Cupid's Bargain Devlog #2
Huh, wow. So, I managed to write up a 2nd devlog for this. Yay me! We are at the halfway mark of Otome/Josei Jam, so I thought it would be nice to share another update! Let's get right into it!
Writing ā I recently hired an editor to tackle the mammoth of this game script! I know myself well enough that there's lots of typos in this script. And so, to save myself from embarrassment catching them post-release, I hired an amazing editor to crack it down (plus to reduce my wordiness). Yahoo!
Art ā So, in the last devlog, I wrote how we really on have the sprites and tarot cards left so here's the breakdown for those two compartments:
Sprite Art ā When I tell you how beautiful these sprites are, I don't have enough words. They're so expressive and capture the cast so well! The artist is still working hard to finish them up, but I've been using even the lineart versions as placeholders and it's such a great feeling seeing it come all together.
Tarot Cards ā All the cards have been finished! Now, this isn't gonna be the Major Arcana (as that would be a lot for this game). But I did decide 6 out of 22, and here's a sneak peek of some of these gorgeous cards rendered by the talented artists we got on board.
Programming ā So! With these assets coming in, I've been plugging them away in the game. It's been a fun (and tiring) experience asā¦Ren'py does hate me from time to time. And, it doesn't help that I've been trying to animate more, add more effects and sprite movements, this time around. Like with Wake Up Magical Girl, I gave myself the excuse with Hope being in a cramped room. Butā¦ I can't excuse myself here, lol.
I've been abusing this tool called Focus Bars to give certain scenes a more cinematic look, and I've been loving the look and feel of it!
I wrote last time that the hope is for an extended demo to come out by the end of the month. That is still what I'm pushing for, but ā considering time constraints and irl stuff ā it could be wishful thinking to think a full route will come out. I'm thinking maybeeeee partial. Lots of yandere VNs do have day-to-day partial releases, but I don't know if it would work in my case with how the game is structured.Ā So, we'll see how this will play out.
Regardless, an update will come out! How long depends on if this month will bless us ā I mean, a Pride miracle is bound to happen, right? Haha. Fingers-crossed!
Fun Fact #2 ā Arielle is, in fact, the same Ari from The Things You Do For Love. She is rather more feminine-presenting here as they haven't given too much thought to their gender identity. That being said, they are a nonbinary girl here (she/they) whereas they are genderfluid in TTYDFL. Writing her outside of her POV has been a fun challenge as I realized she thinks way more than she speaks aloud, huh. She is still the same romance fanatic with their...rather yandere tendencies may be appearing in spades.
And...I know CB is rather more supernatural than the slice-of-life TTYDFL, but I promise it will all make sense in the long run, haha. Bonus fun fact, you can find Ari's last name to be Yoshida in TTYDFL if you happened to leave the name input blank!
