✦ Stories & Letters
Reworked the old stories and added some new illustrations to the storybook.
Reorganized the order of the letters and added several new Bunny letters. Some new letters were also added into the old timeline, so remember to go back and check the old letters!
There are now 49 letters in total.
Added a new story — with a little wooden train! I really love how the train turned out.
✦ Reworking the Old Stories
Before writing the new story, I went back and carefully reorganized all the old stories.
I fixed the story logic, rearranged the letters, changed some of their content, and added new illustrations.
At the end of each story, there is now a little Bunny Diary.
Since there aren't too many stories yet, it was still relatively easy to go through everything. I read the storybook over and over again to make sure there were no unnecessary repetitions and that everything made sense.
✦ A New Way of Telling the Story
I really like how the letters have turned out this time. They have become an important part of the storytelling.
Funny enough, I actually removed the letter-writing feature before because I thought nobody would read it.
Luckily, some lovely players told me right away that they liked it, so I brought it back.
Then I started drawing the little handwritten pictures again... and somehow, the letters slowly became part of the story itself.
Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to leave feedback.
Your feedback has helped me more than you probably realize.
✦ Bug Fixes & Improvements
I fixed... a lot of bugs.
There were so many that after fixing them, I honestly forgot where to start talking about them.
Some missing translations have been fixed, and some interactions have been improved, such as camera dragging.
There were also some code bugs, animation issues, and a few bugs caused by me rebuilding the storybook system.
✦ Trying to Finish the Game
I said before that I wanted to finish the game by December this year.
Then I realized...
There are still SO MANY things to draw.
So I went back and recalculated the image sizes. By using smaller sizes where possible, I have a lot more room for mistakes, and I can draw things much faster.
Do you know that famous design triangle?
Cheap. Fast. High quality.
Pick two.
Well...
I'm currently trying to do all three before December.
I'm basically cheering myself on every day:
Come on! You can do it!
This might be your last game.
Don't leave anything behind.
Keep going!
So I'm still trying to squeeze in as much content as I can.
I just hope that when I finally finish, I won't have too many regrets.
✦ Back to a Linear Story
The storybook is now back to a linear story structure, so you can no longer skip directly between chapters.
The chapter-jumping system made the code much more complicated than I expected, and I couldn't maintain it well.
More importantly, the stories now have a stronger chronological flow. If you jump straight to a later chapter, some parts simply won't make sense.
So... back to reading from the beginning!
✦ The New Story
I designed several versions of the little wooden train for the new story.
In the end, I found that the simplest one looked the best.
Maybe if the Bunnies really built a train, they would make something simple like this.
Bunnies like simple things.
I also designed several versions of the Bunny's tall drum hat.
This one was definitely the cutest.
I spent a lot of time fighting with bugs, animations, character outfits, and... complete despair.
But somehow, I finally made it!
And I especially like some of the new letters in this update.
✦ A Little Update Behind the Update
I was supposed to release the update yesterday.
Then I found a new bug. So... I kept fixing bugs until now.
And today, my iPad Pencil suddenly stopped working.
At first, I thought I had somehow drawn the tip to death, but that wasn't the problem. Restarting didn't help either. Another bug. Another piece of hardware breaking.
I probably should have been sitting here crying my heart out.
But then...
I remembered how much I love reading stories. I thought about all the other creators whose stories I've enjoyed, and how they worked and worked on their games, rendered so much that they broke their computers, and somehow kept going anyway.
It seems to be a very common sad story for creators.
Maybe I've simply been drawing too much lately, and that's why the hardware finally gave up.
I've also been rushing to finish everything, and this update involved some pretty big changes, so... that's probably why there are so many bugs too.
Anyway, I'm still here, patting myself on the head and trying to convince myself to keep developing.
Come on, come on!
Just a few more months.
Get through this, then we can lie down and rest!
✦ Please Tell Me If You Find Anything Strange!
After going through everything so many times, I think I've become a little too familiar with the story.
I'm so tired that sometimes I don't even remember what I've already talked about, and accidentally explain the same thing twice.
So if you notice:
Repeated story content
Repeated letters
Story logic that doesn't make sense
Animations that look wrong
An animation that doesn't match the object
Anything else that feels strange
Please tell me!
After staring at the same story so many times, I sometimes just can't see the problems anymore.
Thank you for playing, reading all the letters, and sending me your feedback.
I'm still working hard on the little island.
I hope you enjoy this update!