Link : Trembling Essence [Extended Demo] is available for those that would like to play!

Hello and welcome to my dev-log, you can call me Bee! 

I am a new solo indie developer and currently working on Trembling Essence which is a slow burn horror game/dating sim visual novel that focuses on survival. Your choices will lead to multiple endings that will help you learn not only about Noah and the swamp, but everything else surrounding it.

Since I'm still understanding how to post here appropriately, if you would like to see the previous updates to my recent game development post's, you can read them here! I'm mainly active on my tumblr towards  the game such as answering questions from my ask box to random drawings based off the game. 

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi!

 All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,] 

 Q&A / Ask box is open: To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

 **Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :] 

 If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys! Thank you to everyone for the uplifting support during all of this I really appreciate it! :,,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello again, I'm here with another update! Here's a look at the kitchen I redid. I think out of all of them so far, this one is my favorite! :]

For those interested in playing the demo, here's the link!

This update is a bit delayed because of things outside of my control. I don't want to rush update posts about the game so I decided to make up for the days I missed. I want these to be good enough to keep you guys informed! :]

• I wasn't able to work on certain CG's as I had originally hoped but to be fair, I take this as a good thing. I'm really trying to keep my art style accurate because Noah tends to look drastically different at times and I really want to keep him consistent or at least try to keep it pretty close. Because of this, I'm going to put a small pause on those specific CG's since trying to draw them a certain way becomes extremely exhausting and time consuming for me.

• As far as writing goes, I was able to get a better idea of where I wanted to add CG's and where to remove them. It's been pretty great for the most part and I'm starting to get a good rhythm going. I'm mainly focusing on stabilizing the branching routes and then going back and adjusting them based on how you interact in the game.

• But as I was checking through everything, I realized I got carried away by accident and ended up making a lot of branching routes starting from parts of Day 3. I won't specifically say how many but it's more than 10+ and at this time, I'm still testing each route to see what I can do to keep them unique and different so the player(Y/N) can have a good amount of variety. If it's too much for me to do, I might condense one or two together but that's only if certain routes have a lot of similarities or if a specific branch itself isn't really necessary to have.
• I'm still testing/fixing up the parts of Day 3 and adding various dialog changes but I did do an attempt at adding in the Day/Night setting just to see how it would go and so far it's pretty nice!

I think that's everything I have to report right now so thank you guys for all of your support! :]

Hello and welcome to my Devlog! :]  I am here with another update to share, I was gone for a few days so I made up for the days I missed so here is my game development progress! For those that are new to my updates, here's a link to my demo you can play! :]

• As far as the CG's go for Noah, I did make an attempt since my play tester suggested a technique to help me with drawing. Once I finished and showed it to them, they really liked it! I'm still not ready to share some of others yet mainly because spoilers anddd I'm still working on them. :,]

• Things were going a bit slower in the beginning but recently got a bit better now that I had the chance to really get some good ideas in. I went through some of the earlier portions of the game and did a quality of life adjustment for a few segments.
• As far as the many branching routes on certain parts of Day 3, I had a idea laid out on how I want them to go and I'm feeling a lot more confident in adding it, it's just a lot of writing. I'm still testing and brainstorming things out to keep them unique for the player(Y/N). I said I might condense one or two together in my previous update and so far----- I'm still processing that.
• I'm trying to take each route one at a time before making a decision on it and I have a few more to go. One thing I have done though is slightly adjust a few of them to meet more specific requirements, I felt it was a bit too linear. >;]

• There's one specific route that took up a lot of time and required a lot of adjustments. In the end, I thought it might be a good idea to push that one a little farther down into the game but I'll let my play tester tell me what they think because I haven't shown any of it to them. :,]

With all of that said, I'll get to working on a few asks I still have and other miscellaneous stuff that I want to do for fun in between. I have a goal in mind I'm hoping to achieve in the next update post!

Thank you guys for all your support on this, I wholeheartedly appreciate it! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello and welcome to my devlog, it's been a while but I am here with another update! :]

For those interested in playing the demo, here's the link!

Firstly, I just want to keep things transparent and catch people up to date for those that might not of seen my previous explanation for this delay and/or are new here.

I was very hesitant on making any new update posts because I wanted my original play tester who's been here since the beginning to look at everything first so I patiently waited. I didn't want to give out false expectations and add bunch of new content/concepts in update posts only to take it out or change it entirely if I couldn't make it work. In the end, my original play tester just couldn't make it so I recently asked someone else. Everything went really well, I had a lot of fun with how they played the game and they were very understanding. Their feedback really helped me when I needed it and I learned a lot from this experience, I am never waiting like that ever again. :]

Anywho, here's how things have been going as far as game development goes:

In my last update post, I was talking about a certain goal point I wanted to achieve and the game got a pretty big update!

• I finished all of the morning settings/routes that now lead into day 4, this took a lot of writing and time. There is one specific route that I'm fixing because when my new play tester and I played it straightforward twice, it took a very long time to get through and we still weren't done before we took a break. :,]
• There were two new paths that I also finished during all of this. For the first one, I decided to push it later into the game due to certain events happening too early and the second one is an ending which is slightly hidden somewhere. :]

All that'll be needed is minor adjusting, etc because the variables need to line up correctly since some routes can have different outcomes. I'm up for this challenge but it's going to take time to organize.

Here are some of things I fixed along the way:

• Slight adjustment to an ending that required a certain trigger
• Adjusted certain visual effects happening to early
• Cleaned up various grammar mistakes
• Fixed certain routes jumping into other routes
• Minor fix to backgrounds appearing at the wrong time of day
• Adjusted the volume of different background SFX's / Music

Here's one of several things you can eat in the game, can't survive on an empty stomach after all! :]

When it comes to CG's that involve food, my style approach will be a bit different. I was originally going to do realism but those take a very long time to do and after the first few, I got pretty burnt out from them.

Along with that, sometimes you might find things that will aid you along the way! This key is just an example, I don't want to show the other items just yet. :]

I'm also still testing this but I thought about adding a visual effect that appears on your screen when something is causing you to rapidly lose health(?) It's not in full effect right now, just brainstorming it.

Lastly, another thing that's kind of been on my mind once I looked through the routes again is how long they are, I'm not sure how people feel about long visual novels since I consider this one to be a slow burn game. I don't want you to feel as though you have to skip through a lot of the dialog unless you've already seen it, I want it to be fun and not feel like it's dragging on. I really would like to hear people's thoughts on this because I honestly don't know.

I think I reached the max I can type here so I'll post the rest in the following update post next week but overall,

Thank you guys for being patient and understanding. I wholeheartedly appreciate the support and encouragement! :]

Hello hello and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update to share! There were a few things that caused this delay however I will continue trying my best to keep the updates weekly if I can! Thank you for being patient and understanding! :]

For those interested in playing the demo, here's the link!

I ran out of typing room in my last post so I'm going to continue where I left off:

The afternoon settings/routes were already being worked on previously and I have a bit of them finished and they now lead into day 4! There's possibly one or two left but I took a pause here.

• There were going to be certain CG's you could encounter but I decided to scrap at least two of them because they would be on the screen for about two or three sentences and weren't really necessary.
• There were also a few dialog changes as I was going through everything. There was a certain event trigger that could happen and I decided to adjust the situation that occurs because it was a bit too unexpected. I really like the new outcome you can get from it now. :]

At some point I said I might condense one or two routes together if certain ones had a lot of similarities or if adding a specific branch itself isn't really necessary to have. I had two different choices you could make that would lead into their own unique branch. I decided to make them go into another branch instead.

• This is because the choices were pretty benign and giving them a unique route wouldn't make much sense? You'd have to really go out of your way to even find these branches and it felt random since Noah wouldn't know anything about it.

For the last few routes that I have left to work on that go into Day 4, I'm brainstorming which settings they'll lead into again. I went through them and realized some could go a bit differently from what I originally had planned so things slowed down a bit here. What happens for the most(?) part in them will still be the same but just takes place at a different time. Once I got a fair amount done I took a pause here as well.

• I'm still testing this but I adjusted the visual effect that appears on your screen when something is causing you to rapidly lose health(?) to make it more noticeable on the screen, I'm still brainstorming it but I kind of like how it looks now.
• The process for them have been a bit slow but I'm mainly just pacing myself and making sure what I'm writing fits what's going on. I'm getting a decent flow of how I want them to go but also keeping them fairly unique enough to flesh things out. :]
• For one of them specifically, there's a choice you can make that drastically extends things out more. I talked to my new play tester about it and we bounced out ideas with how it would lead. In the end, they gave me a thumbs up to go with an idea I had for it and I took what they suggested and mixed some of it in there somewhere else too. I'll eventually come back to this one because it may require more CG's. :]

Lastly, for one of the longest routes in the game I decided to unpin it and work on it.

To those who answered my question in my last update post, thank you!

I took what you all have said into consideration! :]

• I ended up adjusting one part of it but only slightly. The choices and conversations will still be the same however they'll only progress to a certain limit before possibly branching elsewhere instead. The remaining portions will still occur but just somewhere else.
• For the other part, I had to go in there and heavily clean it up. There was a lot going on and it got complicated trying to figure out what goes where. It had been some time since I checked on since it can go in several different directions so I had to organize a lot of the old code so it can flow better. This took up a good amount of time because I really wanted to take time out to fix this while I knew what I wanted to do. I ended up making specific choices lead down one specific path, this had to be done because if I didn't there would be too many branches and that would be incredibly overwhelming for me to try and sort out.
• There were also a few minor dialog changes along with some small grammar adjustments to fit what you see visually.

Here are some of the overall bug fixes so far for some of the routes:

• Grammar mistakes
• Random kitchen scene happening in areas where it shouldn't
• Random living room scene happening in areas where it shouldn't
• CG glitch that caused a random black screen to appear
• Hp loss not signaling appropriately
• Certain CG's not transitioning properly
• SFX's volume adjustment
• A specific CG staying on the screen for longer than intended
• A certain route jumping into another separate route
• Certain backgrounds misaligned with the dialog in a specific choice

Thank you guys for all your support on this! I wholeheartedly appreciate the support and encouragement! :]

Hello and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update to give! :]

For those interested in playing the demo, here's the link!

So this week I decided to take a small step back from coding and catch up with CG's. There's going to be a fair amount of them because I really don't like static background situations if that makes sense.

If I can add a CG to make a scene more visually appealing I'm going to try and see if I can add something there. I am trying my hardest not to over-do it because CG's take a very long time for me to draw and I don't want to get carried away.

So far, they've been coming out pretty well! I have a couple(?) of them left to go.

A few small visual adjustments have been made along the way too.

• Certain dialog will show a visual effect if you're in pain but I'm still trying to make the effect look better. Once I figure that out I'll slowly put it into rest of the routes
• When you officially go to bed your HP will gradually increase instead of it being a sudden spike
• I also finally figured out how to make the backgrounds transition into different parts of the day without it hiding the dialog! Yay! I'm slowly adding it in the different routes as I go. :]

Some of the situations in certain routes were adjusted a bit as I was placing the CG's around. There were some conversations you or Noah could have with each other that needed some fixing. Extra dialog choices have been added in a certain routes along with new variables which will trigger certain events here and there depending on how close you are with him.

Lastly, I also went and adjusted two of the different living room settings. The afternoon one had too much yellow so I went back and adjusted the contrast, hue, and light source to make it look more appealing. The night version with the main lights instead of the lamp originally looked too dreary(?) and the light source was weird so I asked for help and it got fixed up!

I think that's everything I have to report so far!

Thank you guys for all of your continued support, I really appreciate it! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello hello and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update to share! :]

For the most part, I've been focusing on CG's! I've been looking over the routes and deciding what sections should get their own.

There were some suggestions from my play tester that I took into consideration as well. For certain scenes, if it's something that isn't too important (For example: Eating a small snack), I'll make it descriptive to make up for it or do a mini sprite that shows up on the screen if I can! :]

Between the CG's, I've also been adding/looking into more variables to reduce confusion on my end and balance some things.

• I added a few new choices to explore a bit more around the cabin. Some depend on the route you go into along with some other requirements that are necessary for it to work. Here's a sneak peak of one. :]

• I also adjusted the variables in one route since it took more than what I wanted into the next scene. I was going to add an ending there but decided not to because I felt as though it was too early.

Somehow I ended up working on endings while doing CG's, I really can't explain how or why it happened. As far as that goes, the writing for maybe..three of them have been finished!

For the first one, I decided to keep it straightforward. I felt that adding choices would be too much and I want this one to have more of a story-like situation.

For the second one, I finished it some time ago and left it alone after that. I recently learned something new and gave the route a good amount of tweaking. I removed some of the old effects because they were outdated and it was over-kill. It'll have a CG at some point but I'm still brainstorming how it'll look.

Lastly, there is one new ending I added to even out certain variables, I'm still working through it but this one was ultimately approved by my play tester! When they finally played it, they thought it was very good in a scary/shocked way.

And finally, I went back and messed with the visual que's for a little bit and came up with a better idea to reduce confusion for the player. If you are losing HP versus the dialog describing something that doesn't effect your HP but still mentally effects the player, they'll have two different visual effects! The original way I did it was tedious and sometimes messed up other transitions. It was working at first and then it stopped so I'm still trying to figure out how to keep it on screen without it getting hidden by another image. If I can't figure it out I'll just go back to the tedious way. :,[

• Here's a mock up of what it'll look like if.. Let's say, you stepped on a sharp rock. It will display a sort of 'heartbeat effect' on the screen, and have a 'splatter look'. I lowered the opacity on it by half since it felt a bit too vibrant on the screen when it was at 100%.

• And here's what it'll look like if you just have a headache! I slightly reduced the opacity but it'll have more of a fadein/fadeout effect on the screen.

Here are some bugs I fixed along the way:

• Skipping through dialog too fast had the possibility to make the screen go black in certain scenes if there is a scene animation
• Grammar mistakes
• A certain dialog event activated incorrectly
• Animation transition error
• Evening to night in a route activated incorrectly
• An ending had an incorrect transition

And that's everything I have to report right now, thank you guys very much for all of your support and appreciation with this! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi and welcome to my devlog! I am here with an update to share once again! This one is a bit shorter. :]

 A link for the demo is right here!

I've been giving the routes some quality of life adjustments here and there. Some time ago there was a point where I was trying to shorten the dialog a certain way to keep the routes from being too long. When I read it aloud I kept fumbling over the sentences so much I decided to go and fix the parts that seemed too complicated.

• Through this I've also been getting more comfortable when it comes to placing CG's around. I've noticed that there are some moments where it isn't needed as much as I had originally thought. I managed to finish about 3 CG's and here's one of them! I can't show some of the others because spoilers. :,]

• This is pretty benign but the background for Noah's room door will have to be redone since I can't find the original drawing file anymore. I think I accidently saved over it as a .PNG by accident earlier this year and didn't notice until now.

I also added some music for moments that have tension/suspense etc. because it felt empty with only the rain SFX's being played. The song that's going to be used is actually still in the demo from one of the endings you can get in the cabin! I'm also thinking of adding in new music too when you get to spend quality time with Noah too but I'm still brainstorming which songs will fit.

Here's some bug fixes I took care of:

• A certain route still having injured effects continuing into Day 4
• Grammar mistakes
• A background from a specific route being the wrong size
• Small atmosphere lighting adjustments in a specific route
• Removed odd "pop" sound from the music that activates during moments of suspense/tension

I think for right now that about covers it!

Thank you guys for all your support, I really appreciate it! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello everyone and welcome to my devlog! I am here to give an update on the game! :]

For those interested in playing the demo, here's the link!

I've been cleaning up a lot of the dialog in some routes. I'm really glad I went through and fixed up as much as I could because it's starting to flow in a better direction, just like water! I've also been incorporating his main sprite a lot more instead of feeling like I had to put a CG everywhere. :,]

Secondly, I've been going through the variables again and checking out the alternate situations you can get depending on how close you are with Noah.

• In one of the routes there was a specific alternate interaction that would make you lose too much HP which would lead to a death when there wasn't suppose to be one. I fixed it up by cleaning out some dialog and gave added some quality of life changes. I let my play tester have a go at everything and they really loved it. I also brought up the CG issue I was having and they gave me some pointers and everything ended on a very good note. I think this route might be my favorite right now. :,]

Lastly, speaking of CG's, I decided to go and fix a few of them. For example, the doorknob in the original CG image was too low and it was blocked by the dialog box so here's how it looks now!

Here's some fixes I took care of so far:

• SFX volume adjustments when interacting with a certain item in the kitchen
• Grammar mistakes
• Fixed an issue when the transition from evening to night would happen too quickly when looking out the window
• Added some atmosphere color adjustments in a specific route
• The wrong background setting showing up within the kitchen during the evening

Other than that I think that's all I have to report right now!

Thank you guys for all your encouragement and support on this, I really appreciate it! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello and welcome those that are new to my devlog! I am here with another update post! I don't have any new CG's to show right now since some are spoilers and I did a lot more writing this time. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a  link to it. :]

I'm still going through the alternate situations and making sure they line up correctly with the rest of the route. I came across a few more dialog situations that needed some fixing and I added a few more choices in some of them that I felt were needed! Here's a tiny sneak peak. >:]

Speaking of routes, there was a situation in the game where one specific choice into another during the first half of day 3 would make the player branch off into two different routes.

• In one of my old game development posts I said I might condense one or two together but that's only if certain routes have a lot of similarities or if a specific branch itself isn't really necessary to have.
• As time went on for this specific route situation I came to realize I didn't like the idea of it anymore. This is because both branches had some similarities and in this case, the decision itself shouldn't result in another extra route anyway since it's benign, I'd rather the player get a different scene/interaction instead. I asked both of my play testers to go through both routes separately and pick which one they liked more. They both ended up picking the same one and explained what they liked about it compared to the other. This really makes things easier for me going forward and the route itself is going to be a bit longer now but not by much.
• This isn't to say the other route will be removed I just need to see what I can do with it since there were bits in there that are unique for it.
• There was also an ending you could get in the route depending on how close you are with Noah. I decided to move it later into the game since it shows something too early for Day 3.

Lastly, I also finally figured out how to activate spellcheck! It's not 100% perfect but it does help a bunch when I'm looking through everything so I don't have to overly check all the time! Yay! :]

Here's some bug fixes I did along the way!

• Noah's sprite still on screen during a transition
• Grammar mistakes
• Adjusted volume levels for rain SFX in different areas
• Alternate interaction activated during the wrong dialog choice

That's all I have to report right now!

Thank you guys for your patience and support, I really appreciate it! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi and welcome to my devlog! :] I am here to share what's been happening so far!

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

I've been updating some outdated CG's I drew back in April-ish since I'm getting better at drawing Noah the way I want to now! Yay! :] I can't show all of them because spoilers but here's one of them below that took a really long time to do! It was a fun process in the end and I learned so much from it. :]

• I also adjusted Noah's reaction towards the player in a different route to line up with what you visually see on the screen from a new CG I drew up that I can't show right now! There wasn't one there originally so I was only using his sprite.

Also, I know I said this before but I'm still going through and double checking all the alternate situations!

I went through a certain route that didn't have any and added a few in certain places.

• This one has a certain path that required some unique CG's just for it specifically. I also added some choices for the player to make during certain times you spend with Noah.

I'm trying to add a bit more of an immersive touch for certain things instead of everything being straight forward if that makes sense! For example, I'd rather you make a decision to react to something a certain way instead of it being just one way. I can't guarantee this type of decision making every single time it comes up but I'll try to add it in situations where it's needed! :]

With that being said I also ran into a weird bug in this same route.

• A certain choice you could make before you finally fall asleep ended up skipping an entire scene depending on what you do later on in the game when it wasn't suppose to. I was easily able to find out what was causing this issue and added a variable for it.
• I also went through and reworked two different interactive situations in a specific choice that technically should've been the other way around.

Here's some things I fixed along the way!:

• Grammar mistakes
• Certain sprite expressions not lining up with the dialog correctly
• Evening into night transition not displaying properly in one specific route
• Slight dialog adjustments during two different endings
• Adjusted visual effects during two different endings

That's all I have to share for right now, thank you guys for all your continued support and interest in what I'm working on, I really appreciate it! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello once again and welcome to my devlog! I am here with another update! This one is going to be fairly long but I'll try my best to condense everything. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

Things were progressing pretty smoothly until I ran into something pretty interesting! I'll try my best to explain it properly but depending on how close you are with Noah along with a few choices into one ultimate decision, it would have you going into three separate branches and situations which included one of the longest routes which depends on what you choose after that. When I went over everything, I came to realize this would be too overwhelming and long for the player with how much was going on and I want to spread it out more/condense certain things.

• To remedy this I decided to make certain choices/Noah's relationship with the player(Y/N) from the longest route go into one specific branch and the others lead elsewhere. Also to be fair, the scene you get with Noah's reaction from everything in this makes more sense now versus the other two I had since he didn't really acknowledge it like I wanted him to. I also added new varying choices/responses in there too so even if it leads to the same situation, you at least have something different happen when it proceeds into the next day. I actually had fun with this since I was able to do a few callbacks to other choices from before.
• There were two endings you could get and there was a certain way you had to do things to get them but I decided to turn one of them into a full ending instead to keep the situation unique!
• Lastly, I moved the second branch you could get from your choices elsewhere and adjusted a few things in there to make it fit where it is now.

I let my play testers try it out since this was a very drastic change especially for longest route and they said that it's easier to understand what's going on versus all the branching leading them everywhere. I am hoping this will make things easier/not too lengthy and coherent for the player! :,]

Lastly, I gave the entrance into the cabin a small quality of life adjustment. Since I've come a long way with how I write I decided to clean up some old dialog I had in the game back in early development! Anything that's happened before this part hasn't been messed with. :]

• There were some parts that had wonky wording/outdated so I cleaned it up and gave some parts of it a bit of clarity. There are some moments in the game that I want to express for the player when you're outside/within the cabin!
• There was a situation you could get with Noah where his dialog text would change color. This was removed since the text color blended into the background at some points and it didn't fit the situation as much as I thought it did months ago.

Here's everything that's been fixed along the way:

• Grammar mistakes
• Evening to night transition overlapping Noah's sprite
• SFX volume adjustment in certain areas
• Hue change remaining in a certain CG transitions

That's everything I have to share so far!

Thank you guys so much for all your continued encouragement and support! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello once again to my devlog! I am here with another update! This one might be slightly long but I condensed everything the best I could. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

Things have been going pretty well with the progress of the game so far, there's a few more situations which are pretty much finished and lead into Day 4! Yay! :]

There were a few things I ran into that I fixed up while going through everything again. It felt like I was using an actual first aid kit! :] :

• There was a certain imbalance where you'd lose HP in one situation but not the other in a specific route. I adjusted it by adding in some dialog and a small scene that gives an idea as to why that happens.
• I found a glitch where a new scene from another route would continue into a alternate setting depending on what you choose. I gave it a small patch so it transitions smoothly.
• A few adjustments were made to alternate dialog/possible ending that required a certain amount of closeness with Noah. I hadn't messed with it for a while until recently. When I looked through it, some of the alternate dialog had too much of a drastic reaction to the point it could get pretty confusing for the player. I re-wrote some of the dialog so that even if there's a difference in closeness, it's easier to understand.
• I also had to heavily clean out a lot of outdated transitions since I didn't understand how to fully organize it at the time I wrote everything out back in early development. It was a little tedious but things are structured now!
• Since I got rid of the font color change with Noah, I went back and adjusted some of the wording/font size. This is more of a quality of life change since some of it was all over the place.

All that's really left is a few more CG's that need a slight fix/redo and some sprites and it'll be done.

• Speaking of CG's, I finished up some alternate ones and started placing them around. I cleaned up more dialog that was outdated so it matches what you visually see on the screen. I can't show much of them right now because spoilers and I'm still working on them, I have about 4-ish more to go!

And that's everything I have to report so far!

Thank you guys for your constant support and appreciation on what I'm working on, it doesn't go unnoticed! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello once again to my devlog! I am here with another update about the game development progress so far! There wasn't an update last week because I wasn't able to work on any of it until a few days ago. I couldn't start from where I left off so I decided to give my mind a fresh start!

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

There's one final route I'm currently writing up that's been in the works for quite some time now! It's going to be a fairly long one that has different interactions depending on what you choose along with your closeness with Noah to a certain point.

• This all happened because I originally planned for there to be only a follow up into one specific choice that would lead into it but now, there will be a few choices instead which go into it but certain ones can drastically change what can happen. I think once it's all done it'll probably end up being the longest path now instead of a previous one I finished a while back if you go through different varying choices.
• This might(?) change at some point since this makes the route dialog heavy depending on what you do, I can't say for sure but we'll see! :,]

The progress for it has been steady and I got a CG done for it along with a certain section! I can't show it but I really loved how it turned out and how my improvement for drawing Noah and just drawing in general has come so far. :,]

Speaking of CG's, I'm really trying to balance them out for this, at one point there was going to be 3 different CG's back to back in one scene but I felt as though that was too much just for that one setting. Once my play tester is available to play everything, I'll see what they think! :]

Lastly I'm going to take the liberty of organizing my Tumblr and having specific #'s to make it easier to navigate through. It's been on my mind as something I wanted to fix along with posting more doodles/lore art here and there. I'm just really particular on how I want to go about it since it's been fairly quiet here. I'll talk more about it next week once I get everything together! :,]

Overall I think that's all I have to report right now!

Thank you guys for your patience and understanding, I appreciate all of the support encouragement for this when I wasn't able to work on anything until a few days ago. It means a lot! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog. Here's another update about the game development progress so far which is fairly short! A very special thank you to those that have been sending thoughtful messages, I really appreciate it! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

A lot of progress has been made on the final route! I mainly did a lot of writing and adjusting variables as I went along so I don't really have a lot to discuss right now. It was fairly fun experience since it gave me more ideas that might get implement into the game!

Both of my play testers went through it and didn't have any complaints outside of grammar mistakes here and there. I thought the route might've been too short since I adjusted some things to keep it from being too long but they reassured it's fine the way it is! :,]

In my last update post I mentioned that this route would most likely be dialog heavy.

Originally I was going to make each choice that lead to this have their own unique path. As I went through everything I realized that it would be too much for the player and I don't want to have too much going on to where it can become overwhelming and confusing.

• To fix this I went ahead and made certain situational segments and/or scenarios all go through a specific direction(s) together versus making every single one all have their own separate path. It's going to require a good amount of variables to make it work correctly but hopefully this all makes sense!

I only have two more to go in terms of cleaning everything up so that's going to be my main focus until my next update post!

I also took the liberty of going through my Tumblr and organizing things a bit so it's easier to navigate through! Some things were slightly edited or removed since I don't align with it anymore or I just didn't like some of my old drawings.

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah

For updates about the game, they'll be under #TE Updates

If there's any other #'s I should add to keep things organized, please let me know! :]

With all that said I think that covers everything, thank you guys for believing in me and supporting what I'm trying to create! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello and welcome to my devlog! I have another update to share! I also would like to make it be known that since it's officially spooky month, updates about the game might be shorter and/or a bit scattered around so I can't guarantee they'll be weekly. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

Anywho, I wanted to give myself a break from the other route I was working on last week to focus on some other things within the game starting off with a fairly large change to a ending/path!

• Back in April/May, It was originally planned to be a ending you could get depending on how you interacted with Noah but, it was too similar to something I had already written. I then got an idea and turned it into a very long and extended situation you could get in Day 3 that would lead alllll the way into Day 5(+?).

I put a pause on it and went back to writing everything else because I didn't want to get too far ahead. When I came back to it I realized it had a good amount of spoilers that got thrown way too early at (Y/N)the player just on Day 3 and it ruined the flow I was trying to go for. I didn't get rid of it and instead, moved it somewhere else and placed it later into the game.

The path now leads back to an ending I settled on that I think really nails the whole survival thing and what would actually happen! I don't have any CG's to show for it right now but hopefully in the next update post it'll be done! :,]

Speaking of endings, another one also got adjusted! You could get it if you picked a specific choice and had a certain amount of closeness with Noah. When I was testing things, I found a unique variable you could get that would still let you continue into Day 4 when you technically weren't suppose to and I couldn't write anything to make it fit without messing up the flow of the other variables that were already in place. Now you'll automatically get this ending depending on how you go about playing! Here's a preview of it!

Lastly, I got to working on a different route I had already finished up and added a few more choices for you to make.

• The beginning of it was fairly empty and I wanted to give it more life since there was more reading than actual decisions. Nothing was too outdated or anything but some parts really needed better transparency so I went and fixed up certain sections.
• For example, some of Noah's and/or (Y/N)the player's reactions to certain situations didn't make enough sense to me so hopefully that shouldn't be a issue anymore! It also really helped me get a better idea of how I wanted a event to play out easier for me. :]

I let my play tester see the revised version and I explained what all was changed/fixed after they went through certain parts.

• One thing they mentioned that really stuck out to me was a specific part that they suggested to be done 'in the dark' and that there should be some CG's shown for when you make certain decisions instead of just seeing the window CG. I went and made some adjustments and overall, I think it adds a lot more to the stealth and suspense I was trying to go for! :]

With that being said I think that just about covers everything! Thank you guys very much for all your support and interest in what I'm working on, I wholeheartedly appreciate the encouragement! Also happy spooky month! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog, hope you're all having a great spooky month so far! :] Updates about the game might be shorter and/or a bit scattered around this month so I can't guarantee they'll be weekly. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

As far as routing goes I can confidently say one of them is about 95% done as it transitions into Day 4! I had to go through and redo one section that's a fairly strong pivotal point within the game that can branch differently.

In the old version there was only one way it could go with varying dialog. When my play tester went through this section, the writing came off kind of wonky when I herd it being read back to me.

• I remade the situation again and now you'll have three varying responses for it into Day 4! There were a few fixes towards CG transitions and glitches I just happen to come across, for some reason a certain trigger kept making the player go to a decision that wasn't chosen. It took a while to finally fix but I have no idea what was causing this issue. :,]

Also in mini happy news, I found one of the files I had been looking for! It was the backdoor CG that I couldn't find for months. It was used as a temporary placeholder until I redrew it but now that I have it again I touched up a few things with it and added different day/night settings to it. Now I just have to go through everything and place it around. Here's a before and after! :]

Also one of the CG's I did came out nicely and I didn't need a reference for it, I am very happy that I've been improving my art over time! Yay! :]

Lastly, I went through some of the choices within the beginning of the cabin part and added his sprite around a bit more as a quality of life change! At first I was kind of going for "off-screen" realism but sometimes you were left just looking at a empty room for a while so I went and adjusted him to continue being on screen unless he'd realistically wouldn't be (For example, the wording explaining that he went into another room, etc.).

I think that just about covers everything so far! Thank you guys for all your continued support and thoughtful messages. Hope you all continue having a good happy spooky month! >:]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog, I hope you're all still having a awesome spooky month! :] This update will be a bit long but I tried my best to condense everything.

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

There's a specific route I ultimately decided to rework. I wrote everything during the summer and looking at it now, it had the same problem I had fixed in another one which was the odd responses/reactions from both Noah and the player(Y/N) and not many choices. There was also a lot of alternate dialog that didn't make too much of a difference, hard to keep track of, and made things very cluttered.

I decided to lessen some of the alternate dialogs and instead focus more on it changing and having situational variables depending on what you choose since in this scenario, regardless of your closeness with Noah to a certain extent, he still feels a certain way towards you and I don't think adding extra dialog to it is needed like I thought it was months ago.

• The only exception to this is for a ending you can get since it would make the player(Y/N)'s reaction to everything seem really weird if I didn't change it up.

I also switched two situations around so it flows better. In the old version Noah's view of the player(Y/N) didn't line up in a certain scene so it felt as if everything leading up to that part didn't matter.

Lastly, something interesting happened while I was fixing up everything. There was a choice you could get that would be brought up and reflected later on in the route. I went and fixed it since I thought the alternate situations from it were too repetitive and gave off more of a Day 4 situation than a Day 3. The next day I adjusted it again and ended up starting them over from scratch because I thought the fixed writing was too cheesy. I was halfway through the second and accidently wrote over the one I actually liked, THEN everything crashed and reverted back to what I had there in the beginning. :,]

I took it as a sign and asked my play tester to play through it before I did anything else to it. :,]

They initially thought it was pretty good and I told them the issues I was having with it since they didn't see the other two situations you could get, the both of us bounced ideas back and forth for a while up until I went back and mixed both of our suggestions together. The revised version ended up being the one that was enjoyed a lot more since it felt more organic and the reactions were natural and not too cliché.

Now it correctly flows into a choice afterwards the can determine how the day ends. Overall, all of the revising will make this path even longer but I think it was worth it! :]

I think that is everything I have to share right now! Thank you guys very much for all your support and I hope spooky month continues to go well! >:]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog, I hope you all had a great and awesome spooky month! :] This update is a bit late because I wanted to give my mind some time to adjust back to working on the game since everything was fairly scattered around last month. This will be slightly long but I tried to condense everything. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

In good news, another route into day 4 is now 95% done! Both of my play testers went through it and gave a good amount of advice/guidance but overall enjoyed the additions I added to it along with a new CG! I won't show it right now but to give a little back story, It's actually a redraw of an old scene I was trying to create in the early part of the summer. At that time I was trying to strictly keep things updated weekly and rushed a certain angled CG pose so I could have something new to show and not reuse the same CG thumbnails over and over. I tried to make it work but i secretly didn't like it and eventually deleted it since it looked so awful. I rewrote the entire scene recently to fit the new CG that's there now and in a way, it brought everything together a lot more now then it did before. :]

I've also been going through and fixing up a lot of the volume differences within the game. There were times in the game where certain SFX's were too loud and not adjusted well to whatever song/ambiance was playing at the time. I'd say more of the commonly used SFX's are all fixed but I'll keep looking through and hopefully catch any of the ones I accidently missed.

There were also a few more adjustments done in the start of Day 3 when you enter the cabin most of which were quality of life changes ranging from simple dialog fixing to alterations depending on your closeness with Noah.

• I also tested adding a small animation to see how it would play out and I do like it but I still need to learn a bit more about it before adding it in.
• I also fixed more transitions since some were outdated and I missed a few of them.

• Along with this, one of the choices you could make towards the end got a drastic change. The reason being is that the reaction from this was too similar to another option you could make. I was originally going to cut this choice out entirely since I was having issues with how the story would progress from it. Changing it kind of gave me an idea on how I could make it work without it feeling forced. This is still up in the air though and I can't guarantee anything for it right now. :[

Lastly, I've been looking at one of the endings you could get in Day 3 and I came up with another idea for how it should end. I'm still coming up with CG ideas but I think the new ending will fit the theme I'm going for a lot more which will make it fairly long, some time in the future I'll come back to this. :]

With all that being said, I think that's everything I have to share right now! Thank you guys very much for all your support and appreciation for what I'm working on! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update towards the game's progress! This update will be a bit short because I was gone until recently and I'm still re-adjusting to working on the game again! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

In my last update post, I talked about looking into one of the endings you could get in Day 3 and I came up with another idea for how it should end. Here's a sneak peek! 

It's been a while since I've drawn outdoor CG's so I'm a little rusty right now. I thought this ending would be a long one but this one lasts a few minutes. I like how it turned out since it fits a lot better with the theme I'm trying to go for! I even attempted a little animation for it which came out nicely! Now that it's finished, everything leading up to the part where things start to branch off within the cabin is completed! :]

Onto other things, I checked through a different route and found out where I had left off from last week-ish+ so I'm still fixing glitches/quality of life changes I didn't get the chance to completely adjust there. This also includes the SFX/Music since I finally found out how to make them stack! In even greater news, I came across a time consuming bug that was giving me issues and I finally fixed! >:,]

Sadly, I did hit a rough patch that took up a lot of time. I was having a difficult time trying to come up with one or two CG's for a section of a path you can go through that didn't have anything. It took a while before I finally could come up with something for it but it's still up in the air since it might require some perspective angles and I'm still trying to practice that. :[

I'm hoping by the next update post all of them will be finished! :,]

Anyway, I think that's everything I have to report right now! Thank you for being patient and understanding! I really appreciate the continued support even though my update posts have been very scattered since spooky month. :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

This week mainly focused on CG work and placement!

I made a few that are now being added around in one of the routes you can get. Compared to the other path, this one felt rather empty especially during sections that had a bit of depth to them. I used his sprite in these areas because my art style at the time was inconsistent during the summer and I was bogged down from having to scrap a few of CG's. Now that I've been improving on drawing I feel more comfortable with adding them in! :,]

This is just a mock up but I also tested some small animation segments here and there, mainly just for practice so I can get a good idea of what I want to do moving forward! Eventually, certain parts of the game will have animated sections but for now, I'm just taking it slow. :]

On to some fixes that were made while I was placing the CG's around!

• Fixed a glitch I accidently overlooked which caused you to lose a lot of closeness with Noah if you happen to get an alternate situation twice.
• There were a few alternate dialogs that got removed since they were very minor and didn't really add towards the game.
• I deleted a decision from one of the paths you can run into in order to balance things out a bit more. It's now 2 instead of 3.
• There were more music/SFX that were adjusted in terms of balancing the volume. I also placed some in certain areas to give more of an immersive feel that weren't there initially.
• I redid the dialog from a choice that leads into the kitchen which didn't express Noah and the player(Y/N)'s reactions correctly.
• Lots of miscellaneous dialog changes that were either outdated, awkwardly worded, or unnecessary.
• Tweaked a few transition sections I missed.

I think that's everything I have to share right now, this week went really well as far as working on the game, I got a lot done than I expected to! The next update will go into a couple of reworks which includes his sprites! This was a long time coming but I'm looking forward to this! :]

Thank you guys so much for your continued encouragement and support, it does not go unnoticed and I really appreciate all of the kind words towards what I'm working on! :,]

Hello and welcome to my devlog, I am here with another update to share today! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

This week mainly focused on sprite rework!

This was something that I thought would happen later into development but I'm finally looking forward to doing this since I like how my art style has been developing. :]

The old files for his sprites were very unorganized and hard to follow so I redrew everything from scratch!

My coloring/shading has improved since early January-March so I wanted to fix certain details to define him but nothing that would drastically change him.

So to go into a bit more detail and add some more lore:

Noah's hair is healthy and well taken care of but still recovering from damage which makes it uneven. The hair on his right side that's over his shoulder is very long and reaches down towards his chest while his left side is shorter and slightly inches over his shoulder. The center part of his hair reaches down to the mid part of his back! :]

It's more noticeable in most of the CG's since his old sprites didn't show that too well.

In very early development for sprites, I was going for a sort of "anime" shading style and used a very small brush and minimal shading. The line art was too thin and didn't transfer well into the game so I redid them. In the second attempt, the main sprite from the demo that you would see on the screen had more details but I overlooked adding that same type of shading towards his side sprite in the bottom left corner in the demo. I didn't notice any of this until the early summer so it was something on my radar to redo.

I even changed the way his over-sized hoodie looked since I didn't know how to properly draw them at the time. Everything ended up taking a couple of tries before I was able to finally get what I wanted.

It took longer than expected to restore the new sprites when I first started adding them because I tried using the "replace" method and it messed up what I was trying to do. I wasn't really too bothered by this so I combed through everything one by one instead which helped me catch a few more grammar mistakes/do some minor quality of life changes.

Speaking of quality of life, Noah also has more sprite expressions too, It went from about 10 to 17 so far! Some of his original expressions didn't line up the way I wanted them to in the demo/full game and now they fit a lot better this time around. :]

There will also be alternate sprites being used when he's in what he considers his pajamas! I had some old sprites of this but I really did not like them as time went on and his sprite expressions no longer fit what I'm trying to go for anymore. This will be something I'll talk about in the next update post! :]

With that being said, that's all I have to share for right now!

Thank you very much for all of your support and constant encouragement on what I've been working on! I will always wholeheartedly appreciate it! This week was really productive and I'm very happy with how much got done with the games' development! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog! I am here with an update again which will be fairly short! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

This week continued into more sprite reworking!

I don't really have too much to say about this that I didn't already cover from the last update post but these are his alternate sprites that will be used when he's in what he considers to be his pajamas!

The old version of his pajama sprites no longer represent what I wanted to go for and they looked too similar to his green hoodie sprites. I wanted the pose to be different and show the differences between what he wears since his green hoodie is oversized on him. I'd show the before and after but I cringe looking at his old sprites lol. :,]

I also went through and temporarily fixed the morning living room CG by lightening it because his pajama sprite blended a bit too much into the background.

Adding all of his pajama sprites was easier after the trial and error with his green hoodie sprites which lead to me finding more grammar issues and certain dialogs that weren't needed anymore.

Now with that out of the way, it's time to talk about a new ending you can get now! So funny story, I actually completely forgot about this ending and it remained unfinished since it was something that was originally hidden within the game and there was a very specific way you had to go about getting it. I just happened to find it again when I was placing his sprites around. I read through it and changed the entire segment since it was outdated. Here's a small sneak peak!

I love the way it turned out in the end! I was able to find the old CG file and had a lot of fun with adjusting the lighting for it to resemble a different time of day! :]

This is all I have so far to discuss so thank you for supporting and encouraging me through this game development process! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

 Hi guys and welcome to my devlog! Wishing you all a happy and safe new year! To start things off fresh, I am here with an update to share today! This one will be a little bit long but I tried my best to condense everything. :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

The start of the game that leads up to the cabin is getting completely reworked. This was something that was going to happen way later into the game's development and this will be talked about in depth on a Master post.

(If you have any questions and/or comments, feel free to send in a ask on my Tumblr or comment them on itch.io as I would like to compile some of them into the post! I'll make another comment about this some time in the future.) :]

As time went on I started revaluating some things when I played the beginning of the game again when I went to do some minor quality of life changes. I realized that a lot of what happens during this segment doesn't match what happens later on in the game since my writing and story telling has improved since then.

This is still up in the air as far as how I want things to go and will require some brainstorming but hopefully everything will turn out the way I want it to! :]

The main part I want to discuss without mentioning spoilers is the way Noah introduces himself to you. My thought process from early January-April of 2023 is completely different to how I want it to go now.

The old/early demo version was going to be more on the horror side and even though there were semi-hints of romance and maybe 2 endings for this which would start around Day 5 or so, it wasn't the entire focus if that makes sense. Without spoilers, this slightly explains why he comes off very distant at the start. Now there's a even balance between both genres which I really had fun writing and working through, I like it as a meaningful slow burn than it just being all over the place. :]

I also didn't like how regardless of what you choose he's still fairly aggressive and is some what condescending the entire time at the start in the demo. This part was actually the second time I redid it because in the old version, he only spoke to you maybe once or twice and that was pretty much it. I want his actions to be based on how you interact with him versus it happening only one way. This will mean more writing but It'll be worth it. :]

Lastly, the two bad endings where Noah finds the player(Y/N) freezing to death/falling off a cliff have been adjusted and Noah no longer finds you in your horrid state. Noah's thought process is different and he wouldn't be that disconnected towards the player(Y/N) to want to see you like that. :,]

That pretty much sums up everything so far! Thank you guys for all of the continued support throughout 2023! I can't wait to see what 2024 will bring and I hope it goes great for you all! :]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and to my devlog! I am here with another update to share about the games progress! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

So far the start of the game leading up to the cabin is still being tweaked and there's been a lot of brainstorming going on for it. Most of the choices/endings are still the same but some paths and endings have little animations for more of an immersive play style! :] The dialog has also been adjusted to fit more with how I like to write now compared to last year.

There's a new CG that got re-made and a new ending! I'm not ready to show the CG but I do want to talk about the ending!

It's was originally going to lead to you crossing the bridge but I decided to change it. Then it was going to continue off into the cabin but I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't make much sense for there to be a "second chance" so depending on how you interact with Noah will get you this one. It's fairly similar to another ending but it's kind of an interesting path to take and is more of a form of symbolism.

As far as the inside of the cabin goes a couple of situations got adjusted since his response to your actions could have the potential of Noah getting closer to the player(Y/N) and I've been testing it out to make sure it's balanced and reasonable. :]

My play tester also happened to have some free time and went through the game again! It had been a good while so there were new things in the game they hadn't seen before. Overall, it was a great time and a good discussion about the routes! I expressed my different mindset compared to early last year and a lot of communication and ideas were made from it! :]

Everything else was minor fixes and miscellaneous adjustments that don't need a lot of explaining.

With that I think that's all I have to share so far! Thank you for supporting me through this game development process! :,]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi guys and welcome new followers! I am here with another update to share which is fairly short! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

Progress was pretty slow this week up until my second play tester got a chance to play a little bit of the game. They also haven't played it in a while so it was enjoyable getting their view on everything. Sadly, they weren't able to finish everything but it was a lot of fun! I was given some grammatical tips and redid some sentences that needed to be adjusted/shortened.

There was also a laugh between the both of us. They came across a funny grammatical error that's been in the game since the demo that surprisingly never got noticed or mentioned when Noah is thinking to himself during a certain section of the cabin. :P

They also mentioned fixing up old CG's and I completely forgot about updating the old ones from early development that didn't focus around Noah being in them.

Here's the new updated version of the bathroom!

This will most likely be mentioned in the master post but, the old version of the cabin was going to be in a very bad state. Mold and dust was going to be something that was not only a big problem in the bathroom but also the living room, kitchen, [redacted], and [redacted]. This was changed due to my writing improvement and I have a different way of approaching the mold issue. To those who've been here since the early days of the "mold era", it's no longer as bad and mostly (? >:?) cleaned up now! :]

There's also going to be a fairly small-medium sized quality of life change in the start of the cabin. My play tester mentioned a few key things that I agreed on that would really reflect Noah's view towards the player(Y/N) and his own characteristics.

That's all I have to share so far! Thank you guys for all of your supporting encouragement through this! It will always be greatly appreciated! >:]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog! I am here with another update about the game, this one will be fairly short as well! :]

If you would like to play the demo here's a link to it. :]

In good news, both of my play testers were able to replay the game and go through everything I've written up so far. Listening to their advice has really helped me progress the game/story and revisit a couple of things from Day 3 that would fit later on in the game. It goes into spoiler territory so I can't explain too much but it mainly has to do with pacing the story. :]

As for the routes, both play testers gave the green light for them and there were only a few things that needed fixing.

• There were about 2 situations where the conversation between Noah and the player(Y/N) happened out of order that needed fixing. I cleaned up some of the dialog and rearranged some of the talking points to make it easier to understand, once I showed both of them the results they said it was easier to follow! :]
• A reoccurring SFX that happens in the game was suggested to be replaced with something else. I was fine with this since it was something in the back of my mind that I wasn't too about adjusting so this really gave me the go ahead to do so. I'm still looking for one that fits but hopefully I find one soon! :]

• They also ran into a a couple grammatical issues I still missed (e.x.: Brake instead of Break) and I'm very grateful these were caught because I'm still surprised some were left around. I also did more dialogue fixing too since some descriptions were too clunky. :,]

Also, here's a new CG! This was originally going to be used to replace the old living room window but my play testers and I agreed on liking the dated version a lot more. This was going to be scrapped but I found a better place for it! :,]

I'm still brainstorming how this area will look but maybe sometime next week it'll all be figured out!

I don't really have too much else to report on this time around. I've mainly been fixing a lot of the things my play testers have mentioned and doing a few tests here and there.

Thank you guys for all of your kind words and support, especially from the OC x Buckshot roulette drawings I did, I didn't expect the sudden boost with those. All of this is greatly appreciated! :,]

SURPRISE!

TREMBLING ESSENCE [EXTENDED DEMO]: 

💙FEBURARY 10TH💙

Here's a early Valentines Day present! :]

Hello guys and welcome to my devlog! This is a surprise that has been in the works when the interest in what I've been working on got a lot of positive reception and continued to do so! From this I decided to extend the demo out even further and allow the rest of Day 3 to be playable!

This [extended demo] will include:

• Two full routes that continue out the rest of Day 3.
• Revamped dialog and scenarios
• Updated and alternate sprites of Noah
• New and updated backgrounds
• Day and night settings
• Animated scenery in certain sections
• New music/SFX's
• Visual effects that indicate HP loss/immersive play
• 23 different endings (An additional 10 have been added!)
• More interactive choices
• A few easter eggs have been added!

The old demo from March 2023 is no longer canon and will serve as an archive since much of it has been changed! If you haven't played it yet and would like to just for fun, here's a link! :]

Please note: If there are CG's/scenes you've seen from past game development posts that aren't in the [extended demo], that's because they are most likely from other routes/paths that contained spoilers that happened too early for my liking and need fixing.

If you have any questions, feel free to send them in my ask box on my Tumblr! :]

Thank you to everyone that has stuck around and believed in me by keeping up with what I've been creating so far, it doesn't go unnoticed and I will always appreciate the support I've been given! :,]

TREMBLING ESSENCE [EXTENDED DEMO]: 

💙Mini Update💙

Hi guys and welcome new followers! I am here with a mini update! :]

Since there's 3 days left until the [Extended Demo] is uploaded on my itch.io page, I want to share a few game development things that weren't written in the Surprise update post. This was done to keep it from being too long winded. :]

If you would still like to play the old March 2023 demo just for fun here's the link! :]

There were a lot of quality of life changes.

For starters, a few CG's got adjustments that I felt were needed. Here's an idea of what I mean:

Before:

After:

• Since this CG will be commonly seen throughout the game, I felt like the view should be updated! I wanted to go for a detailed, scenic look with varying colors. I think out of all the Day & Night settings I redid, this one was my favorite to illustrate! Also, I slightly adjusted the window frame but kept the rustic look it was intended for! :]

(Not every single CG got reworked as this would've cause the [extended demo] to be pushed out even further into 2024.)

• I added a few immersive CG's throughout the game to really give a dynamic view of what you choose to do as well. These were mainly added in areas that would need suspense and foreboding elements .
• There are also a few never seen before CG's of Noah that also got fixed up too that I wanted the player to find on their own. Some of them were drawn back around Summer/Fall when my art style wasn't really consistent. Some of the lighting and overall look were redone.

You'll see what I mean once you get to play! :]

• Another thing I did was fix the "Rollback" commands in the game. I tried fixing it before and messed up so I left it alone for a while until I was ready to come back and fix it. I tried my best to place them in areas where it made sense.

I also showed one of my play testers the new SFX's that would replace an old one that we agreed didn't fit the game. In the end we ended up picking 2 different ones to give a more diverse/immersive feel.

They also told me to check for more grammar mistakes and I found a few more again... :,]

That's all I have to share for now, Thank you again to everyone that has stuck around by keeping up with what I've been creating and believing in me , I appreciate the support I've been given! :,]

TREMBLING ESSENCE [EXTENDED DEMO]: 

💙OUT NOW!💙

You wake up lost within the swamplands that is surrounded by a large forest. The sense of time is lost on you and the moon is your only guiding light.  At some point you can choose to receive help from a man named Noah who resides in the swamp. He has vast knowledge that will aid you in your survival and if you choose to go with him, he'll take you back to his desolate cabin. He just wants to take care of you and keep you safe but there's a lot more to him than he lets on. It's up to you to make certain choices to survive to the end even if it means taking extreme risks. 

Trembling Essence is a slow burn horror game/dating sim visual novel which focuses on survival. Your choices will lead to multiple endings that will help you learn not only about Noah and the swamp, but everything else surrounding it.

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

A very special thank you to everyone that's been following this project of mine and being supportive! It means a lot to me! :]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙Thank you!💙

Hello and welcome new followers to my Devlog, if you would like to play the [Extended Demo] here's a link! First off I just want to show my appreciation and gratitude for all the support I've been given this week with these two concept drawings. :,]

I don't show sketches as much as I used to since they can look really messy but maybe it's time to change that into the new year! :D

They were suppose to be colored up and uploaded as a Valentines Day surprise but, there was a lot of stuff going on which gave me art block so I didn't get a chance to finish them on time. I'm still sort of getting over it now though. :,]

A big thank you to everyone that has been patient and supported this through a comment, tip jar, likes, re-blog, fanart, share, etc.

I whole-heartedly appreciate the positive reception from the [Extended Demo] and it really makes me happy seeing familiar people and newcomers interested in what I'm creating. I'm still adjusting and need time to get to everything I might've missed.

If you have any questions about the game/Noah feel free to ask here or comment below. I would really like to hear from you guys!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings and my art block isn't as bad as before. :]

I'm also going to try and re-organize all of the lore and art about Noah/the game posts on my Tumblr  since going through the tags don't have them ordered correctly. I didn't know about this until recently. :[

Game development Trembling Essence [Extended demo] update:

I've only been able to catch a few glimpses of playthroughs and wasn't able to watch them fully so I don't have too much to say right now but I did notice that one of the full routes out of the two in the [Extended Demo] weren't found so I'm going to post two more CG previews here and on the game page as a hint, hopefully this helps!

As far as any future updates go for the [Extended Demo], I don't have an answer yet! I want to see how things will continue to go and not rush anything. :]

Anywho, that's all I have to share right now. Once again, thank you to everyone's kind words and continued support, especially those that have been here since the beginning and have been very patient and understanding! I wholeheartedly appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙Quality of life changes + Q&A.💙

Hello and welcome new followers! To show my appreciation for all the support I've received again, here's one of the Valentines Day concept drawings finished! A big thank you to everyone that has continued supporting this through a like, re-blog, fanart, comment, tip jar, share, etc. The higher quality version is on my Tumblr since this one had to be adjusted in order for me to upload it. :,]

I wasn't expecting it to take as long as it did but I'm very happy with the result and how much I've been improving! I'm not too good at drawing angled faces so being able to get it to look just right made me very happy! :,]

• I still have this one to go so hopefully at some point I'll have it done!

Quality of life changes:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! It'll be something for me to work on adding and I'll let it be known in a update post!

Now that it's been two weeks of the [Extended Demo] being released, It's time to go over some changes to help the player out when going through the game!

1. I noticed from comments and playthrough's that certain Bad endings/Neutral story progressions were difficult to find, especially the full afternoon route. I don't want players to feel burnt out from trying to search for everything.

I want to add a check-list menu that shows all the Bad/Neutral endings you can get while playing so it's easier to navigate the game.

2. For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

It's still up in the air about how I'm going to go on about this but I'm thinking about adding a little notification tab in the upper left corner of the game to notify the player(Y/N) of what day it is in the game to resolve confusion.

3. I talked about this last week but I didn't know until recently that the tags I use for Trembling Essence were very unorganized and hard to search through.

I went through and tried my best to re-organize all of the lore and art about Noah/game posts. I also cleaned up the #Trembling Essence tag since it was flooded with game development posts and not much else. I'm also working on a master post and plan on creating some reference sheets of Noah which will be placed under a different tag! :]

#Get to know: Noah : This will be filled with answered asks and lore dump. Sometimes(?) there's random dev-logs that have lore attached to them too.

 #TE Updates : This only includes dev-logs/updates about the game and development progress.

 #Trembling Essence : This tag is mainly used to post fan art / art and anything else in general that might belong here which includes lore posts. I really want searching through the tag to be enjoyable and not filled with a bunch of dev-logs.

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing versus me just answering everything. :]

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings and helps me practice. :]

That's all I have to share right now! Thank you for the continued support, I wholeheartedly appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙Quality of life progress💙

Hi hi and welcome new followers! This week mainly focused on the quality of life changes I discussed in my last update post. :]

Quality of life progress:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! I'm still working on this and I'll let it be known in a update post!

Now that it's week three of the [Extended Demo] being released, It's time to go over some changes to help the player out when going through the game!

It was a struggle but I managed to make a endings collection gallery! I'm still working on it and brainstorming how to make it easier for the player to navigate but hopefully it'll be done soon.

I added a 'Endings' button and separated the endings into different categories!

It looks wonky here but trust the process, I'm still fixing it up! :,]

The left section will be all the bad endings you can get which will be marked in RED when you get them!

The middle section will be the neutral endings that you can obtain within the cabin. These will be marked in BLUE. :]

To give a little bit more detail on this one, these are sections that were suppose to continue the story but ended very early since I still need to look over and redo some of these paths/routes.

For example: Choosing the "Go to sleep." choice here will always lead to a neutral ending regardless of how close you are with Noah.

The right section are all the endings you can achieve when you manage to find the two full routes that progress the rest of Day 3. They will be marked in GREEN!

With that out of the way here's another quality of life adjustment!

For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

I added a little notification tab in the upper left corner of the game to notify the player(Y/N) of what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. I'm still fixing this too. :]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing so I'm more comfortable with doing this now that the [Extended Demo] has been out for a good while now!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings and helps me practice. :]

For those who don't follow my Tumblr, here's a sneak peek of a drawing I've been working on. I was looking through old drawings for a skit and noticed I haven't drawn Noah with his sledgehammer in a while. Not sure when this will be finished. :[]

That's all I have to share right now! A very big thank you for the continued interest and support in what I'm working on, I will always appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙Quality of life progress finished💙

Hello and welcome to my devlog! I've been focused on the quality of life changes I discussed in my last two update posts. :]

Happy one month of the [Extended Demo] being released! Yay! Thank you to everyone that has been patient and supported this! :,]

Quality of life progress:

*Please note that these changes aren't in the [Extended Demo] yet! I'm in the process of updating which I'll announce in a future post! :]

Here's the finished endings collection gallery! I enjoyed the process and learned a lot from this. I can't wait to implement what I've learned in other places within the game! :,]

When you load up the game you just have to click on each tab to see your progress. If it's greyed out that means you haven't earned it yet and if you do, it'll have color and a "+" added to it! I also changed the hue's compared to how it looked last week. :]

I also discovered there's actually 12* Bad Endings and not 13. At some point during development a Bad Ending was turned into a Neutral Ending and I accidently forgot to change that. :S

The game page will be adjusted to indicate this now:

12 Bad endings 6 Neutral endings 6 endings that continue the rest of the Day 3

For those that are new or have been here for some time, entering the cabin with Noah starts Day 3 due to the player(Y/N) being lost in the terrain for 2 and a half days which Noah mentions. Sometimes this can get confusing since some consider it Day 1 while the game considers it Day 3.

I added a notification tab in the upper left corner and moved it slightly to the right so it wouldn't overlap the player(Y/N)'s HP bar. This is meant to show what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. :]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I really wanted some of the lore to be found through playing so I'm comfortable with doing this now that the [Extended Demo] has been out for a good while now!

If you've already sent in a ask, I did see it I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Outside of a couple of spelling errors I fixed, I can't think of anything else that needs to be added right now so that's all I have to share! Thank you for the continued support, I appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙Update out now!💙

Hello and welcome new followers! Just letting it be known that the [Extended Demo] has been updated and now includes a Endings Gallery and a Day 3 notifier when you enter the cabin with Noah! :]

Please let me know if you run into any bugs, glitches, misspellings, etc or if the Endings gallery shows up for you.

When you load up the game you just have to click on each tab to see your progress. If it's greyed out that means you haven't earned it yet and if you do, it'll have color and a "+" added to it! :]

This notification is meant to show what day it is in the game to resolve confusion. Once you enter the cabin with Noah it starts Day 3. In the future, this notification will pop up every time there's a new Day! :]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience, I really appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence [Extended Demo]:

💙What happens now?💙

Hello and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Firstly, I just want to thank everyone that have been playing the updated [Extended Demo] with the Endings Gallery and Day 3 notifier! From this I was able to get a good amount of responses to help me with quality of life ideas going forward. :]

The game page has also been fixed to include the Windows and Mac logo downloads as I had no idea they weren't there until I was told. :,,]

Again, please let me know if you run into any bugs, glitches, misspellings, etc or if the Endings gallery doesn't show up for you correctly.

"So what happens now?"

As far as the [Extended Demo] goes, I do have plans on updating it with certain paths/routes HOWEVER, it will be some time before that happens. There's a lot of stuff that I need to rework and look over before I can add anything. Here's a peek from some of the old game development posts.

[Please remember that this is still a DEMO and anything is subject to change.]

The sections missing from the [Extended Demo] were from routes/paths I wrote during the late spring-summer of 2023. In the fall my writing style developed significantly which lead me to discover multiple pacing issues in the story that went unnoticed. Out of everything I wrote, the two full routes you get while playing were the only sections that were good enough for me to polish up and didn't contain spoilers. As for when the new routes/paths will be added to the [Extended Demo], I don't have an answer for this.

Right now I've been giving myself a break and mainly focusing on brainstorming things out.

In other news, I'm still in the process of creating Noah's reference sheets! There will be a total of three(?) which will have specific details for each one! It's taking some time to create since I'm still learning how to do angled faces/poses, here's the w.i.p sketch version below:

 /Ask box is still open:

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and encouraging words while I continue working on the game, I really appreciate it. :,]

Hello and welcome to my devlog!  It'll be some time before there's another update for the '[Extended Demo]' so it will no longer be in the title of game development posts to avoid confusion. Also the next couple of game development posts for April might be a bit short and/or spread out. :]

Behind the scenes:

So far a lot of what's been going on has been brainstorming/going over the script with breaks in between!

I had a very long talk with one of my play testers and it was very fun! One hour ended up turning into several and it really helped me get a better idea of what I want to do for some of the routing/paths and the overall story in general. I believe that this entire month+(?) will just be overlooking the script and brainstorming more ideas/quality of life changes for the game!

My writing style has developed significantly and I'm trying my best to fix all of the multiple pacing issues in the story in a certain order. Noah's backstory is one of the focal points being thoroughly worked on since he expresses sections of his past throughout the game depending on your choices. I can't really share too much else because a lot of it has spoilers and happens later on in the game so right now I'm just writing everything down. So far, I'm still in the early writing stages and I would consider it about 20%(?) done.

I'm still in the process of creating Noah's reference sheets too but I think I'll end up ditching some of the sketches since angled faces/poses are still difficult for me to draw. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks! I'll try to get to them when I can. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Right now this is all I have to share so far, thank you to everyone for the continued support while I continue working on the game. :,]

💙Script progress + Updates💙

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Hello and welcome new followers, long time no see! I was very busy most of this month, but I am back and ready to continue from where I left off on the game! This game development post might be a bit long but I tried to condense everything! :]

"How are things going so far?":

It's going slow and steady! I haven't been able to do too much these past few weeks, however, I wrote a few parts out before I got too busy and couldn't do anything else.

I want to be very careful when it comes to spoilers but, based on your choices, some of these areas will give off immersive cozy/homelike vibes that really express Noah and the player(Y/N)'s view towards each other. In the old 2023 script I was very new to writing so the small semi-hints of romance weren't the entire focus compared to the horror aspect but there's a better balance between both genres now and I'm still aiming for a meaningful slow burn versus it just being all over the place. :] I liked writing them a whole bunch which lead to a lot of these taking place in the mid/end of Day 4+, they just need to be placed in specific areas that call for it. With that being said, it felt really comfy adding key details about Noah and creating meaningful sections in the game. I was even going to draw out some of the unseen script/scenes but I believe the best thing to do is give deeper lore from the [Extended Demo] first. Even though my writing style has improved I still have to fix the multiple pacing issues I wrote last year.

"Playtester's advice":

I wanted to continue working through Noah's backstory but I kept having moments where I'd get sidetracked into wanting to fix up the start of the game again. Eventually, I talked to my play testers about it and they gave me a few encouraging pointers.

To help keep my process at ease, I will fix the beginning of the game when I take breaks from writing up Noah's backstory. :]

I talked about this during early 2024 but the start of the game that leads up to the cabin is still getting reworked. I was able to get some of it fixed for the [Extended Demo] but I wasn't done. Things are still up in the air but, I will say that I have a better view of everything than I did before. :] Another priority that needs fixing are the backgrounds! I've improved a lot on drawing and they need to be optimized. When you first start up the game, you wake up in a holed out tree in the swamp with the choice to leave this area and possibly end up in the forest. I was going for a very immersive form of symbolism that only a few noticed but, I believe I can do a better job about this. Unfortunately I don't have any new backgrounds to show right now but maybe next week I'll have some finished up! :]

"Art process/Noah's sprite sheets":

As far as Noah sprite sheet goes, it's still in sketch mode.

I didn't draw anything since I was gone so I need to do a few warm ups before I get to them. There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and old sketches that I never got a chance to doodle so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

My Q&A / Ask box has been reset!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks in the past, unfortunately they all disappeared except for 1 while I was gone. I have no idea what happened but I can only guess it just got reset.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask or resend them in here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have to share so far, Thank you to everyone for the continued support and patience while I was gone! I was ready to accept the interest for this game to fade out and coming back to see that it didn't happen makes me happy, I really appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence:

💙Background + script updates💙

Hi hi and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

This week mainly focused on art practice. I'm still getting back into the flow of working on the full game so this post might be very short. :]

Anywho, here are some of the backgrounds I drew up as practice.

I was going to use these in the beginning of the game but the immersive symbolism I was going for didn't match up to my liking. It just finished raining in the swamp where you're located at which leaves the area feeling tolerably cold but oddly humid with a hint of decay/mold in the air. I'm aiming for a dreary night theme that gives off a foreboding and a gloomy atmosphere. These give off a "fairy-forest" concept which I don't like all that much. Here's some reference examples of what I hope to bring next time:

I'm also in the process of creating a map for myself to make things easier to layout since certain endings are being changed. This due to specific areas taking place in the forest and not the swamp which have their own unique form of symbolism. I tried to convey this in the March 2023/[Extended Demo] but it's hard to tell the difference between the areas.

I can't guarantee this fully but if you choose to explore around the area there might be small parallax effects that move around automatically. It was something I wanted to try back in the [Extended Demo] but this would've pushed the update farther out into the year.

Lastly, happy belated birthday to Noah! His birthday is May 7th! :]

I wasn't able to draw a birthday doodle yet so enjoy this unrelated sneak peek practice sketch I did a few days ago. :,,]

My Q&A / Ask box has been reset!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks in the past, unfortunately they all disappeared except for 1 while I was gone. I have no idea what happened but I can only guess it just got reset.

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask or resend them in here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

This is all I have done so far but I'm enjoying the process even if it's a bit small, Thank you guys for the patience and continued support and patience I really appreciate it. :,]

Trembling Essence:

💙Background + poll results💙

Hello hello and welcome new followers! :]

Firstly I just want to say a very big thank you to everyone that participated in the poll I did last week, I was really surprised but happy with the results and responses! This will help me a lot moving forward! :,] If you missed it and would like to say which route you preferred feel free to comment!

Anywho, this week mainly focused on art practicing again but I did work on the game and managed to get my bearings even more!

Here is the new background for the start of the game:

This took a long time to draw up since I sketched out the background instead of looking at references this time. Once I got a basic idea of how I wanted it to look it felt.. too empty and flat. At first I couldn't figure out why until I added more shrubbery and grass. After that I started adding the trees and then added a few more to give it depth and adjusted some of the coloring. So far the immersive symbolism I'm going for is slowly coming together! Since it just finished raining where you're located I tried to give the background the illusion of looking tolerably humid but slowly getting colder over time with a hint of decay in the distance. This is a better look of the dreary foreboding atmosphere compared to the "fairy-forest" from last week. >:,] It took a while but I also added a parallax effect here and optimized the images to save space. I kept getting an error when it came to the middle ground so I had to find and fix the problem which delayed things. I don't have a video to show it in action but maybe next time. I do want it to be known again that these automatically happen and don't follow the cursor. :,,]

Here's a sneak peek of the new choices you can do when you're in this area now. >;]

This part required a lot of brainstorming before I figured out how I wanted the explorative part to go. This was originally going to go a different way completely but a particular day caused me to just scrap it and start everything over. I have a very solid idea on how I want all of this to go better than ever so I can't wait to show some of the new areas! I didn't expect this background to take as long as it did to draw up but hopefully next week I'll have more done!

Progress doodle layout:

Since certain endings are being changed I thought it would be cool to animate a progress layout to visually show how everything is going! It shouldn't take too long to finish this section up since I already have a foundation laid out.

Noah's sprite sheet update:

As far as Noah sprite sheets goes, it's still in sketch mode and I haven't messed with them yet since I've been practicing. :,,]

There are some old drawing prompts I wrote down and sketches that I'm still doodling up behind the scenes so hopefully I can get to them at some point with some attached lore. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is still open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Thank you to those who have sent in asks after everything got reset! I'll try to get to them when I can along with the ones that come to mind that got deleted. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

Overall that's everything I have to share so far, thank you guys for your continued encouragement and support through all of this, I wholeheartedly appreciate it! :,,]

Trembling Essence:💙Background updates + script progress💙

Hi and welcome new followers!

A big thank you to the sudden influx of support I got this week, I wasn't expecting any of it and it was really encouraging! In between art practicing I managed to get more work done than expected! >:,]

Here is the new/updated CG's for the start of the game:

Since I've come a long way with shading I went back and fixed up the initial encounter you can get with Noah and changed out the background. It took longer than expected because some of his expressions didn't line up correctly but I'm happy with the overall foreboding theme I was aiming for. I even added a small parallax effect when he helps you up afterwards. :]

For the dialog I cleaned it up by removing certain parts that didn't add to the story or dragged the situation on for too long. I even fixed some of the conversations you can have with Noah in the beginning that was slightly misleading and confusing to read through. :[] As for the backgrounds I tried looking for more references after I finished redoing this CG, specifically ones that helped me with perspective. Sometimes I have a habit of drawing scenes too flat. In good news, the fog animations are optimized in them so it's easier for me to add! :,,]

The overall progress has increased quite a bit! Everything is going smoothly so far! I don't know when all of it will be finished but it shouldn't take too long.

Q&A / Ask box is open for itch.io now:

I had no idea that you need a Tumblr account to send in questions to the inbox so going forward I'll adjust my game development posts to reflect that in the Q&A section. If you have a question you would like to ask on itch.io if you don't have a Tumblr account, feel free to comment there as well! It will be answered there and on Tumblr :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

Overall, thank you to those who have sent in asks after everything got reset! I'm trying to get to them when I can including the ones I remember that got deleted. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

This is everything I have to share so far, thank you guys for your continued support through this process, I appreciate it! :,,]

Trembling Essence:

💙Quality of life changes + choice progress + backgrounds💙

Hi and welcome to my devlog! :]

This week focused on quality of life changes with the story based on your choices at the start of the game. There was some art practicing again but I managed to get stuff done!

In my previous game development posts I kept talking about making parallax effects in the game! I can't upload the video on itch.io but here's the link to it on my tumblr! :]

Here's some quality life changes for certain effects in the game:

When I initially added an effect for losing HP it was suppose to light up the edges of your screen. Sometimes it can be hard to see if there's another effect happening on the screen so I went back and gave a small hue effect every time you lose HP instead of it only occurring on the edges of the screen. I don't have an example of this only because I have to go through the entire game to fix it, maybe next week I'll have it all done! :,]

Before:

After:

If the player(Y/N) is feeling very cold a icy effect will be shown around the screen to indicate this. I really loved the original way it looked but the new backgrounds can make it very hard to see now. To fix this I added a touch of white frost around the center of the screen so it'll be more noticeable. I also optimized this image so it takes up less space in the game! :]

Choice progress:

I have been going through and writing out what happens with each choice you make.

Without giving spoilers for this ending I want there to be a variety on what happens when you make a choice but I don't want there to be too much branching for this one in particular. It's pretty straightforward.  When it comes to the dialog I found out a way to combine sentences together in a way that makes the pacing flow better. It's a little hard to visualize but when you get to the next statement sometimes it'll stay in the same line instead of dragging the dialog out.  I also managed to catch a very early bug that caused the screen to go black if you skipped through the dialog, I am very happy I caught this versus finding this problem later into the game. :,,]

Almost half way there! I redid a few more backgrounds and added some animations to them. Since this game development post is getting very long I'll show more of them next week. :D

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I appreciate the asks I got recently these past couple of days! I'm trying to get to them when I can including the ones I remember that got deleted. I just need time to answer since I like to respond with doodles/drawings as practice. :]

I think that's everything I have to say right now, thank you guys very much for all of the positive support, I appreciate it! :,,]

Trembling Essence:💙Choice exploration + finished scenes💙

Hello and welcome new followers, here's an update on how things are going with the game! Firstly a big thank you to the sudden influx of support I got this week, I'm happy knowing people liked the little meme video I did! :,]

This post might be a little long since I had to rewrite a few things, I was trying to upload a picture of one of the new areas you can go in but I got an error and couldn't save what I wrote. :,S

Anywho, I mainly focused on quality of life changes and continued working with the one of the endings you can get at the start of the game.

I don't really know where to start but this ending took a lot longer than expected to really hit what I've been trying to go for. At first, it was going to have two different endings. I took out one of them because I didn't have much of a connection with it and I liked the idea of it being straightforward instead. When I went back over it, everything happened too quickly for my liking.  To fix this I went back and added a few choices to at least give you an idea of what the area is like and how it effects the player(Y/N) while making sure the dialog transitioned correctly with what you see on the screen. It's nothing too wordy but I do like it a lot more than I did before. Even though this is still considered one ending there is a alternate version you can get depending on a certain choice. Towards the end I fixed up all the spelling errors I could find and happily enough, there wasn't many. For right now I'd say this ending is finished! Yay! x]

Here's one of my favorite CG's I drew for it:

I love how it turned out because I really want to do different angles and perspective through the terrain, I think this one is my favorite so far! :,,]

Here's a evening time version of it:

It's suppose to be raining in this image but I still need to practice getting the angle correct. :,,]

I'm also fixing/brainstorming up the second/third ending. This one will have two different areas you can navigate through to get an idea of where you are and a few hints of lore that will be referenced later on in the game. Those that have played the [Extended Demo] you probably know which ones I'm talking about. >;]

I already like the idea of them but for one of the paths, I didn't have enough time to branch it out and make backgrounds for it in the [Extended Demo] so here's a peek of a placeholder since I'm still sketching stuff out, nothing is finalized yet. :[]

Super close to the cabin section, yay! I actually miss writing/drawing out the segments in the cabin a whole bunch so I really can't wait to fix up that part once I'm done with the swamplands. :,,]

I said last week I'd post some of the new backgrounds/areas so here you go:

Kofi update:

I also had a small talk with my play testers and one of the things they brought up is that I should be promoting my ko-fi better so from now on I'll have little mini doodles doing so at the end of every game development post as a way to promote it! :] All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do here! I was able to use previous tips to get a new wrist support brace when I'm drawing so a very big thank you to everyone who gave a tip! :,,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I enjoyed answering the asks I got recently this week! I'm trying to finish the rest when I can including the ones I remember that got deleted. There were some I genuinely couldn't answer because it would require me to mention major spoilers/the questions have spoilers in them. :,]

This post is getting really long now so that's all I have to discuss, thank you guys very much for all of the encouraging support this past week, I appreciate it a whole bunch! :,,]

Trembling Essence:💙Ending progress + poll results💙

Hi again and welcome new followers, here's another progress update about the game! >;]

But before I write that out I just want to say a very big thank you to everyone that participated in the poll I did so far, The results and responses have been helping me for the final version. :,] If you still want to give your vote/opinion on the start of the game here's the poll from my tumblr! There's less than 24 hours to vote!

I took a small break to gather my thoughts before continuing from where I left off. I was brainstorming a lot about this because I didn't want the beginning of the game to be too long when it comes to figuring out how to get to Noah, but I do want the explorative side to give some lore.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind that'll help me solve this issue I've been having. :,]

Last week I mentioned the two endings you could get that are from the [Extended Demo]. I don't count this as spoilers but these endings will have their own separate choice to go down instead of it being in the same path. This replaces a section from the [Extended Demo] and lowers the amount of time it takes to figure out how to get to Noah, especially for those that are new to the game. Consider this a healthy quality of life change, only one ending has been put on the shelf that I didn't have a connection with so far! :]  This also gave me a chance to go through both endings individually and give a deeper exploration into these areas as they do play a part in the game. I added a few choices to show the differences in the terrain and how the player(Y/N) reacts to it. You can get an alternate situation but it will still end the same. I also fixed up some errors I found through the alternate choices that I almost missed too. For right now I'd say this ending will be finished once my play testers look through them! They've given me pointers on the CG's and dialog but not everything else yet. x] Speaking of quality changes I also went back and adjusted some of the new CG's I've drawn. I had a habit of drawing the landscape too low so you couldn't see anything unless you toggled the text box away. :,,,] Luckily this was a quick and easy fix.

Here's the results:

Before:

After:

I'm very happy with how far I've come when I draw backgrounds now! It's been a interesting journey but overall I enjoy knowing everything is coming together no matter how long it might take. There was another one I wanted to share but this the second CG I tried posting gave me an error. Luckily I had everything saved so I don't have to rewrite anything! :,,]

It took some time but I went back and fixed one of the effects that happen when you lose HP. The old version lights up the edges of your screen but sometimes it can be hard to see if there's another effect happening. I went back and gave a small hue effect every time you lose HP instead. I can't upload the video here but the post on my tumblr shows this.

Lastly in other news, I finally started work on Noah's reference sheets! >:]

There will be a total of three(?) which will have specific details for each one! It's took some time to create since I'm still learning how to do angled faces/poses but I've gotten time to practice so I'm ready. >:] I also want to state that Noah's sprites/side sprites in the [Extended Demo] are accurate to how he's suppose to look too. Since I've improved my style certain specifics of his appearance might be slightly different! :]

Almost there to the cabin section, yay! I just have a few more things to fix up. >:]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. Also a very huge thank you to those that have optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io too, it really means a lot. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

There were some other things I wanted to discuss but this post is getting too long so I'll save it for next week, thank you guys for all of the support, I appreciate it! :,,]

Trembling Essence:💙Progress update!💙

Hello hello and welcome new followers, here's how the game is coming along! This update is a bit late and might be kind of short. :[]

Firstly, thank you to everyone that participated in the poll before it ended. The overall results and responses gave me a better direction for the start of the game! It's good knowing that majority of you found out how to proceed and didn't have too much trouble with it. :,] If you still want to give your opinion on the start of the game feel free to comment!

Update progress:

It's time to talk about the scenes for the endings:

Last week I mentioned the two endings you could get that are from the [Extended Demo]. Now that they both have their own separate choice I went through and did some final touch ups. Even though they're almost finished I may come back and tweak them.

Timers:

I had plans to actually add timed choices in the [Extended Demo] but I didn't have the time( :P ) to add them in. I'm still working on how I want the design to look and where to place it so this is just a test example of what's to come. These won't be used often but they'll be in places where I feel the situation requires urgency. >:[]

The cave:

Before:

After:

Most of changes for this ending ranged from dialog adjustments to small immersive effects being added to fit the scene better. There's another variant ending mixed in there as well, you get the same outcome but it depends on what you do before then.  I also dialed the exploration for this part back to it's original.  Given the players(Y/N) state at the start, this section would've made the path too long for my liking and wouldn't fit the original symbolism I was going for.

The bridge:

Before:

After:

I had a lot of fun with this one since it's another favorite of mine! This one required a lot of tweaking since this area is only accessible to the player(Y/N) through two* different places.

The way to this area is not the same from the [Extended Demo] anymore and was expanded out from the courtesy of my play tester's suggestions. Most of the dialog changed and I'm still in the process of adding immersive effects here. I loved the way the original looked and decided to just revamp what I already drew. I even moved the bridge upwards to actually show the lead up to it versus being blocked by the dialog box. This one won't have a variant(?) ending but will play out differently compared to the [Extended Demo]. This is still a big work in progress and I didn't get a chance to fully finish this yet. :[]

I didn't adjust the progress bar only because not too much has been updated for right now and I'm still working on The bridge section. :[]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. A very huge thank you to those that have optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io too, it really means a lot. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

I won't be able to do too much for the next few days but thank you guys for the encouraging support and patience, I really appreciate it! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙New Backgrounds + Quality of life fixes💙

Hi and welcome to my dev-log this update might be short since I wasn't able to do anything for a few days. :[]

Ending update progress:

The bridge:

Last week I mentioned this ending being updated/adjusted from the [Extended Demo]. The progress for this was very small since I wasn't able to do too much for days.

Now that this area is only accessible to the player(Y/N) through two* different places I went back and fixed the first situation that leads to this place. Courtesy from my play tester's suggestions, this one is expanded out and most of the dialog is different. I've only managed to add small immersive effects but I am enjoying the process. This part is going to be animated like how it was in the [Extended Demo]. :,]

Extra quality of life fixes:

This was something fairly minor but I went back and adjusted this background so you can actually see both paths going in different directions that was blocked by the text box.

Timers:

I'm still working on the timed choices and how I want the design to look but I didn't have any time(:P) to edit them but hopefully next week it'll be finished! >;]

New backgrounds:

I've also been working on backgrounds behind the scenes and a couple of them have been animated for a immersive feel. For example, if the player has to move quickly there will be a small camera pan. Again, this is something that'll be added around in certain places that I feel are needed. :]

I did move the progress bar up since The bridge section has been worked on more compared to last week and some new BG's were completed. :[]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

There were some asks I genuinely couldn't answer because it would require me to mention major spoilers/the questions have spoilers in them. :,,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This is honestly all I have to share so far, thank you to everyone that has been understanding and patient with all of this when I couldn't do too much this time around. The encouraging support really goes a long way! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Play tester help + Cleaning up endings💙

Helllooo and welcome new followers, things fluctuated a lot this week but here's how the progress towards the game has been going. :[]

Play tester help:

My play testers played through some of endings again after I added touch ups, here's a couple of things they critiqued! :]

The bridge:

I added some minor animations in areas that were suggested to make it look like you're actually walking towards the bridge! I found a better way to avoid the animation reset but I'm still hoping to discover a way to fix this so I can apply this in other areas. :[] Certain words were accidently repeated too many times and my play tester said it was very noticeable. More of the dialog has been cleaned up along with hidden grammatical errors. >:] A small bug was found where skipping through the dialog too fast can cause the CG's to blur which has been fixed too. :D

The Chasm Ending ???:

I have no idea how I got to this part anymore but this is one of the endings you can get from the [Extended Demo] that I went and fixed up. I can't upload the animated one here  but here's a screenshot of it, I'm really happy with how it turned out. :,,,,] 

My play testers gave me a lot of pointers before I managed to get it looking right! A couple of CG's have added camera pan and I took it a step further and added a better perspective of animated rain falling onto the player(Y/N)!  In the original version the trees blended too much into the leaves and the angle where the rain came down looked really wonky. :,]  There was a couple of grammar issues and wonky wording that got fixed mainly because the ending plays out a little bit differently. >:]

Outside of other things going on with the game's progress this sort of sums up what all has been going on behind the scenes. The other endings (The Cave, etc) haven't been played yet but maybe next week they will be. Overall I've been fixing up everything my play testers recommended to me! :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Overall, thank you everyone for the constant support, the progress has been fairly small this time around but I appreciate the uplifting words! >:,]

Trembling Essence[Extended Demo]:💙Endings guide💙

Hi hi and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Firstly I would like to say thank you to everyone that have been supportive of the [Extended Demo] + game development posts! I got a comment about this and since the [Extended Demo] has been out for a few months, here's a guide for all the endings if you couldn't find them. :]

• Please remember that this is still a demo and these are still subject to change! [Major spoilers ahead!] It is also possible to get some of these endings through different choices than the ones I provided. :]

BAD ENDINGS:

1. You never woke up: Choose 'Walk.", "Go left", "Drink the water.", "Go through the water."
2. You stopped struggling: Choose 'Walk.", "Go left.", "Drink the water.", "Hop on the tree stumps."
3. The water engulfed you: Choose 'Walk.", "Go right.", "Go inside the cave."
4. You were dragged deeper into the water: Choose 'Walk.", "Go right.", "Climb up the sides of the hill."
5. Your final moments were agonizing: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Walk."
6. You were stabbed in the back: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go to sleep."
7. You can't feel anything anymore: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go with him.", "Run away.", "Stay on the ground."
8. The cold took you in: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go with him.", "Fight back.", "Go back the way you came."
9. You fell into a deep sleep.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go with him.", "Fight back.", "Go a different direction."
10. The lightning took you away.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go with him.", "Brace yourself.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go outside.", "Go to the door.", "Keep running.
11. You kept running through the swamp.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Go down the hill by yourself." "I do.", "Take a shower.", "....", "Sneak into Noah's room.", "Yes.", "Go inside his room.", "Say nothing.", "Walk around.", "Examine the water."
12. Your mind displayed a false reality.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Go down the hill by yourself." "I can do it myself.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go outside.", "Go to the door.", "Open your eyes." "Get up on your own."

Neutral Endings:

1. You tried talking to Noah.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Talk to Noah.", "Knock on the door.", "Knock even louder."
2. You tried to peek into Noah's room.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Talk to Noah.", "Peek inside."
3. You decided to look around.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Look around.", "Open one of the boxes.", "Check a different one.", "Tell the truth."
4. You decided to wait for a cup of water.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Sneak into Noah's room.", "Yes.", "Wait.", "Take a cookie."
5. You decided to go to sleep.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go to sleep."
6. You didn't give him an answer and decided to go to sleep.: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Stay.", "Stay.", "Go with him.", "Run away.", "Get up.", "No.", "Take a shower.", "..."

Full Route Endings:

Morning Routes:

1. You were caught sneaking around: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Cookies.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go outside.", "Explain yourself trustingly.", "Let him help you up.", "Stay on the couch and rest.", "Check outside.", "Yes.", "Sneak into the kitchen.", "Take the glass jar.", "Check the front door.", "Check the back door.", "I'll be okay."
2. You tried waking up Noah: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "Cookies.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go outside.", "Explain yourself trustingly.", "Let him help you up.", "Stay on the couch and rest.", "Check the kitchen.", "Take his hand.", "No.", "Sneak into the kitchen.", "Leave the glass jar alone.", "Wake up Noah."
3. You tried going back to sleep: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Go outside.", "Explain yourself trustingly.", "Let him help you up.", "Stay on the couch and rest.", "Check the kitchen.", "Take his hand.", "No.", "Sneak into the kitchen.", "Leave the glass jar alone.", "Go back to sleep."

Afternoon Routes:

1. You hope tomorrow will be better: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Sneak into Noah's room.", "Yes.", "Go inside his room.", "I promise I didn't see anything.", "Go to sleep.", "Yes.", "I think it will clear up.", "Chicken broth.", "Add some thyme.", Add both.", "Add turmeric.", "Take a piece of chicken.", "Take another piece of chicken.", "Let him have the rest.", "Yes.", "Go outside.", "Talk to him.", "Give it back to him."
2. You went to sleep comfortably: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Sneak into Noah's room.", "Yes.", "Go inside his room.", "I promise I didn't see anything.", "Go to sleep.", "Yes.", "I think it will clear up.", "Chicken broth.", "Add some thyme.", Add both.", "Add turmeric.", "Pour everything into the pot.", "Let him have the rest.", "Yes.", "Look left." "I was worried about you."
3. You anxiously await the next day: Choose "Wait for help.", "Wait for help.", "Go to sleep.", "Go with him.", "soup.", "Stop him." "Hold still.", "I do.", "Take a shower.", "I do.", "Sneak into Noah's room.", "Yes.", "Go inside his room.", "Say nothing.", "Go to sleep.", "Yes.", "I think it will clear up.", "Chicken broth.", "Add some thyme.", Add both.", "Add turmeric.", "Pour everything into the pot." "Let him have the rest.", "No.", "Go outside.", "Talk to him.", "Take it."

Hope this helps, If this is too cluttered/hard to read please let me know. I wanted to space it out but I couldn't get it to work. :[]

Trembling Essence:💙Choice adjustments + Exploration💙

Hello and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

This update post might be a little short but here's how the game is going so far! Also I was very surprised at how well the endings guide was received so I'll keep that in mind in the future. :,]

Everything started off very slow again and didn't progress much up until a day or two ago. I was able to find the root of this issue so hopefully in the next few days things will return to normal! :]

I also want to talk a little bit deeper about the beginning of the game and what's to come of it.

Summary:

I want this section leading up to the cabin to give you an idea of your surroundings and give an introduction to Noah.

When I went on to redo this part some time around May I got carried away with wanting to add a bunch of adventurous endings. Even though I enjoyed doing this, I understood that it was too much and I was missing the mark I was aiming for. There were a couple of signs but what really made me realize this fully was working on the 'Endings guide'. I want the endings you get at this part to reflect what could possibly happen later on in the game and have symbolic meaning. There will be endings that just 'happen' but I do want to make sure I do that right. :]

With that being said, the start of the game will be reduced from 4 choices back down to 2. No spoilers but again, the pathing won't play out the same from the [Extended Demo] anymore. :]

Exploration:

Before:

After:

I managed to get some CG's done too! For the before and after, I did not like how it looked anymore and the dialog didn't match with what you were seeing on the screen. I wanted this part to look like an actual spooky path you were going down covered in fog. I also added a parallax effect here that really sets the mood! I do plan on fixing up the 'before' image just not right now. :]

This sort of sums up what all has been going on behind the scenes, super close to the cabin. Yay! I fixed up most of what my play testers recommended to me but there's some endings that still need to be seen. :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

There's been a sudden influx of questions and I really appreciate it, I'll try and answer some of them when I get the chance! Some did have major spoilers being asked so I can't answer them. :,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This is all I have to share for right now but thank you everyone for the uplifting support and patience, I appreciate it! :]

Trembling Essence:💙Cleaning up the game.💙

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

This update post is fairly late and might be a little short but here's how the game is going so far! Enjoy this lighthearted thumbnail now that I can draw again! :,]

I also want to clarify this but when I said that "the pathing won't play out the same from the [Extended Demo] anymore" I mean the endings specifically not the way to figure out how to get to Noah, I like it the way it is.** :,]

"Cleaning up the game? What happened?":

Yes! Unfortunately I wasn't able to do much of anything and didn't have access to drawing until recently. I was going to wait until the following week to post but I really want to get this out of the way since it's still fresh on my mind! :]

While this was going on it gave me a lot of time to just think about the games progression and what I would like to do and change moving forward. It's not much but once I was able to get back to working on the game, the main thing I did was clean up more of the pathing for the choices you can make leading up to the cabin. I really took my time with this and made sure the dialog flowed correctly and corresponds with how the player(Y/N) is feeling during parts where time passes wondering around. There were a couple of misplaced sentences and grammar I missed that got fixed too.

Big quality of life change:

A path in the game where you can run into Noah again has been adjusted, this is from the [Extended Demo] and not new content. I want to keep it vague for those who haven't gotten this 'Neutral Ending' but the 'Endings Guide' is available! I noticed it took a long time to get through this so I cut one of the two exploration sections so it stays balanced with the other parts of the game. One thing I really want to add is a unique CG here. I have an idea on how I want it to look but I'd have to adjust the wording to make it fit. I might do a perspective pose but since I haven't had much time to draw my style is going to fluctuate again. :,] I also added more parts where Noah talks to you a bit more but I still have to go back and fix some of it because some of the writing isn't where I want it to be and this was while I was brainstorming. :[]

Kept the progress bar the same since only a small amount of stuff was done. Right now I want to continue fixing up stuff and most of what my play testers recommended already.

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

I'm going to get to a couple of them this week! I need to practice drawing/coloring again. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Overall, thank you everyone for the continued support, the progress has been small but I appreciate the uplifting words and the recent influx of interest in the game! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Making progress + Adding timers💙

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

This update post is very delayed but I appreciate the patience!

After the previous game development post I didn't have a lot of time to do much and when I did it was very scattered. Trying to adjust from where I left off each time was really difficult.

In the end I focused more on answering the multiple asks I've received and gave myself a break. I've been having a lot of fun answering these and fleshing out Noah's character and lore! This also gave me some good drawing practice! :,]

Anywho, here's how the game is going so far!

Clean up progression:

I don't want to make this too long but I've adjusted/removed parts that were either too repetitive, unnecessary, or didn't flow well with what you see on screen.  I know I've said this already in past game development posts but back in May I wanted to add more branching endings but I dialed it back not too long ago when it started trailing off from what was originally intended. Right now I'm fixing how the player(Y/N) goes through the terrain which is very different from the [Extended Demo].

CG fixing:

Before:

After:

Here's a new CG from a while ago that I went back and fixed up!

Even though I liked it at first, it looked a bit too empty with odd lighting issues. I added a little more shrubbery and trees along with adjusting the background to make it easier to see the details!  I also fixed up the animated CG where the rain was stuck in one part of the image and which looked 'frozen' on the screen. It was kind of funny because I didn't notice this for a long time until I was confused at what I was looking at. I can't show this one due to spoilers. :[]

Timer progress:

It's time(:P) to finally discuss this small addition to the game!

These won't be used that often but they'll be in places where I feel the situation requires quick decision making. It took a lot of trial and error before I settled on keeping it the same color as the player(Y/N)'s HP bar. I then went back and added a background so it's easier to see. I also moved it around since it was over-lapping with a couple of choices. This is just a mock-up image so no spoilers are shown. :[]

For right now I can't say I'm almost done since this required more fixing than I was expecting from what my play testers recommended but I'm happy to be even closer to the cabin section which I'm really looking forward to updating. :,]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

I've had a lot of fun recently answering asks! Giving more insight on Noah and the lore surrounding the game have been enjoyable! To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah  on my Tumblr! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

That sums up what's been going on behind the scenes. A very big thank you to everyone, I appreciate the thoughtful support and the continued influx of interest during my absence for game development in the game and the drawings I've done recently! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Finalized Endings + route change💙

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Here's how the game development is going so far! :]

Endings are being finalized!:

In very good news most of the endings I managed to work on have been cleaned up and finished!

The cave:

All I did this time around was fix some of the parallax effects and leftover dialog that wasn't needed anymore. This ending didn't have much else to fix and I like how it turned out in the end.

The bridge:

For this ending, not too much was done besides small adjustments to the dialog and some CG's. I couldn't do the parallax effect the way I wanted since it glitches when zoomed in but I found a way around this and I think it'll be better for the immersive feel. Other than that everything is done here! :]

The thicket:

I think I only talked about this one during the end of May(?) but this did get adjusted every now and then up until now. The only thing I need to do here is redo one of the CG's towards the end (Not the one I posted :[]). I don't really like it and I kind of want it to be zoomed in and have more shrubbery (Maybe even looking up towards the sky? :?), I'm not sure yet but I do want the area to look... different. This isn't anything that needs major tending to but I recently came across a image of inspiration for this. :[]

Route change + new background:

Here's a sneak peek of a new background I finished some time ago! This is from one of the paths you can get depending on how you interact with Noah. Since this version has a different outcome I decided to add a timer here due to the player(Y/N)'s apprehensiveness.

 Due to this I removed one of the choices that had an extra two endings here. I did this is because the symbolic meaning already plays it's part in two other endings. Keeping them would make it redundant.

In good news 100%*** of The swamplands is completed! (*I will however come back to certain parts of this area if there's anything I left out/need to fix up.) There's more I wanted to talk about but I'll save the rest for next week since this is getting too long. :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

Giving more insight the lore surrounding the game and Noah have been very fun so far and it's given me lots of time to practice! To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This is all I have to share for right now so thank you to everyone for your generous support while I continue working behind the scenes on the game! I can't wait to work on the cabin section now! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Clean up changes + New CG💙

Helloo guys and welcome to my devlog, here's how the game development is going so far!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

A very big thank you to the recent influx of interest and comments stemming from my last game development post! I will try to get to everything when I can! :]

Important notice towards updates about Trembling Essence:

For a good while I've been able to post updates about the game's progress weekly! Now that it's getting closer to fall and spooky month(Yay! :]) I am going to continue to be busy so I want to let you guys know that future updates will be irregular. Game development posts will be every 1-4 weeks depending on how things go. :[]

I spent the first few days continuing off from the previous development post by going through the last of The Swamplands and patched some things up! Towards the end of that week however, I got very busy and didn't get a chance to get to the cabin section or much else which is why this was delayed by an extra week so I appreciate the patience! :]

New CG:

I drew up a new CG that you can get depending on your choices when talking to Noah. My play tester saw the first version I colored up but unfortunately the perspective was really off and his shoulders were too wide. I was given a couple of tips and pointers so I redid it and here's how it looks for right now. I couldn't do much else after that. :,,,]]]]

Last bit of clean up changes:

Intro:

When it came to the introduction of Noah, the new parallax effect I added created a small glitch where the HP/COLD indicators were still shown behind CG's during a screen transition.  There was some minor dialog adjustments, mainly describing certain situations a bit better. The moments where Noah talks to the player(Y/N) have been tweaked, not by too much but just enough to fill out this section of the game a little more.  While I was going through the choices, I came across new dialog I added at some point and never came back to so I fixed it up just a little too. :]

Before:

After:

I altered the choice text for this since the previous wording was a little confusing from my play testers perspective. A good portion of the dialog was fixed and there was going to be a timed situation later on but I decided not to add it since this is a fairly straightforward path.

Chasm Ending:

This ending got expanded by a fair amount mainly because the end is awkwardly abrupt and I didn't like that. I corrected it but the CG you see at this part didn't match the text so I went back one last time and a added visual effect. Overall, this part is done! :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

I can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them right now since I practice drawing for responses but do know that I've seen them!

This update is getting fairly long so I'll stop here. Again, thank you to everyone for your continued support and influx of interest! I really wasn't expecting any of it since I got very busy towards the end. While I continue working behind the scenes on the game I'll try and respond to stuff/comments I missed! :,]

Trembling Essence:💙Happy spooky month + It's cabin time💙

Helloo guys and welcome , it's been a while! I'm still fairly busy so future game development posts will be every 1-4 weeks depending on how things go. :[] 

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

Happy spooky month! >:] 

 We're finally back in the cabin!! You know what that means.. >;] It is time to explain what will happen next!

Starting off with quality of life changes:

1. One of the main things I'm going to fix up is the different situations you can get depending on your interactions with Noah before he goes to bed.

As time went on it became difficult to keep track of everything since there's different ways to approach the cabin and interact afterwards. To remedy this I'm making a layout where your amount of closeness with Noah can place you into different categories instead of it all being under one scenario. I don't know how else to explain this without adding spoilers but hopefully this makes sense!

2. Another thing that needs fixing is what choices effects Noah's closeness with the player(Y/N).

I didn't mess with them in the [Extended Demo] to avoid breaking the game but there's some choices that will updated. Noah's reactions to some of the player(Y/N)'s decisions didn't line up well which caused him to lose closeness when he'd really be neutral instead.

3. The cabin is getting a update!? -Gasp- :[]

I can't say much due to spoilers but this originally wasn't going to happen until I started adding more depth to the story. It won't be anything drastic but for right now, only the living room is getting this.

4. But what about The Swamplands?! >:?

It's somewhat done outside of a few CG's but I need a break from cleaning it up. I'll fix it up again later. :,,D

5. Optimizations images! :[]

I found away to lower file sizes when making CG's / sprites / animations etc. There's certain parts of the game that will be animated and this is one of a few I really want to add without making the game file size too big. :,]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This update is getting a little too long so I'll stop here. Thank you to everyone for your continued encouragement and support and have a happy spooky month! >:]

🧡Surprise event!: It's Noahween! >:]💜

For the celebration of spooky month I thought it would be pretty cool to do a small event featuring Noah! :P All you have to do is pick which outfit you'd like to see Noah dressed up as and I'll draw it! >:]

To vote on this all you have to do is check out the poll I made on my Tumblr here!

Round 1 theme: Jujutsu Kaisen

Kenoto Nanami VS Choso

There will only be 24 hours to vote, good luck! :]

(If you can't vote through Tumblr, feel free to comment your choice and I'll add it to the overall results!) :]

🧡Surprise event!: Noahween Results! >:]💜

Thank you to everyone that participated in the poll and left comments, I wasn't expecting 116 people to vote on this!

Overall, Kento Nanami won for Noah to dress up as! :,,]

This doodle is just a for the post itself and not the final art piece! :]

💜Trembling Essence: Spooky month cabin progress🧡

Helloo guys and welcome to my devlog, we're half way through spooky month so here's an update on how the game is going!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

**I'm still fairly busy so future game development posts will be every 1-4 weeks depending on how things go. :[]

Quality of life progress:

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming/organizing the game behind the scenes. I tried my best to simplify certain dialog parts and give a little more depth on how the player(Y/N) feels/reacts from being back in the cabin again.

I talked about this in my last game development post about fixing up the different situations depending on your interactions with Noah before he goes to bed:

At first I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make this work but I'll just have to do one section at a time. It was a very slow start at first but I'm gradually picking up the pace as I go along.  *Slight spoilers ahead*(:?):  Since there's different ways to approach the cabin and interact afterwards I slightly combined 2 of them together to make the layout/closeness with Noah easier to manage.

Choices that effects Noah's closeness with the player(Y/N):

I didn't mess with this in the [Extended Demo] but there's some choices that are being adjusted. Noah's reactions to some of the player(Y/N)'s decisions now give a neutral response versus an negative one. I'm still going through everything but the process is going nicely so far! :]

There was subtle immersive changes too. It's nothing too serious, just little things that make the cabin feel a little more comfy. :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

In good news a few asks that got deleted popped back up again so I'll get to those first since these are all the way back from February. :,]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

This update was a small one but that's everything I have to share right now. Thank you to everyone for the uplifting support, have a happy spooky month! >:]

🧡Surprise event!: It's Noahween! Part 2 >:]💜

Here's Noah dressed up as Kento Nanami all finished from the previous poll!

The higher quality version is on my Tumblr!  There's a couple of abandoned sketches that I might come back to, it was very hard to choose since there were so many. >:,]

Anywho, I'm having a lot of fun doing this so I'm continuing this small spooky month event with Noah! All you have to do is pick which outfit you'd like to see Noah dressed up as and I'll draw it! :P

To vote on this, check out the poll I made on my Tumblr here!

Round 2 theme: Resident Evil

Leon Kennedy VS Carlos Oliveira VS Albert Wesker

There will only be 24 hours to vote, good luck! :]

(If you can't vote through Tumblr, feel free to comment your choice and I'll add it to the overall results!) :]

💜Surprise event!: Noahween Results! >:]🧡

Thank you to everyone that participated in the poll and left comments, 107 people to voted in total! Yay! :]

Overall, Leon Kennedy won for Noah to dress up as! :,,]

This doodle is just for the post itself and not the final art piece! :]

Trembling Essence:💙Cabin development progress💙

Helloo guys and welcome! It's been a long while, now that spooky month is over here's how the game is coming along!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

A very big thank you to the recent influx of interest around 2 weeks or so ago, I wasn't expecting much since I was busy/drawing for Noahween. :,,]

Speaking of Noahween, for those who only use itch.io here's the result of Noah dressed up as Leon Kennedy! The file size is too big for me to post here sadly but the post I made about it has some fun facts about Noah on my Tumblr! :] 

**I'm going to still be busy but in good news not as much as before. Game development posts might be every 1-2 weeks now depending on how things go! :,]

After I posted the previous game development I wasn't able to work on the game until recently and I wanted to give myself another week to re-adjust before saying anything.

Now that I'm getting settled in here's what I've been doing to the game:

Dialog adjustments:

I've been going through and gradually adjusting certain scenarios. I want to keep the foreboding flow with hints of comfort in between so I'm still adding a little more depth on how the player(Y/N) feels/reacts from being back in the cabin again and Noah's attempt at hospitality during this segment.  I also cut down the dialog again by combining smaller sentences into one text box unless the situation calls for it to be separated. :]

More CG work in progress:

One quality of life change I really wanted to do back then was add a few CG's of Noah when you're back in the cabin again. Originally there was going to be one or two in the [Extended Demo] but they were scrapped because my art skills weren't where they are now and I still need to practice perspective, etc but enjoy these really really rough sketches, the second one is old but I'm trying to figure out how I want it to look and how I want the pose to be. :,,]

Choices that effects Noah's closeness with the player(Y/N):

Some of Noah's reactions to the player(Y/N)'s decisions give a neutral response versus a negative one that effects closeness are still being worked on. I'm going through everything but the process will need a lot of careful planning. Just have to make sure all the variables line up. :]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :,,]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you to everyone for the continued support during this long game development absence! >:]

Trembling Essence:💙Cabin quality of life developments💙

Hi guys and welcome to my devlog here's how the game is coming along!

If you would like to play here's the link to my [Extended Demo!] :  https://zombeebunnie.itch.io/trembling-essence-extended-demo

A lot of what I've been doing is cleaning up most of the dialog through the cabin! I went through and played the afternoon route fully and I managed to catch a few spelling errors along the way. :,]

Before:

After:

One thing I did was fix several of Noah's expressions/reactions towards the player(Y/N)'s choices and interactions. Some of the original sprites I placed made Noah come off as if he's blushing/flustered when it's just that the situation is awkward between the both of you.

Immersive update:

One thing I can't wait to start doing is animating this scene! It's one of my favorite environmental CG's and it was meant to have a raining animation etc, but I couldn't add this to the [Extended Demo] due to the size of it and I didn't know how to add multiple animation frames at the time. With what I know now hopefully I can optimize it! :]

I also took out this choice you could make in the game. There was a variable here that would effect the game later on but it wasn't anything major enough to continue through with it. This isn't to say that it'll be gone forever(?) but just that it doesn't belong here anymore. :[]

This choice is also being updated too since it extends from very old code that contained spoilers that happened too early. It'll still be available to choose but just not as extended. :[] The "Talk to Noah." choice is also getting re-worked since what originally happened there gave away big spoilers too. :,[]

This is a small quality of life change but one thing I noticed is that the player(Y/N)'s +HP gain wasn't visible during certain fade transition scenes so I added a small pause in between to make it visible.

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I continue to work on the game. Thank you to those that optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

To know and understand Noah through Asks and random posts about lore, they'll be under #Get to know: Noah ! :]

**Some asks won't be answered if it contains spoilers but I do appreciate what I receive. :]

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I enjoy hearing from you guys!

Thank you to everyone for the uplifting support during all of this I really appreciate it! :,,]