Heyo I'm Simon and this is my second time participating in My First Game Jam (I participated in 2021 and it was what got me into game development). This year I happened to think of a concept for a small game before the jam and it just so happened to fit right in. I'm currently working on another game from scratch using Game Maker Studio 2, but for Quest for Oats i'll be using RPG Maker MV. 

Quest for Oats is going to be a very small rpg where you play as one of the main characters as they fight through their depression and eventually find inspiration to finish a long overdue project. It will deal with the heavy side of depression, touching topics such as loss of motivation, loss of inspiration, self destructive thoughts and behaviors, and finally getting help. Of course since this is a small game jam game, it won't be the most in depth exploration of depression, but it will be a little bit of me sharing my experience with it.

To keep in touch with the Jam theme of Growth, the game will have 3 endings chosen by the player's actions. All of these endings are happy, as a way to say no matter how bad depression gets, there's always a way out of it and always a way to get better.

So far (as of 1/29) I have the layout for the apartment where the game takes place planned and I have been working on creating a base template in rpg maker to replace with my own art. I have a couple of plugins to make some of the mechanics I want to use possible, although I don't plan on doing anything too crazy. My Main goal is to finish an actual game this time. Last year I spent a lot of time focusing on the art and struggling to pick a story that I had only a little interact-able room, this year I hope to make a full game... Even if the game isn't very big or even very good.

I just thought making a devlog this year would be a fun place to archive progress and to keep me on track to finish something bigger. I need the practice in between my bigger game project. Hope you'll enjoy a lot of screenshots! Toodle-loo

Update Number 1:

I finished the basic layout of the apartment (our setting), and I created small blueprints as an idea of what I will need to add and change. I plan on drawing a lot of elements myself although I might just edit the colors or trace over the default RPG Maker tiles to save time. Here's some screenshots of what I have so far and what the edits will be!

I have more images but I don't want to overload this post. The next main step will be picking out some color pallets for each room as well as designing the main characters. I plan to have only a few characters in the story, most of which are gonna be talking sprites. I'll post some of that art here when it is done before I move onto coding the game.

Update Number 2: Currently dealing with my least favorite part of development: creating the art and sprites to be used. I hope to get the sprites done by friday so I may have enough time to actually write the game but at the moment I am in spain but without the s.

Here is the basic color blocking I did so far. Just to get a feel for the size, shape, and colors. (This is for the main bedroom.) As you can tell I accidentally got very hung up on making the bookcase look nice despite this just being a color blocking phase. This is because I have drawn so many bookcases for rpg maker it's not even funny.

I have the bedroom sprites and the bedroom closet sprites worked out. I am currently working on the bathroom sprites. After that I will only need to do 3 more rooms before I can add the blocked out furniture to rpg maker to do a quick size check. If everything is good, I'll refine it (While still keeping it loose to save time). If Not i'll just adjust and repeat until it looks good.

More Updates will come soon.

Update Number 3:

STILL working on the sprite-work, but I'm very close to being done with the color blocking. All I need to do is the kitchen sprites and the bedroom desk (because I had forgotten it for some reason) before I can test out all the furniture and move onto finishing it. I want to try to get the sprite-work done this weekend so I can spend the rest of the week focusing on the game itself. I think I can get it done in time, and with my luck I can post an update today about the size test.

To save time I decided to do the sprites in a hard outline style with minimal shading and detail, it might not look the nicest but I don't think with the time limit I can do much better.

I hope to update again soon with good news about progress, as I have been struggling to keep focus with this much art that needs to be done and my anxiety about finishing the game on time has not been helping. We'll see though.

Update Number 4:

The blocking is finished! Now it's time to make some minor adjustments to a couple of sprites, add 2 more forgotten sprites, and then I can move onto outlining and creating the final sprites.

Here's the kitchen as an example: it looks pretty good, but I forgot one of the countertops so it has been quickly filled with a sink, I also positioned the calendar way too high.

I have a lot of small adjustments I need to make similar to the calendar issue, where all I really need to do is just move the sprite a little up or a little down. It shouldn't take me too long to fix it up before I can start doing the outlines and the more finished work. On the bright side, adjusting everything should be pretty simple since if I update the sprite sheet, it'll auto update the sprites I used in the game so I don't need to constantly place and replace sprites to make sure they work.

There should hopefully be another update today as today has been pretty productive so far. It's been a huge process though. I find myself constantly pushing myself to get the entire game done as soon as possible, forgetting how much time I really have. 8 days does not sound like a lot of time, and it really isn't, but visualizing it on a calendar has helped me calm down and pace myself. The visual distance between the day it is now and when the game is over helps sooth me and figure out that I have more time than I think I do. It's also nice to think about just how far I am in this process compared to last time. 

Last time I participated I ran out of time due to a variety of reasons and I just ended up making an interactive room. This whole process is letting me see what those reasons were in a new light, and helping me learn from them.

Update Number 5: I am trying to speed through these sprites today. Since I finished the basic shapes and made all necessary adjustments for them, it's now time to try to make them look at least semi-neat and slap a line art over it so I don't have to focus too much on shading and the like.

Here's the example of what I am doing. Each room has a specific lineart color for theme purposes and currently since I just started, i'm working on the main bedroom with a purple theme. I'm trying my best to speed through this as I want to work on gameplay soon, but I do have most necessary sprites in game, just unfinished, so I might get started on creating the game in the meantime between working on the art and getting tired of working on the art. It seems like such a silly thing to have to remind myself, but it's very easy to forget that I don't have to do one thing at a time, I can swap back and forth once one gets tiring.

Breaking up the project into smaller chunks also helps make things easier. I find that constantly checking off a list of smaller tasks makes me more motivated as I am visually making progress compared to having a few large tasks that are harder to achieve since there are a ton of smaller tasks involved. I have a feeling that after I make a list, I can get some serious progress done today. I hope that I can give another update today.

Update Number 7:

We are making some huge progress! I only have 2 rooms left to finish furniture wise and I've been getting into a groove, so hopefully It won't take too long. I've also finally gotten started on the floors and I am also close to finishing them!

I decided to reuse old floors I made in 2021 and slightly edit the colors of a few of them. They actually fit really well! So all I have to draw is the rugs in the bedroom, Living room, and second bedroom. I got started on the Main Room's rug, and although im gonna make some alterations to make it look a lil nicer, It doesn't take long at all to do.

In Rpg maker MV, Floor tiles are made up of 6 different tiles: a single tile, a curved tile, and a repeating tile (made of 4 tiles). How this works is that a single tile sprite shows up if you put down one tile, the bent tile is used for if you make L shaped carpets or other designs where a curve or a turn might be involved, and a repeating tile. This is NOT the proper terminology i'm sure, BUT I've included an image to make the point i'm about to make clear:

Basically, I'm just excited that after a quick test, I can save a ton of time by just not giving a shit about a 3rd of the sprites for an RPG maker floor! Huzzah for cutting corners with no consequence!

I want to try to get the floors completely done tonight and maybe get started on walls too. However the biggest goal is to get some more events happening. I wanna add some interactables since I feel like it could be really fun, and the faster I get the interactables out of the way the faster I can focus on learning rpg maker's event system for some of the things I want to do.

In the meantime, here's some closeups of the anime posters in our main character's room, and a closeup of the Roommate's Stuffies

Update Number 8:

I got a ton of work done! In the last 3 hours since I posted I went from just experimenting to finishing the walls and floors, including the divider beams (the little beams that separate the walls from the void and give a slightly cleaner look).

I had finished up the carpets needed and decided to work on the walls and I spent quite some time trying to figure out how the divider beams would work as a wall block, and after some trial and error I figured out how to make it work with a lot of copy and pasting, a lot of selecting and moving, and by making the corner blocks objects in the sprite sheet instead of struggling to figure out how to do that with the wall sprite sheet.

I also made the walls! They're all single colored walls for the sake of simplicity and I think they all turned out REALLY well. It's making me super excited because everything is coming together and I am a few steps closer to getting this game done!

The only art I have left to do is:

• Finishing the Kitchen and Living Room furniture sprites
• Character Portraits (Main Character (Fem and Masc) and the Roommate)
• Character Sprites (Main Character (Fem and Masc) and the Roommate)
• The Title Screen

And then I'll be all done art wise! During these three hours I did not get any events added, but I plan to stay up a wee bit late to try to add as many interactables as I can. I will be honest, I'm not too confident in my story writing. I don't think I'm a very good writer and my writing is something I've always been very insecure about. I am worried that as pretty as the game might look, it might not be very good. However, I think I'm fine with that. This is a game jam, and making a day in only 2 weeks (and only writing it in 3 days), allows me a little more leeway to make something that might be messy and sloppy. This whole experience has been about learning more-so than anything else and boy howdy am I learning.

Enough talk about my personal feelings and insecurities though, here's some pictures of the floors, rugs, walls, and beams! (and Also a look into the Roommate's room!)

The main room feels fairly gloomy with the dark grey walls, but I felt like it was a good way to darken the room up. Especially since... you know... the game is about depression.

And the roommate's room! I need to get rid of the shadows in the room or figure out how to get them above the objects (I think I have a plugin for that), but otherwise it's a very simple and neat room!

I'm sure you're already noticing some fun details, but now I have to actually add those details. In the form of things you can press a button to read about what they are! It's not an rpg if you can't figure out what everything and anything is by pressing the enter key while facing it (Or whatever the interact key will be)

It's time for me to figure out some plug-ins and start writing. I hope I can add another update soon!

the two floor finish ! woah the two chamber is amazing ! continue !!

Update Number 8.5:

2 days left! And I have...

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FINISHED.

Today is going to be a major crunch day especially since I have work tomorrow and likely won't have a lot of energy to get things done. So expect lots of updates as I rush to finish the art and make major progress on the game. Despite doing much better this time, I still fell into that pitfall of not working on the game in a timely manner and spending too much time on the art, so today I am gonna go for finished over perfection so I can charge in and actually make the game. Things are going to get hectic.

Update Number 9:

All the furniture is finished! It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does work. Now I plan to do the character sprites as fast as I can to get them out of the way. I decided that some art is going to be put off until after the game itself is done. So Character portraits, Title screen, and whatever else I'll need is going to be ignored and simply made to be rpg maker assets until after the game is done and If i have time to work on them. Once I get the character sprites in I might move the game over to my laptop to work on. My body is not agreeing with desk work today, but I have rpg maker on my laptop as well so I'll just move over onto the beanbag to get work done.

More updates to come soon.

Update Number 10:

As my hand gets more and more tired and as my mind wants to work on the game itself more and more, I find myself cutting more features than I thought. Another thing on the chopping block: Choosing which character style you want.

I wanted the option for the main character to be masc or fem so the player can choose which one they like more, but I don't have the time to really add that feature. So unfortunately, the main character is going to be set to the fem design for the whole game.

Good news though! I got the first of the two walking sprites done, Samantha! your roommate in the story:

It's a fairly simple sprite (and I think the back sprite looks AWFUL) but hopefully it will work for what I have in mind.

Here's the concept art for Samantha, I wasn't able to get the fluff in her hair, but there's only so much you can do with sprites of this size in this style.

Update Number 11:

We are getting some events done!

First up is I have created an intro cut scene that plays before you enter the room. Giving you an idea towards the current situation of the protagonist and letting you know of your first goal.

Look at all these events!

I plan to spend some time adding more interactables throughout the house as I haven't really done that yet. I then I have to work on the story based events. Things like cut scenes, interact-able sections, and a third thing that looks nice here. I'm really stressing to get this done in time, so at the moment I'm worried about getting everything up and functional. I am sad that I keep having to cut features because I don't have the time to figure out how to add them in. At the moment, multiple endings is sadly next on the chopping block.

I feel bad. I was really hoping that I would make this exactly how I wanted to, but similar to last time I was a part of the jam, I took a little too much time to focus on art that I ended up not getting what I wanted done. I'm doing a lot to improve, and I'm sure people will still enjoy the game despite not being able to deliver on what I wanted to do, but it does just feel crummy. In the worst case scenario, I don't finish the jam and just make a new deadline to finish it at. But I REALLY don't want to do that. So I'll just work hard to get it done. Not perfect. But done.

Update Number 11.5:

All the interactables in the house are done, and I think it's time for a break. Even though I am starting to calm down, I have made enough progress today that I believe I can take a break for the rest of the day. Or at least for a little while. I have work in the morning so I can only hope I have enough motivation when I get back to make more progress tomorrow. I believe I was overreacting a little bit from the stress. Dealing with a bad case of crunch brain. In the meantime I hope you all enjoyed these hectic updates as I now go to goof off and pay a little video game as a treat.

woahhh this game is awesome! It seems amazing! :D

the character is soo cute!! and finish the event ! continue .

Update Number the Last:

Sadly, due to general life and (ironically enough) my own depression getting in the way, I won't be able to finish Quest for Oats in time for the jam. However, I'm not very sad about it. I did a great job, for what it's worth. I got a whole bunch of work done. All the little rooms, adding an intro cutscene, actually making a good base for a fully functional game, it's way more than what I did in 2021 with Duck in a Library where the game was an interactable room and that was all. I won't submit the unfinished game for the jam, and instead I will hold off on posting it until it's done. I already signed up for another jam and I have a larger project I am already working on, so Quest for Oats is going to be on the back burner until I find a jam focused around finishing unfinished games. I might add back features I mentioned cutting since I would have more time, or I might not finish the game at all and just use what I learned towards the next jam I'm going to work on and towards any future and current projects.

I just wanted to let you guys know what was going on, and thank you all for being so kind! I'm sorry I couldn't finish the game, but I'm just so thankful to have worked on this around a wonderful community. I'm excited to see what people are going to submit to the jam this year, and I'll probably be back either next Winter or when the Summer Jam rolls around.

Thank you for listening to my rambles about my silly little depression game.