Friday Rambles and Game Dev Update 2024-08-09

It's the Friday Rambles.

Life stuff

I cleaned my desk this week. I feel more professional and productive, without all these old papers and boxes and pens scattered everywhere. Other than that, it was mostly the usual. I'm gonna try to add a mile to my jogs next week.

Merch stuff

It feels weird not having to advertise a plushie this week. I know I told myself I wouldn't get distracted by another Makeship plushie campaign, but I have one last idea I really want to do (but I'm going to save it for after the Dreams and Deadlines extra chapter update). Speaking of merch, here's a discount code for the shop.

Misc non-game stuff

I'm working on a new website. Web dev is something I haven't done in a really long time, so it was a nice(?) change of pace. I'm using Hugo to generate a static site instead of using a CMS or Squarespace or whatever, so it loads super fast. It took me an evening to get a rudimentary idea of how it works and I made the theme from scratch so it looks like the old site with a new navigation sidebar and now I can make blog posts, too. So it's at least got "feature parity", but now much, much easier to update and build upon to improve later compared to my previous "update a bunch of html files manually" approach.

Above: It's basically the old website with a new sidebar.

Above: A new "Games" section! Maybe I should title this section "Game" until Game 2 is announced

Above: wow news posts

I need to apply a bit more art to it (maybe I'll just slap a big cute background on it) so it doesn't look like some kind of programming blog, but otherwise it has all the info I'd want someone scanning a QR code to get to my site to be able to have. But why now...?

Game stuff

I'm still waiting on some final paperwork, but I'm not expecting it to fall through or anything, so I'm working under the assumption that I'll be showing Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines at Tokyo Game Show later next month. I'm trying to finish up the extra chapter update demo build as soon as I can so I can get the script translated into Japanese (at least the first 15 minutes of it). The main issue is that the script is still evolving and once it's sent out for translation I can't easily change stuff without it having to be retranslated, so I want it to be in as complete a state as possible before doing that. But I also don't have a lot of time left.

If all else fails I still have the vanilla game to show off to the 99.999999% of the world who hasn't played the game yet. Yeah... haha...

Crap! I still gotta book plane tickets!

PS: The game is on sale.

Above: This pic has served me well but maybe it's time to retire it

Spoilery section below

I have a bunch of screenshots and other gamedev rambles, but it might be a bit spoilerish, so if you care about that, thank you for your support!! See you next week.

Above: Finally made a new title screen image to more accurately portray the new chapter (just a temporary placeholder for now. ...Until it isn't)

Above: Rest in peace Whiskey's Bar

I do still like the old Whiskey's Bar title screen, but it no longer has anything to do with the extra chapter. I moved all the interesting plot points from that into the new chapter, so no one's missing much. Except the title screen, which I'll shove into the "bonus art gallery" later.

There's a new log icon on the title screen. What could it be...?

Above: Wow!

Above: It's Standalone Lumber Lass!

I added Lumber Lass to the title screen. You need to unlock it, though. Figuring out how you do that will be left as an exercise for the player.

One of the issues I was concerned about with the extra chapter was that adding achievements would cause people who 100%'d the game to not be 100% anymore, and I didn't want to add too many achievements that people would get annoyed to have to grind for. I've learned that some people get really mad about achievements. So I'm being way more deliberate about where the achievements will be, and anything that might be too annoying to get will unlock something in-game instead of unlocking a Steam achievement. This might be bonus images or standalone minigames or Lumber Lass hats or whatever, and someone who takes the time to unlock all the bonus stuff will have the satisfaction of having seen all the secret endings and a star or something in the UI somewhere and my undying respect.

Or... maybe I shouldn't care that much about that and just put 20 new achievements in.

As for writing the script, it's coming along. To recap, the premise is that Penny is at the office again, and needs to finish her project by Monday again, but this time she doesn't even remember what her project is. lol. So she has to figure that out before even starting. It's meant to kind of catch the in-game world up with the canon world (that mostly just exists in my head right now) that will be the setting for Game 2.

Above: New "inspiration" mechanic - new choices enabled by being inspired will show a cute light bulb icon

So the new "inspiration" mechanic is meant to be a sort of objective that players would want to meet to progress through the game. The idea is that Penny will be inspired by various things during her adventure through the office (much like before) -- but this time, being inspired by something will affect what she thinks about or wants to do, as well as her dialogue options when talking to other characters. This lasts until she draws her idea or is inspired by something else.

Above: No points for guessing what Penny is inspired by right now

This of course is resulting in an enormous amount of additional dialogue that no one will ever see (especially because I'm not adding achievements for a lot of the branches), but I know at least you will care, dear supporter.

Above: Penny appreciating the finer things in life

I also drew some art assets I've been putting off. I'm focused more on the first 15 minutes of the game, because that's the most urgent thing for TGS right now.

Above: Bunny-chan...

Above: Another new CG... It came out close enough to what I had in my head so I'm pretty pleased lol

And a bunch of other CGs and sprites that I'll share later (when I release the update).

Anyway, my goal is for the script to be as done as possible by the end of next week, so I can have a chance of getting it translated by TGS.

Oh yeah, I also got a PS5 Dualsense controller to make sure it's supported and it works fine.

Above: The Playstation button glyphs added for Dualshock/Dualsense controllers. I'd already tested it on my Dualshock 4, but needed an excuse to buy a new controller with a USB-C connector for charging

The End

That's it for now. Thanks for your support, as always! Next week I'll be finishing and polishing up the first 15 minutes of the game (and hopefully most of the rest of the game).