Still breathing

Lessons I've been learning so far:

1) building assets is (much) harder than I thought

2) building assets is (kinda) fun

3) writing (and rewriting) is (much more) fun, especially when weird ideas start to form...

I completed the remake of my first character (Mika) around mid-December.  A grand total of 9 poses, each with their own sets of expressions - some of which occurs across multiple  poses - this project is big. There's plenty of space for my characters to show nuances in their emotions and personality.

For instance here the basic "neutral" pose can now (a) stay as it is, (b) display just a hint of self-confidence, or (c) feel slighly more hesitant and self-reflective... well that's at least how I see it.  The art still carries a bit of that Koikatsu look—but hey, I figured out how to extract and layer every part separately. Yep, you see three sprites but they're actually a bunch of layers stacked one above the other. A lot of layers. Trust me on this.

That aside... I'm currently working on the second character (Bianca) and hope to finalize her before January ends.

On another news... the script for the first story arc has been thoroughly rewritten. It is now much bigger (bordering 2MB) and  with a much stronger P.K. Dick's vibe - the main character's descent into paranoia is more explicit, and the structure of the in-game world plays a much larger role.

Looking ahead, I think I'll pause asset development briefly to focus on the text presentation. I want to experiment with alternating between NVL style for monologues and streams of consciousness and the more routine ADV mode for dialogues. I still think I could greaty improve the way I represent conversations happening around the main character while he gets lost in his own little world.