First Impressions are Everything

I worked on Free Kick a bit today-If all goes well I should be releasing a demo in a couple months. (Cross your fingers). I had to fix some bugs. I like to test as I go along. I had to fix some issues that I had with the variables.

In Python, when you assign a value to the variable you use '=' however when you want to CHECK or TEST if the variable is equal to a certain value you have to use '=='. (it's the same in Java) but for some reason it slipped my mind. Well, It's all fixed now!

Ps. Happy Belated Holidays! (Well I guess technically the holidays are still in motion for some of us) I hope it was (and is) a fantastic time for all of you! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and Boxing Day.

And What's a School without Teachers?

Ms. Dorak, your (favourite?) and only English teacher. She shall grace you with the wondrous workings of Hamlet and other literature that has no real world application.

Yes. There are Female Characters

Meeting Nathan

 

 

I have been working on the game.

Just created the part where Michael first meets the strange boy known as Nathan.
Tried to stick with the idea that most young men are very insecure about their sexualities, the use of the word 'gay' is not meant to offend in this case but to paint a realistic picture about how the word is used in today's modern society.

Fun fact: I actually got inspiration for Michael's room from a University residence that I visited some time ago.

GUI Complete

Officially completed the GUI (Graphical User Interface.) I decided to stick with the school team's colours for effect.

 The Load/Save Screen (The screen same is the exact same except it says "Save." (Wow what a plot twist)) The most challenging part was figuring out how to re-size the screenshots (I didn't realize that you had to resave the game for the screen shot to take effect)

In game Menu and Dialogue box. I re-did the in game menu about 3 times because I wasn't happy with the positioning. I originally had it at the side, but I thought it looked better at the bottom. I also coded in a side image (For our main character). Text colours and name colours are not final (Will probably be changing it at some point)

 The options screen. I am so happy with out it turned out. Took two imagemaps to make it (One for the menu, another one for the actual screen) made a separate slider bar and positioned it-the slider bar (Which you will see below Text Speed, Music Volume, Auto Forward etc.) was actually a combination of three images.

And of course, we have the Yes/No Prompt screen which pops up to confirm various actions (overwriting a saved game...quitting etc.) Of course you'll never want to quit free-kick. Ever. Mwahahaha.

All I really have to do for the GUI now is the choices buttons. I'll work on them when the time comes.

Next, I'll have to edit some backgrounds, import the images-possibly create some new expressions, come up with the basic storyboard (what images I will use) for the first couple of scenes, and then I'll actually start making the game....

At least the GUI is done. That's the hardest part. (I think)

*Falls on floor.* I'm done. Until tomorrow at least.

Main Menu

Every game needs a main menu-it is essential and allows the user to navigate the game.
Anyways, I programmed the menu today, this was my first time working with a imagemap within the main menu context-I've made them before but never for a main menu, and I wanted to give it a try.

How it basically works-if the user's mouse enters certain coordinates within the window-then the image switches to a different one-and if the user were to click then a certain action would happen (ie. If you click within the "New Game" coordinates-the game would start etc...If you clicked within "Load" you'd be taken to the load screen...)

These 'range of coordinates' are called hotspots. I had a total of 5, and with the engine I'm using Ren'Py, hotspots are coded using (x, y, w, h) So the coordinates of the top left corner of the hotspot (ie. 0,0) the width it extends too, and the height it extends downwards (note the coordinates for the top upper left of the hotspot)

I had quite a few bugs I had to work out-mainly with the coordinates and the images themselves (I had buttons overlapping into the other sections-and that messed everything up...) Microsoft paint is actually a very useful tool for finding coordinates.

I can offically say I'm able to do main menu imagemaps now...

Next up, I will be programming the rest of the GUI Screens, as well as the in-game menu, the dialogue boxes and such...

I also got to visit Queen's university this weekend-it's an older institution with some very very nice buildings. I'm hoping to be able to incorporate some of the scenery into my game somehow...hmmm.
Here's a glimspe:

More to come.

Wake Up Sleepy Head

 ALL CGS done for the first little scene.

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Free Kick is my third visual novel and by far the biggest (and I haven't even started coding yet) I'm going all out and doing a whole bunch of stuff I haven't done before. It's going to be a learning curb. But on the bright side...I should be starting on GUI coding this weekend...or early next week. I have the menu screens done, as well as the dialogue box. Good thing I have a little bit of experience with Image maps. I guess we'll see how it all works out!

Cheers!

A Quick Look at some of the Game Art....

I'm not a pro at drawing with the tablet, so I draw all my work (including sprites) on paper, and then ink it with my Sakura Micron pens. Next I scan it and colour it using Photoshop!

Officially finished one CG needed for the beginning scene(s) only one more to do, and then it's time to start coding! I'll be starting with the menu GUI (Graphical User Interface)!

Updates to come!

Free Kick

Free Kick

Genre:
Slice of Life, Sports (Soccer more specifically), BxB, High School, Drama 

Rating: 16+ (Due to some mature content such as alcoholic/drug references, sexual references, strong language etc.)

Storyline:

Michael has mixed feelings about leaving his city life behind and moving to the smaller town of "Turnip Hill," after a nasty divorce between his parents. Michael goes from being a star varsity soccer player, to being apart of the "Turnip Hill Recreational Soccer Club," a club that has always been one member short from tournament qualification. However, Turnip Hill is not exactly as it seems, it harbors a handful of dark secrets, and his team members aren't exactly as they seem either.
Not only does Michael have to deal with his 'downgraded' team, but with the pressures of high school as well.

Setting:

Free Kick takes place in the small (fictional) town of Turnip Hill, named after the beet that no one really likes. "Turnip Hill Secondary School" is a run-down high school with little funding and not a lot of resources compared to other schools.

Characters:

Michael

Age: 17

Height: 6ft 2

Michael is the main character. (The player will be playing from his perspective.) He has been playing soccer since he was little-and was on his school's varsity team. Being very skilled, he sometimes can be quite self-centered and narcissistic, but overall he is concerned about the well-being of those close to him. Michael has a tendency to get embarrassed easily-he likes attention at some times, but other times he dreads it. He plays Central Defender.

Tyler
Age: 16
Height: 6ft 3
Tyler is a more silent mysterious type of person, he rarely talks, but when he does his language isn't exactly welcoming and is on the colourful side. He has a very short temper and is known to get into fights. He's the current goalie for Turnip Hill's team.

 Juan
Age: 16
Height: 6ft 1
Juan is a 16 year old immigrant from Columbia. He grew up in a very poor town. He has a real love for soccer and places much emphasis on the value of family and friends. Very welcoming person. He has a tendency to use a mixture of Spanish and English. He becomes very aggressive on the field. Juan holds the position of Central Striker.

 

 Chris
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 10
Chris is the current team captain, and the oldest member of the team. He has a real love for soccer-and as much as he likes winning he prefers the thrill of the game. He tries to see the best in everyone, and is like a big brother to everyone. He's not very fond of cocky people.  (Think of the "Senpai" type) He's pretty school smart as well. Chris plays Support Striker/Central Forward.

Nathan
Age: 17
Height: 5ft 7

Nathan is not afraid to speak his mind, he has no filter, and tries to be a 'playboy' with not much success. Very insecure about his sexuality and tends to use the term "No Homo" a lot. Very obsessed with girls. He tends to anger teachers a lot with his 'no care' attitude and comments. Not exactly very bright. He currently plays the position of Central Mid-Field/Defense. Fuck Boy

Information:

Free Kick will be my third visual novel, it'll be my first 'big project' and first slice of life story.
(I've done Sci-Fi in the past) One of the reasons I'm making this visual novel is to express the difficulties of sexual orientation, and society's expectation of 'masculinity' within a sports setting, due to this, all the characters won't be 'out' at the beginning of the game. (And perhaps most of them won't even label themselves as being 'gay') Free Kick will also be non-commercial.
Also, despite the game being BxB, there won't be any sex scenes. (Hence why it's rated 16+ and not 18+)

Current Progress:

Characters: 100%

Storyline: I have the general outline done, and a good chunk of the writing, but all routes aren't written yet. (I keep thinking of new ideas/situations)

Sprites: Complete for current amount of writing done

GUI: Currently working on the layout/artwork, haven't coded it yet.

Coding: 0% 

Current To-Do's:

-Fix up Sprites (Make more expressions remove any yucky stuff)
-Make CG's for opening Scenes
-Code GUI 
 

Updates:

Will be edited as needed

Tyler

My Little Tsundere

Rocking that Black and Yellow

 Only two of the main cast left to go, then 3 side characters that I have planned so far

Nathan

The stereotypical white boy. 

Nathan was the first character I drew to be honest, and so far he's one of my favourites.

In the game he plays a vital role (well every one really) but he's one of the first characters you will interact with/meet.

 

Stayed tuned for the rest of the characters (and the actual plot at some point...)

Juan

Bet you thought this was a one post blog?

Well, You're wrong.

Finally, I have started scripting and artwork for my new project! For the current moment the title is a secret!  (The art gives the storyline away partially...)

I finished the first character design today (well, the colouring at least.)
I have sketches for the other characters-and they're all inked and ready to go, it's just the digital colours that I have to do.

There is more to come!

 

I'm pretty happy with the results, I tried a new colouring style for his second outfit, My clothing design and drawing has improved a lot from my last project-which I will share with you all later!

 

-Hedge-Chan

Welcome! In All Honesty, this is just another Development Blog...

Greetings humans!

I am Hedge-Chan, and this is my development blog.

Now you're probably thinking-a development blog? Oh, it's another one of those.

So what exactly am I developing? Well, I make games, more specifically this blog will outline my work with Visual Novels.

To enlighten those who are currently unfamiliar with Visual Novels (And to save you all a google search...)
A Visual Novel is an interactive fiction game. The easiest way to explain it really is as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure Novel.' 

It's a game where you have to make choices at some points in the game-and much like real life the storyline will change based on decisions made.

So what is the purpose of this blog?

I basically will write about my eye-opening journey regarding my works.

To put things simple-I will post all the stuff I'm working on. So, you hopefully will find it interesting.

Since, If you haven't reached the conclusion yet-but games don't just 'pop' out of nowhere. You can't just wake up one day and be like "I'm going to make a Visual Novel." And It'll just fall from the sky.

Visual Novels themselves take a lot of work, due to all the very different story lines, likewise, being a mainly static game, there is a lot of artwork development involved as well.

Visual Novels are time consuming, and is there any better way to record the birth and awkward puberty of a game than through a blog!

Instead of talking about my feelings and such, I'll instead talk about my game's feelings and such.

And you, the reader, follower, wonderful human being, dog, flower, cat (Whatever you prefer) will be able to share in my joys (but mostly frustrations) with regards to creating my projects.