Hello! Chamrad here.

Several moons have passed since the last, meaning the first devlog, and oddly enough, a lot of you actually read it or at least opened it. That's really sweet, so I'm writing you another one. A lot has changed here. So much, in fact, that I hope this devlog will be the last one before the release of Sen z úst. And not because it will take another three months until I write the next one, but because it should be out before winter comes.

So what’s actually new (in brief)?

New Dreams, New Everything

Last time I wrote (I guess) that we are adding more stories, both bigger and smaller, to our world. Some we came up with during the game jam, others are completely new. The entire script was also rewritten to make it more consistent and more true to the intended form. I was a little bit worried about whether we would be able to preserve the original atmosphere of the game now that we had more time on our hands. More time to create, more time to think, but also more time to overthink. We didn't want the game to be too clean, but at the same time we wanted it to be as refined as possible. We tried to take inspiration mainly from the game jam version of Sen z úst. I would say that we wanted to limit ourselves with this, because, as we all know, constraints enhance creativity. It also helped to keep the scope of the game realistic. In conclusion, I can say that it is still our original Sen z úst.

Loving And Understanding

Anyone making video games not just as a solo developer knows that, besides the game itself, the hardest part of making a game anything is working with other people. Right now, our team consists of four dudes. You could say that's not a lot of people, and you'd be right. But sometimes even four friends can have trouble getting on the same page. Of course, we're all different and have different ideas about what it means to give our all to development. For some, it's a few hours a day, for others, it's pulling all-nighters before a deadline. And that's all right. We want to have fun, we don't want to worry too much about things. But we also want to be responsible, because we really want to release this game. So in the end, we have to learn to tolerate each other. It can be difficult, but when you notice how it's improving and how you're improving as a team, it's worth it.

Tech Interlude

Someone told me that devlogs should be about how exactly we did something and provide readers with new knowledge. So I’ll try something. We use ink, the narrative scripting language to write branching stories with choices. I recently discovered how to randomly generate choice texts. I think it's cool, so here's how to do it.

This is how you write choice in ink:

+ The dog stole my smile.

And this is how you can randomize a part of the choice:

+ The {~dog|Chihuahua|Pomeranian} stole my smile. 

Now comes the best part. This is how you write choices that are randomly selected from given alternatives:

+\ {~The dog stole my smile. | I fought in the street with the dog I was walking. | I have avoided obstacles that sold newspapers.}

In this case, there has to be a whitespace \ before { so that ink doesn't consider it as a conditional.

Capitalism, Die Already

Let's write about every independent developer's favorite topic—marketing. Did you know that many people could be marketing masterminds, but they’ll never get into marketing? Maybe even us. We hate the idea of doing something just to promote ourselves or something we do, but we've found a few things we enjoy that could be called marketing, I suppose. For example, stickers or our website, which is still naked, but more fun stuff will come in the near future. Maybe you find it radical, but I don't even like socials and how it's somehow necessary for at least a few people to know what we do. Anyway, there are very few of you, so you are one of the chosen ones and we have a special bond with you.

Tour

Sen z úst hadn't even come out yet, and we’re already traveling around the state to show it before the eyes of hundreds . . . Okay, we were at a local festival of independent games and playful art. Without a playable demo. Instead, I cut a teaser for our game, and while it was playing on an old TV (of course), you could play with modeling clay (of course). At first we were a little worried because we were the only ones there with a (video) game, but it was great. People were lovely, we had great chats, and they made some really cool creations. At the end of the day, why can't watching a video and playing with modeling clay be a game? What actually is and isn't a game? Maybe we should stop treating the term "game" with such reverence and be more flexible and open-minded about its use in the media.

Anyway, next week we're going to another wonderful festival of art games, so keep your fingers crossed. This time, we plan to present a demo version of our game to the public for the first time. We were thinking about bringing the full version of the game to the festival, but from my own experience, I know that I can't really focus on story-driven games when there's a lot going on around me. That's why we want to give people a taste and encourage them to play the game in private when they have the time and mood for it.

Epilogue

These devlogs are definitely some of the most spontaneous writing I've ever put out there. I'm sorry if they're frustrating to read because of the lack of structure or consistent flow, but I intend to keep it that way. It's relaxing to write as thoughts form in your head. I don't know if you can really call this a devlog, but I hope you've discovered some interesting bits about how we create art and how we think about it. I hope it counts, and I'm stunned if anyone has read this whole thing.

Thank you, Sen z úst is coming out soon for Microsoft Windows and macintosh operating system powered computers, and we’re really excited about it.

Have a nice day!