NaNoRenO2020 - Week 4 Devlog

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 (You Are Here)

So. Working from home went a lot smoother for me than I expected. But what's been happening is still major--Current events have definitely affected the production of Dear Devere, and NaNoRenO2020 as a whole (more on that later).

It's strange, but it feels like all my plans cancelling has only made me more busy. I won't go into details--I'm a private person. I share my opinions about animated films and the use of dialogue wheels in video games, not my private life.

Anyway.

I just discovered this webcomic called Lackadaisy. Have you heard of it? It's been around for a while, but I only just found out about it. It's about a crime family trying to run a speakeasy in 1920s America. And all the characters are anthropomorphic cats. It's seems right up my alley. People who have been watching my ongoing development of The Butler Detective (a murder mystery VN game about a butler trying to solve a crime in the 1930s--featuring anthropomorphic cats, dogs, and foxes) will see why.

I will begin reading Lackadaisy later, once I find a window in my busy schedule.

But let us focus on Dear Devere's game development today.

Week 4 production: 

• Art: I have now completed all the background art for the VN. I also finished making the different pieces of paper that come out of the envelopes. This week, I also started the exciting part of making the envelope designs, which are the most complex art assets in Dear Devere. The envelopes heavily use a collage art style, so it's been an enjoyable challenge pushing my art techniques in a direction I'm not used to. The file sizes were getting too big to load quickly, so I divided the files by Act and by character (the files' naming conventions being: Prologue Angela, Prologue Devere, Act 1 Angela, Act 1 Devere, etc). Once the envelopes are completed, I will have finished making all the art for Dear Devere.
• Scheduling: As many will know by now, due to current events, NaNoRenO2020 has been given a two-week extension. This will give me more time to finish art assets. Which is good, because I'm behind schedule on finishing that.
• UI Programming: I was able to add more "quality of life" things to the user interface (I figured out how to set the default volume settings to 90 percent instead of 100). With the end of NaNoRenO nearing an end, I've begun "cutting my loses" with some details I wanted to add to the game, but don't have time to figure out. For example, I've added a sound effect for when the player presses the Quit button (opening the "Are You Sure You Wish To Quit?" prompt window), but this sound doesn't play if the player presses the close button on the game's window instead. I would have liked to have figured out how to program that.
• Voice Acting: The Prologue has been recorded. I've finished filling out the entire Voice Acting Spreadsheet and handed it to the voice actors. The NaNoRenO deadline extension will give the voice actors more time for voice acting and more time for me to finish art assets.
• Music: The original soundtrack for Dear Devere has been completed by Paul Robins. You can even give a listen to one of the tracks on Twitter!
• Livestreaming: I've been livestreaming through Discord's Go Live feature. I'm using my microphone more often these days (which is unusual--I usually livestream art with the mic off) to chat. I worked on some of the envelope art live, and it's been nice receiving feedback from other VN developers.
• Promoting: I've been Tweeting updates about the game and will continue doing that. I've also posted some memes relating to the game. I looked at how The Untitled Goose Game implemented memes with its marketing, so I'm testing the waters to see if it can work for Dear Devere. I've posted three memes so far. I've made some more, and I'll post them here and there. I feel like there's a balance: Be consistent, but don't spam your social media timeline with memes. So I'm posting one a day, maximum.

Plans for week 5:

• Art: I need to finish making the rest of the art assets asap!
• Programming: Once the art's done, I can start programming the game's script into Ren'Py.
• Audio: I need to convert the audio files to .ogg files so they can be added to the game in a small file size.
• Promoting: I have about 15 more memes to post, and I'll continue posting updates on the game via Twitter.

So ends week 4. Hopefully, I'll see you again for week 5.

-Katy133