Hello! I thought I'd make my DevLog ready for when the jam starts just so that's one less thing to worry about on day 1. This is my first jam so I'm a little nervous on how well everything will flow and all that... also pretty excited at the same time!  It's officially started, yay!

 I'll be using RPG Maker MV as my engine and my game is going to be a sort of retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, but from the point of view that the wolf isn't the bad guy!

Goals

• My first goal is to create a finished game in 2 weeks (and actually finish it, not give up or run out of time)
• The second goal is I want to utilise parallax mapping for my maps so they look cool 
• The game is going to be more a story driven RPG, so there won't be any battles. There will still be gameplay of course, but there might be more dialogue than your typical RPG. I suppose it's planned to be a cross between a Visual Novel and an RPG.
• And, I would like to have some basic quests in the game (probably very basic.. like fetch item A for villager B, etc.)

Plans

• I don't have too much planned yet of course, but I'd like to have character busts for when people are talking
• I want to have the script for the game written up and finished within the first few days of the jam starting
• I'd like to stick to my schedule as closely as possible!
• Take breaks every so often to avoid burn out and give my brain a rest!

Schedule

I read somewhere that trying to stick to a schedule can help immensely so I've written up what I think my schedule could be for each day (only for the first week or so at the moment), though as the jam hasn't started yet and I don't know how long everything will take  it's subject to change...

• Day 1
  • Create game project in RPG Maker MV (yay, first steps!) ✔
  • Start making character sprites and busts (I'm using the Stella Character Generator so this step shouldn't take longer than the first day to make all needed characters, theoretically)  ✔
  • Start writing game script document   ✔

• Day 2
  • Continue writing game script?   ✔
  • Finish making characters if I haven't already managed to get them all done   ✔
  • Start planning map layouts   ✔

• Day 3
  • Finish writing script if I haven't already  (ON HOLD UNTIL MORE PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE WITH MAPS or I feel like it lol)
  • More map layout planning    ✔
  • Start putting together parallax maps    ✔

• Day 4 - 5
  • Finish parallax maps, including lighting and shadows (giving 2 whole days for this because each map will be like a mini art project, and could take a few hours each time...)
• Day 6
  • Start putting events into place for all the objects the player can interact with (no NPCs or cutscenes just yet, purely drawers, decorations, etc, that the player can interact with for flavour text or to find items)
  • AFTER the above is done, start eventing the actual gameplay

I think that's a solid plan for now! I'll be able to add and edit it as I go along and get a feel for how long each thing takes me, I have experience using the engine before so I can kind of tell already but each project is different lol. Also, if I finish the schedule for that day quickly I can continue onto the next day to get a head start which will be a good way of making sure I'm ahead of schedule and set to finish in time.

Devlog Day 1 - Morning

Well it's the official start of the jam! I had a fairly productive morning today. I woke up at 8am and started work at 9. I created the game project in RPG Maker MV, and have added some blank maps so I know what I need to make. As I did some basic planning before the jam started, I have an idea for what I need.

So far these are the planned maps:

• Red's Village - Exterior
  • Red's House Downstairs
  • Red's House Upstairs
  • Bakery
  • Butchers
• Forest Path 1
• Forest Path 2
  • Flower Field
• Forest Path 3
• Grandmother's Cottage - Exterior
  • Grandmother's Cottage - Interior

I'm pretty happy with this game flow (the game play will more or less follow the order of maps needed, with some back tracking)

I also have almost finished the sprites needed! I bought the VisuStella Character Generator on itch.io  last week so making the sprites and portraits needed is actually not too time consuming. I had to do some edits on a few of the sprites to make them fit my vision (I took the tie off Red's top so it was plain, I had to adjust the colours of Wolf's hair so it matched his wolf form, and I had to adjust the Bakers hair to fit the hat). I think I have 2 more characters to create and then they're finished, but I've been working non-stop for 3 hours so I'm taking a break from looking at sprites.

All human sprites created using the Stella Generator, the wolf is from Avy's MV Stuff (I changed the eye colour, though)

Top row, left to right: Huntsman, Red, Wolf, Wolf (wolf form)
Bottom row, left to right: Butcher, Red's Mother, Granny,  Baker

My plans for this afternoon are to start writing the beginning of the script! And maybe try and get one of the maps finished. I'm feeling kind of inspired to make a parallax map so we'll see, might have to just give in to the urge and make one earlier than planned!

Devlog Day 1 - Afternoon

I finished 2 of the parallax maps! Much more work than I thought I'd get done today. I'm very proud of myself. It took me about 5 hours to get both done. I think 3 were spent on the first map, and then I was able to cut an hour of work time out by mostly moving things around to make the second! I then spent some time making the maps actually playable, which included adding transfers between the maps and using a plugin to add areas you can walk around in.  

It's pretty fun just walking around the forest, looking for all those sneaky places bugs were hiding... (sometimes the sprite popped up in the middle of a tree if the overlay wasn't set up correctly!)

Forest Path 1

Forest Path 2

Walking through the forest...

(The images are a bit blurry because I had to resize them!)

Looking forward to tomorrow! Now, I might do some script writing but I also think I've done a more than acceptable amount of work today lol!

Devlog Day 2 - Morning

Oh my gosh, I spent all morning trying to get the title screen working. I think I've spent about 5 hours on it, I keep tweaking things and moving things around and I really need to stop because there is more important stuff to be doing! It was nice to get a break from doing sprite work or maps, though.

Anyway, I think I'm at a point where I'm happy with it! For now at least. I'll probably change the background image when I have more maps made, but so far I don't hate it.

This afternoon I plan on getting the last sprites made and also making some major progress with the script! I might also make another parallax map but we'll see how burnt out I am once I have my other jobs done.

Devlog Day 2 - Afternoon

I did more work than I intended to again... well I suppose that's what happens when you have nothing else going on at the moment, haha. I made the 3rd and final forest path, wrote a bunch of pages for the script (at least I can say I've started that at least), and finished the last character portrait and sprite. I was thinking of having another villager but at the moment I can't think of where to place them in the story so I've decided to leave it. If I need more characters later on to fill the village up a little, then I can make them as I need them.

The new character is Delia, on the top left.

I also shot a really quick video showing the main menu and a walk through all of the paths. I really like how it's coming together!

I think my plan for tomorrow is to stop putting the script writing off and try to finish it. I have a way to go yet and I really want to get it done within the next few days... and then I think I might attempt making the map of one of the interior buildings. I'm getting a little tired of seeing trees and forest, I must say!

Devlog Day 3 - Afternoon

This afternoon I wrote another 2 pages for the script... then it was kind of boring me (writing for too long drains my energy sooo quickly) so I went and did the parallax map for the upstairs of Red's house! I actually struggled pretty hard with this. I definitely need practice with interiors because I found making the forest maps so much easier. Hopefully now I have finished the upstairs making the downstairs will be easier.

But I still like how it turned out!

One thing I find funny is that because the sprite I'm using is smaller than the default sprites that come with RPG Maker, the toilet looks HUGE compared to Red. Hahaha, I'm leaving it as it is because it amuses me (and I'm a bit lazy now because I've been looking at it for hoouurrss, it took me so long to finish because I'm indecisive)

 

With the script, I have 10 pages written now. So I think I'm going to leave it until I need more. My plan for the next few days is to try and get all maps done, put into the game, and start adding little flavour text events to them so that the player can have a reason to explore.

Devlog Day 4 - Afternoon

This morning my mum came over so no progress was made then. And then I was kinda procrastinating, I will admit... but I was determined to get something done so I forced myself to get the downstairs of Red's house complete! I hope tomorrow can be a bit more productive and I want to get some more maps done... I have finished 5, and I still have 6 to go. Busy, busy, busy, lol.

Devlog Day 5 - Morning(Already 5 days in! Wow!)

This morning my plan was to make some more maps but then I didn't feel like it, oops. I was super excited to get some gameplay completed and since I have the house maps made... I decided to do just that! I managed to finish the beginning cutscene (where Red wakes up) as well as the small control tutorial. It's about a minute long so far but I quite enjoyed putting it together. Also it means I have finished putting the first page of the script into the game!

I uploaded what I've done to YouTube so give it a watch!

This afternoon I think I will do the downstairs cutscene, but then I need to get the village map made before I can do anything else... so if I want to do it, I need to stop putting the maps off!

Devlog Day 5 - Afternoon

This afternoon I'm a little ashamed to admit I didn't do much (I'd feel better about it if I had to do something important but nah I kinda just played some games and watched some YouTube hehe), however I still feel happy with where I'm at in the project. I scripted the second cutscene and have that done, I also started to make the village map but I've never made a village before and I'm struggling for how I want it to look... so tomorrow I want to knuckle down, find some images for inspiration, and try and finish it. 

The basic idea I have is that it's a very small plains village, so no hills, it is surrounded by trees with a path leading through the centre connecting the route to the forest and the exit (that you can't go down because this is a small game lol) to the outside world. There are only a few buildings in the entire village. Red's house, the butchers, the bakery, a farmhouse (with farm + livestock), and maybe a few small NPC homes. I also want there to be some sort of centre point like a town square with maybe a fountain or a well in it (leaning more towards well). That's the plan, anyway! I wanted to write it up here in the devlog so I have a point of reference tomorrow and don't forget it!

Anyway, here is the video of the second cutscene! From now on any cutscenes I make won't have videos, to prevent too many spoilers!

Devlog Day 10 - Afternoon

Finally I've been able to continue working on it! The past few days I had some family stuff come up that's kept me away from working on the game, but I managed to get some more done today. My schedule is a little messed up now, but I still feel I can get everything done. I just need to try and finish the maps tomorrow or the day after. Once the maps are done, the actual gameplay and eventing shouldn't take more than a day or two. Even though the script is quite long, most of it is instructions for my events and not actual story!

Here is the Bakery:

Lol my maps are like a weird blend of modern and old fashioned but honestly I don't mind it. Though I think if I was making a commercial game I would try to stick to one theme. 

Well, this is only my 3rd indoor map so I don't think it's too bad...

And here is the butchers! I didn't go into too much detail in the back room but I think I get across what it's used for. (The shadow is darker in-game as the overlay is set up as a shadow, which is about 20% darker maybe?)

But yeah! I hope to get more done to the maps tomorrow. Specifically the village map as I really have been putting that off lol.

ohhh these are looking great! and yeah i LOVE when you figure out all the hard creative part of the process and then mainly have the implementation to work out--it's so satisfying just spending the time transferring it all to the game and seeing it work! i'm wishing you the best of luck!!