Welcome to the first devlog for With Bodies They Walk!

I feel like I've had the idea for this game for forever, but I have other ideas on my project board that have existed for years longer haha.

I'll try to release one devlog a week if it's applicable and if I get anything worthwhile done haha. As usual, you can follow along with the development on the With Bodies They Walk trello board. All of my active projects can always be followed along with through Trello.

Anyway - lets begin!

1. I'm starting this jam at an immediate disadvantage! My family and I decided to pick the first weekend of September to go camping. Knowing this in advance when the Spooktober VN 2022 jam was announced at the beginning of August, I knew I'd have to get as much as I was allowed to get done before August 31st. This meant pre-production things, like writing a story outline, getting asset concepts to a "colorless concept" phase, getting a final list of assets that needed to be created, organizing my trello board, and then snagging the solo logo for the jam to include it in the splash screen as per the submission guidelines. I even started writing this devlog 3 weeks in advance and updated it whenever I had information to put into it, so that I could be ready on August 31st.
2. On September 4th, when we returned I got started on the full story. Because it's a visual novel, the novel part needed to be completed first so I could have a clear grasp on where this project is headed. This took about 6-7 days, and once the final draft was proof read, it came out to over 29,000 words. It was fun listening to horror/creepy themed playlists for this!
3. After this, it was time for backgrounds. I decided, after months of drawing assets for my other game, Rainbow Heartbeats, I used creative commons images and altered them to suit the atmosphere of the game. All images were sourced from Unsplash, and the credits for them will be included in the final game as well.
4. From there, I worked on some of the various sprites/art I'd need. I started with paper, of which I needed 14 of. Again, I took to Unsplash to grab some images and altered them.
5. I did extend some feelers for getting 2 male voice actors for two of the characters. Not being male myself has left me at... a bit of a disadvantage haha. So I did utilize the casting call club that Spooktober has set up. I already have a couple auditions so I'm glad for that! :D
6. After that, the last thing I worked on today is UI. I wanted a couple of custom things for the interface, including a custom cursor, and a few other images.
7. That'll do it for this week! If I can manage it, I'll try to get some more work done tomorrow, but it might not be until the evening since I do have a day job lol.

Thanks for tuning in!