Hello! Been a long time now since I've done one of these, I guess I had grown sort of- disenfranchised with them. But I know someone people do enjoy these and a lot has happened the past several months so there's plenty to talk about. Since it's been so long I'm not sure where I left off, so I'm just going to talk about where I currently am in development.
The good news is majority of the programming for what I think will be required for the final demo is in fact done, there's a handful of events I want in the final build that aren't in there currently, but what I feel like needs to be in there is in there. All the major events are there at least one of the more hidden events is there, so really we're just in the polishing stages now which is just on me to scrounge up money to pay for those things, backgrounds, VAs, sound effects. The shop is all there and technically working, not all the items work, but like- most of them you won't be able to afford during the demo so there's no need to program them. But the bulk of the items that will be useable are programmed in or are partially programmed in. So yes the bulk of the recent work as been polishing, taking the base IU provided by Tyranobuilder and changing it to be more unique to PSA. It's been time consuming and somethings (minor things) I can't change and don't really have a clue on how to without diving into code, but for the most part the UI elements are all original now. Including this lovely Tatl Bug I designed all by myself.
The Tatl Bug is one players will be able to read about in Magical Animals & Monsters a full bestiary I'm writing alongside the game, currently I think it's up to 30pg. It has little bearing on the game, but those who want that extra immersion it will be there. This little Tatl Bug is featured in the settings menu.
Other than that it currently won't be featured in the game, but I thought it'd be a fun way to work it in.
I've begun narrowing down the achievement/Stickers list as well, and we're officially at the halfway point now with 10 whole stickers designed. Our most recent additions being: Sweetheart, Sugar Baby, and Jokes on You I Wanted to Die.
I won't go into the details of how to obtain each one, but- I think it's fairly easy to venture a guess as to the how. But what good are stickers without a cool place to put them? So I also redid the sticker menu as well giving it now a notebook vibe that I think better fits in with the rest of the game than the previous version.
The varying fonts may be removed later down the line for a single or two, but at the moment I do enjoy the character they provide and I think actually kind of add to the aesthetic, but again- may change later.
To go along with that, we have the save and load menus, which also keep that note paper aesthetic, just maybe a little more fancy.
Pretty proud of how it turned out. I kind of hummed and arr'd about the colors, if I should lean into everything PSA related being pink and blue or if it was okay to add some gold. I felt the gold just made sense and broke up the monotony. Plus the UI elements I couldn't change blended better that way, so- didn't have much of a choice.
Speaking of UI elements I got those nailed down for the game as well. And considering they were all made by different people I'm really happy with how they turned out. The only one that maybe stands out to me is the envelope for returning to the title, but otherwise I think the other three definitely look at home with each other. The gear is settings the archaic pink floppy disc is for save the notebook pages are load and the aforementioned envelope returns to the title like I said before. I ideally had wanted the envelope to return to the main menu, but unfortunately without breaking into the code it doesn't seem possible with the tools Tyranobuilder provides. I tried a work around, but unfortunately it didn't work, so- players who want to quit the game will sadly have to go back to the title screen.
I think that about covers all the UI. I also recently started getting the first couple books integrated into the game, in total there'll be six, with maybe a seventh book that's incredibly secret and solely exists to activate an otherwise very hard to encounter event. But for now there's five. Herbology 101 has been written and is the first book I'm getting integrated into the game as it's the first item the player receives so it'll definitely be required for the demo. A Brief History of The Svartalfar is written and I'm slowly getting it turned into pages for the game it's a- well, slow process, but it's looking pretty neat. The system for how pages of books work is all integrated so it's just getting the assets put together. A Guide to Romance hasn't been started isn't it's literally a guide to dating each character so I need each character written first. This one will look different though from the others. It won't appear like a book when you use it. It'll give you a list you select a name then it'll pop up a picture that looks like a sort of flow chart showing you the possible appearances and routes to take for the desired character. MAAM (Magical Animals & Monsters) is still being written and like I was saying earlier will be a bestiary that'll have animals that "appear" don't appear, but are mentioned, and properly appear throughout the game. And some that aren't necessarily mentioned in the game, but are referenced in some way. The mystery book is for you to learn about in-game that shall remain a secret till launch. And the Yearbook is a book that unlocks entries as you meet each character and gives in-depth bios on each one.
So I think that covers the items so far. Been slowly getting more voice lines implemented and sound effects. Those I can't show in this obviously, but stick around I'll tell you how you can hear those at the end.
The next big thing I've been working on is the Kingslayer event, some of you may know about it others may not. It's a very special event that requires a lot of planning in order to experience, but it turns the last section of the game into a turn based RPG. It's very simplified, but it in-theory will more or less operate like any other one in the same genre. It's still really early so it's mostly writing, and planning, but I have commissioned some- concept sprites of Gerolt whose an optional party member for the event. I decided to start with him since of the characters featured in the event he's actually the only one whose been designed and there are I believe 11 possible options for party members, well- three are required, one is the player, but the rest are all optional. These characters are ones you don't really get much time with during other routes, so this event acts as their routes. So I'm starting with Gerolt so I can start to test out aesthetics and see if I can start at least programming the battle system so I can see if it's even possible I'm confident it is. But I know it's going to be a ton of work. But if it works... I'm pretty confident in assuming my game will be the first to ever do it within the Tyranobuilder engine. And I will have definitely pushed the thing to it's limits. So that's very exciting, hoping to get that art back this week and then go from there.
Otherwise I think that's really about it, like I said for the most part it's just been writing, writing, writing. I'm almost halfway through writing everything, so we're getting close. Oh! And I should mention I did launch a Kickstarter and then shortly after canceled it. I figured I should briefly touch on that, long story short, I'm not equipped at this juncture to make a successful one and I'm going to do my best to raise the last bit of funds I need for the character sprites myself by selling off some of my own gaming stuff ha, ha, ha. Um, raised almost $500 so far, so it's not going too bad, quite a bit to go, but I'm really hoping. And the last thing I think I have to talk to you guys about is that I am offering, a sort of early access? Uh Beta Version of the demo. You can find a tab here on the website for it, there's a link, hit it and download. No catch, um if you don't mind playing a very incomplete thing it's there for you. I'm doing this because the demo won't drop proper until next year, but it's already been two years of development so I wanted to give you guys something. Once the demo drops I don't foresee me doing any more. Uh I really don't want this to end up a Yandere Simulator situation, so- I think that's fair. Plus I want to be able to have that in my back pocket to offer as a KS reward if I end up trying that again or a Patreon reward.
But that's it I think guys thank you so much for your continued support and I'll update you again next month when I hopefully have even more to share with you all.
-Z
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