Formerly, A Confession

Hi, my name is Keith, and for this game jam, I'll be making a short Visual Novel- Formerly,  A Confession.  A story about talking to your cute childhood friend as you reminisce about your memories together. I'll be updating this thread most days, if I'm not busy. Hopefully Everyday.

Basic Premise

You are the Main Character (Changeable name, don't know if I can code pronouns, but I'll try) who comes back to visit your bestfriend, Kiyon, at his house for his eighteenth birthday. He's going to be leaving to college soon, and this might be the last time you'll ever get to meet him like this.

Day 1

I started the day by converting what was a fantasy version of the current premise. But just decided to go with my gut in this one and convert it to a modern day era. Pumped out 4k words, which leaves one more scene, and 2 endings left to write tomorrow. Which, if it works out nicely, is going to convert into a neat 5k, 30 min game. It leaves me tomorrow to write the last few scenes, and then begin to import it into Ren'Py. 

Some art will be coming soon, hopefully. I need to bust down and draw it soon.

Day 2

Some more words! The script ended up doubling, which...is new. I expected to do about 5k, but it's 8k now. I'll try and do corrections later, right now my focus is getting the gameplay out of the way. Today I basically planned nothing to do but work on this game, so progress might not be as fast the next few days. I started to import some scenes and even did menus, so I think that's it for today. Tomorrow, it would be really nice to get the whole thing imported into Ren'Py with the menu functions. 

Aahh...I wanna make this thing look pretty but it'll have to wait.

Day 4 Which officially means there are only 10 more days in the jam.

Well, today was another long day. I added my first visuals to the game, some of the final backgrounds, and a placeholder sprite so when I make Kiyon's sprites, all I'll have to do is paste it in the folder. I used the config.automatic_images function in Ren'Py so I didn't have to define each of them. Added some sprite changes, a few flags so that all routes would make (some) sense, and generally just did my first pass on the visuals. The next time I come back to edit it would probably be to add Miyuki (another character), her expressions, some new animations would be nice too. Tomorrow I'll be getting into GUI, which is new....So that leaves tomorrow:

• Logo, Textbox, Main Menu BGs
• Refine Name Screen
• Maybe plot out some perspective for Miyuki's room + hallway (?!)

I can't wait to play all the games after the jam is done tbh.

Day 5

This day...sigh...Did not go as planned. Long story short, I ended up spending 7 hours on Inkscape doing the GUI. I like the results, however, definitely going to have a plan next time for things like this lmao. I was the most nervous about GUI in this game, so I'm glad that I atleast got some hurdles over with.  Nothing much to show since I was learning the program though.. cries in a corner.

In another file, I tested implementation, and the namebox was in the middle, and down. I'm not sure about the textbox, I might just add some transparent space in the file. I don't know how I'm going to fix the namebox though. I'm pretty confused as it is. I intentionally left out any assets I'd have to do idles, so tomorrow:

• Main Menu buttons + hover, and selection
• Get the darn textbox and Namebox working

Day 6 

Tomorrow it'll be the end of the first week of the Jam,  which is exciting! I think my main focus tomorrow is getting the script.rpy as smooth as I can possibly get it, but for today, I made some art assets. I'll be doing this for the majority of next week, so I thought I might as well get used to it. I made the main menu buttons, and some concept art of Kiyon and his sister, Miyuki. I'll start Kiyon's sprites tomorrow, since I'll have to color it too. Anyways, here's what I've got planned for next week.

• Day 7: Sketch + Line Kiyon, make the main menu (just buttons), add the name screen to the main game.
• Day 8: Color Kiyon + Finalize, make the Preference Screen bar assets, try to put the preference screen above.
• Day 9: Sketch + Line Miyuki, make Quick Selection buttons and Save + Load assets, play test some more..
• Day 10: Finalize Miyuki, them in the game, Preference Screen some more.
• Day 11: Main Menu Drawings, quit, overide, main menu w/o saving, name screen assets.
• Day 12: Implement the last few assets into the game, try to finalize it as much as I can.
• Day 13: Implement the last few assets into the game, try to finalize it as much as I can. (Music + Other stuff)
• Day 14: cry then watch rick and morty and eat icecream I guess lmao

See ya tomorrow!

Day 7

"We're halfway through!"

SO TODAY, I got some okay work done. The navigation for the main menus is proving to be a challenge. I want different navigation buttons for the Game Menu screen, but everything in the Ren'Py base game is attached to the navigation preset tag, which is vertical...

Anyways, here you go, some more pics! I'm excited about the look of the main menu, and I'll have to draw the cover art soon. There is also a peak at Kiyon's sprite! Thank you so much for following the development of this game so far!! And I hope everyone that is working on this game jam is taking care of themselves and making stuff that makes them happy uwu~~ internally screams.

Day 8

As expected, this week is very stressful, since I'm devoting a lot of time making assets, which takes longer than just coding/writing. I made Kiyon's sprite, and I tried to keep the coloring clean. I wanted to do 3 CGS, but it looks like it'll have to be shortened down to one since I have to draw the main menu too. After replacing all Kiyon's sprites, I've come acorss a problem. The character sprites seem to be placed in the middle of the screen which is highly inconvenient for zooming. I don't want to have to write 'yalign 0' every time Kiyon shows up, but I can't find anywhere in the options/screens/gui for any default sprite position to edit. Sigh...

To be honest, Kiyon looks like Craig from Dream Daddy which was totally unintended but I kind of love it.

I have to edit some more of his sprite but this is the basic gist of it.

I'll work hard tomorrow!

Day 9

Slightly behind in GUI making. I didn't expect it to be so time consuming, but here we are. My goals are to get all the assets in the Preferences and Save Screen done before tomorrow to have ample time to playtest the hell out of it to make sure the visual novel looks as clean as I can get it. I started on the Game Menu Screen- not super happy with the design but I'll spruce it up tomorrow. I sketched + inked Miyuki after having a small crisis. I'll start the CG drawing tomorrow, and then the main menu screen. That leaves tomorrow:

• Finish Miyuki, add her to the game.
• Preference Screen + Save Screen
• Draft the CG for the end

There's five days left in the jam which is a little bit of a scary thought. 

I hope to come to you tommorow with a finished Miyuki and a way better looking save screen! 

Day 10

It's finally coming together! I'm entering the late stages of development, where I am really just cleaning up everything to look nice, other than making art assets. Drawing Miyuki's sprites were slightly stressful, as well as trying to frantically make the Save and Preference screens. For some reason the bars in renpy won't work as intended. There's a small gap transparent gap in the sliders. I tried to put a focus mask on them, but it hasn't worked... Also the colors won't change if you slide it left to right. I'm a bit confused on this. Also the name box is giving me a headache-It doesn't fit the character name ..I have to sort that out.

The next 2 days is going to be a little stressful, since I have to draw some CGS, as well as cleaning up everything ..That leaves tomorrow:

• Draft the darn CG ending + main menu illustration
• Implement Miyuki's sprites, add the audio
• Name Screen
• Maybe possibly draft the itch.io page?!

LEZ GO WISH ME LUCK TOMMOROW

Day 11

I am stressing because I'm scrambling to do the CGS. Tomorrow, I have to complete this one, and then start the main menu image. Somewhere in between, find time to implement and decorate the name screen...sigh..For some reason, I have a weird inclination to draw Kiyon with a car, so I might do that. I added Miyuki to the game, which was nice. I have some editing on the script to do, but the bones of the game are set. There's one function that I want to implement after I'm done with the CGS and everything should be operational. Tomorrow is really art making before I playtest the hell out of it on Day 13. I may have to pull an all nighter.

In the meanwhile, please enjoy this WIP I'm so glad I made.

Day 12

I come to you with art! A small snapshot of the main menu picture. The CGs in the game and the main menu is done, which leaves me time to quickly add them in, and some other transitional stuff, before tomorrow, where I finally ship the game. One more post until D-Day! I can't wait to play all the games in the jam, so pumped!!

Look at this kid, he looks so happy with his life, lol

🎈🎆Day 13, Launch Day!🎆🎈

Thank you so much for following the development of Formerly, A Confession! Man it has been a tough 2 weeks..

You can download and play here: https://goinggoingkeith.itch.io/formerly-a-confession

If there are any bugs, please let me know!
I never imagined I'd be able to make a game like Formerly then, but now I can finally say that I've launched my first game. This visual novel was a very informative experience for me, and I'm excited to make more games in the future. As a big fan of the genre, I'm really glad I got my shot at making my own.  From writing, to scripting, to drawing and gui design, I can definetely say that this experience was a blast.

Time to take a nice and long nap. Thank you everyone!