Hi Jen, if it's really difficult to make a seductive male character, you can try to make a seductive female character and give it masculine features.. like slowly transforming a female character into a male one.. anyway during the drawing process you may come up with something unique that will work or you can add more and more masculine features.. it can also help if you think about the character while drawing, what it should represent, how and why.. if you come up with a story for the character, it can help a lot with the vision of the character and its features..

The games that get it right make me feel like I'm falling in love with somebody rather than doing a math problem to optimize the maximum possible bond with the designated NPC of my choice. lol Also I always like replaying the game to bond with each different character, even if I already have a favorite/personal bias. And I still want it to be an immersive experience each time

Helloo thank you for the video! ı waiting for the game with great excitement and once ı saw the video ı immediately jumped in ^^ well this will be a long comment since ı finally got lots of free time ^^ wow thats alot of words! thanks for the hard work! As a player ı usually dont like when a choice ı randomly pick literally decides ıf ı will get a good or bad ending especially ıf ı also cant make any sense of it so being able build my own character or my own path always excites me alot more than normal type of visual novels since ıt gives me a feeling of being able play the game as ''myself'' which is actually important to for someone who has weird anxiety like me. by calling it weird ı mean when ı play games ı ALWAYS do my best to get ''right choices '' and sometimes ı sometimes imagine my own self as a main character with a question like ''would ı survive ıf I WOULD GO THOURGH THİS?'' or for otome/ dating games ''would character love ıf ıt were ME?'' and ıf game doesnt give me much of a choice then answer would be usually ''no'' and that makes me feel kind of disconnected to game world especially ıf the game doesnt really introduce the ''main character'' much in the name of ''giving to players the feeling of creating their own story path '' or things like that (ım totally fine with well introduced characters tho since ı can see that story is about someone else not me clearly) but in games that gives me so many choices and/or variety of endings ıt makes me feel like ı dont have to reach a ''true ending'' since there no such thing and what ı should reach is the path ı want to have and the being able to decorate room to catch the interest is amazing idea! ıt both gives so many choices to player to decorate to room with their preferences and be able catch the interest of game characters :3 thats amazing freedom that we can have our own preferences instead of being have to find right choices but ı guess ıt seems difficult to ''program'' them all? then perhaps the game can come out as an demo or uncompleted to be able to not miss the jam and then can get updates? rushing can be pretty tiring afterall point system is so cool! well ı hope there is no negative points XD 0 points are fine but no negative plss and also different responses in different bonds are pretty good too ıt makes things lots more realistic the fact that you can do speedrun whole moth to 10 days is cool but ı guess ı will keep playing for all days ıdk ıt actually changes anything but ım fine with slow process :3.... oh well ı am curious about how they will spend their time with me in their full bond level too x3 so ı guess ı will go both... chancing opinionnss haha ıts actually relaxing to know that having only ''Im good by myself'' ending which well perfectly fine with me :D (ı cant just like sad/bad endings although they can make story deeper) overall the process of the game is amazing and ı am sooo excited for this ı hope things will go well for you and ekkoberry for this project (well of course for everything too) thanks for the all hardwork again and also thanks for the video ^^ ıf ım correct game will be out on end of the 8th week right? which means there is technically 2 weeks to go... ı dont wanna sound impatient since taking things slowly ıf possible is best choice for health but ı will keep following updates so ı can at least have small peeks >w< Have a very nice day!

Hi Jen, I also don't like it when the game locks you on a certain path or if you don't do everything 100% right you ruin your chances with that character.. I faced the same dilemma with choices.. so I created a class for decisions and save almost every single player decision.. I also save behaviors, if they are nice/rude to someone, if they flirt or if they were flattered when the character flirted with them, etc.. so I can decide which things are important for which character and also the most important choices from the list.. it has a lot of options and freedom, but on the other hand, I have to know about all the options they can do and keep a list of them.. btw: I would like to try this game, when will it be available to play ?

Hi Jen, 1:04 - it's the same for me.. I don't remember a lot of things, so I mostly just copy previous things I've already done, because honestly, there's no point in reinventing the wheel every time you do something you've already done before.. 5:42 - I never declare any variables for any image unless it's an animation or a movie.. if you name your images appropriately it makes no sense and is even pointless to declare them as variables.. you're basically just taking up memory for no good reason.. the naming of your images is fine, so you can delete all the variables you created in the video and the project will still behave the same, try it and see.. 14:10 - you can right-click in the left panel (on an empty space or on a folder, if you want to create a file in a folder) and select "New File..." and then just name it.. another method is to click on File (in the top menu) and select "New File..." (it also showing a shortcut next to "New File..." option and you can change this shortcut as well) 20:54 - this literally made me laugh :D "we don't want that there", probably because of the voice :D and a great name for this kind of thing would be "transparent" or "invisible" also some quality of life tips.. you can skip words with ctrl + left/right arrow (it also works with shift like ctrl + shift + left/right arrow to select whole words and also with backspace or delete like ctrl + backspace/delete deletes whole word).. when you select a word with the mouse (or shift + left/right arrow) and then click ctrl + D, multiple pointers to the same word you selected will be created in the file, and you can rename/delete that word in the whole file just by typing it once.. when creating/renaming a file, if you click the right/down arrow your pointer jumps to the end instead of the beginning of the file, so you don't have to go through so many letters.. and if you want to rename a file/folder, just click on it and press F2, it will automatically select the full file name except the extension (.rpy), so you can type and rename it right away.. I hope this helps and makes your process more enjoyable : )

I wonder if it's a problem with my pngs, but the second line of code for making a mask won't work for me.. it gives me a -22 error code and I don't know what it meansssssss! thank you for the tutorial though, ffmpeg is going to help me a lot!!

Just started my game and this video has been super helpful. Thank you very much !!

Hi Jen, this is very cool and has a lot of potential in text driven games where there's a lot of generic text.. I've been thinking about how to make a good dialogue structure myself and I still haven't found a solution..honestly, I can get lost very easily even in a very simple choice menu in Ren'Py.. so I was researching some old RPGs where there's a lot of text and their approach and some of the "line pointing" options in a large files of texts were really nice, but it wasn't really something you could easily implement into Ren'Py.. this "Defined Statements" look very simple and already have 3 nice features that could reduce the struggle.. so, I'm glad to know about this option, thanks ! : )

myślałem że to będzie po Polsku bo pisało renpy tutoriale

Hi Jen, 7:12 - probably the only way to do this with a regular jump is to add the keyword expression after the word jump, eg. jump expression f '{summoned}_chat' or jump expression summoned + '_chat' 10:58 - I didn't know about this option, so I immediately switched to it, thanks ! : )

omg this channel is a gem. i'm gonna binge watch your content now haha, bless my youtube algorithm

Thank you so much for this tutorial!! I'm so excited to play your game, and this has been a huge help for me :-) Once again, thank you!!

It's been a long time, but I want to say Thank You so much for this video! ♥Very important words for a newbie like me!

Aaa the art is amazing and ı see that game is really detailed with all those clinking choices ^^ character's art are so cute too!! Im really excited to play the game :3

Thank you very much for this magnificent tutorial! ❤

little tip: if you didnt want to position the image in-script you can save the full image (as in the image sprite which is positioned on a canvas which uses the full game resolution, not cropped down just to the sprite's size) and then use 'focus_mask True' when putting it in an imagebutton block to make the image only be intractable etc. in the filled pixels (i.e. where there is no transparency) i do this because i am very lazy lol and i hate wasting time pixel perfecting positions cus it can get very annoying if you draw all the elements in one file and want them to be in very specific positions in relation to one another x( you don't need to put focus_mask True for every hover and idle, it can be used for 1 block and it covers that whole block's interactivity btw! so each block would have a focus_mask True statement at the end of its block or before the action statement for the button

Thanks for the video! It’s really nice to see updates on your game ~ and seeing the process behind it is really awsome!

Hello there!! I just found your channel and I'm in love. I've just started with RenPy and I was wondering if you knew any way to make background elements interactable/trigger text depending on selecting an item in the background (eg a painting in a room)?

I love the options and the small snippets of dialogue based on minor player action; it's one of those things where I feel like I am bonding with the character without like a wall of 1000 lines of text to read through. I'm also a sucker for the trope where an NPC will get pretend angry at the player for their pranks/shenanigans, but they'll follow up with a smile and go along with it anyways because they like you :)

And another lesson learned. Thanks!

Thank-you, can you please show the desired effect at the start of the video? Would really be appreciated.

high effort pet option so i can simp for pixels better. yay 👍 still boggles my mind that all of this you're doing inside renpy :o

That's nice to know. I'm a beginner at game dev and these tips help me a lot!

Amazing as always! Love the content.

Hi Jen, as for webp, you always lose some quality with webp, which is something that a lot of artists can't really compromise on.. 3:33 - wouldn't it be easier with layeredimages ? 7:23 - I switch between movies (close up character animations when talking to them) and even use them as hover and it works great with no lag.. 9:17 - you slowly become a better programmer and you don't even realize it :D and you can automate those condition switches, because they all seem to be the same.. whenever you use the same piece of code in different places and only one thing changes in that code , you can make a loop where you change this one thing with variable and you don't have to keep copying the same piece of code.. btw: what's up with the video quality ? it is the second video in a row that has a max. 480p

My webm doesn't show, my code is basically the same as the one in the video :( Any ideas?

Hi Jen, I like different costumes, it looks really good : ) and I like the animations, but the eyebrows on Jeth showing through the hair are a bit weird, probably shouldn't be visible ?! btw: good luck with the Jam! : )

5 FULL COSTUME CHANGES??? that is compatible with each animation??? That's terrifying, lmao

I left my 50-60 hour job, to get a 16 hour (2 days) job cleaning, so I can pursue my endeavours. Also came from a snootish family who placed huge value on material wealth and status, and because I wasn't cut out for what they considered important, they bullied me. Was miserable for years by trying to meet their standards, but I was never going to meet them, because I'm weird. Stopped caring about what they thought about me, and started caring what I wanted. You only live once, and I never cared about status, I cared about wanting to fit in with my family. Moment I left them, I started becoming happier, I was living more by my standards. If you can get over what a (rubbish) family thinks of you, you can get over what a rubbish stranger thinks of you. From my own experience, I think you are so right about your point about us being more than the sum of what we can 'produce'.

Oooh, I love those emotes!!! I'm curious, how do you go about your UI design? Do you find free assets, or do you make them yourself. If the latter, what programme do you use, and do you have any tips? There's so much to game development, it kind of feels like a small business.

Really cool stuff, love it! Hope you do well in the game jam

thats awesome

SO CUTE

Hi Jen, honestly, I've been doing all 5 points for a very long time, but I can't say that it's enough for me.. something still bothers me that I can't really name, so I probably still need to add some extra points to the list..

I'm happy you're still on YT! You got yourself a new subscriber :D :D

Hi Jen, I like your encouraging videos, I usually come across them when I'm close to burnout.. something that I thought would take 1 month took almost a year.. you're absolutely right that when you feel like you need a break, it's probably too late.. I know some people deal with this by doing multiple projects and switching between them, or have a schedule including taking a few days off from working on a project.. I haven't figured out the best course of action for me yet, but I have a feeling I'll have to figure it out or I'll never get anywhere.. btw: yes, the first word that comes to mind is really "tired" or "exhausted".. I feel it is because people are too focused on one thing or few things and it becomes routine and routine is boring and tiring.. but it's really hard to constantly experience something new, so I don't have any optimal solution for this situation..

Hi Jen, 10:26 reminds me of how often I look at my own scripts and wonder what I was thinking when I wrote them :D nowadays I use parameter names almost everywhere (name = 'Asher', hp = 14, etc.) so I don't get confused when I look at something months later. 12:14 - you can do one screen and then just call it and feed it data.. just like you use classes, a screen can also take parameters, and you can use those parameters in the body of the screen.. check the Ren'Py project "Tutorial", Screen basics -> Passing Parameters to Screen for more info : )

It is not at all pretentious to talk about your passion and how you want to channel it to flavor your game in a way that is uniquely you. It's so interesting to hear you talk about your thought process and motivation. I'm learning programming (art background) specifically because I want a more interactive experience (playground) for it and wanted to make a VN but kind of lamented missing out on RPG elements. I don't know why I thought that should be an issue..... as you clearly demonstrate it's totally doable to blend the things you like best. "Go hard" moment is the perfect way to describe those extra special animations in games XD

This is... amazing. I'm off to binge watch your entire channel now.😍

very helpful tutorial thanks, was going around in circles before i found this

Ive made everything but my game crashes each time the animation would show

I'm doing the same with my studies, never skip a day, and now it's easier to keep going even when I'm mentally tired. Awesome tips!

Thank you. You're a life saver. I'm doing a game for my thesis and I know very little about codding. Also, the errors you were getting made me feel seen. Often times it's not the code itself that doesn't work, but those pesky : or typos. Specially after some long hours of work. I can't see the mistakes in front of me anymore ahaha.

Thank you <3

Good Luck ! Take care of yourself and have fun making this Jam 🥰

ALWAYS take your time! And good luck!

your words of wisdom are appreciated 🙏 has burnout from your other responsibilities ever affected your projects? if so how do you deal with that?

I am a bloody beginner. This looks super neat! Is it possible to somehow download the code you were playing with?

Wow, that's a lot of code, 😅,animation tips are always appreciated

Hi Jen, very nice art as always : ) I feel like this Jeth's skill trigger animation is too fast, but that might be on purpose.. the topics you talk about in the video reflect your progress and I like how you mention "effortless".. many people don't really realize that when someone does something difficult and it seems effortless, it takes years of practice, ups and downs, sweat and tears to get to that point.. even at that point it's still a lot of work, only the person doesn't consider it work anymore, it's more like a standard routine and fun..