dev diary: syrup 2 status update (Patreon)

i've had a super productive week!!! i dove back into syrup 2 development since i'm aiming to have a new patron build before the end of the year (available for my higher tiers at least! there's so many spoilers omfg)

so i wanted to take this opportunity to talk about where the project is at, especially since... i haven't had a place to do that before now!!! so there's a ton to say!!!!! i could talk forever about syrup 2 so i'll try to give a succinct overview for now.

the current state of the project

the total word count is currently 48k. for reference, it was 45k before i dove back in, and the demo from 2 years ago was 19k--so while it's more than doubled from the demo era, the bulk of that was written during 2021!

there are still 2 story maps i need to make, and one bonus place that i might save for post-release content since it's mostly cameos anyway. so i'm expecting the final word count to be upwards of 60k... we're slowly getting there!!!

since the demo, i've added:

• 20 new recipes+17 items
• 3 gathering locations and astra's apothecary (unlockable late in the story)
• another recruitable party member (it's thyme!)
• 6 generic enemies+4 bosses

...plus a ton of gameplay polish. i've made some really cute screens i'm very happy with :)

i want to finish the rest of treat before i release syrup 2, so it's looking like it might not come out until 2024 or 2025 (giving myself a generous estimate here). but again, i'll be releasing a WIP build before the end of the year!! i'm super excited to be able to share it ;o;

this week's progress!

ok it's more like 2 weeks of progress, but still.

short list of things i've been focused on:

• project management (just getting my bearings again)
• scripting new events
• balancing the systems (battles and XP gain)
• drawing new assets (and coloring some of the old stuff)
• lots of coding!!

most of the coding work has been refining some of the screens that i had set up beforehand, like the inventory screen above. the bestiary is really coming along too...!

over the course of development, i've had to spend a lot of time figuring out the best way to track all my events and todo lists. this was originally done with trello--then i started moving all my info to a spreadsheet (which i still use), and NOW i've comfortably transferred everything from my old trello board into notion! i used notion toward the end of lucky number moxie's development (and for htwml's steam release), and i really love it--it's very easy to organize all my little notes and find a good spot to tuck away ideas that i don't need to work on immediately.

this is like... literally the biggest game i have ever made (probably as big as i will ever go?!) so it's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for me to organize my notes in a way that i can find something later, or if i have the energy to work on something i can just look at a list to see exactly what's left to do. but because i've been struggling to organize my way-too-big-for-one-person project, USUALLY the way that i get sucked back into working on this game after a long break is that i'll think of a brand new feature i want to add, and just try to get it working.

and that's true for this time as well!! for this burst of syrup 2 dev, i started by adding a new feature: a recipe collection/hint screen!

((EDIT: i guess gifs dont work in the patreon app??? so pls view this in browser or on a PC!))

i'm super proud of this since it's EXTREMELY USEFUL, fun to fill out, and very polished-looking. it also gives players more of a reason to visit the library--the previous system only had recipes appear after you fulfill certain conditions, and learning them was just picking it from a list (just the normal ren'py choice menu). with this screen, you still get to learn them directly from the library, but it also gives you a chance to look at the hints for your other missing recipes and give you some direction for where to go next!

i took a lot of screenshots as i was developing this screen, so you can see its evolution over the course of the day or so i spent on it haha

after that, i needed to check that the recipe hints were unlocking when i needed them to. so i started a fresh playthrough! playtesting is the #1 way i can trick myself into barreling through my todo list. i fix minor bugs as i go, and get a sense for what isn't paced quite right so i can try to adjust it later.

in this round of updates, i did some enemy balancing that i'm excited to test out again next time--the enemies on mt sorbet are meant to be strong, but they're SO strong that i just avoided going there completely... AND there was no way to tell how strong an enemy was before (except by looking at their hp and seeing how much damage they do when they hit you).

so i did the thing that most RPGs do and gave all the enemies a level! now when u get knocked out by a wolf you'll be like "oh... that happened because i'm level 3 and the wolf is level 6" rather than "wtf this game is too hard, i hate this"

my battle system is mostly meant as an excuse to show cute interactions (and gate progress a bit), but i know it'll get a lot of criticism if i don't design it well enough. people are extremely picky about gameplay!!! but it's been super fun thinking about all the hidden design reasons behind various RPG conventions, and deciding what fits into the game i'm building and how i can make it better.

that's all for now!

i can't get into all the extremely good scenes and dialogue i've been writing without spoilers, so i'll end it here. i love love love this game's story so, once again, i CANNOT WAIT to share a build. super excited to be able to gush with other people about how perfect and wonderful the syrup cast is. this is... my favorite game........ OK OK that's enough goodbye!!

<3 nami