Key Events
• Parallax for each scene.
• 3 more levels designed.

I’ve spent every day of the past two weeks working on story. The good news is that it was worth the effort. There is a noticeable jump in quality, and it makes me feel a bit of pride for the product. I’m now optimistic that one or two more rounds of polish along with some sound and music will make it a worthy purchase for gamers. The bad news is that I still have one or two more rounds of polish to go, which turns into 2-4 weeks of work. Music starts on May 4th, so at least I have a concrete deadline driving me. Otherwise, I fear that I could tinker on this forever.

Specifically, I went through each scene and added a few items:

• Blinking faces
• Parallax movement
• Basic animation
• Adjusted timing of text and camera movements
• Made chat bubbles come in and leave mid conversation

The best way to illustrate this is to look at a scene before and after that changes. Here is the first version with no rounds of polish:

And now, here is that same scene with movement:

As you can see, it already feels more alive. Imagine another round or two of incremental improvement and you’re left with a decent end product.

Outside Help

One huge aspect of story is getting help from others. So far, I have Mike Waterston helping me with script, and Scott Pellico helping with implementation. Another pair of eyes provides so much worth, so if you’re in a similar situation you should definitely ask for help and feedback. Here are some examples of the implementation feedback I’m getting.

• Wider establishing shot on scene X
• Conversation too lengthy; need shot from different angle at 2:05
• Closure needed after scene X … add dialogue?
• Hide speaker bubbles when they’re not involved with the scene
• SceneX is too still. Pan very slowly, or add dust / light movement.

If you’re open to feedback and criticism, show your work early and often as it helps a ton.

Technical Problems

While the telling of the story is going well, there are a few technical concerns I have to overcome in the next few weeks.

• Work on all devices.
• Fix memory leaks with preloading.
• Figure out how to make lighting and effects look realistic.

I have a rough idea of how I can approach each of those, but I’ll hold off discussing them in depth until I have more information.