By Your Side [NaNo2019] [Romantic Cohabitation SLG] (COMPLETE)

[TakafumiSakagami]

It's time to make up for yesterday's break. Onto the seventh!

Here's a small thing. I went and added a series of displayables for some of the stats in the game. They aren't styled at all yet, so it's just black text, but it's a good start.
The four shown stats are: your money, the current date, your relationship score, and your available energy. These aren't always necessary to display, so they'll go away when they aren't needed.


However some of them will stick around for other scenes, such as in this new map screen!


The map screen is part of the work routine that takes place between daytime and nighttime. You'll be given a task to photograph a random thing from a long list. Bugs, ducks, shops and other random things. You then have to choose between three locations. Which one will provide the best photo?
Income depends on making the correct choice, so you better wise up for this section of the game.

Along the way you may be approached by people in the world, or you may spot something interesting that you want to take back. Sometimes this will give you an opportunity to buy some clothing or some new furniture for the house. Sometimes this will unlock new scenes and conversation topics. As you progress further into the game and increase your various attributes, more random encounters will unlock.
For example, here's the first encounter in the downtown section of the map...

If you have over 2000 money, and you've read the scene in which you learn more about the TV you own, you'll have a one of a kind trip to...

Cameratalk! The scene called cameratalk will unlock the laptop for your house, and will reveal some backstory about the protagonist's camera. It's optional world building, and you can miss it if you don't happen to run into it.
There are plenty of scenes like this spread across the three areas of the map.

Multiple areas can only mean one thing... We need backgrounds!





Only two out of a planned five, but the other three background images will soon come.

And last but not least, writing. I wrote another 811 words for the script, bringing us to 3,269 words and 17,127 characters, for an average of 8.3 words and 44 characters per block.

[Zelan]

Wow, this is so cool! Every update so far has been mostly focused on the heroine, so I'm excited to see more about what the protagonist is doing during the visual novel. Deciding the best place to take a photograph sounds like a fun minigame. c:

[TakafumiSakagami]

Uh oh it's a small one!

On this, the eighth day of NaNoRenO, I started working on those other backgrounds I mentioned yesterday, and I got a couple of them done.





But unfortunately that's all I managed. I'm working on a daytime song, but it's not really coming out right, so that'll have to come tomorrow.

Wow, this is so cool! Every update so far has been mostly focused on the heroine, so I'm excited to see more about what the protagonist is doing during the visual novel. Deciding the best place to take a photograph sounds like a fun minigame. c:

Thanks! I'm gonna buckle down and start drawing all the protagonist CGs tomorrow or the day after, so she'll be a bit more included from that point.

[TakafumiSakagami]

We’re over a week into NaNoRenO now, and up until now my posts have been strictly progress related. That’s not my traditional style though, and I feel like doing a more Takaish update for today. So we’ll have some progress, but we’ll also have some insight into various random aspects of By Your Side.

Something I really love to do when I create anything is imbue it with references and elements of outside inspiration. Throughout development of my other VN Aious I have repeatedly brought up the different factors that inspired certain art decisions or musical pieces. The same is true of By Your Side.
For example, let’s look at the character design, starting with the outlier: The protagonist.

The conception of the protagonist was interesting. My only thought going into it was a desire to make a character I’d find interesting as a heroine, but my taste in design is not the common one, and so the intention was to make this heroine-designed character into the protagonist, with the actual heroine being a girl with wider appeal.

Lum, by PchApparel

The protagonist is the outlier because the two other characters—the Heroine and the Fairy—were based on characters from Urusei Yatsura. Over on my anime blog I’ve been doing a project where I watch the anime that has the most popular female character of each year. In 1981 the most popular girl was Urusei Yatsura’s Lum, and she has gone on to influence many of the most popular girls since. So naturally when I decided to make a heroine with wide appeal, I looked to Lum. I took two of Lum’s prominent colours (blue and pink) came up with an eye style that was similar in shape but still unique, and took some of Lum’s personality quirks and sayings.

Euon the Fairy on the other hand is based on my favourite Urusei Yatsura character Benten, with several stylistic changes and colour swaps to make her more reflective of Euonymus Alatus origins.

It even shows up in the logo, which back in post 1 I mentioned was SciAdv inspired.

And that’s where we segue into the updates. These types of inspirations come through into various parts of By Your Side. When it comes to CGs for example, a lot of the compositions are inspired by memorable shots from anime that come to mind during the conception process. This sketchy planning CG of the protagonist as a child was inspired by a shot from the anime Monster Strike.

Another example comes from this in-progress multiversion CG of the protagonist. It was inspired a shot from the end of Seiren’s Muteki no Megami ED, a shot which I won’t directly share here because it’s semi-nsfw.

And that’s how random influences make their way into By Your Side. Those 3 CGs will hopefully be finished by the time I write tomorrow’s post, but for now, that’s all.

[Zelan]

It's really cool to get an inside look at your design process! I've never heard of Urusei Yatsura, but the Heroine is super cute so I think Lum must have earned her spot as a popular girl. c:

[TakafumiSakagami]

Finally into the double digit dates! Let's finish up those CGs from yesterday!

These CGs are all about the protagonist, and the intention behind them is to give quick insight into the protagonist's evolving state of mind without having to resort to exposition dumping. Though her childhood is briefly commented on at the very start of the game, the period of time between her youth and adulthood—from pre-teen to adult—are not covered within By Your Side. To fill that gap we have inferred information, and these images are just two of those inferences.



There was something I wanted to outright avoid when designing the child state of the protagonist. A lot of anime designs seem to stick to one of two standards when portraying a child version of a character: either the character has shorter hair as a child, or they retain the same haircut for their entire life. It's a staple of anime that really annoys me, so instead I decided to give her two different yet similar haircuts.



The major difference between the hairstyles is the fringe. The older state has a fringe that covers the face, while the younger state lacks such coverage. This gives the younger state a more bold (potentially even tomboyish) appearance, whereas the older state ends up looking more meek and feminine.
Two other elements work together to reinforce the overall change between the two versions of the protagonist. The opposing backgrounds and the directly inverted colour palettes of the clothing reinforce the idea that a large amount of change has happened throughout this character's life. The small but growing shadow behind the protagonist's body is a subtle influence also.

Also, I unfortunately couldn't finish this one, but it's all filled in and ready to be coloured.

[TakafumiSakagami]

Okay so there's a boiler leak in my bedroom. The dripping is incessant and as a result I haven't been able to sleep at all since the night of day 9. I'm too tired to really do anything worthwhile, but I managed some things.

First of all I finished that other protagonist CG I've been showing off.


I also began scripting the conversation system for the game. The idea behind it is that upon pressing the Talk button, a random conversation topic is chosen and presented. Currently the amount of topics is set to 10, but I plan to increase it to a minimum of 20. This should make the daily repetition less repetitive, and should inspire people to search for every conversation topic.



These scenes have all been written and programmed, so now the game contains 402 dialogue blocks, containing 3,372 words and 17,690 characters, for an average of 8.4 words and 44 characters per block.

[TakafumiSakagami]

It's day 12! I slept for a reeeaaally really long time, but here's what I managed to fit into the day.

Firstly I added all of the CGs and BGs I've been showing off into the game. This came with a lot of programming, including a super overly done transition.


Along with that I programmed in the shop function, and did further programming on the randomly chosen conversation topic system I mentioned previously. Between all of this programming I added another 798 words to the script. Now the game contains 512 dialogue blocks, containing 4,170 words and 21,698 characters, for an average of 8.1 words and 42 characters per block.



The shop system works as such: Upon visiting the map screen for a job, a button to access the shop is available. Within it, any unlocked purchase options that you have enough money to purchase will be shown. I haven't added the currency labels yet, but it looks like this...



It's incredibly basic. I'll style it up more later, but it's in working condition at least.

A lot of those additional words I mentioned come from the conversation system. Currently there are 11 random daytime conversations and 3 random nighttime ones. These add some additional character to the cast and reveal some odd details about them. Sometimes the conversations end up referencing things from the '60s, and very rarely you'll unlock something new from them! I'll continue to increase the amount of conversations through the week.





To end it, here's one last screenshot!

[TakafumiSakagami]

Alright. It's day 13, we've got like two and a half weeks left, and my entire game is programmed barring the dialogue that needs to be written. That's a lot of time to finish up By Your Side, and I'm feeling confident, so let's go for the luxuries.

It's time to break out the ol' animation skills. It's time to make an OP!



So this ugly thing here is from a while back. I don't think I mentioned it (mainly because I didn't think I'd realistically get the chance to do any animation) but this is a storyboard I made during day 0 for a potential Opening animation. Today we'll be looking at those top 3 boxes.

Since it's so ugly, and not really intended for anyone else to view, let me explain. The sequence begins with a shot of a photo. If you look closely you'll spot it in the apartment.



The camera zooms in to the photo, giving us the image seen in this CG.



And then out of the frame the fairy flies.

She flies across the screen as a series of photographs pass through in the background. Images of the protagonist growing up, going through school, finding the heroine, etc... The entire shebang.



But then when she gets to the last picture, she stops in surprise!

...So let's talk about the process. I almost always use CSP for my animation. I used to use the Retas stuff, and tried OpenToonz for a bit, but CSP fits my workflow much better than anything else.



First of all I draw the keyframes. These are the major points of change. A layer of black is used to do the lines, and then there are three colored layers. Blue is used for shadow, red is used for lighting, and green is used for detail or for further levels of shading.
Anyone who knows about digital 2D animation may point out a big flaw in the frame above: the lines are anti-aliased. However CSP has some amazing functions, one of which allows you to convert your lines into beautiful jaggies.



Then, with a couple clicks of a fill bucket, we have a fully coloured frame!



I don't have a professional eye for framecounts, so I use a custom method to figure out the process of inbetweening. I take my keyframes into Photoshop and use the timeline feature to plot out the entire sequence. I make use of transparency changes to get an idea of the inbetween frames.



Then with that saved out, I can draw the missing frames.



With all the frames drawn and the colouring done, and if I were to properly edit it, it'd end up looking a little like this.



However these kinds of effects, the background and lighting effects for example, will only be truly added once we get into Premiere Pro and begin editing the entire sequence.

With that the first line of the storyboard is done!

[Zelan]

Oh wow, the animation is really beautiful! I can't wait to see the full opening animation when the game is finished ^_^

[TakafumiSakagami]

Day 14 already! Boy the month is going by fast. Only 17 more days and I can stop writing daily updates! Hurrah!

I’m back onto the work feature. Before today I had established the routine (daytime ends, get sent to a map screen, shop opens, locations to visit) but today I got to work on actually adding the jobs.

The boss may ask for a photo of some ducks, and if you go to the park you’ll get £25. If you go to the riverside you’ll get £50. Go downtown and you’ll get nothing. Similar splits, as well as other variations of rewards, are all programmed and written in. Some of these locations will even unlock extra stuff, such as some seeds for a gardening quest, or a lamp for your living room.



As part of programming the work routine further, I added another 1180 words to the script. Now the game contains 660 dialogue blocks, containing 5,350 words and 27,585 characters, for an average of 8.1 words and 42 characters per block.

I should probably give some followup on yesterday’s animation. It’s still very much incomplete and unpolished, but here’s an edited mockup of the first 20 seconds.



This is actually a bit of an old render. Obviously more CGs will be present during the flying scene in the final version. I’ll also add some other effects, and make the logo transition smoother.

I don’t want to suffer through render times, and I also don’t want to spoil the rest of the opening animation, but I have added some other segments beyond that point, such as these bits of the protagonist:





This one comes with some moving highlights for the eyes, so it won’t look that weird in the final version.

That’s unfortunately all I got done today. The 1180 words took a surprising amount of time, and I also lost a bit of my day (around an hour) to boiler woes. Hopefully that thing gets fixed soon!

[manly-unicorn]

Very impressed with the consistent effort and dedication put into this project, especially tackling it on your own.

[TakafumiSakagami]

We've got an assortment of things done today. I guess I'll start with the boring stuff.



Bugfixing! There were a bunch of bugs that needed fixing. To name a few: unlock notifs didn't go away, the map wasn't disappearing upon visiting a location, and income/reward text wasn't formatting correctly..

I also stumbled upon a bug that I couldn't quite figure out a fix for. Spam clicking an imagebutton with a jump action will repeatedly trigger the jump so long as you keep clicking the area where the button once was.

While I was fixing bugs, I decided to work on Android compatibility. It's a type of game that would work well on mobile devices.



I also added a bunch of new screens, including a music gallery, a CG gallery, a replay scene screen, and a credits sequence. Some of these are WIP visually, but they're complete in features.

The shop screen got an update. It looks much better now.



I also attached affection points to an unlock system and wrote the first scene that unlocks by increasing the stat. It's only 110 words, but it's a small scene.

Finally, I began work on the UI for the save and load screens. It's not in a state worth showing off yet, but hopefully I'll have that done by tomorrow!

Very impressed with the consistent effort and dedication put into this project, especially tackling it on your own.

Thank you! Doing constant daily updates like this is a bit of extra effort, but hopefully it's more fun and interesting for everyone reading.

I'm quick to tire of things so working alone helps me stay productive. If I ever get bored of working on the script I can draw instead. If I get bored of drawing I can make a song. Having such a diversity of tasks really helps stop any burnout.

[TakafumiSakagami]

Incoming works in progress. Very few finished elements today, but there's a fair amount of stuff to show off.

First of all, we've got a new CG. This is one of the earliest shots in the game, but it shows up a handful of times throughout.



And another!



Also it isn't quite finished, but I've made a Save and Load screen...



Each slot is designed to fit in all of your customisation settings so you can easily see what outfits you were using for a specific save file. Each save file also displays the date and your stats in the top corner.

The bottom part is actually the navigation menu, and it isn't quite finished yet, so ignore that part.

[TakafumiSakagami]

It’s day 17, which means we’re over half way there! Today is a day of finishing what was left over from yesterday, but first, let’s talk word counts.

I wrote two scenes today. A 426 word scene and a 276 word scene. This brings us to a 6,162 word total! I also went back to some older scenes and made sure all the expression and pose changes were plugged in.

Yesterday I showed off some unfinished art. This was one of the images…



It’s now fully coloured and finished. Can you guess the inspiration? This pose comes from Clannad After Story! I’m not sure what in-game purpose it will have specifically, but it does allow us to finally make a cover image!



That other CG has also been fully coloured, though I haven’t made a background for it yet



I’ll do that tomorrow, but for now that’s all we’ve got!

Oh, I did do some mobile testing however...