#dokidoki dollmaker

[dokidokidollmaker]

Doki Doki Dollmaker Update: July 5th, 2020

Poor Lyle... He’s always so frazzled around Desifer! 😅 Do you think he’ll ever get used to the flirty doll’s antics?

I’m a week late, but I managed to hit October’s goal of 75% this weekend! 🎉 That means we’re still three months ahead of schedule. I hope I can keep up this pace. I’ll continue to do my best!

I just finished programming the confession scenes for each individual doll. 😍 I’ll start programming the group confession scene (obtained by selecting a very specific pattern of choices) next weekend. I’m so excited! You might be wondering why the confession scenes are 3/4 of the way into the game instead of at the very end. Well, as important as the confession scenes are, the story is a bit more complicated than that. It’s important for Lyle to confront certain things about himself and about his past too. I feel that his relationships with Cole, Tilly, and Mendoza are equally important to his development as a character, so I wanted to make sure to explore that the best I could. It doesn’t take anything away from the romance aspect though - don’t worry! 💗

Anyway, if you follow the project’s Facebook page, you may have noticed that Doki Doki Dollmaker has switched social media platforms - we are no longer on Facebook and have since moved to TWITTER! 🐦 Please follow @DokiDollmaker on Twitter for status updates between development blog posts.

PLEASE NOTE: The development blog here on Tumblr will remain active and will continue to be the main source of info on the project! Twitter will be used for status updates and connecting with the VN community. Please follow and share so we can continue to grow and reach new fans who may not be on Tumblr. Thank you for your support on all platforms!

[dokidokidollmaker]

Doki Doki Dollmaker Update: May 2020

Thought I’d start putting dates on these progress posts to stay organized. Let’s see if it sticks, haha! 😅 Sorry I haven’t updated recently... I’ve been busy programming/coding this whole time! We’re officially 3 months ahead of schedule - I just finished August’s percentage goal yesterday. 👍🏻

The game is 65% programmed right now, excluding music and sound effects. The trend since April has been 10% a month (instead of the allotted 5%) so we’re moving twice as fast as expected! I’m not sure how long I can keep up that pace, but I’m hoping to get another 10% (September and October’s goals) finished next month, bringing it to 75% in June. We’ll see what happens!

As always, thanks for your patience and support!

[dokidokidollmaker]

Doki Doki Dollmaker 2019 Progress Summary

Hi everyone! 2020 is tomorrow, so I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of the major milestones we hit with the project this year!

- Finished writing the game script and all story paths

- Edited the entire script (grammar, themes, consistency, flow, etc.)

- Obtained 6 CGs, 6 chibi artwork, and an additional outfit for Lyle’s character sprite

- Assembled hundreds of facial expressions for each of the 9 in-game characters

- Learned and tested the Ren’Py game engine

- Programmed/coded 25% of the game

I’m very proud of the progress that was made this year and am looking forward to 2020! 🎉 At the rate I’ve been programming so far, I can finish about 5-8% per month. Assuming the lower percentage, the game should be at least 50% programmed by the summer of 2020, which means you can expect a KICKSTARTER LAUNCH LATE NEXT YEAR!! Just typing that gives me goosebumps! 😍 It’s obviously too early for me to provide an exact date and there’s still a ton of Kickstarter-specific details to iron out, but we’re one step closer and that’s incredibly exciting!

Want to help? Tell your friends about the project! 💗 As always, thanks for your love and support for Doki Doki Dollmaker! Happy new year!! 🎊

[dokidokidollmaker]

Hello! Yes, I am here! 👏🏻 Not gonna lie, I’ve been a little distracted with Pokémon Sword and Shield, but progress is still being made. I’d never put this project down for long! 💗

Speaking of Pokémon, do y’all remember the Doki Doki Dollmaker character Pokémon Teams I came out with a long time ago? Hit up the archive and backtrack for some fun content. 😋

Anyway, I’m in the middle of programming some snack scenes! 🍨🥤🍰 At one point in the game, you have the option to take the dolls out for treats - you can choose between an ice cream shop, convenience store, or café! I’ve finished the ice cream shop portion and will have the convenience store finished before the end of the week. Hoping to have the café finished before the end of next week. 👍🏻

I’ll share the final “pair pic” next post and after that, maybe some more gameplay screen caps!

[dokidokidollmaker]

LOADS of progress updates coming your way right now!!

I haven’t posted recently, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on the project! Actually, I’ve been hitting it harder than ever and have made huge strides over the last few weeks. 👏🏻 Often, I’m working on the game until late in the evening, so by the time I’ve wrapped up for the day, I’m too exhausted to post. 😅 I’ve learned my lesson though, which is why I’m posting now, first thing in the morning, before I get caught up with programming!

Programming? That’s right! I’ve officially assembled every single character expression (there are thousands - no joke! 😱) and have since moved back to programming the demo! I’m excited to say that the demo is 90% COMPLETE!! The only thing I have left to do is program the custom menu. I spent about two days trying to figure it out with little success, so instead of wasting more time on it, I switched gears and continued programming beyond the demo.

I wasn’t planning to release the demo until the Kickstarter launch, and I am not launching the Kickstarter until the game is 50% programmed, so I’ll have plenty of time to go back and figure out the custom menu. The reason why I’m waiting until the game is half finished before launching the Kickstarter is because I don’t want contributors waiting forever to obtain the product they paid for. I am a one-woman team and I know programming is slow without a dedicated crew, so I wanted to be fair to the fans. Waiting for a game to release is one thing, but waiting for a game to release after you already paid for it is another entirely! I won’t do that to y’all! 💗

That being said, there is still plenty I can work on prior to funding. I have the entire game script and all character sprites at my fingertips – that’s loads of programming right there! I’ll be inserting placeholders for those CG images that are waiting on Kickstarter results.

Anyway, I could talk about all sorts of things that happened over the last few weeks (like my four day long programming nightmare dealing with FONTS!! 😡) but this post would be too long if I did, haha! If there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear more about, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email ([email protected]) or via the ASK function right here on Tumblr. I would be happy to oblige. Your interest in the project encourages me to keep going! Let me know what you want to see or what you’re curious about!!

[dokidokidollmaker]

Ahh~ 💗🙏🏻 Cole is proud of me! I’m proud of me too, haha! LOADS of progress has been made over the last few weeks and we’re officially ahead of schedule.

My plan is to program at least 5% every month. On January 4th, we hit January’s goal of 30% and on January 16th we hit February’s goal of 35% - isn’t that exciting?! 😍 Before you get TOO excited though, I should mention that I won’t be able to keep up that speedy pace. The only reason why I was able to get two months finished so quickly was because I was between jobs and programming 4-5 full days a week. Now that I’m working full-time again, I’m back to programming 1-2 full days a week like before (when I was in the writing/editing stage).

That being said, I think 5% a month is a reasonable goal and I’m relieved with the head start. I really hope it doesn’t catch up with me! I’ll keep y’all posted along the way. ☺️

[dokidokidollmaker]

Here’s another pair for you! Aren’t Lyle and Rook so cute together? 😆 I’ll share a pic of Lyle and Ellery next time! 💗

Just wanted to pop in and let y’all know that progress is being made. 👍🏻 I found the fastest way for me to work is to ignore all sound effects and music until everything else is in place. I always start with the text first, then I input backgrounds and character sprites - I typically apply transitions to them at this time as well. The expressions take the longest, since they change every few lines, so when I have to stop to insert sound effects or music, it breaks my concentration! 😅

I’m testing as I go, but the need to backtrack for sound/music allows me to look over everything again, so I don’t mind too much. It serves as another opportunity for me to improve certain aspects as I become more familiar with the program. I really do LOVE Ren’py and am so glad I finally tried it out. 👏🏻 If you’re afraid of coding, DON’T BE! There’s a huge community out there ready to help you; the Discord chat has saved my butt multiple times, haha! There are many tutorials online and like everything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes!

Speaking of which, I’m off to program some more! Until next time~ 🧵

[dokidokidollmaker]

I’M BACK!! 💗 My surgery went well. Thank you for your patience during this last month of downtime! 🙏🏻 I still have a few more weeks of recovering ahead of me, but I’m able to work on my laptop a bit easier now, so I jumped right back into character expressions. I’m happy to announce that both Desifer and Rook’s expressions are now complete! I just have Ellery and Kahvel to go before all character expressions have been 100% assembled. I’m still not sure if I’ll end up using every single created expression in-game, but it’s nice to have them just in case and also prevents me from unintentionally creating duplicate expressions. I think it will help me save time and reduce stress in the long run! Hoping to have the remaining two dolls finished before Monday. 👍🏻