Devblog #21 – Scribbling It Down

Heya, Johnny here with another devblog.

First thing’s first, I’d like to take a moment to thank you guys for your feedback on my previous devblog. I don’t often have the opportunity to write something in a different style than what I’m used to so I appreciate the kind words about the Quibbler idea and article. Since you guys enjoyed it, I’ll include another one at the end of this devblog. Now, let’s move on to the main topic.

I’m currently working on Tonks content. The writing is progressing well, and I’ve finished writing the majority of the event which Loafy showed an art preview for previously. This event involves Genie and Tonks having a good time inside a broom closet of all places. I wonder who might be responsible for getting them into such a predicament. Right now, I’m focusing on writing the lead-up to this scenario, which is filled with the light hearted humour you’d expect.

In other news, while brainstorming, I’ve also finished implementing kinetic text into the game, as well as the new Genie “self-love” options that I mentioned previously. Since then, I’ve added a few more random dialogues based on your suggestions.

Moving on to the Quibbler article. This one is a bit of a weird one (as if the previous one wasn’t). I hope you guys enjoy it.

Wanksy: Is he real?

“Wanksy” has infiltrated the cultural lexicon. An anonymous street artist, known for spreading their explicit artwork across the wizarding world.

Who is this enigmatic artist known as “Wanksy”? In this article, we uncover the truth behind the provocative pseudonym and their journey to fame.

It is believed that Wanksy’s rise to fame came as a result of a political smear campaign. By featuring caricatures of politicians with outrageous physical additions, their intention was to displays their disapproval of their politics.

One popular theory is that the true identity of Wanksy is either that of a goblin, or an independent contractor employed by Gringotts bank. Political campaigning occurring at the time of their rise to fame brought questions to light, focusing on how the bank is essentially a monopoly. Certain politicians even going as far as suggesting the idea of seizing control of the bank from the goblins and placing it within the ministry of magic’s control.

Another popular theory is that Wanksy is simply a rogue poltergeist. This theory is strengthened by the fact that the appearance of these artistic creations have been limited to a smaller area within Diagon Alley. That said, many have refuted this theory, as poltergeists are known for utilising a wider and more chaotic range of methods to cause disruption.

Regardless of their identity, their work has become increasingly popular amongst both witches and wizards, attracting a diverse following from across the globe. The owner of Scribbulus Writing Implements, who wishes to remain anonymous, shares that the appearance of a scandalous piece of artwork outside their shop has resulted in a remarkable uptick in sales. One Frenchman who passed by during our interview enthusiastically pointed towards Wanksy’s creation, exclaiming “Une si petite bite”. Another passer-by, who we asked about their opinion on the piece, smiled and said that “there’s nothing like a good wank”.

Other artists have also been springing up within the scene, attempting to copy Wanksy’s unique style. However, these imitations are often easy to distinguish from a true Wanksy once you know what to look for. One of the more common tells is the amount of extremities. Imitations more often than not end up with a more realistic number of hands and fingers compared to what you’d see in a Wanksy original.

As much as I’d prefer to focus solely on the positives, I’m obliged to mention that we’ve been seeing less of Wanksy the last couple of years. The politically inclined suggest Wanksy losing their artistic motivation due to the perceived ineffectiveness of their political statements. Artists, however, suggest the possibility of “carpal tunnel” or the more commonly known term within the artist industry, “wanker’s cramp”. Another frequent Quibbler correspondent and adept seer, Sybill Trelawney, hypothesises that the decrease in Wanksy sightings is due to the artist preparing for a major event that will soon unfold.

No matter their reason for pulling back from the limelight, we hope that our article can reach Wanksy to let them know we are all looking forward to seeing what they’ve got in store for us next.”

If you have any ideas for Quibbler headlines or topics to cover, please feel free to suggest them in the Discord server’s suggestions channel or in the comments below. I’ll be sure to take your input into consideration once I find a spell to conjure up some time to write another article. Apart from the finished article, here are some potential headlines that I’ve put down so far: “The Top 10 Most Useless Wizarding Spells” and “Magical Creatures with the Most Unfortunate Names”.

That’s it for today’s devblog, thank you for reading.

—Johnny

Devblog #19 – Spitballing with Tonks

Hello gamers, Johnny here.

In today’s Devblog, I will cover some non-spoilery things I’ve been working on, as well as an idea for which I would appreciate some feedback.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been implementing kinetic text. As mentioned by Loafy in a previous devblog, kinetic text refers to text with slight animation, such as shuddering, bouncing, and shaky text. I’ve been using effects such as shuddering, bouncing, and shaky text, as well as animated hearts across the game to great effect. It took a couple of tries to get it just right, but once I did, it’s been a great way to portray both emotions and speaking volume.

Moving on to writing, Loafy and I sat down to discuss the event summaries I’ve written for Tonks’ content. Our aim is to capitalise on their distinctive dynamic and craft a good back-and-forth between them… if you know what I mean. The fact that Tonks is almost as lewd and experienced as Genie also means we can get wild and crazy. Is there an expression for when two people are giving each other a wild ride?

Apart from Tonks’ content, I’ve also been writing unique “fail” variants for Hermione’s public favours. As you may know, personal and public events used to have the same repetitive writing when Hermione refuses to perform a favour. In a previous update, I added unique writing for her personal favours, and now I’m doing the same for the public variants.

Now, let’s discuss the idea I mentioned earlier. When I feel the need to exercise my writing muscle, I enjoy tinkering with silly ideas for side-content to make the game world feel more alive. One such area that I’d like to expand upon are the text mediums of the game. One of these mediums I’ve been tinkering with is Luna’s father’s magazine, “The Quibbler,” which players would be able to pick up weekly. With “The Quibbler” being full of bizarre theories, misinformation, and the like, the idea would be to use it as an outlet for writing that while funny may not be entirely true. To give you a taste of what to expect, here is one of the three articles I’ve written so far.

“Muggles in Love: A Study of the Weird and Wacky Ways They Show Affection

As a seasoned observer of the Muggle world, I have spent countless hours studying the bizarre customs of these peculiar creatures. One of the most fascinating aspects of Muggle culture is their methods of showing affection.

It doesn’t take long to uncover signs of affection within the world of Muggles. For instance, there is the “pavement gathering”. A long-standing tradition where women will congregate on the pavement to await potential suitors. The men, upon approaching these lovely ladies, will engage in a brief conversation before promptly disappearing into their motorised vehicle, never to be seen again. This is indeed a thrilling spectacle, to say the least.

Of course, the search for potential partners doesn’t end in the streets, but is also heavily encouraged in places of employment. Muggles have this wonderful tradition called “Casual Friday”, where they don their most outrageous attire in the hopes of attracting a romantic interest.

Then there is the ultimate gesture of affection, the middle finger. As an act of displaying true love and affection, Muggles will extend their middle finger toward a potential mate. It is believed that this symbolises a desire for physical contact, as the gesture is often followed by a vocal invitation to engage in sexual activity.

As I finish writing this article, casually observing the “pavement gathering” A suave gent, resplendent in his purple suit and adorned with a wooden cane, makes his way towards the gathering. His eyes lock onto mine, and with a flourish, he extends his middle finger in a gesture of affection. While I couldn’t reciprocate this peculiar display, I was presented with a satisfying conclusion to this story as each of the threads of these strange customs had finally been woven together to form a rich tapestry.”

Feel free to let me know what you guy’s think about the “Quibbler” idea in the comments, or on our Discord server. I quite enjoyed writing these and I wouldn’t mind sharing the other ones in future devblogs if you guys would like, regardless if they make it into the game.

See you all in the next devblog,

Johnny.

Devblog #17 – Serving up a new menu

Hey there, LoafyLemon here!

It’s been about two weeks since my last post about the new interface design, and a lot has changed since then. The new UI is looking sleek and sexy, but we’re not done yet!

Today, I want to talk about some of the other changes we’ve made, like the addition of kinetic text and the new Point & Click system.

First off, the kinetic text. Since we’re already overhauling the interface, we figured why not add some extra flair? Kinetic text is a feature that makes certain words or phrases move and dance across the screen during dialogues. I know what you’re thinking – “Why would I want my text to be moving around on the screen?” And honestly, it might seem a bit silly at first, but trust me, it adds a whole new level of immersion to the game, especially during sex scenes. Normally, we’re limited to just showing the text and having it fade in and out, or use italics or embolden it to make it stand out. With kinetic text, however, we can create all sorts of cool effects. Like, for example, making the words shake slightly during an orgasm, or have them move around in sync with the action on the screen. It really helps convey the emotions and intensity of the scene, and it looks damn good too. Of course, we’ll also need to ensure that it doesn’t get too distracting and detract from the actual gameplay, but I think we’ve found a good balance so far, and no worries, I made sure to add a toggle in the options menu so players can turn it off if they prefer.

Next up, the Point & Click system. This one’s been a long time coming, and I’m super excited to finally see it come together. We’ve been asked to add more locations to explore in the game, and while we could just throw in some generic rooms and call it a day, we wanted to do something more interesting. So, we’ve created a Point & Click system where players can click on objects or characters to interact with them. This will allow us to finally flesh out some of the environments and allow me to draw more than just those four walls of Genie’s office goddamnit!

We’re still working on refining the system, but so far it’s been working pretty well. The main challenge has been figuring out how to make the clicks feel responsive and intuitive. You see, the Ren’Py engine was not designed for this kind of interaction, so we’ve had to work around its limitations. But, after some trial and error, we’ve got a system that feels pretty natural and easy to use. I admit, old menus were a bit clunky, but this new system should be much easier on the eyes and more enjoyable to play with. Oh, and it works with mods, too!

Now, I know some of you might be thinking, “What about the rest of the game?” Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about it! We’re still working on all the other aspects of the game, including the new Tonks scenes, which I have started drawing already. More on that later.

You may be happy to hear that the interface is already partially implemented in the game, including some new elements that have not been teased yet. Not only does it look nice, but it also helps us with the rest of the development process, and thanks to the custom UI system, we’ve addressed most of the performance issues that were holding us back before. Since the new interface is now a part of the game, we can start testing it right away, which means we’ll be able to catch any bugs and issues sooner rather than later.

I hope this update has given you a good idea of what’s been going on behind the scenes. Like always, there’s still much work to be done, but we’re making progress and it’s starting to show. Thanks for your continued support, and as always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to poke us on Discord.

That’s all for now, folks!

Devblog #16 – A blast from the past

What’s up gamers, Johnny here.

In today’s devblog I wanted to share some insight into the evolution of the project and my approach to writing for it, along with some of the writing additions that we’re adding to the UI focused update.

In the early days of Silver, the project had many contributors, which led to a diverse range of ideas being implemented. However, this also led to a lack of cohesion between characters, storylines, and individual character progression. When I joined the project, I brought my own ideas to the table, just like the others before me. I created my own mini-stories that also didn’t affect the rest of the game, such as the Mirror of Erised, and the card-game, which was initially separate but included ties to Hermione’s progression later on.

As I became more involved in the project, we began looking at the various additions that had been made over time to see if we could address the issues with character progression, and create a better foundation where both the game and its characters have room to grow.

One of the earliest additions utilizing this mindset was a new introduction for Tonks. When we released it, the community seemed pleased, so we started looking at giving similar treatments to other characters. Since we were already working on redrawing characters at higher resolutions, we decided not to include potions initially so that Hermione’s new doll could be added as soon as possible. This was a difficult decision at the time, as we knew players would miss potions. However, we wanted to ensure that when we added them back in, we would expand their potential by involving Snape and make sure to incorporate Hermione’s character progression.

However, the most controversial change came after that with Luna. When we started working on her content, many problems emerged. The underlying code was nearly impossible to work with, and most of her unique CG scenes had been traced, which meant that even though there was plenty of original content in the game, we were often reminded of this looked-down-upon practice. At that point, we made the difficult decision to begin reworking her content with the same mindset we’ve established. This meant introducing Luna earlier so that she could have more involvement in other parts of the game, including a new intro. Making all these changes was very stressful at the time, but now that we’ve emerged on the other side, I feel like I can finally believe what I’ve been telling myself the whole time: it’s worth it in the end.

This mentality can be extended to other aspects of the game, whether it’s code, writing, or art. It’s an ever-evolving process that changes as our abilities, expectations, and support for the project change over time. Despite these changes, one thing that has always remained true is our desire to put a smile on our players’ faces, whether through humour or “enlightenment”.

Anyway… What I wanted to get to before going on a tangent is that there have always been elements in the game that have been underutilized or could use a fresh coat of paint. Some of these I’ve been working on alongside Tonks planning, to be included in our Tonks-and-UI focused update.

First off, I’ve been expanding on the “jerk off” option. Previously, there wasn’t much reason to do it unless you had a character’s panties at hand. And even then, the actual “jerk off” section didn’t offer much. With my new additions, you’ll now be able to pick between characters you’ve met who Genie should be imagining. Instead of just a single bit of repetitive writing, it will now play a random bit of dialogue each time, so feel free to spam the same option to see all the variants.

On top of the characters from the game, I also went ahead and added an option where Genie will imagine a random character from other popular media. As you guys have probably guessed by now, I don’t like to share my writing before release as it’s often iterated upon during implementation, but since this is side content, I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peek and make you laugh:

Narrator: “You fantasise about a British time-traveller with a pulse pistol.”

Genie: “(Hold onto something love, because I’m about to teleport my dick inside you.)”

Narrator “You fantasise about a badass zombie slayer.”

Genie: “(Oh yes… Once I’ve finished fucking your brains out, no zombie will come for you.)”

Narrator: “You fantasise about a superheroine with the power of storms.”

Genie: “(Your powers are nothing compared to the thunderous claps I’m about to unleash against your ass!)”

If you have any suggestions for characters Genie could reference or even a reference itself, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section or in the suggestions channel on Discord.

I’m also planning to expand the “jerk off on panties” options in the future. These events will involve longer scenarios, where Genie imagines the girl whose panties he’s jerking off with watching him, and commenting on what he’s doing. The idea is that he could imagine the girl ‘hating it’ or ‘loving it’ and since he’s imagining the whole thing, the girl’s characteristics would be very exaggerated.

Additionally, I’ve been focusing on adding new interactions between Genie and Snape during their hangouts. Many players have mentioned how much they enjoy these little chats, and I figured it’s been quite a while since we added to them. Apart from the regular banter you’d expect between them, I’m also focusing a little bit more on Genie’s backstory.

That’s it for today’s devblog. There are several more bits of side content and ideas that I’m working on, but I’ll talk more about them once they’re further along. I’ve also been working on outlining Tonks’ personal content and events, but we’ll discuss that once the current UI improvements are ready.

Upside-down spider-man kiss,

Johnny.

Devblog #15 – Interface Design 101

Hello there, dear reader, LoafyLemon here!

Today I’d like to do something a little different and combine Dev Blog with Dev Dump. A little something to showcase the inner workings of my process, maybe it’ll interest some of you who want to learn more about the design side of things.

So, let’s get right to it. As you may remember from our last announcement, Witch Trainer Silver has a lot of new content coming down the pipeline. That means more interfaces. But hold up, what’s with the old interfaces, right? That’s the problem.

The truth is, those old interfaces are still (mostly) functional, but they’re not only not fitting the game’s style anymore, they’re also severely limiting the game’s potential. And, quite frankly, they’re an eyesore.

Before any of you take out your pitchforks, know that I am solely responsible for that eyesore, so I am allowed to say that it’s ugly! I mean, I’m not one to cry over spilt milk, but this is an opportunity to do something different, something more visually appealing, and more functional that I simply could not do before due to limitations of the engine, but also my own skills back then.

Now, let’s get back to the current state of things. You see, Witch Trainer Silver’s UI is, well, it’s a bit of a mess, but it’s a mess that despite its many flaws, has a certain charm to it. It’s also something that people love, or at the very least, don’t hate as much as they should. (That’s what I tell myself at night, anyway.)

However, Witch Trainer Silver is also a game that has a lot of potential, and one of those areas where it could use a lot of improvement is in the interface. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Why should I care about this?” Well, let me tell you, the interface is not just about looks. It’s also about functionality, usability, and how easy or hard it is for the player to navigate through the game. And right now, those things are not exactly perfect.

Now, here comes the part where I’m supposed to tell you that I’ve been working on Witch Trainer Silver for a long time, and I know what I’m doing. And in a way, that’s true, but in a way, it’s not. Because when you’re working on a project for a long time, you can start to take things for granted, and you can also start to make mistakes that you wouldn’t have made if you had been working on it for less time.

So, what do I do? Well, I do what I do best: Break things down into smaller pieces, and then break those pieces down even further. And then, I try to figure out how they all fit together.

So, let’s take a look at the old interface. It’s not perfect, but it has worked for a long time, and it’s not like it’s going to fall apart right now. But still, it’s not the most visually appealing, especially on HiDPI monitors above 720p, because originally we were limited to just 1080×600 pixels.

You may be scratching your head here, as 1080×600 pixels is pretty low, and it’s even lower than some mobile devices today, and I know you’re asking yourself why we chose that resolution, and the answer is we didn’t. When my predecessors started the project, the original game was running on Windows XP in 4:3 aspect ratio, and the resolution was limited to just 600 vertical pixels. As you can guess, it’s not a very pretty thing, especially on modern devices, but I digress.

Anyway, enough of that. You may be wondering what we can do about this. Well, here’s the good news: we can do a lot of things. For one, we can make the interface more visually appealing. For another, we can make it more functional. Lastly, we can finally do some things that we could only dream of doing before because of limitations.

But, I know what you’re thinking now, “How long will this take?” And I’m happy to report that it will be faster than you think. At least, that’s the plan.

Now, I know that not everyone may be as interested in this as I am, but I hope at least some of you will take a look at this and think, “You know what, this actually sounds pretty cool.” Because, at the end of the day, this is what it’s all about: making something that people will enjoy, and that drives me to do what I do.

Without further ado, here’s the new interface design for Mafkin’s Emporium, a work in progress:

As you may notice, it’s a very rough draft, but I wanted to show it to you to give you an idea of what the new interface could look like. These kind of rough design sketches are very common in the game development process, and that is something not many people are familiar with, so I thought I’d take a moment to explain.

Here’s how the design process typically goes for me:

  1. Gather Requirements: In this case, Witch Trainer Silver has a lot of new content coming down the pipeline, so we need to make sure the interface is scalable and can handle the new content without looking too cluttered or messy.
  2. Research and Planning: This involves looking at other games in the same genre, finding out what players like or dislike about their interfaces, and planning how we can incorporate those elements into Witch Trainer Silver’s interface.
  3. Drafting: Once we have all the information we need, it’s time to start drafting the interface design. This is where we take all the ideas we gathered during research and planning and start putting them onto paper. This is usually done in a very rough, unrefined state, and is often just a series of scribbles or rough drawings as seen on the above image.
  4. Engine Integration: As Witch Trainer Silver uses an engine that has some limitations, I have to work with that engine to see how I can make the interface look and function as I want it to, before I seriously start working on designs. Sometimes this means writing code to make it work, other times it means finding workarounds.
  5. Visual Design: This is the fun part, where I get to decide what the interface looks like, and how it will be organised. This involves designing icons, buttons, text, and other elements, and deciding how they will interact with each other.
  6. Feedback and Revision: Once I’ve made a draft of the interface, I show it to the rest of the team and get feedback on how to improve it. This can involve changing the layout, the colours, the icons, or anything else.
  7. Implementation: Once the design is finalised, I start implementing the interface into the game.

At the moment, we’re at step 5, the visual design. As you can see, it’s not finished yet, but we’re further along than you might think.

The above image is what we call a sprite sheet. It’s a collection of images that represent the various UI elements we need to include in the game, like buttons, text boxes, and so on. Once we have these sprite sheets, we can use them to build the interface.

The new interface design will have a lot more detail and visual flair than the old one, and it will also be much more functional, and more suitable for HiDPI monitors and larger screens, but also compatible with lower-resolution screens and mobile devices, or even controllers.

Now, I know that this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I hope that at least some of you will be interested in how this works, and maybe even help out with some of the design decisions along the way.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings, and I hope to see you all around on the discord where you can give me feedback on this design.

Love,
LoafyLemon.

Devblog #14 – Posing & Playtesting

Hello!

Johnny here with another devblog. As mentioned in my previous blog, I’ve been dedicatedly working on posing events. While I don’t have a plethora of new information to unveil today, given that I covered most of it in my previous post, I still wanted to update you all that I’ve successfully completed the “inspect body” favours posing. Both I and one of the moderators (a devoted Luna enthusiast) who helped me test the events are thrilled with the outcome.

Another thing that we’ve tested for this event is the introduction of the opaque textbox. This means, during CGs, you’ll only see the text without the box, providing a cleaner and more immersive experience. While you still have the option to hide it entirely by pressing the middle mouse button or ‘H’, we recognized that this was not the most optimal solution.

As Loafy is currently working on the final CG scene of the update, I’ve been adding a bit more writing to that event, taking advantage of an additional pose, giving us even further insight into Luna… Yes, I intentionally left that sentence unfinished.

That’s all when it comes to the work and the time for me to be self-indulgent and mention something I just started watching. Picture a school of magic, broom sports, potions, and a protagonist with a lightning shaped mark on their face. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I am of course talking about MASHLE: MAGIC AND MUSCLES, an anime about a guy with no magical powers, going to a magic school and beating the shit out of everyone. I’ve only watched about half of the first season this past Sunday, but I must say it’s quite funny so far, and I’ll recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and I’d say it’s pretty close to the silly things I usually write.