how small and simple is available for windows !!!

yay !! i’d recommend taking a peep at the game before jumping into this production discussion. life did get in the way of this update just a little, so it’s a little later than i expected. but the whole point of this little tool is not to fixate and look after myself more :) so let’s hop into it!

Production Retrospective

once the greybox was up and running and i could cycle through dialogue and art, it was only a matter of getting the animations in and ensuring they change at the right times. keeping the upper third of the background art clear was important so that the white text could be read clearly. luckily, a slightly messy, almost story-book style without rendering or animated movement was quick and easy. i only wanted a little movement to keep things nice and lively, so simply adding two or three more frames of wiggly line art was enough.

i updated the journal panels to a brighter and smoother looking box as well as adding a little friend to assist:

he works as a button that prompts the player on what to write. the communication exercise is optional, so he just pops up to let you know. it felt like i could actually truly communicate with players via him, which was very nice. a bit of my actual personality that hopefully gives some character and feeling to the process.

once things were running well, i added a pause menu with an option to mute the music. this option was pretty important because your own music might be what makes you feel comfy. also, being able to easily quit and restart is essential. i also decided to put my credits in the menu too, seeing as i didn't plan on having any other room for them.

Art, Animation and Making It ✧･ﾟShiny･ﾟ✧!

my minimal animation meant a great workflow - i could easily finish a piece, animate it, and have it imported and working in Unity in no time. i've worked pretty extensively with Unity's animation tools (see Quilla), so i was pretty happy with the very basic movement: a simple boolean to toggle between fade ins/fade outs was all i needed for each piece. 

the only issues i ran into was with buttons - i've since determined that it was a layering issue within the canvas, but some buttons just weren't being pressed. i nearly got rid of the cursor all together and was ready for keyboard-only controls. luckily, some shifting around in the hierarchy fixed the issue.

when i think calming games, especially tools like Virtual Cottage, i think lo-fi beats (to study/relax to ofc). however, i've recently been hopping on the café jazz/chill-hop train, too. artists like birocratic and ol' burger beats have been my jazzy best friends through the past few weeks. a basic café jazz loop is where i landed for this tool, but having the option to mute and use your own favourite tunes was important to have too.

unfortunately, i've only worked minimally on music before and FL Studio very kindly crashed on me. alot :). after that i just couldn't make anything i was actually happy with. the result was an incredibly short loop that tended to get very annoying (possibly because i had listened to it 8000 times, but i just wasn't jiving with it either way). luckily the good people of the lo-fi community gave me a few options to use as a placeholder. hopefully i can come up with my own music later on and update it, but for now we are enjoying the smooth stylings of a comfy number, 'Soul and Mind' by E's Jammy Jams. the piece is under a Creative Commons license and is referenced in the pause menu. 

What's Next?

small and simple was just a short project for me that currently works as a one-time play. if i continue production, i’d like to add to it as a journaling tool so it can be used for more exercises: not only pre-set lists, but more tools focused on anxiety and stress management, mental wellbeing, and custom journals. journaling like this doesn’t work for everyone! i've had a few friends suggest more to-do lists, breathing exercises, even minigames or links to mental health support.

i like the story aspect: the calming words and reassurances, but it’s not going to work for someone wanting to journal continuously. the journal also can’t be saved outside of a screen capture.

so there it is! i genuinely hope this brings you even a little bit of comfort. i'd love to hear your feedback: what kinds of lists and exercises help you to slow down and breathe? did these ones help? do you absolutely hate making lists? let me know! i'd also love to see your journals if you're comfy sharing.

thanks for reading and hopefully for downloading !! take care and stay safe!!! <3 <3