DATE TREAT - postmortem (Patreon)

it's my silly joke game from 2016!!! (and 2017 and 2018 and now 2023...)

i had been updating it every year for april fools before, but after 3 years of making them, i couldn't think of a fun idea to write for mochi. and i didn't like feeling obligated to keep doing them anyway, so i decided to retire the joke... little did i know, inspiration would strike when i least expected it. so i updated the game on a whim! this is what happens when i'm free to make whatever games i want, hehe 8)

DATE MOCHI is definitely the last installment, and i think of this project as complete now! so i wanted to write about the development process, along with some general thoughts on the joys of making smaller games.

making a short gag VN

i can't remember my exact thought process from 7 years ago, but i think it was something like "i should make something fun for april fools day. what about a game where you can date treat (but not really)?" so i wrote and released it the same day!

it was a great exercise in keeping a limited scope--the only assets it needed were one character bust, one background, the title screen illustration, and a couple songs. (actually, i don't think it even had the title pic in version 1.0...)

the songs already existed from treat (except for the theme song "date treat" which i later got to reuse for Clever Fox Moxie), and the background is a cropped version of the one from Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet.

DATE MOXIE and DATE TRICK were similar in the amount of work required--one character bust, plus a few quickly scribbled, simple backgrounds. you really don't need a lot to communicate a vibe... trick's game only had 3 endings (instead of 5 like the two before it), but it was also structured differently. i wanted it to be refreshing after the previous games--you get something new out of each date!

DATE MOCHI technically took the longest to make, just because i spent a while bringing the UI up to date with my other games! but writing the script and drawing the new art for it went by just as fast as before :)

updating the UI

ren'py was VERY DIFFERENT back in 2016... my games back then mostly used the default UI, where i just changed the font and colors. it was too tedious to do much more than that (and i didn't have the coding skills yet anyway)...

behold, the menu from date treat 1.0

compared to now:

i wanted to keep the same general aesthetic (with the round buttons and muted colors), but with current ren'py's default menu layout. the aspect ratio is still 4:3, but the buttons are a lot better spaced on the screen!! (my old font got retired too, haha.) it's just clearer overall, and much more appealing to look at imo.

i kept the minimal textbox, but i made it a bit taller and changed the spacing slightly. here's the new version, you can compare to the one above:

i would've liked to change the color scheme depending on which character you were dating... but i decided not to bother with figuring that out. it would've been a lot of extra assets and coding time... and since i had already spent quite a bit of time redoing the rest of it (making those volume sliders took longer than you'd expect!) i decided to call it good as-is.

i was tempted to retouch the old art, too... but it's been out there for years, it's perfectly serviceable! i've got other games to make next >:)

everyone should make tiny silly games more often

i really had fun coming back to this project after so many years, and i hope everyone enjoys the update when i release it in april!

when i was writing DATE MOCHI, i seriously couldn't stop laughing... it's just so shocking... thinking of the fan reaction to the jokes in this one kept me super motivated to hurry up and make it real so i could share it with everyone.

and that's the kind of spirit that i enjoy most about gamedev!!! thinking of something cool or fun that will make people's days a little brighter. i think other creators should improvise smaller projects more often!!!! it's super healing for the soul, and leads to more art existing in the world, which is always a good thing in my book :)

thanks for reading <3