1 Year Anniversary Update

Hey there!

This is my 1 Year Anniversary update! It consists of a lot of bug fixes, additions, and updates that I've been doing since my last upload about 9 months ago. My lack of Sunday updates that I initially intended was due to a sudden expansion to my hobby farm as well as the loss of a dear pet of mine. However, in the moments of free time I had, I would return to tinkering with the game.

And now, here it is! An update at last! On that note, I'd like to talk about some of the things I've been working on.

Perspective

I think the biggest change I made was the decision to zoom the game in. It's a simple piece of code and might not seem to be that much of a big deal, but it's definitely been a challenge getting various things in the engine to play nice with it. One of the more noticeable bugs as a result is the spotlight during the night since the initial spotlight code worked based on the player's screen position. I'll be smoothing that out in due time. My reason for opting for a closer view was mostly to honor the horror element of the game. From the beginning of the game's creation, I felt that lessening the amount of the map the player could see would help add tension. Another reason is that I'm working on adding a 16:9 option. Obviously, even more of the map would be visible thanks to that. I felt the graphics were awfully small for such a size and of course, the more map seen the less tension and jump scares I could accomplish. Lastly, I really feel that being zoomed in makes you feel closer to the character, the world, and the experiences; perhaps more immersive than the previous perspective.

Floating Dialogue & Animations

Not much is noticeable in today's update, but I wanted to make the world more alive. Not just for realism's sake but also to help add more depth to the isolation Kazuki feels once his existence has been stolen. The floating dialogue boxes allow conversations to flow outside of the player's control and input, allowing that feeling of life while remaining distant from the NPCs. The boxes are pretty rusty right now as seen in the scene with Hayato but I'll be polishing them up soon enough.

I've also started on the beginnings of the game animations. It might sound unnecessary and it probably is, but I really look forward to adding a lot of animations to the characters, mostly Kazuki. My main reason for this is a lack of actual cutscenes in the game. I feel that having moments with more intricate animations are basically my way of being able to have cutscenes, besides the images that pan across the screen. The main example of animations present right now is Kazuki checking his phone when he gets home. I likely won't get too much into adding animations in the coming months as I have more important things to work on in the game, but I look forward to them nonetheless.

Final

Besides those two, I've mostly done a ton of bug fixes. I also have been remodeling Kazuki's home, notably the study upstairs. A lot of work is still behind-the-scenes in the coding area where I've added a lot of new functions to help handle the lighting, animations, dialogue, hints, etc. that will be important throughout the entire game. I'm hoping that by strengthening these foundations, my future work and updates will be better and more frequent! And that soon the game will be something actually worth playing! ♥