#ymhat

[nighttimepixels]

Alright, this is possibly the biggest bummer of a thing I’ve had to admit to myself, but...

You Might Have a Type, the dating sim, is no longer in development. As in, further development is cancelled.

For those of you new here, a while back (almost two years, yikes!) I started playing around with developing a Dating Sim- in the end (via polls) it was decided the dateable options would be UT Sans, UF Sans, US Sans, and SF Sans.

tl;dr: I have to stop working on YMHaT due to technical, revision, and time struggles. BUT, there’s a browser-playable build of the intro up on Gamejolt! You can’t progress the game, but once the interactive intro is done, you can explore the game area (Grillby’s), talk to at least a few NPCs, and observe the back areas for multiple observation texts.

There’s no ending set, however, so just stop playing when you’re done looking around, and have a bit of patience as occasionally new talksprites take a moment to load.

More info about why I’ve had to let this project go below the cut:

I reworked the project from the ground up no less than three times (even switched entire game engines once) - and finished what should have been 95% of the art. However, I hit more and more problems in development - which I was doing alone. From realizing the ‘story’ wasn’t working, to needing to create much more art to ‘fix’ it (a year after I’d finished the majority of the art, creating style problems to say the least), to realizing the game was lagging upon export no matter what I tried to do to fix it... well, that is what I get for trying to manhandle RPGMaker MV into a different shape. The elements (used a bunch of plugins, along with other tactics) worked independently, and even running in my own environment, but they suffered as soon as I took that away.

In the end, I’ve been doing a lot of introspection and have to admit that having this unfinished project hanging over my head has been severely messing with my creative output. Guilt and worry, personal pressure (the longer I let it sit, the harder it’ll be to fix/copy the previous art style/etc), and just the mental real estate even a semi active project takes had a huge toll. This was supposed to be a fun, free fanproject, but my income is solely commission/art/freelance based- time spent desperately rehashing and working on a free fanproject is a worrying amount of time spent not making money to help make ends meet.

So, though it’s hard to accept I failed on this... I’ve got to throw in the towel. If I want to move forward and make new, cooler things, things that I’ve now got a lot more experience through the struggle of this game to make even better, I have to let this go. It’s obscenely sad, and don’t mind me I’m crying a bit, but! I want to continue having some time for other fanworks - fanart, fanfiction... and YMHaT was just the ball and chain I was only adding more weight onto this whole time.

That said, though I obviously was unable to release a finished version of the game- I have a workable intro, and have put up a browser-playable build! Like I mentioned above, there are those caveats - and seriously, once you’re done exploring, just exit out of the game tab. Nothing more will happen :C

I put a lot of work into this game (hundreds of hours...) so, upon the encouragement of the few friends I opened up to about this, I’m sharing at least this much. That way at the very least, some of the assets can be enjoyed, however briefly, and won’t go to absolute waste. TvT

I’ve certainly learned my lesson, and any future gamework I’ll probably stop trying to bend RPG Maker MV (a perfectly good game engine!) so out of shape to make it do things I should just suck it up and learn how to program in Unity, for example. But yeah, time is unfortunately money, especially for a freelancer, and we’ve all got to hustle, sigh. I just can’t justify sinking another hundred - or likely, two hundred plus - hours into a fanproject that’s already struggling and I can’t make any money off of. I know it sounds cynical, but y’know, thanks capitalism TvT

So, onwards, to new and better projects - I hope to still make a dating sim someday, but I’m afraid that unless I can find some crazy loopholes (or someone wants to drop several, several, several thousands of dollars on me) it probably won’t be a Sans-centric dating sim.

Hope you enjoy the unfinished demo - if you like anything, a comment left there or here would mean the world, so I’m not just chucking all that work completely down the drain ╥﹏╥ cheers to you all (esp those who read all this, wow!) and thanks for the support and interest you had in the project at all. I’m so sorry to let you guys down, but I thank you for the opportunity and damn if I didn’t learn a lot that’ll make me a better creator for the future.

[nighttimepixels]

It's sad that you had to cancel the game, but honestly? If it can't be done, it's better that way. Hopefully now you'll have time to work on other projects that you'll be able to complete the way you want. Good luck and lots of inspiration!

I stayed away from Tumblr for a couple days but I just... thank you all so much for the support in the wake of me announcing I wouldn’t be continuing YMHaT. I’ve read and reread all these messages a dozen times now and I just... gods my heart. Thank you.

I always want to do my best to live up to the expectations I set, but hearing the support, the reminders that knowing when to stop isn’t the same as failing, and the general hopes of self-care and well-wishes and positivity means the worldto me.

I’m gonna keep being emotional about this for a while, so just thank you, thank you thank you thank you everyone- you inspire me so much and your encouragements mean everything, hugs and love to you all (´•̥̥̥\\ヮ\\•̥̥̥` ) I’ll take this all to heart, and can’t wait to improve all the more and have the new knowledge & experience to make better, cooler things for you all in the future! ♡♡♡

[nighttimepixels]

Yo! How’s the progress of YMHaT coming? I loved playing you’re other two games and was super stoked when I figured out you were making another one! Your interpretations of the skeletons and your art are both phenomenal and I absolutely love what you do! Thanks for taking the time to read this ask and have a Merry Christmas (or hope you had a good christmas if you read this afterwards :D)! -Faena

Currently teetering on the razor thin edge of either ‘stop whinging about being better and just finish it as is, heck your standards’ and ‘hmmm i could just... redo this from scratch and save myself the plot headache’ XD I still haven’t decided, and it’s been on the backburner for a bit while I try to decide while working on getting paid for other stuff I work on, heh.

Might put up a poll, actually... haven’t decided- I’ve got reasons beyond my too-high standards for considering starting from scratch, but there’s a lot of reasons (namely, all the art I’ve already done) for not starting over, too  >v>;;;

But!! It’s really reassuring and encouraging to hear that you like the fangames I’ve made so far! It means a lot, I really can’t emphasize that enough ;v; Thank you, and I hope you had a lovely Christmas as well if you celebrate it!

[nighttimepixels]

I don't want to sound rude or anything, but do you have any other games coming up? I loved the other ones so much that I was really hoping there might be more. I understand if you don't have the time or just aren't planning on making any. I just wanted to ask.

oh, no, that’s not rude-! hell, i’m flattered you liked my previous games! ;/////;

and actually, the answer is yes.

heh, i’m pretty deep in the weeds on the dev side, honestly. all the sprites are done, but it’s a visnov dating sim style game with a lot of variables, and, well, it’s just me. so... it’s slow going X) 

.... i mean, heh, the other two were just me as well, but for reference... the way things are looking right now (the game’s about... halfway finished? ish?) a single run of the game (you get the option to pursue any of the four Sanses, so thus ‘single run’) will probably take... an hour and a half? two hours, depending on reading speed, and a few other variables.

anyways, yes, it’s in the works! i’m trying to balance making it with, well, things that will hopefully or guaranteed actually end in me making some money, however. since i can’t charge for the game (or put ads, etc, even if i hosted it on a site, theoretically...) i’m trying to make sure i prioritize other things & balance it with other projects.

hopefully it’s enjoyable when it does come out though! i adore game making, but dang if fangames just have to be entirely works of passion, heh.

[nighttimepixels]

I know you said you were cancelling your game, but is it possible to do a comic version or even just list out the routes you had in mind. Just starting off with baby steps might help you next time if you ever plan to go back in that direction.

Oh stars, a comic version would take way too long. It’s easy to forget, but remember that though comics can be devoured super fast, there’s so much art in them TvT

And also, even if it was fast - honestly, I probably wouldn’t! And that because a big reason for way I decided to end the project was because my storytelling has come so far since I started it. Despite it being a lighthearted dating setup, I’ve always tried to put some story into it... but it just wasn’t strong/compelling as I tried to just go at it a bit too loose just to keep momentum going. But the more work I put into it, the more I realized the foundation itself was what was wrong. It was always going to crumble, even if I put up emergency supports to patch it together X)

Nah, moving forward, if I ever got the itch - well, if I wasn’t going to do a wholly original dating sim project (which would absolutely be what I’d lean towards) - then I’d start from scratch with a much stronger & more enjoyable idea! And a more maneageable cast XD

Tbh I’d probably do either some sort of silly/fun island situation (no shh I’m not play too much AC:NH) or a ‘we got sucked into a DnD/fantasy RPG game... might as well date’ situation, on first instinct. But my brain’s always got a thousand ideas rollin’ around in it so that answer’d be liable to change X)

But anyways- that said, I don’t mind talking about the general idea, if people want to really know the routes. More than just a couple people though as it’d take a bit to write it all out in a way that would be enjoyable to read, even if list-style X) So... let me know, I suppose!

[nighttimepixels]

Will the Dating-Sim be Gender Specific?

I think I answered this just the other day, but either way - nope! If you mean ‘will the player character be designated X gender’, then nope, not one bit :) You get to choose your name in-game too!

This is the biggest mood Anon. Literally every time I write “YMHat” I just read it as “,,, Yum Hat,,” ♡

I’m clearly excellent at serious video game work. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[nighttimepixels]

Please inform me if this is a rude question, but I was wondering if the protagonist was limited to female. Or will there be other options?

Oh, it’s not rude at all! Especially since I haven’t talked about You Might Have a Type in a while.

But no - the player character is of whatever gender you choose! And there are a few varied appearances to choose from as well.✧( •̀ ▿•)ゞ

[nighttimepixels]

Um, I was just wondering if there was a definite release date for YMHaT??? No rush or anything I know these types of projects take awhile uwu

Ahaha, but really- I know when I’d like to have it out by, but I’ve thoroughly learned my lesson on announcing any such things (the lesson is: don’t do it bc you’ll jinx yourself). All I’ll say is… the very vague… soon!

Okay, but also storytime re YMHaT’s dev:

I actually put down working on it for nearly 5 months. A mixture of burnout on the project and other life things just made it to where I was burning tires and going nowhere- but I’m back on it again, in between commissions… anyways, long explanation short, there’s an absurd number of images I’m generating in this game.

And by absurd, I mean right before going on dev hiatus for a bit, I literally made 28 headsprites for unique, non repeating NPCs…

… and then completely forgot I made them.

The file title didn’t quite match my other naming conventions, too, and I’m usually dead on with that sort of thing but with the burnout creeping in at that point I slipped up just enough that it got lost in the large group of working files I have for the game. And so, as part of gearing up for the final leg of dev, last week I was like “Oh right, gotta do those 40 NPC headsprites for dialogue.” Had a file with the sketches and everything, so I opened that up and started chipping away at them periodically throughout the week…

Last night, I go to open up the file again. Get distracted briefly, eyes rescan the folder- and I find a differently named file that also has “NPC” in the title… but not ‘headsprites’ or 'fullbody’ or anything. It was 'Busts’, a convention I reserved for main NPCs (not crowd type NPCs). Confused, I opened it…

And in horror, realized that I had spent a week doing work I’d already done.

I just…

Worst part was, I DID keep all the sketches in a logical order for the game in each file, so… the 30 I’d just done… perfectly overlapped the 28 I’d done previously TvT

My only mild consolation is I’ve definitely improved since then so my… accidental redos… are much more nicely styled, but… still… my heart is still hurting from that one (=▿= ||||)

Though hey, I suppose maybe it shines slight insight onto how much art I’ve made for this game that i just completely forgot doing 28 unique headsprites. I’m clearly a mess, but I swear I’m doing my best to make a good, fun game for you all, not just a half patched rush out to be done with it or anything X)

[nighttimepixels]

O-out of wild curiousity, I gotta ask: How... how many pictures HAVE you made for YMHaT??

That is... a very good question.

Er, honestly, I’ve been trying to figure out how to answer this for nearly ten minutes. See, a lot of my exported art is in spritesheet form - it allows games to reference a ‘section’ of a single image, thus cutting down the ‘size’ of the game. Plus, with animations, it’s even more of a grey area - walking animations for example, should I consider that ‘one art piece’ or... as many as there are frames...?

Also, backgrounds - they’re technically one image but uh, you guys’ll eventually see that there’s a lot to them XD

So. Hm. Leaving out the question of backgrounds, and saying that animations count as one ‘image’...

Probably...

At least 250 character-type sprites (fullbody map sprites + headsprites), 50 effects, + [redacted] special unlockable images in the

so.

330 ‘pictures’ + [redacted] unlockable images, not including backgrounds because I genuinely can’t quantify that, and not including animations?

If we, ah, include animations as frame counts, then... we’re definitely broaching 500, I’d wager, but forgive me for not counting XD

[nighttimepixels]

Sorry if this has been asked before but what game creator program do you use to make Soul-Redacted and Japes with?

Hey! Yeah the info’s out there, I think in my FAQ too, but no worries.

I made The Great Noodle Jape with Ren’Py! It’s free, and specifically catered to making dating sims & visual novels. [Soul Redacted] was made with RPG Maker VX Ace! Not free, but I was gifted a spare copy so I ran with it. That said, if you don’t already have a version and are interested in using RPG Maker, I’d recommend RPG Maker MV. It’s the newer version of the series of RPGM software, and there’s more active resources out there, including plugins (which are far more user-friendly in MV as opposed to VX Ace, as well).

[nighttimepixels]

Hey! How's game dev going? Are you taking care of yourself? I hope so!! Good luck wherever you're at, and don't work yourself too hard!

awww thank you so much! ;0; i’m doing my best, and thankfully my wrist is finally recovered as of yesterday or so, so i’m full speed ahead!

that said, there’s the usual dev hilarity. in fact, adjusting a certain sprite earlier resulted in Papyrus really being King of Mood™, because gods forbid my art program do the thing i want it to do:

Game Dev: Definitely Not 90% Nonsense.

[nighttimepixels]

So if you were to give a percentage, how much of the game would you say is complete?

[nighttimepixels]

that moment when you’re going through your sprite files and realize you forgot to do nine sprites and their interaction alternates for a group scene...

time to pull another nine original NPCs outta my ass

[nighttimepixels]

in the vein of publishing my original versions of the YMHaT sprites (since i’m redesigning them all for the new/final version of the game), i wanted to share Fellby and Grillby’s sprites - because how could i not? i’m weak for these flame men, hot damn.

they interact a lot in game, and both writing and re-writing their interactions with each other and you as the player is one hell of a ride ~ ∑d(ᵔ▽°d )

[nighttimepixels]

Hey!! So I know you're working hard on the game, I was wondering if there was anything you're willing to show us? ;w;

aksdjflksd thank you for the support! i know i’ve kept any designs for the new version of the game under wraps. it’s really because i desperately worry about ‘overhype’, y’know? like… you see a lot of game devs talk up a lot of aspects of their game, but then in the end aren’t able to deliver, or it falls short, or they run out of time/steam… and i really don’t want to do that. it’s basically a case of ‘can i walk the walk??’ - and if i talk the talk too much, then, well, it’d be my own darn fault at that point.

but!!

that said, you guys have really helped me out by responding to my poll post yesterday re: Player Character Appearance (which, if you haven’t taken it yet, please do!!

i will confirm nothing ahead of time, but this is a reference sheet for a set of sprites that occur in-game at… at least one point >:)c

what’s the mystery box?? i wonder~~

[nighttimepixels]

alright, gonna go work some, but in the meantime: the results of me asking whether you guys wanted a teaser were surprisingly landslide in favor of no teaser! not gonna lie, that caught me by surprise, so i’m glad i asked! <3

that said: i’m thinking later this week when i’m working on the title screen i might stream it. how many people would be interested in joining that stream? it’s going to be largely environmental pixel work - no characters on screen - but it’ll tease a primary location in-game. just so i know whether to plan to stream it or not, i want your input! <3 i’m thinking of having mic on, too, so i could answer questions/just chat better ^^