It's Over... Isn't It? [15/11/2023]

It's been awhile! Awoo to you!

There's important news. Soon, Homolupus' Itch page wil be LIVE, with a Steam page still in the works! The game is COMING OUT! I'm so excited to see where it goes and what people have to say about it. In addition, tomorrow night is our graduate showcase, where Homolupus will be available for the public to play for three days straight! It's very exciting, humbling and bittersweet to be graduating. Now I've been enjoying my time away with twitchy anticipation for what to do next.

For now, you can download the game here:
https://monkeydogsoftprod.itch.io/homolupus 

So, what's next for Homolupus? It's definitely not over. However, I'm stepping back from the game route for the time being. Just this demo was enough to squeeze the dev-energy out of me. I don't think it's where Homolupus' future lies. Truth be told, I've always wanted to write and illustrate graphic novels or comics. That was what Homolupus was originally supposed to be, before I incorporated it into my degree. Now... I lie in wait for inspiration... any time now... any time.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. This may not be the last post I make in this blog, but if it is, I'm glad that you read it and I'm glad that you're here! 

End of the Road, Wild Wolves!

- Monkeydog

Oh! Naomi! [30/10/2023]

Hi!

It's been a second. Mainly, I've been absentminded because this is the last post I'll make before the game in due, and therefore complete. I've done alot. I've worked alot. I'm proud of myself and my achievements. That's all I have to say. Therefore, here's a final look at the developments before release and bug fixing!

NAOMI IS DONE!!! After all this time, all it took was some knuckling down and getting her done with. She's probably the model I'm most proud of in the game. Even though her fur details look a little silly, I just love how she turned out, especially her hair. Her design's my favourite out of the main three. Just look at her go!

In other news, the End Room cutscene is almost done. That is also to say I'm redoing alot of it. Dissasatisfied with the Callers dialogue, and still need to fix the LH not rising to the top of the metre and find a way to add the pulsating LH Canvas. I finally textured the Station Overpass, and did some graffiti scribbling on the sides for destressing.

There's now lots of new sound. Footsteps, music in every scene, lots of event SFX. My main struggle has been with knocking out those goddamn popping sounds in the audio files. There's new splash screens with cute borders too. The opening cutscene is still an enigma. I need to figure out the imagery stat.

    

Most of everything else has been the same. I mean, it hasn't. It's grown exponentially and become so well defined and full. But at the same time, I have nothing left to think of! It's just so close to being there! It's so almost done!

I love you all, and especially you, yourself. Thank you for reading this. And thank you for being around.

- Monkeydog

Hmm... [23/10/2023]

I'm sure I do have stuff to share, but I had such a long day today... I swear I'm working hard! But it's only in small increments. I'm tired and I'm over it all. But soon we'll be done... sorry today!

-Monkeydog

Quickbite [16/10/2023]

 I'll make this update quick and bulleted because theres only little things to say!

- Added interactions around Roadside and a nice big multi-choice conversation with Naomi. The Playground area in Roadside was gonna become a thing, but then it sucked so its out.

- Changed particles to be nice and fluffy.

- Beautfied Title Screen, Pause Screen and added Credits Screen. Opening Cutscene is also now ready for beautification.

- Added scrolling window background in The Den

- Added ability to call Lang anywhere and anytime (just need to write his Handradio specific dialogue)

- ADDED SOUND!!!!! Now we have a beautiful sound manager that comprises music, atmos, SFX and even character dialogue babbling! Inplementing everything is still in progress but yippee to this!

- And more!

Anxiety is beginning to mount. Theres so much still to do. Mainly 4 Essential tasks: Naomi Modelling, the Ending, Exegesis and Sound Completion. I've just got to get back into my schedule and face it.

- Monkeydog

Sorry To (Not) Bother You [09/10/2023]

Whoops! No progress!

I went away for the week to see my grandma. It was a nice rest period and in that time not a thing changed on Homolupus. That's okay. In worse news, this next week will be strained on progress too, due to an influx of Real Work. That's fine. I will survive!... with great strife and pressure. 3 weeks to go! Let's see how this goes...

- Monkeydog

<3<3<3

It's Coming Up! [02/10/2023]

Hiya!

For once in a while, I feel good about this. It is genuinely coming together. Over the next month, basically my only objective is to complete the checklist of minor and major tasks before the hand-in date, at which point, if I do everything I need to do, the game will be ready to RELEASE! Yes, RELEASE! One of those tasks include trying to make the game Mac compatible, but for now, lets CHEER and CELEBRATE! This weeks work was scattered, but full of good leaps!

First of all, the Station scene from last week has undergone a complete overhaul! It's now a roadside dive near a neighbouring snowed-in town. The overpass is obviously incomplete and in need of texturing, and perhaps extending so that Cliff emerges out of the darkness of the tunnel into the blustering snow. I want to add graffiti, like cave paintings, that tell the story of the area and the relationship between humans and wolves. Around the station itself, I still want to add more interactables, such as an item to pick up by digging through the dumpster, originally intended to be Biltong which could be used to lower LH going into the ending scene.

Speaking of the ending scene, et voila! Now, this was originally supposed to be the gas-station shootout, but I realised that was scoping way too wide. I wanted something more intimate, more Lynchian. I couldn't do the Red Room or the Black Lodge, but I have here something similar; Cliff and the Woman on The Phone, like Lost Highways "I'm there right now. Call me." As the scene progresses, Cliff gets more and more afraid, and the LH rises until tipping point, where-in he crumples to the floor, blacks out, and the game ends! That part is a work in progress (it'll have to be done in Timelines).

Other fixes include finally adding Lang's model to the Cage Scene (and thus never having to touch this ever again) and adding a mirror in the bathroom, among other small fixes. 

If I'm honest, the thing that scares me the most is the absence of sound. Sound is hard shit. That will be very much the driving fear of the next month. With the new Gantt Timeline set up, all that's left to do is make good on my promises. But the good thing is; I'm not afraid!

Much love,

- Monkeydog

Lángrén Blues [25/09/2023]

Good afternoon, good evening and good night!

Lots of progress ahcieved since last week, leading up to playtesting round 2 on Thursday. Most importantly, Lang is finally in the flesh! It was so much less hassle than I anticipated to finsih him. I just got into the groove over the course of 2-3 days and knocked him out. Finally! I think he's ended up looking pretty good, with only a couple issues I'll eventually need to tweak, 1. His over-shirt needs to be more transparent 2. His chin and head squash and stretch with his mixamo animations and 3. I need to change his sitting position in the Den so he doesn't look so crazy. Additionally, I still need to implement him into the Cage cutscene by replacing the Cliff-clone with him. Also, I'm now starting to see the real draw to having heads that turn to follow the player around on NPCS. This may be a future endeavour.

I've also made additions in alot of other places, like the Roadside scene. Naomi now has her sprites implemented! So cute and so gorgeous. She also now glides away after talking to the player to lead them down the road. The collider that takes the player to the Station scene when triggered is still broken, but easy enough to fix. 

And that's another thing; the station! This is where the final part of the game will take place, one environment externally and one environment internally. I made these as experimental mockups for when this part would involve filling up a canister of gas at a gasstation, but now that I'm thinking of ditching this (that van would use up too much gas to make this realistic, it should really be solar powered) the gas station set may go too. I do like the little road tunnel though, I'll add some dripping water for atmosphere and some garbage to sift through. The station itself may instead become another strucutre, or could be kept as a gas station with an abanoned city complex behind it, who knows? Its a WIP, but it needs to WIP faster.

There's also the advent of the title screen and pause screen being added! These are also WIPS, but are very much functional and just waiting to be pretty-ified.

And a final nice new thing, calling using the Hand Radio (and using items in general) now works! To be honest, I don't even know what I'm using it for. But... we'll see...

That's it for today! It's been, in all honesty, a good week! Whatevers next on the agenda is in the list below, and after that, it's all hands on deck for the final level and completing it all. Wish me luck!

- Monkeydog