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Thanks for sharing your progress. How much time do you need to finish it?

I can't give any specific deadlines just yet, because who knows what hurdles might pop up, but I am aiming to finish it for November. And worst case scenario, it will definitely be finished sometime this year. 
Also, welcome to the forums. 


This week I spent all of my time coding in responses for everything I drew in the rooms last week.
Those are responses for left clicking, right clicking, and using an inventory item. Because for some reason I always feel obligated to code a response in for everything instead of simply relying on the "unhandled dialog" that would appear if I didn't code in a unique response.

I also made a fake-intro-credit sequence, to give the game a bit of extra flair at the beginning.



I think there might have been an encoding issue with that gif. The characters have red eyes at the end there, which they shouldn't. Ah well, it shows off that credit sequence.

I'm starting to notice a lot of little bugs that will need fixing. And I can't imagine how many bugs there are that I'm not aware of. So that'll be fun... 

This week has been all about improving the artwork for the rooms. I've mostly been adding random junk, shadows, and a foreground. But occasionally I'd change something I'd already drawn or add some texture to something where there wasn't any.



I've just about finished improving all of the rooms. I've only got one more left, and then all I need to do is quickly look over everything I've already done (to make sure I haven't missed anything) and then assign all of the new hotspots.

Also, I think I may have become a little too reliant on boxes and books. Since they're both easy to draw and make sense to be in almost any room.

The game looks way prettier now though. 

Loved the original game and loving the way the sequel seems to be shaping up!

Thank you. 
It means a lot.



This week I finished off the introduction. Now three characters sit on the sofa, instead of standing awkwardly in front of it.
I also finished the endings. They were mostly completed already, but I had to make a few animations and a whole lot of sprites to finish them off.
I've also recently started going over all of the backgrounds and improving them. Adding useless junk, shadows, and a foreground. The basement was the first on the list, since it was the most empty, and I've now finished improving that.
Lastly, I finally added the game over screen. (That's right, you can die in this game. Although thanks to auto saving and how easy it is to avoid, it shouldn't become annoying.)



I wanted to show off a background I've never shown before, but at the same time I don't want to end up revealing everything (got to leave something for players to discover). So I decided to go for a cropped screenshot as a compromise.
Then a certain someone decided to come out of nowhere and attack me. So I've decided to include him in the screenshot a little bit (rather than just completely cut him out).

Nice logo. Good luck replacing all the placeholders.

Thanks, I appreciate it. 

So, as I said last week. I wouldn't have much time to work on my game this week, and that's been true.
That being said, I did give the fonts another pass, made and implemented an animation for the scarecrow, and started working on making the characters actually sit down on that sofa in the intro.

It's not much, but it's still something. I should be back to business as usual for next week though.
Obviously I still have another two characters I need to draw sitting down.

One of the Ultima games? 5 maybe?

People who feel obliged to comment on people's diction without knowing if that person has Dyslexia... Yes, they do exist... 

I can confirm that, since my sister has dyslexia.

But yeah, well said Slasher. 

Alright, this week has mostly been about polishing things up and finally getting around to all of the "placeholder" stuff that's been in the game for so long, that I've forgotten it was just a placeholder.
I've worked on the main menu some more (making the background animate). I also finally made downwards sprites for two of the characters that you play as (the main character already had hers made ages ago). I finally got around to making a proper pixel-art version of the logo. Also, I worked on the basement some more, since there was something in there that was literally copy and pasted from somewhere else in the game, and I completely forgot it was just temporary.
Lastly, I've done the first pass of the fonts. (That's right, I've decided I'm making my own fonts for the game.)

The new fonts look surprisingly nice ingame, especially considering I just eyeballed it and as such is just a first pass. A little hard to read in places though.






I probably won't have much time to work on the game next week. So there might not be an update then. If there is, it'll probably be a day later than usual.

Dink Smallwood is free permanently. 

Hasn't Dink Smallwood been freeware for years?
It's nice that it's finally gotten onto GOG though. 

This week I've been working on the main menu and the credits screen, as well as the game's music. Not to mention a few odds and ends, such as the microwave humming then dinging after you've put something inside it, and the character wielding the weapon they use to attack the scarecrow.
I also implemented the functionality for the game to recognize which of the four endings you got, so it can unlock the secret ending if you manage to get all four. I've also put in said secret ending. Although now the main menu looks rather cluttered.

[imgzoom]https://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/black_friday_2/screenie12.png[/imgzoom]

I'm running out of things to show off. There's some things I definitely don't want to show off, so they're something new to look at when playing the game for the first time. But I've got to show something.
So with that being said, I'm willing to take a request for what I'll show off next week.

This is petty, but it grinds my gears when people literally write "something-slash-something" or "quote unquote". Those expressions are meant for spoken communication, but it makes zero sense to write all that when the keyboard you're typing on already has slash and quote symbols. "She's a developer-slash-game designer", no, you mean "developer/game designer". "He's a quote-unquote genius", no, you mean "He's a 'genius'". 

I can’t say i’ve come across this but it would grind my gears too. It’s not like typing “period” or “full-stop” at the end of a sentence because that actually performs a function beyond just typing the actual symbol. But the examples you gave don’t do anything that just typing the symbols doesn’t already do, so yeah, that would annoy me too.

I am so glad I've never come across that as well, because that would also grind my gears.

Just before coming back from holiday, I got sick. That mixed with the heatwave has meant that I haven't made a whole lot of progress this week.

That being said. I did work on the ending cutscenes. They still need custom animations for that extra bit of polish, but what is there is now at an acceptable level. If I wasn't planning on selling this game, I would leave those ending cutscenes as is. But I need to make proper animations for things, like characters falling down and such. 

Other than that, I also implemented a note that you can pick up and read. I'm trying to include all of the Indie-Horror Game tropes, but I'm trying to do them in what I consider to be the "correct" way, since those tropes typically annoy me. (I mean why would you leave pages of your journal confessing your crimes, scattered around your house? And who on Earth locks every door in their house?)

In the meantime though, here's a background from the start of the game:

It's an establishing shot that appears for less than a second, and never again.
Why did I spend so much time on something that barely anyone will notice? Because it adds to the atmosphere. The thing is though, I can clearly tell it still needs a lot more work.

For example, it'd be brilliant if I could take a photograph and then have it be redrawn in the style of The Curse of Monkey Island. That's not going to happen though.

Pretty sure AI tools that take in 1 image as input for the style/aesthetic and the other image as input to convert to that style/aesthetic already exist.

They do, and they're not good. There was a thread on here hyping them up, and I showed how terrible my results were.
It turns out that they're good if you want useless abstract art. Which are pretty to look at, but useless for game making. But if you want something like what I just said "a photograph and then have it be redrawn in the style of The Curse of Monkey Island" I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. (Try it yourself if you don't believe me, you'll just get an ugly collage.)

The thing is though, while most people are saying things like "Could this replace artists?" or "The dangers of using this!" I'm instead thinking "How can I use this as a tool to aid me?"

I am thinking all of this. For now it is a great inspiration and can make an artists life easier when it comes to finding colour choices or composition ideas etc. But as it is getting better, like all technology, I think it could become a valid concern that it can replace artist to some extend. A lot of artists also make money with social media like with posting new artworks on instgram and creating a following. Now instgram is already getting flodded with midjourney art that was done in seconds and (almost) looks like done by a professional. Does that create a false picture of how much work a "real" artwork takes?

I doubt it'll replace good artists. Just the amateur ones that think they're special (which there are way too many of in my opinion).
After all, it'll be a very long time before these programs can make something which could be used without any input from an artist. Making you that perfect background or animation. And until that point in time (if it ever happens), people will have to go to an artist. And if they aren't willing to pay the price, then they'll have to do it themselves, perhaps even using that tool. In turn letting them gain an appriciation of how to make art themselves. Worst case scenario, we get another huge influx of amateur artists with huge egos.

And does it create a false picture of how much work real artwork takes? Yeah, probably. But people already have that false picture. You already get people wanting to pay artists in exposure due to not realizing this. And there are many MANY people who don't want to pay for anything because they think it's not worth as much as it actually is, and it's prevalent in any field. Ask any gardener about it, and you'll hear just as many horror stories about it as you would from an artist.

Saying this will replace artists is like saying how the camera replaced painters. Because what's the point of buying a painting of a landscape when you can take a photograph of it? It's like saying how digital painting software like photoshop replaced traditional artists, because why paint when you can easily edit, copy, paste, and print your artwork?
On paper, it sounds like something that should be worrying. But in reality, it doesn't make any sense. And that's because you're worried about something being replaced by something that only appears to be equivalent on the surface.

It's a paradigm shift, yes. But it's not going to make an entire field obsolete. We could literally invent the food synthesizers from Star Trek, and the culinary industry would still thrive. Artists will be fine. 

They can make some pretty good stuff. Enough to impress even me, which is saying something considering I'm usually rather disappointed with the results when something like this comes along.
(Also, it pairs well with AI scaling tools, just so you know.  )

The thing is though, while most people are saying things like "Could this replace artists?" or "The dangers of using this!" I'm instead thinking "How can I use this as a tool to aid me?"

For example, it'd be brilliant if I could take a photograph and then have it be redrawn in the style of The Curse of Monkey Island. That's not going to happen though.
But it turns out that this particular tool is brilliant for giving you that initial spark of inspiration, like what pose to use or how to angle a shot. It's never going to output something I could actually just straight up use, like a background for a game, or a walking animation. But it could give me something that's a little more difficult to get than simply drawing it, like a picture of an open blank book or a blank piece of paper. Something that you could actually edit and use ingame, and not have to worry about taking a picture yourself or searching for a stock photo online.



Now can anyone point me towards an AI where I can feed in the script of every single Slasher movie so I can see what it spits out. The thing about Slasher movies is that they're all basically the same movie, just with a few slight alterations. It's actually why I like them. It's fun to see what part of the formula they decide to keep and what they decide to change. And I really want to see what an AI would consider to be the most generic Slasher movie of all time!

This week I worked on act 2, polishing up a lot of the cosmetic details such as everything getting darker when the power goes out.

And what's an indie horror game without random scraps of paper that you can read?
So here's a book that you can look at ingame. Due to the resolution of the game, you scroll up and down using arrows.

I'm very proud of how it came out. The other little bits of readable objects in the game probably won't come out as good as that unfortunately.
And yes, I did write down the other page in its entirety, although you'll never be able to read it. Unless someone asks me for it, that is.

Nice to see a steady progress! I also love that they all seem to be always smiling in almost every screenshot 

They truly are an optimistic bunch. Sure, they're being hunted by a crazy killer scarecrow, but they're not going to let that ruin their day. 

Also, thanks for the kind words. 

This week I finished off the inventory icons, added lip syncing to all of the characters (although there won't be voice acting), and sorted out the majority of the room interactions.
I also finished off the cutscene that plays when you transition from act 1 to act 2.


Now you too can admire the proper lip animations!
Truly a step up from the lip flapping. I tried adding random bleep and bloops to make it seem like they were talking, but it was kinda annoying and weird.

High-Rise Invasion?

The Pacifier?

I've done all sorts this week, including giving the backgrounds another pass, adding interactivity to the rooms, making inventory icons, and working on yet more animations.

[imgzoom]https://twentyquidamusements.thecomicstrip.org/files/black_friday_2/walking_animation.gif[/imgzoom]



So yeah, I've been jumping from task to task with little rhyme or reason. But progress is coming along brilliantly. It feels awesome to be able to playthrough the game and not see a bunch of quickly sketched-out placeholder art.

I've still got a few more inventory icons to do, and of course there's always more animations. But after those tasks are out of the way, I'll probably concentrate on all of the little coding details for Act 2. Things such as when you use an item on the wrong object, or when you click on a hiding spot while being chased.

[Dirk Gently]

While Falk is a very sympathetic character, the plots in Columbo tend to be resting on convenient errors and are rather forced.

If you're ever interested in the epitome of forced convenient errors, may I recommend Dirk Gently. It was originally a pair of books by Douglas Adams (known for making Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) that manages to tie together a series of completely random and unrelated events into somewhat compelling mysteries with brilliant humour to boot. It even got two TV shows, one by BBC 4 (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and another one by BBC America (which I didn't enjoy as much).

But as for proper head scratching mysteries that can be legitimately solved by the viewer without trying to anticipate the inevitable twists that the writer will shoehorn in. Those are unfortunately quite rare.
May I recommend Veronica Mars though. It had three seasons, followed by a movie, followed by another season. I found the individual mysteries to be quite engaging, and the overarching mystery to be solvable in my opinion. Although I'm probably not the best judge for those kind of things.