Dev Diary, March 3rd, 2023 (Patreon)

This had been another week spent in Ren'Py improving the general look and feel of the game. It's slightly annoying having to do these things and it is the only time during development I wish I could clone myself and do several things at once. But then again, it's something I only have to do once, and they will last the full game.

Overall, I have added more than 300 ui elements so far, and I'm starting to see the end of it. 3/4 free-roams are done, and the phone is taking shape. I know that there are mixed feelings about an in-game phone, and I've addressed the criticism of the LoF phone and made a much better notification system. The phone will also be disabled while out of free-roams, so you can enjoy the story first and foremost in those parts.

I've also added a general 'quality of life' improvement to the phone that will help you sort your saves. In the contacts list of the phone, you can favorite a girl, and that girl will be added to your save-file screenshot (see below). This way you no longer have to write a save-game name showing which girl(s) that save focuses on.

For next week, I'll finish up the phone. That's mostly in-game texting, a decent music player, and a way for you to organize music for none pivotal game scenes. In addition to that, I'll work on the last free-roam. When the phone and roam is done, I can finally focus on the remaining renders and animations, and by then I should be able to start figuring out a release date.

In other words, there's still a bit to do, but the list of things to do does shrink every week. Honestly, I can't wait to show you what I've been working on for 5 months now, and hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Have a nice weekend, and stay safe out there.

// Drifty