Game Development Day 5

Make a visual novel in 5 days challenge

Game Development Log

Today is the day that I hope to finish the visual novel!

My strategy is...

• To edit text day by day (there are 5 in game days)
• Once the text is edited, I'll input the full day into the game.
• I'll add generic background resources and some images, then continue to day 2.
• If there is time, I will add further resources into the game, and more choices in the text itself.
• I would also like to design the main menu and improve the user interface.

I began by editing day 1.

I realised as I edited the day 1, that I wanted more linear choices in the visual novel to increase player interaction. I made a note that, if I had time, I would go back and add some more dialogue choices into the game. But right now, I want to ensure that that each day is edited to improve quality of writing and input into the game, so it will make the deadline.

Title Screen Design

I used a video from Pixabay to be the backdrop of the visual novel, and chose some piano music (piano in Ab minor by 3N music) to accompany it. A video backdrop can refer to a looping video in the background of the scene, which allows the player to continue to read text or press options such as 'new game' and 'load game'. I felt my choice of using leaves that were waving in the wind with soft piano could create a good and memorable effect.

It was frustrating trying to find options for editing the button design. Once again, the website for Tyranobuilder is down. However, I was able to eventually edit the button design to my liking.

User Interface Upgrade
When making choices about the backgrounds, I realised that I needed to fully decide and design the user interface, as changing it after the background style has been made might make the backgrounds less effective.
While testing things out, I created a semi-transparent green text box. My thoughts are...
- Should black be used instead of green?
- Should the box be less translucent, is the text easy enough to read?
- Should I attempt to make a border around the box?
I felt I had to experiment, even though it would take time to create the alternatives.

Resources

Sound effects
Zapsplat is a great resource for free to use sound effects. Their terms state I must credit them for the use of the sound, which can easily be done during the ending credits sequence. I used Zapsplat for some ambient sounds, including train station ambience..

I also used Zapslat for sound effects, including ring tones.

Backgrounds
I knew I wanted to find realistic backgrounds and add filters to them for effect.

It took time to consider which kind of filters I wanted for the backgrounds. Upon reflection, it would have made things easier to decide this earlier!