Saturday Update!
Added 2024-03-23 15:00:09 +0000 UTCPlaceholders are complete! YKMET:Strade is now a fully functional game full of sketches!
Well, "Fully Functional-ish". It still needs a lot of testing and tweaking, not to mention a lot of UI/framework stuff. And of course the art finalization LMAO
But still! It's playable!
Here's the last couple of placeholder previews:
And that is the end of the placeholders!
------------------------------
That's not the only work I did this week though. I also built the endings collection page and coded the Death Token system. For anyone who hasn't been around to hear about it- the Death Token system is my new system to allow players to buy hints and walkthroughs in-game for endings with tokens they earn by dying :D
The tokens will also be used for other stuff- like unlocking character bios and concept art, and some more fun stuff! I think it will be a really nice way for people to get to see all of the game even if they get super stumped- while still feeling like they earned it legitimately. Stubborn players don't have to use any tokens of course!
Getting an ending will automatically unlock the hint and walkthrough, just in case you need help getting it again.
Everything seen above is fully functional! Well, mostly. The hints are written but the walkthroughs aren't. I don't want to write those until closer to release in case the paths to endings change [ There's two phases of testing to go through, changes will be made ].
I'm also currently messing with some very experimental coding regarding the CG Gallery. Because there's like 500 sprites, my traditional kind of CG gallery seems kind of impossible. Or at the very least, people would have to put up with my personal choices on what to put in the gallery.
I'm instead experimenting with the possibility of allowing players to take screenshots and build their own gallery. However, it's proving to be pretty difficult to code. Renpy has a screenshot taking system built in, but actually displaying them in a gallery is shockingly difficult. If any of you guys are Renpy masters and know how to use "define config.screenshot_callback" then please comment about the syntax LMAO In theory it allows me to define a function to go off whenever a screenshot is taken, so I could populate a persistent list variable.... but I can't seem to get it working.
------------------------------
ANYWAY.
I will be needing Alpha testers soon. That's pretty complicated, so I'll be making a separate Patreon post soon about it my requirements and asking for volunteers. I will only need 5-10 people and it will be very serious. This is definitely not the stage for people wanting to play the game early for fun- testing to the degree I need will very likely ruin your enjoyment of the final game, so please only volunteer if you're very serious about testing/editing. But for now, don't worry. I'll make the actual post about it soon!
------------------------------
About my progress on learning music: I didn't really make any progress in learning this week ^^; I was too busy and tired. But I did purchase a small keyboard to help me work!
I managed to connect it to Ableton just fine, but then I realized.... I have no idea what I'm doing. So, I looked up some lessons for beginners and found a great 8.5 hour long Youtube video lesson [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iuRsiKtObw ] that claims to be for people who don't know anything about the program or music theory- and it's gonna walk me through making 3 songs step by step!
I'm gonna start my lessons on Sunday and do my best! I'm really really determined to learn how to do this... now that I've realized this could be another avenue to express myself, I'm really obsessed with being able to make something.
------------------------------
Merch stuff: I did finally get a tracking number for my restock shipment with the Fox dakimakura pillows, but the tracking number doesn't have an exact delivery estimate yet. I'm assuming it will take around 15 days to travel so it seem we'll probably get the restock available around mid-April. Sorry it's so late!
------------------------------
Lastlyyyy [ God these have gotten so long since I stopped using social media LMAO ] I updated my website and added some stuff. I added those test sprites to the YKMET:Strade page and added a pile of my old art to the my Artwork page. I plan to keep adding art on the second half of Fridays, it just takes a long time. I got the last 4 years in but I have so much art from 2015-2018 that's gonna take forever. I'll just keep chipping away at it!
------------------------------
That's it for now! I'll probably make my Alpha Tester volunteer asking update early next week!
Thank you so much for your support, stay safe and have a great weekend!
Comments
Woahhh amazing work!!! :DDD !!! It's all looking so great!! The whole death token idea sounds great!!! I'm pretty useless when it comes to figuring out secrets etc so having hints that could point me in the right direction instead of looking up guides sounds much more enjoyable!!! >:333 Ahhh just joined Patreon but just wanted to say you're doing amazing Gato and have been a major inspiration of mine for many years!!!! Thank you for making such great content!!! <333
Astriel
2024-04-05 10:53:43 +0000 UTCI'm surprised I didn't comment on this already, but I love love LOVE the death token idea!! It definitely will help trying to find new endings if you get stuck on some of them!! It's also a cool way to add replay value to keep dying to unlock all the character art and other extras!!
Clyde
2024-03-27 18:16:34 +0000 UTCKeep fighting! :)
Damagedcoda
2024-03-26 23:20:30 +0000 UTClet's GOO gato keep it up, we've already come so far!!! can't wait for the game
dddr
2024-03-25 17:56:05 +0000 UTCOoh the death token thing sounds great, I'm always struggling with getting all the endings ^^'
mmajee
2024-03-24 20:48:17 +0000 UTCwoohoo placeholders completed!! i admire your work ethic gato
vi
2024-03-24 19:56:06 +0000 UTCw h e w that last placeholder is something else πππ Best of luck with alpha testing, I hope you're able to get a good team together!
Sm1l3-d3m0n
2024-03-24 17:47:20 +0000 UTCIn the old games it used to be magic but I didn't like that so I'm retconning it. If I ever get a chance to make YKMET: Ren he will be hiding his ears and tail in a more practical way [ with a toque/beanie and a backpack ]
Gatobob
2024-03-24 17:43:15 +0000 UTCMaking and selling merch based on my work is totally okay as long as it's your artwork :D
Gatobob
2024-03-24 17:41:51 +0000 UTCIf the site gets revamped they wont be lost but they might be rearranged or temporarily down. For the moment I'm forced to just hard code it all in but I'm hoping someday I can switch it to a database. It's not really a big deal though either way tbh!
Gatobob
2024-03-24 17:39:25 +0000 UTCYay! Heβs so beautiful π
Bella-foreva
2024-03-24 14:35:05 +0000 UTCAAAA IM SO EXCITED! THE PROGESS LOOKS AWESOME!! π it's so cool that your testing out music, love to see what your coming up with!!
lawrence
2024-03-24 14:19:30 +0000 UTCi wish strade was real so i could harass him on the internet by messaging him telling him to post pole and hole ;β( your desk setup goes crazy though. hi tails
kota
2024-03-24 08:19:53 +0000 UTCWonderful news to hear! I am so excited! I hope it goes well and best of luck to your music lessons. Also off topic question I have that bugs me. How did Ren hide his fox ears and tail when he was out in public? Sorry for the question, this has been bugging me and I wish to know.
ShinanaEvangelian
2024-03-24 07:59:30 +0000 UTCi just wanted to ask a question ππ is it possible to make merch with your characters, and what are the necessary conditions for this? my girlfriend @dudosik_0 drawing your OCs and we have an idea to do some merch, but we dunno is it okay, so we decided to ask you about it πππ
Charunia β€οΈβπ₯π¨
2024-03-24 07:47:14 +0000 UTChello dear Gato!!! HUUUUGE GREETINGS TO YOU BECAUSE OF PLACEHOLDERS WORK ENDING πππ₯π₯π₯πππππ and.. if you still need alpha testers, you can call me - I'm working as a QA engineer ~1 year and I think, can be helpful π I also want to say thank you because of your work with sound and updated coding things - you just goddess for me, i just ~~~~~~
Charunia β€οΈβπ₯π¨
2024-03-24 07:44:55 +0000 UTCI never done alpha testing before, but it sounds like an interesting way to help with game development. Correct me if I'm wrong but alpha testing primarily looks at figuring out ways the game is naturally buggy, but also intentionally finding ways to "break" the game to locate hidden problems ahead of time, IIRC? π€ If you ever make a formal post detailing what you're specifically expecting out of an alpha tester, I'll be sure to give it a looksee to see if I have enough time commitment, skills, etc. to be reliable for the role. But yeah, happy to hear you got the placeholders done and also continuing to play around with expressing yourself through music! π₯³ I'm no composer myself, but I reckon music can help express yourself in ways that the limits of visual art sometimes can't. Bet it'll be fun to play around with the psychology that underlies music design (eg. how major keys tend to sound "happy" while minor keys tend to sound "sad" to the majority of people; or how horror games like Silent Hill have the rare serene music that'll stand out among their more surreal, gritty, and omnious tracks). π
Leo α( α )α
2024-03-24 05:57:03 +0000 UTCAAA I'm so excited for you on learning music! I hope you have a lot of fun with this new avenue, it's a hobby on my bucket list to learn too as a creator. I would love to alpha test so my eyes will be PEELED
OhVeeve
2024-03-24 05:46:03 +0000 UTCawesome update!! and the token system sounds really cool! the little keyboard looks so cute HAHA i know you will put it to good use! and i can't wait for the merch drop... every saturday i look forward to it LOLOL *holds my wallet and jumps in joy* I hope you have a great week moving forward ^_^!!
pk
2024-03-24 01:59:32 +0000 UTCalpha testing is something iβve always wanted to do! seems like hard work, but it would be cool to be apart of something
LYNX
2024-03-24 01:20:59 +0000 UTCEVERYTHING IS LOOKING SOO GOOD, AAA.π€i'm so excited how all is going on by far and i'm glad that all the placeholders are finished, strade's looking hot af as always, lol. btw i LOVE how you revamped the website, and i hope you put more of your atwork there. have a nice week, gato, good luck w ur piano lessons and take care of urself too.π€
alexito
2024-03-23 23:54:22 +0000 UTCAAAAAA words can't describe how excited I am to see updates on this game!!! the new additions, like the death tokens, really bring it to a new level!!
ocs
2024-03-23 23:48:39 +0000 UTCSo exciting! I hope you take a moment to celebrate finishing all the placeholders - this is a huge milestone! The amount of work you are doing is insane and incredibly inspiring. Itβs great to see all your old art on the site too! Some of your more recent works I donβt think got uploaded on social media, itβs nice a lot of art is easily accessible and no longer buried. When the site gets revamped theyβre not going to get lost though are they? I hope youβre doing alright right now! Thanks for the update!
Nephrite v2
2024-03-23 22:42:38 +0000 UTChell yeah! hope alpha testing goes well! (and if iβm picked, I hope to help ya fix some bugs :3)
FluffyTail
2024-03-23 20:36:54 +0000 UTCHow exciting! Thanks for all your hard work! π
ππΌπ»πΈπΉ
2024-03-23 19:32:40 +0000 UTCI NEED TO KISS HIM.
Neodorothy
2024-03-23 19:06:29 +0000 UTCAmazing as always i'm so excited to hear your music !! I yell every time i see strade AAAAAAHHH
Neodorothy
2024-03-23 19:04:19 +0000 UTCAs always, everything is perfect!!! (β β§β β½β β¦β )
Rotten God
2024-03-23 18:20:35 +0000 UTCOh yes, I was reading this one before! I was a little surprised they needed hashlib and os since they used those to basically write new functions that already exist in renpy [ define config.screenshot_pattern kind of covers both ] Although.... it looks like these posts are from 2011 and I think define config.screenshot_pattern was added a lot later than that. BUT I DIGRESS, I will for sure be checking this more thoroughly and seeing if I can use some of this code from my own purposes. Hopefully it's not too deprecated!
Gatobob
2024-03-23 18:04:05 +0000 UTCif config.screenshot_callback doesn't work out, maybe try adapting from bink's implementation of a camera function tied to a UI button from the forums. It has the added bonus of being able to hide the UI for a screenshot https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11813
RedBeans
2024-03-23 17:49:50 +0000 UTCAs always, Strade looks too damn good, it's not fair. Killing me before the game is even out. Congratulations on all the progress you've made! You're doing amazingly, and about to learn how to make music to boot. I can't wait to hear the things you come up with! I hope you get some rest in, and good luck with the upcoming week!
PennyFaust
2024-03-23 17:30:11 +0000 UTCDon't be sad!! Honestly I would feel the same about a game I was excited for- I even refuse to play early access stuff myself LMAO
Gatobob
2024-03-23 17:13:44 +0000 UTCAaaaaah placeholders done, how exciting!! βHe was looking like he had BUILT something magnificent,β goes so hard, heckin love that. Good luck and have fun with the music learning!!
kikibadger
2024-03-23 17:08:18 +0000 UTCI'm a QA tester professionally and would LOVE to be able to say I worked on this game- but I refuse to have the experience ruined π Good luck though! I hope music making clicks for you. I want to see what you put in this game, if you make your own music. Ugh, terribly sad about not being able to sign up. I'd genuinely love it but these games are too special to me and I want to experience it in full.
Mori Covington
2024-03-23 17:03:20 +0000 UTCIt's one token every time you die- even when it's the same way. It's pretty easy to scam the tokens and just get a ton easily, but that's the way I think it should be. It's just for fun anyway! I like the idea of the game being exactly as difficult as people WANT it to be.
Gatobob
2024-03-23 16:43:27 +0000 UTCIt just gets BETTER and BETTER! π
Emily Lemur
2024-03-23 16:42:33 +0000 UTCBeta testing will be available to all Patreon supporters I think! ^o^
Gatobob
2024-03-23 16:40:42 +0000 UTCYAY I'm so happy and excited thank you Gato!!!
June
2024-03-23 16:25:27 +0000 UTCiβm just wonderingβ¦is it one token per death? or does it depend on said death? thanks ππ¬π§ππ
Moni S
2024-03-23 16:17:16 +0000 UTCI don't think I'd be a good alpha tester because I'm Bad At Games but I would so down to proofread!! congratulations gato ;v;
metalthorax
2024-03-23 16:16:47 +0000 UTCI would love to help alpha test!!!
V.
2024-03-23 16:16:30 +0000 UTCim one of those stubborn players so god knows whether or not i'll end up using it but thats a really good feature woah. won't be applying for alpha testing but im still beyond excited for whats to come AAAHHH
limeshroom
2024-03-23 16:08:05 +0000 UTC"he was looking like he'd built something magnificent" oh lord WHAT'S GATO COOKING
limeshroom
2024-03-23 16:05:46 +0000 UTCWoah now, letβs not get TOO sillyππ€£
Kandi_crystal22
2024-03-23 16:01:36 +0000 UTCBABE WAKE UP PLACEHOLDER ART IS FINISHED
pleatedfocus
2024-03-23 15:48:09 +0000 UTCVery exciting to see the placeholder art finished and that we are approaching alpha testing stage. Thank you for all your hard work, Gato.
Setra
2024-03-23 15:43:35 +0000 UTCIm shure u will do just great with learing music! Have a great weekend π₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯
Moon
2024-03-23 15:25:15 +0000 UTCI love the idea of the death tokens!! Iβm so excited everything looks so cool so far!
DoomtheGloom
2024-03-23 15:24:36 +0000 UTCI'm so excited to see this project coming to life! I'm so greatful to have this behind-the-scenes view :D
Cadaverdog
2024-03-23 15:20:28 +0000 UTCActually, Just noticed Ren isnt wearing his collar so must be a post strade situation.
Sly
2024-03-23 15:19:55 +0000 UTCJust came back from the art tab on the website andddd Tobby? 0>0 In that drawing looks like Strade got his hand on another beastkin? Looks like he's playing RL pokemon
Sly
2024-03-23 15:18:59 +0000 UTCthese are such good news AAAAA!! canβt wait πππ
ramnification
2024-03-23 15:18:20 +0000 UTCwhoop whoop! this is so exciting, good luck with your journey on learning all that crazy music shit xD
Birdie
2024-03-23 15:15:15 +0000 UTCAhhhhhhhh! Gato where to even start- litteraly everything here has got me kicking my legs and squealing- just like- please keep pushing forward ππ§‘
Otaku Vs. Weeb
2024-03-23 15:13:42 +0000 UTComgggg soooooo excited thank uuuuu!!!!!!
Strawberrie Cat
2024-03-23 15:13:40 +0000 UTCOuuu, I canβt wait!! I hope I can be a tester cuz AHSHAHGEVRGVR Iβm going feral
Bunnie
2024-03-23 15:12:30 +0000 UTCBROOOO I LEGIT SMILED SO HARD I DID A HAPPY SPIN WHAHWHHW iβm so happy the game is sorta complete !!! iβm so excited !!!!! πππ i love the death token system too cause tumblr walkthroughs carried me for the past games where the endings got me stuck β οΈ and iβm so happy music is going good for you too :DDDDD i love strade so sososososo much u make me extremely happy gato β₯οΈ also as much as iβd love to help to be a alpha tester i got school and work and iβm pretty sure i donβt qualify for any of your requirements, but if u need a beta tester β¦. wellβ¦ letβs just say iβm right here *blinks eyes* πππ
iridian οΌοΌΎοΌ―οΌΎββͺ
2024-03-23 15:10:10 +0000 UTCWow! Hella great to hear the progress. Cannot wait till the game is finished. I'm sure it is great so far! Maybe I'll consider signing for alpha tester. Maybe
Axy Hana
2024-03-23 15:10:08 +0000 UTCπ I'm glad things are going well!
Taheca
2024-03-23 15:08:17 +0000 UTCbouta make time in my schedule to be a alpha tester
kenny
2024-03-23 15:05:52 +0000 UTCI want him to breastfeed me
MelonBa11s
2024-03-23 15:04:02 +0000 UTC
![Kem Alkemest [Assetto Corsa Mod]](https://xaiju.com/istorage/14088.jpg)
