🔧 Devlog 12 – Text Animation, Echo Upgrades & 21k Words Written

Hey all!

This week's devlog will probably be a bit shorter because a lot of it has been more technical behind-the-scenes stuff.

🧠 A quick reflection

I had to take a couple of days off this week. I was mentally drained, and forcing myself to write when I'm like that usually leads to weaker scenes. Still, I managed to push forward and add over 5,000 new words, bringing the current count to 21,000 words!

Here's a quick summary of what’s already written and implemented:

• ✅ New content for Matt, Mafalda, and a new character
  → Unlocked by having a first good interaction with Mafalda
  

• ✅ New Joel content
  → Also unlocked through Mafalda's first good interaction
  

• ✅ End-of-night content and special training session with Diego
  → Now complete!
  

• ✅ Extra Harry scene the next morning
  → Unlocked by sleeping in his room
  

• ✅ Start of the new chapter, with
  → New systems explained via one-time tutorial pop-ups (toggleable in preferences)
  
  

📝 If I reach 30k words…

I promised myself: if I hit 30k words for this patch, I’ll try to increase the content of patch 0.4 up to 20k words, including the following as well:

• ✏️ Add a bit more content to Harry’s next-day scene, so it feels less short and more meaningful

• 🔄 Rewrite Matt’s training to use the new combat system

• 🥊 Begin the Matt vs Diego sequence, including the next morning, customizable Ren backstory and a small intro to the next patch
  

Let’s see if I get there (without sacrificing quality). Writing scenes that take place at the stadium will slow me down. They require new visuals, structural planning and scene layout before the words even hit the page.

✨ Text animation upgrades

Near the end of patch 0.3, I started experimenting with text animations: staggered ellipses, timed pauses mid-sentence, and so on. I was doing it all manually with codes like {w=0.1}.{w=0.1}.{w=0.1}.{w=0.2} — and let me tell you, it was getting exhausting.

Then it hit me: “What if I could automate this across all dialogue at once?”
Turns out... I could 😄 and so I got into coding.

Now the system automatically converts ellipses and pauses without me needing to input them line by line. It detects different punctuation and makes pauses accordingly. Big win here, both in time and sanity!

📘 Updating older content to match the Echo & Knowledge system

This part is... well, kind of boring. Not gonna lie.
It’s not that I mind revisiting old content, but I’m much more excited about creating new scenes.

Still, it's a necessary step. Updating older choices to work with the improved Echo and Knowledge systems will make your experience more consistent and while doing it, I’m also reorganizing the internal key system that Mark will use to build the Memory Log UI. That log will help you keep track of the choices you've made and the information you’ve unlocked about each character.

So yes, it’s time-consuming but it’s worth it. 💪

That’s it for now. I’m hoping next week brings more creative energy (and even more content 👀).
Thanks for reading and see you soon!