Neondust

✨ An indie visual novel game atelier. Created by wintrydrop. 👾 ✨ Currently working on: #HueandMe — a short, urban fantasy romance game 🩶🩷🤍 Devlogs are posted here bi-weekly and on Itch.io!

[neonduststudio]

Working on a new background! Wistfall’s riverside park. Still a rough work in progress but already one of my favorite views.

From here, you can see the Harmony bridge spanning across the Mere river (with it's waterfall) and in the distance, Wistfall’s skyline & floating islands.

[neonduststudio]

Here’s a scene where Robyn isn’t amused by Noah’s observations about her apartment!

To be fair... her interior design choices are a little unconventional (being colorblind & all). But Noah seems far too entertained by that fact. 😅

#vndev #visualnovel #otome #renpy #hueandme #solodev

[neonduststudio]

Finished my second background for #HueandMe! Robyn's studio apartment. Took me a week and had to hold back on trying to keep on adding more things 😅 I'll share the progress shots on IG soon!

[neonduststudio]

CG Sneak Peek!

CG sneak peek! Working on a messy sketch of an early scene of Noah and Robyn from #HueandMe. Playing around with lighting and mood :D

Can anyone guess what's going on? TwT

[neonduststudio]

Suzie's and Vidar's sprites are finished! I know they're only side characters but I wanted to put as much love into their looks as I do with Robyn and Noah (maybe even a lot more xD)

Very happy with how Vidar's expressions turned out with his beard/stache.

I'm not too happy with Suzie's fairy form, might revisit that someday. But for now, they're looking great.

[neonduststudio]

After 3 days of my fingers dying, I finished the first background for the demo of Hue and Me, the office stairwell!

Robyn will be spending a lot of time here to contemplate in peace and having unexpected conversations. ^w^

The game is in black and white (mostly) so I tried to make sure they read well in monochrome.

I did mention in my last devlog I'll share the process on how I made this!

Set up a scene in The Sims 4 as a simple base.

Take a screenshot at a camera angle I more or less like

Adjust and edit the lighting (especially in black and white to focus on values), and rearrange objects/perspective etc

Draw over the scene, and add extra details, do the lineart where I see fit, then paint and color over everything

I have some 3d background but I realized utilizing Sims 4 as a tool provides me with more variety of items and architectural features instead of trying to model specific things myself but making sure not to fully rely on it for full on art. I want the final result/asset to be of my vision and my handiwork that showcases my actual skills.

[neonduststudio]

Here are Noah's & Robyn's sprites finished! Updated Noah's face as well to make him more handsome.

I gave them so many expression layers to make sure they feel more alive in their... er, expressions. 😅

[neonduststudio]

Devlog #2 — Back From the Quiet. Ooh, demo sprites!

Hi everyone! It's been a while. I somehow took an unintentionally long break from devlogs ^^;

Life got busy for a bit . I went on a long trip to Japan with my husband and our friends, and there were a couple of things here and there that pulled me away from writing updates. 

That said, development has been continuing behind the scenes! I've also been posting art updates more regularly on my socials, so if you'd like to follow along more closely, feel free to check those out on instagram and twitter.

But for now, I'm back to devlogs!

Character Progress 

One of the biggest milestones since my last devlog is that I've finished the sprites for my main leads: Robyn & Noah! Wee! 

As well as two important side characters: Suzie & Vidar.

Getting these characters finalized feels like a huge step forward after so many revisions. Seeing them fully realized makes the story feel much more tangible, and it's been incredibly motivating to work with them directly inside the game! 😭

Once I have all the demo art finished and integrated into Ren'Py, I'm hoping to go back and add even more sprite variety. My goal is to add one arm pose variation for every character and at least one more head variation for the main characters.

I've actually already started working on this with Noah. Since he's the male lead and the character Robyn (and the player) will be seeing the most, I'm hoping these additional variations will help make his reactions feel more natural and make him even more endearing. But man, I have to draw expressions for this face angle and re-do the organization of his layeredsprite groups in the code ToT

CG Progress: A Lot… For a Demo

I've also sketched out all the CGs planned for the demo around 5–6 CGs in total. I know… that's probably a lot for a demo.😅

But honestly, having the advantage of being able to create my own art, I couldn't help it! Visual novels live and breathe through their visuals, and I really wanted the demo to capture the emotional tone of the story. And I may have gone a little overboard. 

Each CG also has its own variations, which means even more illustrations to complete. So yeah… I may have put quite a lot on my plate 😅I'll show snippets of the CGs later down the line.

If I'm being honest, I sometimes worry my writing may not be as strong as I want it to be but I'm hoping the art will help carry those moments and bring the emotions to life. And of course, I'll keep improving the writing along the way too.

Backgrounds!

After 3 days of my fingers dying, I finished the first background for the demo: The office stairwell!

But but why a stairwell? This space is meant to become something of a sanctuary for Robyn, a quiet place she retreats to whenever she feels overwhelmed. It's a tucked-away corner of the office where she can breathe, think, and sometimes… have important conversations. hehe.

I've also been experimenting with a more efficient workflow for making BGs and I think I found a process that works really well for me. Here's roughly how I'm doing it

Set up a scene in The Sims 4 as a simple base.

Take a screenshot at a camera angle I more or less like

Adjust and edit the lighting (especially in black and white to focus on values), and rearrange objects/perspective etc

Sketch over the scene and add extra details, do the lineart where I see fit, then paint and color over everything

This workflow helps me quickly establish perspective, composition, and lighting before moving into the painting stage. 🙏

Since I intend for Hue and Me to rely a lot on atmosphere and lighting, especially with the monochrome theme, this approach has been really helpful so far. I'm still refining the process but it's already making background production feel  more manageable. I'll share a step by step visual process of it soon!

Thank you so much for your patience during the quiet months. More updates soon  and hopefully, less time between devlogs as  I go😊

[neonduststudio]

Did sketches of this boy's expressions! A side character from my visual novel game #HueandMe! a little ironic because he's a shy guy, but i loved giving him a larger range of expression options xD let's see if I can use them all!

[neonduststudio]

Cleaned up a little another side character from my visual novel game #HueandMe!

He's a dwarf, seemingly new to town, that Robyn comes across. What role will he play in Robyn and Noah's lives?

Really had fun adding small details. Need to play around his values some more.

[neonduststudio]

Finalized Suzie's design, a side (but veeeery important, as she would insist) character from my visual novel game #HueandMe! And here she is too in her six inches little fae form!

[neonduststudio]

CG sketch of Noah's first blush (and first ever color) that Robyn sees!

Had a lot of fun writing this scene out. Can't wait to clean this up and do small variations. :D

[neonduststudio]

Improved Noah's blocky hair the other night made it more organic and detailed. Looks more relaxed now, I think?

I also worked on his modular expressions, mixed and match some of them here. Can't wait to clean him up.

[neonduststudio]

Cleaned up a while back some chibis of Robyn and Noah! Look at those little pointy elf ears!!😭

Did also a "black and white" version, gotta see how Robyn sees Noah in her point of view hihi. 🥰

[neonduststudio]

WIP sketch of Suzie! A side character from my visual novel game #HueandMe!

She’s six inches tall when it’s convenient and terrifyingly efficient when it’s not. Suzie Byers runs Wistfall’s media branch with steel in her tone, starlight in her wings.

Can't wait to share her little fae form soon! :D

[neonduststudio]

"what did you do today" "are you progressing on your game project"

me: UmMm UHH.. y-yes?!? 😳

I guess I'm having too much fun with sprite work recently. The joys of designing your own characters TwT

[neonduststudio]

Blocked the phone messaging UI (using Nighten's template) and have the backgrounds blur out when objects/characters appear on top for my visual novel game #hueandme!

I'll be polishing the graphics later on, the only issue I realized is I have to redraw my own emojis to black and white to fit my game's look😅🥲

check out a gif of it in action >> HERE!