Hello. I am Aera.
I come here to support my friend as they participate in their first jam. Though I suppose it is mine as well. But I am mostly here to program. Art is tiring and I am not any good at it, and with five university projects to finish by April that I left late, my energy reserves dwindle. That said, I may end up making some basic battle sprites if things go well.
And so begins the first day.
Soul is in charge of the writing. A compromise is made that if I can think of a better title by the end of the jam, we will use that. But I do understand the irony. Even if it hurts a little. For their penance, Soul assigns themselves to art.
As for me, the first job for today is primarily to set groundwork and flow control. The gameplay loop will consist of a hub location, from which you can shop or go to fight enemies. Ren'Py has everything I need for that, and so the skeleton is instantly set.
What Ren'Py does not have is a combat system. Before the jam, Soul directed me to a framework they planned to use, dubbed the Syrup lite RPG framework. The inventory system is great, basic and fits the plan well, but the shop and combat system will need tweaking.
And so I grab my axe.
That went...pretty well, overall. I have never used Ren'Py in my life, and Python is not my preferred language. Learning my way around the keywords used in the GUI system can come tommorow. And so I keep the look of the original for now.
Most of today's work consisted of making things more flexible. The original source was designed for a single persistent combatant and enemy. Our turn-based combat loop needs to support a party, each with their own stats, skills and unique abilities, as well as enemy parties. Basic stuff.
Now that we have parties of units and simple combat, I'll probably be working on implementing the per-unit abilities system tommorow, as well as some of the previously mentioned GUI work. If that goes quickly, my sights are set on the shop screen next.
I didn't expect my first game to be a visual novel. Or 2D. But I'm enjoying it so far.