Today marked the day where I started coding in the variables. Using Fungus variables makes this process super easy, and has actually convinced me to consider continuing to use Fungus even with non - 2D projects. Not exactly recommended, but man, visual scripting is made SO EASY with this stuff. Right now, I have 23 variables using Fungus, and will be adding to it before the demo to include other choices that you as the player can make.

This weekend, I have a rare opportunity away from the rest of my family (*insert Home Alone quote about making my family disappear here*) to get some more concrete work done. So I'll be working on fixing the transitions between locations, adjusting variables, introducing the money/energy system (with limited functionality), and tweaking the interaction menus. Each interaction takes, or removes friendship/romance points. The goal is that by the end of this weekend, the location transitions will be complete, the variables will be complete and implemented, at least the energy system will be implemented, and talking or being rude to characters will improve, or reduce their relationship with you. Yikes, haha.

At some point, I need to work on more sound design to get some background music and put together some ambience for the locations currently available in the game. I'll probably do that next weekend, even though I'm on call for work all weekend (barf), or if this upcoming week is slow at work, I'll try and see if I can dabble a little between calls.

Another thing I'd like to update you all on is that I've decided that locations will no longer have "time of day variations" accessible during regular gameplay. Afternoon, evening, raining and snowing location variations have been stripped from the core gameplay and are only viewable during character specific interactions. For instance, if you follow Alex's story, one of her more story specific interaction occurs at night in her restaurant, only during this interaction will you see the evening version of her restaurant, all other times the restaurant art will be just "daytime". The reason for this is because, honestly, the simplest way my hee hoo brain can think to implement a "time of day" system for location art is through convoluted variables. I already have 23 in game, and that's excluding the other 18 I need for the other 18 birthdays for the characters I haven't yet implemented, and the other 12 I need for player preferences at the beginning of the game that I haven't implemented yet, AND the other 23 variables I need to check if you've met a character yet so you don't repeat their introduction every time you visit a specific location, AAAAAAAAAAND the 24+ variables I need for having the characters change their outfits based on the holiday, etc etc etc. Is there a simpler way to keep track of this? Probably. Have I discovered it yet? Obviously not haha. There is just no simpler way I've found yet to keep track of this. Despite being industry standard, Unity and Unreal Engine both have their shortcomings when it comes to simplifying processes. Finding work arounds for where they lack is probably the hardest part about this.

Another change that was made is that each character is going to have a specific location they stay in. There will always be in one location every day. The reason for this change, because it was originally going to be that the characters would be found in different places on different days, was literally just because I'm freaking lazy, and again, the amount of variables I would need to keep track of would be a literal nightmare. Basically, there would be 4-6 lines of code for each variation. If it's Monday and Tuesday, Alex can be found at the Mall, but all other days is at her restaurant. In actuality, this doesn't sound hard to do, and I may implement this later once the more important stuff is done, but for the time being, and possibly forever, everyone is getting their own location art, which means that I have to re-write 2-4 character stories, and had to think up 2-4 more location arts so that 2 characters couldn't be found at certain locations at the same time.

Right now I'm listening to an inspirational playlist to try and squeeze every drop of motivation juice from my cells while writing this and doing some testing. It will only take a few days to push through the functionality of the game mechanics, a few hours to write some music, and a few more to implement character stories. Really what I'm waiting on mostly is lines from 2 voice actors, and some more auditions for Mee, because the voice actor I chose, for whatever reason, didn't get back to me, so I had to recast. As soon as I have all the VA's lined up, I'll put everything together and will probably be able to get the demo out, but I can't make any promises. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume summer is probably a safe bet for getting the demo out, so cross your fingers!