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Aaaah, thank you so much! I'd forgotten about Normal Lost Phone, but it was such an interesting concept. And thank you-- honestly I've been bedbound for a few days now, it's kinda knocked me out of the jam-- but I'm doin' what I can, hehe.

also thank you sooooo much for telling me about nulls! I was honestly puzzling over how to how to wrangle the grid, not half because it's tough to visualise in Ren'py-- this helps heaps! <3

I am Logged On for this concept, it looks super cute. I love the concept of smaller stories contained within a larger one... I'm definitely going to look at some of your other games, too :3 Good luck!!

This is looking to be adorable! I get a real 'sylvanian families' vibe from Pan and Melon. Congrats on figuring out out-of-combat animations-- ive not used MV before but understanding overworld animations was a hassle in VX Ace. Im excited to see what you make!!

I saw your character designs on the discord-- this looks like its gonna be a super cute game! It seems really ambitious, too. Good luck!!

This looks really cute and mysterious! Serious writing projects like this are intimidating, but it looks like you're well prepared for it. Good luck!!

(Also hi five first time ren'py buddies)

Day 2:

Loaded up with anti-inflammatory meds for my old back, managed to get a little bit done this evening. Had a go at making a "home" screen that would not proceed with dialogue when clicking elsewhere on the screen (unless the 'cont' button in the top corner is pressed, for now. it also serves as a rudimentary 'home' button, although that's not its intended use).

Looks like garbage right now, but working as intended more or less. This is a combination of vbox and hbox screens, with a bunch of imagebuttons that call and hide other screens to simulate the idea of opening folders. I'm not completely sure why the  brown/pink boxes move around like that right now, though. I tied hiding screens to the button press itself but it doesn't seem to make a difference.... Hmm.

MID-POST UPDATE: it's because there were fewer boxes on the bottom row  in the brown screen (2 boxes) than there were in the blue/pink ones(4 boxes)!! why does this change things? No damn clue!! my gut tells me it's something to do with how ren'py automatically spaces/pads buttons, or something... but at least I know now. worst comes to worst, I can make invisible unclickable buttons, I suppose? A problem for tomorrow.

Ahh, thank you! I hope I don't disappoint, haha. I looked at Ren'py the same way! It's simultaneously easier and WAY more confusing that I thought. I think the biggest issue is that the Ren'py documentation assumes you understand how everything works already. It feels like a big victory when you finally wrangle things into working, though!

(and thankyou hehe, I'm feeling much better. Also, your icon is super rad)

Ahh thank you so much!! It will probably end up very very basic, but I'm happy so many people seem keen for it! And thankyou-- I'm feeling much better today :-)

Day 1:

An old back injury flared up today and I cannot even sit down or lie down without pain. No coding today! And I was so keen :*(

Committing to watching tutorials in bed and do some narrative planning. I think i have an idea of how im going to get my files and folders to display appropriately now (a general grid screen for the file explorer view, and individual screens for each specific media type), and its less complicated than i thought it might be!! 

Ahhh thank you!! It's gonna be a hot mess hahaha. And thanks-- I just recoloured the dog from Minit, because I love that dog. Your icon is super cute too!!

This looks so cute and sweet? Such a simple self-contained idea, it really captures that 'slice-of-life' sort of feeling. That twine flowchart is already impressive! Good luck!!

(also first time ren'py users high five)

I'm loving the look of this already!! I wanna pick that mouse boy up and put him in my pocket.

I was close to making a Twine game, too! It can create such a contained little atmosphere. Narrative design and especially branching paths are so challenging to manage. I'm excited to see what you make, good luck!

I hadn't heard of it, and it sounds sooooo cool?? Definitely popping that one on the wishlist. I can see the resemblance to Her Story, and it reminds me a little of Kingsway too.

I've found a few references to point and click mechanics on the forums, and I think it's briefly touched on in ren'py's on-board tutorial too. The biggest issue I've found is that even when tutorials provide working code examples, they never say where to put it. I'm sure I'll understand the flow eventually, though.  I figure that if I learn that something i want to do is impossible, then I've still learned something. Thanks so much for your support !!

Aaaah, thank you! To be honest, the narrative structure of the game is in the backseat of my priorities right now-- so I may not have a good story together for the jam, but if I can get a decent enough framework together then I might persist with it after the jam is over. But I'm so flattered you're interested!!

Day 0: 

Just goofing around after dinner and desperately trying to understand frames (i don't understand frames)

I'm following some helpful tutorials to understand them though... the tutor is very thorough but she also doesn't explain 100% of what she does in her examples, so I only 80% understand. Gotta jump in the deep end though! I successfully implemented custom hbox, vbox and grid screens, which is more than I could do a few hours ago.

Aims for tomorrow:

• Further understand frames + screens;
• Try and find a way for my modified 'say' screen to adapt vertically to the size of text within it.

Aaaah!! Let’s GO.

This is my first Game Jam and my first time making a game. I have no idea what I’m doing!! I’m using Ren’py right now because it seems pretty accessible for someone that has done a little bit of python coding before, but not very much. I’ve ripped through the in-engine tutorial and I feel like what I want is achievable, but I’m… probably going to need some help along the way. I’m trying to keep my goals reasonable while also making something unusual/difficult for me! If I can just get the mechanics working reliably, I’ll consider this a success.

Concept:

My initial thoughts are still vague, but I’m hoping to make a ‘desktop explorer’ type of game—looking through (fake) files and folders on a computer and drawing conclusions from what you find. Games that come to mind are Her Story and Gone Home (tho not as heady as all that!! Haha). I want the bulk of ‘dialogue’ to be from a desktop assistant (like Clippy, or BonziBuddy), and for said assistant to comment on things you find while exploring the files.

I’m a terrible writer, so I think my aim with this will be to build up an impression of the person who left these computer files behind for you to discover, and to explore the personality of the desktop assistant a bit. I was inspired by this hypercard framework , but it looks like it’s for an older version of ren’py and I’m not sure it’s quite what I need. Hmm!

omg this image is big. why does snipping tool do this. oh well.

This is my rough idea of the ‘basic’ look of the screen, and a rough order of attack:

1. Where the desktop assistant’s dialogue will be displayed, along with choice options when communicating with it. I think this can be achieved by manipulating the NVL screen a bit—I’ve seen fake ‘IM/phone messages’ screens used this way, so I plan to look over some of those and to see what I can learn.
2.  Desktop assistant. Maybe 2 or 3 expressions tops, and only if deemed necessary. Unlikely to move or do anything complex.
3.  Clickable interface. I’m thinking I can treat this much like the point-and-click examples in a few visual novels I’ve seen. I’m not good but I think I can understand how to do this (opening files brings images or text boxes to the foreground, folders create new scenes ???)
4. Fake “window” frame around images/text/etc, though I’m not certain how I’d get an [X] button to work accurately. Not a priority but would be fun.
5. I had the idea of having a ‘search bar' (input field) for bringing up ‘hidden files' that could otherwise not be accessed (like searching keywords in Her Story), though I’m not sure how I could achieve this. Maybe it's have to be a screen all of its own? Optional, but would be cool and make me feel like a hackerman.
6. I presume that a ‘back’ or ‘home screen’ button of some kind will be needed…
7.  While it would be cute to turn the basic options into a little custom taskbar, I’ll probably keep them as-is unless I can find a prebuilt script/screen to plug in for it to tweak.

It's currently dinnertime, so I doubt I'll get any work done until tomorrow. Exciting!! I'm scared!!

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hi! My name's Hester (sleepy on discord), and I'm super shy about all this. I use a lot of exclamation points and typo a lot!! I've goofed around in game engines before but never produced anything meaningful-- I wanna try and make myself finish something, even if it sucks!

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

First time! Did it on a whim, as I'm on break from my course for now and I've been procrastinating on my projects without having a deadline or folks to talk problems through with. I'd like to make something that I haven't been stewing on for too long!

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I like all sorts of games... I suppose my favourites are ones that let me be peaceful, explore an environment, or get in deep with world- and character-building. I also like puzzle games, but I'm way too stupid to make any of those, haha.

I like a lot of the games made by Tale of Tales-- or well, I haven't liked all of their games, but I always appreciate that each game they made... was unapologetically their vision, whether it finds an audience or not. They got weird with it! Thats great!

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

Not really! I've fooled around in RPGMaker and Twine2, but not to any real end. My ideas always get too large to keep up with!

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Ummmmm I like dogs a lot? I'm studying to be a Library Technician, and so far I'm really keen for it! Information management babey!!!!

6. What are your goals for this game jam?

•  To make a finished project!! Gotta actually finish in a time limit!!
•  To keep my ideas within the scope of my ability. It's always been a stumbling block for me with personal projects, and it's something I'd like to stamp out