDE

I just wanted to share my thoughts on the episode too since I've seen a lot of people do that

By the way I had to watch this like 7 hours after it was released and I have not scrolled through Tumblr yet so I might bring up stuff that have already been discussed. Also all of these notes were written down while I was watching the episode so yeah

-Levi just moved up so much on my kin list it's insane like omg…

- This was one bad day for Acevi fans, huh. I guess the Xanvid came at a price

-Whit I can now see why David told you to shut up I like you but that was bad 💀 (he was probably left affected by how David reacted in episode 12 and is either really uncomfortable or somewhat intimidated by David now)

-Nah nah nah that's definitely not Teruko's secret so I'm gonna start theorizing now. Teruko might have most of the secrets. It's not like they belong to her, but if you think back to episode 8 she said that she doesn't know which secret is hers because so many things have happened in her life. She probably said that she got the family secret because she thought that was the most likely one. Hu's secret might also be accurate to her considering the fact that, in episode 4, she told Arei that failed suicide attempts are painful, hinting at the fact that she might have tried to kill herself at some point (also backed up by the fact that, in episode 3, she says "why save my life if you're just going to ruin it afterwards?" when talking about her medical debt). The idea that she has most (if not all, but I doubt that) of the secrets might tie in with the killing game secret since it says "How could I even select what secret to be your motive?". The wording here is very ambiguous since it could be interpreted as "secrets about your life" or "secrets that are on the board", like the ones that the other cast members have, the latter being something that I bet that nobody in the fandom thought about until this episode. Anyway theory over back to saying stupid shit

-AREI ILYSM YOU ARE MAKING ME CRY YET FEEL HAPPY THAT'S WHY YOU'RE MY FAVORITEEEEE 😭😭😭

-SHE GOT NEW SPRITES TOO SHE IS SO PRETTY

-I MADE AN AUDIBLE GASP NOISE WHEN THAT CG WITH EDEN SHOWED UP HOLY SHIT!!!! I think she might have hurt or killed the girl she kissed? Unless she killed Arei, which is still a posibility, or Levi lied about his secret for Eden’s sake (idea which could contribute to the "Eden killer Levi accomplice" theory), though Charles would have also needed to lie for Eden since he had her secret. Also, if we're going with Eden remorseless murderer theory, in my opinion, it wouldn't make sense for Eden to be a remorseless killer after what Arei said about her making a mistake "that she couldn't take back" (showing that she probably felt remorse for what she did). Also also this is a good time for me to bring up the note with "Eden's motive" that Charles gave to Teruko. That note could be proof of whether or not Eden really does have the girl kisser secret and I want to mention that the note could be anything since we only have Charles' word to rely on. I really hope we get to see what it says because it's been making me more suspicious of Charles (I personally think that Charles is somewhat suspicious so I might make a post about it soon even though there isn't much proper evidence to say that he has something to do with the killing game, there's still a couple of questionable things about what he's done/said). Okay yap session number two over

-Arei moved up even more on my kin list how is that even possible…. I also love how her voice changed so much in this episode. Even in prior episodes, her voice seemed so cheerful and energetic, yet in this one, it's much calmer. Showing that she truly is feeling relieved that there are other bad people in the world like her and that she might have a chance to redeem herself if so. God damnit Mokaui (Arei's VA) did such a good job with all of her voice lines she needs to be credited more

-THE AREI CG I AM CRYING AREI YOU ARE EVERYTHING TO ME ILYSM I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE BONUS EPISODE AFTER THIS

-They're finally talking about the murder method this is a new evolution for humanity

-Monotv causally breaking the forth wall, now we can blame it on the cast that they were talking about the secrets for an entire year because they didn't watch the Chapter 2 recap

-YESSS FINALLY A MINIGAME I’VE MISSED THESE SO MUCHHHH

-Ooh so that's what the broken handles meant also that Veronika art is so pretty

-I wonder why they would want to break her neck though, it doesn't seem like it would help with the murder at all, but maybe the killer was trying to cause confusion

-This is proving a theory that I've had for a while. If Arei was hung from the ceiling of the playground, then that could be tied in with the broken lights and the movie screening room above the playground. How would they be able to get her into the playground from the movie screening room though…

-J 💀 (that's all I’ve got to say literally)

-That's a lot of very precise information Whit I can understand Veronika but why would you know all that. Care to share something with the class?

-The text animations in the debate are so unique like the question marks with Rose and the one that circles around the top of Levi’s head those look so cool. Also getting to hear a lot of characters talk in a row feels amazing. It gives them a lot of depth showing the contrast between those characters’ tones of voice.

-Also there goes my screening room theory damn

-Everyone just roasting Teruko again is the best thing out of this episode /j

-We got puppy Whit 10/10 episode

-Also THREE CGS AND TWO MINIGANES IN ONE EPISODE??? DRDTDEV YOU HAVE BEEN COOKING 🔥🔥🔥 YOU CAN STOP NOW THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE (IN THE GOOD WAY). YOU MADE AN ENTIRE BUFFET. THIS IS AN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT YOU CAN STOP NOW-

-Ooooo she's talking about Ace's attempted murder

-(Probably) Nico and Ace focused episode next week Nico and Ace fans are gonna be eating good

Overall, this might be my favourite episode so far. Not like I had a favourite episode before but still this was SO good

Also I just checked my Tumblr notifications why are there 50 like oh my lord 💀

[colasarchive]

A look at To Heart Prerelease

A look at some assets and early designs shown before the release of ToHeart

If you've ever downloaded the original ToHeart, you may have noticed a strange sprite used during installation

Though it's clearly Akari, some features are a bit off, and the sprite itself never appears in any gameplay. Thats because this sprite is based off an earlier design of the character.

scan by Game Vecanti

Though there are plenty of designs for unused girls in To Heart's Fanbook, by the time promotional artwork started coming out the designs for the chosen girls were pretty solidified. So most changes we go over aren't gonna be anything too thrilling, but someone should has to do it : )

Design changes for all girls

all uniforms initially had a small yellow symbol on their collar, this would later be removed. Thats it.

Akari Kamigishi

Hair length shortened, in concept art even earlier in development it was much longer than this, though i'm going to keep most comparisons to this line of near-final designs

HMX-12 Multi

Hairstyle slightly changed to be a bit thinner in the back, her ear pieces became less metallic looking and moved to a more turned down placement

Lemmy Miyauchi

Given fangs, (you'll see it a bit clearer when comparing unused sprites), the front pieces of her hair are drawn a bit longer flowing

Shiho Nagaoka

Change in design of her socks and shoes

Serika Kurusugawa

Changed to black socks

Girls with no specific changes

Kotone Himekawa

Tomoko Hoshina

Aoi Matsubara

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Early game assets and their differences from Gimix

In Megastore Gimix Vol 5, a bunch of early game screenshots and assets were shown off, this section will go over any differences between these and the final game.

Special Thanks to Brad for letting me take a look at the files

Here's a broad comparison of every change, I'll talk in more in depth about some but others don't really need it

The Lemmy sprite shows her old design (no fangs). Asides from the change in colors of the background all the trees have been totally redrawn. Lemmy's also given an unusually bright eye color that not even her reference sheet had.

Along with the color change the shoe lockers are given more detail. Shiho's sprite would later be redrawn.

another sprite that would be redrawn

Redrawn trees and adjusted shading, it's most apparent on the roof

Aoi's face has been slightly redrawn, the shading on her uniform was also changed.

Shading style completely changed

also somehow this version of the cg ended up on the back of the box

next up is a look at the demo disc, due to the tumblr image limit, click here to continue

[starsurface]

Hai! Been regressed all day because I’ve come down with a icky sickness and i dont feel so good :< Could I maybe get some Mk11 Kano Cg hcs of him looking after a sick/ill baby regressor?- ✨

No cause like, I've been sick for almost a week and it's only gotten worse, especially in the past two days >:(

There's some silly virus going around, and I'm sorry you caught it, darling :(

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Kano w/ Sick Babyspace Regressor Hcs

⚔️ Kano, as much as I love him, isn't the best person

⚔️ Probably teased you for being sick when it wasn't that bad

⚔️ Like, come on, you aren't that sick, stop being all dramatic

⚔️ But when your symptoms began to worsen, he actually became super worried

⚔️ At first you just felt a bit icky, but now you can't feel half your face with how congested it is, your throats all scratchy, it hurts to talk, you're practically panting because you can't breathe through your nose

⚔️ ^ Apologies, I'm projecting, I feel incredibly icky rn

⚔️ He feels really bad that he didn't take your sickness seriously when he could have helped you when it wasn't that bad

⚔️ He feels even worse when you regress really tiny because of how icky you feel :(

⚔️ Don't you worry, Uncle Kano's gonna take good care of you now, Sweetheart

⚔️ Since your really tiny, he'll swaddle you in your favorite blankie and rock you, gently shushing your cries

⚔️ Kano's got a pretty tough inume system, so he doesn't get sick easily

⚔️ Because of this you get all the cuddles you could ever ask for

⚔️ Usually when you two cuddle he calls you a Clingy Koala but will die down his teasing because you feel icky and just want some lovin’

⚔️ Ans how could he make fun of you for that? Poor thing

⚔️ Kano, surprisingly, is a pretty decent chef, and will make you some bomb chicken noodle soup

⚔️ ^ I recommend Princess Chicken noodle soup, it makes me feel a bit better

⚔️ He'll spoon feed you so you don't spill anything by accident

⚔️ He'll get you some yummy Sprite and saltines if your feelings hungry

⚔️ Like, he'll get you actual food if you'd like, but those are some of the go to sick snacks he knows of

⚔️ Will not let you have munchies if you can't stomach anything though, he doesn't wanna make you throw up on purpose :(

⚔️ He'll clear his entire schedule just to make sure he can look after you

⚔️ Kanos not a very nice man, but he refuses to leave his bab’s side when they feel all icky like this

⚔️ Plus Kabal can do all the Black Dragon work for a few days <3

⚔️ Unfortunately, you might need to have some nasty medicine :(

⚔️ He'll get you some yummy water afterwards and cuddle you

⚔️ He knows some medicine doesn't taste great, but somehow all the yucky ones make people feel better quicker

⚔️ If your little enough to use diapers, he's more comforting about it than usual because your all sick

⚔️ If your throat hurts, he'll make you some warm milk or get you some throat medicine

⚔️ Is also a lot more patient than usual

⚔️ He knows your sick, and he knows you might be already sensitive than usual

⚔️ He also knows that crying because you couldn't find your hair tie isn't something that you'd usually do, but you better know he'll find that hair tie for you (he was probably sitting on it)

⚔️ Usually he'd encourage you to babble, laughing and having conversations with you

⚔️ But now you sound like Bi-Han, all raspy and almost drunk (very bad overall)

⚔️ So he probably expects you to go somewhat nonverbal, cradling you and letting you huff and cry into his chest

⚔️ It's never nice, feeling all icky and bad

⚔️ You'll never have to worry about going through it alone though, he'll become your clingy Koala

⚔️ He'll put on your favorite cartoons or movie, and you two will cuddle in bed

⚔️ He'll try to make you laugh by making jokes or jabbing at one of his friends

⚔️ But if you get irritated at them faster than usual, he'll stop

⚔️ It's no fun making a joke if you both can't laugh about it

⚔️ Kano isn't the best person to help you get better, since he doesn't actually know what he's doing half the time and is completely winging it

⚔️ But he's there for you, thick and thin

⚔️ Your his baby after all, you can't be sick alone, what kind if Dada would he be if he left you all alone? >:(

⚔️ He'll gently clean your face and shush you when you start apologizing

⚔️ There's so need to apologize, your body just feels a bit icky, Sweetheart, no need to be sorry

⚔️ If your too woozy or small to stand up, he'll carry you around so you can feel a bit better by brushing your teeth or taking a quick short

⚔️ Highly encourages sitting under a steamy shower so your face gets unclogged from all the bad stuff in it

⚔️ He'll even help you brush your teeth!! You really don't gotta lift a finger around this man, especially when you're this sick and small!!

⚔️ You becomes his new Teddy bear, and he becomes your new Teddy bear (and servant), that's how the world works <3

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I hope you feel better!!! <3

[acreattaviacco]

My MLQC Experience Log#1

Welcome to my somewhat reaction, I just want to gush about this game. I didn't know anything about this game but I like the art and premise so yeah!

I am not gonna get attached to these characters real quick no I am not

First time doing this let's go

First things first, hello our cute MC❤️

I must admit I did not expect we would run a company let alone our parents died???? But glad to know we have a backstory for ourselves

Another thing that surprised me was that they did voice acting in English!

Unfortunately, we didn't meet Victor in person but the first one we did meet was KIRO!...Oh no....I'm in trouble

Sir you smell like sunshine and that innocent smile is making me melt

You are literally shinning aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh🔅

also-

Don't do this Kiro (Childhood) friends-to-lovers trope is my weakness so don't add more fuel to the fire but sure I can give the prize card inside the potato chips. He's so extroverted!! But he's so sweet 💕

After our separate ways, we try going back to our company and-

Hello there Victor sudden entrance but thanks for saving me. (Wait what do you mean I am an Evol?) Sadly it was short but now it's Gavin!!!

Wait!! Gavin!!...you just left

Okay new plan for the last episode of Miracle Finder instead of Kiro it's Lucien the Professor but

Not only that he was really good at being cheeky and a tease I might have gone red from that conversation alone! Can you blame me? The man slowly whispered in our ear and hahahahahahaha😳

Okay👍

Luckily He agreed to be on the show and I like this side of him as well

aaaaawww 10/10 Domestic life Husband material

After finishing the last episode some good news!

I didn't mention this earlier but the side characters have sprites, some even have voices which is really nice

Now we report the good news to our boss, negotiate and-

Can we trick him with puppy eyes? Oh he's a cat person sadge : (

Okay, seriously both Lucien and Victor's voices are so soothing to hear can you record an audiobook for us? no wait I would sleep through it

Though this is funny

I really like Victor, he's the right amount of tsundere that I like it's cute. Sadly he had the last laugh

We are going through places so fast and this is chapter 2 But we get to meet Gavin now!

You faced Victor you'll be fine...wait he works as a cop?

WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! GAVIN! WE ARE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS :D !!!!!

But at the same time aaawww Gavin what happened? What blood-soaked letter? I need to know more!!! (Also that scar, he doesn't hide it)

Hahahahahahaha I'm sorry why are you a lot cuter now? The fact we go to the same school and even after all these years? Shoot weren't we here on assignment?

After that investigation, there is this

It's sweet only to realize it's a tracker(Actually don't mind this, no I am not delulu) But hey the sentiment is there!

Now to report to Victor! But if he was my boss in real life I swear to you unless he makes moves first I would just be talking business and nothing else

I know we are in the entertainment industry but man our life is dramatic

Dammit why do you have to be our boss, still would romance you though, and 0 to 100 real quick

You call us from time to time and I wonder why Victor is so uh..."soft" to us. Don't stop though keep calling and texting even how much you deny it 💗

After that Business deal, we went out and dun dun dun trouble

!

Hooray! The sweet release of death! /j (Seriously I am joking but a lot of people want us dead)

Luckily Gavin (and Lucien's advice) saves the day!

I know the main story is linear but I still feel spoiled by all these CGs it feels unreal

Also did not expect I would fall for Gavin this hard, look at that warm smile!!! :D

It's nice to know we are still wearing our tracker, no I still don't mind this (Okay maybe I am a little delulu but let me have this)

I will gush on you later my sweet Kiro for now I will add you to the list of my bundle of sunshine characters I love and adore(It's a small list but I adore them aahhhhh)

Chapter two is done!

That's about it I haven't even touched the dates and events heck there are so many I just wanted to focus on the main story, for now, I need to figure out the game mechanics and grind to level up my cards

I should have looked at a tutorial first but now I will!!

@jozhenji , @celiciaa must taggy tag you :D

[mahou-furbies]

Miss Meguca contest, Final round (powerup/other alt) results!

Madoka - 178 points

Iroha - 126 points

Homura - 119 points

Yachiyo - 112 points

Kyouko - 81 points

Mami - 72 points

Sana - 68 points

Tsuruno - 23 points

Sayaka - 8 points

Ui - 8 points

(total votes in a separate post)

comments:

Can Sayaka get negative points? What the hell is that

i would die for rumor sana. and i will

I’m Disappointed For This is the final round but I Really Knew Madoka would win the first round!

Godoka's design is ridiculously pretty. I ADORE the starry night under the dress. Kinda wish they did something new with her hair tho

No idea what the hell happened to Iroha but I'm fuckin with it

Ui is just. yellow now that's cool

As much as I love Madokami's outfit, the unnecessary boob window has always put me off, and as much as I love Akuma Homura's outfit I wish it was on an older character. Also shoutout to Holy Alina who isn't in this contest but I like both of her Holy forms more than Mami's and I would have voted for her if she was eligible for this contest.

Everyone else is godlike or at least glowing. Sayaka: smimswuit

Wings!!! I love my Biblically accurate Magical Girls! <3

Who was the uhhhh the girl who absorbed all the kimochi stones? I thought she had a distinct upgraded form for that? it may have only appeared in CGs, but I'm *pretty* sure it had sprites...also Holy Alina who definitely did. Rereading the rules I may just not understand the selection process (if I guess they didn't also have pajamas/a swimsuit/etc they'd be fully excluded?) but I did like those too.

Honestly, Madoka and Homura should be number 1 in a two-packMadokami is iconic, I couldn't put it anywhere but 1st place!It's a shame that Sayaka has what looks like a swimsuit here.

Oh Sayaka and Ui are gonna be left in the dust for this one

I don't think Ui's alternate form is especially good, especially compared to my other choices, but I don't particularly like any of the other, so she gets one point for being a cutie.

Pope Mami

Surfer Sayaka is a huge improvement from her default beach outfit. She still needs a proper power-up though.

Madohomu are too iconic to not make it on the list

Sayaka really got the worst possible power up tho

Yachiyo's outfit is amazing I did not expect that holy shit

have a wonderful day!!

iroha looks so cool in that powered up form

Really sad that I don't like Madoka's form more than Iroha's :/

We should really have more villainous powerups that incorporate white instead of black.

[herotome]

Special Informal Devlog

Hi-ho, Wudge here! Aaaa. I missed the update last week... as we crawl closer and closer to release, it's become harder for me to write devlogs. I'm making progress every single day, and that makes me so frustrated that it isn't done yet, you know? 😭 Something something curse of perfectionism...

Anyway.

I thought I'd try something a little different with this post by chronicling a specific screen I've worked very hard on, from start to finish!

(Pictured: a preview of where we're gonna end up)

It all began on... August 2021?! Yowza, two years ago! When I posted a poll on tumblr and on itch about how I should handle flirt indicators. The votes were split 50/50 between two popular options, and I was able to surmise that yall would really, really love an option to toggle between the two.

It didn't take me long to figure out how to implement the toggle itself.

The following year (September 2022), I came up with the idea of putting in an illustrated tutorial on how my flirt indication system works - after all, poll participants had told me that they loved the idea and had never seen it before in other games. I was on a treadmill at the time, so I quickly doodled the idea on my phone. It looks like this:

Then when I got home, I did a rough pen draft to solidify the idea...

I worked on the digital version over the next 2-3 weeks, and asked my friends for help with editing the text to ensure clarity.

.... Then I took a looong break from the infographic to, uh.... write, edit, playtest the game, draw expressions for Griffin CG, draw expressions for the landlord, work on a new Clammy Lady sprite, playtest the game again, make all the characters blink, make the first glowing animation for Jade's powers, code in Griffin's CG expressions, stress about paypal making changes in my country, do concept art for upcoming npcs, write some more, playtest some more, draw a birthday picture for Dart, write devlogs every single week, make sure all my files were safely transferred to my new laptop before my old one completely died... etc.

So it was February 2023 by the time I came back around to try implementing the infographic in code :')

... It was functional, but no matter what I tried, I didn't like how it looked with everything crammed into one page.

... Then I got really sick... but after I recovered and did some more work (drawing, writing, playtesting, etc) I came back to the infographic with the intention to learn how to code pages in renpy.

Still didn't look phenomenal, but there's a whole lot more breathing room! This was in April 2023.

I took another "break" (worked on a million other things) and then... FINALLY... in late August 2023, just a few weeks ago, I had an art breakthrough!

I had garnered a better understanding of color and poses, and as a result my chibis became a LOT cuter! I was able to redraw most of them without too much hassle - whereas when I first started, it would take me all day to draw a single one.

I also drew custom heart icons (a plain heart, a golden heart, and a broken heart), figured out how to make text buttons look more fun and intuitive..

And here's where we're at now!!! I still need to draw eyes for Dart.... but I researched and absorbed a lot about screen compositions, and had a rather late realization that I could re-use backgrounds and assets I already have in the game.

That's it for the special edition. I'll update with more soon!

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[venusararara]

"Learn to love yourself, or drop dead."

I tried digital painting uhh I hope it looks good :0 I'm gonna try to do more like this and also shitposts and stuff, anyway I wanted to draw some gore and had a few hours to spare

My VN is 50% complete!! I just need to write more dialogue and endings >:3 all of the sprites are finished besides a few CGs, I finished coding automatic lip-sync, yeah!! I have all of the story beats and all that figured out, I'll let you all know when it's in betatesting so you'll know when to expect it :)

[just-a-carrot]

"A king must be assured of his inviolability, after all."

(Somebody send help I've already drawn 15 new Orlam sprites and 23 CGs just for this castle sequence alone and I can't stop???? I'm still probably gonna need at least 10 more…)

[thekenikaridevblog]

I've made some really big progress since I started the last post with the cool gif, so I'm making another one to signal that! And also to have a cleaner bullet list without as much commentary lmao

Backgrounds (6/6)

Tilesets (1/1)

Normal CGs (8/?)

CGs for game mechanics (3/7)

Dialogue (10%)

New character sprites (6/6)

Cutscenes (1/1) (100%)

Free time events (2%)

Music (0/?)

Extra shit that came up that I won't even use until the next chapter (1/1)

I've managed to get an important initial portion of this next part of the chapter, and now I'm gonna mostly concentrate on writing dialogue and making drawings for the free time events! (hence why Lare is writing on some papers on the ground) This is some decently huge progress, as now that I've gotten all of the backgrounds done and programmed out of the way, I can move the characters around as I please. I might do some new expressions, but other than that there will be no more new character sprites from now on!! :D

..wait i just remembered a section where the sprites will get a massive overhaul next chapter. nevermind. there will be no more new character sprites until 1.2 lol

But yeah, other than that, the majority of my efforts are gonna concentrate on writing dialogue from now on. I'll also need to think of a couple game mechanics to keep the player doing stuff, but other than that it's settled

[celestialcrownsvn]

11/12/23

Weekly update time!

Backerkit Surveys

Another reminder--fill out your backerkit survey! There are still about 40 people who haven't.

Community Goals

We have other 600 wishlists on Steam!! This is over halfway to our community goal of 1,000. If we hit it, I'll add another CG to the prologue!

Another community goal is 700 followers on tumblr. We just need 200 more!

I want to add more discord rewards for people very soon, like custom emotes/stickers!

This week's progress

I have been working on Lune's bad end, as well as a new sprite for Sahi that will be used when he's on horseback for more immersion. It looks SO GOOD! I've posted the sketch in the sneak peek channel in the discord. If you pledged in the Kickstarter at a level to unlock that, GO CHECK IT OUT RIGHT NOW!

I'll be posting the finished version on my socials once it's complete.

New CGs

The CG artist has added the new skin tones to Sahi's sprite!

She has also finished TWO new CG sketches that are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and are in the sneak peek channel as well. Unfortunately I couldn't show too much of them due to spoilers, but what is there you're not gonna wanna miss.

BGs

The BG artist has informed me they're working on the first new BG--the dungeon! This will be used for various scenes in all routes, so I'm excited to have it done.

Conclusion

I had some really bad news this week--my 9 to 5 is laying my whole team off due to budget cuts. It sucks, but for the time being, I still have my big freelance contract, so that will tide me over for a while. I'm going to take this opportunity to try and really dig into Celestial Crowns, and since the holidays are coming up, I've decided not to start job hunting again until early next year.

With any luck I'll be able to find another job that will allow me the same freedoms the previous one had (i.e., remote work) so that I can still give Celestial Crowns my all when I start a regular work schedule again.

[brightoakgame]

Irregular Monday Update, Edition 8

Full steam ahead!

To lead with some exciting news: the incredibly talented Remnantation has reopened their commissions! Rem has been working on Bright Oak nearly as long as I have at this point, and in the process they've become an incredibly dear friend, as well as treasured collaborator. If you're looking for the whole package-- professionalism, talent, and excellent communication-- I can give them my whole-hearted recommendation.

As for where Bright Oak stands:

Thanks to Wudgeous (@herotome) handling the base coding, I've been able to make great headway on adding in expressions and poses, with only a small handful of scenes remaining to finish out Act I. Still gonna be a crunch to get the demo done by end of this month / early next, but shouldn't be far off!

@remnantation has finished up everyone's colors and is now working on secrets;

I worked on sound design for the first act, and specific cues for John's music; 

Background Countdown: I finally managed to push through some art block I've had on a location interior, and am now done with six of the sketches, working on a seventh, with six remaining for the demo / approximately 17 sketches remaining total (still at 22/60 total backgrounds/variations fully complete, since I like to do the painting in batches to color match)

To Do Next (may involve some déjà vu-- again):

Backgrounds! Backgrounds! More backgrounds! More!

Continue coding in sprite expressions and poses;

Play around with some additional special effects and transitions;

Nail down the list of CGs needed (for those unfamiliar with the term, these are special illustrations which pop up in response to specific story events and noteworthy dialogues);

Sort out studio logo;

Backgrounds! (seriously what is the background artist even doing) (it's me) (hi) (i'm the problem it's me)

[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.

[smol-grey-tea]

Back on my Nameless bullshit cuz I'm hyperfixating on it again and just today finished replaying Lance's route

Wanted to take this post to infodump about the character designs. Yes we all know the outfits are really strange and aren't co-ordinated at all, especially Red's, but I think at the end of the day, the outfits are the doll's default clothing and since they're just dolls the outfits prioritise design over practicality so it kinda makes sense that a doll's clothes wouldn't translate well into a human body

But I didn't wanna talk about their default outfits, I wanted to talk about their school uniform. They all (excluding Yuri) wear the exact same uniform. Yet they all manage to wear it in a way that highlights their own personality thru it.

Starting with Lance, he wears his blazer buttoned up with a plain and formal tie, showing how plain and straight forward his personality is.

Yeonho wears a bow but it's slightly lopsided, showing he's a bit fancier than Lance's tie, but he's inexperienced and younger than the others so he a lil confused but he got the spirit.

Tei wears a bow, like Yeonho, but it's straighter and more professional, so he's definitely fancier but knows what he's doing.

Yuri's suit is more professional too, as he's a teacher in the school, but he also regularly wears a pair of sunglasses to show how he is the only one of the boys to really care about his appearance as to change it so much, and especially with the choice of sunglasses showing status and how he views himself as cool

Finally, Red doesn't button up his blazer, nor does he button up the top button of his shirt, and he doesn't even wear any tie at all. This shows just how different he is to everyone else and also that he's more of a free spirit who doesn't particularly conform to the majority. Also, not buttoning up blazers/coats and top buttons is an autistic mood, on top of having difficulty with tying bows and ties. I personally headcanon he just straight up doesn't know how to tie knots like that at all and needs Tei to tie his shoelaces for him, but he eventually gets fed up with relying on Tei and just buys velcro instead

I'm not done yet tho cuz now I'm gonna talk about the girls too:

First of all, Soi's uniform is, again, the same as the other girls, but the way she wears it really emphasises her larger than life personality. She wears a ribbon in her hair as well as a bow tie but also with an um,, open,, chest? She definitely cares about her appearance and expresses herself in a very feminine way with her posture as well. Did you know Soi only has 1 sprite? Somebody else who uploaded the character sprites talked about this, but it's very easy not to notice her lack of sprites because of just how expressive her 1 sprite is on its own. It's just so expressive she doesn't need any more than 1 and you don't even notice it!

Shinbi on the other hand, has a formal tie, showing she's more reserved than Soi, but she's regularly seen either with her hands in her pockets or holding a strawberry milk carton, showing that she has quite a laid back attitude, compared to Soi's energy

Eri, I think, is the only character to have 3 different outfit sprites, which is 1 of the few things I would change about the game - I think if the main characters are dolls shouldn't they dress up a bit more? I don't even think Red has a justice warrior sprite, altho that's probably thrown out in favour of the play cg in his route. Eri's uniform is plain but still a bit messy - she has a bow tie but it's lopsided and she doesn't button up her blazer, which shows that she knows her own style and hobbies but isn't too organised or professional about anything herself

I don't rly know what else to add and it's kind of late. Maybe someone else has made a similar post, maybe that person was me, but this is what I made and now I'm posting it so everyone else can see it too :)