When you've spent long enough on the journey, sometimes it's easy to forget the destination. When Yugure no Kagami was first conceived four years ago, I had no idea it would be this long before I got there. But as this devblog stands to witness, it's been a long process of laying the foundation for the purpose of saving time in the future. By building VNgen once and building it right, I've positioned myself (and other developers!) to quickly and easily create content without compromising on functionality or presentation.
Well, I've been teasing it long enough. As of today, I'm proud to present to the world Yugure no Kagami ZERO, the first chapter of this epic saga, set to release independently later this year. Check out the fancy teaser site here, and read the official press release here! In a new tab or two, preferably—because that's not all we have to talk about today!
Zero is a very special project for me, as it was conceived specifically as a way to introduce Yugure no Kagami and VNgen to the world. Even with the main story being over 300,000 words long, there were still certain loose ends that couldn't be reasonably tied up in that timeframe. Zero solves this problem in prequel fashion—putting the answer before the question, in a sense. But this too is quite intentional. It is my hope that Zero will be the sort of visual novel players can read before and after Yugure no Kagami - The Mirror of Dusk to get the most well-rounded experience of the game. Because who doesn't want that "little something more" after finishing a great story?
But VNgen isn't just for telling my stories! As I continue to use it for myself, other developers are continuing to benefit from updates to the engine as well. Although it's a smaller one this time around, VNgen version 1.0.5 brings a couple of important fixes and one handy new feature to the table: namely, the ability to set inline fonts with variables! Up until now, VNgen has only recognized specific font asset names in [font] markup, but this can become a real issue when dealing with fonts loaded externally, or when offering user-customizable font sizes and styles, just to name a few examples. Supporting font variables opens up a wide variety of new opportunities in situations like these, not to mention the possibility of supporting variables in other forms of markup in the future.
If this sounds interesting to you, be sure to grab the latest version of VNgen at the GameMaker Marketplace or on Itch.io! Don't own VNgen yet? Sign up to receive updates from XGASOFT and get 10% off your purchase! Or even better, become my patron and get both VNgen and Yugure no Kagami ZERO for FREE! Your support is what makes it possible for me to keep doing what I do, and I truly appreciate every penny.
Until next time, thanks as always for reading!
