Hello there. Has it been a while since I've made one of these, huh? You see, I've been busy working multiple projects, mostly so I can fill the gaps in paying my bills, but I'm hoping they all become very big eventually, Just Friends included.
I'm very grateful to the constant influx of patrons; it may not be huge and constantly growing, but it's stable, which means as long as I can pick and choose my battles, I can survive with what I make here, and for that, I'm thankful.
Here are the quick points I'm going to talk today:
Day3.JSON finished
Johan Routes to be added.
Overhaul of Day 0.
The tiger changes.
Character positions.
Code for Checking JSON files for crashes.
So, how are things going with Just Friends? Day3.JSON is finally finished. (Remember the game starts with the file at 0, so the introduction day is the Day0.JSON).
The idea is to push on Johan's routes until Day4 is complete, then enable the Dog and the Tiger's routes back into the game with updates. Just Friends was always meant to have three distinct routes, but Johan took a long while to be done because Character Sprites are extremely expensive, and they take a long time to be made. But now that they are done, I need to make sure I update his routes.
I have plans for the Tiger in the VN. There's a 60-70% chance I will change his design and name. Will still be a tiger, the plot won't change, probably just the base colors. I'm saving money to do that. The reason varies a bit, but essentially, it came to a point where it's really hard to write his character with the shackles I have around him.
It's not decided yet, of course, but if it happens, it's a chance you'll only see after Johan's Routes are done on Day4.
And speaking of Day4, the first segment of routes for Johan on Day 4 has an Act0, then 1st, 2nd, and 3rd encounter routes, and the 1stAct/Part1 route together with 3 or 4 answers + 2 or 3 locked by affinity routes. That's a lot to write!
But this situation is also getting annoying: Having to write 3 routes every update. So I'm seriously considering reworking the Day 0 of Just Friends again. So if you're a Tier 3 Patron, know that I'll be updating the Poll really soon to add a new option: "Rework Day0". If that option wins, I will change Day 0 entirely to make Aiden walk a bit around the resort right away and meet all three characters in one go. This way, when he meets them the next day, they can all act like they already know each other. This would make me not need to write three starter routes, but rather only two. One for 50% points or more, and another for no points. Both of them will have the characters acting like they know Aiden, but only one route will talk about events of the previous day.
Doing this would mean I would have to erase quite a few routes from the other days and change a bit of the conditions, but it would make writing Day4 for Johan faster, and Day 5 too. Because it's really annoying making these multiple routes that I know for sure most of you never play, because the lower point ones are just boring.
So, besides that, I don't think I'll be able to buy new artwork for the game, but I am thinking of applying new filters to the backgrounds we have. I learned a new technique that makes the backgrounds look like drawings! I already applied that to some bgs and to my other project too, so I know it's a good technique. I'm also considering reviewing the music of the game and changing it to new songs, but I'm still not sure about that.
There's also the Character position. I want to change all characters' positions to the center. With Just Friends being widescreen now, their position on left/right would only work if Aiden had a sprite, or if we had multiple characters on screen. But Just Friends is meant to be a simple VN with one-character routes. So putting them in the center is the best thing. This is another option to vote by the way.
I created a new code for testing in the engine. Now I can test for every single important aspect of the JSON to make sure all files are correctly named. This will make sure the game won't just crash on me for simple reasons, such as a background or character having a case-sensitive error. I'm glad I did it, I'm quite proud of it, actually.
For now, though, those are the news I can share.
I hope you all have a nice day. Tier 3 patrons, check the poll. It'll be updated soon.
See you all later!