Blog

This is a blog where I'll mostly be posting updates about the game as I work on it and discussing my thoughts behind the design, as well as occasionally just talking about my life.

Posts may not always be frequent for a variety of reasons, such as when I'm working on things I'd consider too spoiler-y to share, or just don't feel like writing. Still, I think it's fun to create records of development as it happens, so hopefully you can find them interesting to read as well!

Art Archive | Video Archive | RSS Feed

Posts from October 2024

- 08/10/2024 - (NEW!)

A short snippet of the game's first cutscene, in which Sakiko wakes up from a dream on a train. The station platform is still a little unfinished, but everything else is complete.

- HSTopaz

- 04/10/2024 -

Hello! I've done a couple things over the past few days.

Firstly, I finally made portrait art for the tutorial boss, Leon!

He's one of the first characters encountered--a petty gang leader that Saki has the misfortune of angering, and who inadvertently ends up dragging her into the town's supernatural phenomena. He's kind of a smug loser, which is a lot of fun to draw facial expressions for.

I'll get around to adding a character bio page for him sometime soon.

With most necessary maps finished, I've also started working on formally putting together the game's opening sequence. Right now, I'm currently in the process of slightly retooling the way the game handles cutscenes to be more manageable on a large scale, because it's kind of cumbersome at the moment.

(^ The game's very first cutscene is also almost entirely finished...!)

- HSTopaz

- 01/10/2024 -

Hey! Starting this month, I've decided to trial formatting this blog in more of a 'feed' style, with more frequent smaller posts grouped together by month, rather than the larger longform posts I've been making. Writing those large posts has been a little intimidating up until now, so I'm hoping this format might be a little more casual and let me talk about smaller things more frequently.

Over the past week, I've been working on drawing another of the game's major areas, the Rosebank Bridge--a small pedestrian bridge surrounded by a handful of riverside stores and restaurants.

It's still a little unfinished at the moment, but my goal at the moment is mostly to have the general design and layout of every major location planned out so that I can start accurately implementing all of the gameplay elements and cutscenes. Still, I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far. I'm excited to eventually have all the signs glowing in the evening light!

(The staircases are actually a massive pain for collision and depth, though. I think they're the only sideways facing staircases in the whole game, too...)

- HSTopaz


Blog Index

2024

October

Old Longform Posts

  1. 23-09-24 -- Spriting the City and Random Encounters
  2. 01-09-24 -- Writing and Release Talk
  3. 04-08-24 -- New Character 'Iris' and Their Boss Fight
  4. 06-07-24 -- Overworld Followers and New Character Sketches
  5. 21-06-24 -- Combat Demo 6-24 | Patch/Bugfix Update
  6. 8-06-24 -- Combat Demo '6-24' Release and Patch Notes
  7. 11-05-24 -- Spirit Stasis, and Other New Attacks
  8. 30-03-24 -- Combat Assists and Art Talk
  9. 09-03-24 -- Training Mode and An Obsession With Status Ailments
  10. 16-02-24 -- First Public Demo Release!
  11. 28-01-24 -- Preparing For A Demo