Hello everyone! 😊
Hope you had a wonderful week! 😃

What might she be scheming this time?

Progress this week

Web version for v0.5.0

The web version of v0.5.0 is now working! ✨

It now uses Ren'Py's progressive download feature, which loads most images only when needed instead of all at once.

👎The downside: Images may briefly appear pixelated before fully loading.
👍The upside: RAM usage is much lower, and the game runs more smoothly in the browser.

It's still not perfect, though. In my tests, the game tab occasionally reloads when the RAM or cache gets too full — but this happens much less than before.

Therefore, the recommended way to play the browser version is: SAVE OFTEN! 😅 (using quick save, for example)

And when the game tab reloads, just continue from your latest save.

This solution still isn't perfect: using the progressive download feature means the image files are no longer packed as a zip in the web version. Instead, they're present as separate files, which increases the total file count.

And guess what: the itch.io browser upload has a limit on the total number of files in the game (1000 files) 😅

So yeah, it's still a compromise and a constant fight against the limitations... 😑

As mentioned in previous dev logs, sooner or later it'll become impossible to maintain the web version for future updates 😞

Other progress

Outside of the web version, I mainly worked on some backgrounds for the next update, and on the dialogue. 📜
It's slowly coming together, and my vision for v0.6.0 is getting clearer... but there's still a lot left to do! 🧑‍🏭

I also worked on the design for a new story element...
I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll leave it at that! 🤫

I played around with some new minigame ideas too... it's pretty amazing how many interesting games there are around the world that only need something simple like a Poker card set or black and white stones! 😊

Plans for next week

I'll continue where I left off: the dialogue, the CGs, and everything else.
Lot to do, lot to do! 💦

That's all from me for this week!

Have a great one, and see you all next Sunday 👋😊