A bit of a bittersweet update this week! On one hand, I didn't get much done this week because I was working on another project. In this case, an animation tips tutorial video which I'll link here because hey, it's my blog so I can.
But on the other hand, last week I feel like I made some decent progress! I finally hit the 10k wordcount which felt like it was just not going to happen for a little while. Finding I haven't made any progress this week is a little bit of a let down but meeting that milestone and completing a smaller project (the video) are both pretty encouraging for me!
Since I'm a little lacking in new updates to give beyond that wordcount update, I'll mention I'm considering some ideas for future things to post about on these devlogs up until I have more visuals to share.
I know currently only a small handful of people look at my blog going by the site info but know I really appreciate the support. It's a genuine motivation for me in continuing with the project, ha. I almost didn't write one this time since I felt strange about not having done anything this week but I'd like to avoid that and keep people in the loop. Hoping to have something big for the next update! Thank you so much for reading. -Karma
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It's that time again! Or at least it's been two weeks so I need to update here to ensure people know this project is still chugging. The mini update:
Rotating shop! Since the flower shop is an important location in the story, I've decided I'll definitely need to be able to do the background myself. And so I decided to make use of Clip Studio Paint's new Primitives 3d tools for the layout. It took a little figuring out but it has the nice plus of being usable with CSP's "manga perspective" setting for some flexibility in how it's displayed. No longer bald and naked! I started on the default appearances for each of the main characters as well as sketched a sprite for the shop owner. Pickles Perkins is another old character of mine seeing new use here but given he was always a florist it made sense to use him as the shop owner. Since he's just a minor character, he doesn't as need as complex a clothing treatment as my main characters. Fawn in particular has coats and scarves and the like that she needs to be able to unlayer from her outfit as needed so she's shown here in her vest and skirt outfit without any of those. This also applies for both she and Lily's work aprons. Frilly but also protected from potting soil! Planning out all this stuff at this stage will save me a lot of pain down the road when it comes to adding more poses and the like. This goes for the backgrounds as well since certain ones, like the planned view of the flower shop, will require some masking to make sure characters are in locations that make sense. This is only a mock-up, not in engine yet. I'll be leaning back into writing as much as I can after this update so expect next update to potentially feature less visuals but hopefully a wordcount that breaks my first milestone goal. I hope this peek into the process was at least interesting for those keeping track!
Until next time. -Karma First up is an update on the progress of the VN! I'll admit right away that perhaps getting the whole first draft done in one month when I have other stuff going on was overestimating myself a bit. Looking at my outline at the moment I've made significant progress on scenes with 5 out of the 45 planned plot points to hit. Not every point on the outline needs a full dedicated scene for itself nor is every point just a single occurrence where several can be stuffed into one scene, so here are more easily measured notes on my progress.
A touch of UI mockups! The only visual work I've done since the last update has been some planning on what I want the UI design to be like. I originally considered doing some fancier button tabs for the Save and Options buttons and such since I was very happy with the custom UI I did for a previous dropped project. The tabs at the top of the text box would stick out more when you hovered over them and the Quirks on the right (essentially an alignment system but with personality traits instead) would visibly move tabs when you made a decision that affected them. In Your Nature won't have this system but I'm wondering whether I should have some visible indicator to help tell which decisions affect which ending you're on the path of? That's something to consider when I'm a little deeper in. But I've made up my mind that for In Your Nature I'd rather keep the menu buttons simple. As a trade off, I'll be using customized name boxes for the main cast, as shown up above. Still needs some work, but the general idea is there with a deer for Fawn and appropriate flowers for everyone else. That's about all for this update! These probably won't be terribly exciting to look at until I get to the visual development portion but hopefully as we get to that point people stick around see how it goes. Maybe next month I'll start putting some placeholder images into Ren'py so these can at least start having screenshots. We'll see! Other Stuff After a week of dealing with some stressful PayPal issues, things are looking sorted out again. I was honestly reluctant to plan much else while that was still looking uncertain even though it was just a review thing asking for some information. But it did slow me down in general. I'm hoping to finish my Deltarune stickers this week and open the Etsy at the beginning of next week if things stay on track. I've also been thinking about commissions. It's been a long time since I opened for public commissions, usually only doing small things for friends, since I always struggle with losing motivation. I won't moan about it at length but I won't pretend it's not a capital d Depression thing. I'm thinking of using YCHs to dip my toes back in the water though. Nothing animated, not a lot of slots, but just some small things here and there. Some spicy Cupid-themed pinups for February are one thing I'm considering and did some sketching on. I might host them on ych.commishes to try that site out? I'm not sure yet. It's not a definite plan but just something worth mentioning here incase I do manage to go through with it.
And with that you've survived another one of my rambling blog updates. Thank you for reading and see you in the next one! -Karma EtsyIt's been a while! Honestly kinda mortified reading how old the first update on this was haha but moving right along. I've since moved to a new bank (which was a big source of my problems starting the shop this past winter) and have been revving up to start the Etsy shop up in January. The holiday break and New Years have me feeling full of ideas for getting things going. Currently I just need to renew my P.O. Box and confirm my bank with Etsy and technically it's ready to go! Going forward, I'm planning to avoid having all the troubles with my stickers I had with the initial run (which will still be going up for sale in the shop, don't worry). Mainly, I bought the non weather proofed sticker paper because I was intimidated by the price of the weatherproofed paper. $68 for 100 sheets! Yowza. But looking at how much trouble it was laminating individual diecut stickers on top of the cost of the laminate itself, I think it would have been worth it. So new plan! Step 1) Sell the laminated stickers I've already got done. They're still looking good and should honestly be very durable because of the plastic on top. Step 2) Design any stickers that are to be printed on my current sticker paper to be mini sticker sheets, intended to be used on stationary and paper goods. This way they don't need to be laminated but are still just as nice looking and presentable. My Cherub and Imp sloths are a good example of these types of stickers. Step 3) Stop being a dunce and just get the good paper for future diecut stickers. Also include an easy-peel tab, especially for non-jumbo designs. I'll do this after I've managed to sell some of my initial stock since I'll feel more secure doing it once I know my stickers can in fact sell. Also on my agenda:
On to other business. In Your Nature: Devlog #1I wrote a pretty long post just before this about the project itself but long story short for anyone not looking at my twitter: I'm starting work on a horror visual novel. The summary of the idea is a girl finds out she has a stalker and the stalker reveals to her something they've witnessed that they believe is a danger to her. Current progress:
I'm on the first draft of the story and I'm not writing from beginning to end. Rather, I'm writing the big scenes I have most solidly developed in my plan and then I'll go through and connect them all with the smaller transitionary scenes. It might be a while before I have any actually polished artwork to share since I don't want to go burning myself out on it nor end up having to throw away or change already finished art when it comes time to edit the story or put it into Ren'py. I have still done some concept work though and will still do bits and bobs of pieces I know for sure will be needed, such as the default sprites for the main cast. Sure they're all bald right now but hey, official height line up! Updates will continue to be a little short and dull up until I get to the more visual stages of the project but I'll keep posting so as to make sure I'm still making progress! So check back in now and then if you're wondering about the project or follow on Twitter where I'll link to these updates whenever I make them. The blog gives me so much more room to talk but the blue bird will make sure at least one or two people see it hah.
-Karma Forgot about this site until I realized I could benefit from a place with longer text space than Twitter! I'll be putting updates on the Etsy store in the next blog entry as well as a progress update for this project, but this particular entry is just going to be information about the VN I'm working on. About the projectI had originally planned to make this visual novel for an October based game jam. Aside from general irl stuff getting in the way and a loss of motivation, I had struggled with coming up with the story for it, especially in a way I could write in just one month while simultaneously doing the artwork. If you look at my itch.io page you'll see the only other visual novels I have publicly listed were done in a day and over the course of two weeks. Both very small scale short projects made mainly to test software and because I had an idea itching at me I needed to get out right then. But for a long time, I've been wanting to do something more complete. This goes back a little further than that though. At one time, I had wanted to make an RPG where you play as the villain of the story. Unsurprisingly making a life simulator type game ala Stardew Valley where you play are various criminals in the town was a little outside my skill set. But it is where the original start of the story comes from. This version of Fawn was named Eileen. An earlier draft of the outline also had her named Phoebe, as well as Shelby. Oddball was also the player character for this iteration, hence having the only sprite completed. They have since been switched to Odd, nickname for Oleander. For the Visual Novel version I knew that I would want Fawn to be the player character, as it would lean more into horror territory than the sort of dark comedy I was picturing for the RPG story. This meant adjusting characters from the original project, as I wanted to keep the setting, and adding another so that Fawn had someone in her life to talk to other than her stalker or random strangers. Lily was originally going to be Violet, but once I started designing her it felt too on the nose for a character who wears mostly purple. I'm hoping to flesh out Lily and Fawn's relationship a bit in the story. All of the characters in it are a little grey, in that you aren't meant to agree with everything the protagonists do or see the antagonists as inhuman embodiments of evil. So I'm gonna leave them at that for now since that's more character development than plot and I'd rather let the story speak to that. I've got a pretty full story outline done using one of NaNoWriMo's templates called the Jot, Bin, Pants method. Honestly I recommend looking over NaNoWriMo's prep exercises in general. I'm not good at laying down full plans for my stuff so it felt really productive getting all my scenes laid out, even if some are a little vague right now. And since I've kept interest in this project since October (meant to participate in NaNoWriMo for it, wound up beginning actual writing in December), I'm hoping to stick to the idea and get this whole first draft written over the next month. I'm doing what I can to make sure I don't get too far ahead of myself by jumping into art production. While I plan to have the first draft of the script written by the end of the month, the VN itself will definitely not be done then. I have some experience coding in Ren'Py that should help that part go a little quicker but odds are I'm going to be doing all of the art myself as well. So aside from assets I know I will definitely need (such as the most basic emotion sprites for each of the main cast) I'm holding off on ramping up any visual production or coding. But I want to know exactly what I'm getting into before planning the art, as well as what I'll be capable of including without burning out. The ScopeRight now, I know that my definite plans are for the major events of the story to happen over the course of three days. That means sprites with changeable outfits (as concepted above) and CGs for each of the Big moments of the story. I have experience with both of these, so I know they're something I can do. Backgrounds are uncertain right now. More generic settings could use premade assets as there are a lot of nice packs on Itch.io from other VN makers, paid and free. But I don't want to end up with very clashing art styles so what I need in the end will determine whether I need to make it all myself. Music will likely be premade options unless I find myself able to afford custom tracks. I currently plan for two endings, based on conversation options that change characters' opinions of Fawn more than any branching paths. So this will play closer to a kinetic novel with small differing scenes to keep things a little more tight knit. There are a couple of things I would like to add if things are going well by the time I'm adding the art assets, but it's dependent on both how the story turns out. On the simpler side of things, I would like to make some use of the simple animation features in Ren'py. For example, having certain scenes be in another perspective rather than only using sprites and then using the transitional features to move layers of the image. Low quality mock up of Odd and Fawn on a fair ride made in CSP just to make it clear what I'm talking about. The other "big" goal would be partial animation / animatic endings. These are left for last because they're obviously a huge leap from the amount of effort it takes to write out what's happening in a scene versus what it takes to animate it, even very choppily. It's an idea I really like that I feel would make the endings more impactful / stand apart from other VNs but it's not practical to guarantee, especially this early into development. But I'm putting it down here anyway because it is a best case scenario outcome so it's worth mentioning. It will only be considered in the final quarter of development, hoping that I make it that far. So what now?For now, I work on the first draft. Any big updates will be given on this blog, including the first update I'll be posting right after this one. Smaller peeks into any progress I make might turn up on my twitter as long as they're bite sized enough for there.
I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this, even if in the end I have to shrink the story or cut out parts to get it done. I just know I want to make it happen. So keep an eye out for any new news as I go! -Karma Things have been pretty busy around my place lately! I won't be posting any pictures but for anyone who cares to read my blogs, I am now an aunt! My sister's baby is healthy and doin' good and the whole family has been very happy about it. Because of this though, I've found myself pretty busy and hadn't been working on my shop items. However the other day I finally finished my whole stock of laminated Haunted Toy stickers. There's about 25 full sets, with a few leftover and a small handful of B-grade stickers not included in that count so I expect they'll last me a little while when I first open. I'm very happy with how they've turned out! They'll be nice and safe in my bead organizer as well so they don't get dusty before I send them out. Aside from sticker work, I'd been trying to use a little of my stimulus money to refresh my wardrobe, as I've reached the point once again of having dresses beginning to fall apart from being worn and washed so many times. I had actually been going to shell out for a couple of nice lolita pieces from taobao resellers, but after literally days of trying to find things to buy I wound up giving up. Which is too bad because I found Infanta still stocks the Jenny Cookies set in their taobao shop if you're willing to buy through a shopping service. Even trying for more practical clothes though, it's been shockingly hard to find just regular sundresses. Amazon is so full of dresses made of crappy material marketted with stolen photos along with many other replica selling scam sites, my choices are basically brand or bust since it's the only way to have any idea what I'm getting.
I wound up just getting two dresses from Hot Topic instead of anything else since the black dress I got there at a mall several years ago has held up through hellfire at this point. We'll see if the new ones are as good. Back on shop stuff, I just need to do my pin-up stickers and my postcards and I'll be good to go. I might even make it to my estimated shop opening I had hoped for during the first week of next month! Fingers crossed. I'll leave this sneak peak here for anyone who for some reason reads my blogs but doesn't see the stuff I post on twitter. Until next time! I've been trying not to spam Twitter with posts about my sticker making, especially since the character limit there makes it where I can't talk about much, so this blog is the perfect place to talk about it! I've been wanting for a long time to make some kind of sellable Stuff with my art on it. I remember talking last year I think about wishing I could design cute enamel pins like other creators have. While I would still love manufactured merch like that, I feel like this is a nice personal place to start! However, it definitely hasn't been as simple as I expected it to be. Size limits make it where I can't have the stickers be as large as I initially hoped without wasting a Ton of sticker paper. Originally my designs were drawn and printed at about 3.6" tall but I've moved them down to 3" so that I can use the Cricut's print and cut. Three inches is still decent enough even if it's a little disappointing. But that 3/5ths of an inch makes the difference between only fitting four stickers on a page and wasting paper or fitting nine stickers on a page with relatively efficient spacing. I wish the recycling program was still in practice for all this paper I'm trimming and using, made worse by all the technical difficulties at the beginning. But I finally have things figured out. Knowing these size limitations will make designing the next sets a lot easier. I'm planning on demon and angel pinup girls next so I'll try to keep their dimensions to where I can fit a lot of them on each sheet. I also found my printer can handle 110 lbs cardstock at the 4x6 borderless printing size so postcards are a go! I cancelled and re-planned them several times while buying equipment since the Epson printer didn't guarantee it could print on cardstock. At this point I really just have to figure out whether I could laminate the front of the cards or not. I'm not sure exactly how people would display them. Or if they'd try to use them like actual postcards? At any rate, I plan to have three designs on offer. Right now I'm testing using my existing art. I have designs in mind for future releases as well, and hope to expend to perhaps larger scale art prints as well, but for now I'm well prepped for keeping my packages small. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find chipboard inserts of the size I needed. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of shipping without some sort of solid backing to keep my packages from bending and rigid mailers were very expensive so I hunted and hunted for these things. I saw lots of people saying to use "Do Not Bend" stickers or stamps or what not but alas, I know that's not how this works. These things go through a machine and that machine can't read. I'm still anxious about investing so much in this idea but I'm feeling good about it. The past couple weeks of making progress have been giving me a real boost even with all of the problems along the way. I'm hoping to have my shop open at the beginning of May, maybe a little sooner if I can really pump out these last designs in a timely manner. Fingers crossed it goes well!
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