How do you do, everyone? Mangoku418 here!

And welcome back to an all-new devlog for March 2021! A lot of big things happened this month. And honestly, it felt like forever, haha.

Yamada Hoshi's Main Cast!!!

Last month, we held our very first casting call for the 5 main characters for Dear Mom. As of this March, we've cast Jennifer Silverman as Ayame Kawasaki, Jessica Spencer as Miamo Shirogane, Kaylyn Newell as Perrine Finch, Kayli Mills as Miso Shizuki, and Kieran Flitton as Chip Mizuhara. Welcome aboard! Their voices are truly spectacular and we're excited for you all to hear them in the game!

Expect more casting calls down the line. 😄

Layered Images Are the BEST!!!

Considering the fact that I'm giving characters multiple outfits and a variety of expressions, I needed to find a smart way to export sprites. The first option was using LiveComposite, which allows me to layer images together to make one big composition. So instead of exporting sprites with everything intact, I could export the main body, clothes, facial expressions, and accessories as separate pieces, which heavily reduces file size.

Censored the base sprite for obvious reasons. 😜

However, with LiveComposite, I would have to create an image for every single expression for EACH outfit and for EACH pose. So if Perrine has 5 outfits planned, I would have to create the compositions at least 5 times.

So many lines! And this is just for Perrine in her school uniform!!!👀

I couldn't find a way to interchange between outfits to reduce the lines of code I have to make. After stumbling across some Twitter posts, I learned about Layered Images. They work very similarly to LiveComposite, but it's MUCH more customizable. I can now treat the main body, clothes, expressions, and accessories as one whole image, and it's easy to switch between sprites on the fly. This is especially useful for a game where you can fully customize your character. I highly recommend using layeredimage if you're doing something like this!

Note: The "getLighting" line is a function I use to change the lighting based on the environment.

Here's an example of the sprite switches in action:

Don't take off my glasses, you meanie!!!

In-game Script.

Art Updates!!!

Living Room and Entrance BGs by kjkjmulo.

Yamada Hoshi School Gate BG by KeiraWorks.

Cafe BG by Ari Angga.

Miso Shizuki Debut CG by RyThae.

How I'm feeling now--

I have to say, while it's nice having such talented people help me with Dear Mom, managing everything is super hard. Especially considering that this is the first time I've ever built a team for a game project of my own. I'm making new discoveries, progress, good and poor decisions, mistakes, and much more. This month alone I've had many thoughts about my decision-making. I wondered if I made the right choices; What could’ve been better or what I should’ve done before. I'll confidently say that I haven't made the best decisions. Heck, I made a mistake that could've potentially ruined the reputation of the game without even realizing it. I hope that this journey will help me grow as a game developer and as a person. I want to make a game that I personally can be proud of, as well as for other people.

What's Next?

• My writer and I have been making some great progress on Perrine's Chapter and are just about to finish its conclusion!
• Need to make Ginta and Akio expressions. They can't be smiling ALL the time, haha.
• Implement our VAs voices into the game! This, I'm super excited about!!!^^

And that's it! You can get other updates throughout the month by following me on Twitter and joining my Discord server. This is Mangoku418. Have yourselves an Omega Awesome Day, and take care. Cheers! ^^