It feels like it was just yesterday that it was October 2021. The past couple years have been some of the most stressful in my life with what due to COVID, and personal family issues, work issues, etc. It's been leveling out since about March of this year, so I'm hoping it stays that way for a long, long time. I need the stability haha! As a reminder, October is a busier month due to having a holiday my family actually celebrates. Turkey Day on the 10th, and then my birthday at the end of the month. 

It shouldn't hinder developing at all but I like acknowledging it. :)

This devlog is a combination of anything I got done in September as well as October, since I spent September working on With Bodies they Walk, my Spooktober VN Jam submission and took a break from Rainbow Heartbeats.

Onwards!!

1. August
   1. The end of August seemed to be a little more productive with getting small, unassuming things done, like finalizing my credits list and fixing scripts. I did put off doing most huge investments, like interactions, major UI design, etc. Just worked on checking the small things off my trello list, you know? Just to feel like I was being productive without getting too into something I'd have to put down once I put Rainbow Heartbeats to the side to work on the game jam. It felt good. A reminder to everybody, dev or not, that even small accomplishments are still accomplishments, and that you should be working towards multiple goalposts that vary in distance. Doing the small things that give you that bit of excitement and happiness will keep you motivated to working towards the bigger things, like actually completing the game!
   2. As of the end of August, the end game-programming was in place (not as in I was done all programming, but literal reaching the end of the game as the game does not go on forever). This included a credits list accessible from the main menu and seen at the end of the game, and some end game statistics which includes how many friendships/romances you had and how many people you met.
   3. This also included the programming for any characters that leave after a certain amount of time. Currently there are 4 characters that "disappear" for various reasons after certain years. Brooks leaves after year 1. Reynash and Dahlia after year 2. Lastly Vanessa after year 3. Obviously, if you're in an active best friendship or romance with them, they will remain until you break it off. And yes, you can break off your best friendship with any regular character.
2. September
   1. I did sit down to do some not-so-important brain storming early on in the month. I realized that the friendship candies - a last minute addition for the final secret character in the game - needed their gimmick figured out. Basically, you go around to each regular character in the game (so no secret characters since they can only be dated, not befriended) and max out their friendship to get this candy. This helps advance your romance with the secret character who needs them. The dilemma became then - do you receive the candy after max friendship? Or max *best* friendship? It takes approximately 25-26 IN GAME days to get to max friendship with any one character, and would take another 20 days on top of that to max out best friendship. 25 days seems a little easy. You could do that in an hour or two if you know your way around. 40-45 days seemed more reasonable. I was getting opinions from a bunch of people I was close to about how getting the candy with regular max friendship would be hard enough, but looking at it like this definitely put it into perspective. So best friendship it was! You can work on as many friendships/best friendships as you want at a time, so you can become best friends with every regular character in the game in less than 2 in game months. Happy befriending!
   2. As a side note, I was fortunate enough to upgrade my 2 main monitors with desk mounted arms. It's freed up a lot of space on my desk, my screens are no longer blocked by my Cintiq which is on a monitor riser to reduce neck pain, and in general, just feels a lot more professional. Not gonna provide any pictures because I haven't done cable management and I don't think I will for a long time lol.
3. October
   1. Turkey and Candy time again! Because I live in Canada!
   2. With joining the Spooktober VN jam, I did obtain a new resource that I might utilize to realize my full vision of the game. Castingcall.club is a lovely little website that will allow me to find voice actors to fill the gap that Casting Call for BTVA left. I put up an entry [ENTRY], so anyone interested can visit and see what characters are still available. The deadline is Jan 1 2023 (although might be extended at my discretion), so I'm excited about that!
   3. As I expected, I was so busy in September I didn't have a chance to do a single thing for RH. So... let's get going and see if I can remember what I'm doing haha... in a week.
   4. My day job decided that they've had enough of working from home, and even though I've done my job perfectly from home for over 2 years with no actual, substantial issues (and actually work better because I'm less distracted by shrieking voices, loud laughter, and the constant junk food), I need to be brought back into the office along with all the other people in my department for the sake of... and I quote, to "build that team morale and get our team environment going so we can set the best example in the office", as if that matters to anyone else in our office, or means anything about how we do our jobs, or rather, how I do my job. Let's just say that being a team player has always been difficult for me when I'm constantly the one picking up the slack. Granted, that sentiment comes from a long history of being forced to be a team player in various environments where I was forced to pick up the slack and then punished when I couldn't, and doesn't necessarily reflect the experience I've had at this job, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and has ruined what being a "team player" means for me forever. So, what does that mean for the future of Rainbow Heartbeats? It means I'll have 36 less hours from Monday-Wednesday to work on the project. Which means it'll take longer. 🙃 To say that I'm aggressively looking for a different job is an understatement.
   5. I picked up development again after a few days off. I pushed so hard for Spooktober, I'm losing my voice because of the voice work I did, and I'm still so tired from the last 3 days of just full stress of trying to get it done. So development resumed on October 6!
   6. On October 18th I had to go on a work trip for the rest of the week, so development paused that week.
   7. Iiiiii am sick again. And had an absolutely horrible time on my work trip. But being sick means I get to work from home this week, it just sucks that I'm sick lol.
   8. Well, only 1 month into using my new monitor stands, one of my monitors failed, so I'll have to look into replacing that soon...
   9. Not much done done this month, much to my dismay. Hopefully November goes better!