Open Commissions, Featured Artists & My Visual Novel

Before anything else, as of writing this- I have opened up $50 commissions! I'd love to draw your OCs so if you're interested, please reach out via email or my socials. c:

Second, I will be creating special blog posts to feature cool artists that I think you should check out! The very first artist featured is my friend Kate. Click on the icon below to check out her featured page. ^^

I began kicking around the idea of learning how to code back in 2023. My plan was to use Godot as my game engine of choice. Unfortunately, I gave up. Coding was new and completely alien to me, my mind would start swimming trying to figure out what to do and where to start. I got scared and stopped trying.

Fast-forward to the fall of 2024 and I started talking to an artist I really admire. (His project is called Elemonsters and you should check it out!)

I brought up that I'd love to make Megazumi World into a real game, and he recommended that I use Ren'Py a try to practice coding. I wasn't sure at first, but I decided to give it a go.

After messing around with the program I came up with an idea: "What if I made a Megazumi World visual novel?"

It wouldn't be my dream project, but I could create a proof of concept. I was excited!

I got to work putting a bunch of ideas together and figuring out what hurdles I needed to overcome in order to make this project a reality. I knew I would have to make some concessions- but if I could get the core experience realized and emphasize the visual novel elements I could maybe create a real game!

The process wasn't easy, but I was obsessed with the project for the next few months. I struggled to figure out coding, how to implement certain ideas, mechanics, etc... but I was making more progress than ever before!

Thankfully I was able to reach out and get some extra help online and got into contact with NomnomNami who has her free Syrup Lite Ren'Py RPG Framework to help me solve a few specific coding issues.

Now I have a prototype for the game that actually works! I don't have any real art for it yet and there's still a lot of work to be done to make the game cohesive- but I'm really proud of what I've done.

I took a break from the project for a while to focus on funding. I looked into grants and applied for one but I never heard back. I also opened up commissions but I didn't have any takers. A bit deflated, I focused on making zines and checking out a few events/meetups. I also went back to learning the basics of HTML to create official website for people to check out.

With some time away I was finally able to reset and get back into planning the visual novel and work on it. I'm really excited to start developing the demo!

Plus, I'm working with two talented folks for the music: Lemonpoppyseedgames will be doing a majority of the game's themes and Loafbud who is creating fun music for the mini-games! I can't wait to show you all what we end up creating!

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