SYNTHJAZZ dev blog #1 - getting over the hump
hi
i haven't posted on here for a while. oops!
so i guess i'll post a little bit about SYNTHJAZZ again, but (as i've said before) not TOO much.
currently i'm about 60% done with the script. i've been at this exact spot for a month or two as i've realized the middle segment of the game is just a lot of characters moving between scenes and talking to each other in a not-particularly-interesting way. so i started to try to rewrite a segment to throw a wrench into certain things, hoping to up the intensity a bit. now, my problem is actually resolving this wrench and i've hit a bit of a snag. perhaps i'll still change the wrench at this point, and i've got the outline as a whole still on track, but i'll need to figure it all out soon. originally my goal was to finish the 1st draft of the script by the end of the year, but now with a trip and holidays coming up... maybe not.
so, since i've been stuck on the script, i've instead been diving into renpy to code exactly what i want. i've accomplished most of the basics so far, and renpy has the benefit of having an insane amount of tutorials and guides out there. i also want the game to not immediately read as "just another renpy game," so i've done a decent amount of work to reskin everything and hide/disable parts of the UI that aren't gonna come into play. this is a fully linear visual novel, with no choices/routes, so tbh, some of the features aren't really needed.
i have a lot of placeholder images in right now, but as a very visual guy this is hard for me. i like to see a finished product, so i'm often sitting with the renpy window next to the visual studio window, re-writing the code to adjust a menu option or graphic by a few pixels, then hitting control+R in renpy, and doing that a few times before finally going "ah yup, that looks better." then i move on to the next thing. probably not the most efficient way of doing things but i am at least making progress on something.
life has been a bit stressful recently, so i can blame things on that, somewhat. my crohns kicked back up a bit which made everything a little tougher overall, then a family member passing away kinda piled on top. but theoretically, things should be getting easier going into the next year... as long as the world doesn't fall apart too much.
anyway, sorry to end on a downer note! but i'm still making progress, and updated autopsy report has been going well! so that's something :)
still next time, cheers!