log 8 - Overworld Updates and Secret Characters

Hi!

I’m here with a small Gas Station Story devlog, just in time for the holidays. As of writing, we’ve just moved up to Beta 1.0! The story is playable from start to finish, with about a third of the endings fully implemented so far. It’s looking like there’s just enough space for all my planned content and music, so I’ve added some small, fun features that will enhance the narrative and experience without taking up too much ROM space: Overworld Encounters, the Clerk’s Apartment, and Secret Characters.



Overworld Encounters:
There are a variety of unique characters that players will be able to interact with in the overworld during the free-roam portions of the game. These characters will sell you interesting items, chat with you, and even influence the ending of the game (hint hint).

- VENDO -

VENDO the walking-talking vending machine can be found out back during the day. If you have any spare change around you can spend it on a variety of completely useless items!


- The Tweaker -

The Tweaker can only be found outside a few times at night, and will engage in thrilling "conversation" with you.


- The Dealer -

The Dealer… Well, I’ll let you imagine what he’s doing out back. Don’t be a narc!


- The Cat -

Once per day / night, you can interact with the cat that lives in the back alley. There’s a random chance every time you enter the back alley that the cat will appear, so keep an eye out! The RNG is really easy to manipulate, but I’ll let you figure out how that works when the game is released. 

Clerk's Apartment:
This is where the Clerk lives, a small house out in the desert. You’ll start and end most days of the story here - make sure to take a shower before work, you don’t want your coworker to think you’re smelly!

I’m really proud of the bathroom, almost exclusively because the mirror is actually functional! I also added a bathroom to the gas station itself, I figured if there’s one in the game at all then there better be one in the station too. 



Secret Characters:
These characters are mythical, incredibly powerful beings that mortals can’t fully comprehend. The methods to meeting these strange characters are obscure, obscene, and downright obtuse in some ways.

I wanted to give players of Gas Station Story a chance to meet some of the key players in future stories I plan to tell. The events of GSS don't particularly influence the greater goings-on in the universe, but that doesn't mean it's disconnected entirely. So, if you're thorough, and you explore every option and interaction in the game, you might just come across these characters.

- The Blue Lady -

The Blue Lady is a benevolent force in the universe, dedicated to combatting the forces of chaos. Some say she dates back to the early 1300s. Some say she is older than time itself. If you manage to find her, be sure to bring something to ease her mourning, otherwise you may not escape with your life intact.
Hint: Desert


- The Wizard -

The Wizard will visit the station during the Finale if 3 out of 5 of his triggers are met. These triggers are placed across all 5 days of the story in random interactions, some with other NPCs, and some with random items or locations. See if you can get him to visit you in your playthrough!
Hint: Coffee


- The Nameless One -

[Information Not Found]
Hint: Psychedelic

And that’s it for this devlog! I’m all set to run the Kickstarter (pre-save link here) in mid-February, so the next you'll hear from me again should be a little before then. Thanks so much for reading, as always, and Happy Holidays to those that celebrate!

- Enzi

log 7 - Demo V5.1 Changelog & Updated Statistics

Hello!

I'm back with a small update to the Demo, as well as updated statistics. Preparation for the Kickstarter is well underway, though I'm thinking I'll launch it later rather than sooner (holidays are coming up soon, and all the advice I've received says to avoid the back 3 months of the year when it comes to Kickstarters). More info about that soon, but if you'd like to pre-save the page so you can be notified when it goes live, here's a link!​


- Beta 0.4.1 Statistics -

Models - 26 Humans, 1 Cat, 1 Mannequin Head, and 1 Vending Machine
Characters - 44
Portraits - 171
Non-Portrait Photographs - 24
Endings Implemented - 6 / 26
Songs - 5 Finished, 2 Underway
Word Count - 32,636


- Demo Changelog -

General:
- Music placement tweaks
- First Customer now purchases a candy bar instead of 20 bits of gas (many players were confused by the "..." emote)

POS:
- Pump Pointer now corrects itself to nearest Pump Number when reloading screen after asking customers which pump they were at (instead of getting stuck in between pumps)

And that’s it for now! Time for me to go back to programming, and maybe sleeping if I get lucky…

Much Love,
Enzi​

log 6 - Beta Update and Demo v5 Patch Notes

Hi there!

So, it’s Summer of 2024… and Gas Station Story still isn’t out. Why is that?
A lot of new features have been making their way into the game: another POS overhaul, more portraits, a new demo, secrets galore, and so on. I really want this game to come out in its best possible state, and so I’ve pushed release back a bit (again). I don’t have an official release date or window yet, but I’ll talk about that more down below.

Let’s start with the good news:


The Good:

- Beta Build -
Gas Station Story is officially in the Beta phase of development! I’m still not up to Beta 1.0 as of yet, but we’re getting close. All the major systems have been implemented and the game is almost playable from start to finish. I’m only a few boss encounters and cutscenes away from a full 1.0 build, and then it’s on to the ending cutscenes and final polishes. The first four levels have been polished to hell and back, so once these fights and cutscenes are finished all that’s really left is polishing the final level, balancing out the variables that influence the ending, and finishing up all the music and sound effects commissions.

Alongside this beta version of the game, we have some small improvements to the visuals and gameplay:

Text boxes now have a simple little border around them so they can pop out more, as well as arrows to show that dialogue is continuing. This is a small change, but has required a lot of going back and editing dialogue placement so as not to clip the border (and adding every individual arrow to every text box 0.o).

The advanced functions on your Q Boy now live all together under one menu activated by the Select Button - including an option to re-run the tutorial in case you’ve forgotten how it works!

You can now ask your customers how much gas they were wanting to purchase, as well as what pump they’re parked at. This function lives on the B Button! This little pop-up is the main reason text-boxes have a border now - they draw from the same UI file and I needed to make sure this was distinguishable from the rest of the Q Boy’s dialogue boxes.

Both the Clerk’s internal thoughts and conversations with customers during checkout scenes now print from the top of the screen. This is to help differentiate the overworld dialogue from the Q Boy dialogue prompts.



- Demo V5 -
I've updated the demo to reflect the new features added, and shuffled some scenes around.
The demo runs a little shorter now due to this. I’ve also made the decision to officially cut DMG support. There are certain segments in the late game where performance on the DMG is severely impacted, and I’ve been able to add in more Game Boy Camera photos due to the increased tile limits of the Game Boy Color. I’d like to possibly go back and fix these performance issues before release so Gas Station Story can run on all Game Boy hardware, but my primary targets are Game Boy Color and Steam so that’s low on my priority list.

The full changelog is down at the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the new demo!

- Seattle Indies Expo -
Gas Station Story recently made an appearance at Seattle Indies Expo, with a public test for the v5 Demo and new POS features. Huge thanks to Seattle Indies for the opportunity and support, and to everybody that played and watched others play! :) The turnout this year was bonkers! It honestly felt like there was always somebody at the booth, I don't think the chair was empty for more than 5 minutes at any point.

- The “Spiritual Prequel” Official Release -
In case you missed it, Gas Station Story’s weird(er) little brother, Pierrot à la Mode, is now on Steam! This updated version has a lot of bugfixes, a new secret ending, and increased difficulty >:) I’ve also slowed the flashing colors down, just to be safe. You can snag that on Steam for MacOS and Windows — or on itch.io for Game Boy Color — for just $1.99. I’m planning on launching a Steam bundle with both PàlM and GSS when the latter is finished, so if you buy PàlM now you’ll be able to snag a discount on GSS when it’s released!
I originally made this as a fun 2-week project for the Big Mode Game Jam last year, as a quick and dirty little project using the style I’ve developed for Gas Station Story, but cleaned up the code to pop on Steam a few months ago so I could learn how SteamPipe works and prototype a wrapper for the MacOS and Windows release of GSS. I still need to figure out why saves aren’t loading before GSS releases on Steam, but I’m going to actually finish the game first lol— thankfully PàlM has a runtime of 30 minutes and is designed to play in one sitting.
(btw: this “spiritual prequel” is not at all important to the narrative of Gas Station Story, but it is cute and shows a very small glimpse of what’s going on in Divinity City before the events of the Upgrade Virus. Winona, the model for the main character of GSS, appears in PàlM, and a character from PàlM may appear in a secret scene in GSS if you make the right decisions *wink wink nudge nudge*)


- Crowd Funding -
I’m going to be running a modest Kickstarter for the project here pretty soon, just to raise enough money to finish out the commissions for music and pay for some other expensive development costs. If there’s sufficient interest, though, I have some stretch goals in mind as well that will enhance the project without pushing release out any further. You can pre-save the kickstarter here, but I’ll make sure to post another update on all channels when it goes live. Backers can get their name in the credits, snag a copy of the game at a discount, and even possibly get their hands on my testing cartridge!

The Bad:

So. I’ve run my mouth a bit about release dates. “Summer 2024”, “Q4 2024”… But I’m not sure when this game is going to come out, to be completely honest. At the earliest, it’s done by the end of the year. At the latest, I’m thinking it could be midway through next year. I want to do this story justice, and can’t justify releasing the project before any and all kinks are ironed out. I want to make sure the project is free of major issues, as the Game Boy architecture will make updating the project and keeping older saves compatible very difficult.
(maybe once this is released I won’t have to work so many hours at the job and I can focus on storytelling and gamedev — I have a looot of plans for and notes about my next project)

So, for now, there’s no official release date or window. I’m going to wait until the project is just about ready to push out the door before I announce when it’s coming. I gotta get this one right, y’know? I don’t want to make another promise I can’t keep by setting a date I know I’ll likely kick down the road anyways. Until then… “Coming Soon”.



Thanks as always for reading this far! I definitely see a light at the end of this tunnel, even if there’s still a good bit left to do. We’re getting close!

- enzi



- Changelog (Demo V5) -

General:
- Some scenes removed for a quicker demo experience
- Additional free-roam segment added
- SFX updated
- Music placement tweaked
- DMG support removed
- text box borders added
- text box arrows added

POS:
- Q Boy Advanced Functions reworked to a drop-down menu
- cleartotal.exe moved to advanced functions
- tutorial.exe added to advanced functions
- B Button now lets you ask customer how much gas they wanted / on what pump
- Clerk Monologue / Dialogue now prints from the top of the screen


post-script:

this is Oliver: Winona’s cat and my close friend.
He doesn’t have a portrait in the game, cause the mf won’t sit still long enough for me to photograph, but if you get the right endings you might see a sprite of he in a certain someone’s apartment ;3

log 5 - The Demo

Hello!

As of today, the demo for Gas Station Story is officially finished! The soundtrack (created by the amazing Emberlynn Bland) and sound effects (made by the incredible Lunchz) have been uploaded, and color mode has been implemented. I’m hoping to get more songs and effects commissioned here soon, but the core soundtrack itself is done!

I’ve also removed the ability to access the rest of the game / developer mode, sorry to anybody that missed the chance ;) You’re welcome to dig through the game’s files (I’ve hid a few surprises in there in case you do hehe), but I’d recommend waiting for the full game to be finished - I promise it’ll be worth the wait!

The new demo will give you a fun, unique glimpse at the game's story. I grabbed a couple scenes from across the first 3 days of the game (with the first half being a chunk of the tutorial) to create a sort of glitched-out preview of the first act of the story. I hope you enjoy it!

I’d also like to take a moment to plug the YouTube channel I’ve been posting trailers for the game on. I’ve uploaded a brand new trailer that gives a much better look at the story and gameplay! Special thanks to the Portland Indie Game Squad Discord for giving me ideas on how to structure the video.

Right now I'm working on porting the demo over to MacOS / Windows compatible builds so I can upload them to Steam, as well as adding the music into the rest of the game's files. Hopefully those will be up soon, so you'll be able to play them without a web connection or an emulator.

Thanks for reading!

- issumatek

log 4 - Gender & Relationships in Gas Station Story

This has been on my mind since the very beginning of this project, and it’s taken me over a year and a half to even start writing it (not counting all my various notes on the matter). The social landscape of Elyris, the desert planet that Gas Station Story takes place on, isn’t one that I’m actively able to explore in the game itself, seeing as it’s framed from the point-of-view of somebody that only gets momentary glimpses into strangers’ lives. So, I’d like to clarify some of my choices, and shed some light on how romantic/domestic relationships tend to play out on this world.

- Pre-Requisite Information - 

To start off with, the racial makeup of Elyris’ society is less than 20% human. I wasn’t able to really represent this in-game due to a limited budget and the nature of Game Boy graphics (I want each character to be recognizable, and be able to be photographed by the Game Boy Camera). Despite this, I imagine that the humans on Elyris, having primarily emigrated from Earth, are also generally part of the lowest class in Elyrisian society (with some exceptions). With the game being set outside of the city, in a generally poor area, I feel like this fits the overall composition of Elyris’ society.

The War between the Earth Corporation and the Squods is mostly just a plot device that I don’t intend on exploring beyond this game. I have always enjoyed “the war before the story” as a narrative thread, but I want to save a deep-dive into that for another project, and a different war (with more Magick involved). That being said, I believe that in the aftermath of this conflict, humans are looked upon much less favorably in the greater universe. Elyris is not an Earth Corp. controlled territory, it’s actually Squod territory — Squods being the stereotypical “little green men” aliens that show up throughout Gas Station Story — so humans are actually quite despised here, but racism isn’t really a theme for this story so it’s never overt. 

Squods make up about 40% of the species on Elyris, but there are no natives to the desert. It’s a fully barren desert planet that had a small “gold rush” 200 years before the game starts, which is why there are so many people living there (Divinity City’s population is about 4.2 million people). The capital city, Last Anchor, is named as such because of the giant, mega-building sized gravity anchor (literally like a ship’s anchor) in the center of the city - left behind by the space pirates that hid their treasure on the planet. It still hasn’t been found to this day.

The War has also lead to a lot of supply issues around Squod territory, particularly for Earth-Corporation-owned business like 8-Fifteen. The Squods allow their businesses to continue operating, but they’ve placed an embargo on Earth Corp. deliveries, so most human businesses have to order through different supply chains than they’re used to.

- Personal Information - 

The player character (simply referred to as “The Clerk” in internal documents) is represented by portraits of my partner, Winona. Sam is represented by myself in a wig and makeup. I’ve only explored their relationship in the course of developing this game, but I can confidently tell you that neither of them has a clear-cut label for their sexuality (sexualities?) - I’ll talk about this more in the Relationships section down below.

The Clerk is primarily a vessel for the player, but no matter how they’re played, they’re still the same character. In my headcanon for them, every response a player could choose is still something the Clerk would reasonably say, depending on their mood that day, how hungry they are, how shitty their commute was, etc etc etc. They do have an official name, but that’s only revealed in the secret credits if you get the “best ending” (I don’t want to designate any of the planned endings as the “true ending”, but only 1 or 2 of them will show you the secret credits and reveal the Clerk’s true name - so I’m calling them the “best endings” as they contain the best outcomes for the two lead characters).

This is completely off-topic, but as somebody that grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons with my homies, calling this game an RPG is weird to me (in the same way that calling Cyberpunk 2077 an RPG is weird to me). I feel like, because the game locks you into playing one specific character, the player is not really “role-playing” because they can’t choose their role. But, that’s really just semantics and neither here nor there. I’ve also seen RPGs described as games that put you into a specific role, which works for Gas Station Story. I suppose, by choosing to play the game, the player did choose their role? I dunno, man.

I guess I’m saying that no matter how the Clerk is played, they’re still the same Clerk, just on a different timeline?

I guess.

Anyways.

(I'd initially planned to write more about Sam here, but after months of deliberation, I've decided against it. You only get to know what's shown of her in the game >:) Sorry not sorry!)

Even though the Clerk and Sam are represented and inspired by Winona and myself, they aren’t actually based on us. I’m not a woman: I identify as non-binary. Neither of us work or have ever worked at a gas station. In fact, I feel like the Clerk speaks more in my voice than Sam does (despite both of them being written by me). Putting portraits of us into the story was not part of the original plan, but became a part of the project very organically. I knew once I started building the project that I wanted Winona to represent the Clerk, but it wasn’t until I really started to write their and Sam’s relationship that I decided to represent the romantic interest myself. A lot of their conversations mirror ones that Winona and I have had in real life, so it made sense to give those characters our faces.

- Gender -

Let’s get the labels part out of the way quickly: the canonical Clerk character is gender non-binary, whereas the canonical Sam character is a trans woman.

I describe Sam as a trans woman because that’s who we would understand her to be in our society - but on Elyris there are no distinctions between who is or isn’t a woman, or a man, or anything. Almost all children raised on the planet grow up without any gender or pronouns being assigned to them by their parents. Instead, they’re expected to decide who they are by the time they come of age (whatever age that may be for the given species). They’re given the power to shape their own identity throughout their childhood and adolescence, and by the time they become adults, they get to codify that existence by choosing their legal name.

Because there are so many species with different types of birth certificates, the biological sex of a person isn’t considered that important either - only the biological species (special certificates exist for planets that have multiple indigenous species). Doctors are expected to treat every patient as an individual due to how different every body is.

I also define Sam as a trans woman because she represents a part of me that wants to transition - or maybe an alternate reality version of myself. Presenting as "masculine" as I do on the day-to-day gives me a lot of privilege and security - but it also causes me a lot of dysphoria a little more than half the time I look in the mirror. She’s the piece of me that looks in that mirror and wishes her outer shell reflected the woman inside of her, and the version of me that’s confident enough to be that woman every day. As with every nearly character in this story, though, she’s not all of me, just a fraction. (She’s also that part of you, if you’re reading this and feel the same way!)

I don’t think there are societal constructs around the notion of gender on Elyris. At least, not generally speaking. Each species certainly has its own ideas they consider “traditional”, but as the social landscape of Elyris has progressed over time, and with as much of an interplanetary melting pot as it is, those ideas have quickly faded. Most people just love their partners for who they are, for their shared interests and goals, not the role they’re expected to play in each others’ lives.

Also, a large portion of people never pick a codified gender. If somebody doesn’t choose one by the specified time for their species, they’re just left with a special tag for genderless. It is a huge pain in the ass to change this later, so it’s recommended that a person pick one by the deadline unless they’re sure they identify as genderless. There also isn’t a “genderless” option to explicitly pick, so not picking is the only way to receive this denotation.

The Clerk falls under this category. The Age of Majority for humans is 21 under the laws of the Earth Corporation (or 20 under the laws of the Squods, they don’t like uneven numbers). The Clerk never really wanted to pick a gender: they think it’s a pretty unnecessary thing to have on a municipal certificate at all.

- Relationships -

I had the idea for this game way back in 2017, but it wasn’t very detailed at that time. I didn’t have much other than the core idea of “a story game set in a sci-fi gas station”. After playing around with GB Studio and my Game Boy Camera for a few years, it all started to come together.

However, I’ve known Elyris for a long time. Elyris — or, the people that live there — represents my hopes for humanity’s understanding of love and romantic relationships. Not that I’m an expert, by any means whatsoever. I’ve goofed up my fair share of relationships. But I am hopeful that our descendants will be better than I have been. And Elyris is far from perfect, I’m not trying to paint this world as any sort of utopia. None of the other problems we face in our modern society have gone away. Capitalism and imperialism still run rampant. People hurt each other, a lot. Most people still feel like they have no purpose in life, feel like they have no place in the universe, feel like they’re getting by just a day at a time (and barely at that).

But, in matters of love, Elyrisians understand that no single person can ever truly fulfill all their needs and desires. Their media isn’t full of romance that preaches finding your “one true love” or “living happily ever after”. They understand that love takes work, that figuring things out requires constant, intentional communication. That everyone is different, and has different wants and needs. If someone is of a different biology than you, they might not even know what your needs are! 

I’m speaking about the majority here, just to clarify. Broad strokes, obviously. There are still groups of people that believe in monogamy, and (cough cough) preach it constantly. There are still people that don’t care what you want or need, because they believe what they want from you is more important. Partners still argue, parents get divorced, love goes unrequited.

Speaking of broad strokes (zing!): sex is an entirely different can of worms. I’m not going to get into the details (mostly because I don’t want to think about them), but I imagine everything is much more complicated, while simultaneously being much more freely explored. Sex is something you’re unlikely to quickly “figure out” with a person that has different biology than you. Sexual compatibility takes a backseat in romantic relationships, because people still fall in love with each other for their minds, their movements, their words. Partners usually understand that your biological desires aren’t the same as your romantic desires. Panromantic, polyamorous relationships are infinitely more common than uncommon.

When people fall in love and want to be closer to each other, they typically cohabitate for a while before there’s any real commitment made. People want to be sure that they are truly compatible before getting into the complications of governmentally officiating their partnership. Weddings are not frequent in Elyrisian culture - typically, a wedding is considered a celebration of the longevity of a relationship, to be held every 10 years. But most people tend to forgo the wedding altogether and instead enjoy an intimate ceremony on their own, leaving the large ceremonies to wealthy families and public figures.

Before I wrap this up: I’ve always enjoyed this clip where Donald Glover talks about Lando Calrissian being pansexual in Solo.

he’s right tho

Those are my thoughts on gender and relationships in Gas Station Story (and several tangents)! I hope this lore dump gave you a better insight to the inhabitants of Divinity City, as Game Boy dialogue boxes are far too limiting to give you more than a small peek behind the curtain. I’d love to return to Elyris some day in another project to really get into some of these themes, but that’s something I’ll worry about in the future. Thanks for reading!

- issumatek

log 3 - dev update & roadmap

Hello there! It's been a while since I've written a real update. Sorry for the radio silence! The scope of the project has increased quite a bit in the past year (more on that later), and I’ve done a lot of under-the-hood updates to increase the quality, so I've mostly been keeping my head down and working as much as I can. That being said, there's a lot I have to write about here, so I'm just going to jump into it!

Improvements

- Color Mode! -

I've been messing with this for almost a year before officially talking about it - but Gas Station Story will also release in colors other than green! I've been trying to get the color palettes right, and make sure all of the art lines up correctly still. Here's an example:

the original color palette

the same background in color mode

But I don't want to show off too much just yet! The character portraits will mostly be centered around a single hue, since I can't easily alter the artwork without messing with the readability of the faces, but a handful of them will have two hues! Here’s one I’m really proud of:

the two-headed man!

- Mini-Games -

A handful of the mini-games have been improved using GBVM (the coding language used by GB Studio), optimizing performance and allowing for gameplay closer to what I originally envisioned. Beyond the stocking mini-game, I've added some new interesting types of stages in the later levels, some of which can be seen near the end of the current Demo. These were part of the scope increase I mentioned earlier (and will get to in a little bit) as they are part of the core gameplay loop and are not optional experiences.

this version more closely resembled Simon Says than anything - with free movement for the player and a set drink pattern for each stage

this one has specific positions the player can move to, and randomly generated drink patterns - much closer to a certain letter-sorting mini-game...

- Save / Reset Overhaul -

I've gone back and reworked how the Save and Reset feature functions, allowing the background art of the Continue / Reset scene to change over time as your save progresses. This will also allow me to potentially add in the ability to rewind your save back to previous levels, or even implement a “New Game +” mode, but those are features I will look into near the end of development (depending on how large the ROM for this game becomes).

- New Point-Of-Sale System Features -

For the POS System, I've rewritten the tutorial to be easier to understand (and not crash the game after you run it), as well as added in an entirely new feature: Auto-Scan!

This function is mapped to the Select button, and will automatically scan the items placed on the counter in case you forgot what the customer grabbed -- or if you're just feeling lazy! Be warned, however, as running the Auto-Scan will affect your Employee Productivity Rating, and could lead to the Boss showing up when you least want him to...

Current Build Statistics

As of right now, I've just moved up to build version Alpha 4.0, the last major version before I move on to Beta. Level 4 is also complete! It had a couple of nasty bugs that took me a while to smooth out, but it appears to be running stably now. The opening scene of Level 5 is finished, the rest of the level has been outlined and the dialogue has been scripted. Here's where we're at on statistics right now:

<><><>

Word Count: 24,237 Words

Cast List: 24 Human Models, 1 Cat, and 1 Mannequin

Total Character Portraits: 157 Portraits

Total (non-portrait) Game Boy Camera Photos: 18 Photos

<><><>

The Core Gameplay Loop

This has been the main reason for the radio silence, and the primary culprit (other than myself) of the scope creep. My initial concept for this game included only the core gameplay of watching what customers are buying ("Customer Phase"), dialogue in-between ("Dialogue Phase"), and then ringing them up ("Checkout Phase"). What I didn’t anticipate was how dissatisfied I would end up being with the lack of evolution over the game's narrative. The Point-of-Sale system adds new challenges into the Checkout Phase over time, but I wanted to put more space between the Customer Phase and the Checkout Phase, and not all characters have enough dialogue to actively extend the Dialogue Phase.

So, to make sure the gameplay loop evolves throughout the game in a satisfying way, the checkout process becomes more complicated in Level 4. In between the Dialogue Phase and the Checkout Phase is a new phase: The Mini-Game Phase.

During the Mini-Game Phase, your POS System displays graphics akin to an Adventure game (and other styles as well, but we’ll save that for another time…). I’m using the GB Studio “glitchy fade” plugin by Y0UR-U5ERNAME to quickly swap scenes as well as stay in line with the updated Q Boy’s glitchy aesthetics. Complete each stage to progress the story, while keeping an eye out for side quests! There are a handful of secrets in these stages, ones that will majorly affect the plot and ending you receive, so you definitely won't want to breeze through them too quickly.

These additions make the later stages really fun to play through, but they have required me to add a whole new set of mechanics and systems to the project, significantly extending the development time for the game. During development of early Alpha, I estimated my release date to be Summer of 2023. That, obviously, did not happen. I don’t have an official release window yet… But on that note, let’s move to the next section of this update!

Roadmap

This is all still in the air right now, but I think I’ll be able to have the final build released in Summer of 2024 (barring any unanticipated development challenges). I've just finished up Level 4's major bugfixes, and am now starting on building each customer encounter in Level 5.

Here’s a simplified graphic of the timeline I'm looking at right now:

I’ll be working less hours at my job come Winter so that I'll have more time for development. I believe that by January, I should be knee-deep in Level 5. I’m hopeful that the systems built for Level 4 (that carry into Level 5) will have all the kinks ironed out, so there won’t be as long of a bug-squashing period after 5 is finished. 

By Spring, I want to have Level 5 finished and polished and be working out the endings. I’ve been tracking all of the different paths players can take through the narrative, and the minimum amount of endings needed to satisfyingly wrap up each path comes out to 23 (!!). I’d honestly love to have a few more secret endings hidden in there, but that’s going to be limited by ROM size (more on that down below) and development time.

So, by Summer, I should be finishing up the last of the polishing and quality testing! Again, this will only be the case if nothing unexpected pops up in development (and as long as nothing unexpected pops up in life either).

Final Notes

- Demo V 3 -

I've updated the Demo build to actually play more like a demo, instead of just being the first several levels of the game. There is still a way to access those full levels, though, if you can figure out how to activate Developer Mode ;) I don't know how long that will be the case, though, but good luck to those of you that search for it! I'll be updating the demo to add color in with the release of Demo V 4, once music and SFX are added in as well. 

- Portland Retro Gaming Expo - 

Gas Station Story in the wild! I got to showcase the new demo build at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo - It was really wonderful to watch you all smiling and laughing as you played through it. The fact that this happened is still so crazy to me. Thanks for stopping by, and big thanks to the Portland Indie Games Squad for inviting me to showcase with them :) 

- ROM Size -

I just recently crossed the 2MB mark on my compiled project file, and music/SFX has not been added yet (which takes up more space than I would like)... and the max size for a Game Boy game cartridge is 4MB. With about 15 minutes of planned audio, a few Game Boy Camera photos left to take, and an entire level left to code + make assets for, I'm really hoping I won't have to cut any content out. I've been trying to scope the last few levels appropriately so I'm not creating too many new graphics, but I'll re-assess these plans once music and sound effects are fully added in.

That's pretty much everything! I don't know when the next actual development update like this will be, but I have some content coming over the next few months to tide ya'll over until I can set an official release date. I'll also be updating the demo with official music and sound effects soon, so keep an ear out for that. Until then!

- issumatek

log 2 - scene workflow & developer tools

(originally published August 7th, 2022)

Scene Workflow

After roughly 3 months of developing Gas Station Story,  I realized I wasn't building things out the way I actually wanted them to be. The editor was confusing for me to move around in because of how many different scenes there were, and I was having trouble remembering which scenes had which dialogue. I was copying actors and scripts between scenes frequently, which is currently a little buggy in GB Studio, so that was causing me frequent headaches. I also realized that I was doing some things in an extremely inefficient way, such as not really paying attention to which variables I was using and using very similar names for each scene in the editor. Alpha 0.4 had quickly become much more inflated than it needed to be.

Once I realized these things, I knew I needed to fix it. Going back and editing everything to be more efficient seemed to be more work than worth, so I decided to rebuild it all from the ground up as Alpha 0.5. I would plan the layout better, plan what variables would go where and keep track of them in a separate document, and I'd make sure to build everything efficiently, the way I wanted it to be. I knew it was only going to take me a week or two, tops, since I had everything I needed.

It took me an entire month.

Granted, all of Gas Station Story since then (now up to Alpha 0.9) has been built off of Alpha 0.5, and I don't anticipate that changing (I really, really hope it doesn't change). But it took me a lot longer than I expected it to, due to how different everything ended up being laid out. It went from a multitude of scenes in the editor -- each with a few lines of code and dialogue -- to a few scenes in the editor, each with lines and lines of code and dialogue I have to scroll through in order to edit.

In Alpha 0.4, Day 1 consists of 74 different scenes (excluding any time stamps and the intro).  In Alpha 0.5, Day 1 consists of 30 individual scenes (again, excluding the time-stamps and intro).  Less than half the amount than 0.4, which I have to imagine would've been a very slow editor to work in if I had continued on in it into later levels. And, I was able to revise and polish a lot of details along the way that I might not have caught without the intensive comparing I did between the two builds.

Some key differences:

- 0.5's list of variables has been organized for easier navigation when scrolling (I switch between using my keyboard more or my trackpad more depending on mood), and is just generally easier to keep track of.

- 0.5 runs faster than 0.4 in-editor, but some scenes take longer to load in due to moving actors around (or swapping their sprites, depending on the scene) before the scene fades in. This has been optimized more in Level 2, but still requires further polish.

- 0.5's portrait scenes are much easier to navigate due to a very simplistic system for variables - Day Check and Scene Check. The Day is which level the player is in and is set at the beginning of the level; the Scene is incremented to determine which segment of the story the player is in. This has been the greatest help to me in the editor simply due to needing only one scene of each portrait. 

- The confusing aspect of clicking around in 0.4 is gone, as 0.5 has been organized before being built. Portraits have their own spots, as does each Day. Portraits are also named by their expressions as opposed to just numbers, to make them easier to tell apart when in the code editor.

Developer Tools

As I built 0.5, I realized there were some further tools I could build that would make development faster and easier. Thus, Dev Mode was built into the intro. By pressing Select on the first scene, I would enter Dev Mode - this allows me to skip scenes from the time tag screens by using the Left Arrowand Right Arrow to skip between major scenes (Day 1 to Day 2, for example), or by using Select to skip between minor scenes (like from 9:15 to 11:00). This speeds up testing a lot since I can skip between relevant scenes to figure out if certain cross-scene events are functioning, and it keeps me from forgetting to reset the Starting Scene in the editor back to intended start (I oftentimes will change my starting scene for testing, then compile my build, burn it to the cartridge for a full playthrough, and realize I forgot to set it to the beginning after leaving the house).

Additionally, after each level (right before the save checkpoint), a dialogue box will list out the value of each Passive variable that they've influenced, so I can keep track during my test playthroughs and make sure it's all being updated as I progress.

Dev Mode has evolved since 0.5, and now pressing Select at the starting scene takes me to the Dev Box. Exiting the Box takes me back to the intro (with a skip option so I don't have to watch the title crawl). The first door takes me to a blank scene that connects to whatever my current testing area is, as well as setting any necessary variables for the scene so all functions work as intended. The second door takes me to a separate section of the build that I'm using as a shell build to record trailer footage. The following doors take me to different levels of the game (Day 2, 3, and 4, respectively) - but the scene changing function of the original Dev Mode has remained in case I need to jump around during testing.

Thanks as always for reading this far!
- issumatek

log 1 - game boy camera experiments & techniques

(originally published on July 7th, 2022)

Game Boy Camera Experiments (& Techniques)

I’ve been experimenting a lot with different methods for photographing my models for this game. I’ve been using my Game Boy Camera for years now, but for the past 4 months I’ve been spending more time on portraits vs the normal urban landscape photography I’m used to, and have honed in on what I think are the best ways to photograph portraits for the style of game I'm making. The following is what I’ve learned during this pre-development period.

Lessons Learned:

- Lighting is Key - 
This is an obvious one to anybody that’s ever picked up a camera before, the light in your scene is incredibly important (especially for as low-resolution of a camera as the Game Boy Camera). Every pixel really counts here, so I try to always make sure my models are lit appropriately. Making sure the shadows are cast correctly will lead to appropriate facial shapes and clear lines that look gorgeous on the DMG’s screen. I’ve found the best results come from a light source on one side of the face or the other, as well as a general purpose overhead light to make sure shadows are cast downwards on the subject (helps with readability for jawlines specifically).

With improper lighting, the models run the risk of looking flat at best, or disproportionate at worst. Well, at worst, they’re completely unreadable, but we want to avoid the mess of an unreadable image, so we won’t count that. Light sources don't even need to be incredibly powerful (unless I'm trying to shoot in a really dark environment - but again, we want to avoid that), just decent enough to illuminate the majority of the subject.

(without proper lighting)

(with proper lighting)

- Color Matching -
Given that the DMG has only 4 colors, balancing the light and dark qualities of my actors’ costumes is very important, as well as the color of the backdrop. Obviously, in post, the background doesn’t matter as much, since I usually erase all of it, but making sure there's a clear white or black background makes picking the individual pixels out a lot easier. Personally, I hate editing individual pixels, so I try to make sure my background is as clear as can be.

Avoid too many similar colors between different outfit pieces (eg if the subject has a light jacket on, have them wear a dark undershirt), as the sameness will make readability an issue. For darker skin tones, a lighter outfit or breaking up a dark outfit with grey tones helps readability a lot. For lighter skin tones, avoid white clothing at all costs: the Game Boy Camera has a hard time separating light clothes and light skin tones. Getting the Clerk's white jumpsuit to work right on camera took me ages, and the outcome is still not exactly what I was wanting, but it works and looks pretty good so I'm leaving it as is.

(the dark hoodie blends in too much with the black mask)

(the light hoodie allows the black mask to really stand out on its own)

Another aspect of this is to plan which tones I think will match up with each of the Game Boy's 4 colors. The lightest color in the shot will correlate with the lightest Game Boy color, and the darkest will correlate with the darkest Game Boy color. There are only two colors in between those that are mostly used for details and shading, so the palette is always going to be pretty limited. This allows for a lot of creativity, though, as the limitations create some unintentionally great effects at times.

(without the white of the mask, the model's hair/beard here appear as normal)

(but with the same model wearing the mask, their beard and hair appear as a sort of hood)

Techniques

- Transfer Process -
Thankfully, Epilogue has made an incredible product in the GB Operator, and transferring pictures over to my desktop is an absolutely seamless process. Head over to epilogue.co to order one for yourself, just be aware they may have a bit of a waiting period (at the time of writing this, their website says "In Stock", but when I bought mine it took about 6 months for it to arrive).

- Cleanup Process - 
The cleanup process for portraits is fairly straightforward. I isolate the subject first, making sure to separate their silhouette from the noise in the background, and then start eliminating any stray pixels. A consistent background looks better when scenes change, so I’m sticking with a white background for all portraits. 

Once the subject is isolated, I change the colors to DMG greens, add in any shoulders or arms that have been cut off, and add them to my portrait template, then export. I could probably just leave the colors as black and white since GB Studio will translate it over, but I like looking at this palette and it's a quick swap so it's worth it for me.

(a quick timelapse of my process)

That’s all for today! Development is slowly but surely chugging along, I just finished a trip to the east coast to photograph the majority of my models (half of them are friends from my home town) and I'm working on processing those now. Just need to commission a few more sprites and music pieces, and polish out the rough edges of Day 2, and the official demo will be ready to upload!

Until next time!

- issumatek

log 0 - gas station story

(originally published on June 6th, 2022)

Hello!

My name is Enzi, but online I go by Issumatek. I'm still pretty new to the world of Game Design, at least in practice. I've read books about Game Design since I was a young lad, and have been playing games my whole life. That being said, welcome to my first official project, Gas Station Story (working title)!

I intend for this game to be an exploration of my personal experiences in the service industry (although I've primarily worked in food service, not in a gas station), as well as a projection of my view into others' lives: both customers and coworkers I've had. That being said, of course, none of the characters or locations in the game are intended to accurately represent any real life person or place, yadda yadda, and so on.

A significant amount of my time in the service industry (coming up on a decade, now) has been spent talking to and listening to my coworkers and customers. And a lot more of my time in the service industry has been spent thinking about ways of getting out of said industry. This project is both an exploration of those thoughts, as well as me acting on my desire to move on. I hope to strike a chord with anybody that's ever worked in service, as many of our experiences are shared across the industry. From the smoke breaks to the shitty customers, this one is for you.

This game is being made with GB Studio, and is compatible with both the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance, and the ROM file can even be loaded onto a Nintendo DS or 3DS using the right tools. I'm sure you can get it running on many other systems as well, being that the Game Boy is a frequently emulated platform. If somebody wants me to, I'll even export a version for the Analogue Pocket, I just don't have one currently so I haven't bothered to yet. Eventually I would like to get cartridges printed for this game, but that's a ways away.

Also, a big gimmick of this game is that I've been using the Game Boy Camera for the character images. All of the portraits in this game (even the weird ones) have been made using practical effects captured through the lens of the Game Boy Camera, and ripped using my GB Operator. I plan on writing a devlog about this process some time later, when I've accumulated enough photos and examples. I've only captured about half of the characters I need, and have been actively working on finding more models. Worse comes to worst, I'll just toss a wig and some makeup on and figure it out.

That's all for now, I think. Thanks for reading this far! I'm hoping to have a demo up by the end of August 2022. See you then!