Pound Cake Diary : 7

I'm halfway through editing the game! I have Rika, Kaori and Ayaka's routes done. Right now I'm working on Yukari's route. It's a little boring and tedious to go through and add all the sprites in, but it must be done!! I can't wait to edit Midori's route. It's been a year since I wrote it, so I've mostly forgotten what happens in her route. It has a lot of emotional impact though and is by far the best route of the game! That's why she's the main heroine after all. 

These days I play Kanon to get me motivated. I love playing old visual novels and seeing how they're written, designed, etc. It gives me a lot of inspiration. 

I'm definitely going to take a long break from making games after this is done! Making a VN is so much work, even when the product is as rudimentary and average as this one lol. I'd like to make some smaller projects before I jump back into a big one like Emit Glass. They are way less stressful and they take less time! 

Yukari is a sweet, shy character with a very simple story. I like to think of her route as a lovely little break from all the family and friendship drama going on in the other routes. If you play the suggested route order, Yukari's route will come right before the final heroine Midori! Since Midori's route is the most hard hitting one, this route is a bit like the calm before the storm. I made sure to include a lot of Midori in Yukari's route so that it can set up a very simple friendship dynamic between Midori and Tatsuki before you get to see why the two click so well!!

I don't mean that Yukari is a boring character, and I actually think she is a lot better than some of the other heroines. She is someone who struggles to make friends with others. Tatsuki doesn't have that many friends either, but that is a choice he made for himself, as opposed to Yukari who isn't able to speak to others because of her shyness. It's surprising though, because when she meets new people she is quick to befriend them!

It is mostly her fear of confronting new people! She doesn't want to bother others which leads her to being alone. 

I like this dynamic between her and our main character. He almost sees her as a pet of some sort, but he is just as socially repressed as she is!

I am trying to lengthen scenes which were previously only a few lines long. There is so much jumping from area to area with little text in between the scenes. I felt the need to show every transition scene while writing this, which really bogs down the story with unnecessary walking...

Another thing I'm editing out is some of the descriptions of actions. I have always been a writer, so switching over to a medium which includes some forms of visuals is hard for me. There are a lot of very weak descriptions which are unnecessary because the dialogue speaks for itself. So that's what I'm working on right now! I am trying to make it as easy to read as possible. I don't want any painfully boring scenes to ruin the story. 

I also planned on taking out a lot of the stuff in the story that felt too preachy or theme heavy early on. As I've been editing though, I've noticed that there isn't actually a lot of it. Besides Midori's route, the other heroines are more subtle in the way they present the messages. I haven't had to take out much! I wanted the themes of the story to build as you progress through the routes. This way, in the very end you will get the best picture of what Emit Glass is really about!