Developer diary entry #0

I am starting a consistent developer diary. I shall be posting twice a month, on 7th and 21st, committing to record the progress i have made on the game - believe it or not, i am indeed working on it, even if at a glacial pace. The reason for why i am only doing it now is simple - i always felt like i should only announce big things, like updates or equally important milestones. Seeing how there is ample evidence that such state of affairs is demotivating to both me and my followers, i think it is high time i started posting more often.
This diary shall serve as a regular reminder to myself and, perhaps, grand total of three people, that i am yet to abandon the project. Even In the event that no progress is made at all, i shall tell you a story from my life. Likewise, if i ever miss one too many entries, you may be sure that i abandoned it entirely. Let us hope it does not come to that.

Regarding the promised next update, i dare to say the most daunting part has been dealt with, but it is definitely not "coming soon".

Bottleneck was, and still is, the drawing of environments and assets. By refusing to go along with using tilemaps and pixel art, i most definitely shot myself in the foot, blew it off in fact, both of them. Have you noticed the unique sketch-like artstyle of my game? Guess what, i have to draw a lot within reasonable time. Thus, it is here to stay, likely forever.

When all assets are done, the actually fun part begins - placing them around, coming up with interactions and flavour text - of course, this too takes time, often a lot of it, but usually less so than drawing and location planning.

That said, i am currently designing apps in the tablet PC. I cannot skimp on that, they are vital to gameplay - accessing the in-world net with a browser, chatting with NPCs in a messenger, taking photos with a camera. And guess what, a lot of assets to be designed and drawn here, too. Logos, userpics, user interfaces...

And, of course, i am also working on the working time system. You know, introducing a vital gameplay element called "passage of time"? Implementing it is easier than one would think, it is basically ready in barebones state - game keeps track of in-universe time, hours and days are passing, waiting and sleeping mechanics are practically in place. Now i just have to attach some meat to it - code in actual story events, make environments and events conditional on current time, and so on.

In terms of plot and worldbuilding, i am confident i can cook something, just let me. Though, i must admit that i fucked up big time with my attempt at sort of kind of inventing new grammar - indeed, grammar in the prologue is "bad" with intention and pattern, and yet i probably will not rewrite all these lines in the coming update, just not on the top of my priorities. But from now on i will tone that down.