sierralee - October 4 Update

Some weeks it seems like life conspires to beat me down, but it has failed this week. Despite a number of lousy things happening, I just kept trucking and made some real progress.

I won't dwell on the negative and instead focus on the positive. You may recall me writing how I have been forced to multitask in a way that I don't usually enjoy; I'm pleased to report that my efficiency at this has increased rapidly as I got used to it, so this week I felt up to speed despite needing to split my attention. Hopefully I will get out of this period with both a foundation laid for Four Liars and well ahead on Throne of Time.

You guys remember the comments I've made about publishers? Well, trad publishers move very slowly, but negotiations have continued. Contrary to my expectations, I have gotten them to drop the part of the deal I didn't like and, though nothing is signed, it sounds like I could go forward with a bundle of deals I have no problem with. I received my first formal editorial letter and fortunately none of the criticisms were unreasonable, and the editor included more positives than would have been necessary if they weren't actually enthusiastic about the book.

So is that happening? Well, hopefully. Things could go 100% great and still take a year for anything to get into print because of the glacial speed of the industry.

Meanwhile, we've reached a new milestone on Four Liars:

This is a real screenshot... kind of. It was put together in the game, but the background is done via parallax because the tile artist's work hasn't been properly divided into tiles yet. The purpose of the "One True Screenshot" is hopefully described sufficiently in the image itself. Eventually it will be updated and replaced by real screenshots.

I'd like to draw your attention to the text box, however, which is complete. We have several unique display elements where NPCs will be limited to the box while main characters can break out the sides. The text box also uses layers, which RPGM doesn't have normally, to make things look more dynamic. The little ellipsis text indicator at the bottom animates, too.

Now, you may be wondering "What if there isn't an actor speaking?" Answer:

RPGM doesn't normally allow for different kinds of text boxes, but now I have a system where it automatically uses two different kinds based on the type of message.

Now, unfortunately, I think most of this work will be completely ignored and some players will still call it default RPG Maker. I hope that the effort does add tiny increments of quality that will total up to making the game stand out a little more. And, even if this effort is ultimately unsuccessful, I think this is a good aesthetic for a game that I hope you will all enjoy.

I wish we could make progress even faster, but I can't pay full time salaries, so artists are people with normal lives. The three people I've chosen have put out good work, though, so I hope things will keep progressing well.