Day[30]: Super Sweatshop Saturday

I’ve never been this productive in my entire life. Fixed all the major bugs, added ‘death mechanics’ (usually achieved by working at 100% on a ramen diet), added follower -> subs conversion (unlocked once you become an Affiliate), reworked a bunch of scenes to include finished BGs and character sprites with expressions, and improved various UI elements a bit.

And this is it… Day 30 and I do have a somewhat playable (pre) alpha version of my Visual Novel. There’s still a ton of work to be done, though.

Pic: since this is the last day, I’m going with a traditionally shoddy “hazelnut americano mug shot”.

Day[29]: Mechanics > My Brain

Today’s been a real struggle for me; coding all the gameplay bits while keeping track of math, balancing, and how all of this interacts turned out to be a little too much for my “wannabe narrative designer” brain. Took me ages to figure out how to bootstrap all the things, but I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to glue it all together into one frankenstein of a code.

The funniest thing was that once all the pieces were finally working together, the game itself decided to be EXTREMELY brutal on a new player (talk about difficulty curve, this bad boy kicks you right in the face). While playtesting, the initial channel growth was so bad that it actually reminded me of myself trying to stream on Twitch a couple of years back.

Tomorrow’s the last day of the challenge, and I’m planning to give it my best; although I’m pretty intimidated after today’s grind.

Pic: bug or accidental realism?

Day[28]: Tackling the Main Boss aka ‘Channel Growth Mechanics’

My brain is currently exploding from attempting to make slick and engaging channel growth mechanics out of Twitch viewership patterns and in-channel viewer behavior based on socio-economical factors.

Pic: swarming myself with a multitude of interacting variables seemed like a good idea 3 coffees ago.

Since I’m slowly losing my mind in a bandersnatch fashion, I’ve decided to write this update before my brain completely shuts down for the day.

Pic 2: things are happening.

Day[27]: $Productivity = 2*Hazelnut_Americano

Double the caffeine double the fun! Having an awesome day, although it’s already day 27 of DK30 and I’ve a load more to do. Still, things are progressing at a steady pace.

Today I finally adapted the work/life balance thingie to affect all other activities in game in one way or another. Also, diet choice now contributes to HP regen and Happiness stat (Hipster diet provides additional bonuses). The Social Activity slider is now integrated to reduce Stress (WIP: High commitment to Social will trigger side-story scenes with a character of choice).

PS. Had to do a bunch of balancing, since things got out of hand really quick with all the new gameplay bits piling up.

Pic: here comes the main character, Pochi the streamer panda

Pic 2: countryside bg

Day[26]: Gameplay is getting fatter, and so do bugs

Still, things are going quite swell, my life/work balance thingie is already in game, and it actually works.

I’ve yet to integrate all elements to be affected by it, but so far, if you focus 100% on productivity, for example, you will end up getting a lot more money from your part-time job, than you would’ve otherwise. It’ll be useful when the player feels like they’re getting dangerously close to the bankruptcy threshold (not totally set on what the amount will be yet).

Pic: temporary life/work balance sliders

Tomorrow I’ll attempt to finish all the integration, and basic gameplay stuff (rather than adding more), since it would be nice to finally complete the “functional gameplay loop” goal.

Pic: WIP title screen

Day[25]: Bugs, polish, gameplay bootstrapping

I spent quite a bit of time fixing things, but luckily all obstacles were overcome with the help of some super great discord dudes who know their VN-making stuff.

On a more upbeat note, my brainstorming sessions have finally paid off; I’ve added another gameplay element, which lets the player balance their work/life ratio.

• From now on, you’ll have to decide how much you’ll spend on productivity, while trying to balance a healthy amount of rest and social activities to keep yourself sane.
• But, if one wants to commit a 100% to streaming, they will be able to (equivalent of doing marathon streams).

All in all, I’m getting close to finishing Week 4’s main goal, but I’ve yet to even start on putting sprites in story scenes.

Pic: colored BGs are on the way

Day[24]: The “What is This Project?” update

Having an awesome Sunday, productivity-wise, done a bunch of UI work, code clean-ups, and smoothed out dialogue/scene transitions. But I’ll use this particular post to clarify stuff a bit.

• What is this: it’s a story-focused game in a Visual Novel engine, but it’ll feature some management gameplay where you grow your channel. There will be XP, levels, traits, and multiple endings (but those will take time, for now it’s just 1 main path with some small choices here and there).
• What’s it called: I’ve finally decided on the title, the game is called "Watch Me Stream My Mental Breakdown", and it’s about a clumsy Panda who wants to be a streamer.
• Why are you making this: I think that the streamer’s world, and what’s going on behind the scenes in particular, is quite fascinating. Like many of us, I gave streaming a go myself, mainly sat at 0 viewers, and this made me appreciate what people I watch myself had to go through to get where they are.
• Did you do anything in DK30 or was it all just pictures of coffee: Three weeks ago, I’ve only had a rough script of the storyline, so the whole “playable” thing that is steadily growing in my .exe is all thanks to being motivated by this challenge.
• Week 3’s over, where are you with this project: I wanted an “alpha” version, but I think I’ll have to settle for something like a “pre alpha” instead. However, I’m extremely happy to say that, although it’ll be close, I should be able to hit my goal of “relatively playable thing with a coherent storyline and some mini gameplay”.

Pic: Today’s view, coffee mug didn’t make it

Day[23]: Depressing things were added!

As a part of gameplay loop building, I’ve added a part-time job option for when the player is struggling with money and their stream isn’t doing so great. At the expense of stress, happiness, and sometimes health (see construction work), you’re more than welcome to partake in soulcrushing activities of adulthood

Pic: job choice window, featuring a misspelled convenience store clerk gig.

Day[22]: Lazy update, not lazy day

Focused my whole deving timespan today on brainstorming through some gameplay ideas for my game.

It was particularly fun trying to come up with a classification of different viewer types on Twitch, their behavior, viewing habits, stats, loyalty, etc. Hoping I can get this right, or at least interesting, so that I can simulate broadcaster’s growth in my game in a fun way.

If you have any ideas on the subject, or perhaps recommendations for reading, hit me up on Twitter.

No pic today, because I was too focused on using my head, and I’ve forgotten about it.

Day[21]

More image buttons, more placeholder UI stuff, trying to make it less intrusive. I’m liking RenPy more and more.

Pic: allergy season is on, better stay in the bunker.

Day[20]: A Good Day

Today was surprisingly productive, I got around to mess around with image buttons for the first time ever in RenPy, and it actually went pretty well. I wasn’t expecting to get what I wanted at all, let alone get working placeholders in just a single day.

Was particularly happy with all those fancy hover/idle/activated effects that the engine does pretty much automatically for you.

Pic: some buttons for ‘diet of choice’ you pick for your main character every month (better diet = better bonuses, but more $)

Day[19]

Having a lot of fun with prototyping my gameplay stuffs. Learning by trial and error, lots of errors, but it’s progressing at an acceptable pace, slowly making the app look like an actual game.

Pic: hello error my old friend

Day[18]

Had an awesome time working on my project on the train today. Trivia bits are fully functional and all in-game, so the storyline flow is pretty much all done, and I can focus on prototyping some gameplay with no distractions.

Pic: lovely train table.

Day[17]

The mini gameplay idea is so far about managing main character’s streamer growth by picking game genres and stream vibe, developing skills, doing their social media, and eventually consciously targeting viewer types. I want to give it a little bit of an RPG flavor and come up with a couple of “classes” that you can eventually become and gain special perks (doubt it’ll all happen within this challenge though). Anyway, things are looking pretty good.

Day[16]

Feeling better, doing some renpy stuff but taking it slow.

Day[15]: (so) sick

Today’s update is about having no update. I’m properly sick, and I can’t focus on anything. I hope I can get back to work asap.

Day[14]: Runny nose doesn’t help

My first Twitch trivia bits are in the game. For now they’re displayed to the player once per in-game month, as sort of a ‘news digest’ thing. I’d like to display them in a more fancy way than just text in NVL mode, but for the time being there are more important things that need to be done.

Day[13]: Starts with a cold

Bootstrapped all of the main storyline. Will add all the Twitch trivia bits tomorrow (hopefully).

Pic: countryside bg sketch (main character’s parents’ house)

Day[12]: Stronk Tuesday

90% done with the story flow. It would’ve been done, but I opted in for making all necessary changes as I went. Forgot that I’ll have to also input my Twitch trivia bits, which makes Week 2’s sub goal pretty steep.

Pic: street sketch

Day[11]: Back to Productivity

I’m about 80% done with the raw storyline input. Should be done with it in 1-2 days, which will close my “Week 2” main goal of this challenge. Still, I haven’t touched the mini gameplay part, which will probably be not easy at all. So much stuff to be done, it’s a bit scary, but I’ll keep doing this one step at a time, and try not to obsess over the entirety.

Pic: another BG sketch

Day[10]: Slow Sunday

No burnout recipe for the day: Instead of powering through with my project, I went for a walk, listened to some audiobook on human behavior, stared at the ceiling for a bit, and thought about pandas’ broadcasting career potential. Back to RenPy on Monday.

Day[9]

Here comes the franken-UI-stein. Also, having a quite productive day (main storyline text input = 60%).

Pic: abomination

Day[8]

Took a break from zombie-mode story beat inputs, and decided to learn a bit about screens and UI stuff in RenPy. A stat/resource screen at the top might be good, since there’s money and other stuff to keep track of in the game. I’ll post a screenshot of it in tomorrow’s update (it won’t be pretty, that I can tell you already).

Day[7]

Story input is going strong, it’s about halfway done. Although, it’s still in a raw state; mostly dialogues and simple transitions between sketches. But unless I mess up structurally, adding all the other stuff later on should be relatively stress-free.

Pic: another background sketch

Day[6]

RenPy is still very much problem-free, which is kinda surprising. Although, I am bracing for impact, since I’m on my way to more complicated stuff than simply entering the main story beats. Still, looking at the progress I’ve made so far, I’m pretty confident that in 30 days there will be something playable (doubt it’ll be worthy of an “alpha” badge, but who knows).

Pic: BG sketch (commissioned, since I can’t draw at all)

Day[5]: Less time, less slacking?

More coffee, and more RenPy (which is great by the way). I’ve had a lot less time to devote to this project today, but this fact has strangely turned into a much more productive session. The main story is slowly creeping its way into the file, along with some variables to bootstrap this whole thing together.

Pic: Hazelntu americano = productivity.

Day[4]: RenPy

Started inputting stuff into RenPy, and I’m positively surprised how uncomplicated it actually is. I don’t have a lot of experience with programing, so I expected much worse. Either way, story beats are now landing in my project. It’s all text for now, but eventually I’ll be putting on some sketches from my background guy.

Day[3]: Slow Sunday Update

Script adapting continues with major changes to dialogues to make the whole experience a bit more about showing rather than telling. Even though this is a VN, I’d rather not overwhelm the player with pages upon pages of exposure. “Showing” is not very easy to do when you’re on a tight budget asset-wise, so I’ll have to try my best in delivering the backstory bits by hinting, thus letting the more interested players to figure it out on their own.

Lastly, the Twitch trivia bits are pretty much done, I also got them organized so that they’ll show up more or less chronologically in the player’s news feed.

Pic: my favorite mug.

Day[2]

More writing, more editing, nothing flashy to show as of yet; although, the secondary goal of Week 1 is nearly done.

Pic: Cafe writing; a little pretentious, but it works.

Day[1]

Started my challenge by incorporating my script drafts into a coherent file (it’s almost done since scenes are purposefully compact). I opted for giving each of my story beats a unique number, which will make it easier to track when inputting into RenPy; eventually it’ll also help to keep translation work orderly (should I ever reach a stage like that).

Doing the above was a bit tedious and draining, so afterwards I sat down to research some Twitch’s history fun facts and wrote them down in a mini-news format, pieces of which will be popping up in the game for additional flavor.