Tiny tiny update since I have a bit of time again. Redid a lot of GUI things. Started on sprites. Not quite sure I'm happy with the story. I started rewriting it several times...It's a small story on purpose, just to try some things out, but there's always a voice telling me to make something more out of it. And to put in more effort. Probably already overthinking it and getting into the loop of editing and deleting instead of progressing.

Struggling also with backgrounds. Most games in this genre have space for a character to walk around, but I was aiming for a first person POV. It's not easy to figure out which perspective to use for rooms!

Nothing interesting to screenshot right now. Will post again when there's something substantial.

Here goes the first entry for what (I hope) will become a sort of lengthy development log for what I've decided to make my new pasttime activity: creating an interactive visual novel.

Why? I already had several other stories in mind for various types of media. One was an illustrated short story in an abandoned industrial setting. One was a multi-route adventure game-ish thing that was more than a little inspired by Pathologic. Finally, I had created a solo-RPG ruleset for myself based on some pictures I took while travelling to a more-or-less depopulated city last year, that I tried to turn into a printable format and then didn't finish (my trial for affinity publisher ran out). I haven't really abandoned either of those, but I don't find myself working tirelessly on making them happen either.

I began testing that solo-RPG setting on myself, and ended up accidentally creating the skeleton of a story. Recently I accepted that my other adventure game-ish thing was not happening any time soon because it was destined to grow to a gargantuan size that I had no passion, skill or time to pause everything else for. Among other things. So I do what I usually do which is coming up with something smaller (that then, eventually, will start some cancer-like growth process. repeat.)

To avoid overthinking it I jotted down a basic manuscript for a much smaller story idea overnight and pretty much left it at that. Not sure how I channelled such a dedicated and uncritical writer all of a sudden, but it happens only when an idea is in its infancy, I think.

Then I started looking for ways to actually build the kind of interactive story I had in mind. I started with Adventure Game Studio (because it's free) and somewhat learned how to work with it. Fast forward a month, I moved countries again (a stable at this point) and found myself tied down to a 2015 macbook. AGS is not made for macos. Oops.

Which brings me more or less to the present. I looked for a macos-friendly alternative to AGS and settled for ren'py (because it's free). I reckon it's much simpler to work with as a non-coder anyway.

So, what now? Before moving I sketched some potential characters for the story (and then forgot to bring the list of their names with me. oops again.)



And a recent, cleaned up concept for a protagonist:



I now have a lot of art-things ahead of me, like sprites, CGs. Then there's cleaning up the manuscript, which is completely dialogue-focused, which I want it maybe to be a little less, because I'm really not that good at writing dialogue. The hardest part, I've found so far, is coming up with a GUI. I love GUIs. I also think they're the most vital decision regarding the fundamental expression of your game. I'll add an example of the main text box that I am very much considering not using after all, but this is a development log of sorts, so:



Besides GUI, the music aspect scares me. I'm familiar with a couple of instruments, but composing music? I love game music, and it's usually the main souvenir I take with me after finishing any game, no matter how indie it is. I don't feel like I could simply sit down with little to no experience and create the exact ambience I want. And I'm fairly picky about what I want the music to do for the story. But, no rush to solve that problem!

So that's where I am! I will organise what actually needs to be done, and then play around with the bits and pieces as I make them.