March 18 Progress Report

2 weeks into March! There are 15 days left, ahhhh!

Hello, Sunberry here. For Week 2 of NaNoReNo 2018, I've written down story and UI design as my top priority. I can confidently say I've compromised my schedule yet again, but I have done a lot of forward planning! 

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PLAYTESTING Q&A v2

List your associated role for this week:

Sunberry: Story script and UI design

What tasks have been completed for this week? What tasks were incomplete and the reason for incompletion?

COMPLETE: For the second week of NaNoReNo, Sunberry has set up the game file in Visual Novel Maker, completed her title screen and load screen UI with working sound effects and has begun plugging in the first scene into the game. Not much art progress has been done, but with the game lore solidifying and key events ready for implementation, the story aspects of Luck and Key are getting there.

INCOMPLETE: This week’s schedule details the completion of the story script. However, Sunberry has focused on background lore details and practicing with commands on Visual Novel Maker. For now, she will be using default assets as substitutes.

What playtesting has occurred as part of the process? What are the outcomes of playtesting?

The title screen UI works well, with clicking sound effects functional. However, the hover sound event is not. Due to time constraints, Sunberry may have to abandon this feature for the first demo and focus on implementing a working story. There are more UI assets to be customized later on. Most of the assets for the demo will stay in their default stage provided by the software, but along the way, Sunberry is sourcing all her borrowed assets.

How do these outcomes impact the schedule for game development?

More time is needed to complete the UI, which in turn shortens the time needed for art design. Once the story has been plugged into the game as working scenes, substituting backgrounds and characters will be a lot easier.

What (if any) has been changed about the game design and development concept/pitch?

Key scenes are ready to be scripted. Plugging this into the game may take a few days, so the first demo may only have two or three scenes as opposed to the planned four. The art direction has not been decided yet, but it may be possible to downgrade the designs to non-detailed sprites and basic backgrounds to meet the deadline.

 What will be your task/s for next week and the resources you will use for playtesting?

Next week, Sunberry intends to finish the working prototype and begin sprite design and background art.

General comments on project progress:

The project is going fine! It's a slow progress, and there are plenty of hiccups yet to be smoothened but Sunberry intends to release a working demo nonetheless.

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This week, I've dabbled into my game software, got the hang of it in three days and have begun story implementation. It's seriously some work to keep building a project and checking it looks exactly how you want it to. For 15 days left, I want to prioritize a hopefully bugless experience for the player, so aesthetics are still in their infant stage...

I have little experience with background art, so I want to experiment with it and develop those skills for Luck and Key. It's an especially important part of the game, considering the VN is a fantasy/adventure. Most of the UI designs I will be creating for this demo will definitely be changed for better-looking ones as the months go by, so if I can somehow deliver an interesting story combined with my current art skills to keep potential players curious, I'll definitely be happy! The music and sound effects I plan to use are all royalty-free and will be sourced it its own scene. 

As a writer, I believe symbolism is key to any story. I also want to showcase this through the UI. Symbols like threads, ribbons and lace relate to tapestries, and jargon words like knitting and stitching come to mind. 

Here's a sneak peak at my potential load screen. I thought the colours really popped out while I played with blending modes!

I have a logo design for my title, but I may not implement it for this first demo. So much work to do, so little time!