YNK ZERO Devblog 3: How Zero Almost Wasn’t in ZERO ⇄ XGASOFT

Did you know that ZERO‘s titular character almost wasn’t even in the game? It’s true!

Hello, world! Lucas Chasteen here, author and developer of Yugure no Kagami ZERO and the VNgen visual novel engine it runs on. Recently, development crossed an interesting milestone that reminded me of what a journey the word ‘zero’ has been on in relation to Yugure no Kagami.

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YNK ZERO Devblog 2: Halfway There, Two-Thirds to Go ⇄ XGASOFT

Hello, world! Lucas Chasteen here, author and developer of Yugure no Kagami ZERO and the VNgen visual novel engine it runs on. In our first official devblog, we examined some of the technology and design decisions going into ZERO that will take it above and beyond what’s commonly expected of visual novels. In the past month since that article went up, this vision has gained greater clarity as the software side of things came into focus with standardized “best practices” for this particular project.

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YNK ZERO Devblog 1: Breaking Boundaries ⇄ XGASOFT

Hello, world! Lucas Chasteen here, author and developer of Yugure no Kagami ZERO and the VNgen visual novel engine it runs on. From its very inception, VNgen was my way of re-thinking the visual novel experience from both a developer and user perspective, and while I’ve had the opportunity to talk at length about the developer side of things over the past two years, I’m incredibly excited to finally present my own work with the engine and share a bit of the journey along the way.

In this series of devblogs, we’ll periodically go behind-the-scenes to look at progress as it unfolds and also grab a sneak-peek at features being implemented into YNK. As should go without saying, everything you’re about to see is in an early pre-release state and is subject to change.

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Update 36 - Starting From Zero

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!

Update 35: Building (With) Tools

A wild devblog appears!

For the past couples of months, I've taken a bit of a break from the regular devblog-style posts to cover some related topics instead. Each one was important to me, but there's another reason for the hiatus as well: behind the scenes, things were shifting gears in a big way. It's taken time, but the foundation is laid and I'm now settling into the process of building with tools, not just building tools.

It's been enlightening to place myself in the shoes of a consumer using VNgen in real-world scenarios, and especially pleasant to discover just how well it holds up to daily (ab)use. Once, I forgot a certain feature even existed until I needed it, then *bam*, there it was. It would have been a huge pain to implement now if it'd been missing, so suffice it to say I was relieved to discover there was no oversight on my part there.

But that's not to say VNgen is perfect, nor is it yet capable of everything it could or should be. Soon it'll be time to talk about my first-party VNgen projects in more detail, but that day is not quite here yet. Today, it's time to take a look at some of the improvements being made to VNgen as a result of creating projects with it myself.

Say Hello to XGASOFT 2.0!

It's hard to believe almost a year has passed since XGASOFT's main site first went live, and along with it, the unveiling of Yugure no Kagami to the world. Since then, however, my development efforts have been laser-focused on completing VNgen, the engine designed to make it possible. It might've looked like nothing was happening, but the planets are aligning and it's time for that to change.

And change it has: xgasoft.com has been completely revamped from backend to frontend, and is about to see a lot more activity very soon. As described in a previous devblog post, future development updates will be featured by XGASOFT, leaving ThinkBoxly for more personal content instead. What's more, you can now subscribe to receive XGASOFT updates by email and receive 10% your next purchase of any XGASOFT product (like VNgen)!

And speaking of VNgen, keep your eyes peeled for a new update hitting the Marketplace and Itch.io this weekend! Feedback and development have both continued post-1.0, and the new version contains multiple fixes to text and vox actions, plus adds easier NVL-style presentation with auto text positioning.

And... that's about it for now! A bit of an abbreviated post this weekend, I know, but for good reason. What reason? Stay tuned to find out soon at XGASOFT!

Update 34 - I Hate Delays

I hate delays.

I hate my delays. If something else is delayed, I can wait. There's plenty to do in the meantime. But when I'm the one that has to make the call, it's a different issue.

If you know me very well, you'll know I'm terrible at giving ETAs, which is why I hesitated to give one for VNgen until the very last. And to be fair, based on what I anticipated VNgen 1.0 to be at the time, it was a reasonable estimate. But the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced VNgen was missing something critical to the 1.0 experience, and so I'm going to have to ask everyone to wait just a bit longer.

The good news? The wait will now be even more worth it.

Update 33 - The End of the Beginning

Way back in the summer of 2014 I began writing my first visual novel engine. Not VNgen, mind you, and not even Edge VN. This was a third, unreleased engine—and for good reason: it was a horrible, broken mess. You see, not only was this my first visual novel engine, but the first program I had ever written from scratch.

I've come a long way in four years, leading my work to be praised by developers even with many more years of experience than I have. But while my coding practices may have changed, the goal of creating an engine with an emphasis on high presentation quality coupled with flexibility and ease of use has remained a constant.

VNgen's journey is both a story of three engines and one continuous effort to achieve a single goal. And although it's hard to believe, that journey is finally coming to an end.

That's right: strap on your seatbelts, because our next stop is VNgen 1.0.

Update 32 - Shader Business Revisited

I've spoken before about the importance of standardization in VNgen. It's so important, in fact, that multiple times I've discarded working solutions purely because they didn't conform well enough to established guidelines. A while back, one of these solutions involved using a shader to dim characters while they're not speaking—a method that was quickly replaced by blending in a transparent black rectangle instead. And yet, at the time, I said the effort to incorporate shaders into VNgen wasn't wasted, but that it served as a proof of concept for shaders possibly finding their way back into VNgen in the future.

Well, my friends, the future is now. That's right: as of version 0.9.8, shaders are now implemented into VNgen as first-class citizens alongside transitions, animations, deformations—the whole lot.

Update 31 - Log and Let Log

VNgen's backlog was one of the first things written for the engine well over a year-and-a-half ago. While it might seem like putting the cart before the horse, the backlog was actually a convenient testing ground for some of the new concepts necessary to make VNgen a reality. But then that reality materialized, and the backlog was left the oldest feature, requiring more than one overhaul to keep it up to date.

Nowadays, standardization is the name of the game. VNgen's codebase has been cut in half despite more features being added since the first Early Access release. For the past two weeks, it was the backlog's turn yet again—and this time, other problems were also solved in the process.

Update 30 - All Things in Modification

It's hard to believe a third of a year has already passed since VNgen first released in Early Access. With the advent of GameMaker Studio 2 requiring some extra strategizing for the release of version 1.0, the EA period has definitely gone on longer than originally intended, but not unproductively. VNgen has grown by leaps and bounds both internally and externally such that its code is barely recognizable as the same product that shipped in late 2017.

As the march towards 1.0 continues (and indeed is nearly drawing to a close), each component of the underlying engine is being re-evaluated. Why does X feature exist, or why doesn't it? How does it work, and how can it be standardized to work like everything else (or vice versa)? Does it feel natural to use?

All of these are important questions, and only scratch the surface of tests a new change must pass to determine whether it fits the image and scope of VNgen 1.0. But there's also another question that's often more fun: can this feature give users more control without requiring them to modify anything?

For the past two weeks, the answer has been a resounding yes.

Update 29 - Gotta Split!

As the saying goes, premature optimization is the root of all evil. On the other hand, this means there are some necessary evils in programming before optimization can happen. Up until recently, that's where VNgen has been, but now with 1.0 fast approaching it's my job to root out those evils.

In other words, it's optimization time. But don't let that word conjure up false impressions of fanboy wars arguing over whether Game X is poorly-optimized or their platform of choice is just inferior. Optimization is... well, a lot of unexciting humdrum much of the time. But it also has a habit of producing new tools you can use, and with the latest update to VNgen, there are several—and you can use them right now!

Update 28 - Drawing Infinity As Fast As Possible

VNgen is an unusual GameMaker product. As previously described, it breaks the linearity of Step cycles and re-implements many built-in functions to do more work faster. With 1.0 approaching, I'm forced to evaluate the state of each part of the engine and ensure it's working as desired and is consistent with other engine functions, which has often led to even further reworks of standard GameMaker conventions.

Some of these have been significant enough to warrant spinning off into their own, separate products. However, none so far have been quite as amusing as a certain trick added to VNgen over the past couple of weeks—one which makes drawing infinity a cinch even for the lowest-end hardware on the market today.

Update 27 - Semantic Arguments

With all major features in place, VNgen is now on the straight and narrow path to version 1.0. As you'd expect, this means isolating and fixing bugs—many of which are difficult to produce in the first place—but more importantly, the past two weeks have been all about standardization. Sound boring? Well, read on, because as you'll discover, standardization doesn't mean nothing new was added. And even better, you can see for yourself right now!

Update 26 - I've Got a Feeling

Alright, I've avoided it long enough: after two posts and four weeks of dodging discussion over the state of VNgen, it's finally time to get back in the swing of things for the new year.

As previously mentioned, part of the reason for the delay was life matters in the month of December. But that's not to say things weren't being accomplished—far from it. Rather, the bigger reason is that VNgen was undergoing such major changes that there was never a good point to stop and share it all. Now, most of these changes are internal and won't affect the user experience at all—or at least, they shouldn't. But they were. Other changes were purely experimental, and although interesting, proved incompatible with the engine's design or design philosophy and had to be rolled back. Some days, I couldn't tell if I was making progress or regressing.

But now those days are over, and at last, VNgen is here with a new update. And I'm pretty sure you've never felt anything quite like it before.

Yep, that's right. Felt.

Update 25 - Untangling Quantum

It's been four weeks since the last regular update on VNgen. While normally that'd be enough time for some major changes and improvements, between the holidays and personal family matters holding back development, this weekend's focus will be slightly different than usual, with regular VNgen updates to resume next time.

Even with delays and reduced work hours, however, progress has certainly been made. Some of it has been largely experimental and required rolling back, but not without gaining valuable knowledge in the process. The rest has been the polar opposite: fundamental changes and enhancements to VNgen's core framework, Quantum.

Update 24 - Less is More

It's almost hard to believe it's been two weeks again. Not because they flew by (they did), or because they dragged (they did). In fact, they were filled with as many ups and downs as usual. And yet, after spending so long stuck in documentation purgatory (which you can read about here), just getting things done was a startling change of pace.

VNgen's to-do list grows shorter every day, and since the last dev blog I've published not one, but two updates to the Early Access release. You can read the full changelog here, if you're interested. But what the changelog won't tell you is just what these updates mean for the future of VNgen—and how it's gaining features even as the codebase gets smaller and smaller.

Update 23 - Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

As a developer, sometimes you've gotta write code, and other times, you've gotta just write. For me, November was one of those months. With VNgen out in the wild, it is now my priority to support the Early Access release with information and updates that will lead it to version 1.0, and that means providing resources to help users learn how to use it. In the space of only a few weeks I wrote the amount of a small novel doing just that, and at last the effort has paid off.

But don't take my word for it: this weekend you can finally see the results for yourself.

Update 22 - Itching for More

It's hard to believe, but it has already been two weeks since VNgen entered public Early Access. A number of you have already become early adopters and left some great feedback. On that note, a big thank you to everyone who's participated so far!

But VNgen's just getting off the ground, and my work is cut out for me for the rest of the year. I can't wait to get on with the more exciting tasks ahead, but in the here and now, there's more important groundwork to be laid—things that will greatly impact all VNgen developers, moving forward.

Update 21 - VNgen Early Access: Available NOW

You read that title correctly: after many missed estimates, VNgen is finally here, it's real, and it's out in the wild. It's been a long time in coming, but I promise the extra time has been put to good use. When I first sat down to write the design document for what would become VNgen, I feared I was being too ambitious. A year later, not only have I achieved the goals of that original design document, but also surpassed them in almost every way and even added at least a dozen more features to boot (not counting additions planned for further down the road). What's more, the core logic that VNgen is built on proved so useful that it has since been spun off into its own library, Quantum, which will go on to power further tools in the future.

It's been a truly productive year, but the release of VNgen doesn't mean it's all coming to an end. On the contrary, this is quite literally just the beginning.