Mint To Be Overhaul!

It is alive! 

Apparently it has been 3 years since I updated the game files on here. Has it been 3 years of development on this game? Definitely not. We took a very long break as life happens. Both Jayus and myself have had these files sitting on our computers for far too long and decided it's time to get this up and running properly. 

With that said, we decided to change a few key aspects of the game which I will go into here. 

Firstly, MC overhaul! 

Flora, the pasty white, redhead that you knew is gone and has been replaced with... also Flora. Let me explain. Flora has been redesigned and is joined by Forrest and Fern. Yes, we have more than one MC which you can pick at the beginning of your run. Now you can live slightly more vicariously through these lovely beans. 

• Flora - She/her
• Fern - They/them
• Forrest - He/him

With the new MC options came a whole reworking of backend goodies. While not too much of the current dialogue looks much different on the outside, please know that an awful lot of new code is holding up the changes in names and pronouns. I am not a good coder and it took me weeks to figure all this out

Next, new art

One thing you will see as soon as you boot up the game is the amazing new art that Jayus has graced us with. All the boys have been updated in her gorgeous new art style. With that comes a large selection of new expressions. While the demo is still short, the boys will be a lot more expressive going forward. 

On the topic of art, there are still a few assets that are missing (such as the old lady and every single background) so there will be some oddities as we work through everything. 

Updates

So now what? We gave it a pretty new coat of paint but not much seems too different and we definitely aren't any further than before. In fact, I haven't added the next section of dialogue yet. Well, we're actually trying to get this done in the next few months. Hoping for a full release mid-year this year. But Lazygout, this game started as a game jam! Yes yes, I am aware. Shush.

The next 2 weeks are set to combing through what is already in the demo and making sure it's polished. That includes making sure all the new changes with pronouns fit properly in the text and that there aren't any glaring programming errors. This time will also be set to properly organise the series of events within the game. We have always had a vague idea of the different events, but now we need to flesh them out. 

After that, it's just pure implementation. From my side, an awful lot of typing. From Jayus, emotional support and maybe backgrounds. (backgrounds are a whole other ordeal that we're discussing as well as music) This is what will take majority of the time - it is a visual novel after all. 

As for how often we can update on here... Once the demo is fully polished, I will reupload it.  After which, I will try keep the devlogs a little more frequent (which isn't setting the bar very high, I know). There will likely be a log for each character arc we complete. Hopefully 1 a month. For all 5 boys, that would be roughly placing it in June. See? Mid-year, just like I said. 

So yeah. That's that and whatnot. Keep an eye out for the full demo hopefully coming soon. 

I would appreciate any and all feedback you may have. Enjoy the plant-based romcom that is this game.