log 4

12/15/2023

a gif of a little ragdoll opening and closing a door.

hi again! it's been only around a little over a month since I last posted, but it feels longer.

it seems like each break between my posts gets a little bit longer. I've been a lot busier lately, and I haven't had much free time to work on my game.

previously, I would take time each day to work on something for friend collector, no matter how small. but lately, I haven't been working on it daily--usually every few days, maybe even only once a week. not working on it as often has got me starting to become more lax in development.

I will also begin to take a couple classes come january, which will surely eat away at even more of my free time.

BUT nothing's gonna stop me from working on this game. it's very dear to my heart, as silly as it may be, and I plan on seeing all my ideas for it come to fruition.

with all of that out of the way! let me show you the work I've done recently.

a portrait of a garden gnome. he has a big, fluffy grey beard, a tall red hat, and a big belly. he looks kind of grumpy.

mr. gnome!

a portrait of a ragdoll. she has long red hair separated into two braids, tied off with ribbons. she wears a green gingham dress and has big blue eyes.

dolly!

we're introducing a couple of characters today! I have been working on these two characters--mr. gnome and dolly, as I have so creatively named them--this past month and I thought it was apt to introduce them.

we'll start with mr. gnome.

a screenshot of smiley talking to mr. gnome. mr. gnome is standing in front of his lawn outside his house, and he says, 'what did I say about staying away from my lawn, kid?' to the right of the text box is a set of 3 options: show item, talk, or leave.

current work in progress of mr. gnome's house.

after I created Smiley, I created mr. gnome. he's the grumpy, cranky old man (and garden gnome) next door that yells at you if you get near his carefully tended lawn. he's the first (or at least, one of the very first) non-player character that I created. he's been with me through thick and thin, through three jobs, through two divorces...jk about the divorce part.

although his character is old, I recently redid his design. honestly I love comparing my old designs to my new ones. compare these two designs:

the original sprite design + portrait for mr. gnome. the features are stiff, and the colors are flat and unappealing.

the original design from 2021.

the new sprite design + portrait for mr. gnome. the features have become more natural and the colors more vivid and softer. the sprite has been drawn to be a bigger size than the original to allow more of the features to fit.

the new design from 2023.

I just think I improved a lot!

friend collector centers around meeting and befriending new characters, but there are a handful of characters that smiley already knows from the start. mr. gnome is one of them. but even though smiley already knows him, that doesn't make him easy to befriend! his trust is difficult to win over, and there are various ways to become his enemy if you mess up (or do it on purpose). more on this in a different entry at some point!

I think that's enough about mr. gnome for now. let's move on to dolly!

a screenshot of smiley standing outside the entrance to a victorian-style pink and white dollhouse. the front door is slightly open, and dolly peeks out from behind the door. she says, 'um, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. and you're weird. bye!'

dolly's first appearance in-game. the surrounding houses are next on the list to be redrawn!

I initally created dolly to only become available to the player after completing a certain side quest with the arcade, but I liked her so much that I decided to make her available outside of that quest. dolly and her family recently moved to town. she's stubborn and competitive, maybe a bit obnoxious, but nevertheless adorable.

after you meet her, dolly has a constantly rotating schedule. initially, she'll simply go back and forth between her house and the nearby park, but if you befriend certain characters and unlock new opportunities, you can find her hanging out in more places.

dolly is also quite fond of mr. gnome, and sees him as something of a grandfather figure, but he's not particularly fond of kids.

I wish there was more I could show, and I'm gonna try and get back into consistently working on fc. I plan to continue with redesigning characters/tilesets, so next time, I'll hopefully have much more to show for that!

but that's all I've got for now. see you in another few weeks!