So! You may or may not have noticed complete radio silence on this page since *checks notes* September 2024. oh my god.

Okay, I have no excuse for this. These devlogs on the official page seem a lot more professional, so I feel like I can only write here if something significant happened when it comes to development. And sometimes it's hard to feel like something major happened because development is so gradual and slow (especially for a one-person team) that you don't really notice how far you've actually come until you look back.

And I looked back on the devlog from last september and went "okay yeah a lot has happened since". So here I am reporting how it's been going! 

I pinky promise you this project is not on hiatus and will most likely not be unless i get hospitalised or smth. you can pry the Kenikari grind away from my cold, dead hands.

oh wow look at that screenshot! so cool!

Day 2 is fully finished, and day 3 is soso close to completion I can taste it. I got a bit over-ambitious with an event that happens during the night that requires a lot of art and new sprites and background edits, but a lot of it is already done! 

I also made one (1) new song that can be heard here and that I'll probably not use for anything else bc i can't think of where else I could make it play, so that's cool. 

There's also this Bree song/remix she made from one of my tunes and it is so good but I never found a good place to make it play in chapter 1.1 but now I can finally make it play in 1.2!!!! so look forward to that :3

once 1.2 is up I'll probably put this one in the page's image gallery tbh, I think it's p good

I also want to mention that, asides from the free times, this night event will be one of the most reactive things based on your previous choices. 

I was considering completely locking you into one of two outcomes based on a decision you made at the almost beginning of the game, but I realised that wouldn't be fair (and also a pain to go back all the way, choose different, and then go back to here again), so I'm gonna change it so that, depending on what you chose, you can get to choose seeing one thing or the other. 

(basically: choice A will let you choose between seeing X or Y, and choice B will only let you see Y)

Another design choice I've decided to make is to make the different chapters be completely different projects. 1.1 and 1.2 will be in the same file, 2.1 and 2.2 will be in the same file... but both chapter combinations won't be the same. This is to stop the end result from being a fucking massive file. for example, all the characters that die in chapter 1 won't have their sprite pngs in chapter 2's files, and previous CGs will also be erased to make space for new ones. Once you're done with chapter 1, you can just erase the files and go to chapter 2 and save precious space.

(you will also not need to download the run time package again. the package works for any game done in rpgmaker xp so you're good)

In order to transfer your save data from one chapter to another, just drag the .rxdata file from one folder to another. I had a friend test it out and it does work! :D

Also, I would recommend that you have different save files where you've made different choices, like free times and stuff, to see what changes in future chapters. you will not start from 0 in the next chapter. all those differences will keep on stacking up in the narrative. Exchanging save files with other players who have made other choices is allowed and encouraged!! just make sure you label them so you know in which save you've done which things lol

I have also started to write a script for the game so I can actually plan ahead what the characters say! Who knew that that would actually make dialogue easier.

At first I just kinda let the ghosts of the characters possess me as I went, but now that plot points are building up and I'm no longer 15, I realise that it's important to stay on track and make sure that the characters are saying that stuff because it advances the plot or fleshes them out or is just. in character in general. As I've gone on solidifying their personalities and pasts, I saw how in earlier portions I made them stay stuff that they would not say if I wrote them today, so I've gone back and rewritten a bunch of stuff. 

By far the biggest change has been given to Detah's first free time. christ how ooc did i make that guy.

I also changed how I displayed some CGs so I could have less images in the files and save a bit of space. It's not much but hey, it's better than nothing.

So yeah, that's all.

Thanks for sticking by!

PS: As I (probably) mentioned in previous devlogs, more in-depth updates as to how development's going can be found in the tumblr blog @thekenikaridevblog , so if you want more precise numbers and like seeing them go up every two weeks, you can go there and check it out.