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(crawls out of my ditch) Hi everyone! I hope you’ve been keeping healthy and safe ^w^

let's start off with a fantastic milestone - walk in the sun passed 2k downloads in june! thank you again to everyone who's played or shared my game :)

i feel like ive been starting off with this every time but - Thank you for all being so patient!!! I dropped off the face of the earth thanks to covid (I have been bedridden for the past two weeks) and before that I was finishing up work for my real job o)-( the crunch!!! my body really hit me with the sniper shot.

Please remember to rest!! and take care of yourselves!! with this last job, due to unforeseen circumstances, i ended up with a much larger workload than expected and I’m paying for it now. Know your own limits!! remember to take halfdays!!

BUT im unemployed now. That means gamedev.

trophies

sadly trophies is taking much, much longer then I planned. I ended up with a lot of health scares/sickness/irl job stuff that took priority. But that’s life! I’m hoping to take a lot of lessons from this project and cut down my time on whatever I plan on next. Thank you all for seeing this through and believing in me o7

what has been done

• animation

looks like a dvd menu screen.... and that's what i want.

hmmm... what’s this...? yes I’m back animating... yes I am insane

• phone/messaging system update

updated the phone system i had in place. I did use Ren’py’s built-in speech bubble feature, but it is very finicky and wasn’t as customizable as i wanted it to be. Then.... i discovered classes.

this document explains classes (and gives a basic code to start off from) much better than i ever could, but i was able to set up a messageboard and texting system within an hour. It’s much much easier than trying to use one of those pre-built codes on itchio.

basically a transparent box with the name/message/buttons below added in. Simple and does the job.

init python:

      class TxtMsgCharacter(object):
        def __init__(self, name, options, reply, back, ctc):
            self.name = name
            self.options = options
            self.reply = reply
            self.back = back
            self.ctc = ctc

        def __call__(self, what, **kwargs):
            global txtlog
            txtlog.append(TxtMsgEntry(self, what))
            if kwargs.get("interact"):
                renpy.pause()
            else:
                return False


    class TxtMsgEntry(object):
        def __init__(self, who, what):
            self.who = who
            self.what = what

default txtlog = []

then you create a new screen for this class to work

screen c_txtmsg():
    style_prefix "txtmsg"

    add "cphone" at phone_pickup:
        xpos 0.1
        ypos 0.064

    viewport:
        xpos 0.157
        ypos 0.31
        yinitial 1.0
        has vbox

        for txt in txtlog[-1:]:
            frame:
                background "#f5fbff00" at new_txt
                xysize (365, 320)
                ypadding 15
                xpadding 20
                ymargin 5
                xmargin 5
                has vbox:
                    yalign 0.1
                    xalign 0.5
                    vbox:
                        xalign 0.5
                        hbox:
                            text txt.who.name:
                                bold True
                    vbox:
                        xysize(320, 230)
                        ypos 0.1
                        hbox:
                            text txt.what#:
                                #slow_cps True
                        hbox:
                            xpos 0.85
                            add txt.who.ctc
                    vbox:
                        xalign 0.5
                        hbox:
                            spacing 35
                            text txt.who.options size 18
                            text txt.who.reply size 22
                            text txt.who.back size 18

then it's as simple as defining all your needed characters as so

define cmsg = TxtMsgCharacter("xXxCharliiiiixXx",
                                         "Options",
                                         "Reply",
                                         "Back",
                                         ctc="ctc3")

PHEW...! coding!! huh!!! again, read the document i linked above. it's SO helpful and basic enough to get yourself started if you want a texting system in game.

• sprites

grace’s sprites have all been completed! Only declan is left now!!!!

other

vn quickstart guide

this is something I’ve wanted to do for ages – which is gathering all the information and assests I’ve found for VN creation and host it all in one space. There’s a few guides like these, but i wanted to make my own.

it’ll be in wip status for a bit, i was hoping to bang it out but.... we saw how far i got. I’ll probably be updating it bit by bit during weekends. This community is so fantastic, i wanted to help out in my own way.

WHAT’S NEXT

bucking down and getting the work done. let's have a productive august!! i hope youre happy and healthy wherever you are. stay safe o7

• watching: the talented mr ripley
• reading: her flesh that lingers
• playing: higurashi v8

xoxo gg8473

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