I'm probably not going to make this dev log too intensive I say as I think about what I've gotten done this month.

So I kept trying to write and write, and I was stuck because I had attempted to rewrite the ending concept for part of the game. The original idea, while working in a shorter draft, didn't work well when written out as a game. I think the major problem is that it wasn't fully fleshed out. I'm not big on needing to know "whys" but I had completely neglected the concept of why anything was happening. Even for myself I had to figure it out. I did a LOT of thinking and butting my head up against a wall until I kind of decided it didn't matter - and that was the moment I had a breakthrough. I realized what the correct actual ending was, and finally it came together.

I think sometimes I am getting caught up so much in the concept of "writing a lot of words" as if the words are progress, when there's so many other ways to, with intent, make progress in my brain untangling all of the knots to get the plot where I want it to be. 

I have started working more on the actual "puzzle" elements of the game. I think I was also getting stuck here while thinking about how I need to make things repetitive to give people an idea of the style of puzzle, but I am going back to just writing lists of things I would like the player have to do. I was doing the whole chores element but I think I'm cutting back on that in some ways because I don't think everything has to be the "same" every day. It was definitely a major original idea: you have x amount of days and the same kinds of tasks every day, but I think that's not necessary at this point and instead I'm working on what makes sense for that day, and not everything has to be in parallel. 

I also got what I feel like is the final parts of art for characters that were required. There's still some characters (the tea store employee, the bartender) that don't exist visually, and I think they don't need to now. Even though there's moments with them that are pivotal, I'm not as interested in actually visualizing them.

The last character I had drawn up was Evelyn, who features a little bit in the yes playthrough, but way more in the no one. I think she's the only character that really was only in one half of the game (as of now, who knows what'll change). 

I added Evelyn to the big group picture, and I think she looks great.

I'm hoping by the end of this month to have a "player walkthrough" - I'm not sure if developers really think out their games like this typically but I think it'll be fun to imagine guiding a player through the game.