Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #159

Hiya there!

We're nearing the end of September, so I just wanted to chime in and thank you all for your immense patience as always! This'll be a shorter dev log than usual and more just to bring you all up to speed on where I'm at, where things are going, and the state of the pending new alpha build update!

So--while I haven't been able to quite get things out for this month as the writing has been proving to be a bit more tough than I first anticipated to wrap everything up (some back to back super emotional scenes that aren't exactly my forte, followed by one last action/fight scene! And of course some h-scenes~) I am happy with how everything is shaping up. I do sincerely apologise for taking a bit longer to get these parts done, as I feel like I've come so far with a certain standard, and wouldn't want to suddenly throw caution to the wind and rush to the finish line. But I think it'll all be worth it, as I'm very happy with how a lot of the interactions are shaping up and it's a fun blend of emotional, dramatic and the goofier moments that I feel so at home with. Please bear with me just a bit longer as it all comes together, and I hope it'll all be worth it!

As a result of not getting it out the door this September, I'll be doing what I did in the past to try to be as fair as I can--and so anyone that got a alpha link this month, it'll carry to next month too and still work when the new build will arrive in what I hope to be October. Sorry again this one has been taking a while. I think it just hasn't been my year, haha. But I've always been plodding away, even if some days progress is slower than others. Again, I can't thank you all enough for how patient and supportive you've been. It truly means the world to me to know that so many of you are excited to see it all come together!

Outside of writing, I also worked on something that may be mundane to some, and potentially exciting to others: the credits!

While it may seem rather basic at first glance, there's a crazy amount of scripting work that went into this crawl of images.

Compared to Chapter One's single .png I had scroll up the screen and that was that, what you see with Chapter Two's credits images are a fully dynamic group of images and text, of which I've specified the coordinates of EVERY little element individually. That includes the portrait (of which was a great way to show off the chibi art I have of everyone!), the VA credits, and the character's name and cute little title I came up with for each.

Now WHY did I do it that way like a mad person, and not just another large .png again? As mentioned, I wanted these credits to be fully dynamic.

What I mean by that is that for all the characters you can potentially meet in the story, and maybe you don't meet depending on the sidequests you choose to take, the credits will reflect this as to not spoil anyone you didn't meet in your playthrough, and be a fun recollection of the ones you did meet as you reflect on your journey one last time.

And I'd like to hope that any mysterious gaps you find in the credits will motivate you to go back and see what you may have been missing and who that mystery, shaded chibi may be!

I'd wanted the credits to be like this for the longest time, and put off making them until I got close to the end, because I wasn't even sure if they COULD be done like this. But, well, I'm getting to that point, and figured it was finally time to pull off the band-aid and dive in. And...it took like a couple of days at most of poking at the code here and there. Most of it was just googling the correct script things to make sure I was coding it right!

And there were a few stumbling blocks along the way.

Because to create this dynamic credits scene, I cobbled everything together into what the engine I'm using, Ren'Py, calls a composite image. And a composite image is essentially something that I can call under one singular name, but is actually composed of a variety of layers within it that all make up this single image. A good example of these composite images I use elsewhere would be the characters' own sprites, with their expressions/poses all layered together to make easy for me to position and shift them around on the screen.

But, uh, what Ren'Py probably didn't intend on was for me to put TONS of layers into a single composite image, which I attempted to do for the credits scene, putting every image, every text header, and everything else into a single 'image'. It worked. But it was VERY laggy, skipping and chugging as it trailed up. And if it did it on my PC, which I'd like to think is fairly high-end, I feared how it might work on lower powered machines.

So I had to go back to the drawing board, chop up all these credits images into smaller groups of composite images, and then find a way to have them all scroll up in sync, while dynamically unloading old credits images as they go off the screen to keep memory free and reduce the dreaded chugging.

Without rambling on too much more, I essentially did just that, and it was a satisfying feeling to have it all scroll smoothly. So, I set out to do something, had some issues, but pushed through them and got it all down. Mission accomplished, yay~ Now that's one less thing to worry about after everything else is finished.

And realising that I just rambled on forever about composite images--I'll counter this by actually talking some more about QF's story and its characters that I'm working on wrapping up for the alpha build.

As I'm sure I've written before, everything that I'm writing now is like a big ol' cooldown after the dramatic main story events that served as the climax. I didn't intend to spend this long on what should essentially be the last remaining parts now that I got all the big moments out of the way, but ahhhh... Turns out even after all the big dramatic stuff happened, I started to think about how certain characters may be impacted by certain events, and things spiralled from there. What was meant to be Matt's few free days he has before the final event that leads to the end credits ended up being crammed with a bit more story, because after having so many times where he wakes up and has a nice morning scene at the inn with Anna and such, it wouldn't have felt right to just have him wake up and be like 'okay time to explore!' So I've had a lot of fun with him goofing around in the morning before you get your free choices for the day.

I fear in some of these I may have made Anna just a little TOO goofy given the nature she's established for herself, but at the same time, maybe it can come down to her just being more comfortable around Matt now, and not being afraid to cut loose a bit more? (Though in one part Anna is so ridiculous Matt even questions if she's drunk, haha--which...I think there's precedence at least!)

And regarding the big ol' extra fight scene, just when you thought all the fighting may be over, the conditions for getting it are going to be a little obtuse because it only makes sense to happen if you neglect certain things, but as always I'll have a guide up for how to get all the extra scenes you could potentially miss. Because after all the effort I put into this one, it'd be a crime if it got overlooked, haha.

A lot of time has been spent writing almost purely for Ren, Cynthia and Anna now that I think about it. And I couldn't be happier writing them as I think I'm in my element. There's a good mix of cutesy hyper moments, gruff sarcastic moments, and then Cynthia's...well...whatever moments she has. I think people may be surprised by what Cynthia has in store~

Alongside all this, October is going to be a bit eventful. In that, as always (sadly), I age another year. And Halloween is looming on the horizon. My favourite time of the year, as an excuse to get people dressed up in spooky, cute outfits, and maybe even have an extra surprise or two down the line if it works out!

Getting the alpha update out is my main priority, though. And it has been a large source of stress given all the roadblocks I've had and I truly am sorry for how long it's been since the last update--but hopefully things will be smoother once I get it out and can breathe a bit more easily and focus on wrapping up all the last little parts.

As always, if you want to ask me anything more specific about anything at all, post in the comments or get in touch and I'll do my best to answer, as long as it doesn't mean me spoiling anything super specific, haha.

On one final parting note, I do have some stuff I may have shared on twitter--including art of the demon queen from a story I did a while back on here, which I could post at some point too if people are interested in seeing her. She's a real cutie and I don't think I ever posted her here, did I? Let me know!

Whoooosh~ Here's to a spooky October!