So I read a comment by Sowainne

And I've come to some conclusions, which I want to make clear.

The comment was regarding the quality of the game's graphics and how some questionable choices were made while drawing them, the anatomy is off, all that.

And I wholeheartedly agree. I, myself, am not satisfied with how this game looks. It has always been my most major gripe with this project - the game just looks very low-budgety to me and it bothers me, probably more than it bothers anyone else. It's not that I don't have an eye good enough to spot the things that are wrong, most of the time I see them but have no way of fixing them. Other times I see what's wrong with, say, a sprite and realize that fixing it would mean redoing it from scratch. And I realize I have many other things to do on this project, so I decide to leave it for when I have more time.

But that time never comes.

And we end up with janky, unfinished graphics that I take years to replace for that exact reason - I always think I have more productive things to do, like writing, drawing new assets, music, coding, whatever else. And to some extent, it's a valid point - if I wanted to redo graphics as my main priority, the game would never progress because I'm still learning and with every new drawing the older ones would look even worse by comparison. I'm a perfectionist and I'm never quite proud of anything I make - I'm very critical of my work. I feel like if I were to try and perfect the graphics I would drive myself mad with anxiety, I would drop the project and possibly every other activity along with it, it just wouldn't be good for anyone, I think.

So how do I fix this?

The solution I came up with just now (it's why I decided to write this post) is quite simple. I will try to focus on finishing the game first. Writing, coding, music - things that don't require much fixing. On top of that, I should have a full script written before anything else if I want voice acting, which I still do.

Once the game is roughly done, I will go through all the graphics and see what needs fixing. I might redo some sprites at the last second before release - it's to ensure that I won't get better over the course of development and decide they're still not good enough and that I have to redraw them again.

Redoing assets multiple times slows down development considerably

I felt like I should explain that, since most VN devs hire professionals - they don't really change their style or technique over time, like I do. I'm still learning and in my mind, my work is free. Which unfortunately means that I will redo things. A lot.

To prevent this, I will try not to think of the demo and how it looks, because that's the main reason why I keep replacing things, and focus on working on the full game. I hope.

In short:

Many assets need to be remade in this game. I realize that and will adress the problem once the writing and coding for the game is done. If you have issues with the current graphics, don't worry - there will be a time near the end of development where I will fix everything that looks wrong on lacks polish (the game will lack polish until after I finish it, if we're talking about the language... okay I'll stop) - I'm very critical of the quality of this game and I want everything to look as good as I can make it before the final product is released.

I hope some of you guys' worries have been adressed. If anyone has any problem with the game, don't be afraid to bring it up - valid criticism is not hating.

Lots of love <3