- Ingrid and Elissa
Devlog #3: Shifting Gears
October went by like that!
This devlog is a little late because last week we were preparing something special for Seamus' birthday (which fell on November 15). But that's for another devlog!
Coffees for OSAS!
Thus far, we've been relying on the pre-existing skills we've developed over the years but there are simply some things we can't do alone.
With our new conception of what this project needs to make it the very best it can be, we've been considering how we want to go about outsourcing for assets like music and complex backgrounds.
And so, Ingrid has opened up a Ko-Fi account to build up a budget for OSAS assets!
If you have a couple of dollars to spare, we are 80% of the way to our first goal of raising $120 towards an original music track! Later goals will include more soundtracks and potentially background assets to further realize the setting we're trying to develop.
For every Ko-Fi donation of 2+ coffees, Ingrid is offering a little doodle!
More details about Ingrid's doodle drive can be found on this post: https://ko-fi.com/post/Ingthings-Ko-Fi-Doodle-Drive-Z8Z415YE1
We won't be looking into subscription or crowdfunding solutions until after our demo is complete in order to be able to deliver better results, but if you'd like to pitch in for the project at this early stage, we would greatly appreciate your help!
You can find Ingrid's Ko-fi here: ko-fi.com/ingthing
Life Updates
Elissa
School is really starting to get wet and wild as I buckle down for my last few months of college ever (maybe)!!! In October, I was very very grateful/fortunate/thrilled/etc. and cried many tears of relief to receive and accept a job offer in my chosen field after graduation, so with that weight on my shoulders, I was able to gleefully spend a little more time polishing up the last few details on the outline and then getting to work on aCtUaL sCrIpTwRiTiNg!!!!!!! We’re starting to get to a phase in this project that really energizes me, and I’m looking forward to carrying that into the next few months!
Ingrid
Fall tends to come with some moodiness when it rolls around each year, so I found myself struggling to feel energized. What helped, however, was actually keeping up the OSAS posting schedule! Towards the end of the month I began to feel better and managed to work more on creative endeavors. I've been gearing up to move at the end of the year so that's taking up quite a bit of my time, which is why for the time being I'm shifting my efforts on OSAS to just social media upkeep and research.
Research Updates
This month's research has been focused on 1870s fashion. It's mostly visual research, as Ingrid has been trawling through library books for primary source images to go off of. Here are some fun tidbits she's learned from those books:
Trousers were once referred to as "inexpressibles" in the early 1800s.
The first jock strap, aka "bike jockey strap", was invented in 1874 in Chicago.
In 1849, the "combination shirt waistcoat" was invented. It was, you guessed it, a shirt front and sleeves sewn into a waistcoat.
None of these facts are particularly relevant to our project specifically, but they're pretty cool!
Images from some of the books Ingrid consulted regarding 1870s fashion.
Production Updates
Writing
Following the completion of our story outline, Elissa has begun work on writing for the project, starting with the prologue! Without getting into any potentially spoilery details, the general plan is to write the demo script for one route, and then the next — but the prologue is actually common to all routes, so it seemed like a good place to start. Besides, where better to start than the beginning, right?
The challenge of writing historical fiction is something she's been thinking over for a while now; there is a lot that goes into creating a narrative that is both authentic (or, perhaps more accurately, “authentic” — none of us were alive in the 1870s, after all!) to the past and accessible to the present — especially when creating narratives featuring, for example, LGBT+ characters, and so on. You can read about Elissa’s understanding of that process, her perspective on historical fiction as a genre, and a little bit more background about wrestling with this project in particular in this month's research log.
The research log will be posted a week from now, so keep an eye out for it!
Art
At the beginning of the month, Ingrid was able to complete bases for the Hugo and Seamus sprites! Deciding how each sprite will be done, especially for the main characters, is integral to the overall feel of the game, so this was a very important step.
She's not totally satisfied with the base sprites shown below, but there will be more experimentation to be done.
A GIF of pose, expression, and clothing variant sketches for sprites of Hugo and Seamus.
That's it for this month's devlog! Next month, we'll be covering our progress over the course of November.
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