#sc dev diary

[stchematelier]

Diary #33

Plans for the website...

First thing first, I finally set up a guestbook. Secondly, I've been keeping up with the Short Story Corner and uploading old stories in there as planned. It helps that for once I can just write whatever without having to account for scene variables. Summer '86 is coming to a close and I'm 100% sure the narrative derailed after Episode 5 (whoops...). It's gonna need to be polished some more before I can share them. As ever, I've been cycling between these shorts and OTAD.

Thirdly, I'm looking into setting up a web/comics archive page so that I can move this and others like it to the website (a good portion of these comics were all made with a pen and some cheap lined notebooks). There's a part of me that hopes this can be my trigger to get back into drafting short comics again before I fell in love with visual novels, or even start drawing. Whose to say?

I wish I could say quitting game dev has been easy. Every now and again I have to stop my brain from thinking about ideas and older character stories I could sample a draft with in choice-based format. On the plus side, it's nice expanding more on the world-building side of things.

Take care,

– S. H.

[stchematelier]

Diary #34

I joined a game jam!

Last week I submitted a short game submission for Noise Jam 3. Of all the tools at my disposable I decided to go with TuesdayJS again.

I wanted to test out if I can use it to make a longer game format, outside of the satirical Unloving Venus. I'm happy to report that their desktop version will work even if you're locally offline!

Though I would still recommend the engine as beginner friendly, there are aspects of it I found tedious the first time that were reinforced again.

Cons:

You have to re-upload the project folder each time you add a new asset in the engine

Every background image requires a story block

There are no transition effects

Music files must be in mp3 format for it to play on web release if that's what's you're going for

Partial knowledge of javascript can help you a lot on the long way (i have plans to learn that one this summer!)

Pros:

You can copy/paste dialogues around story blocks (yey!)

The undo button on the menu tab is your best friend

Each story blocks can be color coded

You can run a video file as a background image

You can reposition and drag around buttons and art assets

Exporting a web game is easier

You can't decrypt your game assets

The default size is mobile friendly

Overall, if the idea of coding in Ren'Py feels overwhelming at first, working with TuesdayJS is still comparatively easier compared to TyranoBuilder. Unlike the latter, it does not limit you to export projects based on your operative system since it exports it to a zip folder.

If you have plans to work on bigger projects using heavier file assets then Ren'Py remains the optimal engine what with the exorbitant amount of tutorials and plug-ins available online through the years.

Again, TuesdayJS may have its limits but it's not bad as a starting point to make short visual novels if you're looking for open source engines with no coding required to dip your toes into the medium. Once you get around how everything works on the interface, everything becomes intuitive enough.

Thanks for reading!

-- S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #10

Posting updates on the state of things!

Long time no see!

The Party has reached 2289 words, heading closer to the middle part of the narrative, closer to juicy horror bits! Unfortunately, the last stretch of the Single Choice Jam happened to coincide with a trip we had planned, which completely crossed my mind. Even if I do miss the deadline, I still plan on publishing the game either way, unpolished or not.

UAR writing for Phantasia Jam 2023 (which started July 31st) will reprise in September, just so I can have a breathing period between setting up The Party (I still can't find a proper title!) and working on UAR.

VN projects-wise, as much as I'd love to try out the new codes that I've been waiting for, I may have to take a slow approach on things until I feel ready enough to pick everything up again. It is still impressive and cool to see people checking out The Raven after 3 years since the release. So thank you very much to everyone who has played it and who also have checked out my other works!

Have a memorable August, everyone!

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #06

Long time no see!

After much deliberation, I have decided to join the Amare Game Festival 2023. This is the perfect motivation to update one or two IF projects I have lying around.

If you're a monthly supporter at ko-fi then you already know I have been dipping my hands on another experimental project with ink, too. Suffice to say, it's an old short story I have repurposed to familiarize myself with the branching and variable features of the scripting language. You may have already seen the snippet of the draft here, too. Ideally, the intention would be to develop and publish this trial game during the festival run, but it isn't strictly the primary goal.

Alongside this, I will be running a discount sale on currently available commissions at ko-fi to fund the improved version of BTT. The discount code [CHERRY65] will be valid until midnight of May 1st. The first batch of commissions will be limited to three slots, then once those are out of the way I will re-open them again. In total, there will be 9 slot openings running until all commission requests will be done. It would certainly help me a lot.

I'm not confirming anything yet, but tentatively I should be able to get back into dev mode come 2024. When this happens, I will give the membership tier a try to see if it works for me.

Until next time,

– S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #09

A progress report for the week.

Happy to announce I finished Meadow's portrait last night! Once Flavian's sketch re-design is settled, I can hopefully finish his in time to implement it in-game before the festival ends. Programming wise, I am tempted to add the achievements I was saving for when "UP!" was fully completed.

I wrote down 506 words for "UP!" and 256 words for "UAR" in-between drawing sessions when the task at hand was starting to become a chore. Switching between writing and drawing, on my off days, is increasingly becoming my favourite remedy against moments when I want to work on something while also not wanting to work on anything.

I'm trying not to get too caught up with episode 2, because I know if I insist on working on one script only, this will be make me develop the desire to avoid it. So when I can, I switch it with the other drafts too. Also, I have days when a scene or dialogue from an old drafts forms in my mind that I need to write it down (yes, even L'Hiver!).

UAR progress wise, I finished the first chapter/prologue, so revisions and re-writes are in the works. I'm not a huge fan of the story's flow at the moment.

That's all for this week.

— S.H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #32

I'm sorry.

I finally had time to check my own copy of Indiepocalypse vol.70 tonight. I'm so so sorry! I'm going to find a way to fix the issue as best as I can so you can play the copy locally.

VM:L is the first ever project I did with Videotome so there are a lot of this tool I am out of depth with. I'm going to reach out to the host himself to ask if it's possible to solve this and re-upload the game once I find a solution.

I've have my embarrassing moments irl, but this has topped them all.

I don't think I can keep up feeling this way. I know all of you are tired of me writing about quitting but this has dragged me to the lowest of lows emotionally at present. I'm starting to believe I was better off not submitting it at all.

I can't understand rationally why this is a painful of a blow right now. I need to take a step back. I promise I will fix this, but I need to take a step back.

Thank you for giving the stories I make the time of day.

I'll keep you all informed.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #31

Yey it's officially spooky season!!!

Starting this dev post by saying, I have transferred all of NA+ scenes to Twine. Now that it is done and finished, I'll get back into fixing the stat checkpoints and figure out a more viable approach to keep the persistent data from disappearing with every replay. Ultimately, the endings have been reduced to 7 out of the original 8 for the clean version. I have half in mind to post the uncensored version on ko-fi or patreon or in some other way soon-ish.

I discovered, you can't pause membership features on ko-fi but you can revert back to tipping, which I have done this week due to low interest. It doesn't help I don't have a lot to offer right now with my creativity at an all time low.

Paradoxically, I reconsidered my stance on joining Bare Bones Jams the minute the joke draft I was writing crossed the 1k thresold. At the time of this post, I have finished the main story. Next thing to do is to beef up the branching dialogue and then edit the full draft. Code it over at ink and submit it before the deadline. Easy peasy *sarcasm*.

It's not horror, moreso a protest against censorship by writing the filthiest smut I can manage at my current level (｀；ω；´). It so happens I set the story in the world of Genesis so... Robot angst romance anyone?

The Part 3 of Paper Butterfly has been officially postponed to 2026 April. I'm not afraid to admit, tackling Ren'Py to port over the first two shorts scare me, what with me not having touched the engine since 2021. I'm out of practice, and most of what I used to know of the engine are either obsolete or has undergone extensive change in the last years. So yes, I am intimidated. BUT! I also would love for everyone to be able to play the series over all OS.

I do not recommend squeezing whatever is left of your creative fuel like I am doing right now. I need to learn to embrace "il dolce far niente".

On lighter topics, what horror movies are on your list this month?

Stay freaky,

– S. H.

[stchematelier]

Dev Diary #30

Transfer is ongoing...

Proud to report I have transferred over 7k of the 13k words re-drafts for NA+.

Ultimately for the point system I'll be doing something similar to a game I have been playing for over five years now. How others handle 100% stats is a skill that needs improving on my part. Ironically enough OTAD works on that 100% based-system so...

On a more positive news! I have a new battery charger. I can't even explain how relieved I am to learn the problem was external rather than internal. For the final part of this month, I'll be busy doing backups again of projects and doing house cleaning. It's really hard to stop myself from toying with the idea of participating to a Halloween-themed jams this year.

In the meantime, this poll is ongoing. It would help a lot figure out how to proceed from here on out. The timing for opening one up couldn't have been more bad with what's happening around the world right now.

Anyways...

NA+ Act Two is still set for October 31st!

See you then!

Stay freaky,

– S. H.