Hello! The working title of my game is Plant Killer. I will be working on my own. I have not made any prep work prior to today.

16/1/2022 log

I have next to no experience making games. I'll be using Ren'Py as my engine. It looks simple to learn & it will play on my strengths as a visual artist, so I think it's a good choice for my skill level (& suited to my ideas). I drew inspiration from the "nature" theme & developed the ideas presented below today.

Main gist:

• The story consists in getting a plant, killing it, learning something, getting another plant, killing it,... you get the idea.
• It will be possible to not kill a plant eventually, but only after several attempts.
• I don't want to structure my game so that all the plant killing & learning unfolds in the same save file; I want it to be structured so that fail state saves are necessary before getting the nice ending. So I will need to figure out how to use persistent data. Otoh if that's too complicated, I'll simplify it by using the structure I disprefer.

More specific, tentative structure:

(Black boxes = ending; Grey arrow = locked option; pink arrow = shows which fail states unlock an option)

Might get repetitive before reaching a good ending but I won't worry about that just yet.

Steps:

• (Check Ren'py documentation)
• Make doodles of all my visual assets to use as placeholders (3? backgrounds total; overlaid images for plants/grandma/moon/different actions performed by the protagonist)
• (Check Ren'py documentation)
• Write the script, with dialogue & intended structure. If persistent data thing is too complicated, change plans.
• Create polished visuals, replace placeholders.
• Add finishing touches (2 different music pieces for nice endings. Something else? Dunno).

I will aim to finish my game over the coming week rather than over the full 2 weeks, we'll see how that goes.

(Note to self: the resolution of my game is 1280x720.)

Stuff I did today:

• Browsed some color palettes for inspiration (on colorhunt.co);
• Created some visual placeholders;
• Spent 30 minutes solving a really stupid bug;
• Wrote boring text that acts as placeholder;
• Coded an initial version of the structure, with branching paths.

I modified the tasks. Creating all or even several visual placeholders is overkill, and I can understand well enough what happens with just a few. I also didn't end up writing usable dialogue while I was figuring out the structure; it's more practical to split technical details from creation, at least at my current level of familiarity with Ren'Py. So I'm learning how to organize workflow more than anything else, I guess.

Some screenshots:

Next steps:

• Complete a working structure with persistent data;
• Write actual dialogue (make a better list of needed visuals as I go along);
• Create all visuals, add them to the game;
• Add finishing touches (music).

I will be testing the game & looking at documentation throughout. I think I'll spend 50% of the time making illustrations. And I'll ask for someone to playtest once the game is seemingly complete? Unless I find a reason to proceed otherwise.

18/1/2022 log

Stuff I did today:

• Figured out how to use persistent data, incorporated it into my structure, so that it plays as I originally intended! (Much less complicated than I expected.)
• Started fleshing out the text. Modified the sequence of events somewhat.

List of assets to make based on current structure:

• background: shelf
• background: desk w computer
• background: wherever grandma is
• background: sky or wherever the moon is
• plant alive
• plant dried
• plant moldy
• plant starving
• plant buggy
• plant friend
• plant combust
• plant boring
• plant bloom
• plant leggy
• grandma
• moon
• protag facing the moon
• protag watering plant
• protag feeding plant-snack
• protag planting second plant
• protag playing a tune
• protag singing with plants

That's a lot of images! But they're largely minor variations on each other. I have less time to invest into making this game than I initially thought, so I'll make very simple images, no polishing. I just want to make this project to learn from it. It is emphatically allowed to suck in the end.

Next step is to continue tweaking the dialogue. Absolutely forbidden to add more images, but I might change the list of images to make.

19/01/2022 log:

• Made 5 images!
• Some fiddling with structure, broke the game a bit & fixed it.
• No work on the dialogue.

That leaves 16 images to do... and I need to resist the urge to make them look too nice, otherwise I won't be able to finish.

Enjoy this swiss cheese:

20/01/2022 log:

• Made some more images, still some 10-ish to go, that's all for today.

Cut an unnecessary corner to save time; grandma & moon can each be one image instead of being made up of a separate background & character. Assets quickly become a mess when not properly organized... but what works for organizing any files works here too; a consistent & transparent naming system.

Here is grandma:

23/01/2022 log:

Have had other things to do... / procrastinated, oh well.

• Finished making all the needed images today! (or almost all; I did change my list, so something missing might turn up)
• ... that's all! I really don't feel like working on the dialogue. 😬

Here's a fresh image:

I want to work on the dialogue tomorrow. Maybe put everything in enough shape that I can ask someone to do a playtest, see if the whole thing makes sense to them & is bug-free..? I guess that's the stretch goal, whereas the minimum goal is writing 50% of the used dialogue.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement, by the way, it has motivated me to keep working on this project! ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

24/01/2022 log:

• I put some order in my script using Twine, made it easier to visualize how things connect than in Ren'py.
• I wrote dialogue for the full game!
• I put everything together in a script and tested it a few times, everything looks ok (except for a few dialogue/image tweaks to do later, mayyybe)!
• I sent the game to a friend so she can playtest it!

ヽ(ಠل͜ಠ)ﾉ I am producing content!

26/01/2022 log:

• My friend liked my game & didn't find any bugs! Yay!
• I made some minor adjustments to the structure, and made two new images, incl. a main menu illustration.

Tomorrow, I'll add music, test the game a few times, & release/submit!

brooo, this game seems really cool, 1 more download to  the count... :)