Hello there! I'm Charmmy, and I don't have the slightest idea  how to make a game.

Buuuut I'm also very stubborn, so despite I'm awful at coding and I have the worst focus and memory (ADHD folks, amirite?), I'm trying to do a project. I hope this jam helps me do a bit of daily progress. I'm excited to see other's progress, too!  

My project is a game called Moon Bunny, a simple RPG with some Visual Novel elements. The story is pretty straightforward: one morning Robin, a normal kid from a rural town, finds a hurt rabbit in the forest and brings her home to heal. However, the bunny turns out to be the rabbit of the moon, who fell while she was playing and now wants to return. It's alright, though! The Moon Festival is going to be celebrated in a few days, and that will allow her friend, the Moon Lady, to come get her.

The only problem... the town stopped celebrating that festival years ago.

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I'm also attaching a picture of how the game currently looks:

(Sprites by Shubibubi and LimeZu)

And I'm probably gonna use it less, but I made a Twitter to follow others doing Devtober and post small updates myself.

Well, this is all. I hope we can do this amazing journey together!

Day 2:

Today it hasn't been very productive, but I did work on the game.

- Meet the protagonist, Robin!

(Sprite Asset by Konett)

They are a ten years old child that always seem to run straight into the weirdest situations, though themselves are pretty reserved. Kind, full of energy and clever; Robin will be the eyes through we see the world.

- I'm updating the kid sprite on LimeZu's Modern interiors too better resemble and blend with the more pastel look of the maps.

Old vs New comparison:

- Only lacking pickable objects, this is the finished home area for now. It will probably stay more or less the same, besides small twitches, probably getting rid of the dog house (unless I find a proper dog sprite for it), and changing the strawberries for a more suitable crop, as the story is supposed to happen during Fall.

- Also working on the interior of Robin's home. Still needs a lot of work, and I had to use assets from two packs, which causes a clash on the style. I'll fix it once it comes to polish the enviroments.

The main Tilesets used were Cozy Farmand Cozy Interiors.

And that was all for today. I hope tomorrow turns out to be more productive!

Day 3:

Have been polishing the basic code a bit. Here's a demostration of the AI of the animals with Robin's old sprite:

I have also implemented most functions from the test map to an actual map, added interactable objects, and I'm working on the dialogue function. 

Here's Robin's home as it looks like now (some assets were mixed, I'll have to correct colors, but that's alright, it's not urgent):

This is the UI template for dialogue.... I still have problems making it act like I want to.

And this is just a really cute bunny:

Sorry the thread is getting a bit heavy! I'll see if I can spoiler the images tomorrow. Thanks for following the progress!

Day 4:

I'm too tired to take pics and videos today, so it's going to be only a list. Sorry!

• Polished the dialog system, so now I can have consersations with the bird and change the expressions and names easily.
• Made a scene transition between Robin home and the outside. With cool fade effect, event!
• Made new touches to Robin sprite.
• Started working on Bunny sprite.
• Fixed some layer issues.
• Added a bunch of chickens.

That's all. Pretty chill day, more tomorrow!

Day 5:

Today I wanted to code, but my brain very much didn't like that so I only cleaned like a couple of scrips and that was it.  On the other side, it was a decently productive art day.

I made placeholder cover for the project:

I finally finished Robin spritesheet (hope colors match!):

I have been fidling a bit with Bunny, the co-protagonist, but I'm still not sald with the colors... I think I'm gonna change her eyes to blue, perhaps the ribbons could be another shade? I'm honestly trying not to be very pickish at this point with her:

And started to work on her sprite too. It's very veeeeeery early stage:

Also worked on her sprite as a bunny. Turned out cute!

All that aside, I updated to project to Itch! It's not updated with the latests changes, and it's at best a prototype, but I wanted to be able to submit something so... yeah. I really need to work on code to add more of the story. At least the opening cutscene!

You can check the page here.

And that's all for day five. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Day 6:

Today was a bad day =(

I mostly went several hours trying to implement a working treasure chest and failed. It's not completely broken, but it doesn't work as expected yet.

I'm getting frustrated, so I'm not going to code more for today.

I fixed a mistake on Robin's hair in their spritesheet.

Still looking for a good illustration for Bunny's... well, bunny form. I'm currently using this one as a placeholder, but I don't have the rights of it.

(I can't for the life of me find the author except it's apparently from a CandySoft hentai game????)

I'm desperate, if you know anywhere selling visual novel sprites of rabbits PLEASE tell me. I'll probably will have to draw it myself, but I'm just not good at this style and currently low of funds to commission...

I also sorted several free music and SFX albums to build my soundtrack. Nothing is definitve yet, but I have everything nicely sorted on folders to choose the best music for the game. I'm quite sad that I can't at least have an original main theme, but I can't compose at all.

Mostly using songs from Mayra, TERNOX and Tim Beek. Check them out, they're fantastic.

Nothing to say on the SFX yet, I'm not sure what style I'm gonna use.

Pretty lowkey day, I know. It's still something.

See you tomorrow!

Day 7:

As today I have been sick on bed all day with a fever, I had not been able to use my computer…

Some progress was made, though. I started a document writing from my phone to categorize exactly how many characters they are, how are the households distributed, the conflict they represent and other relevant information.

There’s roughly 17 adult characters and 8 kids right now, distributed in 8 different households that form a total of 6 main missions.

Each mission completed successfully will return you an orb of gratitude, the magic of which Bunny is using to allow the Moon Lady to descend. Reunite the 6 orbs making the people excited for the festival, and help Bunny return home!

My main struggle now is most characters don’t have names because I’m really bad at naming… there probably be a bunch of placeholders for a while.

I’m also getting some help with the sprites from a friend, so that’s good. I could use more hands for the project…!

I hope to feel better tomorrow….

Day 8:

A bit better today. I made placeholder sprites for a few characters, namely Claudette (mama):

Miriam??? (mum):

Mimi and Nene:

Just placeholders, though! I'm awful at names, throw nice names at me. I want names from all over the world so you cannot pinpoint the location of the village.

As for coding, today I learned how to make an AI patrol between points, follow you if you get close, and return to the patroling once you get away. I cleaned up the dialogue system a bit more, but still need to block the movement when it's active. Next I'm planning to do is being able to answer questions and alter the dialogue based on that.

You can also see my poor progress on my not-really-functional chest:

This is my test map, not an actual location. Thinking of starting working on the town tomorrow.

It's not a lot but hey! It's progress. I also have someone helping me to decide the controls, so that's nice.

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I don't know how I haven't mentioned it yet, but I'm learning to code from scratch from Mister Taft! I'm following his amazing Zelda tutorial series and adapting them. So thank you Mister Taft, I would had never been able to work in Unity without your help!

(Also big shoutout to my cousin, who I have bothered with stupid questions a thousand times).

Day 9:

Alright so this was a break day so very little was done, but who cares, this is not a race.

I sloppily sketched the map of the town of Ilumina in Unity:

I changed Bunny's eyes to blue to match her sprite. I think she looks better:

Sorry about the weird space, they're sized to be used in Unity already.

I did a lot of general folder cleaning, because my folders were an absolute mess.

And I just wasted a lot of time on Picrew making character portraits to visualize a bit how the town folks look. There's several, I'll make a collage at some point.

And that was my day. I'm so tired though! I'm going to sleep now <3

Day 10:

Nothing….

Day 11: 

Bad mental health hours, trying to push forwards. Anyway today:

• I polished the town better in the correct layers. It looks ugly, but it functions like the map will, more or less, so good.
• Finally fixed the chest, which now works exactly as intended.
• Made research in how freeze the player’s movements in the plug-in I’m using. No luck yet.
• More folder cleaning.

im surprised I even got in me to do this little after I had a bad panic attack, so left for tomorrow…

Next is learning how to open locked doors, animate Bunny’s sprite and made dialogue branches.

Day 12:

Too tired for pics (sorry!), but I started working on a mini-quest that should became the base for the gameplay. Checklist:

• Create an NPC with a concern. (DONE)
  
• Create an object to retry. (DONE)
  
• Create a locked door than only opens with a key. (DONE)
  
• Create a chest with a key. (DONE)
• Create choices in the dialogue. (WIP)
• Create a way to pick up the item.
• Create a reaction for the NPC upon receiving the item.
• Acknowledge quest as such.

If I manage to complete this, it will be so much easier to start developing the rest.

Other minor corrections included adding more expressions for the characters, adding the white bunny sprite, animating Sky, making more prefabs, leraning to code a door. Probably gonna use a single-item system until I figure an inventory.

I'm starting to see an actual prototype here...!

Day 13:

BRO!

Got the "disable controls when in a talk" working, let's go!

Also got choices working uuuuuuuuh! (functionality, they don't do anything except change the text, though).

Several small fixes here and there.

Also finally sound!

Now to actually be able to grab things <3

Day 14:

Today I mostly worked on the Game Design Document, because yes, I didn't had one, I didn't thought I would actually stick with this, don't judge me. Putting more into concise words what the gameplay will be like exactly, the story, the missions, the characters, and all that fun stuff that frankly is a bit tiring to write down; but helps to visualize a project so much better.

So mostly invisible work. I did work a bit on Miriam's sprite though!

She's Robin mom, with a very caretaking nature, but more strict than their mama. This is my bought asset for her:

And nothing else, really. When the character is able to pick up the seashell in the build I'm working on, I will update the itch page; it's still not a proper quest but it's more than it's currently avaliable.

It's mid-month already and this barely has changed though, so my idea of having a prototype ready for the end of the month might not be feasible... I'm struggling pretty badly.

Day 15:

I worked on objects that can be collected and then you have an automatic counter for them;  it's pretty basic as an inventory system but it works for now.

Technically I just need to make Claudette change the conversation once Robin talks with her with a seashell, and automatically taking off from their inventory. Sounds easy, but I don't know how to do it exactly, so... yeah. Then I'll update the Itch build.

General fixes and boring, boring coding.... I tried to make so the chest remembers being open even if I leave the scene, but it's not working. I'll try again tomorrow. Next videos are about limiting an NPC movement to an area and reseting their location upon changing scenes.

My Unity won't stop crashing when I try to Sync with the server, maybe because I have not updated to the latest version? Idk.

Ans I was bored out of my mind with scripts, so I did a bit of map. 

So yeah... nice enough.

Day 16:

Had a burnout, so I took a break and only worked in the map.

I'm not dead TToTT

So due to health reasons, Day 17 and Day 18 have been, well... pretty much null. I had worked hard today to compensate though!

Day 19:

• Learned to restrict NPCs to an area.
• Learned to use Cinemachine and updated all the cameras to use that system instead of relying in scripting the movement.
• Added a functional Title Screen.
• Added a functional Pause Screen.
• Created a completely new map, the Forest, both in day and night settings.
• Also worked more in the town.
• Added new NPCs.
• Wrote more in the design document about the characters and the story.
• Connected all the maps and added music. Also connected the Main Menu.
• I have been looking for an easy plugin to implement quests, as all the tutorials I have found aren't what I need.
• Some cleaning of folders.

Basically now I need to learn how to do cutscenes and the inventory. At this point, once a quest is working fine, I will consider it a proper prototype.

I'm going to update the page now. It's nothing yet, but at least people will be able to leave.

And that's all. I hope I can reach my goal.

Day 20:

I didn't do much (and I fell asleep early so I'm writing this late). I run some organization and searched everywhere for a good way to build my quests. Sadly, so far I can't seem to really find a way.

I'm using a plugin named Custom Quest right now, but it's build for 3D games and like everything out there, it works on a way I don't really like (quests completely independent from dialogue). And the few ones that do what I want are so outdated I can't really use them either. 

Growing really frustrated....

Day 21:

Growing really frustrated.

Followed several tutorials, none worked.

Installed several plugins, none worked.

Used several sample code pieces, none worked.

Seriously considering just hard-coding the thing, as bad of an idea that is.

Day 22: 

After another day of frustrating research that lead nowhere, I decided to focus in the inventory instead.

I’m sad and I feel useless.