Hey look, another TOTS devlog!

In this devlog, I'm going to talk about the scale of Tale of Two Sardines, and why the game is so frustrating to work on actively.

TOTS is shaping up to be a much more detailed experience than Annie and the Art Gallery. This is mostly because of the much more involved worldbuilding I've done for this game. As described in previous posts, this game is all about the world. In AATAG I could get away with not doing too much worldbuilding because of the conciseness of the story you experience, but here I'm not letting myself get away with that again.

I think this is a really good goal to strive for, and will allow people to become invested in a world I've built over the years and a world I love.

However, this comes with a tradeoff. Detail. TOTS is so much more detailed than AATAG that I'm finding it hard to keep track of everything. The main problem I'm having are the hundreds of events and objects scattered around the game. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, as I'd just assign a basic description to each one and forget about it. However, I've been trying so hard to implement worldbuilding in each description that whenever I come back to a room that I've "finished", I want to go in and slightly change everything to be perfect.

I feel like I'm doing a good job keeping organized on what the full story actually is, but it's still hard to manage everything. At this point, I don't think it's worth making a separate document of every object and description in the game (because it would take more time to make than it would ultimately save). The problem I'm having is that I want each section of the game to be perfect before the game is actually playable. That's just not how game development works.

I'm going to stay as organized as I can and prioritize making the game playable from start to finish before fixing the things I've already implemented. This way, I'll feel confident that I have a good base to start from when making revisions and polishing.

If anything, developing TOTS has given me immense respect to other game developers trying to cram detail into their games. Games like Undertale have so much lore and detail and love put into it that I can't imagine what it took to keep track of it all.

Anyways, jswessler rant over. Here are some images of rooms and areas that will be present in Tale of Two Sardines!

Miko loves reading in the library. Or probably just doomscrolling on her phone staring at the state of U.S. politics. Yes, that will be in the game.

Miko's office. That laptop looks a little funky, doesn't it?

Goddammit Miko where the HELL are we?!?!?!

New innovative 2020 technology coming to long hallways near you: Windows!



Thanks for reading and sticking around! You should join my discord server to keep updated on all TOTS related happenings - https://discord.gg/ssJhqeZbDC

- jswessler

Hey look, another TOTS devlog! jswessler keeping a schedule???

Today, I want to talk about one of my main philosophies while making this game, and three results from it that I'm currently working on in the game.

Main Philosophy: Implementing cool mechanics in RPGMaker's limited scope.

Note: This doesn't mean "I'm going to do features that have never been done before!" because RPGMaker (while I enjoy it) isn't exactly ideal for that (as in you definitely shouldn't be making cutting-edge features in RPGMaker). Instead, I'm looking at other games for cool features, visual designs, and mechanics.

RPGMaker games have a tendency to look pretty old-school. While this isn't a bad thing, It contradicts the theme of TOTS. Today, I'll show off three results from this to try to modernize RPGMaker into something cool and fun.

Heads Up Display
Something else to look at besides mouse-drawn pixel art.

Tale of Two Sardines will have a persistent HUD. Unlike AATAG, which just only had a HUD in specific areas, TOTS's HUD will appear throughout the game. It is interactive, too! It shows current information regarding collectibles and other game mechanics.

So what if I play Overwatch? Like, way too much. Please help me...

Hopefully, this will increase the clarity of certain mechanics, when you pick up important items, and more!

Interesting mechanics
As opposed to non-interesting mechanics... Like in Phasmophobia.

Another thing I'm focusing on is having mechanics beyond just "move around and interact with stuff". AATAG did this in two areas, the strobe light puzzle and the audio puzzle, and it seems like those two areas were many people's favorite parts.

TOTS will have a game-wide mechanic of alternating between two dimensions. This will be on a simple button press and will be related to almost every puzzle and story beat.

There will also be more puzzles in TOTS. Here's some teasers of what I have now:

Big Sardine, little Sardine. They're Miko's favorite food!

The audio meter returns!!!

Character Portraits
Now in Full HD 816x624 Quality (tm)!

Back in 2022, when I was riding the high after AATAG's release thinking "There's nothing I can't do in game development anymore!", I decided that TOTS would have animated character portraits. Two years later, I finally realized that that was way too ambitious. TOTS will have static, detailed character portraits instead of the faces in AATAG.

I feel that this is a better approach in TOTS for two reasons. Firstly, TOTS doesn't have as many characters as AATAG: 95% of the portraits are going to be of Miko, unlike AATAG's pretty even 40/20/20/20 split between its characters. Secondly, I mostly used faces in AATAG because I wasn't yet comfortable with drawing full-body shots, but I'm much better at that now. Drawing more allows me to convey hand gestures and body language without completely relying on facial expressions.

Lookin at you like AUUUUUUGGHGHH

And here's what it looks like in game. There will also be slide in/out animations that go along with every picture!

Wow Miko, those blue empty picture frames do look really cool! You're such a talented pixel artist!


Thanks for reading and sticking around! I'm going to try to post every week or two here and mirror them onto my discord server (you should join that, by the way! https://discord.gg/ssJhqeZbDC)

- jswessler