Hey, everyone! I've really enjoyed looking at all the devlogs posted here, although I put off starting my own until now. I feel sheepish for making this thread when 1) the jam is already past its halfway point and 2) I don't have much to show yet, but I'm hoping it'll be a good way to motivate myself.

I'm making a visual novel in Ren'Py. Because of my problems with motivation and time management, it will be a short game, probably more of a proof-of-concept thing or a "first chapter" than a complete game - my scope has to be pretty small for this jam, but I've gotten attached enough to this project that I hope to expand on it in the future.

The story takes place on a small island just off the US east coast, far enough south to be a popular beach vacation destination in the height of summer. It's late August, though, and local directionless semi-adult Judith can't shake the feeling that everyone is leaving town except her. Even her parents are off to the west coast for a few days, which means Judith gets the house to herself. It's a perfect opportunity for her to exert some control over her life. This is quietly terrifying.

Here are some rough drafts/mockups of character sprites. (Please pardon the jpeg artifacts; I drew these in a program for the 3DS, which unfortunately can't save images at very good quality. The actual sprites will be drawn in GIMP.)

Judith
Hobby: beachcombing, aesthetic blogging
Aspiration: ???
Talent: none

A sad, sweaty so-and-so. Not wholly autobiographical, but similar enough to me that I might have a hard time being kind to her. In the actual sprites, she'll be facing the right side of the screen, which means I didn't really practice drawing her side ponytail from the correct angle. Oh well.

Valencia
Hobby: acting, set design
Aspiration: writer/director
Talent: painting

Judith's former best friend, former girlfriend, current probably-best-friend-again-but-it's-different. She's the character who feels the most fleshed-out to me so far, so she's the only one who I can definitively say will have a "route" (or at least the beginnings of one) in this version of the game. The eye in the second one is more like what I'll use for the finished sprites.

I have a few more things to put here, but that's enough for now. Thank you very much for reading!

ohhh i like this premise + the characters so far this feels like it has quite a gentle bildungsroman setup and i'm curious to know more!

Thank you for your support! I'm still moving slowly, but here are the rough draft sprites for the other two characters I have planned:

Diane
Hobby: fashion, choral singing
Aspiration: veterinarian
Talent: studying/memorization

Judith's neighbor and friend, although they're the kind of friends who seem like they don't actually get along. She's leaving for her first year of graduate school in about a week. I couldn't decide on her hairstyle, but now I think I prefer the bun.

Madeline
Hobby: video games, cryptozoology
Aspiration: historian/folklorist?
Talent: swimming

At the start of the story, Judith doesn't know her, but thinks she's seen her around. I don't feel like I have a very good handle on how to write her yet, so she probably won't appear much in this release of the game.

I haven't started drawing the final sprites, but I did figure out how to make transparent images in GIMP, and I've started learning basic Ren'Py functions:

Sorry these are so small! Also, sorry I used my mouse to draw that bunny.

This idea and your art are cute! We've got pretty similar aspirations--I'm also making a short "proof of concept" thing I'm Ren'py. I can relate to the struggle of trying to figure out the coding. Good luck with yours! Can't wait to try it out.

Update: I've been sick, and with that and my motivation trouble combined, this is going to have to be an even smaller, less impressive "game" than I had planned. Honestly, I feel like it might be more of a letdown for me to submit a teeny-tiny first draft than to submit nothing at all, but I'm committed to making something, if only to prove to myself that I can be not-a-quitter.

Sorry for airing my big emotion problems in what was supposed to be a game dev thread! Here's the first sketch I ever did of Judith. At some point in the future I want to make a game with pixel sprites, because they're fun.

I couldn't figure out how to erase cleanly (i.e. directly from color to transparency), so some lines in this are anti-aliased and others aren't, and I hate it a little more every time I look at it:

But yeah, it's still coming along! Art is honestly not my highest priority at this point, since I still have a lot of writing to do, so please forgive those hands. I also have an actual title, based on the idea that "The End of Summer" is what I'd call the full game.

these characters are so cute!!!! i love the sweaty face a lot!!!!

Well, here's the situation: I spent a lot of time planning, right up through today (day 14), and ultimately I did not do a lot of actual game-making. I couldn't decide whether I should just give up on meeting the deadline, work on my game more, and upload something decent in a few days, or whether I should upload something for the deadline even though it'd be the most minimal thing that could possibly qualify as a "game." I chose the second option, which I'm not at all sure was the better choice.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to write about my experiences with the game jam, what I learned, etc., but right now I just want to thank everyone who encouraged me. I feel like I let you down, and I sincerely apologize for that; someday, when I make these ideas into an actual game, I hope I can make up for it.