A Story Years in the Making

At the beginning, I actually wasn't sure if Gil was the character I wanted to choose. Here's a dumpy doodle of him alongside "Choux," who was another contender for the game jam (I'll reveal more about him another time)! A third character that I sketched (very poorly) was below these two, but they were cropped out... maybe someday I'll share who that was. Because of the angle of Gil having a treasure shop, I thought his story would be most unique to tell for the characters I was deciding between.

The character featured in this story - Gil, or Gillespie - has actually been around for a few years now, waiting to be placed into a setting where he can be introduced to the world. There's also an interconnected web of characters who are mostly shopkeeps - all with backstories, personalities, and desires of their own - and Gil's near the heart of the community due to his warm, welcoming personality and constant kindness. His gentle behavior belies the trauma he endured (which is the focal point of The Anniversary). I wanted to tell a story that shows no matter what you go through there will always be others around that care and want to pick you up again. So where did his character start?

Much of my creative inspiration comes from... Neopets!! I love to create them and use the Neopet itself as a base, making a character with elements from that critter but not being specifically tied to it. Gil started out as a purple cybunny, which is why most of him is purple with orange elements (like the orange spots that were in the original Neopet color design)! In my story, I wouldn't consider the character an actual Neopet... more like some kind of creature, thus why I refer to him as "rabbit-like" instead of full bun. The other characters in the story are all based on Neopets too... maybe you'll meet them someday!

When I was still figuring out how I wanted to make the game (I ended up taking a more "kinetic novel" instead of a traditional "visual novel" approach), I made a bunch of sketches of Gil with some basic expressions. At the time, I hadn't figured out what sort of "story" to tell yet!

You can see that I was trying to figure out what sort of basic pose you'd see Gil in. I had originally thought about the reader as a customer to his treasure shop, so Gil would greet you at the front counter with his signature grandfatherly warmth.

Chris and I were sipping away at an iced chocolate drink from our favorite coffee spot while I hastily scribbled these expressions for Gil. They're pretty basic since I was trying to figure out what could easily replace the middle of his face (one of the stipulations for the O2A2 jam is that you couldn't use multiple portraits, but replacing expressions on the same sprite are fine!).

The story itself had to be only 1000 words or less; very short, which is alright with me since I've been under no small amount of stress lately. Back in November, my partner participated in his very first NaNoWriMo, and I'd meant to join him... however, due to obligations at the time, the most I could eke out was a simple 500-word story about Gil waking up on a stormy night. The Anniversary took that base idea I'd wanted to write about and expanded upon it, while changing many of the integral details of what drives the story itself. Like I've said before: I've been wanting to introduce everyone to Gil for awhile!!

The Settings

The story mentions three locations: an unknown cave, Gil's treasure shop Banquet of Bargains, and a Coffee Shop that's down the street from Gil's place. Banquet of Bargains is actually the name of my shop on Neopets, which also shows the "purple cybunny" Gil as its shopkeep!! The story of the shop itself is that Gil and Luahnn would fill it with treasures from their adventures to share the world with others at an affordable price (or even gifting things for free, due to Gil's charitable nature). Nowadays Gil actually relies on someone else to gather most of the shop's inventory since it's harder for him to go out... maybe I'll touch on that character in another story! The Coffee Shop features characters that were hinted at in the game which I DO plan to create another game for: two of Gil's friends, one of which baked the cookies, and the other is the coffee shop's owner and brewer of the tea. The cave's only one of many that Gil and Luahnn had ventured into during their many escapades together and isn't specifically significant... though you can see the glowing flower that Luahnn found on a shelf in The Anniversary's single game illustration.

Here's my initial sketch for the illustration from the game! There were some changes made... can you tell what they were? There are also quite a few easter eggs in the background, such as... a tiny copy of Beautiful Monsters on the shelf near the flower! I had asked my partner for suggestions on things to include and he had some great ideas, including that one!! There's also a lil' plushie of my Twitch channel character, a fairy crown alluding to another one of my characters, a dragon signifying Dragon Cabby (an unreleased game Chris and I have worked on and off on for a couple years), a bat signifying another unreleased game Chris and I had worked on but ALSO my friend Spacey with addition of some the pinky-purple on the wings in the final colors, a drill for Gurumin, and a silver harmonica for Ys!

The Sounds

As you probably know, I was only allowed to use one sound effect and one music track for the game jam. Chris was kind enough to let me use one of his original music pieces as the background music featured: Winter Stream. The gentle and somewhat mysterious song fit exactly the story I was telling, matching both its uneasy beginning and warm ending. Overlayed on a deep ambience, the piano, guitar, and chimes make a perfectly dream-like piece that I absolutely love. I hope you enjoy hearing it as the story progresses. Unrelated to the game, but did you know... Chris and I are in the picture on the song's cover? Hehe!

The sound effect is an especially personal touch! A few weeks ago my mom had sent me a small white bell that she decorated herself, and as soon as I heard it I felt its jingle would be perfect for an old timey shop. I hadn't done foley work in years, but recording was very easy: I used Chris' TASCAM DR-05 - a portable audio recorder - to capture the sound I needed. I took many takes of myself ringing the bell... a simple single chime, a few jingles in a row, varying intensities... before settling on the take I went with. I edited the sound in Final Cut Pro to make sure it wasn't too sharp or intense on the ears.

Putting it All Together

I learned Ren'Py specifically for this game jam so now I can use it for future projects!!! Mwahahaha!!!! It wasn't too hard to pick up; it'd been a long time since I used Python, but the way it implements it into Ren'Py is very simple. There was a little bit of weirdness when I tried to change around the GUI and had to remake the project a couple times as a result, but I quickly figured out what the dealio was (plus Chris helped me problem solve)! For anyone out there who might be considering making a visual novel of your own, do it!!! I highly recommend Ren'Py since it's free and has a really good interactive tutorial!

What's to Come

I'm hoping to make more games that act as small introductory stories to the different characters who interact with Gil. I've been thinking about them and hoping that one day I have the energy to make them come to life... hopefully in the near future this becomes a reality! It's likely the stories'll be similar to The Anniversary in the way of short visual novels that serve to showcase just a bit of the bigger picture. I'll have to figure out where to take things and what other stories I want to share overall, but I hope it's something that others might look forward to! Thanks for reading this GameDev Log - and also for playing the game, if you did - please let me know what you think!! Hearing feedback would help me know what others might be interested in and potentially shape the direction I head in... anyway, I'm wishing you a very happy day!