maneki-mushi

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri- March devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play the demo | Wishlist on Steam Hi everyone! I did a lot of things this month, including some tedious things I'd been putting off :')

Art-wise, I finished a batch of CGs and only have two CGs left to draw! I've also already started these final two CGs, and plan to finish them next month. All the currently finished CGs were also exported in all the needed formats and configured for the gallery, added to Steam achievement icons, etc (I was sure I'd done this already for the solo ending CGs, but discovered I hadn't... I spent a while cursing past-me for the additional work haha). I wrote more content for the booklet (a bit of LI PoVs, and I also finished writing the walkthrough and achievements guide). The most tedious task this month was scripting all the endings! But the first pass is done (and that's also the most time-consuming pass where I script all the sprite changes; the next passes are focused on testing, tweaking things and adding music and other simpler things). It's a relief and makes the game feel so much closer to completion.

In April, I'll start the month with some art and try to finish the last two CGs, and also try to finish the PoV stories for the booklet. My goal is to have things mostly finished before May to dedicate some months to only testing the game and putting the booklet together (I have no clue how long testing will take since THJ was cut into chapters which made testing a bit easier, but I figure I'll need to give myself plenty of time to find all the silly mistakes I might have made). I'm aiming to release in the late summer; July or August, but no promises yet as I've heard Steam can take a super long time to approve builds which can cause delays. I'll likely only announce a date once my build has been approved there, just to be safe!

Lastly, you might want to check out a jam VN​ I did backgrounds for! The sprite artist is a good friend of mine so it's really lovely to see our art side by side.

Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - February devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play the demo | Wishlist on Steam

Hi everyone! Like I'd hoped, I finished writing Saint Ceri's script this month! The story reached 117k words (I originally estimated it would be about 80k... but I am notoriously bad at estimating wordcounts). This gave me a boost of motivation so I started writing content for the booklet earlier than planned, and already wrote an extra from Bryn's PoV and started Kyros's.

Art-wise, I finished the base version for the 3 NSFW CGs I was working on! I now need to draw the variants and polish things a bit more. I also started sketching the final two CGs (a SFW and NSFW CG for the route where you end up with all three LIs), and they're going to be the most challenging CGs yet :') it's so hard to fit four characters into a CG and make it look nice! That's it for this month! I'm decently happy with my progress for February. Wrapping up the game's writing is definitely a big relief! The plan for March is to finish those 3 NSFW CGs, make their SFW alts, and continue working on the final two CGs. I think I'll start scripting the ending content too (most of the game is scripted already but not tested; the ending content takes up a whole 32k words so that's still a lot to script, but at least there's no complicated branching). Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

Hi, I was just wondering if you had any future plans to release The Hero's Journey on Steam?

Hi! I don't plan to because honestly, THJ is a bit buggy :') I made it using an older version of the engine I use so it has some issues that can't be fixed, and being my first game I also just made a lot of dumb mistakes T_T So I feel like I can't share it to such a big audience (also an audience that would probably be way harsher about the bugs lmao, itch.io users are very understanding). And I'd also like to remake it in a few years (both to redo all the art and add some new routes and characters), so I feel I might as well wait until then! Sorry if that's a bit disappointing! I definitely understand Steam is more accessible (especially when it comes to buying things), and I do plan to put all my future projects on there!

#the hero's journey vn

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri: January devlog

Read this on itch.io | Play the demo | Wishlist on Steam

Hi everyone!

The first month of the new year was pretty good! I finished the three SFW CGs for the trio endings, and I'm working through the sketches for the NSFW ones. Just five CGs left including these! I've also finished writing the ending including Kyros and Eira, and started the very last ending that includes all the LIs! Somehow Kyros and Eira's ending ended up longer than the others, and the script is now over 112k.

The goal for February is to make progress on the NSFW CGs (maybe not finish them; three bodies takes a lot more time than two), finish the final ending, and maybe start writing the booklet. I will start testing eventually, I swear :') I'll probably just give my brain some rest from the script first, since I normally edit the writing and script/test all at the same time. In any case, things are moving forward! I look forward to finishing the game script and moving on to writing the booklet, it's always really fun to switch to the LI's PoVs.

Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

December devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play the demo Hi everyone!

This month was slightly slower than I would have liked :') I finished writing Bryn and Eira's poly ending and started Kyros and Eira's, so there's just two endings left to write! The script is about 108k words now. Art wise, I've mostly finished drawing the SFW CGs for three of the poly endings. Just need to clean up, add little variants and the backgrounds!

The plan for January is to finish these three CGs, finish Kyros and Eira's ending, and start drawing the next batch of three NSFW CGs. And the plan for 2024 overall is to finish Saint Ceri! I won't give a release date until things are closer to completion (real life tends to get in the way, unfortunately), but I'm definitely at a stage where things can be finished some time next year. I am dreading the massive amount of testing that awaits me though :')

Thanks as always for reading, and happy new year to you all!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #vn development #otome dev #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

November devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play the demo Hi everyone! This month I worked on a mix of writing and art. I fully wrote Bryn and Kyros's poly ending and started Bryn and Eira's; the poly endings are ending up quite longer than the mono ones! The mono endings were all 2k words, but Bryn and Kyros's ending came up at 4k. I guess it makes sense to have double the words for double the characters :') I also finished the NSFW CGs for the second set of mono endings! Here's some SFW details:

I also gathered references for all the poly endings' art and sketched out the CGs! I can already tell they'll take so long T_T Each poly ending will have a SFW CG and a NSFW one, and as you can imagine, painting multiple characters will take longer than focusing on just one LI. So there's a lot of work left to do! 3 endings to write and 8 CGs to draw. It's nice to finally be able to count the remaining CGs in the single digits, though! I'd planned 27 CGs originally and actually added one (for the platonic ending, which I didn't originally think of adding), and the number definitely scared me a lot :') 

My plan for next month is to finish writing Bryn and Eira's poly ending, and make progress on the SFW CGs for three out of the four poly endings (I haven't sketched out the SFW CG for the fourway ending yet; it's a little daunting! I'm trying to show emotional intimacy in all those SFW ending CGs and it'll be hard to do with so many characters).

Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - October devlog

Read this on itch.io | Play the demo

Hi everyone! October was a bit of a slow month T_T I only worked on art; I finished the SFW CGs for the second set of mono endings, and mostly finished the NSFW CGs for the same endings! Here's a peek at the SFW CGs:

... and that's it :') It feels a little embarassing to have so little to write about, but I try to tell myself it's something! Life is busy right now and will be this way for a while, so I don't have as much time and brain juice to dedicate to devving as I did before. I'm glad I still get to make a little bit of progress every month, though! Next month I'll finish the NSFW CGs I started, and start to write the poly endings. I'm actually really excited to write them! The endings feel a little hard to write (I have to make sure I'm wrapping up arcs nicely, and it was hard to make the two sets of single LI endings feel quite different from one another), but writing always feels easier when I've got more characters to bounce off of each other. That's it for this short devlog! Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - September devlog

Play the demo | Read the devlog on itch.io Hi everyone!

Bit of a slow month, but here's what I got done:

Writing-wise, I finished the second set of mono endings and the script is now over 100k words! That means I'm now starting to write the poly endings and only have four endings left to write. I imagine they'll take a while :') But it'll be a nice change of pace after writing content focused on just one LI!

Art-wise, I finished and configured the CGs for the first set of mono endings + the platonic ending, and made the SFW alts. I'm also starting to design the booklet pages! Here's a peek of test pages (with 0 text or context but you get to see Bryn's full sprites and concept art haha).

I won't actually start putting content in the booklet until I'm fully done with the game itself since there's a lot I want to write for it (mainly LI PoVs), and I'll need a break from writing once I'm done with the endings T_T I also started sketching the CGs for the second set of mono endings! These endings actually have two CGs each (a SFW pinup, and the NSFW CG). I thought it would be nice to change it up (both to make it more fun for me to draw, and hopefully for the endings to feel varied and worth collecting). I also did a lot of small things (configuring gallery images, making new achievement icons, etc). That's all for this month! Next month I plan to focus on drawing CGs, since there's a lot to get done. Thanks as always for reading!

#visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - August devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play the demo Hi everyone!

I've done a lot this month, which is great because I'm super busy now :') Writing wise, I've finished more endings (all of the first mono endings are done, and Eira's second mono ending is written as well! That's five endings out of eleven!). In terms of art, I've drawn little things for some of the achievements, drew a casual outfit for Kyros, two new backgrounds, a CG for the platonic ending, and the base versions for all the first mono endings' CGs! Those still need some variants. Here's a peek at the achievements:

The full version of the chibis will be included in the booklet! Not sure when I'll publish that (I'm thinking of releasing it a little after the game's release, as I'm also thinking of making a DLC with additional NSFW scenes and will need more time to draw the art for that).

And also, a peek at the CGs:

They still need some clean up, but I'm happy with how these are going! The CGs involving more than one LI will be where things get really difficult though :')

I've also done some small tech things (configuring new assets, configuring achievements on steamworks). Can you tell I'm avoiding doing any testing? T_T I know I'll have to get to it eventually, and I do some simple testing as I script things in, but testing all the possible variant scenes is a lot of work. I feel like I have to build up some courage for it!

I expect I won't get as much done next month, but things are going pretty well overall! I'll just keep chipping away at the endings; I'd like to finish writing the second set of mono endings this upcoming month, and starting working on the CGs for them. That set of endings has two CGs per ending, so they'll take longer!

Thanks for reading!

#visual novel #otome dev #indie otome #vn development #saint ceri #english visual novel #vndev #otome

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri: July devlog + small update

Read it on itch.io | Try the demo

Hi everyone! I've done a lot this month!

First, I've published an updated demo! It has no new content, but it adds blinking animations and makes small fixes to the art assets. It also adds all the variables the final game will have, so hopefully that'll make transitioning from a demo save to the full game less prone to errors and crashing.

I've also finished and published the trailer for Saint Ceri! I hope it properly conveys what kind of game SC is.

I've finished scripting all of the pre-ending content, which I'm really happy about! I've done a few rounds of testing, though I haven't yet tested every single branch. That'll be very tedious and hard to keep track of so I'll have to do it over a long period of time :')

I've also started writing the endings, though pretty slowly; I've only added about 4k words this month. I've written some general epilogues about unromanced characters and the church, and I'm now starting to write the actual proper endings and have finished the platonic one. It's adding a bunch of new art assets to my list (a casual outfit for poor Kyros who'll finally get some time to relax, some new locations).

I've also figured out how to code in achievements for steam, which is a relief! I was a bit worried about that. There'll be quite a few, and they should help players find the various endings (though I do intend to make a guide, too).

Finally, I took part in o2a2 again! 

UNDYING: REJECT is pretty different from my previous projects. I'm actually planning to make more games in this setting after Saint Ceri is complete, so I'm really happy that comments have been positive so far! The first one I'm planning will centre around Silas, the character you meet in REJECT. It'll be shorter than Saint Ceri and darker (it'll specifically have yandere things going on, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea but I really want to try!), but like all of my games it will be mature and have moral quandaries, so I hope you'll find it intriguing! I'll share more about the project when I have visuals to show. That's it for this month! Next month I'll do more writing, some design work for achievement icons, and hopefully start working on some of the new art assets needed in the endings.

Thanks as always for reading!

#indie otome #visual novel #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #otome #saint ceri #vndev

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - June devlog

Read it on itch.io | Play Saint Ceri's demo

Hello everyone! I've done a lot of things on my to-do list this month! First, the blinking animations I mentioned before! Here's a peek:

(which doubles as a peek at the final route selection and specifically the variant for promising Bryn and Eira a poly relationship but telling Kyros you'd like to be with him only... there are so many variants haha)

I also finished writing all the pre-ending content! It all adds up to 85k words (so quite a bit more than I was expecting). There's only the actual endings left to write now, but I'll spend some time scripting and re-reading/editing before tackling those. I want to make sure I'm properly concluding character arcs and that everything feels satisfying! I'm 23k words into scripting the post-demo content now (so I still need to script about 46k words). I'm trying to get all the scripting done before September because I'm most likely going to be very busy until next summer, and I expect development will slow down quite a bit. I've also pretty much finished the trailer! Next month I'll upload a final, updated demo with the blinking animation along with the trailer. There won't be any new content so it's just a small visual update (adding the blink animations, tweaks to the backgrounds and sidesprites and other tiny things), but I'm really happy with the blinking and want people to see it, haha. This demo will also contain all the same variables as the full game, so unlike previous demos, there should no longer be problems when trying to play new content from old saves.

That's it for June! I'll keep scripting throughout July and try to have as much of the game programmed as I can before life gets a lot busier. Thanks for reading <3

#indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #otome #saint ceri #visual novel #english visual novel #interactive fiction #devlog

[maneki-mushi]

Saint Ceri - May devlog

Read this on itch.io | Check out my games

Hi everyone!

Life was very busy this month but I’d planned for it by giving myself a shorter to-do list!

Writing wise, I wrote 8k words like I’d planned, so the script is up to 75k! But unlike my plans, this didn’t cover all the content for the festival scenes at all :’) So I’ll still need to do a bit of writing next month to finish up the pre-ending scenes! Each romance route (and the friendship route) have their own version of the scene. For now I’ve written the friendship version and started Kyros’s. I’m always surprised by how much I like writing the friendship-only scenes in Saint Ceri; though I planned the game primarily around romance and adult content, the way I wrote the characters and their dynamics makes friendship feel really meaningful, too.

I did some boring things to prepare for scripting; final fixes to CGs, exporting them, configuring them… I also made tweaks and adjustments to all the backgrounds to make them a little more appealing, so I’ll need to remake all my game screenshots again. I keep making more work for myself by making little tweaks and changes, but I really want Saint Ceri to be polished, since it’ll be on Steam :’) Here’s a look at the festival ceremony CG! It really is just an excuse for me to draw armour, haha. It has a few variations and it's right before a turning point in the story, so I'm pretty happy with it.

I’ll finally have some free time in the summer so I’m excited to work on Saint Ceri a lot! The demo will be part of Steam's Visual Novel festival in August so I have a few things to do to try and make it more appealing to people who might stumble upon it for the first time.

Thanks for reading!

#testing out posting these directly on tumblr instead of linking because maybe links were super annoying #visual novel #indie otome #vndev #otome dev #vn development #english visual novel #saint ceri #otome #interactive fiction #r18 otome

[maneki-mushi]

Monthly devlog is out~ most of this month was spent writing, and Saint Ceri's script is slowly growing!

#indie otome #vndev #english visual novel #saint ceri #otome #visual novel #otome dev #vn development #interactive fiction

[maneki-mushi]

I just released a very short THJ related VN for the O2A2 jam! It takes place right before the events of The Hero's Journey and depicts the last moment you shared with Aerona before the final battle. You don't need to have played THJ to enjoy it, and it doesn't spoil the story! So check it out whether you loved THJ and Aerona or never heard of it but love sad fantasy lesbians!

#I want to do more THJ vignettes like this because the cast still lives in my head rent free #also Aerona blinks and I feel like I finally did her justice art-wise #visual novel #vndev #vn development #english visual novel

[maneki-mushi]

Here's this month's devlog, including a peek at Kyros and Eira's jealousy CG!

#saint ceri #english visual novel #otome dev #indie otome #visual novel #vndev #vn development

[maneki-mushi]

I wrote up a devlog about how the routes (particularly the poly ones) work! There's a bunch of script screenshots in there (and a terribly messy flowchart), so check it out if you want a peek at more of the story!

#saint ceri #otome dev #indie otome #english visual novel #vn development

[maneki-mushi]

Disappeared for a while because I've been super busy IRL :') Still made significant progress on Saint Ceri though! You can read about it in this month's devlog!

#indie otome #interactive fiction #saint ceri #otome dev #vndev #vn development