devlogue apr 25

right now I'm watching an elderly woman sweep leaves in this park. with a bamboo sweep. I didn't have enough money on my travel card for the bus to the museum of contemporary art so I'm walking. . . it's a nice day don't worry :)

but this elderly lady... let me try and read her jacket

.. it says something like silver person center? let me research it… oh it's like a volunteer program for the elderly who want to be more active and help the community!!! that's good I was kind of worried she was sweeping leaves just to get by. this dog over here is staring at me so intently... if youre in the park and look around it's crazy how many people are in the same place but not communicating. We're all in this same environment and aware but too embarrassed to talk. well I'm mostly scared of people until I remind myself not to be, maybe others are the same ...

kin is like this a lot ! it's really nice writing a character with a flawed worldview, from their pov. I get to play around with perception and lies and expectations... one of my favourite things about visual novels is the timing of the text! maybe you noticed in the soulstation demo that other characters continue to speak without clicking, but when kin is speaking the player must click to continue each sentence.

I initially did that to help you feel more like kin - putting in more effort to communicate with the world. but it also means I can give different characters slightly different voices by making them speak slower, or pause longer between sentences. or maybe they'll surprise kin by suddenly speaking without waiting!!!

when people say visual novels are just books with images I think they must not notice how much thought goes into time. I'm a musician by heart, and I think of most things through the lens of music: which is a time-based art form. you have to think about tension and release, and how your body and heart are feeling, what they're anticipating and what they want to hear. coding soulstation feels like this to me at a much (MUCH!) longer timescale.

do you ever feel like some days your eyes defocus all the time unless you're actively focusing? I think it's more a tiredness thing than having poor vision for me, because it only happens some days. I sort of have to remember to look at things actively. even though it's uncomfortable.... it feels uncomfortable to purposefully focus again after defocusing right! does anybody know why?

so don't forget to not be scared of people. and to focus your eyes:) let's start there today

it's the 2 year anniversary of when me and my best friend decided to tell each other we really love each other. we made this game studio together, and we're making soulstation together. it's really nice to starstep our feelings into something real we can hold. maybe a lot of art is when you turn your feelings into something real

that's step 3 for today

• gray ☆