ok so much progress has been made since the last post!! firstly I fixed the positioning issue with the messaging window — it turns out that I'd updated ren'py partway through the process, and one (1) thing works slightly differently between the versions so switching back completely solved the issue. kleineluka very kindly provided a fix but tbh I'm doing ok with the outdated version

also, you may have noticed that there's a new window on the top left! since the game is entirely set on a computer desktop and there aren't really separate 'scenes', I thought it'd be neat if the player were able to control the music through a little player! I massively overcomplicated the issue at first but (as per usual) it turns out that ren'py has a built-in function for that, and it just took a little fiddling to make it look the way I wanted :) I heavily referenced this dev diary post from nomnomnami , which was immensely helpful!! the game that it's for is super cute too, you should check it out

overall I'm really happy with how the production process is going! I've been using organisational tools more often and to my great disappointment it's actually working and other people were right

one thing that's really helped me is joplin, which is basically just like a note-taking thing for your computer? I make a new notebook for every game (a whopping TWO so far) and then I divvy that up into to-do lists for different areas, as seen above. I find it very difficult to remember which tasks I need to do/have already completed unless I have them down somewhere, so it's very handy! this isn't an ad I just really like to-do lists ok

PROGRESS!!!! HOORAY!!!! yesterday we went on a nice little day trip and I went 'ahh that was so nice :)' and then slept for five hours. and Then I woke up and did some more work on this, which you can see below

the desktop icons are actually image buttons which have actions attached to them — like the settings one opens up the actual settings menu, which I think is pretty neat. originally I just had the cog and folder for the essentials, but then it occurred to me that it'd be kind of weird to have your messenger app open the whole time, so my task for today and yesterday was to put in the image button and have it toggle the chat window on/off... an intimidating task indeed...

just kidding it was actually pretty easy; it turns out that ren'py has a built-in function for toggling screens on and off (instead of showing or hiding them), so I didn't have to do any of the else/if stuff I thought I would. laziness wins #yay

of course, the downside to all this is that during the process of making these fun little buttons, the padding/positioning of a bunch of stuff within the window got totally broken :( I've been fiddling with the variables in the file, but none of it seems to be sticking and I'm pretty tired so I think I'll have to leave it for tomorrow

I've started properly working on the messenging app game! I should come up with a name at some point but I'd feel silly agonising over it this early on... anyway here's what I've got so far :]

I essentially just inserted my own images (made in pixquare + aseprite) to make it look less like a phone and more like desktop messaging software — I might tweak the bubbles a little bit more but other things are my priority right now, such as Literally Everything Else. my plan is to make a custom screen that'll show desktop icons, which will take you to the preferences, save/load etc. screens when clicked! it actually seems relatively simple from my research (🤓) buuuut my brain is like sludge today and we're going on a little trip tomorrow so. I'm sticking to my comfort zone and just making assets for now. lots of fun though!! the colour palette I'm working with ( pastel qt by polyphrog ) is so pleasing to the eye