.LOG



__________________________________________
	PUT THIS AT THE END

1/10/2023, 2:55 AM
It's so easy to get stuck in a daily habit of just watching videos and playing games in your spare time. After all, how can working on projects ever compete with playing finished games?

1/10/2023, 2:60 AM
For me I need to tweak and adjust something. Fix some nagging flaw. But to really get me obsessed it takes a technical puzzle.

1/10/2023, 3:00 AM
In this case it was the factory chipset. Throwing together tiles from another game is easy enough. But how on EARTH can I make it fit the style of the existing pokemon tiles?

1/10/2023, 3:20 AM
After a day of wrestling with this puzzle, I was obsessed. The perfect state-of-mind for getting projects done.

1/10/2023, 3:25 AM
And that "creative momentum" carried over into making the rest of the maps, and then creating all the scenes in those maps.
__________________________________________





1/9/2023, 8:52 AM
It's been awhile since I made a Flash Story. I'm having a lot of fun coming up with the plot. I have this whole elaborate scheme for the Team Rocket group and it's kind of cool figuring out how all the parts of their plan fit together.

1/9/2023, 8:55 AM
I usually try to avoid spoiling my own stories before I've finished making them, but the process of coming up with it can be interesting. I can always just wait and post all of this after everything's done.

1/9/2023, 8:57 AM
So it usually starts with a basic vague idea. It's a good idea to write this down so I don't forget about the main concept that inspired you. Later I'll can get so buried in the details that I sometimes start to lose sight of what made the project interesting.

1/9/2023, 9:00 AM
Misty and some pokemon get affected by some horny-gas. Some kind of aphrodesiac. Therefore... fucking. Now to figure out the situation that leads up to that.

1/9/2023, 9:02 AM
Where does that gas come from? Glooms.
Why? The Team Rocket mafia are manipulating them into making it... somehow.
Why? Easier to breed pokemon en-mass instead of stealing them.
Therefore... a breeding factory.
... that Misty can end up in. :-)

1/9/2023, 9:03 AM
Okay, but let's go deeper. How are the Rockets manipulating the Glooms? I dunno, Ditto-jelly? Ditto's are fun.

1/9/2023, 9:04 AM
Now let's figure out how this all fits together. To story can reveal this process while stuff is happening to Misty.

1/9/2023, 9:05 AM
What are the side-effects of the Rocket plot? What clues and foreshadowing can this create for the audience. This is useful for storytelling because it means stuff won't just seem to happen at random. There will be reasons backing up the events. Reasons that will get explained later. Mysteries are always fun.

1/9/2023, 9:06 AM
I don't have to use every side-effect. This is just kind of a "palette" that I can pick from if I see an opportunity or need to fill a storytelling gap with something.

1/9/2023, 9:10 AM
The Rocket's plot also provides a basic outline to build the story on top of. How does the story start? Misty gets gassed... while stopping some Rocket grunts from capturing pokemon.

1/9/2023, 9:12 AM
The pokemon are acting weird, so go to a poke-center. They're horny? Then go to a Pokemon Breeding center. The Rockets are running a fake one. How convenient! This could put Misty right in the middle of their "breeding factory".

1/9/2023, 9:13 AM
Maybe she gets abducted for snooping. How does she get caught? Maybe the Ditto is "hiding" in her and causes her to moan, accidentally getting her caught... then gassed... then fucking.

1/9/2023, 9:19 AM
The story could do a whole back-and-forth between Misty and Officer Jenny. Misty going through the Rocket breeding process, and Officer Jenny searching for her while uncovering the process, explaining it for the audience.

1/9/2023, 9:21 AM
So stuff happens to Misty, then it's explained why. This is a very useful cycle!

1/9/2023, 9:22 AM
Now to figure out the ending. Some obvious stuff has to happen. Misty gets rescued, the pokemon are found. Loose threads are explained...

1/9/2023, 9:23 AM
Oh, and Misty keeps the frisky Ditto. Fun!

1/9/2023, 9:24 AM
Alright, now to make the maps. I need a list of places.

1/9/2023, 9:25 AM
Forests have trees and junk. Towns have houses and junk... what do the factories have? I want them to each be different from each other so the audience doesn't get confused and think they're all the same place.

1/9/2023, 9:27 AM
I have a Gas Factory
A Breeding Factory
and a Milking Factory
What do each of these places do? What kinds of things need to be in them?

1/9/2023, 9:28 AM
I'll make a dedicated room for each factory-task, and put stuff in those rooms that show that part of the process.

1/9/2023, 9:28 AM
The pokemon tile-set doesn't really lend itself to factories, let alone multiple different ones. I'll just, uh... borrow some old Super Nintendo tiles.

1/9/2023, 9:29 AM
Let's see, what SNES games have factories? Earthbound has the Fly Honey factory. Final Fantasy 6 has the Magitech facility. And Terranigma has Beruga's lab.

1/9/2023, 9:30 AM
I like Beruga's lab. Lots of good tanks and pipes. Good for handling horny-gas, ditto-jelly, and milk.

1/9/2023, 9:32 AM
Of course the art style won't match the Pokemon tiles. Maybe I can just change the palette to the pokeon one?

1/9/2023, 9:32 AM
Different colors might also help indicate that each factory is a different place. I don't have to use every tile in every factory. I can give each one a specific set of tiles to define its look. The walls can be different, and not every factory needs tanks.

1/9/2023, 9:35 AM
I tend to have trouble staying motivated to work on these projects, but for some reason tinkering with the tileset has become very addictive for me. It's a deep puzzle of visual design.

1/9/2023, 9:36 AM
And as a side-effect, I now have most of the story's maps made. Usually that's the hard part. Now I just need to put the characters in them and make stuff happen.

1/9/2023, 9:38 AM
One of the reasons why my stories often re-use maps is that making them usually feels tedious. But apparently making factories is an exception for me. I guess I just need a good puzzle to motivate me.

1/9/2023, 9:40 AM
I have 4 scenes made and there's only 1 map left to create. It's just a forest where Jenny finds an exhausted pokemon and a warehouse. That should be pretty easy to throw together.

1/9/2023, 9:42 AM
A building... Trees... Truck. No wait, TWO trucks. It's a factory. Stuff goes in, different stuff comes out. Some crates. Where should I put the door? Wait which factory is this one? Let me check the story and the maps.

1/9/2023, 9:47 AM
The story says Jenny finds an exhausted pokemon while approaching the Breeding Factory. The map has truck loading areas on the left and right. Jenny could enter one of those or I could just poke a hole in the middle and add a door.

1/9/2023, 9:50 AM
Entering from one of the loading areas might be better for showing the process to the player. In the previous scene Misty was travelling through the top-right, so Jenny should reveal the lower left. So I'll have her enter from the left truck=loading enterance.

1/9/2023, 9:51 AM
So back to the map. The factory's pretty big. Maybe I should only make the left side visible? I big blank building is boring. Maybe I can shift it over and show more of the truck loading setup from the outside.

1/9/2023, 9:53 AM
My editor has a feature for this. Shift the map and wrap it around.

1/9/2023, 9:55 AM
How do I show a side enterance? Well there would be a lot of foot-traffic, so let's have some dirt sticking out from the side. Then a road leading up to it. Wait no. This is a secret warehouse hidden deep in a forest. No roads. Just a dirt path. The path implies that this whole thing has been going on for quite awhile.

1/9/2023, 10:00 AM
Let's see... some crates and boxes. A little gap for Officer Jenny to sneak through. I should show the Rocket grunts loading a truck from this end.

1/9/2023, 10:01 AM
Now for tree-spam! It's hidden away. So there's lot of trees nearby covering up parts of the factory / warehouse.

1/9/2023, 10:03 AM
A forest isn't just trees. Let's break it up with some clearings and tall grass. Put some trees around the edges to show we're in the middle of this forest. Add some tall grass by the building to show that it's deep in the woods. Add some tall grass and trees poking out near the top so it doesn't look like the forest is ending there.

1/9/2023, 10:05 AM
And some clean-up on the trees to fix their overlaps. Place them first, make them look good later.

1/9/2023, 10:17 AM
Place the crates on top of the placeholder tiles that marked where I planned to put them. Add the truck. Some rocket grunts. Hmm... what are they unloading?

1/9/2023, 10:24 AM
Okay, this end of the breeding factory is where they ship out the pokemon eggs. So they're LOADING the truck, not unloading. Hmm... eggs are fragile. They would be in small containers. So a bunch of little crates. Maybe the big ones contain pokemon? The Rockets might ship them out after they're too tired to breed.

1/9/2023, 10:27 AM
I should put this part of the building on the "overlap" layer so boxes and characters can come out and enter.

1/9/2023, 10:30 AM
One guy is securing the boxes. The other guy is dragging them out of the building. I animate the details later when I make the actual scene. It's finished enough.

1/9/2023, 10:34 AM
I finally have ALL the maps I need. Now I can just focus on adding the story to them without having to stop to make stuff... I hope.

1/9/2023, 7:09 PM
Maybe I should dial-back the hearts on Brock...

1/9/2023, 7:10 PM
Are the hearts supposed to be coming from his pants?
Uh... yeah sure, Yes.  Why not?  Yes they are.
Totally not a happy little accident.

1/9/2023, 7:11 PM
That's also Brock's name for his weenie. It's his "happy little accident" ... just waiting to happen.

1/9/2023, 7:19 PM
For no particular reason, this Officer Jenny loves inventing conspiracy theories. The investigation might take awhile.

1/9/2023, 7:22 PM
What if her observations of the plot are actually accurate, but all the characters think it sounds too crazy to be true?  I don't know...  She's supposed to explain things for the audience.  If you think it's all a joke will it still work?

1/9/2023, 7:28 PM
Yeah, it'll probably be fine.  If the audience is given no other explanation, and it explains what they see Misty go through in a previous scene, then they'll know it's correct.  In fact, that will probably make it even funnier.

1/9/2023, 10:43 PM
I'm reconsidering whether or not to have Jenny searching for a missing reporter. Sure it makes sense for Team Rocket to abduct anybody caught snooping to keep them quiet, but Jenny's sudden onset of conspiracy theories means that she needs to be bored by the LACK of crimes happening to motivate her wild speculation.

1/9/2023, 7:47 PM
But don't worry. Officer Jenny is on the case!
2023_01_09_20_02_27_jenny-phone-call

1/10/2023, 12:11 AM
I hate to make Ash look smart, but Brock's too busy staring at Jenny's ass for the rest of the investigation. So... basically the entire story.

1/10/2023, 2:50 AM
Not bad!  35 scenes done so far.  This project is really rolling now.  Man it feels good to say that.  It's been almost a year since my last big project.

1/10/2023, 1:52 PM
It's tricky to make Jenny explain what's happening while also sounding crazy.  Ah what the heck, I'll just throw an "aliens" in there for no reason.

1/10/2023, 5:04 PM
Okay, maaaaaybe I put too much effort into this background animation.
.
This is not as easy as it looks. It's clearly a loop. And you might assume each of those characters are using equal-length animations with a careful delay to stagger their action.

1/10/2023, 5:12 PM
Nope!  They're event-driven.  When one of them finishes something, they announce it, and then they're free to continue doing other things.

1/10/2023, 5:16 PM
Meanwhile, a different character will animate and then wait until an event occurs before continuing.

1/10/2023, 5:19 PM
They each have loops, with waits for specific events.  The reason why this sequence is able to start is that one of them doesn't wait for anything at the start of their animation, but they do wait at the end.

1/10/2023, 5:22 PM
So why are there boolean variables with each of the events?

1/10/2023, 5:23 PM
Each event represents a situation.  If a situation is already ready, then there's no reason to wait.  It might stay that way for awhile, or something else might change it.

1/10/2023, 5:28 PM
An egg will be at the end of a conveyor belt...

1/10/2023, 5:28 PM
... until this person picks it up.  The egg is no longer there, so this situation is no longer true.

1/10/2023, 5:30 PM
This allows each animation to be a different length.  If someone takes awhile to set something up, multiple other characters will wait for them.

1/10/2023, 5:32 PM
But nobody reacts to exactly the same thing.

1/10/2023, 5:34 PM
Events have a trade-off. You can't see the entire sequence, but things can happen at the same time, and each part of it can be as complicated as you want without interfering with any of the other parts... if you maintain a separation of concerns.

1/10/2023, 9:56 PM
I just noticed a minor plot hole. Misty entered the breeding factory from the north-east, where the pokemon holding pens are.  And I have Jenny entering from the south-west shipping area so the audience can see the rest of the factory, but... Jenny's supposed to be following a trail of pink slime left by Misty. Er... we'll just ignore that, right?

1/10/2023, 10:02 PM
Why is there pink slime?  Plot reasons!  Deep fascinating plot reasons.
... in a porn story.
Yup.

1/16/2023, 1:14 AM
The story is done!
Yay!
... except for all the sound and music.
Boo!

1/16/2023, 1:15 AM
While I procrastinate on that, let's make the title screen. I'm thinking... detective pulp novel.

1/16/2023, 1:16 AM
A movie poster's gotta have actors. Hmm... decisions, decisions.

1/16/2023, 1:18 AM
Coming soon to a theater near you!

1/16/2023, 1:18 AM
Now where should I put my signature?

1/16/2023, 1:18 AM
Perfect...
