u/idiotstile

I wanted to share a few scenes from the visual novel I’m currently working on 💛

It’s set in a very not-classical version of Ancient Greece, and I’m now putting together the first playable prototype. The goal is to let people try it, see how it feels to play, and collect feedback before I go too far with the final art and mechanics.

The game will have three main characters to choose from, three days of preparation for a contest, different routes, choices, small mechanics, and hopefully enough branching to make replaying it interesting.

Right now, the prototype is still very rough, and honestly, it’s scary to show it at this stage. But I think it’s better to share early, listen to feedback, and improve things while they’re still flexible.

This week I worked on several scenes, character expressions, atmosphere, and visual readability. I’m still figuring out how everything should feel on screen, so if you notice anything in the screenshots – something confusing or worth improving – I’d be really happy to hear your thoughts.

I also keep an open devlog on Patreon where I write about each step of the process. It’s free to read, and I’m always incredibly grateful for feedback and support there.

For now, here are a few characters and screens from the prototype!

patreon.com/c/annieidiotstile

Aaaaaaa, I built the shop for my visual novel set in Ancient Greece ✨✨✨

I wanted to share a little bit about this experience and also ask a question.

There will actually be two shops in the game, but the second one should be much less scary to build. I’ll be able to reuse the same logic and just change the items. This shop is in Aphrodite’s salon, and the second one will be in Hephaestus’ workshop.

Of course, the current version is still only prototype number two for the demo. For the final version, I’ll clean it up and improve it even more.

Right now, the shop logic works like this: You hover over an item → the description appears, the icon changes, and Athena immediately tries on the selected item.

You choose an item and click the “Buy” button → the item slot immediately changes to “Purchased,” the item stays on Athena until the next fitting, and the purchase is sent to the chest, becoming part of the inventory.

It sounds simple, but wow, this was so difficult to put together. I almost broke my brain while figuring out the hairstyle replacements, and also while loading and positioning all the separate elements.

To make everything land exactly where it needed to be, I came up with one little technical trick. But explaining it in text would take too long – and honestly, this is exactly the kind of thing that would be much easier and more fun to show in a devlog video.

And that brings me to the question I wanted to ask:

How do you share the development process of your game?

Do you write devlogs, make vlogs, stream, or create separate social media accounts for your project? Please share your experience.

I’m still figuring out which format works best for me. So far, I realized that I really enjoy two formats: making TikToks where I tell a small story about what I made and how it works now, and writing posts on Patreon. Patreon feels perfect for screenshots, videos, and longer text, and I’m really enjoying writing devlog posts there.

Aaaaaaa, I built the shop for my visual novel set in Ancient Greece ✨✨✨

I wanted to share a little bit about this experience and also ask a question.

There will actually be two shops in the game, but the second one should be much less scary to build. I’ll be able to reuse the same logic and just change the items. This shop is in Aphrodite’s salon, and the second one will be in Hephaestus’ workshop.

The last screenshot in this post is the very first prototype. Please look at how bad it was :) Of course, the current version is still only prototype number two for the demo. For the final version, I’ll clean it up and improve it even more.

Right now, the shop logic works like this:

You hover over an item → the description appears, the icon changes, and Athena immediately tries on the selected item.

You choose an item and click the “Buy” button → the item slot immediately changes to “Purchased,” the item stays on Athena until the next fitting, and the purchase is sent to the chest, becoming part of the inventory.

It sounds simple, but wow, this was so difficult to put together. I almost broke my brain while figuring out the hairstyle replacements, and also while loading and positioning all the separate elements.

To make everything land exactly where it needed to be, I came up with one little technical trick. But explaining it in text would take too long – and honestly, this is exactly the kind of thing that would be much easier and more fun to show in a devlog video.

And that brings me to the question I wanted to ask:

How do you share the development process of your game?

Do you write devlogs, make vlogs, stream, or create separate social media accounts for your project? Please share your experience.

I’m still figuring out which format works best for me. So far, I realized that I really enjoy two formats: making TikToks where I tell a small story about what I made and how it works now, and writing posts on Patreon. Patreon feels perfect for screenshots, videos, and longer text, and I’m really enjoying writing devlog posts there.

I’ve put together the first prototype of Athena’s room!

I’m continuing to share how things are going with my project – a visual novel set in Ancient Greece.

I put her room together from many separate objects. A lot of things here are cut out individually and placed on different layers, one in front of another, so the scene makes sense visually and has the right atmosphere.

I’m incredibly happy!

Now I just need to finalize all of this🫠

I’ve assembled the character room – this one belongs to Athena🏛️

I put her room together from many separate objects. A lot of things here are cut out individually and placed on different layers, one in front of another, so the scene makes sense visually and has the right atmosphere.

There will be two playable characters to choose from in the full version, but for the very first demo only one of them will be available.

I also ran into a new problem: it looks like I’ll have to draw my own font.

I found exactly one decent Greek-style font, but somehow it looks completely indecent in the game. So now I either need to make my own font or handwrite the text for some elements. I still haven’t decided which option is less painful.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to show how the room is coming together.

I’m making a visual novel with the working title Olympus Has Talent, and to keep myself motivated – and hopefully bring more people to the project – I decided to start a devlog and share posts about different stages of the process.

I also tried making the slides in a more unusual format, so I hope it’ll be interesting to read what came out of it and see how I was thinking while making the intro.

It’s a visual novel with route elements set over three days. You prepare your hero for a show: gather things, choose outfits, train, earn money, build relationships with other characters, and take part in a contest to achieve glory – and maybe find your true calling too.

I’m making a visual novel with the working title Olympus Has Talent, and to keep myself motivated – and hopefully bring more people to the project – I decided to start a devlog and share posts about different stages of the process.

I also tried making the slides in a more unusual format, so I hope it’ll be interesting to read what came out of it and see how I was thinking while making the intro.

It’s a visual novel with route elements set over three days. You prepare your hero for a show: gather things, choose outfits, train, earn money, build relationships with other characters, and take part in a contest to achieve glory – and maybe find your true calling too.

I’m making a visual novel with the working title Olympus Has Talent, and to keep myself motivated – and hopefully bring more people to the project – I decided to start a devlog and share posts about different stages of the process.

I also tried making the slides in a more unusual format, so I hope it’ll be interesting to read what came out of it and see how I was thinking while making the intro.

It’s a visual novel with route elements set over three days. You prepare your hero for a show: gather things, choose outfits, train, earn money, build relationships with other characters, and take part in a contest to achieve glory – and maybe find your true calling too.

My devlog: patreon.com/c/annieidiotstile