Devlog 1 - August 22, 2020

Developer's Log - Entry 1

friends with dogs log
entry 1 - monday, july 13, 2020
posted on - saturday, august 22, 2020 

Hey everyone. This is M. I'd start with a joke, but there's a lot to cover, so there might be one at the end of this post (if you make it that far).

First, thanks for taking the time to read this. I've been working on this for a while, so any body with a pair of eyeballs who sees this is my personal savior. Thanks. :)

 Second:

 1) WRITING - The writing is virtually done. Since I wrote fwd like a novel first, I still need to coordinate the amount of text in each Ren'Py dialogue box with the amount of action that's happening between the characters. So, if the novel version has a paragraph, it might be broken up into a few boxes in Ren'Py. I call it pacing, but I'm not sure if there's some formal term for it.

 2) VISUALS - I drew some sprites, poses, and expressions already, and collected and edited photos to use as backgrounds. To ensure I'm not wasting too much time and effort (lol), I'm creating a list of additional backgrounds to find, and sprites/poses/expressions to draw as I go through the text. I call this shopping. Accurate photos are hard to find, and poses can be so difficult... -_-

 3) AUDIO - Similar to VISUALS. As I read, I consider the type of music to play, and which sound effects to add. I have some tracks and effects already selected, but as with VISUALS, I have a shopping list that keeps growing...

 4) PROGRAMMING - I plan to not do too many fancy things. friends with dogs is more of a kinetic novel, and it has one ending. There are some choices, but they're more for entertainment - they don't affect your relationships with the characters at all. That being said, I've already finished programming the choices. Yay. I'm still adding visuals, music, and sprites as I proofread.

 5) LOGO - I don't know. I thought I finished it, but I noticed a few things that I could improve on.

 6) TITLE SCREEN - Needs a bit of work to the menu choices so you can actually read the text. Yay for low contrast!

 7) NICE-TO-HAVES - The ability to draw easier? lol. Credits, a CG gallery, a custom GUI, and amazing art would be nice, as well as a theme instrumental in the title screen, but they are definitely extra. The point is to finish this before the world ends.

 Hm... is there anything else? Oh yeah, proof of concept. We'll see how that goes. Maybe in the next post... if I ever write the next post. It's like, when I start a bunch of stories but never know what to do after a few chapters, so I promptly drop it. Don't deny it, you do it too ;)

 But seriously, fwd is one of my projects that I know I need to finish, because I'm already done with the writing... after like 10 drafts. Seriously. I'm not joking. It took forever. But not as long the art! Ahahahahahahaa!!!

 See you soon?

 - M.

 p.s. Wear your mask, stay away from me, stay away from my friends, and wash your hands. That's not a joke, either! Take care, and stay safe.