Progress!

Guess what? I WROTE STUFFS!
Seriously, it's a freakin' miracle.

More specifically, I wrote a little less than a third of the Jarconia plot arc. If the original game rushed through the plot, then this one moves through it at a snail's pace in comparison. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad... I guess it really just depends on preference. Personally, I don't mind a lot of dialogue since...well...that's kind of what visual novels are all about. In this case, it was really important to me to provide some sort of background on the important secondary characters (Ustyz and Lilah) and the area itself, since it has a history that plays into the main plot quest of that area.

I also wrote the flashback scene (or...series of scenes) which explains exactly how she was framed, which will be important for solving the murder later on. I was going to make this into a separate thing as the 'demo,' but it's important enough that I felt it needed to be included in the main game. To adapt it from 'separate thing' to 'part of the game,' I had to shorten it and cut out the originally planned free-roaming around the castle, so now there are five options of places to go, each with its own clue of sorts. However, you can only choose three of these places to search. So... the places you choose will determine what clues you find, which will impact how events unfold later down the road, though I'm not sure how much yet.

As of now, the flashback scene will come up sometime during your first major plot arc, regardless of which one you choose. I may move it somewhere else depending on how well it fits in, and how much it screws up the pacing (since it's still rather long). In general, I'll probably have to adjust the pacing a bit based on opinions from testers later down the road.

In addition to all that awesomeness, I also re-did my battle GUI so it looks a bit more...professional (or as 'professional' as graphics made in MS Word can get). Here's a preview:

You'll notice that I rearranged some things, added some color and texture, redesigned the portrait frames so they look a little less blocky, and took out the movement order (because I'm lame and I don't know how I would code that, har har). The icons under "Other actions" aren't final or anything (I obviously won't use the old Twitter icon in the final version), but they're examples to show the kind of basic look I'm going for. I may end up creating actual icons with color and everything, but for now, I'm going to go for the simple black-and-white icon design.

Anyway, there's my progress report for today. Good stuff, yes? I just hope I'll have some time this week to keep the ball rolling.