Writing + Helga

So I just finished writing out James’s 5th heart event, which is, if you didn’t know yet, the ‘confession’ heart event. It’s over 2000 words, and damn, I better make sure the other bachelors get the same treatment! It almost feels like a visual novel really.

I know that at first I didn’t really want the main character to talk that much, but one-sided conversations are hard. Hard I tell you! So yes, the main character talks quite a bit. At least she’s not some dumb idiot like most female protagonists in visual novels with no spine (though there are the necessary ‘I’m too dumb to notice’ moments which are needed for the plot). In fact, hers and James’s bickering are some of my favourite parts to write.

Highlight the text for some spoilers when you’re James’s girlfriend to see my point:

Question: What do you like about me?
James: “No idea. There’s not much to pick from.”
MC: “One day I’ll punch you in the face.”
James: “Geez, what’s with your reactions? You used to just take my pestering.”
MC: “More like harassment.”
James: “Well then, you seemed to like being harassed by me. Hypocrite much?”
MC: “Who said I liked it!”
James: “Obviously you did, otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now.”
MC: “…”

It’s what won me over and made James my second favourite. Haha. Jerks are so much fun to write. I can’t believe how much smarter James sounds than me, and I’m the one writing him.

Anyways, I should probably do something more productive with my time … such as drawing! So here’s a sketch:

Helga is one of the few people who got a total overhaul. She was supposed to be a real redhead, but not anymore. The idea for her design just hit me out of no where, and I quickly dotted it down and it suits her perfectly, more so than her previous design. I love it.

Now I can’t decide whether to make her son, Eddie, a redhead like his sister (the father is the real redhead in this family), or give him the black hair from his mom. Hmm.

I think Tailor Tales is biased towards redheads :’D

How James met Bill

Because I’m in a writing mood lately (working on a present tense style), I figured I’d write out a short story on how James met Bill. It gives me a chance to flesh out his past a bit more, get a better grasp on his personality, and even show some subtle hints of things to come. James is so much fun to write!

Don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled, obviously, it’s set before Tailor Tales. There’s also other spoilers, but they’re rather minor.

I’d love to write a Calvin and Roy meeting as well, but that would mean I’d have to write about some huge spoilers, so I can’t >_< sorry!

Either way, read it here!

Also, I’m so not hinting at a potential bachelor that lives in Gion for Tailor Tales 2 …

Stop SOPA

I’m making this post to support the protest against SOPA and PIPA today, two bills that are expected to pass in the US on January 24th. It will control the internet and censor its culture and freedom of expression, all in the name of copyright infringement.

This will effect all of us, even those who do not live in the US. It would certainly affect WordPress as well, and this blog wouldn’t even be available to you anymore if the bill passes.

Please spread the word, and participate in the Blackout by blacking out your websites, blogs, or whatever else, to protest against these dangerous bills that will affect our future.

For more information, you can go here and here.

List of things to do

My main goal is to create a playable demo for Tailor Tales that lasts for 1 season, so effectively you can only play through Spring.

And I keep getting side-tracked by working on things that don’t even show up until much later in the game (such as marriage). So I’ve decided to put together a list of what I should have finished to create this playable demo.

So here’s the list, and I’m sticking to it.

Tailor Tales Spring Demo

====Not available in the demo===

•   Affection Mode
•   Cooking
•   Fishing

====Needed====

Graphics:

• All regular portraits
• All sprites
• Most of the icons

Eventing:

• Intro
• 1st heart event of all bachelors
•  RP system
•  NPC schedules
•  Gift system
•  All shops
•  Spring festivals
•  Player’s birthday
•  House expansion
•  Dates

Dialogue:

•  1st heart event dialogue for bachelors
•  Regular dialogue for all other NPCs
•  Dates dialogue & questions

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my list of what I absolutely need to have done to complete this Spring demo. This means no more working on the AM and getting side tracked. No, I have to be strong and work on only what is needed for the demo.

My current goal is: to get the dating system to work (activities and such).

… if I have the time for it, that is, I need to get back to real work >_>

AM early test

Let’s ignore the missing dialogue, the static portrait and the sketchy backgrounds.

So guys, the Affection Mode system is technically working. It has absolutely no dialogue as of yet, and the portraits aren’t programmed into it yet either, and then there’s the unfinished backgrounds – but it works.

Choosing a move works, choosing a body parts works, unlocking moves/body parts works, setting the parameters works, returning the correct dialogue works, getting to the next phase works, the heart beating works. Yeah guys, the AM is basically set at this point. I’m just missing some data, so I’m using placeholders, but I got it to work.

You have no idea how much work it was setting up the AM.  Surprisingly I only encountered 1 bug while testing it, which I fixed and bam, everything worked like a charm. That’s the power of pre-planning for yah.

*phew*

Ok, I can go take a break now.

AM jargon

The more I work on the AM, the more I see it as an entirely separate game, that could stand on its own – it’s that complicated.

But, I feel like sharing my technicalities with you guys! It’ll probably help you out as well when actually beta testing it, or playing through it.

The AM process is simple for the player. It’s divided into 4 steps:

- Choose the mode (hand or mouth)
– Choose the move (12 available)
– Choose the body part (11 available)
– Reap results

Bam, couldn’t get any easier than that. Of course, it’s a whole ‘nother story behind the curtains.

Each bachelor has its own preferences, which also change per phase. No bachelor would like you to suck his nipples (yes, that’s an option) during the first phase – so yeah. Of course, not only that, but these likes and dislikes are randomized each round (a round is when you get to pick a new mode, move, body part etc.), based on not only the phase they are in, but also on how many things you have unlocked.

This means … a shitload of work for me. Haha. What was I thinking?

Anyways, the system will grade your move based on 2 things: whether or not he liked or disliked that body part, and whether or not he liked or disliked that move. A like gives you +1, a dislike gives you -1, the best you can get is obviously a 2, the lowest -2. But because of that, you are basically confined to getting only 2 right moves at a time, when you can choose between over 24. So, to make the chances of getting a good grade higher, the system basically randomizes the likes and dislikes again twice, in the hopes of giving you a better grade – if you haven’t already gotten a perfect score. Of course, this could also mean getting a bad grade, but if you simply avoid his disliked moves and body parts, you’ll do fine.

What are his likes and dislikes? Psh, as if I’d tell you. Much more fun seeing people trying to figure out what the bachelors like themselves.

Of course, there are special moves which has its own fixed grade. For example, each bachelor has a favourite move – which you can only do after getting 3 perfect graded moves in a row. Then there’s the standard eye poke move which no one likes, that sort of stuff.

Anything that isn’t liked or disliked, is simply ‘neutral’ and scores you a few points. Not much, but at least you’re not losing any.

Get 4 horrible grades in total, and the AM will end prematurely, regardless of how far you got. This is reset every phase though, so you can screw up 4 times in each phase.

You also can’t have the same move as your previous one, it will result in a bad grade, so choose a different move every round!

 

I still have a lot to do … so to keep this from being totally boring, here’s a pretty picture of a sunset that I made and will be used as a BG in the AM system:

–

Edit: I’ve worked on it some more, and so far I’ve got the framework done. Really the only thing that is missing is the portrait, the dialogue, and the actual parameters. Other than that, works like a charm.

So here’s an in-game screenshot with a floating hand since there is no portrait available yet :’D

It might not seem like much, but there’s an invisible body there that you can touch in 84 different ways!

Happy holidays!

Mouse line-art FTW!

I want to wish everyone happy holidays for the upcoming week, and I hope you’ll stay tuned for another year of Tailor Tales with me!

As for updates, I don’t really have any, but I am still working on the AM system, which is making progress.

–

On an unrelated note, I’m looking for forums that encourage project development of games, more specifically romance games. I’ve been posting on Lemma Soft, but their new rules are making me want to abandon it. If anyone knows any, feel free to comment with the URL.

Also, anyone heard of Star Project? It’s like a dating-sim, but online or something.

It has begun

(I comment my stuff so that other VX users are able to understand the process.)

Uhh, well, if the above image wasn’t obvious enough already, I’ve started actual work on the AM system! Whoo! Enough planning and procrastinating, I’m getting some work done this time. Since I’m taking a break from work because of the holidays, I hope I can get this done before work starts again.

Let’s ignore the fact that I changed some things around again even after the 3rd mock-up.
To let you guys know as well, body parts and moves (kiss/slap/hold etc.) are unlocked after a certain amount of dates, as well as per heart level (or even status). Yeah, it might seem like fun to give you the kiss option when you’re at a black heart level but, sad to say, you won’t unlock this until the 5th heart level. I originally had it planned to not let you kiss them until they were your boyfriend, but ehh, that was too much. Regardless, making it like this means all heart levels will each bring new moves and body parts to unlock to prevent you from being bored by repeating the same thing over and over again.

And I’ve got some other good news, someone is finally scripting my choice script – which is very, very fundamental to the game. So that means once that is done, I can work on the dating system as well.

The amount of dates you go on now also matter in unlocking the primary heart events (and other regular events). You need to have been on at least 50 dates to unlock the 5th heart event, as well as all body parts and modes. Don’t worry, you can still go out on dates in the censored version, so there’s no problem there. You can go out on dates about 3 times a week, depending whether or not the bachelor is free (Roy has the most free days, so he’d be easier).

I might let you date during festivals – so basically they’ll be in their home all day long, waiting like a puppy for you to come invite them. That’s still a maybe, I might just make it an automatic event where the bachelor with the highest affection comes to your home to invite you instead. Hmm, which one would you like more?

Oh, and a random little tidbit; befriending Nikki should be something on your to-do list as she is key in unlocking several random events with the bachelors. That’s basically the only reason why I even created her … haha. She’s your girl friend, so treat her like one!

Aaaand portrait overhaul done

Two posts below I said I was tweaking the portrait system, and it’s done now. So here’s an in-game screenshot:

I know what you’re thinking, it seems … uhh … like I did nothing – but trust me, underneath those clothes is a naked Bill (I think if you lag in the game enough, you will actually see the naked base for a second before the clothes are put on …). He also blinks, and the blue heart beats as well, which adds movement and life to an otherwise static screen. Yay, I’ve injected some life in the portraits.

There are now:
- 20 different eyes
- 13 different mouths
- 7 different eyebrows
- 4 standard bases (blushing, etc.)
- 3 special tops (sweatdrop, crying etc.)

With those kind of numbers, I can literally make over a hundred different expressions. Of course, I had to sacrifice different poses for the characters, but I’d rather have a nearly unlimited amount of emotions available with only one pose (as well as blinking eyes!), than have 6 static images to show 6 emotions in different poses. It means the expressions will match the dialogue much, much closer.

Err, the regular NPCs have a lot less, but still enough to create more than 15 different expressions.

I’m actually rather proud of creating the portrait system @_@

Bill will be the only one who will have his portrait finished at the moment, everyone else gets a placeholder.

Oooh, I think I’m gonna add a slight tweak to the system again. There’s 6 standard templates to chose from when building up the portrait (so I don’t have to do it manually each time), with number 1 being the standard ‘normal eyes, normal mouth, normal eyebrows’. This will get shown a lot when you talk to them. I’m gonna make it so that template number 1 will change according to his heart level. So James at a black heart level will glare at you with template number 1, but at a red heart level, you might see him blush.

Edit: ok, that didn’t take long. Template 1 will most of the time be shown during shops, so here’s Bill’s template 1 during different heart levels. It will also change depending on status!

Character information

Whoo, I re-did the character page, so that now there’s more concrete information available about them. Of course, it’s still a work in progress, because the game still is. I’ll add the villagers later. Someday.

The blog will eventually turn into a big guide to help you play through the game and check up on some information, this is just the first step!