Friday Rambles 2022-02-03 + Game Dev Update

Hello! I hope you had a good week.

I am late with the Friday Rambles this week. I am once again no longer punctual. Sorry.

I did a lot of work this past week and the sore throat I had last week turned into a big ol cough-fest but I think I'm mostly okay now. Maybe. In any case my body felt like it was falling apart so I also took it easy for a couple days. 

This week was more story stuff, and various UI things.

I finally added some Penny to the game so people who are playing the game actually know what she looks like, because for most of the game you're only seeing her text bubble. The phone is like a "home base," and she shows up here to comment on what each app is, and (when it's done) hint about who we should be calling to get new dialogue and story, and comment on emails or calendar entries or whatever. And yeah, you can pull the phone out in the middle of a conversation and start playing Lumber Lass. I can't promise the person you're talking to will appreciate it, though...

Here is a gif and some screenshots of it in action. I like it so far! The game is actually starting to look like a real game now!

But mostly I worked on that story thing I talked about last week. It involved coding an entirely new system with a bunch of new art to draw so it took a while, but I think it was worth it. Not shown here yet, because I still want it to be one of the few remaining surprises.

So with most of the functionality I wanted to add in the game in the game now, I'm finally filling out the dialogue for my story outline. I should be able to pump out a rough draft for the rest of the game next week... lol... maybe... After which point I need to draw the remaining CGs/BGs and sprites if any. The music for the game is coming along, too, and the tracks so far make me very excited and happy. So the end is in sight, hopefully should be wrapping up by the end of the month and releasing in March. Remember when I said I'd be done by the end of December? Haha.

Let's see, what other stuff. I'm spending my weekend doing some incredibly annoying busywork for some of my other personal projects related to the stupid Twitter API changes planned(?) for next week. If there even is a plan. What a joke. I'm also going to lazily make some stickers with sprites from the game, as "merchandise" "tie-ins" for my shop, because I haven't updated the shop with anything new besides zines in like 6 months. Otherwise, idk. Once again, this past week was mostly just consumed by game dev work. Maybe once this game's finally done I'll be a more interesting person. Or maybe not. Who knows. Who cares? Not I. Or do I? I only hope my deepening sense of uncertainty and cynicism and despair doesn't make it into the game to ruin its mood. Or maybe that's good for the story? Who knows. Who cares? Just kidding about the despair. I'm actually pretty happy. Or am I?

Oh yeah, I ate a burger last night. I forgot to post about it on Twitter though. It's a Patreon exclusive!

As always, thanks for your support! You are the real heroes.