AuthorTopic: On the take - Visual novel (Read 21147 times)

vertex · **on:** August 30, 2020, 03:19:31 pm

Thought I should start a devlog somewhere so why not here.

'On the take' is a visual novel game with retro look and feel. Main inspiration is the old classic snatcher. You play as a cop solving and/or committing crime.

Tools:
Twine, Ren'Py, Python, Paint.net, Pyxel and Atom.

I'm no artist so here is my mockups/placeholder art.

Game menu / Logos:

Ingame:

And now for the fun part. Development tools:

Twinejs workflow

My twine2renpy converter.

vertex · **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2020, 11:13:10 am

To help me set up goals I decided to compare my progress against snatcher. Made a visit over to junker hq. Downloaded the script files for sega saturn snatcher. Wrote a Python-script to analyze to code.

The (very rough) results ~:
8464 unique lines with 80148 words and 719 actions.

I planned about 20 scenes in 'on the take' so that would make it:
423 lines with 4007 words and 36 actions per scene.

Next step is too add a progress checker into the twine2renpy builder.

vertex · **Reply #2 on:** September 01, 2020, 06:55:25 am

Added a progress function in the build script.

And as shown in report.txt

Code: [Select]

report
scenes: 21
	1: streets
	2: appartment
	3: policestation
	4: policeoffice
	5: hospital
	6: hotel
	7: garage
	8: restroom
	9: policecomputer
	10: hotelroom
	11: scene10
	12: scene11
	13: scene12
	14: scene13
	15: scene14
	16: scene15
	17: scene16
	18: scene17
	19: scene18
	20: scene19
	21: scene20
variables: 2
lookAt's: 76
interact's: 61
wordcount: 1131 / 80148. 0.01%
actions: 219
unique actions: 44 / 719. 0.06%
lines: 353
unique lines: 90 / 8464. 0.01%

vertex · **Reply #3 on:** September 02, 2020, 07:58:38 am

Mockups to help create a Ren'py screen for the policestation computer.

Inspiration:

We killed you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjEm-podPO0

Simple solution is just to change out the background image and keep the regular text position. But it would be way better with a custom interface for the computer.

vertex · **Reply #4 on:** September 02, 2020, 01:10:06 pm

Had a little extra time today so started implementing the faceid.

vertex · **Reply #5 on:** September 03, 2020, 05:27:25 am

Got labels working and then added the face and a random scan function.

vertex · **Reply #6 on:** September 04, 2020, 05:39:52 am

Friday update

New game menu and wiring up a couple of new rooms. Placeholder art is from snatchers.

vertex · **Reply #7 on:** September 05, 2020, 07:18:21 am

More work on putting the rooms together. Added more info to the build script to help me keep track up 'lookAt's. Here is an example of what the report.txt looks like.

Code: [Select]

report
scenes: 20
	1: game
		lookAt
	2: garage
		lookAt
	3: home
		lookAt
			bed
			pictures
			fridge
			floor
			table
			tv
			laundry
			disches
			tvdinner
			bills
	4: hospital
		lookAt
			0
			1
			2
			3
			4
			5
			6
			7
			8
			9
	5: hospitalreception
		lookAt
	6: hospitalroom
		lookAt
	7: hotel
		lookAt
	8: hotelroom
		lookAt
	9: interrogation
		lookAt
	10: map
		lookAt
	11: morgue
		lookAt
	12: penthouse
		lookAt
			windows
			couch
			paintings
			view
			floor
			lightning
			piano
			books
			pillows
			blinds
	13: penthousebedroom
		lookAt
	14: policelab
		lookAt
			labworker
			airvent
			microscope
			poster
			zink
			gloves
			goggles
	15: policelabcloseup
		lookAt
	16: policeoffice
		lookAt
			chief
			photos
			filecabinet
			desk
			bookshelf
			hanger
			cheif
			awards
			computer
			map
	17: policestation
		lookAt
			1
			0
			2
			3
			4
			5
			6
			7
			8
			9
	18: restroom
		lookAt
			0
			1
			2
			3
			4
			5
			6
			7
			8
			9
	19: streets
		lookAt
			Hector
			Door
			Street
	20: tortureroom
		lookAt
variables: 5
lookAt's: 91 / 200. 45.5% 
interact's: 69 / 200. 34.5% 
wordcount: 1515 / 80148. 0.02%
actions: 252
unique actions: 84 / 719. 0.12%
lines: 424
unique lines: 167 / 8464. 0.02%

vertex · **Reply #8 on:** September 06, 2020, 07:11:57 am

More lookAt's and more text. Also made a cute tracker-badge(?) to give us all a more fun-looking tracking overview.

Also a peek at the twine.

vertex · **Reply #9 on:** September 07, 2020, 04:46:12 am

Work on each room and more work on the badge.

Endgame minigame outline .

torture warning.

vertex · **Reply #10 on:** September 08, 2020, 12:49:14 pm

Wiring rooms and adding game logic.

Important to leave room for more twine's.

vertex · **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2020, 06:20:27 am

Wiring and puzzles.

Keeping the twine file in order.

vertex · **Reply #12 on:** September 10, 2020, 08:39:33 am

Now on twitter: https://twitter.com/questlogstudio

Not sure if I messed up the compiler or the source:D

Forgot about this palette. Will be using it in the next mockups.

vertex · **Reply #13 on:** September 11, 2020, 10:24:59 am

New and improved report:

Compiler refactoring:

vertex · **Reply #14 on:** September 12, 2020, 08:24:32 am

More twine-grind. But also report update again.

vertex · **Reply #15 on:** September 13, 2020, 07:30:13 am

Twine is opensource so I thought I should give customizing twine a try.

First dynamic icons:

Was going for a pico8 palette but never got further than unity gray:

vertex · **Reply #16 on:** September 14, 2020, 08:05:19 am

Played around in blender blocking out the scenes with pico8 palette.

Tried to do a toon-shader effect but nothing yet.

vertex · **Reply #17 on:** September 15, 2020, 09:00:24 am

Procrastination with more stats.

Mockup of the familiar and local hackerman.

vertex · **Reply #18 on:** September 16, 2020, 07:24:19 am

Report.

Added wordcounter to twine editor.

vertex · **Reply #19 on:** September 17, 2020, 01:29:16 pm

Looking into snatchers can be weird.

Messing around with regex and js is never easy.

vertex · **Reply #20 on:** September 18, 2020, 07:48:25 am

The editor only counts dialog-words now.

And truncate the childnode title.

vertex · **Reply #21 on:** September 19, 2020, 06:54:48 am

First trying out dynamic colors:

Then moved on to colored icons and icon for renpy scene element:

vertex · **Reply #22 on:** September 20, 2020, 11:34:44 am

Trying to get shortcuts overlay in twine.

vertex · **Reply #23 on:** September 21, 2020, 07:12:07 am

Scene shortcuts.

Scene sub-label counters.

vertex · **Reply #24 on:** September 22, 2020, 09:40:26 am

Alerts added to help the player with new locations.

vertex · **Reply #25 on:** September 23, 2020, 04:36:56 pm

Today it's a simple report.

vertex · **Reply #26 on:** September 24, 2020, 06:04:35 pm

Just a fun one today. Most updated file in the project-folder.

vertex · **Reply #27 on:** September 25, 2020, 06:45:07 pm

Inside the stations computer

vertex · **Reply #28 on:** September 27, 2020, 07:12:05 am

Progress is better than no progress.

vertex · **Reply #29 on:** October 02, 2020, 10:49:28 am

After a couple of busy days it back to the fun.

Inventory:

Fancier report:

vertex · **Reply #30 on:** October 04, 2020, 04:50:50 pm

More code and more puzzles.

vertex · **Reply #31 on:** October 05, 2020, 05:59:57 pm

A bit of open the door puzzle.

vertex · **Reply #32 on:** October 06, 2020, 05:49:11 pm

Babysteps.

vertex · **Reply #33 on:** October 24, 2020, 04:14:42 pm

Been to long. Now after 3 hours of bug-hunting I'm back where I left off.

Missed u placeholder.

bengo · **Reply #34 on:** October 25, 2020, 11:07:05 am

Neat stuff

vertex · **Reply #35 on:** October 25, 2020, 03:18:41 pm

Quote from: bengo on October 25, 2020, 11:07:05 am

Neat stuff

Thanks. Hopefully it will turn into to something playable.

vertex · **Reply #36 on:** October 25, 2020, 03:26:50 pm

Almost at 50k chars in Twine. Yey me.

vertex · **Reply #37 on:** October 26, 2020, 07:05:40 pm

More fun stats today.

vertex · **Reply #38 on:** October 27, 2020, 07:20:56 pm

It's a Secret to Everybody.

vertex · **Reply #39 on:** October 28, 2020, 01:43:05 pm

Been putting it off. But now the first 2 locations are wired from start to end. Next step is to fix the 'else' counter:D

vertex · **Reply #40 on:** October 29, 2020, 06:56:36 pm

A big mess.

vertex · **Reply #41 on:** October 30, 2020, 07:50:15 pm

Got in an hour of gamedev today.

vertex · **Reply #42 on:** October 31, 2020, 03:58:30 pm

New tools. Added shortcuts to the actors.

vertex · **Reply #43 on:** November 01, 2020, 06:53:04 pm

Mostly code changes.

vertex · **Reply #44 on:** November 02, 2020, 07:08:07 pm

Busy day today. 30 min gamedev before bed. Trying to name a new function.

vertex · **Reply #45 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:21:33 pm

Behind the inside of the computer?

vertex · **Reply #46 on:** November 05, 2020, 06:52:47 pm

2k views here

. All fun and games in the code.

vertex · **Reply #47 on:** November 06, 2020, 03:46:29 pm

Puzzling progress.

vertex · **Reply #48 on:** November 07, 2020, 07:59:15 pm

Fixed small bug kept the pickup icon from showing.

vertex · **Reply #49 on:** November 08, 2020, 07:01:47 pm

Much needed "Clean"-button added to the editor.

eishiya · **Reply #50 on:** November 08, 2020, 07:13:29 pm

I wish you'd actually talk about what's going on in your posts. Three months of posts in and I still have no idea what this project is, what kind of work you're doing and what kind of work needs to be done, or what any of these images mean. I can't even tell if I'm looking at screenshots from some game engine, a custom engine, a story editor, or what. Makes it hard to get interested in the project!

vertex · **Reply #51 on:** November 09, 2020, 10:10:34 am

Quote from: eishiya on November 08, 2020, 07:13:29 pm

I wish you'd actually talk about what's going on in your posts. Three months of posts in and I still have no idea what this project is, what kind of work you're doing and what kind of work needs to be done, or what any of these images mean. I can't even tell if I'm looking at screenshots from some game engine, a custom engine, a story editor, or what. Makes it hard to get interested in the project!

It started as a way to keep up with the artist working on some initial art but morphed into a tracker.

The gamedev right now is just story-text being put into an editor so it's not very interesting unless your working on the project. But I will see what I can do to expand the progress text to make it more fun to read.

vertex · **Reply #52 on:** November 09, 2020, 06:42:25 pm

Let's get some more info into this one. Expanded the editor to have a better preview-style. So when showing off the game in the editor it's not a total mess. Still a huge mess.

vertex · **Reply #53 on:** November 10, 2020, 07:28:09 pm

Cleaning code so twine-stats are shrinking.

vertex · **Reply #54 on:** November 11, 2020, 08:01:58 pm

A look inside the gamelogic. The code is written in twine.

vertex · **Reply #55 on:** November 12, 2020, 05:34:33 pm

To help identify dead ends in the story I added a much needed 'dead end'-icon.

vertex · **Reply #56 on:** November 14, 2020, 03:56:28 pm

Progress. Wiring up more game-logic and adding main dialog.

vertex · **Reply #57 on:** November 15, 2020, 07:26:59 pm

Trying out my own editor. Twine is a bit slow.

vertex · **Reply #58 on:** November 16, 2020, 07:36:57 pm

The new editor is taking shape.

vertex · **Reply #59 on:** November 17, 2020, 06:15:04 pm

More fun with the new editor. Clean up next.

vertex · **Reply #60 on:** November 18, 2020, 04:56:12 pm

Cleaned UI. Can now import the old data from twine.

vertex · **Reply #61 on:** November 19, 2020, 06:01:58 pm

Arrows are not working but hey: it's rendering fast. Small win.

vertex · **Reply #62 on:** November 29, 2020, 01:39:36 pm

Break from the editor and back to the story. Takes a day to get my head back in the game. Hard to find the time with Christmas around the corner.

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AuthorTopic: On the take - Visual novel (Read 21147 times)