Last Day of January

 Today was a bit disappointing. It just felt like I was flailing around and trying really hard but not getting much done. I tweaked a great many of my maps, trying to make them look a bit better. Then attempted to make a couple of tiles. The tiles pretty much crashed and burned. I just couldn't get them to look good enough to please myself. I still have a lot to learn, it seems.
  Then I got one more square of gardening(aka: eventing) done. Gardening is becoming a huge pain in the backside. It just takes so long to get each square done. It's quite tedious as well which makes me want to put it off. I'm making myself do at least one square a day though to make sure I get it done!

(click to make larger)

Here are some of the icons I made. I have two versions of each. A 24x24 and a 50x50. I made two icons today. I'm slowly making my way through a long list of food items that need icons. Then I have to do ingredients, clothes, tools, foraging, system, and probably a few other things that I've just forgotten for the moment. I put the icons as 32x32 on a charsheet as well. That just makes it easier if I ever want an item to show up in a cutscene or make it so the player can find it on the ground or in someone's house, etc.

The last thing I worked on today was more NPC personalities figure-outing. Does that even make sense? Eh, whatever. My brain is kinda fried right now. 

Tomorrow I continue the search for a good HUD, more gardening squares, and yes, more icons!

Cya! 

Music I Listened to While Working Today: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ptfyhBjXj8

January 30th

This is what I worked so hard on yesterday. Quick note, all the pictures are placeholders right now until I get around to making better. I'll edit later today, once I'm done working! Taking a bit of break right now. Just wanted to share the picture for now.

Edit: The day has ended and I didn't get much done, sadly. I drew 9 icons, put in two shirts, a skirt, and a pair of pants into the game. Then I worked on gardening, got two more squares put in. I spent a lot of my time today looking at colleges so that sucked quite a bit of my time away.

Cya!

January 29th

Bah. Didn't get to post yesterday.

 Today and yesterday I worked on polishing up here and there, testing, bug fixing, and working on the new introduction.

 My beta testers found a lot of bugs today so I've been fixing those. Also, I'm still working on the introduction scene. Sheesh, I'm having a lot of trouble with that. It didn't help that the mouse script I had was making switches not work for some reason. So after a few hours of fiddling and hair pulling I finally figured that out. Then I realized I had forgotten to put the background as invisible for one image so it was covering up the other ones. Such a pain! But I will conquer it because I really like this way of doing the character creation. Perhaps tomorrow though. I need a break for now!


Cya!

Edit: I figured it out! After taking a long break to shoot my bow and eat I was able to come back with a cool head and get over the hump within half an hour. The introduction is now well on it's way to getting done. Just have to tweak it here and there and replace two images. Super excited right now! Tomorrow I'll finish it up and work on the character customization.

January 25th

Hello World!
Today I got quite a bit done. I made a new face, got the grocery store operating, entered in another NPC movement, worked a bit on character customization, item data-basing,  and animals.

 Overall I'm quite happy with what I got done today. Taradiddle feels like it's finally coming together. It's quite exciting. There is still a lot of work to do though! Come Monday I'll be at it again. Working full-time on this isn't as hard as I thought it would be. Personally I thought I'd have gotten tired of working on Taradiddle by now. It's a lot of fun though despite the sometimes tedious parts. If I get tired of one aspect I can work on something else that is totally different but will still get me toward the goal of completion! Anyway. I'm stopping for tonight. Monday I will test the movement I put in today, do some more artwork, and work on writing out the introduction scene. I'm still not happy with it despite multiple re-writings. I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. I want the intro to be perfect. I  mean it's the first thing the player will see, it's the same as a first page of a book. I'm also still trying to think up new activities for the player to do. I don't want people getting bored because there is too little to do, a downfall of many life-simulation games.

I leave you with two screenshots of the grocery store I finished today!

(NOTE: The windowskin will be changed! Also, I plan on fixing the large indent in the text)

Cya!

January 24th

Sorry for no update last night. I ended up working late on Taradiddle so I wasn't able to post.

Yesterday I worked on the database and tested the NPC that I had just finished movements for. I also brainstormed for alternate activities for people to do if they don't want to farm. Today I will continue to brainstorm. I will also work on icons and other art-related bits.

Cya!

January 23rd

Today I made another portrait. This time of a child. I'm not in love with it but it's a good deal better than the old one that I had made.

 I also worked on this girl's movements. I got the majority done but not quite all. I also set up all the gardening switches though I haven't actually connected them to anything yet.

The other main thing I worked on was experimenting with creating my own tiles. I really want a custom tileset as I think that really helps set a game apart. Thing is: I'm bad at it. I'm getting better though so we'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the girl's movements and get a shop operational.  

Cya!

January 22

Another bust is done (yay!). I may begin another one later tonight but I won't be able to finish it. 

On to the other things I did today:

1. I made five icons of various vegetables

2. Weeded out scripts I'm no longer using

3. Re-sized some of my graphics as I'm using a script that allows a different resolution

4. Tweaked the gardening system, found and defeated two more bugs

5. Worked on my GDD

6. Did some writing

7. Worked on the personalities of some NPCs

So today I've gotten quite a bit done though nothing ground breaking so I don't feel like I've accomplished a ton. Oh well. Maybe I'll work a little late tonight and knock out a few other things. I might be able to get another NPC in by tomorrow if I hurry. 

Cya!