akabur
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338 - EXTRA!!
🕑 Added 2024-07-22 12:50:56 +0000 UTCDURING this week while I was working on the challenges I decided to document the process and was taking pictures of my screen every now and then. Today while editing the pictures for this post I realized that talking about the process I went through while working feels even more tedious than working itself, which did fell REALLY TEDIOUS.
I EDITED out a lot of pictures, but there are still quite a few left, so try to stick with me for this report if you can. Although I will totally understand if you won't be able too. When you get too bored just skip to the end of this post, I won't judge you.
ANYWAY, to start off I used Photoshop to create a placeholder mocap of every challenge icon position. After that I imported that mocap into the game. After that I had to create the icons themselves. 
AFTER I WAS DONE, I imported the first icon into the game only to find out that I forgot to resize the JPG files properly before saving, which meant I needed to create all those icons again from scratch.
IT TOOK some time but I was finally done and was ready to start adding them into the game.
THE CODE I had to write to make the icons clickable is not particularly difficult, but (you guessed it) is rather tedious. Also even though copying some bits of code from PT did help me save some time it also introduced a few bugs because some variables had different names in PT and QT.
AFTER THAT I imported all the icons into the game and everything was working well until I realized that there was actually no space for the final challenge because I did not account for the space the EXIT button takes.
THAT MEANT I had to go back to the mockup and try and figure out a way to locate the icons differently... Maybe change the overall number of them? Maybe change the size? It is all so tedious...
EVENTUALLY I decided to cut the number of the icons and leave the lower row completely empty. After a while though I started to really hate it. First of all the empty row looked dull and boring, second of all I wasn't sure that 21 challenges was enough.
AT THE END, I decided to compromise and just reduced the original number of the challenges by 1 to leave the room for the button.
AFTER THAT, the really tedious part of the work had begun. I had to adjust every icon manually to make them align with the mockup background. Basically I just had to change X and Y, reload the game, see if it fits, rinse and repeat. 
AFTER I got the #01 icon right, it got a little bit easier because all the next ones in this row had the same Y value.
WHEN the second row started I took the X value from the upper row, but still had to figure out the Y one by trial and error. Oh, and I had to use a calculator every now and then to make the whole process a bit less tedious.
WHEN I was finally done with that the game crashed. Apparently I was still missing some of the icons, so I had to go into Photoshop again and create them.
AFTER that I was finally done. All the 27 icons were in the game. Clicking any of those icons would crash the game though.
AFTER THAT there was a lot of coding, copy and pasting, and coding again. It was all very very very TIDIOUS.
MY GOAL was to create at least 1 fully working challenge and after that I could copy it multiple times later, making the necessary adjustments. 
FINALLY I got to the point where I was able to start importing additional assets. I had to dig up original PT PSD files for this. It also took a lot of time because I had to create the screen, make sure it displays properly and blah-blah-blah... Good Lord! If you are still reading this, I salute you, brother.
AFTER THAT I had to dig up my notes to be able to start working on the actual contents of the challenges themselves. 
I TYPED the challenges into the text editor to be imported later into the game.
REMINDER: I cut a lot of stuff from this report that I present to you, dear bro. Several days of work is documented here. -_-
AND AFTER THAT while I was digging through the game files adjusting variables, I play-tested one side-mission scene and a strong urge to illustrate it took hold of me. My original plan was to not add any new illustrations anymore, but I just could not resist. After all, I don't think I ever had any regrets about putting too many drawings into a game.
I CAN'T show it off without spoiling things, but it turned out nicely and I can't wait to color it and put into the game. That is the plan for this week: finish this drawing, finish the challenges and move on to the true ending scene.
That is all. Thank you for your support, bros. I will see you all next Monday.
-Aka-
Comments
David Louis
Where are the latest versions of each game and how do we download them? I do not see the Potion Shop on io.
DeadMan
I understand the writing part. There's a game in Russian a person wanted me to translate and play. Google translate is not your friend and I would have fix all the grammar issues among other things. They don't pay me enough for that. I just thought that was the license you got. I don't why, maybe because I listen to Purity to much.
Trevor Bond
It's all good, you just sounded like you were indulging in some healthy venting!
AKAMAN
SOON*
AKAMAN
Thanks!
AKAMAN
Thank you, king of bro-wifus!
AKAMAN
I know. Especially that 10 year old version that I have. Fucking love it. XD
AKAMAN
Hehe. Thanks. I know you will appreciate when you encounter it in the game.
AKAMAN
Exactly. Often times you just need to suck it up and do it. I hope I didn't voice too many complains with this one. Just wanted to give you a little behind-the-scenes look. At the end of the day I enjoy my work. I won't be able to do it if I didn't enjoy it. :)
AKAMAN
Oh yeah. A lot of stuff gets cut and rewritten. The trick is to make sure the player does not notice it :) As for the tools I am sure there are some, but I like to work with what I know. I mean I draw on paper and my version of Ren'Py is almost literally 10 years out of date. Anyway, thank you for your support. I appreciate more than anything. None of my games would exist if not for you guys.
AKAMAN
Mua-ha-ha! Thanks man! :)
AKAMAN
Only as a cameo. But I am glad you were able to figure it out from the very little pieces of the drawing provided.
AKAMAN
Unfortunately I am not in Japan. Or was it some joke that I didn't get? Well in any case I left japan like 10 years ago. And my notes are always in English since writing them in Russian and after that translating seems counterproductive. Plus some puns would work in Russian but not in English and vise versa. Anyway, when I work I pretty much put the russian part of my brain into a sleep mode :)
AKAMAN
No you are amazing. Thank you for supporting my work. ^^
AKAMAN
Thanks man. I always appreciate you stopping by :)
AKAMAN
Thanks, man. I hope you are doing OK, by the way.
TrapHunter69
Renpy is such a... Renpy
Varsh
Adding illustration to side missions is always welcome. It's nice to know that the Creator cared about them instead of adding them just to pad the games. 🤩
Trevor Bond
That is a lot of work, but like every project there is a necessary part that nobody likes doing. Having done a lot of editing of written works, I totally understand this feeling my dude. Thank you for continuing on!
percy Jackson
I loved learning the true process and didn't realize it's alot of trial and error. Are there really no alignment tools to make sure it's aligned properly without checking each one? Also you are chugging along at a really fast pace. I may be missing something but I'm worried you might burn yourself out. If an art break is what you need take it. We Bros will enjoy any new art added to the story. Stay strong and power on!!
Henrik
Who is the truest bro? The one doing all the work! Akaman for president! 🌟
Alejandro Garcia
Oooh, Aerith and Tifa are in the game, nice!
DeadMan
Looks like your having fun and notes in english. There is strangeness going on, you in Japan writing in english. Now I believe I believe we can fix America. Not really were fucked.
morris ridgeway
You are amazing!
Nikraria
Maybe was tedious to do, but is fun to read!
Ace
Awesome, really interesyin
Moxence
soon my friend soon
Alfred M
Awesome work, great job!
Dubsington
Very cool, thanks for showing the process! Really interesting. As a technical person, I am always interested in seeing how creative people do their thing. It's a very... different process than what I am used to in the development world. (For example, I'd have probably created a framework for generating a tabular display of icons w/links and then just fed it a list of icons, but then when time came to add an exit button I'd have just made one of the icons an exit. The end result would have been less effort, but instead of a fancy and visually distinct exit button it would have looked kinda half-assed. Your more visual approach is more work but results in a more polished product.) Glad to hear you're shoving more drawings in. At the end of the day your art is why we are here, so I'm happy to wait a few more weeks if it means more CGs.
Rwede
We salute you for your hard work and dedication, BroWaifu o7 May your drawings and testing be plentiful o/
