Friday, Friday, Friday.  Blog post day.  Let’s get this started up and proper.

What happened this week?  Well:

-Writing is continuing smoothly

-More scenes up in-engine

-Music library continues to grow
-Some sprite work has been done (see below)

When we first started this project, we knew a couple things right away:

• Given the nature of what we were doing, we would have a good amount of side characters

• Our main characters would have to be extremely expressive.  There’s a small number of them, so we can put in that extra effort.

This totals a LOT of sprites.  Like a lot-lot.  A lot CUBED.  We knew Twrlare had to focus on our main characters because of his sketchy style, but throwing side characters into the mix totals a good chunk of work.  Too much for one person to do, especially on a small project like this.

As a result, Dubs stepped up to the plate and offered to help.  Since Twr has such a unique style, we knew there was going to be some design inconsistencies between our two sprite artists.  Because of this, we divided the work up so Twr handles all of the major characters while Dubs focuses on our side-cast.  This way the sprites could be given room to clash a bit while still keeping everything as consistent as we could make it.

For reference, here is a comparison between the two styles.  On the left is Twr, while on the right is Dubs.  Oh, also, new character I guess.

Original Character, DO NOT STEAL

Over the week we’ve been watching the threads, chats and blog posts and have compiled a list of answers for your questions.  Let’s go ahead and get this started.

Will there be a Mac release?

Yes.  We’re shooting for a Mac/Linux/Windows release.  We already have the current dev build up and running on OS X and Linux.

What’s the tone? Am I going to be laughing the entire time or will there be feels?

The best way to answer this is to point out that “parody” doesn’t always mean “SIDE-MOVING SIMULATOR 2012.”  Past that: WHO CAN SAY?

Why the name Salty Tears?

Because we were making a Circlejerk VN.  Our first thought was “Everyone is going to HATE us for this” so we went with the name that matched the reaction we were expecting.  And then you jerks were actually open to the idea, making the name meaningless.  THANKS.

Will it contain any adult content?

Probably?  There are some members who aren’t fond of the idea (YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHO) but we work as a DEMOCRACY.

To build on this. If there is adult content, can we disable it?

That’s the plan.

>not wanting to fap to Caps or That Guy

You are gonna be grinding the fuck up on them.

Only thing you’re gonna be feeling is Caps’ fine gluteus maximus.

These Aren’t Even Questions.

You keep mentioning Act 1. Are you following the KS format? (Act 1+Each route is three acts?)

We’ll be following the act system, though the game is only split in two acts.  Act 1, which is your typical set-up act and Act 2, which is the girl’s route in it’s entirety.

About what length will the final game be?

We honestly couldn’t tell you.  It’s not that we don’t want to, it’s just that we SERIOUSLY DON’T KNOW.  It will be short, though.

Is that girl from the last post a route or just a side character? You were really vague about that.

Yes.

With all of the drama in the current thread I figured I’d ask how strict you’re going to be with derivative works? Any plans for a source code release?

We have a creative commons thingamajig at the bottom of the blog.  That same license will apply to the product itself.  You can check that out in detail on your own, but to answer your question it does allow derivatives.  The current plan is to release the source code a little while after the actual game launches, but we don’t have any final plans in that regard yet so take that with a grain of SALT.

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Aaaaaand that is it for the Q&A.;  Thanks for all of the great questions!

OH RIGHT, before I forget.  We have a public IRC now.  THAT IS ALL.

It’s Monday, which means it’s time for an (admittedly empty) blog post.

 What did we get done over the weekend? Well, eh:

-Finalizing of act 1 script is continuing at a steady pace
-Started applying finished dialogue to the devbuild
-Updated the version of Ren’py we’re using
-Finalized a list of needed assets
-Got a touch of outside help to refine our style ever so slightly

 So, yeah. Productive, but not in any way that will really interest you. Sorry! On the bright side, we have officially broken ground and we have our first scene up and finalized in-engine. PROGRESS! 

Well, I lied. Odds are that little bit about artstyle refinement has you at least a little curious. Our backgrounds, (if we say so ourselves) looked pretty great, as you had seen from previous release screenshots. There was concern in the team that if we ended up using the same color palette, all of our backgrounds would suffer from a “same-y” look and would end up being nothing remarkable. ON THE OTHER HAND if we soaked the backgrounds in too much color it’d be difficult to convey that warm, on-paper look we were going for.

 So we went ahead and asked for some outside opinion. After what seemed like endless experimenting, our background artist Curchack found a balance that everyone was happy with. Here’s a before-and-after picture for comparison.

 Given the kind of project this is, we’ve seen some questions and concerns about what Salty Tears exactly is, how we’re handling it, etc. So we went ahead and decided to open up a Q&A.; Ask your questions either in the blog comments or in the Salty Tears Steam group, and we’ll bundle them all up and answer the ones we can (without spoiling anything). The answers will come in the Friday post. So there you go. Open forum. **ASK US ANYTHING! **

Is it Friday already?  Well darn, I guess that means it’s time for another blog post.  As is typical, let’s run off what’s new:

• The main menu is up and running now

• A WIP track for the main menu has been composed

• Act 1 outline is complete, first draft writing has begun

• Some character concepts have been sketched up

• Boring behind-the-scenes stuff that you don’t care about has been taken care of

Grab the song used in the video [HERE].

Before we hit anything else, I want to point out that we now have a public steam group that you can join to stay informed on things like when we make blog posts or other such nonsense.  That, or you can chill in the chat all day and ask the developers stupid questions.  YOUR CALL.

So, that being said, let’s start this off right with something NEW AND EXCITING.  Up until now we’ve only been showing off artwork for the two lead characters, Caprice and Mekki.  Today we’re going to go ahead and throw a third character into the mix, though just the design and name for now.

Jackie Curah

Over the course of the week some of us had drawn up some character concepts for this girl, and Twrlare went ahead and created a final product from our ideas.  Maybe we’ll show that stuff off in a later blogpost if anyone cares enough.  WHO CAN SAY, REALLY?

I’m digressing a bit, though.  I’d say that’s a good chunk of content for you to chew on until Monday’s 

(undoubtedly less productive) post, so we’ll end this post with a message from the writing team.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone, Salty Tears’ writing team here, reporting in! While we cannot give out any specifics, I figured that everyone would want a status update! Currently the writing team has three members: Mehkanik (aka ‘that guy’), Francis, and Mountaineer. At the time of writing, the work has been divided as such:

-    Francis: Act 1 Co-Writer, Editor

•    Mehkanik: Act 1 Co-Writer, Act 2 – Caprice Route, Editor

•    Mountaineer: Act 1 Head writer, Act 2 – Mekki Route

Mehkanik has this to say regarding work on the project:

“Hey folks, that guy here. I’ve been pretty busy with Love Despite and a lot of other stuff, so I decided that it would be best (and a good learning experience!) for Mountaineer to head off most of the writing in Act 1.

I will be focusing primarily on Caprice’s route and being a voracious editor for the first act during this period of time, though. Although I’m not writing that first act, we are working together and I’m contributing constantly to the work. Hope you’re all looking forward to it!”

So far, the complete Act 1 outline has been completed as well as some fringe scenes in Act 2. Many of the side characters have been detailed and documented as well and will, hopefully, will be revealed at a later date.

We can’t say much else without spoiling anything, but we would like to close the writer’s update with this:

The largest completed scene to date is edging out at around 5,000 words, by itself! Holy crap!

That’s all for now! Expect more from us later!

OKAY, SO.  Second blog post.  That means you’re probably going to expect some actual…content, or something content-like in appearance.  So, let’s lay down some ground-rules on how this blog thing is going to go down.

1:  You should expect updates every Monday and Friday, even if it’s something minor like a little progress report

2:  We’ll try to have something new for you to look at every week, but given the size of this project (read: small as hell) if we end up posting too much we’ll end up spoiling everything.  In cases like this, we’ll just have some stuff that didn’t make it to the cutting room floor/ concepts or some story you probably won’t read.

Are we on the same level now?  Yes?  Awesome.  Let’s get this rolling with a list of what’s changed since last time (that you’re aware of, anyway):

-“Mehki” has received a slight name change to “Mekki” due to Mehki being a terrible name.

-The UI has started the process of being reworked.  The following images are early mock-ups of a couple different proposed designs.  Note that nothing is final.

So, given the odd nature and setting of this project, we figured we’d probably need to eventually explain how this project got off the ground.  Best to get this out of the way first, I think.

So, one night, twrlare was making quick sketches of how he saw people participating in the Capschat.  Soon enough, he posted this image up.

Okay, that’s cute and silly.  Everyone got a quick laugh at it and continued on.  Except they didn’t, because later in a night thread someone thought they’d be funny and color the picture in and post it in the thread.

This time the reaction was a tad different.  It was early-hours chat, meaning most of us were tired enough to take a comment like “Oh man, that’s adorable!  YOU KNOW WHAT, WE SHOULD MAKE OUR OWN VN WITH IT” seriously. 

So we did.  OPERATION CIRCLEJERK was formed, and we slowly began on our work.  We decided two things off the bat:  It would need to be something quick and easy, and it would act primarily as a parody.  Simple enough!  We contacted Mehkanik/ That Guy and Mountaineer from Crispybooks and asked if they wanted to help, and we got to work.

For our visual style, the idea came up of using paper cut-outs.  It fit the art-motif, was quick, and looked decent even if sloppily done.

Neat!  Simple and it works.  We twiddled our thumbs around with this idea for a bit, but then something happened.

We started CARING ABOUT QUALITY.

So, practically overnight everyone jumped on board and started pushing out some really great material.  In less than 24 hours we had Twrlare and Dubs working on drawing and coloring sprites, Djeezus working on music, Shades producing a CG, our plot outline taking shape thanks to our writebros, Wayfarer trying to learn everything there is to learn about the Ren’Py engine and Curchack doing pretty much anything and everything he decided he wanted to do (backgrounds, music, concepts, CAN’T STOP THE CURCHACK TRAIN).  On top of that, the team has actually managed to grow ever so slightly beyond these examples.  Even with this massive quality spike, we still decided to stick with our paper cut-out design, just because it still looked really nice and it’s a nice balance between talent and style.

So yeah, that’s where we are now.  With any luck we’ll have some proper media to show you next week.  Five days is plenty of time!  Probably.

So, this is a thing.  The first official blogpost of the Salty Tears project.  Salty Tears AKA_ Project Circlejerk_ AKA Self Insert: The VN AKA Are You Guys Seriously Doing This is a collaboration by the Capslock Challenges and **Ms. Crispy’s Book Burning Session **Steam groups.

What started as an early-morning joke turned into a full-fledged effort.  We’re not looking to be stuck in development hell forever, so we’re currently sitting on a small, 2-route project.  There is really not anything we can especially say right now, so we’re just going to leave you some artwork.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!  Turns out we have a couple pieces of music for you as well.

[Click Here to grab the music samples]

And just for convenience, have a handy-dandy .zip file with all of today’s media wrapped up in a nice little package.  [CLICK]