This is a quick update log of my progress in my visual novel concept ‘My Dear Yumesora’, and another one of my upcoming game projects. Go here to see my previous post, and here to visit the visual novel.
It has again been quite a long time since I last did one of these update logs. And, in truth, I haven’t done very much in these 3 and a half months; it was what I was fearing somewhat, but since school started back up, I’ve been super behind schedule 
However, I did make some significant visual updates in the visual novel. It is to note that none of these are complete, so they’ll be expected to change later on;
Images
Main Menu Opening
Main Menu Screen
Credits Screen
Character Index Screen
everything else is the same, unfortunately (for now)
As for what will change in these images (and more to come), I primarily want to just draw in Yumesora (the main heroine/ deuteragonist) into each of the background images; for example, the bridge scene is planned to have Yumesora leaning against the guard rail (I also never got to this stage yet).
Regardless of these visual changes, there were also some changes to the gameplay mechanics of the visual novel, and story changes on top of that. If you wish to get a synopsis of the “improved” storyline, it’ll be provided below;
Whole lotta words
In the “revised” MDY storyline, it will be a mixture of a coming-of-age romantic comedy tied in with an anti-war storyline in the later half of the story. I explained it rather poorly in this update log, but it’s really an anti-war story at its core. The first half is designed to be a lovey-dovey romance story in order to “blind” the player with a seemingly normal visual novel; take DDLC, for example. Unlike that VN though, the plot twist involves shifting towards a rather gruesome “War Arc”. I know that it feels like adding the whole romance story prior to the war arc sounds useless; I could really just write an anti-war story and call it a day. But, I reckon why not try a challenge? Plus, the whole reason for the romance half of the story is just to build upon a familiar world with compelling characters, just so the war portion of the story feels much more “real”. Kind of trying to mimick how regular people with their own lives can often be roped up into these kinds of situations, as seen throughout history.
For the first half of the story, the primary plot minus the romantic path is based around the character’s school (Argyle Senior High School (fictional)) and band program. It’s stated in the MDY synopsis; “[Yumesora] draws your attention… the two of you grow together in class and band…” What this means is that one of the main goals in this half of the story is to not only grow a relationship with the heroine, but also grow in musicianship and compete in music competitions to eventually aim to win first place at the (somewhat) fictional MMEA All-State High School Music Competition alongside friends, acquaintances, and of course Yumesora (MMEA All-State is actually real, though it’s not a competition in the sense that it is portrayed in the VN).
The second major plot in the VN concerns the coming-of-age and self-discovery of the protagonist (that also runs synonymous with the first major plot), viewed through the player (since the player is a self-insert of the protagonist). This is largely tied in with the romance of the storyline, as it is seen through the relationship with Yumesora a view of self-discovery that the protagonist starts to find themselves and establish their foothold in adult life.
And now, of course, the third major plot completely throws away everything that was seen in the previous arc, representing a massive plot twist and change in storytelling. No longer does the VN explore themes of love, relationships and coming-of-age; this portion of the VN explores themes of war, brotherhood, mental illness, survival, the loss of innocence, and the overall futility of conflict (including some political and geopolitical concepts). As explained above, this sudden shift in tone mimicks real life, where someone living a completely normal life can suddenly have their lives turned around in a heartbeat due to global turmoil. And, also explained above, this half of the VN is not intended to romanticize war or make the protagonist a hero. It’s just supposed to warn the player the consequences war has when reflected upon themselves, especially in times like today (rip our current and future generations 
), and inspires peace given the sheer brutal conditions faced in this arc.
Now, the war arc of the VN doesn’t simply disregard everything that has occured prior. One of the main themes explored is longing and nostalgia, or the desire to return back home. It’s one of the primary goals of the war arc, and serves as a reminder of the protagonist’s sense of purpose. There is also a smaller romantic plot within this war arc that explores themes of desperation and healing; like the rest of the war arc though, this short-lived romantic plot does end rather tragically.
And, for the ending of the VN, it’s kind of a bit of a cliff-hanger. For most of the war arc, you’d probably just end up getting killed; this translates to real life, and how even minute mistakes, miscalculations or quick actions in battle can lead to catastrophic consequences (for the protagonist/ player). Luckily here though, you just kind of “respawn” back to the beginning of the chapter per each death ending. And, since the story is organized into a flowchart, you can see which routes were taken and decide where to change future decisions. Regardless, the few “surviving” endings again show how war has changed or altered the protagonist and their relationships back at home, and just kind of ends; it’s up to the player’s imagination to explore a continuation of the story.
Again, I know how seemingly pointless it was to make the story of this VN a hundred times more complex. But, if it makes you feel any better, I’m also synonymously planning on making a more contemporary romantic VN (also on Roblox), with a separate plot and different set of characters which is what you’d expect with most romance visual novels out there. Don’t expect it to come out anytime soon though, lest I give up on this project (hopefully I don’t )
I have been on a drive to improve the visuals of the game, actually finish the character sprites and make the story as best-written as possible to my abilities. In which, I may go on with a 4th character sprite overhaul since my art style keeps changing . On that, what’s good is that I only really changed how I draw my character’s eyes, so everything else form the proportions to the coloring will probably remain. It is to note that I haven’t actually given any examples of the new Yumesora sprite design, so I’ll provide the lineart and horrendous coloring below;
Incomplete Sprites
Top view:
(ik my coloring has barely gone anywhere omg)
Full body:
(idk why im coloring her head without finishing her lower body lol)
I forgot if I had shown this new design yet (which I made like a few months back, weirdly enough), but if not, here it is. This is obviously a big departure from my previous sprite in terms of artstyle; luckily, it seems that my artstyle has finally found its place, considering all of the sketches I’ve made have been in the same style of drawing I’ve grown accustomed to. So, if you were to imagine any other female character sprites and designs, they’ll probably look a little like Yumesora (I’ll try not to purposefully make the secondary characters “bland” on purpose, since they gotta be lookin’ 
as well)
But with that said, I’m mostly done explaining changes and future improvements to the VN. What I want to go on next is another rather big game project, or series of games that I wanted to make. The explanation will be below:
Extras
One of the biggest ambitions I’ve had, outside of the My Dear Yumesora VN, is to make an Attack on Titan fan-game. Again, to be made here on Roblox. I used to be a really massive fan on the anime, and even to this day still enjoy the story (especially when I realize just how deep it gets). I also enjoyed both official games when they came out, for which recently I had an idea; why not try to create a story-driven AoT game on Roblox?
You of course have games like Attack on Titan: Freedom War which has its own perma-death campaign. But, that’s not really a “story game”, given the campaign is multiplayer and is experienced throughout a singular match. And, the campaign itself isn’t really told as a story, but more of a series of interconnecting events which require prior knowledge of the actual AoT story to make any sense of it.
What I am trying to do is to make a game inspired heavily by Attack on Titan 2 (sequel of Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom that came out in 2016), with an actual plot and storyline to go with it. I won’t get in-depth into what I’ve written, but it revolves around the story of the player (playing as a self-insert of themselves as the game’s protagonist, just like AoT 2 or my VN) and another protagonist/ heroine known as “Anneliese Beltz” (she’s actually based on a character from MDY, since I figured why not recycle characters ). The story runs synonymous to the actual AoT anime/ manga, but follows a fresh new set of characters with their own story to tell. And, just like AoT 2, the new characters are introduced and seen synonymous with the actual “cast” of the original show.
I kind of want this game to incorporate elements of a visual novel, particularly in certain dialogue and cutscenes. But unlike MDY, this game is actually 3D and has actual combat mechanics. Really, it is to be made using my previous experience making My Dear Yumesora, and putting that into an action-packed game that might actually attract players outside of the VN community.
That’s all I really wanted to get in here with though. Rest assured, I’m probably not gonna use all my time working on this game and temporarily cease development of My Dear Yumesora or my other planned VN after MDY. And, because I’m currently stuck trying to script and make the teammate NPC’s work (which is difficult since I’ve never made an NPC, and now have to make it move, fly with ODM gear while making sense, and attacking enemies from the nape just like how the player would do so). Plus, this AoT fangame project would definitely take a ton of more time and commitment than my MDY VN, so, I probably won’'t try to work much on it until I both finish school and finally perfect the titan and ally NPCs.
With that , that’s about everything I wanted to say. I’ll be ending the update log here, and indeed, I thank you for reading this up till the end, for which I wish you a great day/ night.