Quick Intro

First log of the jam! My name's Carter, I'm 22, and you can find me @ cartyrs on tumblr and twitter. I'm an artist, filmmaker, and writer.

I'm new to game development, and this jam came at just the right time! I'm currently writing a longform RPGMaker mystery game, but I haven't had the confidence to dive right into the program or the coding. I plan to heavily take advantage of this jam to get over my fear so I can start my dream game! In order to not stress the details, for this jam, I'll be adapting a short film of mine, titled "Apparition."

Game Details

"Apparition" is the story of Heather and Eden: a displaced young adult taking refuge in an abandoned house, and the ghost of its' previous occupant. 
The story is a sapphic supernatural romance and a commentary on lesbian censorship/"dead lesbian syndrome."
While the game will not feature prominent adult themes, there are mentions and depictions of: death, witchcraft, sex, homelessness, and minor allusions to religion and homophobia.

Programs are Aseprite, RPGMaker MV, Paint Tool SAI, and possibly Photoshop.

Game will predominantly be a walking/exploration sim with some interactivity as the plot goes on. My main goal is to learn RPGMaker assests, how to map, and how to code!

Concept Art

Heather (left) and Eden (right).

I'm excited to see what everyone makes during the jam!!! Good luck everyone!

Dev Log 1/11/2021:

Watched so many tutorials on eventing I feel like my brain's fried x_x
I think I'll definitely have to pace myself when it comes to learning rpg maker haha! Tomorrow will probably be an art day.

In the meantime, here's some map progress from today! Using default rpg maker assets and CallMeKerrigan's Post-Apocalyptic Tileset: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/tiles-by-kerrigan-updated-02-07...

I can't wait to learn lighting better so everything isn't so saturated ToT

gotta say i was so excited to check this devlog today!! ugh that title screen is gorgeous....... it's really cool to see the map progress so far! great stuff n___n

I'm really excited to see how this develops! Also, that title screen is immaculate. 

The map's looking good! I wish you less brain-frying in your future RPG Maker learning :>

Dev Log 1/16/2021:

No new game screenshots, but some awesome progress! 

I scripted out and fully coded my first scene! There's still a bug or two left to fix but that's a problem for tomorrow me. I might even take a break from coding tomorrow to do some additional art and customize the menus.

I've also been posting some game stuff every so often on my tumblr, check Apparition's tag here: https://cartyrs.tumblr.com/tagged/apparition

In related news, I had mentioned Apparition is based off a short film of mine, correct? Working on this has given me a lot of inspiration to finish up some final details there. I found a ton of festivals and sorted out my budget there, so I'll be submitting it for festival screenings very soon! Once it's made the rounds I'll absolutely link it here, it's one of my favorite projects I've ever done. 

A fun story, I actually worked as a scenic builder/painter for a few years, so I wrote the script for Apparition around a set I wanted to build. Here's some pics from that set:

Oh, and just for fun, I wanna share what I use for inspiration when I'm making characters and stories! I make pinterest pages for all of my ocs, you can find Eden and Heather's here! And for my overall stories I like to make playlists, here's my Apparition one. It's super fun to do and gets me super inspired!

Whoa, that lighting is really nifty :O Pretty cool to see the inspiration behind a project. Happy to hear you're making good progress, and I wish you more continued success going forward! ^^

Dev Log 1/19/2021:

Took a break and spent some time with my partner so not a lot of new coding progress, besides fixing some bugs here and there and importing some BGM.

I did draw up a CG though! Will be making a companion piece for a later scene within the next few days. 

EDIT: Changed the overlay to match the lighting I did on 1/21/2021!

I also decided to scrap some minor NPCs I had in lieu of finishing the game lol! 

Dev Log 1/21/2021:

We're in the final stretch!!! I'm just cramming as much as I can so I can finish this nicely for you all!

I made a few new maps and spent a good amount of hours learning variables so I could make a library puzzle! I also figured out how to overlay pictures to make some nice lighting (which ofc I didn't grab any screencaps of haha).

Just gotta fix some bugs in the code, script my last scene, and edit my last CG and I'll be good to go!

EDIT: Finished the 2nd CG and added overlays to both!

Dev Log 1/23/2021:

Last log of the jam! 

I spent all day scripting out and eventing my final cutscene and making sure there weren't any bugs! I'm a new dev so obviously I'm sure there's some I missed LOL. But! Regardless, I got everything together and finished the game! I'm so so excited to share it with you all, this has been such a labor of love. This jam really inspired me as a creator and helped me get the motivation I needed to learn my programs. 

You can find Apparition's game page here: https://cartyrs.itch.io/apparition

Thank you to everyone who's helped and who's commented these past two weeks! I haven't been able to respond to all of them but I read them all and it really means a lot to me. I really can't wait to see how everyone's projects turned out. Congrats on a great jam everyone!

- Carter 

Note on Bugs and Fixes:

I've had some feedback about bugs in the game, I'll be away this coming week but after I'll be doing some final housekeeping on Apparition to make sure it's running completely right! In the meantime, if you do play, I'd super appreciate a note about any issues that come up for you! 

I'll also wait until I'm back to write up a post-mortem. 

Until then, congrats on finishing the jam again everyone! 

Update on Bugs and Fixes:

Hi everyone! I needed a week to work on other projects (and frankly to take a step back from the game), but while I took a break I got an overwhelming response from the community here! Thank you so so much to anybody who's played Apparition, anyone who's followed me, and an EXTRA big thank you to anyone who's donated! It all means so much to me as an aspiring game dev, you've all given me the motivation to keep game making! 

I also needed that week to let people play, and gather responses on what works and what doesn't. 

That said, I’ll be sitting down to address all the bugs in the game tomorrow! Today’s the last day to send in anything that didn’t work, or really any critique overall. Everyone's thoughts and reports really help so much! Especially as a new gamedev, there's so much overall I know I missed. Thank you to everyone for your patience and I can't wait to give you a more polished game!

- Carter

Concept Art and Discussion

I've added this link to the game's page as well, I did a bit of discussion about Apparition pre-game on my twitter! https://twitter.com/cartyrs/status/1358119609023488002

Thread includes concept art going back to 2018, influences on the story, and the film version of Apparition.