Slight Change in Dialogue

Latest version of demo, but not worth playing if you've already played Version One.  Slight changes to dialogue, and I've started to play around with variables.  (Updated due to variable-related bug).

http://www.mediafire.com/?qd0px4aj4brxf2a

Day 27: Demo on Mediafire

Welp, done with the demo!

So much that needs to be changed/edited/etc., but god, I have taxes to do.  And rooms to clean.

I feel a small sense of relief.  I wonder if anybody is going to play this thing.  What's funny is that I finally made a little game, but all the gamers I know personally aren't going to want to play it.

IRONY TIME.

Link to the demo.

Almost Ready to Distribute

Spent most of the day today fleshing out the script, working on a title screen, trying to fix any bugs, etc.

Almost ready to put the demo out.  I think I'll work on this the rest of the night, put whatever I have into a demo, and upload.

Then tomorrow I seriously got to catch up on the many errands I've been putting off because of this game.  I still haven't done taxes!  Aiiiiiiieeee.

Anyways, the main menu screen:

What Happens When I Tell People About This Project

I've gotten some pretty amusing responses to the revelation that I am working on a B/B non-anime visual novel.

husband: that's pretty nichey, isn't it?  Like, a niche within a niche?
friend: raised brow, doesn't get it, changes subject
coworker: hysterical laughter
brother: hysterical laughter

Basically people are either like "uh, I don't geddit" or  "BWHAHAHAHA that's the FUNNIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD!!!"

The one person in my life who was like, remotely interested, was my sister.  (I love her.)  Not sure if she was just being supportive or she would actually be willing to play my game.

Anyhoo.  Have been working on the demo all night.  Spent about 3 hours on redoing a sprite, trashing it, redoing it, and then going back to the original version after all was said and done.  Argh.

I guess it's coming along.  Hopefully it will be done by the end of this weekend, though it won't have all the bells and whistles I want it to have.  (Like characters blinking, incorporation of expressions in the code ...as opposed to just the separate .pngs I have set up for each expressions.  It could also use more expressions for the non-player characters.)

As I was telling my husband today, out of all the different things I've worked on (screenplays, novels, comic strips) making this VN is most like the time I tried writing a romance novel.  Even the online VN community I'm in reminds me a lot of the romance novel forums.  Generally very supportive, tilted towards female (though in the case of VNs, much, much younger.)

Writing the Demo

Writing the past two days in small chunks.  Have been trying to find some way to code at my breaks at work, but find it very awkward without my laptop.

Anyways, will finally get some big blocks of time this weekend to put this together!

Things I'm going to have to learn about: variables.

Useful to know: the command 'pass'.  I have a couple of menus with options that don't necessarily change the game in anyway, just make the reader hopefully feel more immersed.

I'd love to make those options have impact later on, but at this point they don't have any really impact in the demo.

Does this post even make any sense?  Argh.

The Making Of: Day 23

My shoulder has been sore for a few weeks.  Not sure if it's from my job or sitting hunched over the computer for hours at a time.

All right, I think I'm gonna stay up tonight and get my game to a "beta-ish" state.

Let's see what I can accomplish in a few hours.

If my husband wakes up before I go to bed, I think I'll take him to work and we can grab some McDonald's breakfast on the way there.  Mmm.

The Making Of: Day 22

Finally figured out how to put side images up.  It's in the tutorial, duh.  (Really helps to break the tutorial itself apart to see exactly what is happening.)

Still not happy with the player character...he reminds me vaguely of Wil Wheaton.  Nothing against Wil Wheaton, who I had a minor crush on as a child, but I had a different image in my head about what the main dude should look like.

Anyways, good grief.  As for artwork, did a couple of messy sketches of possible CG's (terminology?).   I've also got several different expressions for the main dude ready to use as side images.

Wow, this all must be completely thrilling to read about.