Hello everyone and welcome to the last update of 2023!

December was entirely devoted to programming! Up first we have... not the 'bad news' but the 'Stare Directly Into the Sun For a Minute' news. Essentially, I realized that while the yarn editor is really neat and can do a lot, the version of it that's compatible with gdevelop (the engine we're using) is... a little bare bones. (I talk a little more about gdevelop in this progress report.) Yarn gets the job done but for doing something as dialogue & text heavy as a visual novel, it's not ideal. And so ultimately I made the decision to not use Yarn and do all of the dialogue & text directly in the engine. Which means... completely reprogramming oh... a solid 80% of what I had done, including everything that was released in the Demo.

[sad thumbs up cat.emoji]

But! I've started the process and can already see improvements in the workflow. Things I had to find convoluted workarounds for so that Yarn could communicate with the engine & vice versa, I can just.. do. Here's a quick overview:

✅ Summary of Work Completed: ✅

• the dyslexic font toggle has been fully implemented! this means there will now be a toggle in the settings page where you can change the font to the open dyslexic font. this will affect the dialogue, dialogue choice options, and menu text
• a brightness slider has also been implemented to dim the screen if it's too bright
  • here's a preview of both!
• a running history log of the current chapter : this is NOT YET fully implemented but the core is there. the idea is you'll be able to open it up to see the previous bits of dialogue in case you missed it / forgot
• a transcript of previous chapters : this is NOT YET fully implemented but the majority of the work is there. there will be an option (probably in the settings and/or off the main menu) where you can view the full transcript for chapters you've already finished. (idk about you but I put games down for months at a time and come back like who tf are you ppl?)

📋 Up Next: 📋

• save/load function. this is about 40% done? I was in the middle of working on it when I realized Yarn's shortcomings were actively detrimental and so I backtracked and started re-doing the programming. This is my MAIN FOCUS going forward. Everything is kind of moot if you can't save your dang progress!
• a back button. this is about 25% done. the trial run works but it causes some glitches with the running history of the current chapter. It also hasn't been tested with dialogue choice moments. I'm not 100% sure this feature will make it to the final game but I'd really like it to! I'm less concerned about the back button so long as the history log works, this way players are still able to view previous lines they may have missed. (And none of the dialogue choices affect the actual plot so there's no pressing reason to go back to redo one)
• gallery & achievement pages are still on the roadmap and are honestly one of the least scary things to tackle
• pronoun selection! I haven't actually started working on this beyond conceptual brainstorming on the code for it. I think it's definitely feasible (especially now that we're not using Yarn) but I haven't started work on it yet. This is something that's a bit of a stretch goal. I REALLY want it to be an option but it's going to be largely dependent on how long it takes to get other, core features up & running

According to our plans, we have another two weeks set aside for programming before we dive into getting the script & all the chapters in the engine. So far, we're still on track for that. Luckily, once the programming is finished, getting the text in is the easier part so if the programming takes a little longer, I think we'll still be okay.

That's everything! As always we appreciate your continued support and interest, and don't hesitate to ask any questions here or via our ask on tumblr!  See you in 2024!