I’ve plotted out all 171 rebus boards for Bman. Originally, there were 173 boards, but two of them got merged together with other boards during plotting. All of the rebus boards for stage 2 have now been plotted out
While I've been working on this, I've also been thinking about whether I’d be able to make all of stage 2 by the end of December. My original plan was to release the stage around the 24th December, but there are 254 rebus boards that need to be made. Once those boards are made, I’ll then have to put everything together in Kirikiri. Add those two tasks together, and that leaves me with very little time for polishing. This has led me to thinking about the possibility of breaking up the release of stage 2 into two parts; releasing the first half of the stage in December, and then the other half at a later date. That would lessen the workload and it would also mean I’d only have to make 113 rebus boards instead of 254. That would leave me with more time to put everything together in Kirikiri, polish things, and release the first half of stage 2 by the end of December.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point in time. For now, I’m just going to start work on making all the rebus boards and feel things out from there. Once I see how fast or slow the rebus boards will take to make, I'll commit to a direction.
I've scripted out the closing scene of stage 2. I think I'm overall happy with what I've written for stage 2. The total rebus count for the whole of stage 2 will be 255.
Next up, I'll be plotting out Bman's rebus boards. There's 173 rebus boards to plot out.
I've gathered all the background images that I'll be using in stage 2. There will be approximately 16 new background images used in the second half of stage 2. Add that together with the background images used in the first half, and that gives you 47 background images in total for stage 2. That's the current rough estimate of the total. I've gathered a bunch of additional background images in addition to this that I may end up using if the 16 I've got isn't sufficient.
For reference, the total background image count in stage 1 was 38.
I took a bit of a break after I finished plotting out the 81 rebus boards for the new character. After the break, I did some experimenting with the kirikiri engine to see if I could get a 3D animation into the engine. I was ultimately able to do this using the video tag. I’ve attached a GIF file where you can see the results of my experiments (the animation in-engine moves way more smoothly than the GIF attached). After that, I made the new UI for the “stock photos owned” screen. I believe this should be the only new UI screen needed for the second half of stage 2. All that’s left to do now is to gather the second half’s background images, script out the final closing scene for the stage, and then get started on plotting Bman’s rebus boards. Once that’s done, I’ll make all the rebus board assets, and compile everything together in Kirikiri.
I've plotted out all 81 rebus boards for the new stock photo character in stage 2. It was a bit on ordeal getting this done due to reasons I can't mention here. There's a reason why plotting this specific character's rebus boards out was so difficult, but revealing that would spoil things. In any case, this was probably the biggest hurdle facing me in stage 2, so it's good to finally be done with it.
There's still a couple things to be left done in the second half of stage 2.
1) Collect all of the image assets (background images, UI images, etc) for the second half of stage 2. There's not as many new images that are needed in the second half than the first, so this shouldn't be too difficult.
2) Finish scripting out the closing scene to stage 2. It should be a relatively short scene that will set the scene for the start of stage 3.
3) Plot out all of Bman's rebus boards in this stage. I don't think this will be anywhere near as difficult as the new character's rebus boards was to plot out. A lot of the work for Bman's rebus boards was already done in stage 1. The only difficulty will be with the structuring of certain boards.
After that, I'll move on to making all of the new rebus boards, and then putting the whole stage together in Kirikiri. My biggest concern with this is the vast amount of rebus boards that will need to be made for this. At the moment, stage 2 has approximately 200+ rebus boards. There are three difficulty levels, and each difficulty level has it's own variant for every rebus board. So, 3 multiplied by 200 gives us 600+ rebus boards that will have to be made for this stage; one for easy mode, one for normal mode, and one for hard mode. How many rebus boards could I theoretically make in a day? Making 15 every day would make this take 40 days to complete. Just thinking about it is making me dread the grind. At the very least, it won't be as difficult as plotting out the actual rebus boards. It'll just take a lot of monotonous and repetitive work in Illustrator to get it done. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.
Finally, I've released a new update for stage 1 of Ubu.
This new version 1.20 update gets rid of the custom exe icon I was using for Ubu. The exe is now using the default "Kirikiri" icon. The reason I had to replace this is because I discovered that when you're downloading Ubu onto another computer, running the exe will cause the "Windows Protected Your PC" prompt to pop up. Normally, you would use the krkconf.exe program to change the exe icon, but the tool only works on the original Kirikiri engine, and not with the forked Kirikiri Z that I'm using. The original developer of Kirikiri, W.Dee, recommends using Visual Studio to change the exe icon instead, but that still causes the "windows protection" prompt to pop up. The only way that I think you can change the exe icon and have this message not appear is by providing a digital signature for the software. It apparently costs money to do this, and if you want to release a new version of the software, you'll have to buy another one. For now, I'm just going to settle for using the default Kirikiri icon.
I've added a direct download link to the top of the Ubu Production Journal page. That should be everything.
At this point, I’ve scripted out a vast majority of the second half of stage 2. The only thing that’s left to script out is the final closer of the stage. In the course of scripting all this out, the scale of the second half of stage 2 has increased. Originally, I estimated that the new stock photo character was going to require 50 rebus boards to deliver all their lines. Since then, the number of lines has increased, and the new character now requires 80 rebus boards to deliver all their lines. At the moment, I’ve plotted 40 out of the total 80 rebus boards required for this character. So, while we’re pretty much done on the scripting end, I’m still toiling away in the rebus plotting hole.
I won’t be posting another update until all 80 rebus boards have been plotted out. I’ve got no idea how long that will take, or if I’ll even be capable of doing it. This has been the hardest part of developing stage 2 of Ubu so far.
I'm 50% done with the second half of the stage 2 draft. Nothing else to report.
I'm about 30% done with the second half of the stage 2 draft. Progress is slow, but I'm liking the results.
Plotting out all the rebus boards for the new character is causing development progress to slow to a crawl. Still, I'm happy with what I've done so far. Slow and steady wins the race.
The progress on the second half of stage 2 had stalled for the past couple of weeks due to me hitting a wall with the new stock photo character. I mentioned previously that I was still formulating the narrative for this character. The narrative that I was initially commited to for this character wasn't working, so I had to drop it and come up with a bunch of new narratives for the character. For a while, none of the narratives I was coming up with were working, and it looked like I wasn't going to be able to get over this wall any time soon. Fortunately enough, I feel like I've finally landed on a narrative direction to take the new character that fits a lot better with the themes and central ideas of the stage. The progress had stalled for the past couple of weeks, but it feels like the wheels are starting to turn.
In the meantime, I've finally been able to settle on a sprite for the new stock photo character. Previously, there were two sprites that I was thinking of using for this. One of them had a rough image quality, but I really wanted to use it. The other had a much better image quality, but I didn't like it as much. For the past couple of weeks, I was able to spend some of my time refining the lower quality sprite, and I was ultimately able to get it to a point where the image quality now matches the other sprites. I've decided that this is the sprite I'll be using for the new stock photo character. I've tested it out in Kirikiri, and it looks good. This is the outcome I was hoping for.
I've completed a rough draft for the very beginning of the second half of Ubu stage 2. I've also plotted out the first five rebus boards for the new stock photo who will be introduced in this second half. The narrative for this stock photo is still going through changes. I've got a theme to focus on, I'm just trying to make sure the narrative that's told communicates these ideas properly.
In the meantime, I've been trying out different sprites for the new stock photo character. There's one sprite that I really want to use, but the quality is a bit rough and it doesn't match with the already existing sprites. There's another sprite that fits better with the quality of the other sprites, but I don't like it as much.
While I've been working on all this, I've also started to design the new vertical rebus screen which will be used for the new stock photo character. I decided to use a different rebus format for this character well before I even started working on stage 2. It's looking okay. I just need to settle on what dimensions to use for the individual rebus images.
Progress is moving slower than the first half. Whereas the development for the first half of stage 2 felt like sprinting up an incline, the development for the second half feels more like trudging through mud. The only way to get through this is to focus and push harder.
The UI screens for the first half of stage 2 have been made. The first half of stage 2 is just about done. I've now moved on to working on the second half of stage 2.
The sprite that I had in mind for the new character that's going to be introduced in this second half isn't working. I'm trying to get it to work, but it's not looking right. It's possible that I may have to use a different sprite for this character. I had a feeling the second half was going to be much harder to develop, and it's already starting off on the wrong foot.
All the background images for the first half of stage 2 have been collected. The total number of background images for this first half has jumped from 29 to 31.
Some scenes needed a bit more coverage, so I added more background images to compensate. All 31 of these images have been edited as well.
I'm going to finish making the last couple of UI screens that are needed for this first half, and then I'm going to move on to working on the second half of stage 2.
I've made the two new end of service event screens for stage 2. Both screens use the same general design as the end of service screen that appeared in stage 1.
The first screen can be seen in the picture attached. The other screen is more different and includes a countdown timer element and a slightly different design for the roll button.
I'm currently in the process of gathering all the background images together for the first half of stage 2. There's 29 new background images in total that will be needed in this first half. At the moment, I've got 20 of those background images together and edited, so there's only 9 left for me to get. For now, I'm going to temporarily move on from background image gathering to focus on making some of the new UI assets for the stage.
The picture attached is the floor plan I made as a reference for Read's apartment during stage 1's development. A lot of the background images I used for the apartment sequence in stage 1 were gathered from a variety of sources. In order to make all these different images appear like they're depicting the same location, I had to heavily edit and "stitch" them together. This process of "stitching" disparate photographic backgrounds together is always mired with difficulties. The reference picture attached was useful for tracking the layout of an apartment that was constructed out of different photographic backgrounds.
I've finished polishing and rewriting the first half of the stage 2 script. It took a couple of rewrites to get it there, but I think
the script is at a good enough point to move on from this polishing phase of development. I will probably end up doing another small rewrite once I've made the rough version of the stage in Kirikiri. It's a lot easier to notice pacing issues when you've got a rough version of the sound novel to go off on. I've also managed to make a rough estimate of the total number of rebus boards that will be required in this first half: 113. The total rebus count for the whole of Ubu stage 1 was 134, so I think it's more likely than not that stage 2 will end up with a bigger rebus count once all is said and done. As I've been rewriting this first half, I've also made some small progress on the second half. I've plotted out the first three rebus boards for the new stock photo character who will be appearing in this second half. My focus has mainly been on the first half of stage 2, and I won't be putting all my attention on this second half until I've done more work on the first half.
Now that we're out of this rewriting stage, my plan is to start gathering and making all the new background images and UI assets that will be used in this first half. I mentioned in a previous update that I had a rough idea of the assets I'd need to collect for this first half. Since then, the number of assets needed for this first half has only increased. I'll be putting all my energy into gathering as many of these assets as possible. If all goes well, I should have all the assets I'll need for this half. Once that's done, I'll shift all my focus onto the second half.
I've written and added a lot more to the first half of the stage 2 draft. Any additions I make to the draft after this point will be for more minor things. The next step with this draft is to refine it. The draft for the first stage was also rough to begin with. It took a lot of polishing and rewriting the same lines to get the script to a point where I felt satisfied. With all these revisions, my main goal is to make the prose of the narration and dialogue consistent with how it was in Stage 1. It's vital, too, to rewrite some lines to make them work better in the rebus format. There are also factors like characterisation and readability to consider.
While I've worked on this first half, I've also managed to reach a small breakthrough with the second half of stage 2.
I've begun to formulate the "plot" for the new stock photo character who will be introduced in this second half. For a while, I struggled to define what this character's background and perspective would be within the narrative, but after thinking about it for a bit, I've finally decided on a theme to centre this character around. I plan to give each stage of Ubu some central theme that will ultimately coalesce with the rest of the stages to form one big thesis for the entire novel.
From the beginning of Ubu's development, I planned to make it five stages long. I've already got a good idea of how the sound novel will end (along with certain plot points), but everything before that point is more rough and vaguely defined.
When all five stages have been made and compiled together, I don't think you're going to end up with a very long sound novel. The current plan is to make it as concise as possible while filling it with details that will only be perceivable on repeated read-throughs. At the moment, that is the plan I have for Ubu.
I've completed the rough draft for the first half of stage 2. It was a bit like pulling teeth though.
I've reread what I've wrote over and over again, and there's some bits that work and some bits that need fixing up and added to.
For now, I've got a rough idea of what assets I'll need to collect and make for this first half. There's still so much to do and it's only going to get harder from here on out.
It's been a couple of months since I finished work on the first stage of Ubu. I've decided to start work on stage 2.
I've already got a rough idea of how I want stage 2 to play out. The first half of the stage should be the easier section to make. The second half is probably going to be much harder because I'll be introducing a new character in this half.
I've already got a sprite in mind for this character. The "story" of this character is still being formulated. For now, I'm going to focus on scripting out the first half of stage 2. The focus for this half is to fill in the gaps of knowledge that I didn't include in stage 1 and to add more characterisation moments for the two main characters. There was too much to establish in stage 1, so I didn't get a chance to write many characterisation moments.
In the meantime, I've also released an update for stage 1 to fix some of the issues I found while replaying it. This new version can be downloaded from the bottom of the Ubu itch.io page.
Going forward, I'll be keeping up this production journal to help keep track of Ubu's development. Not every entry in this journal will be as detailed as this one. I've also started up a website here to host this production journal.
