Dev Log 46
Added 2025-02-03 00:54:28 +0000 UTCHey guys! Welcome to dev log 46.
Quick warning, the later parts of this dev-log contain some spoilers regarding the time-scale of the story in its entirety, so if you want to avoid that, I recommend not going past the first few paragraphs, and perhaps avoiding the comments below the post!
Now, on to the dev log:
It's been a busy couple of weeks of development, and I'm happy to report that it was much more productive than last time! I've written another 20,000 words for 0.12, bringing the current total to around 30k. I'm nearing the end now though, with just part of one final long scene left to finish.
With that in mind, and a couple of earlier scenes that I might still chop and change, I don't know what the final word count will be yet; but it's gonna be somewhere around the 32k record set in 0.10. All that to say: it's another long one!
In addition to that, I've also spent a lot of time working on outfits for the update - there are quite a few new ones to be made, and getting them right takes much more time than you might expect!
So, with rereading and revisions accounted for, I should be finished writing in the next couple of days. At which point, I'll hand the script off to a few of the guys on discord that help out with proofreading, and move on to rendering. As those of you that have been following these dev-logs for a few update will know, that's the major time-hog in the development process; and there are going to be a lot of renders this time! Probably in the 1900 to 2000 range.
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Spoiler Warning!
Now, I think it's about time I fill you all in on a subject I've spoken about at length on discord and various forums, but have never brought up here (as far as I can recall!) - time skips!
As I'm sure many of you have figured out, there have been various mentions of the MC going to culinary school, and not wanting to get married for years, all that stuff. And at the current rate of development, we'd all die of old age before the story actually gets to that point.
I've been aware of this since the beginning, and so I've been planning to have a few key time-skips in the story; the first of which is gradually approaching. Well, I say that, but it probably won't happen for at least a year yet in real-world time.
But anyway, here's where it gets really spoilery - so this is your last chance to back out!
The next 3 updates will be 2 dayers, which takes us to the next council meeting. After that there will be one or two more updates wrapping some pressing issues up, then the first time skip. (I have all of this planned out in a fair amount of fine detail)
The first time skip will be a couple of in-game months, taking us to the last few days of the Christmas term, then the next portion of the game will be set over a few weeks at Christmas. (I have most of the major details for this planned out)
Then the next time skip will take us to graduation, after which there will be some classic summer shenanigans. (most of the details for this are still rough)
Then the final planned time skip will skip whatever is left of summer and take the MC to culinary school, where most of the rest of the story will play out. (most of the details for this are still rough, though I know the major plot points leading up to the ending.)
Finally, the game will finish up with either one last time skip to after college, or a very in-depth epilogue.
Now, all of that might sound a bit scary, but I think it's the best, and only, way to tell the story over such a long period of the characters' lives. And rest assured, I'm going to do my best to handle the time jumps appropriately - settling pressing issues before they happen, and ensuring it doesn't feel like the reader is missing out on important character moments in the intervening periods.
So, just to add to that, I have one final related issue to bring up: The day counter. Some of you that remember the very early days of Cosy Cafe, specifically the first few updates, will know that the game initially had sandbox elements, but I removed them all gradually until the game became an entirely kinetic novel (a decision I'm very happy with now!).
One of the last remaining legacies of the game's sandbox origins is the day counter; a feature that most visual novels in the style of Cosy Cafe simply don't have at all. The day counter becomes a bit of a complication with time jumps, however. I've put some thought into the best way to handle it, and decided that there are two options that work best: 1. remove it completely. Or 2, change it to a date. So as a date, the game would start on year 1, September 1st, and count from there. The first time skip would then, for example, take us to year 1, December 16th.
I'm currently leaning towards option 2, as I'm a little hesitant to just completely remove a feature that people have gotten used to at this point - but if any of you have any preferences on this, please let me know!
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End of spoilers.
Wow, that turned into a long one. A record perhaps, and I've just realised that I forgot to mention the attached pictures: They're another image set commissioned by one of you kind patrons. I'm really happy with how these ones came out!
And finally that about does it for this one. As always, I'll talk to you all again in a couple of weeks, in what I imagine will be a much shorter dev-log 47. So until then - thanks for your support, I really appreciate it!
- Cosy Creator
Comments
I have to agree on this one the things that drew me in was how natural the interactions flowed as one continues the novel. Everything from interactions and dialogue has a certain finesse and charm about it and time skips make me think some of that charm and flow would lose it. As for the day counter I'm actually a fan since when I was downloading the updates it helped me track the progress as if I was living it but either way this novel has become my favorite and as its creator I'll trust your process. I'm already a fan and patron so I'd like to see this flourish.
Lobo713
2025-09-10 08:16:37 +0000 UTCI just joined for the update, so I don't know if its way to late to add my 2 cents into the mix. I am not inherently against time skips but I rarely have seen them well done. There is also the fact that the girls would need to be at a stable point of their relationship with the MC where we can assume nothing new developed in the time skip of a couple weeks. Which currently half the girls in the renders alone that wouldnt apply to. The other half is that so far the timing of releases has been by days, taking the schedule to weeks would already be a massive step. I for one would be eager to see how the future plays out with the MC already in the middle of family politics with solid backing and chasing his own dreams... But the story isnt ready for such leaps. Maybe having quick montage summaries of what happened each day and skip to a weekend or particular day for a focus to ease players into time skips might be a good option to test player reception to timeskipping. At the current point I would assume it would just upset to many but maybe they can be eased into it. Eager to see were the story goes. EDIT: Hit enter to early.
Koltovince
2025-05-24 00:27:20 +0000 UTCFlahbacks can also be a great tool for storystelling. CosyCafe is told only from the MCs point of view. Flashbacks would be a great tool to tell parts of the story the MC didn't wittness directly. For example Sarah was snooping around her fathers business at home. When she reports her findings to the MC the story could be shown as a flashback from her point of view. So it would be a flashback for the girl/girls that were part of the story. But it wouldn't be a real flashback for us. As we learn of the content the same moment the MC does. Another example: Flashback 1: Lucy and Victoria are shopping. Lucy is buying a book for baking recipes and growing spices. Victoria might meet girls from her old gang and get into a fight in public. Flashback 2: A few days later they tell you that they didn't tell you everything that happened that day. Victoria also bought a book to get better with her guitar. Over the last days she is training aevery second you are not around. Maybe some oher girls saw her playing and now she wants to play for the whole group or even the cafe. Starting a complete new storyline for her.
StefanHill
2025-02-17 17:32:06 +0000 UTCI always felt that a time skip would be necessary if the talk of culinary school was just a massive red herring. And in general I feel it is fine and probably necessary if we ever want the story to go anywhere, I can see some reasons why people might worry though. One of my favourite parts of CC is the slower more natural building of relationships compared to most games in the harem genre, and I wouldn't want a new relationship to be hurried to be in time for the skip. And in the same vein I would fear losing some of the SOL feel when skipping around in time. I know it is necessary (and I honestly want to see them all married and pregnant, so I support) I just hope there will be enough SOL in between the skips so it doesn't just feel like an early epilogue. As long as these fears aren't realised and we don't miss any "firsts" I don't see an issue with it. And while Lucy might not find Rachel worthy, I fully support Vicky's request.
xCrowned
2025-02-15 15:25:04 +0000 UTCJust be careful with the time skips, I've seen a lot of attempts at the and all but a few screw up the flow of the story. Sometimes the only way to salvage them is to include flashback scenes to fill in the blanks which might not work in some cases.
Frostbit
2025-02-10 14:54:05 +0000 UTCThanks for the great update Cosy! I don't do social media in general, and discord rarely, so thank you again for the insights here on Patreon. You answered my questions about the timeline and the general path of your story. Good info! No sandbox, please, as your story is one of the very few kinetic available. Sometimes sandbox is ok, but for Cosy Cafe I like it as is. I don't see the need for sandbox as it is very easy to fast forward to any scene with anyone in the story. As to the day counter, I like it because my saves start at the beginning of each in-game day, which makes it easier for me to replay certain events and track the story, also, to me, it helps the overall story sequence. So option 2 would be good for me. On a side, when you say in an update that a character or characters are going to progress, it is always amazing to me the stuff you come up with. For instance, the dual punishment; when it first came up in the pool, I sort of imagined some kind of spanking or something, but you took it somewhere I never would have imagined with the punishment and the couch scenes. Thank you for your imagination! Eagerly awaiting the next update!!
IbeGenedammit!
2025-02-07 15:08:24 +0000 UTCHey Cosy, you have a VERY good game, and I am enjoying it very much. :) I would ask one thing: Even though it's a Kinetic Story, I would like to have, if possible, a bit of "Free Time" when the days are done. Being able to talk to the girls, visit them, and have some fun with up to 3 (or more, depending on who else is added.) Now I know some people like the current format, and I do, I enjoy a little freedom to roam at night. Just my 2 cents. Perhaps do a poll, to see if anyone else would like some fun time? That's it, great game and keep up the great and hard work, and thank you!
Steve Knox
2025-02-06 04:23:26 +0000 UTCThe day and time feature is comming from games where you have a specific number of moves at a certain time of the day. Or where you can do specific actions only at specific times. For a story like yours it isn't really nenecessary. You could have put every little story on a different day and Cosy Cafe would still be the same story. Even the getting up and going to bed part every day is something that everybody uses, because it became some sort of standard. But in my opinion it actually limits you in how you can write your story. So get rid of it. I also testet the text to speech function on Cosy Cafe. Time and day are read out aloud every 10 seconds. Absolutly annoying. I wondered when you would start doing some time jumps. Those are a good thing and will give you more freedom in creating the story. Also to think about what happened in only three weeks. The new pictures are nice. Interesting choice to pick Vicky and Caroline as angels. Creating outfits is a pain in the ass in the beginning. I suffer with that as well. But like every skill it gets easier the more you train.
StefanHill
2025-02-05 19:33:45 +0000 UTCi would personally prefer that you keep the day counter and just change it to dates rather than removing it altogether, many of us in the discord use the days to give others a rough idea of when a certain scene happened or if we're pointing out a bug/typo it's alot easier to say morning of day 11 than it is to describe the exact scene that it happens in, especially if it's a morning scene as those are all very similar
bread4181
2025-02-05 03:16:10 +0000 UTCHaha, no. She's 20 - her age got swapped with Mr Hamilton's in the process of making the new UI. It'll be fixed in the next update.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-04 20:53:03 +0000 UTCIt did cross my mind briefly, but since nobody seems to have a problem with the early choices, I'll probably leave most of them in.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-04 20:52:24 +0000 UTCHey Cosy, is Annabelle being 55 years old really correct? Cause hot damn I wish I look that good at that age.
Randy
2025-02-04 06:58:42 +0000 UTCYou bring up that there were sandbox elements early on. If you go back and remove some the early decisions, I ask that you leave the one about who to sit with as is. It made a point to me that most decisions in VNs are pointless and frankly insulting to their audience. Do you want to have sex with your three girlfriends or smash your balls with a hammer? Do you want to go on a date with a hot coworker or eat leftovers alone in the dark? Some games have choices that add flavor or meaningful paths (so the dev needs to make 3 or more games at once), but most just don't. The "who to sit with" choice in your game makes that point really well.
Fake Display Name
2025-02-04 04:56:11 +0000 UTCAs long teh time skips don't interfer with teh charter/relation building then it can be good as liong that they are not to big. It's fun to follow the develpment of the relations. For the date's is option 2 a good option. Love the this novel game very much so I wait inpatiant on for the new updated.
Eric Barends
2025-02-03 20:44:30 +0000 UTCI probably didn't make this clear enough in the post, but the plan isn't to end soon at all! If anything, I'm worried the scope I've laid out there is too ambitious. The time skips are going to be connecting chunks of week/month long in-game time, and considering it's taken me 2+ years to get through the first month, this is years of dev time.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 20:44:30 +0000 UTCHah, so do I! I do plan on being quite cautious with it, so if I feel like it isn't working when I try it and give it to some people to test, I can always back out and just continue the story as it is going currently. Having said that, I do feel like I can do it in a way that doesn't feel too disruptive, and doesn't feel like the reader has missed a tonne of the story/development. Part of the reason for that, is I feel like most of them have already undergone months of character development over the course of a few weeks.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 20:42:16 +0000 UTCYep, the plan is to have fairly in-depth montages for each of the girls covering the time skips, including a few lines describing what they got up to. And the first one will only be a couple of months, so not really a super long time.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 20:37:15 +0000 UTCThe time skips will be colossally spread out. So the first one will take us to Christmas, for example. The content I have planned for over Christmas will take weeks of in-game time, which will be handled just like it is currently - so that's probably a couple of years of dev time between the first time skip and the second.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 20:32:53 +0000 UTCI'm planning to do a montage for the time skips, including a few lines for each character; but will probably avoid putting significant events in there.
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 20:30:57 +0000 UTCI agree with RMZ about the time skips. I think the character development is what I love. Sarah's development is my favorite case. Why end so soon? Do you foresee being bored, or is it a lack of support? CC is the best thing since sliced bread. Of the day number options, I like the date best.
Conatus Hawk
2025-02-03 16:19:41 +0000 UTCOh boy I don't know if time skips are a good idea dude. This game lives and breathes from the interactions with the girls, not the overarching story. Time skips mean missing out on tons of character development, relationship building and advances in their lewds. You then either have to basically ignore time passed and make them all act like it didn't happen, which would be weird, or they completely changed and developed and we probably only saw a few renders of why and when that happened, which will feel like we've been missing out big time. Outside of epilogues, I have not seen this working well in a single game. I fear this might actually ruin the experience. I'd honestly be happy if the entire main story was just about fighting the families and winning in real time, and then we see a culinary school epilogue. But it's your story to tell. I just really really hope you know what you're doing.
RMZ
2025-02-03 15:16:51 +0000 UTCOut of the two options, the Date is definitely better, but honestly my vote is to change nothing; skiping from like day 36 to 109 with no fanfare would be hysterical. Perhaps showing the date and the number would work as well; keeps the familiarity, emphasizes the time passed more than more abstract date only would, especially after the time skips, but also is easy to track when in the year they are. Anyway, regardless, this story is great, and we're all looking forward to what you've got in store!
Ajaxxs
2025-02-03 13:14:54 +0000 UTCI hope the end is that the MC marries all the ladies in his harem and they become one happy, kinky, spanky, family :)
Nick Christie
2025-02-03 13:11:33 +0000 UTCHi Cosy, Soo nice angel vs. demon pictures. I just realized now the "tiny" Sarah close in height to Lucy. Due I expected much more smaller based on the other earlier pictures like in the School club room etc. About the time-hog/skip topic. I really liked how slow and realistic the story starting when MC start the restaurant initially. Yes, we are happy to see/read the culinary school era not just the elementary school (harem better fit to the university area then the high school). And I also realized under the story due this two days SW development cycle the story get very compressed and look now just few weeks and how many things happened. So long term that is not good if you push too many story per two days. My recommendation do not cut directly to big time gaps but instead least somehow try to increase the period first. Like after 2 days followed by 4days, 1week, 2months etc. linear or exponential stepping curve. You can also increase the time between days with that method. This is preparing the consumer (us as readers) to have a bigger time gap between the story lines. Also could use some small cover story between gaps, like meanwhile Akatsuki and MC enrolled to the Lucy joined to garden/cookie creation curse, Lucy try learn deeper of guitar (few words and one/few picture slide enough to cover this) etc. So that is not leave gaps in the other main character stories. Others also called "interlude" or "highlights". I just telling that due quick time gap as half year could be drastic cut the story and we loose the smoothness of the story in heartbeat. So please don't jump from 2days to half/one year instantly least need to stabilize the relationship status for the main characters. About the day counter topic. I also recommend to use 2.option as date value, just keep in mind need to show day of the week due lot of times the story related to up coming events. Example I would like know how many day left for a weekend or the next Tuesday council meetings.
Jacky
2025-02-03 11:19:34 +0000 UTCJust a question about the time skips - are they gonna be short "interlude" style skips while the main story is on-going just for a breath of fresh air, or are they gonna be just rapid jumps in the timeline? And will they be consecutive skips into the future? Like 3 time skip patches in a row and you're done? Or time skip -> Christmas -> a few updates with plot after Christmas (ie new years ++) -> next time skip to graduation And by the time the time skips come in, will the main plotline with the founding family stuff be done?
Eliya Itou
2025-02-03 09:53:15 +0000 UTCThanks for the update! I like option 2 and identifying which day of the week it is as that helps me, at least, keep track of weekday or weekend day, in terms of where content is happening (at least during times when school is in session). As to time skips, your description makes sense, as does wrapping up short-term pressing matters that need to be resolved so they don't 'spoil' during a time skip. Have you considered including any 'highlights' from the time skipped - events/major things happening to people - that will impact future events and can be included as part of the tension moving into the next segment or daily story telling?
Pax
2025-02-03 09:18:38 +0000 UTCIncredible work as always Cosy! I'm a bit familiar with various writing processes, mostly from talking to various writers about how they like to write and such. While there's no "best" way to write, for stories like these, time skips are simply inevitable - unless it becomes a much, much slower day to day diary that slows down from our time as it continues. Sorry for all that nonesense, TLDR: I don't think you can make the structure any more generous based on what you've put out. Each part ends up taking more time and ends up longer than intended anyways, so I don't think anyone should really be worried at all here. Thanks for the update and good luck on the rendering Cosy!
Garagara
2025-02-03 08:39:10 +0000 UTCthe concepts of time skips tends to make me nervous due to the fact that they have a tendency to be handled poorly but I can't wait to see what you do for them Cosy
Erebus
2025-02-03 07:08:36 +0000 UTCHi Cosy, option 2 seems like a great alternative for the current day counter. Also, team devil looks very good.
Max
2025-02-03 06:46:08 +0000 UTCThat is some update CC. I like the idea of option 2 although I am use to the format that's running at the moment but I'm adaptable so yeah go with op2, thanks for the update CC.
Lord Tony H
2025-02-03 06:12:28 +0000 UTCgood morning the day counter would actually be useful for the time jumps just to specify how much the story has jumped. I hope that before the first jump the problems with anna and caterin are solved and that both they and sara move from mc.
Andrea Cutri
2025-02-03 05:42:10 +0000 UTCThank you for the Update and i like Option 2 😊
Sett
2025-02-03 05:09:24 +0000 UTCThank you for the update! :)
Gravitational
2025-02-03 04:39:10 +0000 UTCI like the Day/Date counter; I like using them as save points.
Jersey Rick
2025-02-03 04:04:10 +0000 UTCI agree. Having both date and know how many days mc moved to foundsborough is a great idea.
Vrati
2025-02-03 03:10:14 +0000 UTCThe change to the day counter to a date might actually be the better option as it will help players recognize the time skips
Kenneth Messer
2025-02-03 02:40:22 +0000 UTCAlways looking forward to more updates and to what the culinary school arc would entail! The main thing I am kinda worried about is how the time skips affect the Founding Family politics and missing potential character interactions. I know the MC's stance has been trying to get out of it or leave to Allison since the beginning, but I have been enjoying how he navigates their BS in the latest patches. Been supporting this VN for a long time, so I have faith in your writing in navigating loose ends.l, but I am also a degen that wants the MC to just end up ruling the town with his large harem. The fun has been the journey to get to that point. I don't want a sudden "3 years have passed and we now have the best restaurant in town with 15 wives, the end."
Pumbloom
2025-02-03 01:41:33 +0000 UTCI'll have to give it more thought, but combining your idea with another comment someone posted; I might add a bit to the dawn screen where it currently says the day number, changing it to something like "Time since moving to Foundsborough: 1y 2m 3d"
Cosy Creator
2025-02-03 01:31:48 +0000 UTCThanks for the update. I like option 2 and also go team angel 🥰
Chaos2426
2025-02-03 01:26:54 +0000 UTCMaybe a middle ground would be to replace days with months/years when it gets past a couple months? Large numbers are hard to intuitively understand, but absolute dates provide no reference point (I'm going to forget the start date!). Maybe even a 1y 2m 3d format?
Elu
2025-02-03 01:26:12 +0000 UTCI definitely like option 2. It will make it feel more real life. By the way...Akatsuki...yeah, she is an amazing character! As is Sarah. This is by far my favorite game so far.
Kat Phoenix
2025-02-03 01:21:47 +0000 UTCI’d keep the day counter… can make it date and I’d have a days since moving to foundsborough. That way we have the best of both worlds. Then it also shows that December is day 130 etc so we know the time jump and how long these relationships have been going on etc.
Ozrotica
2025-02-03 01:19:56 +0000 UTCPlease don't get rid of the day counter. Thanks for the update. Sounds like you have a solid progression plan. Looking forward to the next update.
Dracconius
2025-02-03 01:13:27 +0000 UTCI love a long, juicy dev log about a hot and thicc update coming for me.
Spawn of Apathy
2025-02-03 01:12:24 +0000 UTCGood morning Cosy. Dates: I would prefer to have whatever type of Datesystem makes sense and therefore tend to option 2 as well. A simple Text "x later..." when bigger skips happen, for Events in the Story to not feel out of place, should be enough IMHO. As updates only happen every few months, I personally find it "messy" to need to in example check Discord or whatever and look for the info in there. How the Details will ultimately look, I have no real preference. As long as it makes sense and the Reader clearly knows that a time skip happened. Greetings through the Night and keep up the fantastic work :) #StaySafeStayHealthyEveryone
ILoveSucuk
2025-02-03 01:10:23 +0000 UTCI hope you go with option 2 for the day counter
Xander Simpson
2025-02-03 01:09:17 +0000 UTCAmazing renders! Enjoyed the previous update aswell! With a story that remains interesting, you keep ptoducing great content!
kajvdb
2025-02-03 01:00:44 +0000 UTC
