devlog #1

-Aaaand that was my first completed game ever.  

With two and a half days left in the week-long jam, I started teaching myself Ren'py and this was the result.  In hindsight, I should have taught myself before the jam started. I focused on art and writing the first few days before finally buckling down and learning some code.  It was a mix of trial and error and admittedly I did rush some parts but in the end I feel pretty accomplished.

This whole week felt like a mini boot camp for game development, I liked it but my apartment is a mess now because I held off cleaning for jam stuff  hahaa. I know the buttons are a little hard to read but besides that I think the game is quite playable and looks alright, and that is good enough. Yes, it ain't much but it's honest work.

I tried many things I'd never done before: drawing a CG/sprite (including multiple expressions), attempting to render, writing within a very small word limit, and programming. I learned that game dev is literally just launching the game, getting errors, fixing them, rinse and repeat. After staring at my own art for so long I began to dislike it, same with the writing. I think this is normal, and so a small break helped. I will admit that I spent nearly 70% of my free time this week working on the jam game. It was so hard not to play VNs, haha. Finally, I can play games again.

Speaking of playing VNs, please do give the demo of "Scales of Fate" a spin if you like ancient chinese settings, cute boys who kiss and ANGST.

There's something meditative about programming. I hope I can master it someday, along with art and writing. 

In the meantime, I'll keep leveling up with other jams.