#monthly update

[barbwritesstuff]

Thicker Than - Update

Play the Free Demo Here

Happy Full Moon!

It’s really late (I stayed up late hammering out some last second bugs) so I’m going to make this quick. My big goal this month was to write the ‘running away’ route for players who wish to leave the city at the end of Chapter Ten. I’ve almost done that. There’s still more work to be done in that branch, but I’m really happy with what I have achieved.

I wrote it in bits and pieces, and there’s a lot of variables at play, so the feedback I’m most anxious to hear about is flow. Does it make sense? Does it feel choppy? What can I do to improve readability?

I’m going to keep working on this route next month, and keep slowly fleshing out the ‘ally hunting’ options in the main route.

The showdown with Lucius is going to be the big, epic battle and I’m really looking forward to writing it, but I think it’s probably still a few months away. Gaius’ showdown is actually less epic because it’s all about saying the right things rather than actually fighting.

As always, thanks so much for all your feedback and support. I’m going to bed.

Don't forget you can support me and see my weekly progress for $5 a month over on Kofi. 💙

[rosefinnigen]

monthly update post time woo!

It’s October, which means the seasonal depression that I thought i was escaping moving out of Michigan is coming to laugh at my foolishness. Unfortunately the winter blues still happen in states without a real winter. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise!

So, I wanted to talk about progress. We talk a lot in mental health spaces about how “progress isn’t linear” and it’s important to give yourself grace for the moments when things aren’t progressing as fast as you want them to.

Im pretty good about it with mental health. But, I struggle more with it when it comes to my size. One of the reasons i stopped tracking my weight on a daily basis was that I was finding myself despairing when the number didn’t change how i wanted it to. I’m at a set point right now, and have been for probably the last year — I’ve shot up to *almost* 300 for very brief moments, but 285 is just where my body wants to hang out right now. And yeah — it makes me sad, sometimes.

I could probably fill a whole page about why I can’t eat as much as I want to and all that jazz, but the real truth of it is that when I’m focused on the number, instead of the body that I love, I just don’t have as much fun.

Anyway, that’s all to say that it’s okay to take breaks, to rest, to not push yourself constantly. Gaining weight can be hard, sometimes just as hard as losing it. The important thing is to love yourself as you are now & focus on things that bring you joy.

Here’s to a fun and filling spooky season! 🧡🖤

[guardian-of-time-if]

Monthly Update: December 2024

Happy December everyone!

I'm happy to report that November was a productive writing month, if a horrid personal one. I managed to write just over 30k words including code this month, and almost all of it went towards chapter 3. I only have one major scene left to finish the skeleton (all f the common route writing plus the code for the branching.)

My main focus for December will be completing this final scene, and filling in branches for the chapter. Then I'll tweak the codex, and make sure everything I added in there is working properly. If I have time, I also want to make some minor changes to chapters 1 and 2 before updating. Mostly just fixing the typos you guys sent me. (Which I am grateful for.) And I am going to go back and add one minor content change: MC will now have an object that was with her when she was found as a baby.

I will be visiting family from the 14th to the end of the month, so I might be a little less active on here, but I will still be writing as much as I can during that visit, and will try to check Tumblr and the forum at least every other day if any of you guys have questions.

Hope you all a good December and a great holiday season no matter which holiday you're celebrating!

[foxglovegames]

DEVLOG: AUGUST 2024 🦇

It's already time for the August wrap-up??

Demo Progress

It seems no matter how much we get done, there is always more work to do haha! That said, August has been a good month and we have made a lot of exciting progress on the demo for BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL. :)

Programming

Please welcome Renbie to the team as our lead programmer! 🙌

The past week have been spent prepping sprites and setting things up in Ren'py. Although we still have a long way to go, the game feels more real than ever now which is both exciting and scary!

If you followed the development of Trouble Comes Twice, you might already know that programming was a big hurdle for us and a major source of frustration. ;( Now that we've got some more experience under the belt thanks to Trouble Comes Twice, we already feel a lot more confident but having a dedicated programmer on the team is going to be a massive help both time and quality-wise. As a bonus: Renbie's also super lovely to work with, so we're super happy to have her onboard!

Art

We mostly made progress on promotional assets. We decided on a sketch for our key art (check out a little sneak peek at the top of this post) and received the first sketches for some of our merch designs! They're looking super cute!

Writing

With the demo script done and dusted, most of August was spent outlining the main game's six romance routes. The routes (subject to change) have five chapters each and various longer endings and shorter 'bad/death' ends based on your decisions.

BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL has dual protagonists, so similarly to Trouble Comes Twice, we're two writers in charge of one MC each (and the MC's respective three routes). Unlike Trouble Comes Twice though, the cast here is a lot larger and not as (directly) connected.

So, how do we outline our routes? First, we wrote shorter summaries of each route - including important themes, character motivations, etc - which we then go over together. Although the plots of the two protagonists are very different, we have to make sure we keep the same 'themes and vibes'. We also need to be careful that the pacing and the scopes of the routes aren't too wildly different!

With the feedback from the shorter summaries, we move on to write the detailed outlines. (Here, we regularly reach out to each other and get feedback on minor elements and sometimes run brainstorming sessions when one of us runs into a wall.) Once these are done, we're going to have another review and write as many drafts as it takes until the routes are ready to enter the writing phase!

We're super excited about a lot of these scenes we've got planned and though you guys don't know much about the project yet, we think you're going to love the ideas we've got once it's time to learn more! We learned so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can't wait to apply to this game! 🖤

Goals for September

There's too many little goals to count! But the major ones are:

Start looking for music composers, item artist, visual effects artist - we're not doing a public post for these, but if you or someone you know might be interested in one of these roles, shoot us a DM! ;)

Making as much progress as possible on the remaining UI screens

Making as much progress as possible on the merch designs

Continue working on the detailed outlines

Continue programming yay

Fingers crossed, we can get the key art done and dusted!

There's still so much to do, but we really look forward to the next couple of months!

[esper-game]

Monthly Update (7th April 2024)

Helllllo everyone!!! I didn't do as much work as I would have like last month, but I've been chipping away at it and recently had some more time to actually sit down and write.

WHAT I DID:

Chapter Two's word count is now at 10.6k!

The characters page is actually finished,,,, I just need to beautify it :)

GOALS FOR THIS MONTH:

Hopefully finish off the first half of chapter two

And get editing started on it

NOTES:

Here's a little screenshot of some particularly horrendous coding :')

(VERY minor spoilers maybe)

And there's more underneath!

Sometimes I ask myself why I do these things, but I seriously think it's worth it to ensure an immersive experience :)

And this isn't exactly complicated, more just time consuming lol

[yosajaeofficial]

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Heya everybody! We’re back for a double episode of, “The Monthly Jayce Myles Comics Updates”! The reason why August wasn’t fulfilled like normal was due to college and how busy I immediately got when entering in, which is what I figured would happen so I’m not too surprised with it to be honest. I took some time in order for me to make a fulfilling update instead of doing a rushed one to pump out yk? We’re now gonna get to the updates and bonus content I’m gonna show.

Buckle your seat belts, close your eyes and take your hands off the wheel cuz this is gonna be a ride~

THE COMIC

(OFFICIAL W.I.P: PAGES 28 & 31)

The comic’s gotten slower due to college, however, I really needed a break from it in general so I could prioritize my personal life and also refresh myself on drawing what I want to instead of rushing my age physically and turn 78 years old when I haven’t even reached 20 yet. Nothing much to say but showing the w.i.ps because of the slower progress, it’s getting there though. We got to 30 pages! Which means that the first section is sketched out (calculated to be approximately a fourth of the full chapter done, it could go lower or higher in the numbers depending on what I want/vision). I’m hella proud for getting 30 of them pages done honestly. A huge accomplishment for doing this story for a long while.

Ya’ll don’t really know, but I am indeed changing things here and there about the story where I’m shifting small details, doing redesigns, and reboots with other small things overall. I would be honest and say that’s where I’m progressing the most and not the debut chapter, I’m able to have a clearer vision of the story in my head and on paper when doing future chapters yk? I won’t go into details about redesigns or those details being changed since they’re hella spoilerish and a bit unnecessary considering that the JMC hasn’t even debuted yet. Ya’ll will get those details later when the comic functions and I will reveal more in future updates!

Also, last month Jae, no you haven’t drawn the turtles yet. However, we’re close to their debut for the chapter so keep strong! You’re doing great! :3

BONUS CONTENT: Jayce Myles Over The Years

Many of you know that Jayce Myles, whose name is in the title of the series, is our protagonist for this ROTTMNT comic! She’s my OC that I’ve had when going through my senior year of high school. We’re gonna be getting into a deep dive with her as a character and how their designs came to be during the process!

This is the first ever drawing of Jayce that I’ve done, the day I made it is so vivid in my head because I was going through it… I was in my Pre Calculus class and I had failed another test after multiple attempts through the school year. My initial idea was to cry (which I did) but then I just started doodling on my phone and I created this drawing, then from there it was history. This was in 2022, not too long ago. I became a Rise fan a couple weeks after the movie came out (which I didn’t know at the time, it was a pure coincidence) and I wanted to create a Rise OC for a while. So that day in Pre-Calc, I was able to take advantage of my mathematical suffering and create my magnum opus (exaggerated). She didn't have a name at the time so it was actually a stand in for me. Jayce got their full name until a couple days later.

EVOLUTION OF JAYCE MYLES

(October 2022- February 2024)

As you all can see, Jayce did indeed have lots of designs and ideas being sketched out while I created her as my official Rise OC. I had ideas for them to have an androgynous look from the start based off of my own self! I knew they were gonna have a Rise comic, but there were ideas for them to originally come from the 2012 TMNT universe with their "serious demeanor". It was quite interesting but there isn't much media of those ideas since they were cut a bit early on.

(Older Renders of Jayce from 2022)

Their signature color looked like it was gonna be this denim blue for quite a while but then I scrapped it cuz I thought it wasn't showing their personality like how I want it to. There was also another scrapped concept where Jayce's demeanor would be more monotone and "soft" (as in a blank slate, which doesn't give her a true personality). It was cut because it made me think that I wasn't giving her the best potential as the protagonist then I should've been giving them. Jayce was more introverted and quiet, but now they're much more expressive and full of personality. Ya'll will see in a more better light when the comic debuts, I'm not holding back with Jayce's personality anymore.

("Issue 1: Graffiti" Panels from page 1. The only page that was completed until the plot got scrapped.)

There were lots of pitches and concepts for the JMC over the years too, where lots of storyboards got drafted and one of the first of those drafts got their first page completed. However, I'm pulled a Richard Williams and kept being like "No, I don't like this" and kept going back to the drawing board. I like to look back on these old drafts especially after seeing the older interactions and how different they're gonna be in the official comics. I for sure was learning over 2023 and 2024...

Now finally, we're gonna touch on the last thing for this update~

JMC'S FINALIZED PILOT (ADDITIONAL CHARACTER)

We are going to talk just a teeny bit about the debut chapter but I'm able to become vague without spoiling too much since lots of the older pitches were scrapped. But yes, this was when I came up with the idea, "What if Jayce had a job?"

That's where the idea of Jayce working at a deli joint came from. Where she would have to get a 9-5 and possibly fired, it was pretty funny when doing the drafts since I never knew how a real deli worked and my dumbass just used my mom's experience at Denny's as referenced (she walked out and quit after almost a year).

Thus, our pilot was born.

You can go read a non canon comic I did that touched on this concept when it was fresh in development right here! [Jayce and Mikey Phone Call] & [Splinter/Randall and Jayce Interaction]

The shop itself was based off of a friend's film back in junior year. He made a FNAF parody called, "Five Nights At Fernando's" and it was such a stupid assignment but that gave me the idea of making use of the dumbass "Fernando's Shop" and make it a reality. So then Fernando's Taco Shop was created and we had the shop Jayce worked at. We already talked a bit about Archie and his deal in the first JMC Monthly Update and I can't say anymore due to spoilers but he was also involved of the creation of the pilot.

The older pitches had a cashier or a manager be like some NPC ahh character that never was gonna be brought up ever again but something in me thought it would be a cute idea to create an actual character for this manager that wasn't a stupid bossy ass hoe. It was very sweet in the drafts so I thought I could create more with that concept in mind.

Introducing: Rogelio Andazola!

(Rogelio Andazola Evolution: 2022-2023 | Still Not Showing The Finalized.)

His design is one that is the most consistent when compared to the rest of the roster, I guess that I hit the nail with his because I couldn't imagine him any different. There are only minor changes like his gray strands disappearing (bro reverse aged) and his facial expressions are much more expressive after I played around during the soft reboot. Once again (and as annoying as it is), you will all see where I'm coming from when the debut chapter releases! Rogelio as a character has also altered his personality, he's based off of my grandpa, can't wait to show you how that comes into play in the story!

Thank you all so much for sticking around for this very heavy update! I worked way too much for the photos to be sent on here and dug up lots of my old art in order for this to become a reality! It was actually insane that I kept lots of it instead of making it turn into lost media, I'm happy I got to show lots of it instead of having to make it the fuck up by memory (which I wouldn't have done in the first place and is an exaggeration). The comic is slaying in the runway and I'm working on it here and there at my own pace. Maybe next time I can finally show ya'll the turtles in the next W.I.P in the comic section. Have an amazing day/night everyone and we're on the way to victory!

[inthecards]

Monthly Update

Ha! Monthly. Anywho, I am working away at this IF slowly but steadily. I've gotten quite a bit of inspiration for the rewrite I'm planning - some scenes will be the same, but there are certain characters for whom I want to have a lot more involvement. So, there will be a lot more content added. Looking forward to sharing those with you, but it will take a bit as I plan to release chapter 6 before any rehauls.

Speaking of which, there will be a lot of branching going on in the latest chapter, some of which will be decided by previous decisions, but most of which you'll get to plot out yourself. Among other things, you'll finally learn more about the spirit haunting your uncle.

[fujocoded]

It's time for our monthly newsletter!

In this edition:

FujoGuide Issue 1: Git Digital Preview ships TOMORROW!?

FujoCoded LLC campaign rewards are also shipping!

…and with all the shipping, we also cover future plans + volunteer AND paid recruitment!

Check it out 👇

And for artists who want to leave their "business card", here's the form! We need 88x31 pixel badges artists now, but any artist can leave their info!

Details + other volunteer opportunities below the cut.

Write us at contacts@fujocoded.com, and let's build a better web!

[lavender-hvze]

very cutesy, very mindful, very demure

(another monthly selfie for my girlies ( ◡‿◡ ♡))

[remnantsofthepast-if]

Monthly Update – September 2024

Another month, another release. Chapter 2 is now available for everyone on Itch.io! I'm really surprised by how fast I'm progressing with Act 2, since, aside from publishing the chapter, a few days ago I finished the summary of Chapter 3, and just today I wrapped up the first scene!

Now that I've said this, watch me get stuck soon, lol!

On another note, all of my October Patreon posts are uploaded and scheduled as well, and I only have a couple more to finish the ones for November and then I'll start working on December (Seriously, bless the scheduling feature). It's a bit weird to be working on winter stuff when it's hot as hell here in the Canary Islands (27º in my area). I’m so jealous of my characters enjoying the cold :’)

I said it recently, don't get used to this level of productivity from me because the new Dragon Age game is coming out soon, and the obsession I’ll have with it is going to be insane. I think all this productivity these past months is to make up for the time I’m going to waste playing. I won’t even respond to my family’s messages, and I don’t care. I might even skip a meal or two because I’m a shameless bastard, xD

---

Have a great month, and see you at the end of October ;)

[sharb]

Dee's Funkin' Game - Update #18

Ok so this month's actually been really good for me, finally figured out a solid direction to go with the game that's not too far off from what the game already was, it's still going to be about exploration but the levels will be broken up by an overworld map to tally up your progress and fast travel between stages. Key collecting is still going to be an important factor as well as finding as many gems as you can.

to start off, we finally have a new level type to explore, the sea port, this is the first stage of the game, intending to get you introduced to the main gameplay loop and give you an idea of what you're supposed to be doing, your path gets blocked up until you buy an ability from Brendy to progress. That said Brendy's shop now works a bit differently, instead of collecting small gems to unlock powers you need to collect big gems, small gems can still be used for items but they'll be passive upgrades and hints on what to do to make progress.

I want to keep it so that you lose gems when you get hit instead of a traditional health system but to be more lenient at the end of every stage the gems you collected gets tallied up into a total, so you can progress to another level without risking losing a tonne of gems in the process.

Read more on my patreon

[barbwritesstuff]

Play the demo for free!

So, my brain has been really scattered this last month. I’ve had a bunch of editing to do on my prose manuscript (Of Monsters and Mainframes, coming out next year) and I’ve also just had a ton of real life stuff pop up unexpectedly. So, the update this month is only 12k. Which, I’m not going to lie, is a little sucky. I thought I’d got more done than that. However, I’m still happy with the progress I made.

I’ve got Chapter 10 to a tentative first draft (I may do more work on it later, but for now it’s locked), I made some big strides with Chapter 11, AND I got really excited about Chapter 12 and started laying down some words for that. Please let me know what you think.

This game is a big muddle right now and a lot of the scenes I’m adding will only be visible on a few playthroughs which makes progress feel really slow. However, I’m really hoping that’ll make the final game really dynamic and fun.

I hope you get to pop out and see the full moon tonight. It’s the second largest of the year and is looking wonderful.

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

Update Details

As of the 17th of October 2024

Finished Chapter Ten

Continued work on Chapter Eleven

Started work on Chapter Twelve

Additional Words: 12,538 (excluding commands)

Total Word Count: 408,768 (excluding commands)

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

Reminder: If you like what I do and would like to support me (as well as see my progress weekly instead of monthly) I'd be grateful if you'd check out my KoFi.

Thanks so much for reading. 💙

[thethreshold-if]

December update

heya :) I said I wanted to do a monthly update and here it is! I honestly don't have much to say since the prologue was out exactly a week ago, but anyway it's the first of the month so yeah.

I'm still debating whether releasing the first chapter as a whole or dividing it into three parts. it would be the character introductions, then the first game, and then more interactions with the ros. anywho, I'm writing the first part and I almost have the first draft complete. it's rather short, but I'd like publishing it so you get to know the characters without waiting too long.

so basically, the first third of chapter one should be done in december, mayybe january if I'm too busy. I'll see if I release it then or when I have the whole chapter done. the complete chapter will take a little longer to do, but should be ready in q1 2025.

I also want to thank you for the support! it means a lot to me that you spend time reading my work!! I really hope you enjoy it.

I wish you all a great december!! take care :D

[guardian-of-time-if]

Monthly Update: November 2024

Hello everyone. It’s the first day of November, so I’m here with another monthly update.

So October was a bit of a rough month. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I lost about a week and a half of writing time which put me severely behind schedule. I managed to make up for it some in the second half of the month, but I still wasn’t able to get as much done this month as I hoped.

The writing that I did get done was almost all for chapter 3. I would estimate that I am somewhere between a third and a quarter of the way through the chapter. Word countwise I added 22,000 words which brings the total wordcount of the project up to 119,000 (21,000, and 112,000 without code). I’m actually surprised the total project is that big, and it made me feel better about being a bit behind this month.

My plans for November are to keep focusing on Chapter 3, and see if I can finally get a map made up. I also decided that I am going to move forward with setting up a Patreon, which I hope to have by the end of the year. The end of this month is thee American holiday of Thanksgiving, so I’ll probably take a couple days off around then, but otherwise I should have a pretty steady writing month.

Hope everyone has a wonderful November, and as always, let me know if you have any questions! 😊

[foxglovegames]

DEV LOG: 2023 Recap!

We wanted to post this update at the end of Dec, but time got away from us! We have a lot to look back at in 2023...

❁ We released Trouble Comes Twice!

We're very proud to have released our first game as a studio!

There were some rough patches, so we are forever thankful for the support from our players, backers, patrons, family, friends, and the talented freelancers who helped this project become more than just a dream.

Although we couldn't be more grateful for the positive reception, we're also noting down feedback and criticism for future projects. We're confident that our experiences working on TCT will help us make even better games in the future!

❁ Trouble Comes Twice: Bonus Stories!

Trouble Comes Twice: Bonus Stories is a DLC we've been working on for the past months and it's also going to be our last major public update to the game before we bid goodbye to these characters.

This DLC isn't a sequel or anything major, it's more like a collection of short bonus stories (hence the name) so it'll be relatively inexpensive. We mostly recommend it to players interested in more than one of the couples, that way you'll get the most out of the content! We don't dare to promise an exact release day yet, but we're currently wrapping up coding and should begin testing before the month's up. So probaaaably February for the release?

❁ Burn the Midnight Oil

Towards the end of 2023, early production began on our next visual novel Burn the Midnight Oil. You can catch a small sneak peek at two of the six romance options above.

Starring vampires, demons and other horrors of the night - it's a supernatural neo-noir romance drama set in a fictionalized version of 80s England. The player steps into the shoes of the vengeful private detective Circe, a vampire infamous for hunting her own kind and the reluctant cop Dante, a short-tempered half-demon torn between his human side and the world of the supernatural.

We're excited for everyone to meet Circe, Dante and the rest of the cast when we officially announce this project later this year!

❁ Plans for 2024

We have a handful of goals for 2024, some bigger than others.

★ Releasing the DLC for Trouble Comes Twice!

★ Burn the Midnight Oil Announcement + Kickstarter

★ Other things and secrets...?

Thank you for an amazing 2023 and here's to a great 2024! ✨

[esper-game]

Monthly Update (3rd of March 2024)

Did I skip the February update? Maybe.... but we're going to act like i didn't.

I have been swamped with school work for the past month. Like, I finally understood the term 'swamped.'

But seriously, I haven't had all that much time to work on Esper (but I have been chipping away!!!) so there isn't much to report.

WHAT I DID:

Chapter 2 is currently at around 7k words. Not very much I know.

Finished a few updated character bios for the characters page

That's kind of it.

GOALS FOR THIS MONTH:

Find time to work on Esper

Finish characters page

NOTES:

As much as I would love to be able to prioritise Esper, it just isn't possible. I will keep working on it, but it will probably be slow.

Thank you all <3